Was Vought Wrong?

A cold sneer rose in Lin Mo's heart. These so-called family members had attacked Soldier Boy together. Their smiles for the camera now looked like a cruel joke they had rehearsed in advance.

Joanna looked at the others in the photos and suddenly said, "They don't like him."

Lin Mo turned to her at once, wondering if he had heard her right.

"Who?"

"The people beside him."

She pointed to the members of Payback in the group photo.

"They're smiling."

Lin Mo was surprised by how closely Joanna had looked.

"Why do you say that?"

It seemed Joanna had begun to notice subtle human reactions. The researchers had always assumed they could safely study her from behind the glass, forgetting that she was watching them too.

She noticed how people's breathing changed when they were afraid, and whether their hearts beat faster when they lied or grew nervous. A photo could not reveal a heartbeat, but something about those expressions still felt wrong to her.

"They're smiling wrong."

Joanna said it matter-of-factly.

Lin Mo did not comment further. Every surveillance camera in the Observation Room was on.

At the end of the press conference, Vought announced nationwide memorial events for Soldier Boy. His uniform and shield would go on permanent display, and some of his films would be rebroadcast on television.

The company also planned to establish a charity fund in his name to help veterans and military families.

A man betrayed by his company, attacked by his teammates, and handed over to the Soviets was about to be packaged as the perfect martyr.

The real Soldier Boy would wake up in some distant facility. Or perhaps he would not—The Boys might not even exist.

After the press conference, the Research Center resumed some of its work.

But an announcement over the speakers ordered every department to remain where it was and await further instructions.

Lin Mo heard the researchers in the Observation Room begin talking quietly.

"What happens to Payback now?"

"They'll definitely reorganize it."

"Without Soldier Boy, there's no reason to keep it as it was."

"The company needs new faces. It can't keep the market going on old movies forever."

Another researcher lowered their voice.

"The Homelander Project will get more resources."

"That kid's ability data already exceeds every other sample in his age group."

"Headquarters will probably accelerate his training."

"Accelerate it how much?"

"Get him ready to appear in public as soon as possible."

Lin Mo did not look up, as though he had heard nothing.

The researchers' assessment matched what he had already suspected.

Soldier Boy's death would make the Homelander Project even more important.

Vought needed a new symbol. It also needed to make sure that symbol would not become another problem the company could no longer tolerate.

Joanna was still watching television. Soldier Boy's photo appeared on the screen again, showing him in uniform.

"Is he really dead?"

The question came out of nowhere.

Lin Mo fell silent for a moment.

Joanna kept her eyes on the screen.

She was not asking out of grief. She did not even know what connection she had to this man.

But a concern she could not explain kept her from simply accepting Vought's public statement. If Vought Researcher told her one day that Lin Mo had died without offering any other proof, she certainly would not believe it.

Lin Mo glanced at the Vought logo in the bottom-right corner of the screen.

Then he said, "Vought says he's dead."

Joanna slowly turned toward him. Clever as she was, she caught the narrow wording of his answer.

She could tell something was off about it.

She stared at Lin Mo for a long time.

"Vought says he's dead," she repeated.

"Right."

"You didn't say he's dead."

When Lin Mo did not deny it, Joanna edged closer and lowered her voice.

"Why?"

This is tricky. Lin Mo rubbed his chin and thought for a while. He could not simply tell Joanna that Soldier Boy was alive and Payback had betrayed him.

The news on the screen was nothing more than a lie carefully crafted by the company.

He could not say any of that aloud. The cameras were still watching. Vought would wonder how he knew what had really happened, or decide he might be developing telepathy and run experiments on him. That would be a lot of trouble.

Besides, Joanna still thought of Vought as something vaguely like a family.

She knew the researchers could be cruel. They drew her blood, restricted her movements, and used her time with Lin Mo to force her into experiments.

But she had not yet connected those actions to the nature of the company as a whole.

As she saw it, perhaps some researchers were simply unfriendly, and some orders were simply unpleasant.

Vought itself remained a vast, abstract presence that provided for her. Now was not the time to tell her the truth.

She might decide the entire company was her enemy, attack the researchers, wreck the facility, and try to escape with Lin Mo.

Or the collapse of everything she believed might drive her to place all her trust in Lin Mo alone. Her dependence on him would become even more extreme than it already was.

Besides, Lin Mo could not prove what he knew.

"Because I didn't see it," Lin Mo said at last.

"See what?"

"I didn't see him die." Lin Mo shrugged and spread his hands. It was the truth.

Joanna pointed at the screen.

"But they said they did."

"All they said was that he died on a secret mission. They didn't say exactly what happened."

"And they haven't shown us his body, right?" Lin Mo shook his head, putting on a skeptical look.

Joanna considered that seriously for a few seconds and reached a conclusion.

"So he might not be dead?"

Lin Mo glanced at the closing credits on the television before answering.

"Maybe there are things we don't know yet."

But Joanna was not finished. She asked something he had not expected.

"Then does Vought lie?"

Lin Mo looked at her.

Joanna's eyes were clear and intent.

She was not trying to challenge the company. Perhaps, for the first time, she had realized that what the television said might not be the only truth.

Lin Mo could have brushed her off in the safest way possible. He could have told her that television reports sometimes got things wrong, or that not every detail of a secret mission could be made public.

He could have said the company was protecting national security. None of those answers would alarm the researchers.

They might even earn Vogelbaum's approval.

But then Joanna would go on treating Vought as an authority that was always right. When she discovered more lies in the future, she might realize something else too.

Lin Mo had helped the company deceive her. Then again, she might think he had been kept in the dark as well, misled by Vought just as she had been. After all, they were alike.

Lin Mo was silent for a long time.

"People lie."

He paused, giving Joanna time to take that in. She raised her eyes slightly and waited quietly for him to continue.

"And a company is made up of people."

"So a company can lie too."

Confusion flashed plainly in Joanna's eyes. This was a way of thinking she had never encountered. She tilted her head, her clear gaze full of genuine bewilderment, and asked softly,

"Why would they lie?"

"For lots of reasons."

"They did something wrong and don't want anyone to know because they're afraid of being punished. Or they want someone to do what they say."

"Or they think the truth will cause even more trouble."

Joanna immediately seized on the heart of it, her voice earnest and insistent.

"Then Vought did something wrong?"