"How costly do you think this mistake is?"
"Costlier enough to probably get him caught. When natural objects are used as the nodes, they would be drawn with all kinds of inscriptions and they would always leave a residual trace of the rune used for the inscription.
Most of the time the trees would be destroyed.
The other party must have wanted to make sure that we didn"t feel any suspicions because of the tree locations which would be noticed too much if they are destroyed, after all that is a big giveaway.
But the other party didn"t expect my presence here, I don"t need some other extra clues to think of the position of the trees and what kind of formations he might have used. So, I just checked the few plausible trees and finally I got the trees rounded up and checking the residual traces of the runes, although difficult, is actually very easy for me.
In fact, I have been dying to try this technique and I managed to do it without any hitch. Now we can narrow down the suspect by a lot.
One thing is he either has an extremely talented subordinate who is specialized in spatial element or he himself would have been a great user with s.p.a.ce element.
The second thing is, someone who has access to the s.p.a.ce gate formations of your clan or the person capable of maintaining a secret formation. I am sure with your network, you would be able to narrow it down easily."
As they were talking, Grivon suddenly ran into the bas.e.m.e.nt with some doc.u.ments.
"I have found the person. I have found that person."
He acted like a little kid who finished a task their parents gave, he is just too ecstatic.
Giyon looked at him in surprise.
"What did you find, exactly?"
"The handwriting of the person who sent the letters. I think I figured out the person who sent these."
He hurriedly took out a doc.u.ment from within the clan and placed it in front of Sam and Giyon.
Giyon gave it a quick scan and was stunned.
"These are annual reports of the clan members? Are you nuts, you looked through the whole heap of them?"
"Of course, but I was fast enough to go through them. See, I found out."
Sam was surprised by her reaction.
"What is it? Why are you so surprised? I think it is a good idea that he thought of the annual reports."
"Of course, it is a good idea. But the problem is these reports are something that even the person who is supposed to see them would ignore completely.
They are some pieces of sc.r.a.p that are just thrown out every year and every year they just increase in number. To go through them is a nightmare."
Giyon said in a depressed tone, it seems like she had some really bad experiences with them.
"Anyway, I still managed to find it, so some appreciation would be nice and this guy is actually a member of the expedition squad. They are staying with the clan grounds for over two weeks, they just recently finished this expedition, so they are staying put at the moment."
Giyong looked through everything and thought.
"Expedition team, high access to the s.p.a.ce gates, in fact constant use. That checks out, but the problem is that he doesn"t have any expertise in formations, inscriptions and he is not good at s.p.a.ce element."
"At least he is a start. Why don"t you guys go and check him out? I will work on the creatures we got. We need to find the solution for that as fast as we can."
"We don"t need to come. Someone will bring him here."
She took out her token and contacted someone.
Sam shrugged and went back to his research. He took out all the toxin samples inside the old man"s storage and arranged them neatly he took minute samples from each one of them and started testing them on the muscle tissue of the creature.
As far as Sam knew about these creatures, the only thing he could do at the moment is think of ways to destroy the flesh physically. He doesn"t know if they would be infected by the virus and other microorganisms and he couldn"t test what the level of their healing abilities are.
He doesn"t know how effective the physical damage and to what extent they need to go to destroy them.
The toxins that could either corrode the creatures directly or the toxins that could make the muscle tissues die are the only things he could work on at the moment.
As he was working, Giyon and Grivon brought their target from the expedition team.
Giyon directly dragged them into a special room with the residence and made him sit on a chair forcefully.
"You have thirty seconds to tell me what I need to know after I ask the question, if you don"t, n.o.body would be able to save you.
You wouldn"t be able to escape my wrath, even if you beg for help at the clan"s leader himself."
The young man gulped in fright.
Giyon simply took the letter that Sam forged based on the old man"s memories and showed it to the young man.
"You wrote a letter with same contents, why did you write this? On whose orders?"
The young man was shocked out of his wits and didn"t even know what to say for that.
"Young lady Giyon. I didn"t write any letters."
GIyon"s killing intent erupted completely and narrowed it all on to the young man.
He started shivering and the whole attire is completely drenched in sweat and for the lower garments are even more pathetic as they were drenched with urine along with the sweat.
Sam looked at him with a frown. He looked genuinely confused. He is either a really great actor or he is telling the truth.
Giyon tried a few more times, but he couldn"t find anything from him and he even fainted from fear.
"I don"t think he is lying."
"Then do you think some other guy did this? I mean the writing is way too on point with this. I compared it and it is extremely similar. Even the slightest curves are to the point."
Grivon said from the side.
"Maybe, someone might have forged this, but just like how you said, they wouldn"t expect us to find someone through these clan records and hand writing, so I don"t think that is a very big possibility.
What if he did indeed write the letter, but he doesn"t know it at all?"
"Do you think someone might have controlled him to do this?"
"That is a very good possibility. Does anyone else know that we brought him here?"
"Except for my team, none of the other people know about this." Giyon replied.
"Let"s keep it that way, why don"t you go to the s.p.a.ce gate crew and find someone who is extremely trustworthy, someone who you would hand over a knife in your most vulnerable moment and ask them if they could find out about this guy.
Ask them if they saw any activity of this guy near the s.p.a.ce gates in the past few days. A few weeks even.
Also ask some other people to check whatever other places he might have been. If possible find whatever he did, every single thing in the past few days. Every single activity and every single minute."
"I think I can find it."
Sam then turned to Grivon and asked.
"You seem to have a lot of pull in the clan, then you should have some pull here and there. Why don"t you see if we can find any method to get this guy to tell the truth? He should only speak truth. Some hypnotic truth telling method?"
"There is one in the enforcement squad. I will try to pull some strings. I really do have some connections. But I think we need to do it tomorrow. There is no way I can make them do it now. It is midnight."
Sam looked outside the window and he was a bit surprised.
They never expected that the day would go by this fast. It is way too unexpected.
"Its okay. We can pick up where we left tomorrow. But do it as fast as you can. We need to find this as fast as possible. Otherwise, we would be having some serious trouble."
Sam went back to the bas.e.m.e.nt to check the toxins and kept on doing some tests the whole night.
The next morning. They started working by dawn. Giyon used all her contacts that she could contact at the moment and got all the information Sam asked within a few hours.
Grivon also pulled some strings and got someone from the enforcement department to conduct something similar to the narcotic test used in modern world to make people talk in interrogations.. It is a special drug and they are conducting test in Giyon"s residence.