Agent Knight froze.
The captain had already stared a hole through The Panacea's back when she left.
Then he had stared at her dossier until he practically burned a hole through the screen, reacting with an intensity no one had seen from him in years.
And now... he wanted them to track her?
Agent Knight's expression instantly turned dead serious.
So that medic really was compromised.
No wonder the captain had been watching her so closely. He had suspected something was wrong from the start!
"Captain, do you want us to put her under surveillance?" Agent Knight asked, eager for action.
Jerrick looked up, his face an impenetrable mask as he dropped a single word: "Protection."
Agent Knight was speechless.
The words died in his throat.
Huh?
Protection?
He wondered if he had misheard.
The captain wasn't staring at The Panacea because she was a threat?
Wait, did the captain actually have feelings for this so-called Panacea—
Before his imagination could run wild, Jerrick tucked the terminal away and spoke in
a crisp, authoritative tone. "Revise our original deployment for Whitecliffe Harbor. Shift our personnel toward any sector she's likely to enter."
"I want advance teams at the Deep-Water Harbor, The Strategic Transfer Zone, The Primary Medical Transit, and The Extraction Route. Keep at least two details on her at all times."
"T-two details?!" Agent Knight's expression shifted.
This wasn't just basic observation anymore.
This was placing The Panacea under the absolute highest tier of security they could provide in Whitecliffe Harbor.
"Correct." Jerrick raised his gaze, his grayish-blue eyes locking coldly onto his subordinate. "Ensure her physical safety at all costs. But remember, do not interfere with her operations, and under no circumstances let her spot you."
He knew his sister's temperament all too well.
Since she was already here, she wouldn't obediently retreat just because he warned her it was dangerous.
More importantly, if she could fool him once, she could easily do it again.
Rather than forcing her to adopt another identity he couldn't track, it was far better to keep her safe within his line of sight.
Agent Knight was utterly bewildered, his expression growing stranger by the second.
Protection was one thing.
Covert protection was another.
But pre-deploying assets for her at Whitecliffe Harbor before they even arrived?
He hesitated for a moment before quietly pointing out, "Boss, the ship's administration only contracted us to guard Specimen Fourteen The Panacea's security isntn our mission parameters."
Jerrick's expression didn't waver. "She is the sole medical director assigned to Specimen Fourteen until it arrives at Whitecliffe Harbor."
until
"If something happens to her, who manages the asset's condition?"
Agent Knight was stumped. The captain made total sense, and he couldn't find a single flaw in the logic.
It sounded perfectly reasonable, yet for some inexplicable reason, everything about it felt entirely off.
By this point, Jerrick was already walking away.
His grayish-blue eyes held no unnecessary emotion, and his tone was perfectly matter-of-fact. "Protecting her is protecting the asset."
"...Understood." Not daring to ask further questions, the subordinate lowered his head and complied.
As Jerrick walked, his gaze drifted involuntarily toward the direction The Panacea had disappeared.
The depth of emotion swirling in those grayish-blue depths was impossible to read.
Serena.
Unbelievable.
She was way too bold for her own good.
To think she had kept him in the dark right under his own nose for so long.
Well, they would settle that score once this was all over.
Right now the priority was clear... Once they reached Whitecliffe
Harbor there was absolutely nl
Wa
he was letting her face the danger alone again!
Any shadowy hand that tried to reach for her would have to go through him first.