Chương 751: Chapter 752: A lady doesn’t kiss and tell

"Anyway, a few weeks after the majority of the military had left, Pamela got into an accident," Emily continued.

"After her performance that night, she got to flirting with a rather high-ranking military officer who remained behind as part of the cleanup operation. Eventually, she left with the officer and planned to bring him back to her place as she often did; however, the drunk officer insisted on driving and Pamela, having had a few herself, foolishly didn't question the decision.

We're not exactly sure how it happened since Kate and I were discussing our future plans in our rented rooms when we heard tyre screeching and a loud crash from the nearby road. We quickly left to investigate, and as we arrived, we found that the car carrying Pamela and the officer had crashed into a tree. We were about to approach when we saw the officer, who now had a bloody head, push open the side door before forcing Pamela out, after which he quickly closed the door, reversed the car and sped away.

The two of us quickly dashed to Pamela's side, only to find that we were too late and that she was already dead."

"Fuck, what a way to go," Millie remarked with teary eyes.

"This is why you shouldn't drink and drive," Jeanie added with a sob.

"Damn bastard, just dumping the body," Billie cursed with a sniff. Joanne nodded before saying, "The crash probably sobered him up enough that he realised she was dead; he then dumped the body and fled the scene in a panic. Amateur, what did he plan to do if someone discovered the body and an investigation was held? People would have seen the two leaving together, and other military personnel would see his and the car's state after his return to the barracks."

"I guess he panicked and didn't think it through at the time," Stacey remarked.

"As I said, a fucking amateur," Joanne cursed.

"It's scary how you can talk about covering up a murder so easily, you know," Billie remarked.

"We all have our expertise," Joanne replied while shrugging.

"And yours is what? Murder and covering it up?" Rowena asked with interest.

"I don't know what you mean; I'm just a simple bodyguard," Joanne innocently replied.

"Uh-huh, sure," Rowena replied as she studied Joanne for a few more moments before turning to Emily and asking.

"So what happened next?"

"Naturally, we had no wish to be embroiled in a murder investigation for obvious reasons. Because of this, we recovered Pamela's corpse and carried it back to where we had hidden our shuttle. After returning to the shuttle, we discussed what our next move should be.

We knew that the sudden disappearance of Pamela would raise questions, and although we had managed to forge ourselves some ID's using Pamela's as reference and our shuttle tech, they were in the end fake and wouldn't stand up if properly checked against government records."

"Why not use your shuttle to hack Earth's global communications network like Spector did?" Eri asked.

"The internet, or global communications network as you call it, had not been invented yet, or at least it wasn't publicly available," Adam explained.

"Adam's right," Emma explained.

"The internet as we know it was first used in nineteen eighty-nine; prior to that, it was created in nineteen sixty-nine and used by the US military."

"After considering several options, we eventually came to the conclusion that one of us should replace Pamela and with me having studied entertainment, I was the obvious choice," Emily continued.

"Since people knew Pamela in the town of Rosewell, we decided it was best if we departed and headed somewhere no one knew her. This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience. Along the way, I continued to act out Pamela's routine of performing in bars in different towns, before sweet-talking information out of those of relevance."

"So you sold your body for information, some empress you are," Rowena scoffed.

"Well, sex is a powerful tool for gathering information; just look at Astarte," Aphrodite remarked.

"As a matter of fact, I didn't," Emily replied.

"If you really must know, I only started sleeping with people after spending several years on Earth, and it was looking more and more unlikely that we would get to leave. Even then, it was only with people I was interested in."

"Didn't Pamela Primrose marry twice?" Adam asked. Emily glanced sideways out of embarrassment before saying, "A woman needs male company; Kate is great and all, but after a while I craved the male anatomy."

"So you only married them to satisfy your urges?" Aphrodite asked in approval.

"Why do you seem so agreeable to that idea?" Emily replied.

"No, if anything, I married them for their positions; also, it wasn't exactly hard for me to satisfy my urges without marriage."

"Now that you mention it, Pamela Primroe's… your sudden rise to stardom was linked to your first husband, who was a famous actor, while Galaxy Entertainments' sudden rise as an entertainment company has been linked to your second husband," Adam remarked.

"Exactly," Emily replied.

"Not sure how I feel about marriage without love," Lorelie remarked"It's a fairly common practice on Earth among the larger, more influential families," Emma explained.

"Children of the five families, for example, hardly ever get to marry whom they love, but rather have to marry someone their parents stipulate."

"Like with that Ayana Keita, you mean?" Lorelie asked.

"Exactly," Emma confirmed.

"Marriage for many of those people is just another form of business."

"Although it's rare, there are still some races that follow a similar practice in the known universe," Rowena remarked.

"So what you're telling us is that you married these two earthlings in the past and used them to raise yourself and your company before divorcing them?" Joanne asked as she glanced at Emily.

"Basically," Emily replied while shrugging.

"I wonder how your actual husband, the emperor, will react when he finds out," Joanne remarked.

"Well, considering he's dead, I don't think he'll have much of a reaction," Emily replied.

"Oh, sorry," Joanne said apologetically.

"It's fine, you had no way of knowing," Emily replied.

"That's the whole reason she's the Dowager Empress," Rowena explained.

"The former emperor died, and his son ascended to the throne." At this point, Emily and Kate glanced at each other, but said nothing.

"So, you used your second marriage to build Galaxy Entertainment?" Adam asked.

"That's right," Emily continued.

"Back then, female artists were treated extremely poorly and had little respect, even less outside the entertainment industry. Because of this, we decided it was best if Kate became CEO of Galaxy Entertainment and I was just one of their signed artists, at least on paper. Doing this allowed us to come into contact with many powerful and influential individuals, including leaders of governments and even the heads of the five families."

"So is it true that you paid a certain US President a visit and spent the night with him?" Emma asked curiously.

"A lady doesn't kiss and tell," Emily said with a wink before glancing at Adam and adding.

"When a man is present."

"Should I step outside for a moment?" Adam asked sarcastically.

"Thank you for the generous offer, but no," Emily replied before continuing.

"Anyway, my popularity as Pamela Primrose and Galaxy Entertainment's rapid rise to power allowed us both access to very exclusive social circles and from there we tried to ascertain the location of our crashed ship. Unfortunately, other than a rumour that it might have been taken to somewhere called Area Fifty-One."

"So you wanted to try and recover your crashed ship?" Eytelis asked.

"If possible," Emily acknowledged.

"We knew it was a long shot, but we wanted to prevent the Earthlings from getting their hands on our advanced tech. Unfortunately, it seems we failed."

"What do you mean?" Rowena asked while frowning. Emily sighed before saying, "Take flip phones that became popular in the mid-nineties; don't those of you from Earth think they bear a striking resemblance to communicators?"

"Now that you mention it?" Jeanie remarked as she inspected the communicator.

"I did think that, other than the fact that they can't produce a holographic screen, of course," Adam replied.

"While I believe they have attempted to duplicate the technology, they are still limited by their understanding of it and the resources they have on hand," Emily replied.

"You think the military or whoever has your ship has managed to breach it?" Rowena asked.

"Considering the recent advancements in AI that have come about here on Earth, that is indeed my fear," Emily replied.

"That's concerning," Rowena remarked.

"Spector, do you have any information on this?"

"Negative," Spector replied.

"I was unaware that two Eidolons were living on Earth. Also, while there are references made to this Area Fifty-One on Earth's global communications network, I have been unable to find any official mention of it."

"It's probably under a different name, if it's even officially recognised," Emma remarked.