Why it never ends

Chapter 1272 Tension
After Simoya left, Hershta moved the materials that had been smashed on the ground back onto the table.

These are indirect pieces of evidence of Kendall's close relationship with Deep Anchor, all compiled by Hershta herself. She wasn't good at paperwork, so the process was slow until she realized that things could no longer be delayed.

Kenday was meticulous in her actions, leaving almost no clues, which Hester suspected was partly due to his own lack of intuition and experience in this area. But besides himself, there was no one else suitable to do this at the moment—after all, she had promised Simona not to participate in the operation against Deep Anchor and not to reveal any information related to Kenday.

But the most compelling evidence she submitted to Office 2 was Simona’s two requests: as Kendall’s trusted secretary for many years, her willingness to remain silent on the deep anchor issue was enough to show that she and Kendall were involved in it.

Hester didn't expect this to get a decision from above to arrest Kendall, but given headquarters' emphasis on the interests of civilians, she should be able to use this collection of seemingly unfounded evidence to restrict Kendall's movements for a certain period of time.

However, if Simone's words are used as a weapon to stab Kenday, does this still count as fulfilling the promise to "not let Simone participate in the operation against Deep Anchor"?

Hershta was not sure about this.

If Simoya pursues the matter in the future, she can only pretend to be ignorant or face Simoya's anger and disappointment.

As it approached nine o'clock in the morning, Hester stood up, preparing to leave the office. She and Stella had some other plans for the day, and they had arranged to meet at the base entrance at nine o'clock.

As soon as Hesta entered the corridor, he saw Irony walking towards him.

Both of them stopped moving.

Compared to their first meeting, Hester was now much more curious about Tiexi. She couldn't explain why, but ever since she learned about Tiexi's past from Stella and various reports, those things she used to find arrogant and unreasonable about him had suddenly become endearing—there was nothing wrong with that; on the contrary, they were proof of Tiexi's adherence to his principles.

But now wasn't the time for conversation, and Hester couldn't think of anything suitable to say to Tiexi. After a moment of silence, she could only address the most obvious change in Tiexi: "...Your new hairstyle suits you quite well."

Tie Xi remained unmoved, his tone indifferent: "Is it today? I saw Stella waiting for you downstairs."

“Yes.” Hersta nodded. “She’s always quick to arrange these things.”

"Come on."

Tiexi took a step forward, brushing past Hesta, and then heard the other's footsteps gradually receding into the distance—Hesta strode towards the other side of the stairwell.

At the corner, Tie Xi stopped in front of a mirror.

The image of her in the mirror, with her short hair, made Tiexi feel somewhat dazed, as if everything had returned to a period when she was burning with passion.

Burning, heating, and all people, all the firelight, all come together until they turn to ashes.

Tiexi turned back again and looked at Hersta, who was now walking quickly across the large open space downstairs.

Further away, Stella was waving at Hersta.

……

“The person we’re going to meet in a bit is the chairman of the Private Security Industry Chamber of Commerce, Ernesto Vargas. They’re not participating in the bidding this time, but Ernesto has a lot of influence on the judging committee…” “Say his name again,” Hersta had to interrupt Stella, “What’s his name?”

“Ernesto Vargas. Oh, don’t bother remembering his name, just call him President,” Stella said. “He’s quite close to Arevalo; he was at the palace banquet last time and greeted you. You’ll definitely recognize him in a bit—”

"Don't be nervous."

“I’m not nervous at all!” Stella let out a heavy sigh, amused by Hershta’s interruption. “...Well, maybe a little. I was just thinking that I might have arranged the order a bit wrong. I shouldn’t have introduced you to such an important person right away. Actually, you could have started with the lower-ranking people. That way you would have gained more experience.”

Is he difficult to talk to?

“I don’t know,” Stella sighed. “I really don’t have any connections in District 12, and the details I can get are very limited—”

“Okay, okay.” Hersta interrupted Stella again. “You’ve already taught me everything from now on. If anything goes wrong, it’s entirely my responsibility. Don’t blame yourself.”

Stella was amused again.

She had to take a deep breath—this wasn't right, she had to adjust quickly.

However, as Hershta just pointed out, she was extremely nervous at the moment, even more so than Hershta herself.

All the possible risks ran through her mind, making her constantly question her decision: yesterday afternoon, after listening to Tissot's advice, she immediately used Arevalo's landline at the farm to call the secretary of the chairman of the private security industry association and made an appointment for this morning.

Isn't all of this happening too fast? So fast that there hasn't even been time for more detailed preparation...

She handled such an important matter so hastily—upon reflection, this overly swift reaction itself probably reflects her deep insecurity about the whole affair.

But at this moment they were already standing at the entrance of the Chamber of Commerce office building.

Two bulletproof automatic glass doors opened one after the other in front of them. They waited briefly in the space between the two doors before passing through the security checkpoint in the lobby and heading to the information desk in the middle of the lobby.

Before they could even ask a question, a man in a suit ran over from the other side of the hall and asked if they were two ladies from the Askia Freedom Front.

After Hershta identified himself, the man smiled and introduced himself as well. He was the chairman's secretary and had already spoken with Stella on the phone the day before.

The male secretary led them upstairs via a private elevator on the other side. Hershta's gaze swept across both sides of the lobby. The office building itself was an exhibition hall, displaying items such as armored vehicle doors that had undergone firing tests and composite panels with bullet holes. Each exhibit was labeled with its model, grade, and usage scenario.

The screen hanging in the middle of the hall displays real-time information about the park entrance, with the words "Identity verification passed" constantly popping up on the screen. The other screen directly displays a heat map of pedestrian flow in the entire block and the drone patrol route.

"Does your chamber of commerce usually undertake security and escort services?" Hersta suddenly asked.

The male secretary smiled and said, "No, those specific tasks are handled by our member units. Our main job is to handle industry entry and qualification certification, as well as the development of security standards."