Does anyone know how an impostor can be discovered? Easy—fear, money, power, or survival.
Jason knew he had neglected the central base for a long time, and by leaving it in Rick's hands, he needed a unique method to know who was loyal to him and who was a problem that had to be eliminated from the root.
Right now, many people had abandoned the beliefs they fought for, the values by which the soldiers who protect this place were raised, and the dignity that had never before been trampled as it was now.
Do they really think it's so easy to take the central base?
How naïve—every one of them is naïve, all of them falling into a dark, smoky pit from which they will never come out alive.
"Everyone has fallen into my trap!"
…
Central Base.
Inspection Room, middle interior zone.
Shane and the others' expressions surprised the rebels behind them.
"Who the hell are you?"
But at that moment, two armored vehicles stopped right behind the group, and people wearing masks and red suits got out, their weapons raised toward the people who were pointing guns at Shane and the others.
"Lower your damn weapons or we'll kill all these people!"
Seeing how the situation had become delicate, the man who was the leader of the rebels and planned to subdue the people who had entered the base grew nervous.
What's happening?
There seem to be two sides with different ideas!
Something is wrong!
The rebels who had taken control of Shane and the others looked at the people in red suits and threatened to kill Shane's group.
Abraham watched all of this in silence. Obviously, taking this base would be impossible since most of it is made up of military personnel. He was sure of what had happened, but even thinking about it felt unreal no matter how hard he tried.
How could a group of at most 150 people subdue more than 15,000? In situations like that, even if there were 300 enemies, with over 15,000 people attacking at once, they would win even with losses. Therefore, beyond those ideas or plans, there were strings moving everything in silence.
"Those people in red suits…" Abraham murmured beside Shane.
"Yes, they're not normal at all, and I've never seen them before, but those seals on their shoulders belong to our organization." Shane looked at the men who were silently listening to the rebels' threats.
"I understand now…"
Abraham looked at Shane and said, "The commander is doing a cleanup, a big fucking cleanup. Hahaha."
"Lower your fucking weapons now!"
One of the rebels was panicking. He knew what kind of suits those red ones were—advanced combat suits. The armor of that kind of suit was only worn by elite soldiers, the ones always on the battlefield.
But just as the rebel was about to lose patience, a deep and very calm voice came from inside one of the vehicles: "You must think you've won, you damn traitors."
When the voice came out, a young man with a bulletproof vest looked toward the group of rebels and said, "It's a surprise that you were so stupid and predictable. Your movements were studied, and in the end, all of you fell into the simple trap that Jason set…"
"Tyler!"
"What the hell is going on?"
Hearing this question, Tyler said, "Jason is testing the loyalty of everyone in the base—that doesn't include you all, by the way. Each one of you is loyal, and that's something even I know clearly."
"What the fuck are you talking about?"
"I'll be brief—Jason was gone for a long time, but for those who know him, they know that at the beginning he liked studying people; he looked at the faces around him, knew even the mole on their ass, and always knew what they were thinking."
Tyler signaled the Red Force soldiers to lower their weapons, but this simple action made the rebels even more nervous.
"But as you know, Jason was gone for a long time and left Rick in charge of a base now mostly made up of researchers, farmers, and elderly people. At that time, he also left you, Shane, in charge of the Georgia base, which right now has the most survivors in the country. You all understand, right?" Tyler looked at the rebels who had fallen silent and advised them, "You haven't done anything wrong. Maybe if you listen to what I'm about to say, there may be a different outcome…"
"Well, as I was saying, Rick was left in charge of the central S.C.T. base, and as more and more people joined the base, very few knew who Jason was. What makes him so important? Why should I follow the rules and work? How do you earn a class 3 authority?"
"Rick is a good leader, but his wife was an annoying burden that limited him and didn't let him do his job. That's why I had to call his friend Shane so he could supervise his friend's actions, and because of that, Elias took your place. But everything remained the same. Even though it bothered you, you didn't get involved because you were afraid of losing a friend."
Tyler took a few steps forward and said, "So, I had to do the work of supervising every person living among us. It was a small personal report I'd give to my good friend Jason, but then things changed a lot. Can you believe it? Three leader-level points kidnapped by a group of idiots who have never in their fucking lives been in an armed conflict."
"Do you know what I thought when I heard that three important captains of the base were captured so easily? I got angry—how could I not? It seems like I'm the only one who truly understands Jason and knows the burden we share, since I'm aware of it."
"And now that Jason is here, he will do a cleanup where all those who betray him will be eliminated. A fast way to clean the bad wound, cut it off without looking for them one by one. I suppose it's already over—everyone who wanted to betray Jason should have already been counted."
Shane looked at Tyler and stayed silent; he knew this guy, who was always in the operations room and in charge of contacting all the bases—an incredible talent.
On the other hand, Abraham watched the situation and couldn't help but laugh out loud: "Hahaha, how do you not know about this, Shane?"
Tyler gestured and said, "Of course it was secret. Only me, Hershel, Glenn, Maggie, Negan, and Rick knew about this operation. Jason refused to tell you because he thought you might accidentally kill the infiltrators—now that would be bad luck."
"Infiltrators?" One of the rebels looked at his companions with suspicion and shouted, "You're lying! We already have everyone under control, so it looks like things didn't go as you wanted."
"Ha, you mean the weapons in your hands… Haha, they're fake. Well, the one your leader had was real since he was our infiltrator. Did you really think the soldiers and trusted people of Jason would betray him? Hahaha, that shit is hilarious."
At that moment, a dozen rebels realized there was a huge problem. How did these guys switch their weapons?
But the current situation no longer allowed them to think about it. If their weapons were fake, that meant many of them rebelled and betrayed Jason's trust for nothing.
"A damn trap?"
"Impossible, let's see now if the weapons are fake or not." When one of the rebels said this, he aimed at Tyler and pulled the trigger.
Bang!
The sound of the weapon echoed, but no projectile hit Tyler. With that, everyone felt a chill crawl up their bodies, and they all dropped their weapons.
"You surrender so soon? I thought you'd put up more resistance—well, you make my job easier." Tyler looked at one of the Red Force soldiers and said, "Arrest them. Jason will enjoy torturing them in public so everyone learns."
"Yes, sir."
The rebels panicked instantly.
One of them spoke with a trembling voice.
"How… how… what happened?"
No one could answer him, and the situation made many lose consciousness. How could they think they could kill Jason and take over the central base?
All of them had fallen into a simple trap. How were they fooled so easily? They had planned it—many wanted to take control of the base because they thought Jason was a selfless man.
"Sir, I think everyone should gather in the main plaza where everyone is assembled. I'll bring you up to date on what happened—it's not as bad as it looks."
"I understand. Let's go." Shane wasn't upset; in fact, he had been very vigilant about the people who arrived at the base from Washington, and now that Jason had taken charge, he was very calm.
As he spoke, he stared at several people's expressions and saw that they all showed hesitant looks, and he was secretly pleased.
"It's a shame, but all of you will suffer the worst tortures… Let's say you rebelled because you're from another organization—how will you deny that?"
"That's impossible!"
"We're from this base. We've never been in another base, much less served another organization!"
"Haha, you'll have to prove that."