Overprotected By My Tsundere CEO

Chapter 996 - 681: Loulanel Village [17] Durant Sisters [Second Update]

Nora Scott dragged a chair over, sat down in front of Baja, and crossed her legs.

She asked, "What did Alexander Vaughn have you do?"

"He gave me a map, hired a Feng Shui Master to pick out the best locations, and told me to check them all one by one." Baja swallowed hard and answered, trembling.

He wasn’t scared. He was in pain.

"How’s the screening going?"

"Over ninety percent, but nothing panned out." Baja said, "Maybe the direction was wrong from the start. Or maybe I just got unlucky and it’s in the few spots left."

Precisely because he’d checked so many places and still got nothing, Alexander Vaughn felt the odds were slim and started thinking about sending the Living Map out.

"It never occurred to you that Loulanel Village is the Mechanism City?" Nora Scott asked coldly.

"That—" Baja stammered, "That’s not really possible. Maze Village isn’t a Feng Shui blessed site, and besides... it runs on schedule every day, it’s a finished product. But the Mechanism City is half-finished, it can’t be ’alive.’ It can only be that they came from the same master’s hand."

Nora Scott narrowed her eyes. "Then why do you record its route changes every day?"

"..."

Baja was struck dumb.

"The drone that circles in the sky at the same time every day," Nora Scott said unhurriedly as she picked up a stack of Maze Village maps from the table, "oh, and these blueprints..."

"In theory, the Mechanism City can’t possibly use our village as an entrance." Baja went on, "I just felt Maze Village was tied up with the Mechanism City somehow, so I started keeping records."

"Oh." Nora Scott replied blandly, then asked, "How long have you been recording?"

"Four hundred days." Baja thought for a moment. "It changes every single day, on a one-year cycle. Now it’s all repeating."

Nora Scott "oh"-ed again, and brazenly pocketed that stack of blueprints.

"..."

Watching this, Baja felt his heart about to split open.

Fuck, a bandit.

After tucking the blueprints securely in her backpack, Nora Scott even politely asked, "I’m taking all this stuff. That okay?"

"..."

Baja’s face went stiff and grim; he didn’t even want to respond.

"No need to be so stingy. They’re useless in your hands anyway. Might as well give them to me—who knows, I might end up being of use to you."

"..."

Not the slightest bit comforting.

With things laid out to this point, whenever Nora Scott asked something else, Baja simply answered in a total-give-up tone.

Nora Scott: "How often do you contact Alexander Vaughn?"

Baja: "Every half month."

Nora Scott: "When was the last time?"

Baja: "Ten days ago. He had me give a woman some information."

Nora Scott: "What information?"

Baja: "The village maps for that week, plus some local culture and geography stuff."

Nora Scott: "That’s it?"

Baja: "That’s it."

Nora Scott: "You haven’t contacted him since?"

Baja: "No."

At that point, Nora Scott paused slightly.

She’d originally thought Alexander Vaughn was in league with Anthony Santos and Annabelle Pinto, but... turned out Anthony Santos and Annabelle Pinto were also being used as guns by Alexander Vaughn. Alexander Vaughn basically didn’t trust anyone; he always kept something back with every single person.

Nora Scott: "How do you and Alexander Vaughn get in touch?"

Baja: "He contacts me. The number’s different every time, and the calls never last long."

Nora Scott: "..." Cautious as ever.

...

After asking a string of questions, Nora Scott figured she’d covered everything, so she packed up his documents and stood up.

After a while.

She finished going through all the material, left Baja some useless scraps, and then walked to the door.

As she stepped over the broken doorframe, she paused, suddenly turned her head to look at him, and casually tossed out a line, "Stay put in the village. Maybe one day you’ll get to see the Mechanism City."

"..."

Something stirred in Baja’s chest.

He watched Nora Scott walk away.

*

At three in the morning, Nora Scott arrived outside the Durant Sisters’ quarters and saw a bored April Thomason, plus—the men brought by the two sisters’ crew sprawled on the ground, out cold.

April Thomason was fiddling with the bamboo flute. When she saw Nora Scott, she raised an eyebrow and praised, "Your hidden weapons work great."

"...Mm."

Nora Scott accepted the compliment.

"Everything go smoothly?" April Thomason asked.

"Everything went smoothly." Nora Scott nodded.

"Good, I stole mine too." April Thomason said, then pointed inside with the bamboo flute. "Everyone who needed to be knocked out is down. With the dosage on your silver needles, they should be out till broad daylight. Only the Durant Sisters are left. I didn’t touch them."

"Oh."

Nora Scott responded and headed in.

April Thomason followed right on her heels.

Nora Scott’s steps faltered; she turned her head, looking at her with a kind of helplessness.

Doing this you could be auditioning—April Thomason got what she meant, rubbed the bridge of her nose, and explained, "I’ll just stay at the door, keep watch."

"..."

Yeah right, you’re itching for action, dying to make a move yourself.

With a soft sigh, Nora Scott went along with April Thomason’s behavior, then walked toward the Durant Sisters’ rooms.

Conveniently enough, the two sisters lived together.

This time—

Nora Scott stood at the door and pulled out a length of wire. Five seconds later, the lock was quietly popped open.

The old wooden door gave a loud, grating creak as it swung in. But the instant the sound started, Nora Scott slipped into the room. Luna Durant’s sleepy "Sis—" hadn’t even finished before one of Nora Scott’s silver needles hit her.

She went down.

Stella Durant, on the other hand, didn’t—she rolled out of bed the first second and jumped to the floor, but—

She was no match for Nora Scott.

She was subdued in no time.

Stella Durant drew in a breath, about to shout for help, but Nora Scott stuffed a reeking sock into her mouth, shoving so deep her eyes rolled back and no sound came out at all.

She glared up in fury.

Nora Scott, however, bent down, leaned to her ear, and whispered a threat, calm and sharp, "Either answer my questions honestly, or I’ll make sure you die without anyone ever knowing how."