Farida felt everything go black before her eyes; her throat swallowed, and a bitter taste welled up in her mouth.
She had never tasted this feeling before, this… indescribable bitterness.
Her eyes were wide open, fixed intently on Thei's embraced arm. If she were a psyker, her gaze alone would unleash a bolt of lightning.
"Ah, I should introduce you, this is Mr. Horatio Cochrane…"
"I certainly know his name."
Farida forced a smile befitting a noblewoman. She walked forward and took Horatio's arm, holding it so tightly that he felt a bit uncomfortable: "Mr. Horatio is still accompanying me on a date today, so I apologize, but we must take our leave."
"Miss Hood, aren't we… out on a mission?" Horatio asked with a wry smile, looking at Farida.
Farida maintained her smile and glared at him.
Horatio turned his head away. His approach was clever; he deliberately revealed the true purpose of their outing, ensuring that the conflict between the two women wouldn't directly involve him.
"Oh, so you two aren't on a date, but have a mission? Well then, Mr. Horatio, goodbye for now. Can we arrange a time when you're not on a mission to go for a stroll together?" Thei asked with a smile, holding his other arm.
Farida raised the corner of her mouth, smiling as she looked at Horatio. He felt fingernails digging into his arm.
"I hope I'll have time. You know the Imperial Navy is very busy and has no personal time at all," he said regretfully, once again choosing a clever phrase to extricate himself from the vortex.
"Then I look forward to your next free moment. Please don't forget, I made the appointment first," Thei said, maintaining her elegant and charming smile towards Horatio, then opened her eyes and looked at Farida's eyes with a half-smile.
Farida felt her jaw trembling slightly, her teeth itching with anger, but her noble composure made her strive to maintain her demeanor, her smile strained.
"Please return as soon as possible, Miss Peru, it's not safe here," Horatio urged again.
"I know, Mr. Horatio, I'll listen to you."
Miss Peru smiled gently: "Then goodbye for now~"
Horatio gave a wry smile, feeling like a ticking bomb beside him was about to explode.
The two noble young ladies stared at each other for a long time, one with wide, furious eyes, the other with a chilling, smiling gaze, until their figures disappeared from each other's sight.
Thei saw the opera sign and asked her new female companion: "Miss Yin, do you like opera?"
"Uh… I haven't seen one."
"There's a performance by my favorite female opera singer today. Want to watch it together?"
"Ah… ermm, yes."
"Then let's go to the opera house together~" Thei linked arms with Yin Shuyao, completely disregardful of the difference in their statuses.
Upstairs.
"So, Mr. Horatio Cochrane. What is your relationship with Miss Peru?" Farida's voice deepened.
"Just friends," Horatio shook his head, not looking into her eyes.
But even without looking, he knew her eyes were probably murderous right now.
"I see. I thought you had developed feelings for Miss Peru during the time you were gone," Farida cleverly used her words to needle Horatio.
Horatio's attention was entirely focused on the latest intelligence, completely ignoring what Farida said.
"That's true, how could a Brigadier General's daughter compare to a Major General's daughter? Although for you, I'm merely…" Farida muttered to herself in a sarcastic tone.
"Miss Hood." Horatio interrupted her.
Farida looked resentfully into Horatio's eyes; his gaze had become extremely cold and terrifying, like biting frost.
"We should make our move," Horatio's smile was full of chill.
—
Underground garage.
Two vans slowly approached.
"There's someone ahead!" the thug in the driver's seat yelled.
"It's a Naval Officer, run him over!"
The blinding headlights shone over, but Horatio's cocked bicorne hat shielded his eyes.
[+ Farida, shoot +]
Whoosh! A whistling sound of something cutting through the air passed by Horatio's ear.
Puff—
Blood mist splattered on the windshield and the back seat of the first van. The vehicle began to lose control, rolling over the spike strips.
With a screech, the first car flipped onto its side. The second car followed closely, crashing into it and flipping the first car upside down.
The Evil Cultists from the second car yelled and rushed out. Horatio's naturally hanging fingers moved slightly.
At that perfect moment, he drew his revolver from the holster at his waist, slapped the hammer with extreme speed, and flicked the gun to the left. The cylinder automatically ejected the spent Navy Blast Pistol casings. In the blink of an eye, a new round of Navy Blast Pistol rounds was loaded by the speed loader.
The people who had gotten out were dismembered, blood splattering dozens of meters, and they staggered and fell to the ground.
Another two vehicles approached from the side. As they passed an intersection, a sudden Adeptus Arbites armored vehicle crashed into one of the cars, flipping it directly and blocking the path of the following vehicle.
Over a dozen men in black heavy armor jumped out from behind the car, quickly grabbed their shotguns, and shot everyone inside the vehicle, completing the entire sequence of actions fluidly and without delay.
"Thank you for your hard work, Shayev Arbiter, or more accurately, Arbiter Director," Horatio said with a smile.
The tall man walked over, shotgun slung over his shoulder. This time, there was no tension between them like their last meeting.
One represented the Imperial Department of Legal Affairs, the other the Imperial Navy. They had transformed from law enforcer and prisoner into guardians jointly defending the Imperium.
"You've become a Naval Sergeant Major, kid,"
Shayev Arbiter snorted: "Hmph, truly one cannot judge a book by its cover."
"You haven't been slow in promotions either. According to intelligence, there were a total of four vehicles attacking here, with 30 rioters, all confirmed killed."
He had just finished speaking.
Boom!!—
A massive explosion, audible even from a distance, made Horatio feel the ground tremble beneath his feet. It was in the direction of the opera house.
[+ What happened? Report the situation! +] Horatio called out to the person monitoring the opera house.
[+ Reporting, Sergeant Major! The rioters used a suicide bomb car to forcefully blast open the Adeptus Arbites's vehicle and roadblocks. Now, six or seven cars full of rioters have rushed in. They are…Da da da, *puff* ugh! *cough cough cough*… ugh… +]
The communication didn't cut off. Horatio could clearly hear the sound of someone with a pierced throat coughing blood. The sound didn't last long; soon, only gunshots and screams remained in the communicator.
"The opera house's defenses have been breached," Horatio told Shayev, immediately beginning to consider emergency countermeasures in his mind.
"How is that possible! How did they break through our…"
"The lead vehicle was a suicide bomb attack car. This convoy was supposed to go to the Starport, where we had arranged defensive turrets, but they've now rushed towards the opera house."
"They changed their plan! Those bastards, I'll crush their heads!" Shayev cursed, grinding his teeth in anger.
"I don't know if someone leaked the plan to them, or if they found the Starport heavily defended and changed their attack location. In any case, we need to go to the opera house immediately to deal with it."
"Horatio, what's wrong?" Farida ran over.
"I'll explain on the way, get in the car."
The silver lining in this misfortune was that out of the Evil Cultists' 88 attack plans, only this one occurred; all others were silently intercepted and thwarted.
The Blood Angels Second Company, returning from their conquest, was currently resting.
Horatio immediately summoned the nearest Hellspawns Squad 13 and Squad 12, along with the Adeptus Arbites's Chief Arbiter Squad, to form the unit handling this terrorist attack.
The Imperial Navy will dispatch its most advanced equipment to assist the Hellspawns in dealing with this incident.