Chapter 127: Text back
Hey, I’m Blake!
The guy who you saw at the amusement park with Myles.
He was finally back home, stretched across his sweet, dearly missed bed.
After spending the entire morning with Myles, he naturally had to return home and dedicate some quality time to convincing another guy to hang out with him...
If it were up to him, Anthony would only ever be used as jealousy bait.
The only issue was that Myles already knew they were just friends.
Realistically, he probably wouldn’t react all that strongly.
’There’s not even any reassurance that he likes me, ugh, this whole thing is beyond frustrating!!’
Blake started kicking at the mattress.
With a sigh, he sat up.
At least he hadn’t been slacking off.
When he was at the villa, he spent most of his time researching possible locations to investigate.
Unfortunately, none of them came with any guarantee that aliens would actually be there.
Meaning it still wasn’t time to stop looking.
"Spoon, pull up the blueprints."
Looking through all the buildings or underground facilities near his city was practically useless.
Most of them were either research labs or just, well, big corridors really.
Blake stared at the holographic display for a few moments before rubbing his eyes.
There were currently five options sitting in front of him.
A-exp.
IAL.
OUAA.
YAN.
And RATG.
All of them shared one thing in common.
They kept a low profile despite being massive facilities.
Really huge factories.
Honestly, he couldn’t keep aiming for the biggest and most heavily protected locations every single time.
He needed to dial things down a little.
Besides, technically speaking, there was no rule saying he had to begin every investigation by infiltrating the secret underground complex.
That was just what he kept ending up doing.
For all he knew, useful information could be sitting right inside the main buildings. After all, Myles did end up succeeding after doing the same exact thing.
Those could be areas employees actually worked in. And the fact that these places weren’t open to the public really helped Blake deciding on these options.
Although unauthorized personnel couldn’t simply walk in, it, of course, wasn’t exactly a problem for him.
The Blank Mask could replicate uniforms, create whole new appearances or replicate identities.
Getting inside wasn’t the difficult part.
Finding something useful once he was there was the real challenge.
Blake leaned back in his chair.
Aside from researching facilities, he’d also spent a ridiculous amount of time looking into people connected to Myles.
More specifically, people with the last name Delgada, and the results had been absolutely useless.
’I mean, the last name is just too common, and not just I’m this country, it appears...’
Every database he checked gave him another endless list.
Executives.
Doctors.
Teachers.
Researchers.
Politicians.
Random civilians.
The surname was everywhere.
Freddie had said Myles was the son of a Delgada.
That much Blake remembered clearly but, logically speaking, that didn’t help much.
The people who had been experimented on belonged to the first generation.
Meaning records about them were either buried, hidden, altered, or simply impossible to find.
Finding Myles’ parent through ordinary databases was probably a lost cause.
Blake hummed and let his head fall backward.
Part of him wanted to directly ask Myles about his parents.
The problem was that it was way too straightforward.
Myles would immediately start suspecting and ask why he cared.
And Blake definitely wasn’t ready to explain that.
Not unless he wanted his entire operation to explode in his face.
’I barely got an ounce of his trust, can’t mess it up now... I’ve a short amount of time to do anything. If I even lose one percent of it, I’m so doomed!’
Then there was the other thing Freddie had mentioned.
The unfinished sentence.
Myles is the nephew of... and then nothing.
Ba-dump.
Because Freddie never got to finish.
Blake put a hand over his heart, sighing heavily.
Maybe he was being simple-minded here, but why overcomplicate it? The most obvious answer was probably the correct one in this case.
Cortez.
Myles was the nephew of a Cortez.
That was his guess, at least.
Myles was parentless, that much Blake knew, since he even confirmed it without treating it like some kind of secret.
But as far as he could tell, he had never gone through foster care.
There were no signs of that, neither from the novel, even if he wasn’t relying on it as much now, or in his house, which well, it was a little empty, but that wasn’t exactly proof, either.
Which made it far more likely that he’d been raised by relatives.
An uncle.
An aunt.
Something like that.
But then another question appeared.
Why specifically mention this relative? Why not only talk about the parents?
Freddie had already identified one family connection, so why bring up another specific one?
’Unless... more than one member of Myles’ family has been experimented on.’
Blake scratched the back of his head.
That possibility was becoming harder and harder to ignore, yet there were absolutely no clues inside Myles’ house.
Not that he’d had many opportunities to investigate.
He’d looked around briefly whenever possible.
But getting more than five uninterrupted minutes alone in any room had been nearly impossible.
Not that he could complain, since he was technically there to spend time with Myles, not conduct secret investigations.
Still, there had been nothing: no documents, no photographs, no records.
Just, nothing suspicious whatsoever.
Then again, why would Myles keep evidence like that around?
If his family really was connected to the experiments, keeping records at home would be stupid.
Blake closed his eyes.
’Enough overthinking...’
He grabbed a pen and pointed randomly toward the list.
"A completely objective decision-making process."
The pen landed.
A-exp.
Blake opened one eye.
"...Well."
That settled it.
A-exp it was.
As far as the internet knows, it’s a pretty old building that hasn’t been renovated in quite some time.
But as they say, appearances can be deceiving.
Especially with AL-TECH.
Still, he couldn’t rush into it, truly, he needed a break, at least a week.
Maybe two at most.
Mission work had to come first.
Especially now that he needed more money.
As if the universe had decided to reward him for making a decision, his phone suddenly buzzed.
Blake glanced at the screen.
Then sat up straighter.
"Oh?"
It was Zlatan, he had actually replied!
’Tske a deep breath...’
Blake immediately opened the message.
What gives~? Never expected you to get my number.
A second message followed.
Did you dump Myles?
Blake raised an eyebrow.
Now, now, that was a little dramatic.
Even Zlatan had to realize how ridiculous that assumption sounded.
Either way, there was no reason to answer it directly.
Blake quickly typed back.
Haha, just wondering how you’ve been doing.
The response arrived almost immediately.
I’ve been doing well.
And weird behavior coming from someone who wanted me gone.
Blake scratched the back of his head.
Well, he couldn’t exactly deny that.
Back at the amusement park, he’d made it painfully obvious that he didn’t appreciate having a third wheel tagging along while he was simultaneously trying to complete a mission and spend time with Myles.
There really weren’t any excuses available.
So instead, he decided to redirect the conversation.
I just prefer spending time with one guy at a time.
Several seconds passed.
’Jeez, do I sound like too much of a playboy? But I mean, he’s not that much better, I assume. He looks like a handsome girl, he definitely steals hearts...’
Then another reply arrived.
Oh? So you want to meet one-on-one with me?
Blake’s fingers immediately moved across the keyboard.
Yeah, that’s the idea.
He stared at the screen.
Honestly, this wasn’t even going badly.
In fact, the conversation was heading exactly where he’d hoped it would.
Another notification appeared.
Where are we having our date then?
Blake grimaced.
’Date, jesus...’
That word was showing up awfully quickly.
He typed his response.
How about the day after tomorrow?
After all, tomorrow was already occupied.
He’d promised to spend time with his friend, and cancelling now would just be annoying for both, but mostly for Anthony, since has been postponing it.
And he needed to attempt getting Myles jealous.
A few moments later, another message appeared.
Your little friend gonna be there?
Blake blinked.
’Little friend? Is he talking about Myles? No, wait...’
The first time Zlatan had seen him, he’d been with Anthony.
Ah.
Right, that made more sense.
He was definitely talking about Anthony.
Why? And no, he won’t.
The typing indicator appeared.
Disappeared, then appeared again.
Finally, a single message arrived.
Who knows.
Blake stared at the screen.
"...What does that even mean?"
No answer came.
The conversation ended there.
Leaving Blake alone with a phone in one hand, a suspicious text message in the other, and the growing feeling that whatever was waiting ahead was probably going to become much more annoying than he’d originally thought.
Unfortunately for him.
It usually did.
