CHAPTER 163: THE CARD

Fourteen governors stepped down in the end, and their deputies had no choice but to do the same. This left fourteen states without a governor, and even the ones with the two standing governors... the people raged at their governors for not backing out from the young president’s blind plots.

The truth was that Jayden was deeply pleased that there were still leaders who believed in him. He wouldn’t have felt bad if there weren’t any, by the way, but there was a pleased feeling that came with these men standing strong.

Despite the widespread judgment that Nortasia would be destroyed, they stood and agreed otherwise, supporting the President.

Current Governor of New Wiston State Kurtis Vane was fully in support of Jayden’s instinct. The fact that he knew how the young man rose from nothing had given him every reason to believe and trust in him.

It wouldn’t be any better if he did otherwise, and Jayden knew that Kurtis knew... because in the very first place, after becoming president, he had supported Kurtis to become Governor of New Wiston.

There was no special reason for that... just that Jayden admired his wisdom and diplomacy. He was surely one of those men who deserved the post, and of course, Jayden had granted the Vane Family the Grand Development Project.

So, why would he not support Jayden?

As for Governor Lucas, he was just a man who believed in thin possibilities, because when they happen, they hit hard.

He had to force himself to believe that this young man could do it, and the fact that he put his honor at stake could result in great rewards if everything turned out right.

After the meeting, Jayden met with the ladies and told them how it went.

Camilla was also present at the meeting as well, so she was the one who did most of the talking.

"We only have two governors left. The rest resigned, so there will be no rulers in those states for a while," Cammy notified.

"Damn, we will have to elect new governors soon," Paula stated.

However...

"No, we aren’t appointing new governors. Not now. We will govern the states for the time being until the war is over," Jayden objected.

"We are going to need you, Becky, and Temi for that," Jayden told Camilla.

Since Paula, Charlotte, and Harper would be completely chanced with their jobs, it would be impossible for them to assist the other ladies.

The states were shared among them, and Camilla and Temi had to take care of five states each. Becky, due to the fact that she was just recovering, would have four under her government.

Sure, they all had board teams under them to run the jobs, but their ideas and presence would be very crucial as well. Jayden had to make them know that.

"Be ready. The job starts in two days," Jayden said before he left.

The ladies gasped in anticipation, waiting to see how it feels to run a state, and how stressful it could be.

Just being ministers had already put a huge weight on them, and now... well, now, being the Acting Governor of several states could be more challenging.

For sure.

******

After quite a while, Rhea completely recovered, and she was discharged from the infirmary.

Harper urged her to help find Sofia’s location.

"We never knew where she lived. Maybe only the leader of the gang knew, but I didn’t..." Rhea said.

"Umm, I think you are lying," Harper responded casually, ignoring the masterpiece sincere face that Rhea had on.

"You must take me there or else it’s gonna get ugly. Do you know your fate, Rhea? Do you?" Harper asked.

"Do you know you are supposed to rot in jail for the rest of your life?" Harper asked again.

With a shivering, sweaty face, she shook her head with fear.

Harper could clearly sense that she didn’t want to go to jail, not after hearing that her sister was well.

Her greatest hope at this point was to finally meet her sister healthy after months of being severely down.

"You have got two choices. It’s either you get me to Sofia Hartley’s location, or you go ahead and rot in jail. Your call," Harper said with a stern tone that made Rhea flinch.

At that point, Rhea couldn’t help but put aside the fear of Sofia Hartley. She wouldn’t want to rot in jail. That would be her greatest nightmare at this point.

She suddenly grasped some ideas and decided to say something that could please the young tough lady standing before her.

"I know our leader Razer’s house. If we can break through it, we can find information about her location in his systems," Rhea said.

Harper gave her a nod and replied, "Good."

That same day, she planned with her B Team to take the mission with her, while the A Team, which was her best team, had to stay back at the Defence Unit.

Harper took Rhea with her as they journeyed towards Razer’s secret mansion somewhere in a scanty town southwest of Old Wiston.

He never had a family, so he was living there alone. Now that he was dead, the house had been lonesome for days, and there was likely to be no claims for it since no one even knew his background.

Harper’s team took care of the gate as they broke through. His system site happened to be an underground room, the same place where he stored some tough weapons.

AK-47s, M-80s... machine guns...

He had really been spending his riches on guns.

They soon located the devices, where he had a computer device with every track on targets sent to him.

Harper clearly saw the tracked location of Becky and Harper sent to him, and it was from Sofia.

There was even more... more from some simpler clients before he died.

She couldn’t help but sigh... "The bastard was a real-time murderer," Harper remarked.

Soon, they finally found the latest location of Sofia, where she sent it to him to come over for the deal agreement.

It was a mini bungalow but quite far from Razer’s, in another town entirely.

Harper and Rhea picked up at once as they headed there.

Just like Razer’s, Sofia’s house was almost locked, so they had to break through, but this time the men were more attentive as they stormed in, knowing that anything could happen.

They searched around for a moment and found no trace of Sofia or anyone. It was completely deserted, just like Razer’s.

The team had to do a double thorough search everywhere, and there was still the same outcome.

"I still think you are messing with me, Rhea," Harper spoke with a scowl again.

"No. You have to trust me. This is all I know. I really don’t want to rot in jail..."

Thinking wide for a while, Harper was short of what to do to bring out a way to reach Sofia. Jayden had already deleted her contact after she left back then, and they were even pretty sure that she wouldn’t be using that number again.

In the end...

It could only be one way.

Harper decided to do it her way.

That same day, they headed back to Razer’s house. They had to collect all the typical documents he had in the underground room, and even took all the devices in the room.

Just then, a sudden idea crossed her mind, and she smiled when she saw Sofia’s card among his documents.

A few pieces of information about her, which were all almost fake, but one thing was clearly real.

Her contact.

Harper took it with her and headed straight back to the island, with Rhea still on hold.

She had to invite the entire Core members and Jayden to come over for the call, which they did, right in Charlotte’s office.

{Dialing...}

BEEP!

The call was picked in no time, and instead of a feminine voice being heard, it was a broad, masculine voice.

A familiar one.

"Oh, look who’s calling his spy after noticing that she had been away for too long," the masculine voice on the other end spoke.

Jayden quickly discovered that it was President Liam Thompson.

"Well, Jayden. She’s been held captive here. Your spy failed her mission right at the starting point. Too bad," Liam added.

Jayden flinched in confusion. "Spy?"

"Don’t try to act like you don’t know about it, young president. I’m not that easy to fool," Liam cut in.

"Ever wondered why I blasted two locations in your little, weak country? It was because you tried to put a spy in my country. It was fair play, heh," Liam voiced.

At that very moment, they came to grasp the fact that Sofia was held in their custody after being caught spying.

Jayden never sent her to spy on the Icelandians, and he was very sure that none of the Core members did.

The fact that he had attacked two states because of that didn’t baffle Jayden enough.

He just eagerly had this urge to know why Sofia was really there...

Now, the question was... was she really there as a spy? Or was she there for something else...

Something favorable to the Icelandians?