Chapter 168

Chapter 168

It took a long while before Diana finally seemed to accept the reality before her.

Her body slowly sagged, all that sharp defiance draining away.

"Why me?"

Diana lifted her head to look at Jack, voicing the biggest question weighing on her mind.

If Jack could mobilize troops in broad daylight and arrest their chief without batting an eye, there was no way his position wasn't higher than Duke's.

"You could've found someone more professional, more capable. Why pick some nobody cop from Viridis State?"

Jack studied her, his gaze deepening.

"Because those people might be his people." His voice was low and deliberate. "Duke's network runs deeper than you can imagine. Or rather, the forces backing him are massive. They don't just control Viridis State politics—they've infiltrated certain federal agencies. I need someone completely outside his sphere of influence. Someone he wouldn't even notice."

"And I'm that 'nobody'?" Diana let out a self-deprecating laugh.

"No. You're the 'right person.'" Jack corrected her. "You're capable. You have integrity. More importantly, you're 'clean.' You haven't been bought off or threatened by him. You're one of the few cops left in this state who still believes in law and justice."

Diana fell silent. She looked at the man before her, a tangle of emotions churning inside. She knew he was telling the truth. In Viridis State, cops like her—cops who stuck to their principles—were becoming extinct.

"If I agree," Diana said slowly, "what do I need to do?"

"Simple." Jack gestured toward the file on the table. "There are some preliminary leads in there. Names and addresses of key players. What you need to do is use your position and resources to investigate these people and verify the information. Once you find solid evidence, contact me immediately."

"And then?" Diana pressed. "After we find evidence, what's your plan? Just arrest him?"

Jack shook his head, a cold smile playing at his lips.

"Arrest him? No. That would be letting him off too easy." There was a trace of killing intent in his voice. "I'm going to destroy him completely. Make him pay the most devastating price for everything he's done."

Diana looked at him, a chill running through her. She could feel the dangerous aura radiating from this man—more terrifying than any criminal she'd ever encountered.

"Who exactly are you?" she couldn't help asking again.

Jack didn't answer. He simply stood and prepared to leave.

"Remember, from now on, you need to be extremely careful." He paused at the door, turning back to look at Diana. "Duke has eyes everywhere in Viridis State. He's far more cunning than you realize. Don't trust anyone—not your colleagues, not your superiors."

"And," he paused, his gaze sharpening, "don't try to investigate me. Once you've completed your task, you'll know who I am naturally enough."

With that, he pulled open the door and walked out without looking back.

Diana stood alone in the living room, watching the door slowly close, feeling her heart sink with it. She knew that from this moment on, she'd stepped onto a path of no return.

She walked to the coffee table and picked up the file, feeling it burn like hot iron against her palm.

Looking at the contents inside, the entire world suddenly felt strange and terrifying.

She didn't know who she could trust anymore.

Outside, the night remained thick and heavy. But Diana knew the real darkness was only just beginning.

That night, Jack returned to the military base.

"Freya."

Jack summoned both Freya and Seraphina.

"Starting today, you two don't need to follow me anymore. I need you to focus entirely on protecting Diana."

Both Freya and Seraphina were ninjas—one a prodigy from the Kogara school, the other from the Igaru school.

What ninjas excelled at most was infiltration and assassination.

Using two elite ninjas as bodyguards for an ordinary cop seemed like massive overkill to them.

But Jack's orders weren't negotiable.

"You might think using you to protect a civilian is overkill," Jack said, walking to the floor-to-ceiling window and gazing down at the deep darkness beyond the base. His voice was low and cold. "But understand this—the forces backing Duke are far more complex than they appear. He has a crew of 'cleaners' who handle his dirty work, people just as skilled in assassination and infiltration as you are. Diana's now a piece on the board. The moment she starts investigating, she'll be exposed to their watchful eyes."

He turned, his penetrating gaze sweeping over both kunoichi. "What I need from you isn't to let her know you exist. It's to silently eliminate any threats when she faces mortal danger. Remember—she can't discover you, and she can't get dragged into our war. Her job is to investigate. The dirty work? That's yours."

"Understood!" Freya bowed her head slightly, a flash of lethal intent in her eyes. "We'll shadow her like ghosts. Anyone who tries to get close dies without a sound."

"Good." Jack nodded with satisfaction. "Go. Start tonight."

Two dark shadows vanished into the night without so much as a whisper of wind.

Meanwhile, in Diana's apartment.

She sat alone in the dim living room, not even bothering to turn on the lights.

The manila file sat on the table beside a cup of coffee that had long gone cold.

Jack's words kept replaying in her mind, along with those horrifying photos and documents inside the file.

"Don't trust anyone..." Diana murmured, her fingers unconsciously moving to the service weapon at her waist.

Just then, she picked up on something off.

Her head snapped up toward the darkness outside her window. The curtains swayed gently in the breeze. Beyond them, nothing but the occasional passing headlight.

But that feeling of being watched from the shadows coiled around her like a snake, raising every hair on her body.

"Am I imagining things..." Diana took a deep breath, stood, and walked to the window, yanking the curtains shut.

What she didn't know was that at the very moment she closed those curtains, across the street in the shadows of a high-rise, Freya hung upside-down against the wall like a roosting bat, coldly observing everything.

And in the shadows below Diana's building, Seraphina leaned against an unremarkable sedan, casually twirling a poison-laced blade between her fingers, her eyes vigilantly scanning the surrounding streets.