Chapter 373 A Personal Escort
"Really?" Allen asked.
His eyes practically filled with tears. He looked ready to grab Owen's hands as he blurted out, "Sir, do you charge a lot?"
Owen was speechless.
Zara hurried them along. "Enough, enough. Let's talk after we get inside. We can sort out the whole dad situation later."
Allen immediately led them into the base.
Once inside, they discovered that the normally bustling facility had been completely evacuated.
The unconscious woman lying in the middle of the main hall was impossible to miss. Since she was considered extremely dangerous, she had been locked inside a specially reinforced containment cage.
Thunderhorn was pacing nearby.
Of course, Zara had already known the woman would not be able to cause trouble anytime soon when she told them to take her away. Otherwise, she never would have let Allen and the others transport someone so dangerous on their own.
The moment Thunderhorn saw Owen, he let out an excited roar and charged straight toward him.
Owen smiled at the sight of him, visibly relaxing. "Ember."
Thunderhorn lunged forward and planted both front paws on Owen's shoulders. He stood over six feet tall, making Owen look small by comparison, but Owen remained perfectly steady beneath his weight.
He stroked Thunderhorn's head and asked, "Ember, have you been doing all right here?"
Thunderhorn answered with several booming roars. No translation was needed to tell how excited he was.
His roars also woke the unconscious woman.
Allen immediately edged behind Zara.
She gave him a disdainful look. "Could you show a little courage? What are you afraid of, that she'll break out and eat you?"
"Yes," Allen replied.
Why else would they have evacuated the entire base?
Zara fell silent.
After giving Ember's head one last pat, Owen said, "Don't worry. She was badly injured, and with the way you've confined her, she won't be able to escape. The real problem is her identity. You may not be able to touch her, and you might even have to send her back."
Owen was no fool. From everything he had seen, it was obvious they already knew about the other world, so there was no need to hide anything.
Allen stared at him. "Send her back?"
Zara also looked confused. "Why would we send her back?"
Owen shook his head. "She isn't under the Upper Realm's jurisdiction. In fact, the Upper Realm has no authority over her at all. She came from the forbidden zone. She herself isn't the real threat. The problem is what happens if the ruler of the forbidden zone comes looking for trouble."
Allen lowered his voice. "What's a forbidden zone?"
Zara said nothing.
By then, the woman had slowly regained consciousness. After overhearing their conversation, she let out an eerie laugh. "If you know where I came from, how dare you treat me this way?"
Zara glanced at Owen, but he merely shook his head helplessly.
She turned back to the woman, whose eyes were fixed intently on her.
"If you let me return," the woman said, "I'll consider this matter settled."
"Settled?!" Zara immediately exploded.
Zara added, "You people knocked me out for ten whole minutes! Never mind the emotional trauma you caused me, you also created a massive public incident and threw the entire city into a panic."
Zara continued, "And now you think you can just tell us to let you go?
Weren't you acting all high and mighty before?
Didn't you threaten to go after my younger brothers?
Go ahead, show me how powerful you are now!
Anyone can talk big when they have the upper hand.
Pay me one billion, and I'll pretend none of this ever happened. "
The woman was speechless.
So was Allen.
And Owen.
Zara was getting better and better at demanding money.
And the amounts she asked for kept getting higher.
Who had encouraged this habit?
Lucian, of course!
Whenever he needed Zara to take care of a problem, he simply paid her to handle it.
Allen immediately tried to rein her in. "Boss Lady Zara, maybe tone it down a little. The higher-ups are watching."
Zara raised an eyebrow. "Huh? This is my personal compensation. It has nothing to do with the government. If you want damages too, negotiate with her separately."
Allen was speechless.
Please, for the love of God, act like a decent human being!
Owen's expression grew even more complicated. "This... may not be a good idea. The person behind her is genuinely dangerous. You don't want to bring that kind of trouble to Earth, do you?"
He was not trying to defend the woman.
He was sincerely thinking of Earth's safety.
The woman had dared to come to Earth precisely because she knew her status would protect her. Even the Upper Realm could not afford to provoke the person behind her.
If that person came to Earth, it would be an enormous problem.
At the very least, Owen did not want anything like this happening again. Zara could not afford to be exposed to any more dangerous situations...
Allen fell into thought. That was indeed a serious concern.
"No," Zara declared. "She threatened my younger brothers. I can't forgive that!"
Hubery might have died, and she could live with that. But what if something had actually happened to her brothers or sisters?
Zara was not afraid of whoever might come to Earth looking for trouble.
And then there was Valerius.
That bastard had actually plotted against her from behind the scenes.
After thinking it over, Zara came up with a compromise. "How about this? Since none of you feel comfortable with it, I'll personally take her back."
That way, Allen and the others would never find out how much compensation she collected.
Hahaha.
Owen fell silent.
Allen gave her a complicated look. "I'll ask the higher-ups."
He stepped aside and sent them a message.
Owen suddenly sensed that something was not quite right. "You've been to the other world before?"
"Yeah," Zara replied. "I went there on vacation last time."
Owen was speechless.
His eyes widened. "And you just came back? Nothing happened?"
Zara glanced at him. "What was supposed to happen? Nothing did. The people there were pretty hospitable."
They had given her plenty of gifts.
Owen seemed deeply shaken and had no idea how to respond.
Apparently, everything he had imagined was completely different from what had actually happened.
He had spent more than ten years living under an assumed identity, yet the world had turned out nothing like he expected.
He had assumed Zara would conceal her abilities.
She had not.
Instead, she lived an exceptionally high-profile life and worked closely with the government.
Her true strength might not have been publicly announced, but at this point, she was practically an open secret. How had that not caused widespread panic?
Were people on Earth really that mentally resilient?
Allen soon returned with an answer. "All right. The higher-ups approved it."
Zara nodded. "Good. Then I'll take her back."
The woman had been listening, and the more she heard, the more suspicious she became.
She narrowed her eyes. "What exactly do you mean by taking me back?"
Zara answered innocently, "I'm taking you home. Isn't that what you wanted? I'll personally escort you back. I definitely won't cause you any trouble, so don't worry!"
The woman fell silent.
If Zara had left off that last sentence, she might not have been so alarmed.
But the moment Zara told her not to worry, she knew this would not end well.
Owen looked conflicted. "Then... come back as soon as you can."
"All right. I'll talk to Allen about you working here."