On a winter day, the Port District of Bulida City was swept by biting winds mixed with a fine flurry of snow.
Snow covered the scattered shipping containers, while the heavy clouds cast a shadow over the Gray Zone hidden in a corner of the city.
"Damn it!!"
In this steel maze of shipping containers and narrow alleys, a tall figure was fleeing.
At that moment, Maquire was doing everything he could to evade the Imperial Special Operations Division agents hot on his heels.
Maquire was fit and moved with the agility of a leopard. He wore a light-gray winter coat he had stolen after escaping prison the previous night. The outfit let him blend into the frigid winter surroundings, making him hard to spot.
He darted between the containers, sometimes climbing to higher ground and sometimes slipping into the shadows.
To this day, Maquire still had no idea why Professor Landry's copied research documents had been in his home. Before he knew it, Red Falcon Nikola had led the elite members of the Countermeasures Department to catch him red-handed.
Now he increasingly suspected that Dikes was the one who had framed him!
As for that Imperial lapdog, Red Falcon Nikola, no matter how Maquire explained things, Nikola refused to listen. He simply would not believe that Dikes was a mole and was determined to arrest Maquire and bring him to justice.
Maquire cursed inwardly.
He rounded a corner in the deep alley and caught sight of several shadows rapidly closing in on him. The cold wind carried their heavy breathing and the crunch of their boots on the snow.
The ones pursuing him were elites from the Countermeasures Department of the Imperial Special Operations Division.
Maquire knew all too well how difficult these well-trained Imperial Special Operations Division elites