"Plenty of people came into contact with your parents besides me," Frederick Vane said, his smile impossible to read. "You can look into it yourself."
It seemed Claire wasn't going to get any solid answers about her parents from him.
She abandoned the interrogation about their whereabouts and quickly shifted gears. "Frederick, you're already in custody. Don't tell me you're still dreaming of escaping back to Sundara?"
"What exactly did they promise you in exchange for your loyalty?"
"A luxury burial plot for your ancestors across the border?"
Frederick choked, glaring at her. Why the hell would he move his family graves?
"Not that you need to worry about your family legacy anymore," Claire continued coolly.
"You were so eager to kidnap me the second you landed in Solenia, I'm guessing you haven't heard what happened back in your hometown."
She had spotted the intel on Silas Carl's desk earlier.
Silas hadn't bothered to hide it from her; after all, she was the victim, and her insight was helping them crack the case at a record pace.
If she could find a chink in Frederick's armor using his own background check, Silas would be thrilled.
"What could possibly happen in my hometown?" Frederick asked, feigning total indifference.
The old fox was determined to keep his emotions locked down tight.
But Claire hadn't broken eye contact for a second, and she caught the slight flicker in his gaze the moment she mentioned his home.
"Aren't you curious how your mother reacted when she found out her son committed treason?"
Frederick's fingers tightened into a white-knuckled grip on the armrests.
It was a dead giveaway.
He might be a selfish traitor, but he still cared about the woman who had sacrificed everything to raise him.
"She's an old woman. How do you expect her to react?" he retorted defensively.
In truth, he had sent someone to check on Mrs. Vane years ago.
The contact had claimed she was dead-driven to an early grave by the stress brought on by Solenia's authorities.
Frederick despised Solenia for it. He had always believed his actions shouldn't have brought ruin upon his mother.
Unwilling to engage any further, he firmly shut his eyes.
Seeing that he was shutting down, Claire tossed out a few more questions before turning on her heel and leaving the interrogation room.
She didn't drop another hint about his hometown.
This girl, Frederick thought bitterly. She is just as infuriating as her father, Agassi.
Silas was waiting outside and immediately thanked her. "You did excellent work in there, Claire."
"It was the least I could do," she replied, waving off the praise.
Meanwhile, back in the room, no one else came in to question Frederick.
Initially content to rest his eyes, he slowly found it impossible to stay calm.
The absolute silence gnawed at him.
The more he wondered about his hometown, the more the anxiety threatened to eat him alive.
Watching the monitor, Silas nodded
in satisfaction as he analyzed
Frederick's shining expressen
The old bastard was about to crack.
Old bastard. He had picked up that particular phrase from Claire.
That James girl was definitely a force to be reckoned with.
Claire didn't bother visiting Meiko Fujii's holding cell.
Meiko hadn't requested to see her, anyway.
Claire simply decided to wait for Silas to handle the rest of the interrogations.
She knew Silas would share whatever unclassified intel he could.
For everything else, she wouldn't push; he worked for a highly
classified intelligence agenovel
after
all content
True to Claire's expectations, Silas went straight to Meiko next.
It didn't take long for him to the woman was a farmore formidable opponent thar Frederiek.
Meiko had been trained from the ground up as a professional operative.
Silas was no stranger to her kind-he had tracked and broken dozens like her.
He knew exactly how to play this game.
"Meiko Fujii. Tell me about your relationship with Frederick Foster," Silas demanded.
Meiko sat perfectly still, looking haggard and entirely pathetic.