The administrator's office was dimly lit.
Pale blue fluorescence flickered, illuminating three silent faces. After the image shook for a moment, it focused on a suit of power armor sitting against the wall.
The man looked utterly bedraggled.
His armor bore bullet scars and black slime left by fungal fruiting bodies.
He set the camera on the ground, greeted the lens, then tapped his helmet with his index finger and unlocked the sealed visor.
A few minutes earlier, the Enterprise employees had nearly come to blows with the Legion retainers. Fortunately, Meng Liang had an idea at the crucial moment and called out a suspicious detail before the two sides clashed—someone else might be trying to restore the deleted data.
That discovery finally convinced the Enterprise and the Legion to set aside their dispute for the moment and first catch the little rat hiding in the gutter.
To obtain more clues, Su Ming thought of the hard drive recovered from the power armor. Though he hesitated over whether to show Captain Lu's final words before the Legion and The Alliance, he ultimately handed it to Meng Liang.
Making information public could reduce suspicion.
He did not know whether the hard drive contained any secrets that could not be revealed to others, but now was not the time to fight the Legion to mutual ruin.
He believed Captain Yun would understand his decision...
Pangolin said nothing. He merely handed his weapon to Meng Liang for the moment and signaled for Su Ming to do the same.
The Alliance was the Enterprise's ally.
Handing his weapon to a noncombatant from The Alliance was the sincerity he offered.
Su Ming looked at Pangolin in surprise, then offered his own sincerity as well, decisively placing his gun in Meng Liang's hands.
The two sides