Cave Refuge

After all the outsiders had left, Mr. Thompson did not return to his room. Instead, he went straight to the room where Zachary was staying. After casually closing the door, he looked somewhat somber and asked, "What happened?"

"Remember yesterday when I left for a bit during the discussion about the renovations? That's when I detected some space fluctuations near the base, which is why I hurried over to investigate.

Unexpectedly, after I got there, I somehow got into a bit of a conflict with a member of the Special Team. Considering we had just settled down as a family of three and with our lack of local connections, I thought it would be best to step back and let things go.

I assumed that would be the end of it, especially since I was the one at a disadvantage. But who could have guessed that today members of the Special Team would come knocking on our door to cause trouble.

At first, I thought they came over because they saw me back down yesterday and thought our family was an easy target, so I revealed a trump card.

As soon as I showed my trump card, they backed off immediately. Then they stated their real intentions, which turned out to be that they had observed my performance yesterday, assumed I was weak, and wanted to take advantage of me."

Upon hearing Zachary's explanation, Mr. Thompson immediately caught the loopholes and key points in his words: "Is there something else you haven't clarified? Since they wore those uniforms, even though they might target our family, they surely acted with some justifiable cause.

If you say you were at a disadvantage in the conflict with them yesterday, and as the one who profited, they certainly wouldn't take the action of coming to create trouble. So, either you actually didn't lose out yesterday but made them take a big loss, or you left some loopholes yesterday, which gave them an excuse to come and create this disturbance."

Suppressing his amusement and listening to Mr. Thompson's very confident analysis, Zachary eventually couldn't help but laugh and say, "Dad, apart from those two possibilities you mentioned, could there be another scenario where the person I had a conflict with yesterday has disappeared?"

After hearing Zachary's reason, Mr. Thompson was momentarily stunned and then incredulously questioned, "Really disappeared?"

Zachary knew what Mr. Thompson was inquiring about, so he emphatically stated, "Yes, disappeared. The people who came earlier were here to investigate whether I knew where those people had disappeared to, to see if I could help find them.

Ha, not that I have the ability to help them find anyone, but even if I could, I wouldn't lend a hand. After all, the old saying goes, 'Repay evil with virtue; but how can virtue be repaid?' Therefore, we should repay directness with directness.

If I were alone and encountered those who have disappeared, as long as there was a chance, I would definitely make sure they remain disappeared, never to return here."

Upon hearing Zachary's words, Mr. Thompson immediately asked, "Judging from how you grit your teeth when you mention them, there must have been more than just a little conflict between you and them. If it's convenient, tell me the specifics."

Then, Zachary simply recounted to Mr. Thompson the incident of Leonard setting him up yesterday. After Zachary finished talking about his encounter, Mr. Thompson could only pat his son on the shoulder. He wanted to comfort him with the phrase 'A loss may turn out to be a gain.'

But thinking of the Confucius quote Zachary had just repeated, Mr. Thompson could only let out a helpless sigh and said softly, "You've had it tough." Then he turned around and left.

Seeing Mr. Thompson leave without a word, Zachary quickly followed him out of the room.

After Zachary had closed the front door, and about five minutes had passed, a bug that had been hidden in the corner of the room suddenly scurried across the floor and left the room through the gap beneath the front door.

After that bug left, every ten minutes or half an hour, another bug would rapidly emerge from a seemingly inexplicable corner and leave the room through the gaps around the door.

Sitting in the room opposite, enjoying tea with his parents, Zachary naturally detected those bugs through his Divine Sense and understood the reason for their appearance as well as who was controlling them.

Dong Tianyu had been using his Divine Sense to watch them ever since they arrived, so when he followed Toby Hart into the house, he naturally saw through Divine Sense all the small actions the last member of the Special Team did when closing the door.

As the member of the Special Team closed the door, he took advantage of the moment he turned to release several tiny bugs from his sleeve. These bugs fell to the ground and, like chameleons, instantly blended into the surroundings before swiftly crawling into obscure corners to hide.

That's why, after those people left, Dong Tianyu made a surveillance hand gesture to Mr. Thompson before they entered the room.

The things that Mr. Thompson said just now were also directed by Dong Tianyu using hand gestures, hence Dong Tianyu's responses were naturally meant to mislead the others.

While the Thompson family of three were savoring tea inside the house, the little bugs that left from the house across the street quickly climbed the stairs back to the Special Team member who had closed the door.

When one of the bugs crawled up the man's pants into his palm, it seamlessly merged into his palm as if returning to its nest.

After the bug was completely absorbed into the Special Team member's palm, he was able to hear the conversation between Mr. Thompson and Dong Tianyu in the room with crystal clarity.

As the second, third, and all of the bugs merged into the palm of the Special Team member, he astonishingly mimicked and demonstrated the entire conversation between Mr. Thompson and Dong Tianyu using a ventriloquist technique.

After the Special Team member finished his performance, Toby Hart spoke soberly to the others, "Based on the imitation just performed by the third brother, it's highly probable that the other party has nothing to do with Leonard's disappearance. In fact, if we hadn't visited them just now, they might still be unaware of Leonard's disappearance."

Another team member said directly, "Isn't this something we predicted this morning already? Besides, didn't we go there just to scrape a little profit off them?

Even if we have confirmed that Leonard's disappearance has nothing to do with them, there was no need for you three to rush us out of there so hastily. What were you three discussing in there? Could it be that the other party has some background within the base that we haven't uncovered?"

Hearing this question, and the glances sweeping between the three, Toby Hart was not angry but somewhat resentfully said, "That guy is a lunatic. We three went in, and he thought we were Leonard's men since he offended Leonard yesterday and deliberately came to cause trouble.

So before we could explain things clearly, he took out a missile from his Storage Space and stepped on it. Although the specific model of the missile was unclear.

But one could guess that once the missile explodes, even if one doesn't get killed by the blast directly, the aftermath of the incident will blow up.

We're in the wrong with this, and once things explode, naturally someone will need to take the fall. We only came here to take a little advantage; there's no need to blow this up."

After hearing Toby Hart's explanation, someone in the team immediately said, "Brother Hart, are you saying that guy has missiles? Are you sure they are real? Can we get those things?"

Hearing his teammate's suggestion, everyone's interest was piqued, and they all turned their gaze to Toby Hart.

But Toby Hart, seeing the look in his subordinates' eyes, scolded them irritably, "If you want to go, go by yourselves, don't drag me into it. That guy is a lunatic. You dare ask for it, and he dares to detonate it. If someone is really interested, they can go and try it themselves, but don't say I didn't warn you. One of the two strangers standing by the door just now was Thomas Jefferson."

"Thomas Jefferson? The Thomas Jefferson who tinkers with explosives?"