Ning returned to City o to report on what he was doing. Since he had been gone for nearly a week now, his lieutenant seemed to want to hear back from him.

He had received a message that morning asking him to visit during the day. So, when he had the chance, Ning went to her.

Lieutenant Harper was busy looking at something in her DODS when Ning arrived. He knocked on the door to grab her attention.

She looked up. “Oh, Chief Officer Ning, you’re here. Come take a seat,” she said and turned off the DODS.

Ning took his seat.

“So, how is the investigation going? Got any leads?” she asked.

“I managed to get in touch with both Jay and Cenn,” Ning said. “They trust me now and should let me into their circles more going forward.”

Harper couldn’t help but raise her eyebrows in surprise. “You managed to into their circle?” she asked.

Ning nodded.

“How did you do that?” she asked.

“Not… through good means,” Ning said. “I had to use a way that got me deep into their circle.”

“What means?” Harper asked.

Ning shook his head. “I can’t answer that, Lieutenant,” he said. “I will give you the full report once I’m done with this investigation.”

Harper narrowed her eyes. “Is someone dead?” she asked.

“No, no one is dead,” Ning said.

“Then I won’t question what you did. But the moment people’s lives are in danger, you stop what you’re doing,” she said.

“Yes, Lieutenant,” Ning answered.

“Go on then, tell me more about this group,” she said.

Ning nodded. “As you expected, Jay and Cenn are indeed the people spreading Dust throughout City 3. They work under someone from what I managed to learn, but that person isn’t very involved it seems, so they are pretty much in charge of everything.”

“Any big names?” Harper asked.

“None really,” Ning said. “Everyone that works with them are their subordinates. And they use teenagers with nowhere to go to sell Dust so they don’t get caught. I am gathering some evidence, including learning more about their hideouts spread throughout the city.”

“They’ve taken me to only one of them, but I have learned that there are caches around the city where they stash Dust. At the very least, those teenagers get their Dust through those locations around the city.”

Harper nodded as she took in the information.

“Sounds like you’re deep enough then,” she said. “Do you know how they make Dust? Learn the process behind it.”

“There is no process,” Ning said. “They don’t make Dust.”

“Huh?” Harper looked at Ning with a frown on her face. “You just said they are the ones spreading Dust, didn’t you?”

“They are, but they are not the supplier, just the distributor. They get their Dust from somewhere else.”

“Where?” Harper asked.

Ning shrugged. “I don’t know. But I’m going to find out in 2 days. Their next supply comes then, and they’ve agreed to take me to the Dust handoff. I’m going to follow the supplier and see where I’m led to.”

Harper seemed very concerned all of a sudden, her face darkening with every passing second. Ning looked at her with a curious look. “Lieutenant? Is everything alright?”

“What are the chances that the Dust they get is made inside of the city?” she asked Ning. Ning shook his head. “Very little actually. I don’t think they would be in the business of distribution if there were people making the drug right there.”

“Then you agree that it is made someplace else. In another city,” she said.

“Yeah,” Ning said. “I thought that was obvious.”

“It is not obvious, Chief Officer,” Harper said. “All of this time, our assumption had been that every City had its own Dust manufacturing team, making Dust locally. We didn’t think it was coming from another place because the idea that Dust is being made somewhere else made no sense in the entire situation.”

Ning leaned in, listening intently. Saʀch* Th NvlFir.nt website on Ggl to access chapters of nvels early and in the highest quality.

“People rarely travel from one city to another, and we thoroughly check them when they do. The only time we don’t check them is… it is when they are part of the Military.”

Ning’s eyes narrowed. He understood the implications her words had.

“So you believe that one of the people from the military has a hand in making Dust?” Ning asked. “That makes this thing very much complicated, doesn’t it?”

“It does,” Harper said. “It would be easy if they were Cadets or even Officers. But once the rank increases, the trouble increases too. I cannot just accuse another Lieutenant of being responsible for Dust, let alone a Captain or even a General. Things will get messy.”

“What… do I do then?” Ning asked.

“No, you have no problem,” she said. “You continue what you’re doing. Only, you can’t just come back with names. You need solid evidence that everything you’re saying is true. If not,

we won’t be able to capture them.”

Ning nodded. “I’ll do that, Lieutenant.”

Harper remained thoughtful for a long time before looking up. “Go back and integrate into their organization as much as you can without giving yourself up. Since you’re going to be meeting with the suppliers soon, find out as much as you can about them. Especially where they come from. That will be the most important piece of information you can get us right

now.”

Ning nodded. “Absolutely, Lieutenant.”

“Go, you’re dismissed.”

Ning saluted the woman and left the door.

“I should let Captain Redaime learn about this. This is too much for me to handle.”

Ning could hear the Lieutenant mumbling as he left the room.

He went to get something to eat at the cafeteria and then finally went back to City 3. He paid attention on his journey this time and saw how loose the security was for people leaving the

city.

No one ever thought of checking the soldiers, but then they never had to. There was never a need to suspect another soldier of smuggling in contraband.

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