The Mech Touch novel Chapter 926

Panic immediately suffused his entire mind! How could Calabast figure out his greatest secret?!

For a moment, Ves frantically wanted to throw all caution to the wind and materialize the Amastendira and blast a wide-area laser blast in her direction!

Calabast gently patted his Squalon’s shoulder pauldron. "Ah, before you contemplate anything stupid inside your silly head, know that the Starlight Megalodon is one step away from erupting into violence. The death of a department head will certainly trigger hostilities instantly. Without my help, you won’t survive the coming storm."

"Calabast." Ves said as he gritted his teeth. "Get away from my sight."

"Very well. I’ll leave you alone with your toys." She chuckled and strutted to the exit of the compartment. "Remember to move quickly and do as I ask as soon as you receive the authorizations. Also make sure to wrap everything up as soon as you return the data chip to me. Once we leave the Exotic Research Sub-Department, I predict the Starlight Megalodon will certainly experience some drastic changes! I’ve prepared some precautions to keep us safe for the moment, but be prepared to get out as fast as possible."

"Hey!" Ves shouted after her. "What is it you want from me, besides accessing those research projects?!"

"If you’re so concerned about me leaking out your status once I leave, rest assured." She shook her head as if she was speaking to a silly boy. "Such a good thing is too good to be shared with my employers. I’ll be in touch. Remember, don’t do anything reckless!"

Long after Calabast deactivated her signal jammer and left the compartment, Ves fell into a complete emotional mess. He kept trying to think where he slipped up his greatest secret.

Calabast must have acquired footage or eavesdropped on his conversation with Virtual Rear Admiral Ordoth somehow.

Despite the Compact-aligned AI locking down his office and activating his own signal jammer, the security arrangements completely appeared to have posed no hindrance at all to the enigmatic spy!

"Damnit!" He cursed. "It was a mistake to trust a dwarf! They’re all incompetent!"

Was this retribution for abusing so many dwarves? Did karma strike back at him for all of his unethical experiments?

Whatever the reason, Ves knew he was profoundly screwed right now. His worst fears came true, and there was nothing he could do to reverse this setback.

From Calabast’s warnings, he knew that there was no way he could finagle his way out of this fix. When it came to spycraft, Ves was a complete baby in front of this witch. Someone as experienced and capable as her definitely prepared many contingencies in the event Ves lashed out. Even if he managed to kill her, the secret would definitely be out!

"She put me in checkmate right from the get-go, or else she wouldn’t have told me what she knew."

Ves truly saw no way out of the most impactful predicament of his life. The only reassurance was that Calabast expressed her intention of keeping the secret to herself. Anyone in her place would have done the same, and this was why he chose to believe her this time.

The more people knew about his status, the higher the odds that the Five Scrolls Compact would come barreling through! Even though this secret organization lost out badly against the MTA and CFA, there was no way any faction in the Komodo Star Sector or the galactic rim could withstand a full assault from this powerful influence.

If worse came to worse and Calabast truly crossed his bottom line, he could always throw caution to the wind and sic the Five Scrolls Compact on her! As for him, while it would be hard to survive being hunted by the crazy fanatics, he could always knock on the doors of the MTA or CFA and seek asylum, though he’d likely be forced to relinquish the ’Metal Scroll’ as a result.

"I can also disappear into the lawless frontier as an alternative." He thought. "The outer edge of the galaxy is way too big and sparse to track down a single person."

The life of an outlaw didn’t appeal to him very much, but it was a far better alternative than becoming a glorified slave for one of the Big Two.

He calmed down a bit once he went over these possibilities. While they were all nuclear options that would definitely harm him and his family as much as Calabast, it at least afforded him some leverage against her blackmail.

"Someone as clever as her doubtlessly thought about this already."

The risk of incurring mutually assured destruction might also be why Calabast didn’t exert too much pressure on him. As a businessman, Ves recognized her intention to opt for long-term profits over short-term gains. After all, she’d be stupid to strangle the goose who laid the golden eggs!

"I’ll have to have a good talk with her the next time I see her in order to clarify her exact intentions."

While Ves didn’t see anyway to climb out of the hole he fell into headfirst, he could at least start digging upwards.

After the shocking meeting with Calabast, Ves quickly resumed his preparations. He stocked his ’personal shuttle’ with water, oxygen, fuel, medical supplies, spare parts and most importantly numerous crates of vintage nutrient packs!

Ves nodded in satisfaction as he saw the loader bots stow away the crates. "I definitely won’t starve to death in space with this much nutrient packs."

The Starlight Megalodon could care less about these emergency rations. All Ves needed to do to obtain a crate was to throw a few merits at the commissary.

Once he loaded the shuttle up with supplies, he programmed its autopilot and let it launch from the Starlight Megalodon’s shuttle bay without any human occupants.

Even though the Vesians outside should have spotted launch of the craft, they wouldn’t be able to track it for long due to all the interference in the air!

As the shuttle departed from the battleship, it followed a convoluted route planned by Ves before parking itself inside a hidden alcove nearly a thousand kilometers away. Ves spent hours studying the surrounding terrain until he settled for this hidden position.

Once there, the natural cover of the terrain along with the shuttle’s low-powered ECM mode should keep it nice and hidden, though he didn’t discount the possibility that Calabast already found out its location.

Nonetheless, he already programmed the coordinates to his emergency personal teleporter. Unless blocked for some reason or another, Ves would definitely be able to appear next to his shuttle.

"This should be sufficient preparation for my escape route."

In the meantime, the Vesians didn’t sit still either. Venerable Foster began to copy his methods of press ganging the Vesians and subsequently using her power over the Mech Department to promote them into better positions.