The Mongoose's Secret

"Margaret, come look at this!"

When Amber ran back to the convoy's hiding place, the Mobile Infantry left on guard were taking down the vehicle camouflage nets, as he had ordered.

The two indirect-fire teams carrying 120-millimeter mortars had also just returned from their temporary positions.

At his shout, Isabel, who was checking on the wounded, handed her injector to a medic.

Then she came over, looking puzzled.

"What's going on? Making such a fuss isn't like you. Hey! What are you doing?"

Before Isabel could finish, Amber took her hand and pulled her aside.

The Mobile Infantry watching nearby immediately started hooting and hollering.

Even Isabel, usually so composed, blushed as the soldiers' teasing grew more outrageous.

"What are you trying to do? I'm telling you, you can't force someone to love you!"

"Don't get the wrong idea. Come with me and you'll see."

Amber was in no mood to flirt with the spy.

He led Isabel to a stand of trees some distance away, then took out the "spoils" he had just acquired.

"A faceplate and a soldier's terminal? Did these come from the Empire soldiers you ambushed?"

Isabel's voice was flat, betraying neither pleasure nor sorrow.

Amber couldn't tell what the spy, now branded a "traitor," felt at the sight of belongings left by soldiers of her homeland.

"These weren't ordinary Empire soldiers. They were probably from a Special Operations Group under the Imperial Central Intelligence Directorate."

Amber held up the two items, then switched on the terminal, which had gone into sleep mode.

"Look. This isn't the old equipment they've been issuing for years."

"People from the Central Intelligence Directorate?"

Isabel's pretty face turned serious at once.

"Why did they send people to Robert IV too?"

"That's exactly what I pulled you over here to find out."

With that, Amber connected his own terminal to the Empire terminal through a universal port.

He deftly opened a back door, bypassed the identity check, and unlocked it.

"Wait. How do you know how to crack one of these so well?"

Isabel was stunned by how easily Amber worked.

As far as she remembered, Naval Intelligence Directorate training had never covered breaking into their own terminals.

"It's in the coursework. Everyone in my intake knows how."

Amber kept his head down as he fiddled with the device, lying through his teeth.

He certainly couldn't tell Isabel he had learned the trick in his previous life as a player.

"I feel like you're making that up."

"Not at all. You've just been undercover in the Federation so long that you haven't heard about a lot of changes in the Empire."

Amber kept bluffing. Under the circumstances, Isabel had no one she could ask to check his story.

"Done. Now I need you!"

"What do you mean?"

"You're a senior undercover operative on Robert IV, so your clearance can't be low. Use it to access the command system. Then we can see everything on this terminal, including its combat records."

Amber opened a screen on the terminal and went on:

"Some information and records are hidden even from the terminal's user. It takes higher-level clearance to access them."

"And your clearance still works. Even if the Empire has started revoking it, I'd guess the update will take two or three days to get here and back."

As he spoke, Amber handed the terminal to Isabel.

"Wait. Why do I keep helping you do things like this?"

Isabel hesitated. She suddenly realized that if she kept going, she really would be acting like a traitor.

"Spare me your precious patriotism. You love your country, but does your country love you?"

Amber spoke with open disdain:

"Sorry to be blunt, but as I see it, you're loyal to Her Highness the Princess, not to the Empire."

"But..." Isabel started to object, only for Amber to cut her off.

"No buts. At heart, you're no different from the Regent Faction. You're all serving your own masters, not your country."

Isabel had no answer to that.

What Amber had said hurt her.

But right now, she couldn't find a way to refute it.

After struggling with herself for a moment, the Empire spy branded a "traitor" let out a long sigh.

Then she used her clearance to access the command system of the "Mongoose" special operations platoon.

The entire platoon had been wiped out.

But with communications jammed over Robert IV, the report of the Mongoose platoon's destruction and failed mission was still stored locally.

It had not yet been sent.

"There. It's open. I have things to do."

Isabel handed the terminal back to Amber and turned away, sadness in her expression.

Amber watched her lonely figure retreat but did not go after her to offer comfort.

Nothing he said would help her through what she was facing. Isabel would have to find her own way out.

Amber drew his gaze back to the terminal.

After searching through its database and combat footage, he finally found the information he wanted.

First, the wiped-out unit was indeed the Mongoose special operations platoon led by Captain Lawrence—the one Amber remembered.

Second, before they encountered Amber's group, another Federation unit fighting its way out had given them a thorough beating.

That unit had come from Yasin Base, and its commander was most likely Lieutenant Colonel Dallas.

Third, the platoon had come to Robert IV for exactly the reason Amber had suspected: a secret Federation research facility.

"So that's where they hid it... Right here on Robert IV."

Amber stared at the secret Federation research facility's location, now marked on his tactical map.

He couldn't help voicing his surprise.

Meanwhile, the Mobile Infantry had finished preparing to move on.

Everyone had taken down the camouflage nets and was about to board the vehicles again.

Just then, the soldiers in the communications relay vehicle picked up a signal from friendly forces.

When Amber had the radio operator connect to it, a tense voice immediately came through his earpiece:

"This is B63 Escape Pod from Lansford Port!"

"Can anyone hear us? Repeat, can anyone hear us?"

"We have wounded aboard! We need immediate assistance!"

"..."

The distress call kept cutting in and out, perhaps because communications were so poor.

Before Amber's group could respond, the signal dropped.

Amber thought for a moment, then asked:

"Can you pinpoint where they landed from that signal?"

"I'll try, sir!"

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