Xander called a number on his phone to the technical support of APF.
"Yeah, don't bother with the greetings. Do one thing for me. I want you to track the location of one of the helicopters that my Delta squad took; Its number is 356772552," he told the person over the phone.
He had a good memory, so he didn't need to describe the helicopter's characteristics and other details. He remembered the identification number itself.
"That's right."
"No, enter the query under my name. It's fine."
Many things needed to be done to be able to track the equipment of the APF, and one such thing was to enter the details of who needed the information, their authority, etc.
Xander gave all the details that he needed to before he asked, "How long will it take?"
"A few minutes? It's fine. I can wait." He kept the phone near his ears as he started waiting.
He walked back and forth while waiting. While doing that, he realized how Delta Squad members were standing idly, looking at him.
"What are you guys doing? Start collecting the bodies. Send them to forensics," he commanded them after he saw them wasting time.
As he was on the call, the person in the office also heard Xander's shouting.
"Ah, sir? Are you talking to me?" he asked.
"No, I was talking with my team. Ignore my words," Xander answered.
A long silence followed the answer as the man got back to tracking using the system. It took him approximately five minutes before he said something.
"All right, I am done here. And I have bad news for you," the man answered.
Xander had a bad feeling as he heard the depressing tone of the man.
"What bad news?" he asked the man grimly.
"We are unable to locate the helicopter you are inquiring about. There can be a few reasons for that to be happening. Either the helicopter crashed somewhere, and the tracking device got damaged. Or someone intentionally removed the tracking device and destroyed it," the man answered.
He further elaborated, "The second option seems unlikely as the person would need high knowledge about the systems in the helicopter to be able to remove the tracking device without causing an alarm to go off in our systems at the base. So I think the first possibility is what took place."
"Can you tell me where it was last seen and where it was going, so I can arrange for a search party to find its pieces?" he asked.
"It was coming towards our base from Erygas city with a prisoner. You can arrange for a search party," Xander answered as he disconnected the call.
He gazed at his phone as he softly muttered, "I doubt you will find it, in any case. You think the first possibility is true, but I believe it's the second. It would be impossible to find it now."
"As I expected, this isn't the work of Lucifer. He can't have knowledge on how to deactivate that thing. Someone else is involved who helped him. And it's because of that person that we lost Lucifer," he acknowledged as he gazed towards the distant horizon.
"Who could it be?" he mumbled to himself. That was when he remembered something. He remembered Ayn's words.
Before coming here, he had talked to her, where she told him about Variant Uprising members stalking the facility, which was Lucifer's target. When he heard about them leaving without doing anything, he already found it strange. Now he understood everything.
He closed his eyes as he took a deep breath.
"They didn't leave because they knew that our teams had found their trail. They left because they had already found Lucifer. Those sneaky bastards, I should have understood right then!"
"When they knew about the facility, they might also have known about Erygas and our plan. Those bastards!" he let out as he clenched his teeth.
"Now that Variant Uprising is also involved, this enters into Varant's jurisdiction. I wanted to help Lucifer, but that doesn't seem possible now. Albeit all because of my negligence," he mumbled under his breath as he walked towards the helicopter in which he had come here.
He was regretting his actions so much. The biggest mistake was his. When Flourance had informed him about them catching Lucifer, he should have gone straight to them instead of telling them to go back to base alone to save time.
If he hadn't done that, he would have been with them. He would be able to save them. Just that single moment was what he was blaming the most for this event.
Even though he knew that Lucifer had killed them, he knew his mistake was just as significant. The blame for his men's death was as much on his shoulders as it was on Lucifer.
...
The doors of the lift opened, revealing a big hall before Lucifer. The floor was properly marbled, and the walls seemed to be made of metal, at least from the surface it appeared.
There was a big crowd of people, already present inside the hall, seemingly waiting for them.
It seemed like there were hundreds of people. Despite accompanying so many people, the hall seemed primarily empty, which only showed how big it was,
The people were dressed in a wide variety of clothes. It didn't seem like there was any dress code in this place. Some men were even standing bare-chested entirely.
Two men and one woman were standing in front of those hundreds of people like the leaders.
"Welcome to our base," Caen said softly in Lucifer's ears before he stepped out of the lift and stood sideways.
Lucifer also stepped out.
The three people that seemed to be the in-charge here were none other than Dion, Isona, and Vega.
Isona was the level two leader of Variant Uprising and the only woman amongst the five leaders of VU.
She was wearing a revealing grey dress that showed her cleavage full well. Her dark crimson hair was longer than shoulder length but didn't reach her waist. They were mid-length.
Her eyes seemed like they were a mixture of blue and green, which sometimes seemed light blue and sometimes green. There was a necklace in her neck which had three pearl-like semi-transparent jewels.
The second person who stood right beside Isona was Dion, who was one rank higher than her in leadership. He was a level three leader. He had ashen skin like he was a dead person.
His eyes were beautiful golden that matched with his looks while making him seem dangerously charming. He was dressed in a white shirt under a black coat. He also wore black pants to finish his professional look.
The third person was technically the person who had the highest authority here, at least amongst the people that were present here.
The third man was Vega, who was a level 4 leader. In leadership, he was just under the leader of the Variant Uprising, Raia, in position.
Vega seemed like a librarian from the way he presented himself. There were two books in his hand, one of which was blue while the other one was orange.
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