7:12am.

The battle at the second warehouse came to an end.

It was a one-sided massacre but none of the Ascended present had any smiles on their faces, this was because every single one of them already realized that something was not right.

By now, they already confirmed that Parasite was not in this warehouse, neither was any of the Ascended of the Zmer gang.

Afterall, there was no way they would stay idle while the enemies massacre their allies in cold blood right in front of them.

The question was, why?

Why is Parasite and his subordinates not here if this is an important warehouse of the Zmer gang?

And after such an intense gunfight, the lack of noise coming from the gigantic caravan in the middle of the compound was unnerving.

If there really were slaves inside, the sound of gunshots would make them react and panic. Such an intense gunfight would have left them screaming in horror, and yet, no such sounds came from the caravan.

This was the reason why Leon improvised during the battle before it all came to an end.

'We need to keep one of them alive!'

By now, he already realized that they were chasing ghosts.

Parasite was a Warlord of the Wastes but he was nowhere as reckless and brainless as people touted him out to be.

With the difficulty before they managed to know the location of this warehouse, you'd think it was a true important base of the Zmer gang but reality was slapping them in the face.

Maybe the first warehouse was indeed where Parasite kept the slaves before, but after Talia's crew discovered it, maybe he changed locations.

The first warehouse actually being an armory didn't fully trigger Leon's suspicions before, but the anomaly in the second warehouse became the full trigger, making him develop increasingly dangerous theories.

'What if Parasite is smarter than we give him credit for?'

'What if he already anticipated all of our actions? What if the warehouse were just decoys that he put in place to divert our attention from the exact direction that we're supposed to focus on?'

'What if all this while, we've just been chasing ghosts?'

'What if he already has an elaborate ambush plan waiting at the end of the line for us if we stubbornly decide to go after him?'

'What if it's a plan that we're powerless to resist?'

Leon felt a chill run down his spine as he had all these thoughts, and this pushed his body into action before his brain could react.

'We need to keep one of them alive!'

2 minutes earlier, just as the battle gradually came to an end, Leon decided to abandon his cover as he charged out from behind the military-grade truck towards the thick metal fence.

In one powerful jump, he scaled the fence and quickly set his sights on one of the few remaining thugs who were still resisting.

Talia already aimed her pistol at him and was about to pull the trigger.

"Leave him!" He screamed even as he charged forward to protect the thug.

In the end, Talia listened to him and didn't pull the trigger.

Finally, the battle came to an end but there was one thug remaining, the one who Leon deliberately rescued from danger.

The once young but radical Geneform already broke down completely as he shook in fear. "Please spare my life!" He cried.

"I joined the gang against my will, p-please… I'll do anything, please!"

While Leon held the young thug by the collar, a paranoid Talia directly charged towards the door of the caravan before smashing it apart with a devastating flying kick.

BAM!

The door fell apart, and then they looked inside.

Inside was empty!

This time, Parasite didn't even try to mask or sugarcoat his intentions by making it an armory or something, inside was completely empty.

The silence inside the caravan seemed to mock all of their efforts.

It felt like an illusory Parasite was inside the caravan, sipping a bottle of wine as he erupted in a fit of loud laughter while he looked at them, mocking them.

Leon's face twitched.

Bang!

Talia punched the wall in rage.

The second warehouse also being empty clearly dealt a big blow to her confidence.

Her face twisted in shock, despair, rage, and a deeper emotion that Leon couldn't quite understand. From the look on her face, he could tell that she was beginning to get desperate.

His brain whirred. 'Where exactly did we go wrong?'

'At which point did he begin fooling us?'

Then Leon looked at the thug whom he spared his life with a dark look on his face. "Where the hell is the secret lair of the Zmer gang?!"

The thug flinched. "I don't know, I swear! I swear on my dead mother's grave, I don't know!"

Talia's face twisted even more, this was because she could tell that the thug was not lying.

Leon's face fell.

…

7:15am.

In a cyber-lab inside the cell tower base, Ghostwire stood with an agitated expression on his face as he stared at all the holographic footages in front of him.

With direct footage from 5 invisible C-5 drones, he felt omniscient.

But at this moment, despite seeming omniscient, he could feel the thick veil of despair creeping in as all his expectations were being thwarted.

On one footage, Ghostwire could see the battle of the water factory that was already in its final stages, on another footage, he saw other places in community G still embroiled in violence.

Apart from those two drones, he still kept a drone to monitor the situation in the first warehouse, and most importantly, he saw as everything transpired in the second warehouse.

His gray eyes squinted as his brain geared into overdrive.

Just like Talia, he was desperate. 'What exactly am I missing?'

'Where are they?'

'Where is Parasite? Where is Cell? Where is Cain Alexander?'

'Where are the slaves?' His eyes were glued to all the drone footage.

Too anxious to stay in one place, he began pacing around the cyber-lab as for the first time, Brad saw the taciturn NetRunner lose his composure.

Ghostwire paced up and down, then he suddenly froze and turned his head to look at Brad.

His gray eyes narrowed, turning wild and unhinged.

Feeling those eyes stare at him, Brad felt a chill run down his spine as he took two careful steps backward. "W-what?"

Ghostwire didn't answer him. Instead, he walked towards Brad and grabbed him by the neck before slamming him against the wall as his increasingly blood-shot eyes glared at him.

"Did you f*cking lie to us?" He growled as he completely lost his composure.

Brad flinched. "No, of course not, I didn't lie, I told you the truth".

"DON'T YOU DARE LIE TO ME!" Ghostwire snarled at him.

"I didn't!" Brad was frightened out of his mind as he quickly raised both of his hands up. "I swear! B-b-boss Talia used her ability on me, remember? I swear, I didn't lie!" He stammered.

"It's just, it's just… it's just that since that day I've been feeling like I lost part of my memories but since I wasn't sure, I didn't tell you guys".

Ghostwire glared into Brad's eyes as if he wanted to dissect him apart, then he snarled again in a deep and angry tone. "Why would you keep such vital information from us?!"

"I don't know!" Brad blurted out in fear as his terrified eyes moved in a jumpy manner. "I-I-I just thought it wasn't important".

Ghostwire calmed down. "Try to remember, do you remember anything? Is there any other warehouse, where is it? C'mon, try to remember".

"I don't remember…"

"TRY!" Ghostwire roared in his face.

Brad flinched and closed his eyes. "Ok… ok…"

He wracked his brain, trying hard to remember but it felt like there was a restriction in his head.

In the end, tears welled in his eyes as he shook his head in fear and despair. "I swear, I don't remember".

Just as Ghostwire was about to snarl again, he added. "B-but, I still remember Parasite. I know him, he's a narcissist but he's also a very careful person".

"I don't think he'll leave his main warehouse inside the community, s-so I think it has to be outside".

"And from his way of doing things, I think it should not be too far from the second warehouse".

"You have two drones outside. Try to spread them out, create a net outwards, just look, maybe, maybe you'll find a clue". He gulped.

Ghostwire glared at Brad some more.

He felt like crushing the cowardly NetRunner's brain but he knew that it wouldn't improve the situation, so in the end he listened to Brad's advice.

He went back in front of his computer as he interfaced with it, remotely controlling all the drones. He controlled all of them to fly high into the sky, going as high as possible as he widened the search net.

Due to the neon storms raging in the sky, the drones could not rise too high but at their current height, Ghostwire's search range widened significantly even as the footage became blurry and unclear.

But for what Ghostwire lost in footage quality, he gained in coverage.

The surveillance of all 5 C-5 drones expanded ridiculously, covering the whole community G and spreading to the borders of other communities in the Wastes, including the wasteland in between the communities and outside.

And then, Ghostwire finally saw something.

Far in the distance eastward of the second warehouse, he saw dust rising into the sky. It was blurry from this distance, but Ghostwire recognized it as dust immediately and in between the dust, he saw something moving!

Without hesitation, Ghostwire controlled both drones to burn fuel and go at their highest speed setting in chase of the dust.

Within just 45 seconds of the chase, Ghostwire saw something clear.

In between the rising dust, he saw… a bus!

'A bus?' Ghostwire was alarmed.

Immediately, he connected through the psionic network to Talia with the help of his computer. "Boss, I see a bus!"

"I think there's more than one!"

…

Bang!

Talia punched the wall in rage.

At this moment, she was experiencing mixed emotions but the chief emotions were rage, disappointment, and frustration.

For months, she has been plotting to expose Parasite's slave trade business. She'd dreamt of herself bringing down the Warlord so many times.

To now realize that she'd been chasing ghosts all the while, she felt immense frustration conflagrate in her mind. She felt like hitting her head against a wall, she felt like screaming madly in rage.

And yet, that was when Ghostwire's voice sounded in her head.

"Boss, I see a bus!"

"I think there's more than one!"

Talia immediately snapped out of her emotions as her brain instinctively geared into overdrive. 'A bus…?'

She made the connections instantly. 'In all my months in this community, I've not heard of the Zmer gang having a bus neither have I seen one'.

'A bus… Parasite will only need a bus to transport things, or people!'

She was alarmed. 'Did he bring the trade deal forward like I feared?'

'Did they already conclude the deal? Are they already transporting the slaves?' In that moment, Talia's whole body became flooded with a deep sense of urgency and adrenaline.

"What direction?" She asked.

"East". Ghostwire's voice sounded in her head.

Her sudden question made the others turn towards her and that was when they realized that she may have found a clue.

"Follow me! We're going in pursuit!" Talia didn't explain as she directly said.

No one asked questions.

Apart from inside the caravan being empty though, the thugs of the Zmer gang that were previously stationed here also had two Karaki CT-3X.

No body questioned her decision.

As soon as they came outside the caravan, Talia couldn't wait to enter the truck again as she directly approached one of the Karaki CT-3X, kicked it on and instantly drove out of the compound, going East.

Leon also didn't wait for the truck. He approached the second Karaki CT-3X bike in the compound, kicked it on and followed behind Talia.

Daren and Brick also followed them on bikes.

Only then did Rex and Kain enter the truck. Once the 5 rebels that followed them entered, Kain drove off. They all ignored the last surviving thug.

They went in pursuit!

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