"Hello, Dominique. Don't make any sound, just listen to me." Stairmount starts. "I want to warn you. Be careful, it seems that the Saturn government has installed a bug in your official residence. Check every angle in your residence very carefully. After that, let me know what you've got."

He closes his ultra-cyber minipad, and dials another team member's number. To tell them the same thing he has instructed to Dominique.

Right after Stairmount dials Pamela as the last member he contacts, a call comes from Dominique. Stairmount picks his minipad up.

"Stairmount, I don't find any bugs at all. My house is safe."

"Have you checked it properly? They mustn't put it in an easy-to-find place for certain. Look for it once again."

"But I've finished searching on the entire house."

"How about the back of the cupboard, or the area under the couch? Have you looked for it yet?"

"Ah, I've not yet searched for it there! I'll check it again!"

Stairmount exhales a tired sigh. This is indeed what he is worried about; his team members are only brilliant at health sciences, but for everything else, they are goose eggs. Even worse, the others also give the same information as Dominique gave, and it only makes him even more nervous.

He finds Pamela, the only woman on his team member, calls him. As expected, she also gives the same response. "No bugs in my house, Stairmount."

And as he did before, Stairmount asks, "Have you observed the places which are quite hidden?"

"Yes. I have followed the ways of those spy movies; I've looked beneath the sofa, behind the cupboards, into the plant pots, and up to the ceiling of the house, but I find nothing!"

Not expecting to hear a different answer, Stairmount insists, "You are certain that your house is really safe?"

"Totally safe."

"Well then." Stairmount says again. "Okay, we can take a relieved breath now. Have a good rest."

Shortly after he closes the ultra-cyber minipad, another member of his team contacts him, also to provide the same information.

"I even browsed the internet about the locations where bugs are usually installed. I've followed their instructions, but I can't find anything," Calvin reports in detail.

"Okay then, your house is safe. We may rest assured." Then Stairmount disconnects the ultra-cyber minipad.

The result of his conversation with the five members of his team ignites mixed feelings of anger and confusion inside Stairmount's mind at the same time. He feels angry, because he makes a correct guess, Saturn government only discredits him, and not the others. And confused - he must be confused, after all. Why is the Saturn government so antipathy to me? If they hate Jupiter, then they should have had entire official residences of the delegation team bugged. But, why do they only do this in my house? What the heck is going on here? What is their real purpose? Or do... they know? They know about Chrono's evil plan? About Sierra Pathogen???...

Once again, Stairmount looks heavenward, to the ceiling. His eyes flash intensely, and the corners of his mouth are tightly shut.

He cannot lose to his opposition. Because this all concerns the lives of his parents.

He has to win. Whatever happens.

Copyright ©️ by boundless_universe 

***

"It's not like what I thought before. He turns out to be pretty smart."

That person is twirling the pen inside their left finger, their eyes are busy looking at their flying transparent screen which has just suddenly turned black. They clicks their right finger, as a sign of doing a rewind. Soon, the flying transparent screen shows the scene before the screen changes color.

"Ha, you said, your father defends Saturn so intensely. But now what are you doing instead?" They keeps observing the screen showing the angry Stairmount was yelling many cursing words to release his infuriation towards Saturn's representative team. "You instead stab your ancestral country in the back. As you said, we do hate you more than those foreign bastards. They are foreigners after all, not of the same blood as us, so it's understandable that they are mean to us. But you. You have Saturnian blood, same as ours, but you become that bastard's minion instead, and stab us in the back. The allegory is the same as that of the parents getting betrayed by their son. Of course, it hurts us much more, Schynn Rivers."

They turns off the cyber screen. And now looking at a sheet of paper. Which turns out to be a complete identity sheet regarding Stairmount.

Name: Stairmount.

Surname: Rivers.

Saturnian name: Schynn.

Nationality: Jupiter.

...

Work experience :

Delegation Team Leader of Jupiter Health Department.

Chief Researcher of Mist Laboratory, Pluto. (questioned)

Official Personnel of Chrono Organization. (questioned)

Copyright © boundless_universe