But he shouldn’t be exposed because he never used his light device directly when contacting Baird, nor would he contact Baird’s light device directly; after all, that would be too risky.
So even if Arman’s did monitor Baird’s light device, he shouldn’t find anything wrong.
But even if he thought so in his heart, Barton still subconsciously held his breath; just now Arman’s performance was enough to show that he already suspected him. In the face of the Marshal of the Ministry of the Army, Barton didn’t have absolute certainty to be able to hide something without leaving any traces.
The only thing that could make Barton feel at ease was that behind him stood the entire Brandt family, and as long as the military department was wary of the Brandt family, then he himself was still safe.
“In the monitoring of Baird’s light device, I didn’t find any suspicious communications or messages.” Arman deliberately slowed down his own speech, as if he were teasing someone. “Even if there was a mention of He Yishu, it didn’t say anything about the monitoring, but…”
Arman once again used a twist, which caused Barton’s held breath to be disordered for a moment. He realized that the reason Arman was turning back and forth like that was just to deliberately toss him around and make his emotions rise and fall.
A marshal with such a wicked sense of humor made Barton want to yank him from this position!
On the contrary, even if he acted calmly on the surface, Barton was indeed affected by Arman’s words over and over again, to the point that a cold sweat had begun to break out from behind his back.
“I discovered something very interesting.” After a moment’s pause, Arman continued, “Every time Baird’s message came to me, it would show that he had instantly sent another message, and then I realized that I wasn’t the only one monitoring Baird’s light device; there was another person, and every time Baird’s light device sent an instant message, it was transmitted to that person.”
Accompanied by Arman’s narration, the entire conference room was silent, and everyone was rapidly mobilizing their thoughts to think about Arman’s intention of saying this.
Being able to be in such a position in the military ministry, they were obviously all smart people, and after hearing Arman’s first sentence, they had already vaguely guessed Arman’s purpose.
The person who was monitoring He Yishu through the Brandt family and had designs on him must be among them, and they began to analyze who the person Arman was talking about actually was.
Due to the Brandt family’s position in the rune card world, it directly led to their influence on the military ministry, especially in the area of providing rune card masters and rune cards. The Brandt family has always held a very important position.
Under such circumstances, if the Brandt family wanted to obtain surveillance equipment through a certain force in the military department to monitor He Yishu, there should be more than a few cooperative partners that they could find.
However, according to Arman’s description, the Brandt family was actually being utilized in this matter because the forces in the military department that were cooperating with them obviously weren’t entirely working for the Brandt family, but rather, they were using this matter to take care of the Brandt family’s surveillance while monitoring He Yishu.
In this way, the scope of what they could guess was suddenly greatly narrowed.
“Through the capture acquisition and localization of the signals, this time the tracing finally made new progress; the final receiver of the signals was positioned in a new location.” This time, Arman’s gaze finally cut to Barton, and there were no new twists and turns. “Admiral Barton, do you know where it was?”
A layer of cold sweat had already broken out behind Barton’s back, but he was still very calm on the surface, not revealing the slightest abnormality: “The marshal has already said so much; shouldn’t you reveal the answer to us directly?”
“You’re right, the padding that should be there has already been done, and the next step must indeed be to face the truth head-on.” Arman nodded and raised his hand to signal his subordinate to open the last important file, but this time it was not a video that was opened, but an audio file.
At the very beginning of the audio was a murmur due to the struggles of the anti-detection tool, and after about ten seconds or so, a familiar voice came out.
“The fate of the entire Brandt family is at stake this time, as is your future in the military department, so you must help me.” The voice was clearly Baird’s.
A few moments later, a voice that had undergone voice alteration rang out: “Of course I won’t sit idly by and do nothing, but right now, the Brandt family is on the cusp of the storm; you must not act without authorization, and you must listen to my arrangements for everything.”
Baird seemed to struggle for a moment but still agreed, but he also put forward his own conditions: “First, tell me your plan; if there is any unfavorable decision to the Brandt family in the plan, I will definitely oppose it resolutely, and none of us will have a good ending.”
In the next moment, the voice that was originally unrecognizable after the voice change suddenly returned to its original appearance: “Don’t worry, I won’t disregard my own interests.”
In the next instant, everyone’s eyes all fell on Barton, because this voice, which they knew only too well, was Barton’s.
However, Barton’s expression remained unchanged, as if it had frozen, and Arman was in no hurry; he just looked at Barton with a cold gaze, waiting for his response.
As a matter of fact, Arman really wasn’t in a hurry; since he dared to point out this matter on such an occasion, he had obviously made all the preparations and held enough evidence in his hands, so he wasn’t afraid of Barton opening his mouth to make excuses.
In fact, in addition to Barton, Arman also grasped incriminating evidence on several right-hand men around Barton; his intention this time was to cut this force down to its roots.
Under the gaze of the crowd, Barton sat there with a stoic expression, and under his unchanged expression, his thoughts had changed a thousand times.
Under the pressure of power, there was a king and a defeated enemy, and Barton had always been aware of this truth. Therefore, in the end, he could only blame himself for not being as skilled as others, ultimately leading to a complete defeat.
But even so, Barton wasn’t a person who was willing to admit defeat. In a very short period of time, he had quickly weighed the pros and cons, and his voice steadily rang out: “The marshal is right; it is true that I have provided the Brandt family with the monitoring equipment; I can admit that; but now the Ministry of the Army can’t be the enemy of the Brandt family, and the marshal should be very clear about this matter as well.”
Such a blatant threat, of course Arman wouldn’t be unable to hear it. He coldly smiled and asked rhetorically, “Of course the Ministry of the Army doesn’t want to be an enemy of the Brandt family, but right now it’s someone in the Brandt family who has done something that violates the imperial statutes; they deserve to be punished.”
“Even if this matter is to be taken into account, it is definitely not at such a time as now.” Barton looked very calm, as if he wasn’t the main culprit. “The strength of the Brandt family—I think the Marshal should know it more clearly than me; once the Brandt family is offended, the military department will be subject to a huge impact, and even the political situation of the entire Empire will be affected by it. Even though the political situation of the entire interstellar empire will have huge fluctuations as a result, this should be a situation that no one is willing to see.”
“Barton, I admire you for your calm attitude in dealing with things, but as one of the key members of the military department, after making such a big mistake, your first reaction is to get rid of the punishment you deserve. This kind of behavior that completely ignores the responsibility you should have as a soldier has made me very disappointed.” Upon hearing these words, Arman’s voice became colder.
Barton was silent and didn’t say anything, but in his heart, he didn’t take Arman’s words seriously. In front of absolute interests, what could the duties of being a soldier count for?
Arman’s gaze was cold as he met Barton’s: “You want to use the Brandt family as a shield, but I’m afraid the truth may not be as you wish.”
Barton defiantly stared back at Arman and said without a sense of fear, “If you really want to touch the Brandt family, I’m afraid that this meeting can’t decide it; at least it needs the participation of the government officials.”
“As a matter of fact, before this meeting officially started, I had already contacted the relevant government personnel,” Arman’s fingertip tapped on the metal table, making a slight sound. “He Yishu has already agreed to teach the method of making those rune cards with special attributes in a way that is acceptable to him. Under these circumstances, do you think that the Brandt family’s position will continue to stand as it did before?”
After hearing these words, the expression on Barton’s face finally went blank for a moment, and then his brows slowly furrowed in shock and panic. Had He Yishu actually agreed to pass on the method of making those rune cards? How was this possible?
Barton, who hadn’t expected things to go in this direction, finally couldn’t maintain his composure on the surface any longer: “That is impossible; how could He Yishu easily agree to this kind of thing?”
“Of course it’s because of…” Arman thought for a moment and felt that this matter should be credited to his own son, no matter if it was public or private, so his answer could only be: “Love.”
Barton: “…”. tmd, he really wanted to use vulgar language directly. Was he really not deliberately teasing him? (□′) ┴-┴
[TN: tmd—f*ck your mother]
Everyone else:”…”. Marshal, we are in a high-level meeting of the military department; can you pay attention to the occasion and not be so ridiculous?
Arman didn’t seem to realize how much of a crazy answer he had uttered and still said with a straight face, “It is true that He Yishu agreed to this matter fully considering Adrian, but no matter what reason he agreed, the situation at hand has been clearly laid out here, so you shouldn’t have anything to say, should you?”
Barton really didn’t have anything to say; he didn’t believe that He Yishu would make such a choice for the sake of so-called love, but the facts were in front of him as well. Since Arman said it, He Yishu had obviously agreed to this matter.
If he had known that He Yishu was so easy to talk to, he wouldn’t have needed to take such a roundabout way before; even before he had the chance to formally make a move, he had already lost all of his chances.
It would not have mattered if they went to talk to him about learning the mysteries behind the rune cards. His willingness to teach is also tied to mutual benefits and the Brandt family would be unwilling to cede any power or authority to him in exchange for his benefits. Instead, as soon as he was done documenting everything thoroughly, he would be killed. By allying with the Elvis family directly and the military and government through their connections, he side-steps this and gains benefits for everyone involved, particularly for himself.