Chapter 128

Qin Le narrowed his eyes slightly, suddenly realizing that the matter seemed to be growing stranger by the moment.

First, a poisonous-gas weapon had appeared out of nowhere. Now Fireworks was somehow ignoring him altogether.

“Is Fireworks still being held?”

This should have been a matter that could be treated as either serious or minor. After all, very few people knew about it. Moreover, the New World had a special environment, so it was practically impossible for the incident to spiral out of control. Without the influence of public opinion back home, the use of a poisonous-gas weapon could simply be overlooked.

Besides, the incident had caused no civilian casualties. It had not yet reached the point of no return.

On the surface, such conduct was absolutely forbidden. But in reality, who could say for certain? People always had their own interests. Qin Le was no exception. Even if he had to use unofficial channels, he would get Fireworks out.

A mistake deserved punishment, but Fireworks absolutely could not be set up by someone else. If certain people truly wanted to play games, Qin Le did not mind playing along and showing them what it meant to tear a problem out by the roots.

In the past, he had not been confident enough to fight those powerful figures in authority. Even with his teacher as his backing, it would have been difficult to bring them down. But now, he was the only one of his kind to the Republic—irreplaceable. Everyone could tell which side mattered more.

Either they opened a back door for him, or they carried out a completely fair and impartial investigation of everyone.

But with Fireworks refusing to cooperate, the matter had become troublesome. Qin Le could not simply violate the rules and interfere with the trial. That would only make everything worse.

Iron Fist replied, “He’s still being held, but the hearing is this afternoon.”

“Take me to him. I want to see exactly what’s going on,” Qin Le said.

One meeting would be enough to resolve all his doubts.

“Yes, sir.”

Qin Le returned to the armored vehicle. The place where Fish Head was being held lay at the center of the base, near the castle, some distance away.

Aimoeya, seated inside the vehicle, asked, “What happened?”

She had heard the conversation just now and had obviously realized that the man called Fireworks had been arrested.

“It’s still unclear. I hope it isn’t what I think,” Qin Le said, his gaze darkening.

A nation was a collective of interests. Even the Republic was not free of shady dealings.

The armored vehicle began moving again. A group of two-meter-tall, heavily muscled men ran behind it the entire way, drawing every eye they passed.

At the very center of the base stood all kinds of equipment and weapons, along with a variety of buildings. The dilapidated castle could be seen some distance away.

The armored vehicle stopped in front of a reinforced-concrete building. The two soldiers on guard duty grew somewhat tense at the sight of the approaching group.

After all, a crowd of muscular brutes was enough to make anyone feel uneasy.

Qin Le stepped down from the vehicle and immediately produced his military identification card.

“I need to see one of the special forces soldiers being held here.”

The sentry accepted the identification card and examined it carefully. He then returned it with both hands, saluted, and said, “Yes, sir!”

He glanced at the group of muscular men and hesitated before continuing, “Sir, visitors are limited to ten people, and this place was only recently built. It isn’t very large.”

As he spoke, he pointed to the single-story building behind him. It was indeed quite small. It had been built for confinement, and since everyone who could come to the New World was a veteran, the chances of anyone committing an offense were extremely low. There had been no need to make it larger.

Qin Le turned to the special forces soldiers behind him and called out their names in turn. “Fish Head, Iron Fist, Falcon—and Aimoeya. You’re coming in with me.”

The three men whose names were called stepped out of formation, came to attention, and saluted.

“Yes, sir!”

Led by the guard, Qin Le entered the building and was taken to a relatively spacious room.

“Sir, please wait here. We’ll bring him over immediately.”

Visitors could not be taken directly to the cells. Quite apart from whether that was appropriate, the cells themselves were too small to accommodate so many people. They could hardly have the colonel stand in the corridor while speaking with the prisoner. Anyone with the slightest sense of tact would bring him here instead.

“Very well.”

Qin Le gave a slight nod, then surveyed the room. He walked to the sofa in the upper-left corner and sat down.

Leaning back against the cushions, he fell into thought once more.

A few minutes later, a knock sounded from outside. The door opened, and two figures entered.

One was the soldier who had been standing guard earlier. The other was a burly man nearly two meters tall, dressed in a white T-shirt.

Fireworks.

When Fireworks saw Qin Le sitting on the sofa, an awkward smile appeared on his face.

“Sir,” he said weakly.

Although he had prepared himself mentally long ago, he still felt somewhat guilty when actually facing the senior officer.

Qin Le did not fly into a rage as Fireworks had imagined. Instead, he pointed to the chair opposite him.

“Sit down. We’ll talk.”