Jack lifted his head, his eyes filled with anger that had come far too late. "It was Brian! That gaunt-faced Brian!
He kept talking in my ear!
Saying the leader and the mercenaries don't treat us like people, saying the newcomers took what should've been ours, saying we do the most work but get the least...
Brian kept bringing it up like it was nothing, complaining, stirring the pot!
Before I went to steal that stuff, he was the one complaining to me that the warehouse guards were getting careless. He said, 'Take a little of what you deserve. Nobody will notice'...
I lost my head, and then...
I only just figured it out. He was using me!"
Jack's words were jumbled, but the point was clear.
Brian, the gaunt-faced man who had seemed quiet during the trial, even occasionally showing a sympathetic look, was the real hand behind it.
Leah's eyes instantly turned dangerously cold.
She remembered this Brian.
Back when the base had first stabilized and they had taken in the workers rescued from Lorenzo, this man had been one of those rescued worker prisoners.
When Calista announced the credit system, he had tried to stir up trouble, using excuses like "everyone has it hard" and "you have guns and supplies, so you should share," hoping to get something without working for it. Calista had shut him down hard on the spot.
Some dogs really never stopped eating shit.
"Get up!" Leah said coldly. "Come with me to see the leader and Rickson. Tell them everything you just remembered, exactly as it happened."
In the command room, the oil lamp flickered unsteadily.
Wrapped in a cotton coat, Calista listened to Jack's remorseful account without the slightest expression on her face.
Beside her, Rickson's frown grew deeper and deeper.
"Brian..." Rickson said thoughtfully. "I remember him. Of those first troublemakers, he had the loudest voice, the most twisted arguments, and he was the one leading them.
On the day of Jack's trial, he stood at the back of the crowd. He really didn't do anything unusual. He even chimed in once or twice about how people should follow the rules."
"That's exactly what makes Brian so slippery," Leah said, arms crossed, her voice ice-cold.
"He was punished once, so now he doesn't step forward himself. He hides behind other people and pushes them instead. Jack is impulsive, so he made the perfect tool."
To confirm it further, Calista had Rickson quietly bring in the bespectacled man who shared a communal dormitory with Jack and Brian.
The bespectacled man usually seemed honest, and he was diligent with the work assigned to him. He looked like a smart man who knew how to protect himself.
Dragged out of bed at Blackberry Ranch in the middle of the night and brought to the command room at Rock Fortress, the bespectacled man was extremely nervous.
Under the cold gazes of Calista and the other two, he pushed up his glasses and stammered out confirmation of Jack's story.
"B-Brian... he really does say strange things a lot," the bespectacled man said quietly.
"Not just after the new survivors arrived. Actually... actually, long before that, before the base had taken in so many people, he was always complaining in private.
He said the leaders controlled the weapons and the best supplies, that they were the new ruling class, and that those of us doing the work were exploited slaves.
He said, what right do the mercenaries and National Guard have to stand above everyone else...
He always had a lot of conspiracy theories. He thought the people at the top must be hiding good things and not distributing them fairly."
The bespectacled man paused, then gathered his courage and added, "And Brian also said that if he had those things, he, he would definitely do better than a woman...
Jack is pretty straightforward. He's easy to provoke.
Brian often talked to him and said things meant to stir trouble.
This time, with Jack stealing, I think Brian definitely had something to do with it.
He just said it in a roundabout way, but that was what he meant!"
The situation was already clear.
Brian was not just someone who complained.
He was a potential ideological cancer, an instigator who was good at using other people's resentment and hiding in the dark to undermine the stability of the group.
Publicly punishing Jack had treated the symptom, not the root.
As long as someone like Brian remained, he could find the next "Jack" and keep spreading suspicion and resentment, corroding the unity Rock Fortress depended on to survive.
Jack stood silently to the side, listening to an outsider's view of the whole thing. The more he heard, the angrier he became. He hated his own stupidity, but he hated Brian's poison even more, so much that he wanted to rush out right then and beat Brian to death.
After being ordered to keep everything strictly confidential, the bespectacled man and Jack were taken away.
Only Calista, Rickson, and Leah remained in the command room. The atmosphere was heavy.
"If we deal with Brian publicly without solid proof, we'll only alert him. It might even make people who don't know the truth sympathize with him and think we're eliminating dissent."
Leah analyzed it calmly. "He's careful with what he says. It's all in private, and there's no direct physical evidence."
Rickson's stance was blunt. "A snake like that is nothing but trouble if we leave him alone. We don't know when he'll bite, and when he does, the damage may be impossible to undo."
Calista remained silent.
In the apocalypse, especially within a growing community, some threats could not be solved by rules laid out in the open.
For most people to survive, some dirty work had to be done.
Her gaze swept over Rickson and Leah. In the end, she made her decision.
"Since we can't do it openly, then let him have an 'accident.'"
"Leah, get Merle and Shane." Calista's voice was calm, with no emotion showing through. "Tell them there's a mission. Tomorrow."
A cold gleam flashed through Leah's eyes. She had no objections and immediately turned to make arrangements.
Merle and Shane were secretly brought to the command room one after the other.
The chill from outside still clung to both of them.
Seeing Calista, Rickson, and Leah all gathered there with such a serious atmosphere, they immediately realized this was no ordinary summons.
Calista did not beat around the bush. She looked straight at them and said, "There's a mission for you two. The target is Brian. Carry it out tomorrow night. It needs to look like an accident..."
Almost the moment Calista finished speaking, Merle's eyes lit up with the satisfaction of being "put to good use."
His mouth split into a grin that could only be called savage, and he unconsciously rubbed his chin.
[Ha! Finally, some real work! And an order straight from Calista herself! This is exactly the kind of shit I'm supposed to be doing!]
Merle licked his slightly cracked lips. His voice was hoarse, carrying a suppressed excitement. "Don't worry, Calista. I'll make sure that gaunt-faced bastard 'falls asleep' nice and quiet, without even knowing how he died!"
He looked like he was ready to rub his hands together, if he still had both arms.
This kind of mission gave Merle the feeling that he could hold someone else's life and death in his hands, and that made him feel perfectly at ease.
Unlike Merle's undisguised excitement, Shane stiffened slightly the moment he heard the details of the mission.
His eyes quickly moved over Calista's calm face, then to Leah and Rickson beside her, both expressionless.
Shane understood. This was not a discussion. It was an order.
It was also a test, a test of whether he had truly entered the core of this group, and whether he was willing to dirty his hands for the group's survival.
Still, the fact that Calista had proposed it, and that he had to carry it out together with Merle, left him with a faint, inexplicable discomfort.
Shane pushed down that complicated unease and slowly nodded. "I understand. It has to be done."
He said nothing more, but chose to obey.
Ever since deciding to follow Calista, Shane had paid close attention to her.
Aside from a subtle attraction, he wanted to see Calista's true self. He wanted to know whether she was really someone worth following.
Now it seemed that Calista... she was more decisive than Rick, or perhaps colder.
She knew what had to be done, and she dared to do it.
...
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