Chương 107: Why Doesn't Anyone Believe Me?

The CIA Deputy Director had just revealed Leo's biggest secret. Leo kept his face neutral. He wasn't surprised they knew. Arthur had warned him months ago that government spooks knew about all four of them. Destiny, karma, whatever. They'd chosen not to interfere. Hearing it from Arthur was one thing. Having a Gold Core CIA Deputy Director say it to his face, thirty thousand feet up with nowhere to run, was something else entirely. Two years ago, he would have panicked. Now he just catalogued exits.

The cabin door fifteen feet behind him. Pressurized. The windows reinforced spiritual glass. Could he break through and fly out into the open sky? And even if he managed it, where would he...

"Relax." Nick's voice was calm, almost friendly.

"I'm not here to discuss the Azure Profound Continent. That opportunity belongs to you and your friends. It's not my business." Nick's eyes flicked to the window, tracking exactly where Leo had been looking.

"You ever study Wang Mang? Ancient Chinese emperor. Story goes, he discovered that a poor farmer named Liu Xiu had stumbled onto a divine opportunity, something just like the one you have. So Wang Mang seized it for himself. He even ordered the execution of everyone named Liu Xiu. Tried to claim the heavenly mandate by force." He adjusted his cufflink.

"Civil war. Famine. Millions dead. The opportunity found its way back to Liu Xiu anyway." Nick let the silence hang.

"Strange karma lies in these opportunities. People who try to interfere too aggressively find themselves..." He made air quotes with his fingers.

"...'corrected.' The smart play has always been to let them develop naturally. On their own terms. That's usually how it works."

"What does that mean?" Leo forced his voice steady.

"Why should I trust you?"

"Trust is a strong word. Let's say I'm offering context." Nick spread his hands.

"You're a smart kid. Did you really think you could show up sophomore year of high school with a divine sense index of two thousand and nobody would notice? The average Qi Refining cultivator hits maybe three hundred. Your teachers noticed. Your classmates noticed." Leo had never thought of it like that. He had always assumed that the reason why no one asked any questions about his abnormal divine sense was some kind of transmigrator privilege.

"And connecting to mysterious websites from a school dormitory." Nick chuckled.

"The NSA flags unusual traffic patterns automatically. That's just how the plumbing works. I'm not saying anyone flagged you specifically. I'm saying the system notices things."

"Why are you telling me this?"

"Because we've been rooting for you, Leo. In our own quiet way." Leo's voice carried an edge.

"Rooting for me? Wasn't there a whole Thousand Talents Program targeted against me? They hid formations in the stadium to make sure the divine domain would crush me!"

"Terrible business, that. The Doves play rough." Nick shook his head sympathetically.

"But you won, didn't you? Funny how that worked out." He let that sit for a moment.

"The Divine Particle Re-Forging Essence. Now that's an interesting substance. Not something you can just buy, even with Rockefeller money. Certain channels have to be opened. Certain approvals granted. The kind of thing that requires institutional support." Leo remembered sitting in that briefing room, the look Vicky gave him. Something that even his rich teammates had never touched. The government had arranged that. They had invested in him without telling him.

"Who arranged that?" Leo asked. Nick examined his fingernails.

"I don't know the specifics. Different department. But I will say that when talented young Americans face unfair odds, sometimes the system works the way it's supposed to. Resources find their way to the right people." He looked up with a warm smile.

"I'm not here to threaten you, Leo. What I wanted to talk about today is something entirely different. Your real-world capabilities." Nick leaned forward.

"Your operations in the Azure Profound Continent have been impressive. First the Pond Gazing Sect. Now the Iron Rhinoceros Sect. Remarkable outcomes." Leo bristled.

"We were trying to help them. Both times. The situations spiraled because of factors outside our control."

"Perfect response." Nick looked genuinely delighted.

"Deny everything, deflect to external factors, express only good intentions."

"You're a natural." He spread his hands.

"Would you consider a career in the CIA?"

"No thanks." The refusal came fast. Leo shook his head. Maybe he should have thought about the implications. Maybe Nick was subtly threatening him, and a smarter person would have played along. But Leo was sick of people accusing him of destroying those sects.

"I'm serious. We were protecting them. I risked my life to fight off their enemies. I even took out a nascent soul for each of them."

"You leveraged indigenous assets exceptionally well, Leo. Your only weakness is plausible deniability. We could fix that."

"I don't want plausible deniability. I want people to stop accusing me of destroying sects."

"Those are the same thing. That's literally what plausible deniability is." Leo fumed.

"How does the CIA even know what we're doing in the Azure Profound Continent? Who's been spilling the beans?" Nick's smile widened.

"We didn't know much until recently. Kevin got himself a girlfriend, didn't he?" Leo laughed despite himself.

"Kevin refuses to show us pictures. We're reasonably sure he's in a relationship with his AI chatbot."

"Kevin's a surprisingly popular guy. More popular than he realizes, actually. We tracked at least four foreign agents sliding into his DMs. Soviets. Chinese. And even one we still haven't identified." Nick shrugged.

"Young, eager, not exactly experienced with women. He's catnip for intelligence services." Leo's laughter died.

"Four agents?"

"So when a nice American girl who just so happens to love anime moves in next door and asks for a hand installing a TV so she can watch what just so happens to be Kevin's favorite series..." Nick trailed off and spread his hands, palms up.

"Well. Better a friendly face than an unfriendly one. Wouldn't you agree?" Leo started laughing again despite the implications.

"I can't wait to tell Arthur and Mike about this." He paused.

"Wait, can I? Or is that classified?"

"Kevin thinks it's super cool that his girlfriend works for the CIA. He hasn't fully connected the dots yet. He's got bigger problems on his hands anyway." He waved a hand.

"You should tell him to be a little more confident. Especially around girls." Leo laughed harder. Poor Kevin. The humor faded as more questions churned through his head. Taras and his hidden research. The Deity Transformation cultivator pulling strings from somewhere above Helga. The way Nick had so casually revealed an ongoing intelligence operation involving his friend. Too many threads. Too many secrets layered on secrets. In the end, Leo settled on something simpler.

"What would you do? If you were in my shoes and had access to the Azure Profound Continent?" Nick was quiet for a moment. His expression shifted, losing some of its professional polish. Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation.

"A lot of my colleagues like to talk about it," he said finally.

"What they would do. How to maximize the opportunity. How to use their experience and training to exploit a world with no consequences." He paused.

"But one of my colleagues said something interesting. Both our worlds have gone through thousands of years of essentially the same patterns in cultivation. The same hierarchies. The same methods. The same results. It would be a waste to just use lies, trickery, and violence to chase personal gains." Nick's voice grew thoughtful.

"A realm like that offers a unique chance to try something new. Something no one has ever done. Everyone talks about proving their Dao. But when faced with the choice, almost no one risks their entire life trying to prove their own path, their own ideas. People take the safe road instead." He met Leo's eyes.

"He would use opportunities like yours as a chance to prove his Dao. To try to change the world. To find out whether the skeptics and the cynics have been right all along, or whether there really is a better path than the one we've been walking for thousands of years."

Nick handed Leo his business card and left him to sit with his thoughts. The cabin felt emptier without the Deputy Director's presence, though Leo suspected that was intentional. Give the target time to process. Let the implications settle. The only thing Leo knew was he wasn't going to risk his life for someone he'd met once. If he was going to do it, he'd do it with people he trusted, like Harry and his expedition team. The rear cabin door opened.

Vivian emerged first, notebook tucked under her arm, followed by Thad and Ella. Thad still clutched the diplomatic duffel bag, the yellow tape now thoroughly battered and peeling at the edges. Leo raised an eyebrow.

"Why are you still lugging that thing around?"

"Exactly, Thad." Ella settled into her seat with exasperated grace.

"You should listen to Leo and stop bringing that dirty thing everywhere. It carried an unconscious man for two days." Thad hugged the bag closer.

"It's a souvenir. How many people can say they carted around an unconscious secret police agent across international borders?"

"I hope you don't expect me to keep this from Mother." Ella's violet eyes narrowed.

"I have half a mind to inform her so we can demand an explanation from the Americans." Thad shrugged off the threat and turned excitedly to Leo.

"Wasn't that the coolest thing ever? Morimoto unzipping it and bam! A Russian secret agent plops out. Right there on the terminal floor. The look on everyones' faces!" Leo frowned.

"Aren't you bothered that Morimoto tricked you? He never had any intention of giving you a reward. The whole bet was a setup."

"He explained it all to me." Thad's grin widened.

"He said he gave me something better than a reward. He gave me a story to tell!" Vivian and Ella exchanged glances. Their expressions carried the same weary sympathy reserved for marks who thanked the con artist for fleecing them. Leo decided to be helpful.

"Two stories to tell, actually. What do you think you were carrying before you met Viktor? You must have brought in a spy or something on the way into the country." Thad's jaw dropped. His eyes went wide.

"Wow. That's brilliant, Leo. I never even thought about that." He punched Leo's shoulder.

"You have a real talent for intelligence work." Leo winced. Thad caught the reaction.

"What's wrong?"

"Nick just tried to recruit me to the CIA." Vivian leaned forward.

"Stay away from that. You can't trust any spy. They're trained to manipulate people." Ella nodded.

"Intelligence officers view everyone as assets to cultivate or threats to neutralize. There is no middle ground in their world." Thad rubbed his chin.

"Leo, you're too honest to be a spy. I don't think the CIA would be a good fit for you." Leo smiled despite himself.

"Thanks, Thad." Thad smiled back. Then his expression shifted to concern.

"What's wrong?" Leo asked.

"Do you really think I was transporting someone into the country?" Thad looked down at his duffel bag with new uncertainty.

"How can I be sure when I'm telling the story to the others? What if they say I was just bringing in a bag of bricks?" Ella waved a dismissive hand.

"Just be like that man Nick. Fabricate details and mix them in with the truth. Nobody will know the difference." Thad blinked.

"What do you mean? You think Nick lied to us?"

"Of course he lied to us." Ella's tone suggested this should have been obvious.

"He is literally secret police."

"I don't think the CIA would like being called the secret police," Leo said. Ella fixed him with a steady gaze.

"Perhaps you should think back to your conversation with Nick. How much of it was real? How much was lies? Did he ever tell you anything concrete? Did he actually answer any of your questions?" Leo replayed the conversation in his head. The story about Wang Mang. The vague references to institutional support. The implications about the Azure Profound Continent. The casual way Nick had deflected every direct question with another question or a story that went nowhere.

"Wait." Leo looked at Ella.

"How did you know? You weren't even there for my conversation."

"I know their type." Ella's voice carried a note of annoyance.

"Mother warned me to watch out for them. Once I finally got away from Nick and could think clearly, I realized exactly what he was doing. I figured he'd do the same thing to you. You can never trust these people." An awkward silence settled over the cabin. The engine drone filled the space between them. Thad spoke up, his brow furrowed.

"Sorry, I missed what you guys were saying. I was thinking about how to structure my story. Where should I start it? Do you think it sounds better if the CIA briefs me on my mission before I enter Russia? Or if I learn about it while I'm at the black market?" Leo considered for a moment.

"Well, back when I served in the Catacombs a lot of the soldiers there would start their stories with 'No shit, there I was...'"

Azure Profound Continent"No shit, there I was, at the airplane terminal in Berlin, East Germany, behind the Iron Curtain." Leo leaned forward in his chair at their dinner table in Human Hut Mountain. Arthur, Mike, Kevin, Shen Tianyi, and Vivian were all there. Mike had made some wheat muffins.

"We're carrying this massive duffel bag." Leo spread his arms.

"Yellow diplomatic tape all over it. We've been lugging this thing around for two days straight. Suspicious right? But I figured, diplomatic immunity. Nobody can touch it." He paused for effect.

"I'm twenty feet from the boarding gate. Freedom is right there. And then a Nascent Soul Lord appears out of nowhere." Kevin stopped chewing.

"His divine sense locks onto me. Locks onto the bag. And I can feel the exact moment he realizes what's inside." Leo lowered his voice.

"A Russian secret police agent. Unconscious. Stuffed in there like dirty laundry." Arthur whistled low.

"Suddenly I'm surrounded. KGB agents pour out of every corridor. Guns. Swords. Thirty of them at least, half of them Gold Core cultivators. They've got us boxed in against the gate." Leo shook his head slowly.

"I could have gotten out if I was alone. Moonrider's fast enough. But I had to protect the girls." He gestured toward Vivian.

"Vivian and Ella were right behind me. I couldn't just leave them." Kevin held up a hand.

"Wait, wait, wait." He turned to Vivian with naked skepticism.

"Is any of this true?" Leo settled back into his chair, watching Vivian's reaction. If anyone was going to call him out, it would be her. Vivian shrugged.

"He hasn't said anything false yet." Leo smiled. He and Thad had worked really hard on this story during the flight back. They had learned from Nick. Nothing was technically false. They just let the audience draw their own conclusions. Time to spice it up.

"My phone starts ringing in my pocket." Leo patted his thigh for emphasis.

"It must have been my handler, tipping me off that this was an ambush. But she was too late. If only Megan Torres had called five minutes earlier..." Kevin's hand slammed down on the table. Crumbs scattered across the wood.

"Wait." Kevin's voice cracked.

"Megan Torres? How do you know her?" Leo pointed at Kevin.

"What do you mean how do I know her? How do you know her?" Kevin's face turned red.

"I don't... I mean... That's just... Maybe we are talking about different people. It's a common name. Megan. Very common. And lots of people named Torres too."

"Kevin." Leo leaned forward.

"I was there as a temporary job. Just helping Uncle Sam with a favor in the Soviet Union. But why do you know my CIA handler?" He paused for maximum effect.

"Are you a CIA agent?" Vivian caught on immediately. She executed a dramatic head twist and fixed Kevin with a glare.

"Kevin." Her voice was ice.

"What aren't you telling us?"

"She's my girlfriend!" Kevin's words tumbled out in a rush.

"Megan Torres is my girlfriend, okay? We've been talking for four months." Arthur was on his feet in an instant.

"Girlfriend? Kevin, you've been holding out on us. Show us pictures."

"I don't have any pictures."

"You've been dating for four months and you don't have a single picture?" Arthur crossed his arms.

"Kevin, even I know that's suspicious."

"She's a very private person." Kevin's voice climbed an octave.

"She doesn't like having her photo taken. It's a boundary thing. I respect her boundaries." Leo rubbed his chin.

"What are you talking about, Kevin? She seemed pretty outgoing and friendly to me." He nodded his head.

"How about this? Maybe you can introduce us to her. I hear she also lives in Queens. Maybe we can go to your apartment, find out where she lives, and meet her together."

"No!" Kevin stood up and his chair scraped backward.

"Absolutely not. I'm going to log off right now. I have things to do. Important things." But then Kevin looked at Leo. And paused. Leo watched the realization dawn on Kevin's face. If Kevin logged off now, he would have no idea what else Leo knew. What else Leo might say. Kevin sat back down slowly.

"Actually." Kevin's smile was painful to witness.

"I believe your story completely, Leo. One hundred percent. Please continue. What happened after the Nascent Soul lord appeared? I'm very interested in what happens next. Please do continue, Leo." Mike reached over and placed a hand on Kevin's shoulder.

"Kevin." Mike's voice was gentle but firm.

"I think we've all found a far more interesting story than this action movie Leo was making up."

"I wasn't making it up," Leo protested.

"Everything I said before the Megan part was technically true!" Mike ignored him.

"Kevin, why don't you tell us how you first met this Megan girl?"