"Disappeared again?" Taylor listened to the voice from the other end of the phone, his brow furrowing once more.
This giant was far too mysterious. Completely impossible to guess its intentions.
If he could... he really wanted to communicate with it.
As he thought this, his peripheral vision toward the plane window suddenly caught something.
"That is...!"
He whipped his head around, looking outside. Between the white clouds—
A red and silver figure hovered in the air. The very giant they'd discovered in space!
"Coming for me?" Taylor stared in disbelief, unable to understand why it would seek him out.
The next second, it vanished again.
But simultaneously, a deep voice resonated in his mind.
"I am a Space Garrison member from Nebula M78. I came to Earth pursuing the culprit behind abnormal spacetime fluctuations."
"Right now, one of the suspects—Zachary Leiman—is hiding among you. I need you to tell me his location."
Hearing this voice, Taylor immediately stood from his seat, scanning the cabin, trying to find where the voice came from.
But after looking around, he found no trace of it. Nothing outside the windows either.
Nebula M78... so it really is an alien?
Looking for Leiman... does this involve the unmanned Jaegers?
"This... could you please tell me what Leiman has done?" Taylor hesitated slightly, addressing the empty air.
From his perspective, Leiman was undoubtedly human, currently on his side, bringing him massive benefits.
If possible, he really didn't want to betray Leiman.
Besides, unmanned Jaegers... in this era, they could truly become humanity's hope.
He knew the limitations of hunter Jaegers well. They didn't have the time or funding to train more pilots—after all, no one knew when the Precursors would reopen the Breach.
In this age of disaster, countless people had grown numb. To revive society's former vitality, they needed hope after hope to inspire them.
Marshal Stacker successfully closing the Breach was one example. These unmanned Jaegers were another. Only by showing people sufficient security forces could they recover from their apocalyptic mindset.
"The devices he's created will soon be controlled by him and run amok."
"Before that happens, I will eliminate them all." The voice echoed in his mind again.
Run amok?
Taylor's first reaction was disbelief.
He knew unmanned Jaegers incorporated Kaiju body tissue during manufacturing, but those were from dead Kaiju.
Moreover, control of the unmanned Jaegers rested with each nation's military. Leiman was just a manufacturer—how could problems arise?
But... did this giant have any reason to lie to him?
If he knew nothing about this giant, and it suddenly claimed Leiman's unmanned Jaegers would run amok, he'd never believe it.
But he'd just watched this giant blow up a comet. He knew it possessed the power to destroy human civilization in three minutes.
If he himself possessed such reality-defying power, then from the giant's position—why negotiate? Just vaporize Leiman along with humanity.
So... Leiman must have deceived him!
"I understand." Taylor nodded, speaking seriously. "I believe you."
"The last time Zachary Leiman contacted me, he was at a base beneath the Gipsy Danger camp in San Francisco. That's one of his factories for manufacturing unmanned Jaegers."
Taylor directly revealed Leiman's location, actually making Natsuki pause.
This cooperative?
From Marshal Stacker, he'd learned Taylor was one of the high-level officials who approved the unmanned Jaeger plan. He'd expected to spend some effort extracting intelligence, but the man confessed immediately.
In a politician's eyes, if something's risks far outweighed its benefits, he'd abandon it completely.
So Taylor didn't play tough at all. Full cooperation from the start.
If these unmanned Jaegers would truly run amok, they were hazards that must be eliminated.
Now, positions had shifted.
Taylor stood in the same camp as Natsuki.
"I'll stop the unmanned Jaegers currently in transport as quickly as possible, but those already delivered to various nations..." He frowned in thought.
"As I said before, I will eliminate them." Natsuki's voice came. "However, I need you to evacuate unrelated personnel first, away from those devices."
"Then... I'm counting on you." Taylor nodded at this response.
He couldn't help being curious.
Why would a being with such tremendous power care so much about ordinary people's lives and deaths?
But after he voiced this question, he received no answer.
Clearly the other party had already left.
Taylor sat in the chartered plane, staring at the empty air before him. Silent for a long while.
First contact with an alien... he hadn't expected this process and result.
Afterward, he picked up the phone again, preparing to report the conversation's contents upward.
Meanwhile, Leiman had no idea his protective umbrella had backstabbed him.
He sat in the cockpit of a white Jaeger custom-built for himself, calibrating the machine's data.
A phone call was also connected.
"You ran through your inventory that fast?" he said while operating.
On the other end was a black market dealer who specialized in smuggling Kaiju body tissue.
Before gaining UN support, most of his Kaiju tissue came from this source.
"Where am I supposed to get you that many Kaiju now?" A raspy voice tinged with anger came from the other end.
"Also, why are you even hiding from me now?"
"You deliberately gave me a fake address, using a virtual number—who'd you piss off?"
This black market dealer was also in San Francisco, but in a different district.
Leiman was extremely cautious.
After his plan began, aside from the United States' UN representative Taylor, he hadn't revealed his whereabouts to anyone.
If not for gaining Taylor's trust, he wouldn't have wanted to tell even Taylor.
Caution was why he'd survived this long.
If nothing went wrong, he'd absolutely be the final winner.
"Haven't pissed anyone off. Just taking precautions." Leiman smiled. "Just leave the goods there. Money's already in your account."
"Fine." The other party said.
"But you can't hide forever, right?"
"People always have to come out into the light."
"Don't worry, Zhou." Leiman said. "You'll see me very soon."
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