Chapter 332: The Turning Tide
Five seconds. That’s how long the silence stretched after MacLeod’s devastating admission, but in those five seconds, my mind raced through a dozen different scenarios, calculations, and desperate strategies.
MacLeod had betrayed me. That much was clear. The question was why.
There were only two possibilities I could think of. Either he’d been working with someone like Valeska or Volkov all along. Some kind of elaborate setup to discredit me at the crucial moment or his Event Quest had given him an objective that required betraying me. The System’s quests could be cruel that way, forcing people into impossible positions for reasons that wouldn’t become clear until later.
Either way, I needed to cut ties immediately and find a way to prove his allegation false. The problem was that I was currently at a severe disadvantage. My jobs specialized in a whole bunch of things including investigation and legal analysis, but not political warfare. At most, I had my S-Rank Detective job and my A-Rank Lawyer job, but compared to heavy hitters like Valeska or any other leader here, I didn’t stand a chance in a straight political fight.
I could activate Full Profession Sync and force all my skills to work at their maximum capacity and cooperate together seamlessly. It would give me a significant edge, but the cost was too much at this crucial time. Shutting off my connection to the System for twelve full awake hours, preventing me from using any job or skill. All that for at most 10 minutes of activation? In a situation this volatile, with objectives still incomplete and unknown threats lurking, it was far too risky.
I should have listened when my Instinct skill flared earlier. But it was fine—my Strategist skill was already working, analyzing the situation and providing me with the most logical path forward. Create doubt in MacLeod’s words. Turn the accusation back on itself.
The five seconds ended.
"Evelyn," I said, my voice cutting through the silence with desperate urgency. "Anthony. You’ve both been observing me for years. Have I ever been subjected to any kind of experimental procedure 2 years ago?"
Behind me, Evelyn’s voice rang out clear and certain. "No. Absolutely not."
"Never," Anthony confirmed, his spy training evident in the absolute confidence of his tone. "I’ve maintained surveillance on Mr. Reynard and many governmental figures in the last 2 years. Reynard had no procedures, no medical interventions, no unexplained gaps in his schedule."
I was happy Anthony hadn’t called me Boss as that would make it suspicious if his words were trustworthy. Though it didn’t matter as that subject was still called out.