She laughed mockingly. The Genesis Army had done too thorough a job, and that had been their undoing.
Nike shot back with a scornful laugh of her own. “You’ve got some awful big ideas in that head of yours. What’s so weird about covering up a Galgad sabotage op so the people of Lylat can go about their lives with a little peace of mind?” She turned and looked at the captive Knights of Valor members. “And if we look at the results, I was able to find a secret society full of talented members as well as lure out the Galgad spies trying to infiltrate them. I’d say that’s not bad for a day’s work.”
Nike’s compliment earned her some happy blushes from some of the students. There was no denying that the lies from the woman who controlled the nation from on high had a certain seductive ring to them.
“But it wasn’t the work of a Galgad spy,” Sara said decisively. “Not a single one of you has offered any proof that it was. You’re just taking your flunky and having her shout, ‘it was a Galgad spy, it was a Galgad spy’ over and over.”
“Hey now, that’s no way to talk about our precious witness,” Nike said, raising her voice. “But all right, I get that you don’t trust me. And if you’re gonna insist that Chloe is one of my people, then you know what? That’s your prerogative. But what about dear ol’ Gilbert?”
Gilbert was standing awkwardly beside her, and she gave him a pat on the shoulder.
“Surely you aren’t suggesting that one of the Knights of Valor’s own officers was a stooge all along, are you?”
“I imagine you threatened him by taking his family hostage. The other members mentioned how much he cares about them.”
“Heh, so anything that’s inconvenient for you just happens to be a lie? Now who’s spewing bullshit without any proof?”
“There’s the stained wing relief he sent back.”
Nike blinked.
Eventually, though, she remembered the previous conversation. “What, that?” she said. “He explained that himself. He did it to say that they were the ones in the wrong. It’s the society’s symbol, right? That’s why he dirtied it up before shipping it over. Doesn’t it bring a tear to your eye, the conviction it must have taken for him to say good-bye like that?”
“If that’s all it was, then there wouldn’t have been any need for him to be so cryptic about it.”
“The man can be cryptic if he wants. Maybe he was worried about his message not making it past the industrial zone’s inspectors.”
“Then there’s the way the sullied wing arrived before the explosion even happened. He sent it before he joined the strike and you all locked him up. That message doesn’t fit the timeline.” Sara held strong, not backing down a single step. “The Knights of Valor’s representative, Jean, is a big fan of Lylat proverbs—for instance, One swallow does not a spring make.”
Sara squeezed The High Plain of Heaven in her hand.
Annette must have recorded that conversation after swapping out the battery.
“That black, sooty wing is supposed to hint at a swallow’s feather.”
For the very first time, Nike twitched.
It was far too subtle to think she was shaken, but her shoulder shifted in what might have been admiration. It was the first time Sara had elicited any reaction but annoyance from her. Nike hadn’t picked up on that. She probably hadn’t even known about Gilbert sending the symbol until her arrival there in the lecture hall.
“Before he took part in the strike, he knew there was a chance he would be captured by the Genesis Army and forced to give false testimony on their behalf,” Sara concluded. “So he sent a message—a message telling them not to base any decisions on his testimony alone.”
A series of gasps rose from the Knights of Valor members.
Every pair of eyes in the room turned to Gilbert. Nike, too, turned an intense stare his way to suss out his true intentions.
Gilbert hung his head. “I, I’m not—,” he stammered in fright.
“You don’t have to say a thing,” Sara said, cutting him off. “We know she was blackmailing you. You can rest assured that the steps you took ended up saving the Knights of Valor.”
Gilbert averted his eyes in embarrassment.
Sara had him right where she wanted. Now it was impossible to see him as anything other than a helpless victim who was only defending the Genesis Army out of fear of what Nike would do. The more he stood up for them, the more it looked like Nike had threatened him.
“You’re really that determined to discredit my witnesses, are you?” Nike crossed her arms, provocatively pushing up her ample bosom. “Have it your way. So you’re saying that it wasn’t Imperial spies who were behind the strike?”
“That’s right.”
“Fair enough. But that leaves us with some problems, then, doesn’t it? Nobody is denying that the strike ended in a clash between the soldiers and the workers. The question is, how did a bunch of ordinary old miners get their hands on the firepower to warrant a military intervention in the first place?”
Erna had infiltrated the mines and witnessed the evidence firsthand. She’d seen the grisly blast marks, bullet holes, and effects of the cave-in in the old seventh mine. Then there was the roar loud enough for all the locals to hear and the way the whole sky had temporarily lit up. The Royal Guard might have been cruel, but not even they would have used firepower like that if the miners had been unarmed. They could have gotten the job done just fine with handguns and rifles.
“I’ll remind you that everything that goes into the industrial zone is heavily inspected.”
“Oh, I’m aware,” Sara replied. “I had a heck of a time sneaking in there.”
“Even if we say it wasn’t an Imperial spy who armed them, there had to have been someone with intelligence training involved. Is it really that weird to assume that whoever that was meant our nation harm?”
“There is another possibility, you know.”
“Like what?”
“Like an underground secret society. One of the many ‘intelligence operatives’ who happens to be a citizen of this very country.”