Try Begging - Chapter 160.2
“Major. What’s going on?”
The commander knew something was amiss just by the sight of the officer dragged in like a dog by the Major. The formality of his question was just a pretense, and both of them knew it.
The Major glared with a cold gaze before he shoved the officer into the room.
“I’ve found your lost dog for you. Or rather, a spy would be more accurate.”
There was a deadly politeness in his tone.
“This man was identified by your secretary as your ‘dog,’ so let’s not waste any more of your precious time with denials.”
D*mmit. The commander internally scolded the secretary, who, upon becoming the topic of conversation, had dashed out as if fleeing, having perhaps fallen for Winston’s manipulative interrogation tactics.
Every time he had asked her to call Winston or schedule a meeting, she seemed overly eager, her face brightening up. She was clearly entranced by the pretentious madman.
“Perhaps more rigorous training is in order. Leaving traces, creating witnesses. He’s been quite careless, not just once or twice.”
The hapless lieutenant standing awkwardly between them had been sent to extract information from Lieutenant Campbell, Winston’s aide. The information about the missing person was only to be collected by Campbell and the designated duty soldiers, all notoriously tight-lipped, making it impossible to know what leads had been gathered until now.
The Lieutenant was asked to search Lieutenant Campbell’s desk to find out something but had been caught due to his carelessness.
“I’m sorry, Commander.”
The lieutenant mumbled, his head bowed deeply.
“Leave.”
The commander growled, and the man scurried out. He was circling around as if avoiding a predator about to pounce, giving a groveling apology to the Major as he passed.
He couldn’t believe he had chosen such a fool for the task.
As he sighed, the Major slammed the door shut with a bang and strode over to the desk. The commander glared fiercely at the Major, who had forgotten rank and decorum.
If it had been any other officer, a mere reprimand or even a scolding would have sufficed to curb such audacity. No, if it had been any other officer, they wouldn’t have dared confront the commander in the first place. Many young officers couldn’t even speak properly in his presence.
“What is this now?”
Winston nonchalantly placed a piece of newspaper right in the middle of the documents the commander was reviewing. As the content caught the commander’s eye, he realized it was a pointless question.
It was an ad looking to adopt a child due between May and June. This was something he had arranged through a private detective and embedded a coded message in the ad with seemingly meaningless numbers that read: ‘Only your kin can hide you from that man.’
This was a code previously disclosed by the woman to the 1st Special Task Force.
“So it seems one of Grace Riddle’s relatives has decided to turn themselves in.”
There was no room or need for excuses. The commander just stared stoically at the person who had meticulously scoured newspapers to find this ad.
“Do you realize how dangerous this is? How many of those rebel rats, aware there’s a traitor among them, do you think there are out there? And to broadcast their code in an ad. Thanks to the thoughtless biological father, now there are likely even more people targeting that woman’s life.”
The Major clenched his teeth and poured out his criticism, then suddenly twisted his lips.
“You’re trying to get Grace killed, aren’t you? Quite the strategy.”
“Major, that’s not it at all. Why would I want my daughter dead?”
Despite vehemently denying it and even using the word ‘daughter,’ the madness flickering in the Major’s eyes didn’t subside.
“Your mistake doesn’t end there, Commander. By placing this ad, you’ve effectively advertised to them that we know how to decode their codes.”
“That ad wasn’t my doing…”
“Even if you didn’t know, common sense dictates that if someone not an ally uses our codes, it must be assumed the code has been leaked. Now, the rats roaming the streets will no longer use this code. You’ve single-handedly nullified a core tactic in our anti-rebel operations. At this point, one might wonder if you, Commander, aren’t in fact a spy for the rebels.”
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