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Chapter 064: Kidnapped!

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A princess.... a Crown Princess...

Wait.

Carl said something else about her legitimacy for the crown but he didn't tell him what kingdom she was a legitimate heir to, although he did say it was on some Queendom.

What Queendom, exactly?

'Cortana.'

[Searching... search finished. There are only two Queendoms in the planet. The first is the country of Alkie, major exporter of 8% of all alcohol-type beverages in the world; with the second being the Christiana Monarchy, a World Noble.]

Rex's heartbeat rose abnormally fast as soon as he heard the last of the two results.

He had every reason to doubt that it must've been the Christiana Monarchy that was Amanda's family background since Rex had once dealt Alkie a tiny blow when he outsmarted their economy by a tiny fragment of their exports as Mitra.

If he wanted to, in fact, given enough resources and time, he can manipulate and claw his way into their economy, becoming an overlord who can bid a death sentence to their country.

Of course, he wouldn't do that.

But he had once the thought of it because aside from that country's export business, all other parts and aspect of Alkie's Queendom Sovereignty was not remarkable enough to make President Ethan of Panorama Corp to personally fetch an heir to.

Thus, Rex had every reason to doubt that it might actually be the Christiana Monarchy that made the two of them fly over to personally meet with her.

——and this is because, as Rex pondered deeper into this matter, Amanda doesn't have any notable achievements to her name and yet for five years straight, she's been consistently receiving many invitations to join The Conclave.

The Conclave is the gathering of geniuses of the generation. It was also a chance for the UNICORN and the other world-level powers to see if there're some candidates that they can entice to join their fold and increase their... national strength.

A thought suddenly lit up in his mind like a bulb.

Perhaps the reason why Amanda was invited into The Conclave is because the Christiana Royalty is trying to establish contact with her.

—but Carl said it was because she's a legitimate successor to the throne... could it be the reason why she's being invited to The Conclave is...

At this point in time, he suddenly recalled her tale about their current address that she told him as a passing remark the day he met Angus Gregory.

She said that the house was given to them by an unknown person and that they thought it was the inheritance meant for her grandmother on her mother's side.

'Well, shit...'

[Should I hack Carl's Communicator Device and see if there are records that can help us?]

'Better. Be careful. First, cut the connection of the plane to the Net and then hack it just to be sure that there are no backup servers supporting the security protocols of his device.'

[Roger that.]

Rex's few moments of deep silence made the two execs in the plane bid him a turbid glance.

Carl narrowed his eyes, "Are you alright?"

"Huh?" Rex blinked at him and hit his head, "I, ah, ehehehe... I'm sorry. I was just shocked... you know... Amanda's never been a princess in my eyes but now you suddenly saying she's actually a princess were kind of... well...... it complicates a lot of things."

Carl was still on 'honest' mode and his chat switch was turned on so he was still jolly, unaware of Rex having a bout of numerous different wild emotions at the same time.

Ethan, after looking at Rex in silence, finally spoke up to him, "Complicated should at least be the last of your concerns if you're really acquainted with a Crowned Princess of a World Noble, especially so if you're actually in a relationship with her."

Rex should be surprised here by the mention of her family background as a World Noble but this only nailed his earlier doubts, making him feel a bit more edgy about it.

And just as he was about to ask why, Cortana was the one who gave her the reason.

[Boss, I've successfully hacked and archived all the data on his Communicator Device. To answer your doubts, sir, because Amanda is right now the only legitimate direct bloodline descendant of Queen Brynhild. Fifty years ago, Queen Brynhild banished his son for marrying a commoner and so her other son who married a noble gave birth to a female heir that became the Queen Mother of the current Queen. They're a Federal-type Monarchy and are a Founding Noble of the UNICORN.]

Rex became silent again as this time he didn't use their thought-link connection but instead listened to Cortana verbally deliver this report to his brain.

[For many generations, it has a running tradition and custom that only the female heirs can rule the Queendom for a generation lasting for not lesser than fifteen years. Only the current generation is entitled to the throne and if the current Queen is to die or if she were to abdicate her seat, no older generation can take up the throne. Alas, the current Queen is a millennial and vowed to never be touched by any man... and to put even more nail to the file, she's nearing her fifteenth year as Queen and had long since announced to retire as soon as her term is finished. Although she was an excellent queen, being a millennial as she is, she'd still chosen to be independent of her lineage. This decision of hers left the Direct Bloodline House in a great predicament.]

—because as per their custom, the old generation can't sit back on the throne, as well as the fact that the next in line to their throne was already the four Duke Houses of their country since the current Queen doesn't have any heir.

As Rex understood more of the situation the more he felt sure that the reason why Amanda was year after year being invited to The Conclave is solely for the fact that she was indeed the only legitimate heir to the throne.

The Direct Bloodline House of Christiana planned to nurture her to be the Queen, if not planning to actually directly place it on her shoulders.

"Do you understand what I'm saying here, kid?"

Rex looked up at the President. This guy may be a tad ugly to behold and more so to listen to, he was still at least someone who was sincerely not a bad person at all.

These two were still under his 'honesty' influence and so their current train of thoughts is their real selves with no pretensions and restrictions given by their reservations due to their age and status.

"She's a princess and is in a danger, is that what you want to tell me?" Rex asked. There was no longer any playfulness on his tone which is the core reason why Ethan interrupted Carl right now.

"At least you're worthy of the invitation." Ethan put on a not-so-ugly smile, nodding, "Since she's now in the UNICORN-HQ's territory, you can expect a full load of things happening around her as soon as she decides to show herself. Ah, wait, in fact, now that I think about... it should have happened the moment she lands in Sweetzerland."

As soon as he finished with the warning, Rex had a bout of realization. He looked at the time and then asked, 'Cortana, how many hours has it been since our last conversation?"

[It has been exactly 17hrs sir.]

—seventeen hours since I logged out of Terroa...

'Recombine all connections and establish contact with Amanda and the rest of the Asgardians.'

[Sir, I can't contact any of Matt's group's devices!]

Rex's heart stopped and he had a bad feeling on the situation.

'Has there been any news of missing flights in the country?'

[Negative sir. Their plane successfully landed in the Sweet International Airport right on schedule.]

—so it means that it happened after they landed.

'Search for any news about any missing invitees.'

[Hacking all Comm Channels... Ah! I encountered multiple hostile counter-hacking attempts from 96 channels in forty locations! Establishing back-up door entrance... these are formidable firewalls, sir, and they are almost half on my level...]

—as expected of the territory of the enemy...!!

'Are you in any trouble?'

[Negative sir. Unless they can hack as fast and as flexible as my personality algorithm that you have personally developed, they are only so-so.]

—why do I not feel good being praised this way?

——is she saying I am a security freak?!!

[I did not say anything sir!]

———she's reading my mind.

Still, even though it seems that Cortana wasn't in a pinch, the fact that they all, collectively, is already half of her capabilities to handle means that this place is teeming with danger zones so he can't be as careless in hacking just about anywhere he like or else he risks being found out this sooner.

But the fact remains, Amanda and Matt's group is still missing. Just as his thoughts came this way, Rex suddenly realized something.

'What about the two Gregory?'

[Hacking airport surveillance systems... hacking complete! Scanning security logs. I found them.]

'Were they on the same group when they took off from the airport?'

[No sir. A separate entourage welcomed Matt and their group. The two Gregory left with a private convoy they hired on the way to Sweetzerland. It was on a non-official record.]

'Scan the plate numbers of the people who got Matt and the rest.'

[Negative on the results sir. They have fake plate numbers. The records of the official registration records of the plates do not match the vehicles.]

'Shit. Can you at least follow their travel path using the cameras in the surroundings?'

[Hacking into multiple channels...]

On the outside, Rex's silence led for the two adult men to look at Rex in confusion. His sudden bout of silence here and there wasn't something normal while talking to people of their personages.

Still, Carl understood what he was feeling since he just learned that his girlfriend might be in danger.

Carl then glanced over Ethan.

"You're ruthless, President."

"It's better to let him know what tree he's barking on to so he could prepare."

"You take your time thinking about things, lad, we still have 10hrs of flight time left ahead of us." As Carl gave him his space, the two adults also took this time to close their eyes and rest.

Because of the stress of hours under hypnosis, their minds quickly felt the fatigue and fell asleep.

Rex was left there seemingly in a daze as he saw the route the vehicle took under Cortana's deep scans of the security systems around the airport.

Although she encountered tight defenses, it was still she who had won —although, because of the urgent nature of the situation, this left traces of the act itself, prompting for these establishments to call in specialists for help or totally shutting their systems down completely to prevent possible loss of data or the compromising of all of the sensitive information about their establishments.

Rex was staring dead in front but on his vision is a map and a route of the entire city where the cars were headed to.

But then...

'Hm? What happened? Why did the route split?'

[The convoys containing Matt's group took the left route leading to the eastern side of Lausanne but the one going north is taking a highway leading to Berne, sir.]

'They're going to the—ah! The signal was gone.'

[I'm sorry sir. It seems that the convoy containing Amanda took a predetermined route. All security systems in the area have been tampered with sir and had no records of their vehicle ever passing there. Her captors may have deleted them.]

'Bastards!'

Rex's heart felt like it was going to be rent apart from the palpable fear he was feeling for Amanda and his friends' safety.

Good thing Matt's convoy's route were still going and they now stopped at a location in the map.

'Did they stop there?'

[They entered a building, sir. Records show that this building is owned by a private company under the Duke of Levingston of Christiana.]

Rex's eyes turned sharp with killing intent at this point and hissed, 'Hack into their security system and see if we can establish any feed and see what their current situation is.'

Actually, Rex feared that because Matt and their group were useless to the duke, they might have already —no. he shook his head. I mustn't think of negative things. I have to hurry there.

[Hacking... established connection! Retrieving all relevant data... surveillance system established! I will now display the live feed sir.]

A pop up window appeared on Rex's vision and in there, the many different angles of the building is shown and what the security cameras of the entire building could see, they were also shown to him.

'Map out the entire layout of the building based on the camera angles and scan all the records for the last few hours after they were brought in.'

From the display of many different angles, in and out of the building, there was a layout that began to form, eventually becoming the 3D-map of the entire building.

Because of the advancement of technology from the generations, surveillance system had included laser scanning on them, and with the latest models even having built-in projectors so that the clients of these types of buildings can navigate all places even if they are from far away.

Ultimately, these features became the key for Rex to successfully creating a detailed layout of their multimillion-Credit establishment.

Surveillance cameras from the building showed a black car entering from the garage entrance. From the time stamp on the live feed, it coincided on the timestamps of the other security cameras in their surroundings... it was Matt's group's convoy.

Matt's group had him, Rio, and Agatha.

Amanda's group had Alice and Anna in it.

When Matt and the rest got out, of the E-car, they were already wearing sacks on their faces —this is so that they don't know where they were taken to.

It only made Rex rage even more.

They were led inside the building and then took an elevator ride, stopping to the VIP floor at the 87th floor of the building. During the ride, Matt is struggling and tried to break free but one of the men punched him and he slumped back, with Rio and Agatha seeming to cry out for him.

Their voices could be heard clearly and the two girls were crying. They were really scared. Even as players of Terroa and Asgardians, they were nothing more than teenagers still.

Of course they would be scared. This is real life kidnapping already.

In the VIP floor, there was only a single camera and it showed that Matt's group passed by that one and into the VIP area. From there, Siva had no more way to know their status.

From this footage until now, it has been half a day already. He could only wish that they were alright.

Rex's chest heaved up and down. He was fuming with rage and will to murder.

The sight of this him made the stewards afraid to approach, how much more to ask if he was alright since the lively gathering of three suddenly went silent and this alerted them to check... only to see Rex like this.

There were four of them and when Siva turned to face them, his forehead lit up and the four's eyes became soulless —they entered hypnosis.

"Just forget about what you saw and what you're going to see I do next." He said and the four of them nodded. "Oh, also, please fasten your belts, and that also included for these two."

The four flight attendants followed his instructions and helped the sleeping President and Assistant fasten their seatbelts.

Rex then approached the pilot's cabin but before he knocked, he went into a wall panel, biting the tip of his finger and smearing it on the very edge where it can seep through and touch the circuits.

His finger bled but instead of the blood dropping out due to gravity, it instead, as if alive, crawled in the edge of the wall panel and entered it like a spy gadget of some movie.

Rex's blood was infused with NanoMechs and 3% of his entire stock was enough to serve what he needs for this task.

Then he commanded, 'Cortana, hack into the Net and find the exact model blueprint of this plane.'

[Searching... search complete! This is the classic G6 Vulture Twinjet, model VU-7TU23. Analysing systems structure and data. Scan complete.]

'Map out every capability and function of the plane and transmit all data into me.'

[Sir, just to remind you, transmitting data at this time while we're linked into the plane's system will double your mental load.]

'Do it.'

[Alright. Initiating [Focus] in six seconds... five... four... three... two...]

A sharp pain struck Rex's mind and although he's used to this pain whenever he's using [Focus], it was still painful like hell each time.

For an instant there, he felt his world twirling with him in the center. The pain lasted for an instant but the aftereffects lasted for half a minute more.

When he came to stabilize his bearings, he looked over at the wall panel and conducted a big system scan from there to the entire plane.

After a moment of checking if the data scan and the blueprint of the plane implanted on his brain by Cortana matched, Rex knocked on the door of the pilot's cabin.

When the door opened with a grumbling co-pilot, Rex's forehead lit up in alternating color patterns and the man's eyes dulled and stared in a daze. It only took a moment for Rex to hypnotize him.

Then he looked over at the pilot, grabbed his left shoulder, and then hypnotized him as well.

"When you two wake up after this, you will recall nothing about me and about anything I'd do from now on."

The two nodded and Rex took the pilot's seat and the pilot placing himself on the co-Pilot seat. The other guy strapped himself as per his instructions.

"Cortana, contact our minions in Lausanne and tell them I need a few things and make them scramble their asses to send someone to meet me at the airport."

[I'm on it sir.]

"Okay. Let's fly thing..."

Rex was never a Pilot himself but with Cortana's help and the information of the system implanted on his brain, he only took a glance to look and he already know which buttons to press when it's needed to, gauges to monitor and see, levers and switches to flip, and scanning data and outputs to consider along with referential data on Cortana's analysis with the overall status and capability of the G6 Classic.

And with the Pilot on his right side, if he needed help with anything else, he can always give him a hand. In the end, Rex was in a rush.

With the wireless connection as their link, Rex put his mind as if he was the plane itself and by reflex, his body moved according to what needs to be done and the plane accelerated, reaching the limit of speed it could go to and dashed in the sky.

Every theory, every weather reports and scanning results augmented Rex's senses.

The gadgets and apparatuses were his skin, eyes, nose, and ears, the plane was his body, and the sky was his sea. He felt like he was swimming and it was a profound feeling that Rex's senses were on its peak as if he was fighting.