When Klein heard that, his eyes lit up. He immediately wanted to ask for more, but Alice reminded him, "Your guests are about to arrive, aren't they?"
Klein had to leave to greet Dwayne Dantès's guests. He was hosting a hunt here that weekend, and they were arriving one after another.
Alice looked down from an upstairs window. The first guests were Councilman Macht and his family. Hazel was with them. Alice's gaze lingered on her face for two seconds before she looked away.
When the second guest arrived, Alice laughed. She closed the window and sent Klein a message from inside the room: "That's him, your new marionette! The one in uniform!"
She didn't know the man. She had only judged from his uniform that he was a major general.
Klein greeted Qonas Kilgor with a smile, his stride never faltering. Qonas was an MI9 deputy director and a major general—and, according to Alice, Klein's new marionette.
Klein's thoughts raced. The moment he saw Qonas Kilgor, he knew tonight's hunt would succeed. The prey included not only the animals on the manor, but also the major general before him.
Qonas was a demigod of the Black Emperor pathway, though publicly he claimed to be only Sequence 5. When Klein had temporarily lacked a target, he had investigated the human trafficking and the details of the Great Smog Event.
Back then, Alice had only said that the Demoness Sect and Adam were involved. In his later investigation, Klein had discovered that the Aurora Order, Ince Zangwill, and certain nobles were implicated as well.
With nothing else pressing besides the Numinous Episcopate and the Miracle Circus, Klein had turned his attention to the nobles involved. Qonas and Stratford were both targets, though Stratford had evidently been handed over to Trissy.
He