"My woman."
Zach took a look at the polygraph and knew that Grace wasn't lying this time either. This Taylor should be the person that the Hunter family was using to coerce him.
"So let me summarize the whole situation so far. Taylor, your woman, is being held hostage by the Hunter family and they forced you to do the things you have done so far. Is that right?" Zach still asked some questions in order to determine if this person was actually willing to cooperate.
Grace nodded tearfully in acknowledgement of the facts stated by Zach.
"When did they take her? Or rather when did you find out that they had taken a her?"
"It was a few days before the family head was arrested by the police." Grace looked extremely regretful about it but he had already done the deed and could no longer be taken back.
Zach kept on glancing at the polygraph in order to confirm everything he had said. Thankfully all of it was the truth. He concluded that Grace could be trusted as he was willing to cooperate at the very least if this woman he was protecting could be saved.
Zach immediately commanded the system to use the drones to carry out a search operation across the whole city. They needed to find a woman who was being held captive by the Hunter family. The main focus of the search was supposed to be the facilities under the Hunter family and the facilities related to them through association.
The search radius was very large and Zach had no identification of the person that they needed to find. As such, he could only comb the area using the large army of dragonfly drones he had pulled out of his arsenal.
"We will be able to find out where they are keeping her in a few hours at most. Stay put here until then."
Zach told Grace as soon as he dispatched the drones in search of Taylor.
Grace was a little doubtful because he hadn't seen him do anything at all. In fact, he hadn't seen Zach even conveying the message to his subordinates. Then how was he going to find Taylor in such a short duration when he had spent countless sleepless nights trying to figure out the same.
Even after combing the area for a long while, Zach wasn't able to find the person he was looking for. As such, he could only modify the search matrix a little bit. He commanded the drones to follow after the Hunter family personnel as they traveled out of the mansion.
The method was more helpful than he had expected. The people responsible for hiding the hostage seemed to be visiting the main mansion of the Hunter family quite frequently which was extremely fortunate for Zach as it made his search easier.
The system alerted him to the location of the bound woman in the video being fed to the system screen by the drone on scene.
"Is Taylor the woman with fair complexion, long black hair and a mole under her right eye?" asked Zach all of a sudden.
Grace who was still confused as to whether he had fallen for a trick or not jerked his head towards Zach after listening to the description he had just narrated. All the details matched with the image of Taylor that he kept in his heart.
Grace was baffled as to how Zach had pulled this off in such a short time but he still nodded excitedly to show his appreciation.
"THAT'S HER."
After receiving Grace's confirmation, Zach curled his finger inwards to ask Christina to come over to him.
Christina had been lounging around in the study and had barely participated in the brainstorming or the interrogation session. But now she needed to give her input as well. As such she didn't hesitate and moved so close to Zach that there was barely any distance between the two.
Clara who was looking at the scene couldn't help but reveal her dissatisfaction with how close the two seemed to be.
Zach didn't find it odd at all since he was already in a relationship with her and caressed her hair as he gave her the location where the woman was being kept. Since he had already surrounded the place with the drones, he knew that people guarding the woman weren't a threat to an A rank mage like Christina. Otherwise, he would have never sent his precious woman alone to rescue someone he didn't even know.
Christina on the other hand felt his feelings from the tender caresses. She couldn't help but feel giddy as a beautiful smile spread on her lips.
"I will be back soon." Christina gracefully left the room with long strides since the situation demanded urgent action. Her words were directed towards Zach who was bound to worry in her absence because she had seen how he acted during the battle with Jack.
"Mmm…Stay on call at all times and come back safe." muttered Zach before he put all his attention to the surveillance of the location where Christina was headed.
The address was the downtown which was a highly developed area of the city. He had expected them to hide her away in some remote location that was out of reach but the Hunter family had hidden her right underneath their noses.
Since the place was not far from the Windsor family mansion, it only took Christina half an hour to reach the location.
As she listened to Zach's instructions on call, she easily neutralized the guards surrounding the inconspicuous looking house.
She hurriedly rescued Taylor whose limbs were tied to a chair in the center of the room while Zach kept an eye out for any kind of danger.
Zach terminated the call as soon as the rescue operation was deemed a success but he didn't pull the drones out just yet. He commanded the drones to follow Christina home and the system to alert him if there were any hostile intents aimed at Christina along the way.
After waiting an entire hour or so, the drones completed their assignment as they escorted Christina all the way to the Windsor family mansion. Of course, the hostage was following right after her.
Since Taylor was an ordinary woman who didn't have any magic skills, Christina could only match her pace with Taylor. That was the reason it took them close to an hour to reach the mansion.
The door to the study opened and Christina bounded in towards Zach happily and announced, "I am back."
"Good job. Rest for a bit." Zach praised her since she had followed all of his instructions and had done an efficient job.
Christina on the other hand was a little disappointed because she expected a little more praise, probably a little reward to cheer her on. Still, she knew that it wasn't the time for all that and just assumed her previous position around the coffee table where Luke had been spectating silently.
Taylor followed right after her and entered the study with reluctant steps wondering why she had been brought here. There was no thought in her mind other than to see Grace. In her opinion there was only one way that she had been brought to the Windsor family mansion with respect and it was that Grace had somehow convinced the Windsor family to make a move to save her.
But when she entered, the perspective that she had purposely ignored turned out to be the true one. She found Grace all tied up on the chair. She didn't hesitate a single second and located Clara from amongst the group seated around the coffee table. She didn't even cast a second glance at Grace even though her heart moved towards him in her chest as if it wanted to burst out and lunge at him in a single step.
Locking on to Clara, she hurriedly got down on her knees facing towards Clara.
She knew that Grace was an escort knight for Clara and had served her for years. Knowing what Grace had been forced to do to save her made waves of guilt rise up within her. She couldn't forgive herself for putting grace in such a position where he had to betray those he had sworn loyalty to.
Therefore, when she saw him, all tied up, she knew that he had been found out and the end of traitors in such big families was too cruel and bloody.
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