Chapter 37: Fishing in Troubled Waters
"Weight loss. Energy spectrum fluctuations…"
Kyle's face darkened at once.
"So it really was swapped."
The mineral vein might have been leased to the Obsidian Group, but that did not change the nature of the place. It was still a state asset. The research institute had only secured operating rights because its proposal had beaten out the competition.
A vein like this was too sensitive.
Ever since the Black Bone incident, official manpower in the area had been stretched thin. Security patrols had weakened, monitoring had loosened, and even the work of suppressing magical beasts had become inconsistent. If something had gone wrong with the ore output now, then internal corruption was the most obvious explanation.
Kyle did not hesitate.
"We have confirmation that the shipment was tampered with during transit. Wipe all traces and prepare to pull out."
Hodell's thoughts flashed back to what he had said earlier that day.
The busier Oluson became, the easier it was for someone to stir the mud and steal in the confusion.
And if his earlier guess was right, if Mark really had just been an unlucky fool who stumbled into something far bigger than himself, then whoever had pushed the Lingxi Society lead into the open might also be connected to this shipment.
There was no time to dwell on it.
He reached for the reader plugged into the interface.
Then voices sounded outside.
"…Order from above. The backup line is temporarily frozen. All related records are to be audited immediately."
A second voice followed, sharper than the first.
"Wait. The access log for the control room looks off."
The sentence had not even fully landed when the door began to unlock.
Damn.
Hodell and Sasha looked at each other at the same instant. Neither spoke. Neither needed to.
Sasha moved first. She hooked the unconscious operator by the collar and kicked him deep beneath the control console, shoving him into a patch of darkness thick enough to swallow a body whole.
At the same moment, Hodell yanked the reader free.
Then the two of them flashed into the narrow gap between a massive runic array cabinet and the wall just behind the door.
The space was suffocatingly tight.
Hodell's back pressed against cold stone. The cabinet beside him thrummed with low vibrations. Sasha's breath brushed his shoulder for the briefest moment, warm against the chill, and then even that disappeared as she locked herself still.
Neither of them breathed.
Neither swallowed.
Neither moved a finger.
Click.
The door opened.
Two internal staff members stepped inside, both wearing expressions that were too alert for ordinary night shift workers.
One walked straight to the main console and began moving through the interface with crisp, practiced motions. Cold light from the screen washed over his face, making him look even more severe.
The other stayed back and swept his gaze across the room.
"Where's the operator?" he muttered. "Bathroom?"
He did not sound casual. He sounded suspicious.
His eyes roamed over every corner of the control room. Rows of cabinets. Bundled energy conduits. Storage racks. Even the ceiling vents received a second glance.
Time stretched.
Hodell could hear his own heartbeat hammering in his chest. Outside the wall, the great machines of the transit station rumbled ceaselessly, and the rhythm of that industrial roar seemed to merge with the pulse pounding in his ears.
The footsteps drew closer.
For one taut second, Hodell was already calculating how to break out.
If he struck first, he could probably get one. Sasha would handle the other. Escape would not be difficult.
But the entire mine would be on alert within moments.
Then the man at the console spoke.
"False alarm. A sporadic data disturbance in the system. The records have already been overwritten."
The other man clicked his tongue.
"Stay sharp. Tell the next shift to recheck every trace."
A short exchange. No more.
Then they turned and left.
The door closed again.
Only after the footsteps had fully faded did Hodell and Sasha step out of hiding. Both of them let out a slow breath at almost the same time.
If they had been discovered just now, getting away would not have been the hard part.
Getting away without ruining everything would have been.
The two moved quickly. They swept the room for traces, restored the operator to roughly his original position, and slipped out along the same route they had used to enter.
Not long after, they rejoined the others at the perimeter.
Eileen exhaled in relief the moment she saw them. "Thank goodness."
No one wasted words after that. The six of them vanished back into the broken terrain around the mining area, letting the canyon swallow them whole.
As they withdrew, Hodell turned once and looked back.
The mineral vein was still glaringly alive in the distance. Light flooded the mine entrances. Transport lines kept moving. Magitech machinery growled and clanked without rest, as though some giant steel beast were chewing through the earth and would never stop.
Yet despite the busy brightness, a shadow remained lodged in his chest.
An unease that would not leave.
Across from the mine, atop a near vertical cliff face, a figure stood in stillness.
The starlight only outlined a vague silhouette.
But the eyes were clear.
Bright enough to make the night feel colder.
…
Back in the briefing room, the six of them sat around the table, the air still carrying the residue of the mission.
Baron was the first to speak, unable to hold it in.
"That settles it. We confirmed the clue. So what now? Do we bring pressure down on them immediately, or hand the evidence upward?"
Loyi's brow furrowed at once.
"We cannot rush this. What we have proves tampering at the Seventh Transit Station. That's all. It points in a direction, but the chain is still weak. We need more."
Baron stared at him in disbelief.
"Not enough? Weight records do not lie. Energy signatures do not lie."
He threw his hand out in frustration.
"I say we compile everything now and go bang on the Obsidian Group's door. Let's see how they explain it. If we keep inching forward piece by piece, the chance will vanish. We're the Rapid Response Department. We react. We do not sit around dissecting things like the Intelligence Division!"
Loyi's voice sharpened.
"Action without judgment is just noise. You saw their defenses yourself. That is not the security setup of an ordinary research institute. We still do not know what backing the Obsidian Group has, or how deep its ties go. If we move too early, all we do is warn them. Then the people truly hiding behind this vanish deeper into the dark."
Baron shot to his feet so abruptly his chair scraped harshly across the floor.
"And analysis without nerve is just another form of cowardice. If there are rats in the walls, then you flush them out. You do not politely wait for them to chew through the foundation."
"Flush them out?" Loyi snapped back. "And if you scare the whole nest into scattering before we know where the heart of it is?"
"Enough, both of you, maybe we can all just calm down for a second…" Eileen tried.
It did nothing.
Her voice disappeared between them like a pebble dropped into rapids.
The argument grew hotter by the second. Baron was practically growling. Loyi's face had gone tight with anger. Kyle pressed his fingers against his temple, his patience visibly thinning.
Hodell sat silent in the corner, listening.
Outside the window, the night over Sunken Star Canyon draped itself like a curtain over the city. Quiet on the surface. Restless underneath.
Then he spoke.
"Why would a research institute steal minerals it already has legal access to?"
The room fell quiet.
Baron and Loyi both turned toward him.
Hodell leaned forward slightly, voice steady.
"That's what bothers me. If they are willing to run secret transfers for material they can already study openly, then the motive probably goes beyond simple embezzlement. There's a missing piece here. We need more evidence before we touch them."
That was enough.
He had not simply broken the argument. He had taken a side.
Clearly.
Baron's chest rose and fell twice. Then, with visible effort, he dropped back into his chair.
"Fine," he muttered. "If all of you think that way, I won't argue."
He was not really convinced. Hodell could tell. Baron just wanted motion. Ever since the gang mediation, the Blingshee Society mess, and now the mineral vein, one thing after another had kept dragging them sideways instead of forward. To a man like Baron, that kind of stalemate itched under the skin.
Kyle's expression eased slightly.
He was just about to speak when the badge on his chest grew faintly warm.
Kyle lowered his eyes, checked it, and his expression shifted.
"Looks like we're about to get support."
"…Support?" Eileen echoed.
Before anyone could ask further, a bright male voice drifted in from the doorway.
"Then I suppose I arrived at the perfect time. I trust I'm not interrupting anything too vital?"
Everyone turned.
A tall young man in a standard issue uniform stepped into the room with an easy smile and a crisp, unhurried gait.
He stopped before Kyle and offered a mage's salute.
"My name is Arthur. Special Service Section, Headquarters. I've been assigned to support Third Squad operations." He smiled, just enough to seem warm without slipping into familiarity. "Oluson has grown increasingly chaotic in recent days. Departments everywhere are short on hands, so several of our teams have been dispatched to relieve the pressure where possible."
Arthur's arrival felt like a slab of ice dropped into boiling water.
The earlier heat of the room cooled instantly.
But what replaced it was not ease. It was something more awkward. More watchful.
Kyle rose first and returned the salute. "Welcome. We were discussing the next step in the mineral vein case."
Baron stayed seated with his arms crossed. He did not bother hiding the way he sized Arthur up. The slight downturn at the corner of his mouth said enough.
Arthur did not seem to mind.
"Then I've truly caught the right moment." His gaze drifted over the table, taking in the spread documents with one sweep. "Captain Kyle, let me say one thing clearly from the start. I'm here to assist, not to interfere. Everything I brought, including personnel access and technical support, is at your disposal. Headquarters hopes the unrest in Oluson can be contained before it spreads further."
Kyle took that as a request for the current picture and kept it simple.
"We just confirmed that mineral shipments were tampered with during transit."
He handed over the latest records.
Arthur accepted them with both hands, scanned them quickly, and the energy around him shifted in a way that made it clear he was not merely playing at professionalism.
When he looked up again, the faint glint in his eyes was gone.
"This is solid work," he said. Then he pointed out several suspicious data intersections, cross referenced the sequence of anomalies, and offered two clean lines of deduction that matched the squad's own reasoning almost exactly.
Loyi's expression changed immediately.
Respect. Genuine respect.
"Yes," Loyi said, unable to stop himself from nodding. "That was our conclusion as well. The diverted materials were most likely removed during that specific window."
Arthur gave a grave nod.
"Then that only makes caution more important. I'll prioritize screening every department and individual with data exchange privileges tied to the transit station, internal and external both. If someone touched this line, I intend to find where their hands came from."
That won Loyi over completely.
Baron, on the other hand, still looked as though he'd rather judge Arthur after seeing him in a fight.
Hodell said nothing.
He only watched.
…
By the time Hodell returned to his quarters, the night had deepened.
He lay on the narrow bunk and listened to the wind dragging mineral grit across the walls outside. Sunken Star Canyon always sounded different after dark. In daylight, it felt like a harsh land. At night, it sounded almost alive.
He had not been alone long when the knock came.
Knock. Knock knock.
Hodell opened his eyes and got up.
He already knew who it would be.
When he opened the door, Lamia stood outside.
There was something different about her tonight. Not on the surface. Her posture was still restrained, her clothes still plain, her expression still quiet. But there was the faintest trace of weariness in her eyes, something usually hidden too well to notice.
She stepped in without preamble.
Hodell closed the door behind her and lifted a brow.
"What's this?" he said dryly. "No 'Specialist Ryan, forgive the late disturbance' tonight?"
The soundproofing barrier sealed the room. Lamia gave him a long look that was almost, just almost, exasperated.
"You've improved," she said instead. "Your aura is more stable than before. I see the advanced knowledge wasn't wasted on you."
Since she was not in the mood for circling around the subject, Hodell abandoned the teasing as well. He moved to the window and leaned one shoulder against the wall.
"So. What is it this time? I assume you didn't come all the way here just to admire my progress."
Lamia stayed where she was. She did not approach him.
"You've been looking into the Obsidian Group."
His heart stirred, but his face remained still.
"I have. Right now my suspicion is internal theft and mineral diversion."
"The organization has an interest in that vein." Lamia's voice was calm, but the way she phrased it told him this was more than casual curiosity. "You've been inside. What was your impression? Other than the obvious security, did you see anything… unusual?"
Images flashed in his mind.
The carefully angled surveillance coverage.
The voices in the control room.
The strange unease that had followed him all the way out of the transit station.
He let a moment pass before replying.
"The security is excessive. Not for keeping magical beasts out. For keeping people away. That was the first thing that stood out." He paused. "And deeper in the mine there are intermittent energy fluctuations that don't match the public mining data."
Lamia listened without interrupting. As he spoke, her eyes brightened.
Then she stepped forward a fraction and lowered her voice.
"Then dig deeper. There may be a very large fish hidden beneath that mineral vein."
She offered nothing else. No explanation. No names.
She simply placed a small supply box on the table.
"Maintain your condition. Stay alert. With luck, you may uncover something even the organization did not expect."
When she looked at him this time, her gaze was complicated in a way he could not immediately read.
Then she turned and left.
The door shut softly behind her.
Hodell stood still for a while, thinking.
So the organization suspected there was something bigger behind the Obsidian Group.
Which meant the trouble in Oluson might not all belong to the Erhai School after all.
If so, then what in the world had they been busy with lately?
He opened the box and found the usual supplies inside. Medicines. Potions. The same familiar assortment.
He stared at them for a while, then frowned.
"…Why did they stop helping me sleep?"
Before, the traces on the bottle had always been there.
Now they were gone.
Had they judged that his strength had advanced enough that they no longer needed that small precaution?
Or had something changed on their side?
The question lingered.
…
Elsewhere, the new stronghold was quiet.
Its walls were no longer reinforced metal but freshly carved rock, rough and bare, with only the most basic hardening runes embedded in the surface. There were fewer crystal lamps than before, and what little light they gave off felt weaker, meaner. Most of the room remained in shadow.
Reed sat in a plain high backed chair that seemed too ordinary for a man like him. In the half light, he looked even thinner than usual, almost like a drawn line cut into the dark.
Documents and reports lay spread before him.
All of them were recent. All of them were bad.
Ever since the Phantom incident, Oluson had been drowning in one abnormal event after another.
Phantom's false death had almost been elegant in its cruelty. A fake corpse, a seeded trail, a trap laid with the kind of patience only someone cornered and desperate could muster. Reed had reacted quickly enough to sever the chain before it reached the core, and the main body of the organization had withdrawn cleanly into silence.
But the result still left a bitter taste.
They had been forced back underground.
Again.
Reed never underestimated the authorities. That would have been stupid.
Even so, the recent pattern of events felt wrong. Not simply dangerous. Wrong.
Too many variables. Too many twists that did not fit the expected logic. Too many forces tugging at Oluson from angles he had not yet mapped.
And when the waters grew muddy enough, even a careful man risked missing the hand that stirred them.
One by one, Reed sorted through the major incidents.
The mine.
The black market trails.
The Blingshee Society.
The Snake Fang Gang.
The Black Bone collapse.
In the end, his thoughts circled back to one name.
The Obsidian Group.
At first, he had come to Oluson only because of Eli.
That had been the purpose. Simple. Direct. Worth the journey.
Oluson itself should have remained controllable. Ugly, perhaps. Chaotic, yes. But controllable.
Instead, the place had turned into a whip cracking from every direction, forcing him to alter course again and again.
If he had not personally come here, Phantom's betrayal and cooperation with the authorities might have ripped a hole straight through the organization's network in Oluson. If the officials had followed those clues even one layer deeper, the damage would have been severe.
And yet, the most important break in the board had not been Phantom.
It had been Black Bone.
That disaster had been entirely outside his calculations. Worse, it had nearly cost him Eli.
And Eli's value was no longer what it had once been.
Five months.
Five full months since Eli's successful emergence.
And in all that time, the experiments had failed to produce a second breakthrough.
That failure, more than anything else, had quietly driven Hodell's value upward inside the organization.
As for the Black Bone incident itself, Reed did not need direct proof to reason around its shape.
If another force truly had been weaving through all these recent incidents, then the Obsidian Group stood in the most suspicious place of all.
Because when Black Bone fell, who benefited most?
Not the government.
Not the public.
Not the survivors.
The Obsidian Group.
Reed lowered his eyes and spoke into the dimness, voice so soft it almost vanished before it fully left him.
"The waters in Oluson are deeper than I thought."
Then he fell silent again, listening to the cavern breathe around him.
.....
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