The thought of Zoe Pierce choosing Miles Sherman in front of him seed even more upsetting than knowing now that it was Miles.
Erin Xavier found the latter possibility harder to accept.
Nathan Lockwood had also considered this possibility. He had to admit, Erin Xavier was right. The latter scenario was indeed more unsettling than the forr.
Turning around, Erin Xavier rested his head in his hand and looked at Nathan Lockwood. "Nathan, what are you going to do?"
He couldn’t think of a solution himself, so he’d co to ask Nathan Lockwood. His mind was a tangled ss, all balled up, impossible to find a single thread to unravel.
"Are you going to ask her?" he asked, a little curious. After all, Nathan Lockwood had just been advising him against it. Now, his own motivation had waned, and he felt there really wasn’t much to ask.
Nathan Lockwood shot Erin Xavier a glance.
’I’m not like Erin Xavier,’ he thought. The core issue he cared about had always been Zoe Pierce’s choice.
But he didn’t want to say too much to Erin Xavier, so he started to usher him out. "Now that you know, you can go back. Just keep it in mind."
’Talk about being used and tossed aside.’ Seeing that Nathan Lockwood really wasn’t going to say anything more, Erin Xavier left in a huff.
Nathan Lockwood opened his Intelligent Brain and stared at the data on Planet B36, remaining silent for a long ti.
’If I’m not mistaken, then how exactly did Miles Sherman and Chase Shaw win her favor?’
After a while, he snapped out of his reverie. He filtered through the latest relevant news again, re-examined so key files, and then took the initiative to contact Julian Chambers.
On the other end, Julian Chambers had been getting antsy. He had expected Miles Sherman’s group to depart as soon as they returned from Planet B146. He never thought they could be so patient. Nearly a week had passed before Nathan Lockwood finally contacted him.
He was starting to think the whole deal was off.
When he saw Nathan Lockwood’s ssage confirming the ti and paying the deposit, Julian Chambers knew it was a sure thing.
The deposit for the guide fee was only a tenth of the total, but it was still a hefty sum. After receiving the money, Julian Chambers couldn’t help but stand and stare at his reflection in the mirror.
He was deeply curious about the true purpose of Nathan Lockwood’s group for going to Planet B36.
’Given who they are, has the military detected sothing?’
’They didn’t say anything last ti on Planet B146, but you can make so guesses just by observing certain things. That canned food, for instance, or their posture when they moved...’
’Habits completely different from those of a ragtag militia. The kind only regular army soldiers have.’
’Rigid, yet filled with an indescribable quality.’
Julian Chambers fell silent. ’Forget it. I’ll take it one step at a ti,’ he thought. The whole reason he’d agreed to help them in the first place was to find out what on earth had happened.
’If he hadn’t been pushed to his limit, he never would have co to Siren Star.’
’Who would willingly leave their ho to live on a new planet? Only soone who truly has no ho left.’
...
Now that the trip to Planet B36 was set, ti beca a pressing issue.
Everything from cha maintenance to gathering equipnt had to be done.
They weren’t going to Planet B36 for a vacation; they were going to uncover Wesley White’s secrets.
After they finished discussing the serious topic, the eting should have ended.
But Zoe Pierce hadn’t expected Nathan Lockwood to ask her directly, "It’s best to resolve the issue with your glands before we leave. Have you been to the hospital?"
Zoe Pierce didn’t rember telling Nathan Lockwood about this, but since he was asking, she replied, "Not yet. I was planning to go in the next day or two."
Nathan Lockwood was asking a question he already knew the answer to. He’d been keeping a close eye on her.
Now that he had the answer he’d been expecting, a slow smile spread across his face. "Let’s go now. I’ll go with you."
Zoe Pierce instinctively glanced at Chase Shaw.
Chase Shaw’s eyes had already narrowed slightly even before Nathan Lockwood had spoken, and his gaze turned particularly sharp after hearing that last sentence.
But Nathan Lockwood acted as if he hadn’t noticed a thing. His cool, almond-shaped eyes t Chase’s calmly, turning the tables on him. "Chase Shaw, is there a problem?"
Chase Shaw pressed his tongue against the roof of his mouth, then suddenly smiled. "No problem."
It was Miles Sherman, instead, who tried to intervene. "Chase and I can go with Zoe. That’ll be enough."
Standing to the side, Erin Xavier piped up, not wanting to be left out, "I’m going too! You’re all going and leaving here by myself?"
The once-harmonious atmosphere between the four of them suddenly beca incredibly awkward.
Zoe Pierce felt a headache coming on. ’Aren’t I the one who needs to see a doctor? Why is every single one of them more worked up about it than the actual patient?’
"I’ve been wanting to say this for a while. Chase, Miles, why did you hide this from and Erin?" No one, including Erin Xavier himself, expected Nathan Lockwood to say that. He continued, "What exactly is wrong with Zoe Pierce’s glands that you felt the need to hide it? Don’t you know that for an Oga, gland problems can lead to various organ-related diseases? It’s not just an issue with pheromones."
At first, Erin Xavier thought Nathan Lockwood had a point, but as he kept talking, Erin’s eyelid started to twitch.
’That bastard Nathan Lockwood really is no saint.’
’He’s hiding behind a noble cause, preaching from a moral high ground.’
’If I didn’t know the full story, I’d probably be fooled by him right now. If it were really such a big deal, Chase and the others would have said sothing long ago. The only reason they’d hide it is if it was sothing that *could* be hidden.’
Nathan Lockwood turned to Zoe Pierce. "They only have a partial understanding of gland issues. Why did you hide it from , too?"
’Incredible.’
Erin Xavier felt his own cunning was leagues below Nathan Lockwood’s.
’His sches are a series of interconnected traps, one leading right into the next. Every rhetorical trick he uses is for his own benefit.’
Clearly, the still-naive Zoe Pierce didn’t yet understand Nathan Lockwood’s character. After a mont of silence, she began to explain, "The infirmary already gave a diagnosis. I just need to follow the doctor’s prescription..."
’That sounds perfectly normal, right?’
"Zoe, I’m not trying to scold you. I’m worried about you." Nathan Lockwood let out a soft sigh, his tone gentler than his earlier interrogation. "You chose to hide it from . I may not understand why, but I respect your decision."
"I thought we were teammates, at the very least. And if nothing else, I was the one who discovered your spiritual power in the first place."
’What an act.’
Erin Xavier was starting to feel physically ill. First the big stick, then the gentle appeasent—and he did it all so naturally, so seamlessly.
He barely managed to keep his expression neutral so as not to reveal what he was thinking. On this matter, at least, he was on Nathan Lockwood’s side.
If Nathan Lockwood hadn’t told him, he would have been kept in the dark by Miles and Chase from start to finish.
At that thought, Erin Xavier looked directly at Miles Sherman and Chase Shaw.
’Oh, their expressions are even fouler than mine.’ For so reason, that made him feel a lot better.
It had to be said, Zoe Pierce actually felt a rare pang of guilt. It was mainly because she was realizing that what she’d thought was a trivial issue was now being blown completely out of proportion.
First, Chase Shaw had made a fuss, and now Nathan Lockwood was doing the sa.
’If I’d known this would happen,’ she thought, ’I should have just been upfront about it from the very beginning.’
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