Before now, Nova hadn't been able to work out why Original Team had made such a dramatic move, apparently planning to level all of Lune Town in one go. What could they possibly be after? He had no answer at the time and had chalked it up to the kind of senseless destruction that terrorist groups were known for. But standing here now, the pieces were snapping into place — and what they formed was not a good picture.
A small-time crook hiding in a rundown town was not worth Original Team staging an operation of that scale. But if their real target had never been Taylor at all — if it had always been the elite Security Officers being drawn in from cities across the Norlandia Alliance — then everything made sense.
It had to be said: Original Team was as ruthless as ever. The Alliance had just managed to capture one of their regional commanders, and Rocket's answer was to arrange a mass grave for the officers responsible.
Jenny was still telling him to get out of there quickly. That told Nova everything he needed to know: the Security Officers currently moving into Lune Town had no idea the entire place was one big trap waiting to go off.
He looked her straight in the eyes.
"We can't leave," he said, each word slow and deliberate.
Jenny could tell immediately that he wasn't joking. There was something heavier underneath those words.
Nova paused and glanced toward her two subordinates, who were still standing a short distance away on either side.
The meaning was plain enough. He had information — serious information — but he wasn't willing to share it with an audience he didn't know.
"They've been with me for years," Jenny said. "They're people I trust."
Nova nodded. He understood her position. But he didn't ease his stance. This wasn't about doubting her judgment — it was a matter of survival. Her trust in them was hers to give. His was a different matter entirely.
"Then there's nothing more to discuss," he said simply. "Good luck to all of you."
Jenny pressed her lips together. For about fifteen seconds, she didn't speak. Then she turned to her officers.
"You all head back to your assigned area and coordinate with the others. I'll catch up shortly."
The two officers looked like they wanted to push back. Jenny raised one hand, cutting them off before they could start.
"That's an order."
They had no choice. Both mounted their partner Pokemon and headed back the way they had come, until their figures disappeared into the distance.
Only once she was certain they were gone did Jenny turn back to Nova.
"All right. What is it you want to tell me?"
Nova answered her question with one of his own.
"First — what time is the operation set for?"
Jenny didn't hesitate. She had made her choice to trust him, and she wasn't going to second-guess it now.
"Midnight. All teams move in simultaneously to make arrests across Lune Town."
Nova checked his Poketch. 3 PM. Nine hours left.
He thought it through quickly. If Original Team had laid a trap for the Security Officers, they would wait for the ideal moment — when all the officers were spread out across Lune Town's criminal locations, focused on their targets, with no easy way to regroup. That was when setting off an explosion would do the most damage. Which meant whatever Rocket had planned was almost certainly timed to the operation itself.
"We still have time," Nova said. "Let me explain properly. First — I think there's a informant inside your Security Officer team. And not a low-ranking one."
"Because of what happened to Taylor?" Jenny asked.
"Yes. Every Security Bureau in the Alliance was counting on Taylor to give up more intelligence on Original Team. Instead, he died in custody. Whoever arranged that had to have serious authority within the Public Security General Bureau — close enough to Taylor's supervision to get someone in range. And they couldn't have done it alone."
He kept going. "To pull off a clean kill on a supervised prisoner, you need people at every step. Someone to draw the guards away. Someone to act. Someone to assist. Someone to clean up after. And beyond all that, someone to generate enough false evidence to muddy the investigation completely. That's why the whole thing came out looking like it had never happened — because everyone involved had a forged alibi ready."
Jenny was quiet for a moment, then nodded slowly.
"You're right. It would take at least that many people working in coordination. Luring the guards, carrying out the act, covering the scene, falsifying records — and doing all of it so cleanly that there's nothing left to trace. Every real suspect walks away clean."
"Which is why," Nova continued, "the Alliance has been fighting Original Team for years and has almost nothing to show for it at the top. No senior commanders brought in. No real breakthroughs." He let that sit for a second. "And yet I managed to catch Taylor — one person, working alone, because I decided to."
"Because the problem isn't manpower or effort. The problem is that Original Team already has eyes inside the Public Security General Bureau. With people like that in place, any real lead on a commander gets buried before it goes anywhere."
He looked at her steadily.
"So don't take this the wrong way, Jenny. When your life is on the line, caution isn't a luxury. Your subordinates have your trust. That doesn't mean they have mine."
Jenny was quiet for a moment. Then she asked, "So why do you trust me? Because of what happened before between us?"
"Partly," Nova said. "Right now, you're the only Security Officer in the Norlandia Alliance I'm willing to trust."
"Then why don't you think I could be the informant?"
"Because if you were with Original Team, Taylor would have been dead the moment I walked out of the desert." Nova's tone was flat, matter-of-fact. "You had a critically injured man in your custody. All you had to do was nothing — leave him alone, and he wouldn't have lasted. There was no reason to arrange medical care, keep him alive, and then quietly have him killed later. That would just be making extra work for yourself."
Jenny almost smiled. "By that same logic, I can trust you completely. Original Team already had the winning hand. Their own people would have had no reason to step in and kill Taylor themselves."
She extended her hand. Nova took it without hesitation.
It wasn't the kind of handshake that came from shared history or personal warmth. It was something more practical than that — two people agreeing, without needing to say it out loud, that they were on the same side of this particular problem. When it came to Original Team, they were natural allies.
Whether they liked it or not, they were tied to the same rope.
Jenny dropped her hand and looked at him. "So that's the secret you wanted to share with me?"
Nova gave a short, humorless laugh. "Jenny, brace yourself for what comes next."
"I'm the deputy captain of Forest City's Security Bureau," she said evenly. "I don't scare easily."
"Unless you can't help it," he said.
Jenny blinked. For a moment, her expression shifted into something genuinely puzzled, the kind of look that needed no words to convey.
Nova let the small joke go.
"All right, no more of that. Here's the truth: your operation has already been leaked to Original Team — by whoever the high-level informant is. It's even possible that the operation was pushed through specifically because of that. Someone may have steered the entire thing from inside, using it as a way to get a large group of elite officers concentrated in one place."
Jenny's first instinct was doubt. The officers selected for this mission were not ordinary. They were some of the best in their respective regions, drawn from cities across the Alliance. For Original Team to talk about wiping them all out at once — that was an enormous claim. Were they really so sure of themselves?
Then Nova showed her the evidence behind his conclusions.
And the color drained from Jenny's face.