After searching the room and finding no trace of Juniper, Shanley was about to check flight information when a voice called out.


    "Mr. Schwartz, what are you still doing here?"


    It was Tucker, returning to the hotel in high spirits with a bag of snacks.


    "Did Juniper contact you?" Shanley asked, turning around and forcing himself to remain calm.


    "Yeah," Tucker replied nonchntly, popping a corn chip into his mouth. "She said something came up and she had to fly home early. What? You didn''t know, Mr. Schwartz?"


    Shanley''s lips thinned, but he said nothing.


    "She really didn''t tell you?" Tucker assumed Juniper was just being difficult and couldn''t help but click his tongue. "That girl. How could she leave without telling her elders?"


    He thought he could see how much it had angered Mr. Schwartz; the man''s face was practically ck.


    Felton and Flint frantically tried to signal him to stop. Their boss was already miserable about being "dumped" by Ms. Payne, and now he was being called an "elder." The situation was just tragic.


    Had the two of them fought? Tucker thought. No, that didn''t seem right. His master, Juniper, had a temper, but she wasn''t unreasonable. To make her angry enough to storm off... who knew what this Mr. Schwartz had done to her.


    Tucker''s expression soured. He had no interest in talking to someone who bullied his master, so he turned on his heel and left.


    Staring at the empty room, Shanley felt a sharp, intense pain in his chest. "Felton, check the flights."


    "Boss, Ms. Payne is indeed on her way home," Felton reported immediately. "Her ne took off two minutes ago."


    "Pack our things. We''re going back to Era City," Shanley said, sinking wearily onto the sofa and staring up at the white ceiling. "And make arrangements for Tucker."


    "Yes, sir." Felton and Flint immediately went to handle it.


    In Era City, Lue sat in the driver''s seat, ncing at the girl beside her.


    "Just take your time thinking it over," she said deliberately. "Once you''ve made up your mind, we''ll kill Shanley. We can chop him to bits and feed him to the lions in Subterra Vanguard''s menagerie."


    "Men are like clothes. If one doesn''t fit, you get a new one," she continued. "Once this one''s gone, we''ll find you some hot young thing who knows how to treat you right."


    A faint smile touched Juniper''s pale face at her words.


    Lue let out a heavy sigh of relief. Finally, a smile. She had been terrified the girl would bottle it all up and break.


    "Take me back to Cloudscape


    Community Juniper said quietly.


    ove


    She had wanted to go there and sleep. Her mind was a mess; everything had happened too suddenly and was far tooplicated. She needed to rest before she could begin to process it all.


    "Alright," Lue agreed softly.


    Just then, Lue''s phone rang. "Hello?” she answered.


    After listening for a moment, she handed the phone to Juniper, her eyes wide. "I


    think the base knows what happened on the ind,” she whispered.


    They had intentionally kept the assassination attempt on Sigma Network a secret from the base, afraid the others would worry about Juniper''s safety and rush in, only to make things worse. But with Lue being kidnapped and Juniper walking into the lion''s den to save her the situation had been too perilous. One of their subordinates must have gotten scared and


    secretly informed the base.


    "I can''t exin this..." Lue grumbled, rubbing her ear. "You take it."


    Those old-timers had nearly deafened her.


    “Hello,” Juniper said, taking the phone with a slight frown.


    "What happened? We heard you went to assassinate the head of Sigma Network!" a man''s voice


    boomed through the phone, thicket


    with concern. "Lue was kidnapped, and you went to rescue her with those new micro-bombs you just developed? And not only did you get her out, but you also walked away from Sigma Networkpletely unscathed?"