Spy (Please Keep Reading and Bookmark!)

"Spy?!"

"I'm a fucking spy for the Star Dragon Empire???"

The sudden revelation left Amber struggling to react.

For a moment, his expression even went blank.

Fortunately, the sealed examination room had already gone dark.

And through the eyes of the Imperial female spy, whose retinal implants gave her some low-light vision,

Amber, the Imperial spy codenamed "Fledgling," appeared remarkably calm during this tense meeting.

"Good. Looks like the Royal Navy Intelligence Directorate's new recruits are getting better and better."

Amber was still trying to collect himself when the woman's voice continued beside his ear:

"The hospital's backup power has kicked in, but the ICU gets priority, so we have... thirty seconds."

"Here's the short version. In three days, a Royal Navy expeditionary battle group will launch a surprise attack. When it starts, we need to sabotage the base's Communications Center."

"The people we planted here earlier aren't strong enough for a direct fight. All they can do is stage a diversion, like the short circuit just now."

"The heavily guarded Communications Center will take a Psion like you to breach."

The woman spoke quickly. This meeting was far too brief, and she had to deliver the entire assignment in those thirty seconds.

"Our people have already made arrangements. Three nights from now, there'll be a widespread outbreak of allergic reactions at the Communications Center."

"I'll go there under the pretext of finding the allergen."

"Meet me there and storm the central communications control room. Cut this planet off from the outside."

"For the Empire..."

Thirty seconds was neither long nor short.

Click!

As soon as the Star Dragon Empire spy finished speaking, power returned throughout the hospital.

The examination room lights came back on, and the electronic instruments hummed to life.

Amber instinctively narrowed his eyes against the sudden brightness.

When he opened them again, the Imperial spy—

No, the Federal Army doctor—was back in her chair.

The high heel on her elegant foot still swung lazily back and forth.

As though she had never moved.

She was looking at the restored lights with a puzzled expression, complaining about the base's engineering troops.

Her languid voice was nothing like the icy one he had heard in the dark.

Amber's gaze passed over the doctor's ample curves, but his attention settled on her nameplate.

Valra Margaret. Junior medical officer in the Federal Army, rank: captain.

In the Federal Army, a medical captain was generally responsible for medical care at the divisional level.

This beauty and the medical battalion under her command were responsible for Yasin Base's combat medical readiness.

A Star Dragon Empire spy in a position this critical...

And she clearly isn't the Imperial Navy Intelligence Directorate's only plant. There must be more, and not just on this planet.

No wonder the Federation lost so many important planets and deep-space nodes so inexplicably at the start of the war.

Amber marveled at how thoroughly the Federation's border regions had been infiltrated. As he raised his eyes,

he met the doctor's gaze. She looked angry, with a trace of embarrassment.

Clearly, she had found his staring rude.

Not bad acting.

Amber gave her that assessment in his mind.

"Ahem. Forgive me. Captain Margaret's presence is simply captivating."

With a polite smile, Amber offered her a sincere apology.

"Hmph. I'll put it down to your mind not having recovered from that long deep-space voyage."

The anger on her face faded a little. Then, in a languid voice like a cat's, she gave him a perfectly measured "warning":

"Do it again, and I won't be so nice, Warrant Officer Amber."

As if something had just occurred to her, a playful smile appeared on the doctor's face, and she rose from her chair.

"Right then. Lie down on the examination machine, Warrant Officer~"

She sounded like a Persian cat that had just found an entertaining new toy.

That crazy woman.

Ten minutes later, Amber hurried out of the examination room under the puzzled gazes of the other medical staff.

If anyone could have removed his full-face helmet just then,

they would have seen the faintly indignant expression on Warrant Officer Amber's face.

Whether as the player he had once been or the Psychic Agent he was now,

he had watched countless videos in one life and undergone professional training in the other. He could remain as composed as a monk before a beautiful woman.

But even that composure had its limits when he was lying on an examination machine in nothing but his underwear, being inspected and commented on.

Of course, the feeling did not last long.

The secret meeting had been too much of a shock.

So the spy I wanted to find... was me?

Amber felt a headache coming on.

And as the words "codename: Fledgling" and "Royal Navy Intelligence Directorate" registered,

another portion of his memories unlocked.

They filled in many of the gaps that had previously been hazy.

For instance, he was actually a war orphan.

There was no way to trace his birth parents, much less tell whether they had been Imperial or Federal citizens.

But when he showed Psion talent as a child, the Empire's intelligence service found him.

After training and brainwashing him, they sent him and his fellow trainees into the Federation by various routes, where they acquired legal identities.

In the end, he became a Psychic Agent determined to "devote his life" to the Federation.

Good. Looks like coming here in this body broke the Empire's brainwashing?

Amber searched his thoughts and found no ingrained compulsion to "give his life for the Empire."

Besides, whether it was the Federation or the Empire,

Amber felt no real sense of belonging to either.

He was more inclined to take things as they came and lie low.

So he was reluctant to risk his life sabotaging the Communications Center.

What if I find a chance to report these Imperial spies?

No. Wouldn't that expose me too? The Security Bureau would never let a deep-cover spy who'd infiltrated the Federation as a child walk away.

Fuck. My identity's a real problem now.

Tch. I'm not going to find a way out immediately. I'll play it by ear.

Lost in thought, Amber reached the officers' quarters.

Following the duty soldier's directions, he soon found his assigned room.

He needed to freshen up, then head to the officers' mess.

Once he had entered the base and connected to its network, his personal terminal had received a new message from the base's administrative AI.

Lieutenant Colonel Dallas, the second-in-command at Yasin Base,

wanted to have lunch with the newly arrived young officers.