Seeing someone who always had a smile on his face and never treated anything or anyone seriously suddenly sitting quietly with furrowed brows and without his trademark smile would alert and even scare just about anyone. And even Paul was no exception.Since they arrived in Ribekia, Luke had turned into a completely different person and had been doing nothing but playing with an unlit cigar in his hand gradually making the tension in the room rise. As his aide and friend, Paul knew better than anyone what this expression meant: he was unhappy thus a storm was surely brewing.
People regarded Luke as someone playful and arrogant, yet very few knew that he was only such because people were just too boring to him. He could easily see through others"s intentions and thoughts which allowed him to manipulate them as he wished.
As time pa.s.sed, he started losing interest and eventually became indifferent towards people in general, seeing them as nothing but tools or playthings that could be used or thrown away if not needed. Yet, he would occasionally become serious when he dealing with matters involving people who were out of his control.
So it could be said that he divided people into two groups, and his behaviour around them would entirely be based on the group they were in. On one hand, his treatment towards women was an extreme example towards people of the first group and, on the other hand, Cain Greydale was someone standing on the top of the second group.
And this time the matter concerned not only the Dragon, but also the Herondales, another difficult opponent belonging to the second group of people.
"Have you already decided on the a.s.signments?"
Paul spoke up breaking the hanging silence in the room. They weren"t alone and not just anyone could stand the pressure coming from Luke like he did. So all he could do for the poor subordinates was to try to send them away as soon as possible.
His out-of-the-blue inquiry interrupted Luke"s train of thoughts which subsequently earned Paul a deathly glare. However, immediately realising his aide"s reasoning, Luke eased his expression and put on his usual lopsided smile.
"Oh~, did I scare you?"
Paul chose not to answer Luke"s question and simply repeated his in a monotone;
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"Please instruct the intelligence group so that they can start their work."
"Oh, true. I completely forgot. My ba~d," he said with a smile that wasn"t exactly a smile. It was true that deep in thought he had forgotten about the measly existences that were in the room. But now that he was reminded of them he felt even more annoyed.
Glancing at the men across the table, he put down the cigar in his hand and resumed speaking,
"We will divide the team into three groups. You," he indicated with his chin to the tall man on the side, "will lead the first team that will gather information on Dragon"s activities in the Ribekia specifically. You," this time he showed to the man in black overalls standing on the opposite side of the tall man, "will deal with matters concerning the Herondales. As for you, Robert, I think I don"t need to clarify anything."
Every time he would indicate someone the person would subconsciously tremble, after all, his intelligence team was not the same as his forces that were used to being around him. The only person out of the three to have ever had any sort of direct communication with the Lion was Robert, but even he was close to wetting his pants, let alone the other two who saw their big boss for the first time.
"Sir, yes sir!" Robert mustered all his guts for this simple affirmation. After taking a few breaths to calm his nerves he confidently declared, "Now that the fish has taken the bait we will make sure to reel it in to our side."
"Hmm, reel in huh," Luke noticeably clicked his tongue, "rich coming from someone who had difficulties even lowering the bait into the water."
Realising his own arrogance, Robert was prepared to apologise when he was stopped by a single glare from Luke:
"Instead of standing here and wasting my time you may as well get to work. You have three days to finish your given tasks."
Though the men wanted to protest about the absurdity of the given deadline, they didn"t dare to do so. So they profusely nodded, and then left the room as soon as possible with their heads lowered.
After they were gone there was once again dead silence in the room. Paul was once again the one to break it.
"Do you really think they will manage to get that hacker?"
Luke looked at Paul and gave him a sardonic smile. Holding his chin in his hand, he half closed his eyes and said slowly,
"He is nothing but a human greedy for power."
Paul pondered over his answer, trying to combine the image of a greedy man and the image of the hacker he had in mind, but he failed to succeed. He couldn"t help but express his doubts:
"Are you sure about it though?"
Though it was possible that Luke was right, they really did not have enough information on "Q" to determine his personality. Also, Luke was never someone to use resources he could not control completely, and it was still unknown whether "Q" was a double edged sword or not.
Though their hidden forces had already started moving to bring him under their physical control, it wasn"t an easy feat to locate a top level hacker. As for his greed for power, it wasn"t exactly easy to understand eccentrics like top level hackers.
"Though he played hard to get in the beginning, in the end he still gave in. If his determination and will were strong, he could have continued to stay firm. But as soon as we gave the very tasty bait he straight away came out of his hiding to satisfy his own hunger."
He stood up and walked towards the window with the cigar in his hand. Looking at the panorama of the city, he continued with a slightly disgusted tone,
"Someone at his level and with his intellect would have naturally understood the implications his actions and decisions carry. And if he doesn"t understand at least that much," he slowly tightened his grip on the cigar and clenched his fist hard, "I don"t mind getting rid of him." He opened his fist and flipped it. The now destroyed cigar fell on the floor making a small sound in the absolutely silent room.
" After all, he is nothing but a disposable tool," he then shook off the remnants from his right hand with the left hand, washing his hands of "Q".