As Fernandez spoke, Daniel's face changed dramatically, and he quickly reached for his gun at his waist.
He actually had a pistol on him.
But as soon as the gun was drawn, Reno gestured, and the gun flew over to him.
The gun spun beautifully in his hand and stopped with the barrel aimed at Daniel.
Reno said, "You are indeed not as honest as you appear, Mr. Reken. I think I now understand why I always felt something was off... That child doesn't look anything like you, nor do you seem close to him. Moreover, he's dressed too casually, and his demeanor is far too calm. He doesn't seem like a young master at all."
Daniel's face turned pale as he said, "Mr. Reno, as an intelligent man, you should know it's better to offend the government than to offend the Santiago family. Adam is the property of the Santiago family!"
Reno immediately retorted, "A property that has already been traded. If I heard correctly earlier, he has been exchanged as goods to this director, and you've already got what you wanted."
"Just with a defunct relic, how could you possibly get Adam? What we really wanted is..." Daniel shouted, but then stopped abruptly, his body trembling uncontrollably.
Reno narrowed his eyes, "So you're saying just with a useless relic, you couldn't obtain this boy? Our respected Mr. Fernandez doesn't seem like someone who enjoys children, and an ordinary boy shouldn't be that valuable."
He turned the gun towards Fernandez, smiling, "I think you know what question I'm going to ask you."
Trembling, Fernandez replied, "That boy..."
"Don't tell him!" Daniel rushed over, shouting.
With a swift movement, Reno's gun flashed, and a shot struck Daniel's leg.
Daniel cried out in pain and fell to the ground, blood flowing.
In agony, he groaned, "Reno, it's not in your best interest to offend the Santiago family!"
"You have more backbone than I imagined," Reno said coldly, looking back at Fernandez.
Trembling with fear, Fernandez answered, "He is Carmen Loche's son."
"Carmen Loche?" Reno found the name somewhat familiar but couldn't quite recall.
On the other end, the virus heard the name and exclaimed, "Carmen Loche? Isn't she the former councilor of the Supreme Council?"
"Her?" Reno recalled.
About sixty years ago, there was a major incident in the New Federation Government. Councilor Carmen Loche was declared a traitor and sentenced to exile. During the exile, the starship Crimson Moon mysteriously disappeared, and Councilor Loche was never heard from again.
The accusation of treason had caused a huge controversy. Many believed that Loche, as a member of the Supreme Council, had no reason to betray her own people. In truth, even if she wanted to betray, where could she go? Pirates? Aliens? Divine beings? Or simply live with a bunch of Yark insects?
It all sounded absurd.
So, people thought it was the result of high-level political struggles. To be honest, instead of using the name of treason, it might be more effective to use the name of combating corruption. After all, more people might be offended by the latter, and not everyone could play that game well.
Loche had never reappeared after her disappearance. But now, a little boy claiming to be her son had appeared?
"Have you found Loche?" he asked.
Fernandez shook his head, "We only know she's still alive, leading an organization, but apart from her and her people, we have no idea where they are."
Reno's gaze fell on Adam, "Then how did you get this child? And how do you know he's Loche's son? Why him? And, if I recall correctly, Loche was already a hundred and thirty-something old lady sixty years ago, right? She should be close to two hundred now."
"We didn't find Loche," Fernandez replied. "But we know she's alive, and now she's the leader of a secret organization. Unfortunately, we only know this much. The person who brought the boy died, but the child was kept. Since the Albert Laboratory belongs to the Santiago family, this child became the property of the Santiago family."
"Creating test-tube babies isn't cutting-edge technology. Why go to the Albert Laboratory for it?" Reno asked.
"We don't know," Fernandez answered. "But when creating this child, the deceased researcher used a radiometer exclusive to the Albert Laboratory, the most advanced equipment currently available, capable of atomic-level operations at the genetic level."
"You mean genetic modification?"
"The most cutting-edge and top-level genetic modification. Unfortunately, we don't know what changes were made. The deceased destroyed all the data. For twelve years, the Santiago family has been studying the problems with this child, but they haven't found many abnormalities," Fernandez said excitedly, "Except for one thing."
"What?" Reno asked.
Fernandez turned to the boy, "Show him."
The boy didn't move.
Fernandez grew impatient, "Hurry!"
The boy looked at Daniel.
Daniel still lay on the ground, groaning.
"Daniel, let him show it, if you don't want to die," Fernandez shouted, "You've lost him already; you'd better understand that!"
Daniel sighed, "Show him, Adam."
The boy raised his hand.
Then Reno saw the cage containing the white mouse floating.
"Telekinesis!" Reno exclaimed.
This boy actually possessed telekinetic abilities!
"Inborn," Fernandez said.
Adam, feeling overwhelmed, lowered his hand, and the cage dropped to the ground.
Fernandez pointed at the boy, "As you saw, it's weak, far from being comparable to yours, but this power isn't inherited from relics; it's genetic, present from birth! He has opened a door for us, something the New Federation Government has long dreamed of!"
"So that's it," Reno murmured to himself.
If that was the case, it explained why Adam was valuable.
As Fernandez mentioned, this represented a new dawn in human technology, a new development in human research into superpowers!
Unfortunately, this development wasn't achieved by them but by someone named Loche.
No one knew exactly what she had mastered and how she had accomplished it.
For the institute, this boy was indeed a more valuable commodity for research than relics, even if his abilities were still so weak.
Fernandez said, "The Santiago family has studied for twelve years but hasn't come to valuable conclusions. Eventually, they found out that without information about the maternal source, relying solely on this little boy might not get them what they want. Coincidentally, an important figure in their family is about to die, so they decided to use this boy to get some benefits from us."
"Does that include a complete relic as well? You dare to sell even that?"
"It's a legal transaction approved by the Supreme Council. The institute needs a breakthrough," Fernandez replied. "I may be a corrupt guy, but it doesn't mean everything I do is disgraceful."
"So that's how it is," Reno finally understood.
Just then, the virus suddenly spoke, "Boss, maybe you should take a look at this. It's just obtained from the data you sent."
A clip appeared on the terminal.
There were three things on the terminal display.
Two crystal-shaped energy bodies, one of which was the relic Reno had retrieved, while the other was noticeably larger but dimmer, presumably the Zero Target brought back by the Abradite.
In addition to these two relics, what was surprising was a black metal block with strange patterns on it. It wasn't clear what it was, but being placed together with the relics, it surely wasn't ordinary.
The problem was that Reno didn't see this metal block in the room.