The Unveiling of Secret Queen

Nicholas Fuller kept watching the Car until it left her Line of sight, then finally put away the smile on her face. She took a deep breath, her expression turning grave as she fished her Phone out of her coat and found a contact number to dial.

”Beep...”

The phone call rang several times.

Only then did someone pick up on the other end: ”Hello?”

Nicholas adjusted her mood and spoke in a gentle, cultivated tone: ”Hello, this is Nicholas Fuller from The First Research Institute. May I ask if Mr. Martin is available today?”

”Ah, Mr. Fuller, hello, hello.” The one answering was Martin’s personal assistant. He had met Nicholas a few times; the two could be considered acquainted.

He didn’t make Nicholas Wait long. He went to check and quickly came back with an answer: ”Sorry, Mr. Fuller, the sir already has an appointment today.”

As soon as Nicholas heard the two words ”has an appointment,” her heart sank abruptly, but she still maintained her composure and asked, ”Would it be convenient for me to ask Where Mr. Martin went?”

This question was actually somewhat lacking in politeness.

But given Nicholas’s identity, the assistant didn’t think much of it and answered honestly, ”The sir was originally going to Fauna Kitchen this evening for an engagement, but then an important guest made a last-minute appointment with him, so the sir turned down Fauna Kitchen’s invitation. As for Where he is now, I’m not too sure either.”

For the past few days, Nicholas had had people keeping an eye on Zevaney Kingsley and Nathan Garland’s movements. This afternoon she received a report from her informant that Nathan and Zevaney were both at Fauna Kitchen. At the time, she’d already had a rather bad guess...

So Martin didn’t come to Fauna Kitchen?

Nicholas was momentarily distracted.

Then Where did Martin go?

And who exactly was the ”important guest” the assistant mentioned?

Head full of questions, Nicholas still hadn’t figured it out.

Seeing that she hadn’t spoken for a long while, the assistant asked again, very politely, ”Mr. Fuller, did you need something from the sir? Do you need me to give the sir a phone call and let him know you’re looking for him?”

At this moment Nicholas dragged herself out of her confusion and said with a smile, ”No, I didn’t really have anything urgent. I just remembered that Mr. Martin is in Inderia and wanted to ask him out for a chat.”

”Er, I see.”

Nicholas said, ”If he’s busy then forget it. I’ll give him a call another day when I’m free.”

The assistant didn’t ask further and said with full politeness, ”All right. Then, Mr. Fuller, is there anything else you need?”

”Nothing else. You can hang up.”

After waiting for the other end to hang up the phone call, Nicholas walked to the entrance of Fauna Kitchen and made another call to Orson Saban, telling her that Martin hadn’t met Zevaney today.

Once she finished that call, she thought it over from every angle and still ended up sending a Message to her own people, telling them to look into it.

Martin had always been good about his word and rarely stood people up.

Nathan Garland must have had the appointment set before bringing Zevaney to Fauna Kitchen to Wait, yet Martin stood Nathan up.

Nicholas was also very curious who that ”important guest” mentioned by the personal assistant was.

*

Fauna Kitchen, inside the ”Mountain” private room.

Zevaney Kingsley was still anxiously waiting for Martin to arrive.

Halfway through, Nathan Garland went out to take a phone call.

The phone call lasted a full five minutes.

Only then did He come back in from outside.

Zevaney checked the time, then looked up respectfully at the man coming in. ”Teacher, did Mr. Martin run into something on the way? Why isn’t He here yet?”

She had been waiting from seven in the evening until now—half past eight, close to nine. She’d waited a full hour and a half, which was a bit long; no wonder Zevaney was getting impatient.

Nathan Garland had been keeping his composure all night, sitting in his seat and waiting. At this moment, his usually stern face didn’t look good. He walked straight over, pulled out a chair, and said, ”...We don’t need to Wait anymore. He’s not coming.”