Chapter 154 Registry

Chapter 154 Registry

Sylas understood Bloom's intentions immediately and didn't say a word.

Mark, though, forever in the dark, tried to pull on her sleeve, telling her to stop. He was just a perfectly useful idiot for this sort of play that Sylas didn't even have to help out.

Bloom ripped her sleeve from Mark's fingers. "Don't try to stop me. Is the fucking government going to compensate me for my broken windshield? How about the fact we almost died three times on the way here? Now when I'm finally about to make it home you've got some shit to say?!"

The soldier stood there, undeterred. He had been well-trained, and a little yelling from a woman that felt half his height wasn't going to move him.

His gaze shifted toward Sylas who was in the back seat. Sylas met his gaze without a word and the soldier couldn't seem to read anything from his expression at all.

"You say Lone Star is your home? Alright, show me your license and registration please."

This seemed to throw Bloom into an even deeper rage.

"You just stopped me at a checkpoint because you felt like it and now you want me to ID myself? Is this even Terranova anymore? Or did my country become a dictatorship while I was asleep?! You need probable cause, don't you think, bozo?"

The soldier frowned.

He wasn't very familiar with these sorts of laws, he was a soldier, not a police officer.

It was impossible for Earth to have been perfectly peaceful in these last 200 years, so even they had to fight battles from time to time, though never against the large, empire-like nations. This was all to say that he was a fighter, not a lawyer.

But none of that mattered.

"We are under martial law, lady. Show me your driver's license and registration, or else I'll have to ask you to step out of the car."

"Fuck you! Arrest me, then! Martial law my ass, just another fancy word for I own you so do as I say. I bet it must make you feel so big and strong bullying a woman like me. How do you even sleep at night?"

Bloom's face twisted with disgust.

The soldier's patience was wearing thin when Mark finally couldn't hold it in anymore.

"Bloom, just show him the damned registration."

It could be said that their scheme was perfect. In fact, they had even used a method similar to what Lauren must have to hide their stats and look like normal civilians in the eyes of anyone who checked.

Bloom had gone so far mostly because their spatial devices didn't work. Their weapons were hidden in the car, and if there was a check, they'd be screwed.

In that way, they hit all the right notes but there was still a problem that they couldn't fix.

...

In that way, they hit all the right notes but there was still a problem that they couldn't fix.

Kyle watched as the car drove away, a nagging feeling eating away at his heart. Had he been too lax? Or had he done too much?

'XDX 364...'

His gaze landed on the Lone Star license plate.

"Hey, rookie, come over here. Run this license plate for me."

The rookie rushed over, expecting Kyle's anger to be taken out on him. But there was actually a faint surprise instead.

"The registry is—"

"I know. It's a pain in the ass standing here all day in this heavy equipment, take it as a break."

"Right away, sir!"

The internet was spotty at best right now. Cross-checking a registration in real time was impossible, and although Bloom was annoying, she was also right about something. If the government made their citizens feel too uncomfortable, the situation would be even worse in the long run.

If the wrong person ran into a portal and gained some power for themselves, they could really wreak havoc like those billionaire family progenitors had done during the Sixth Extinction. They had no choice but to play a delicate balancing act.

It wasn't until his shift was nearly finished that Kyle got the information he wanted back.

"Fuck. Report this to the higher-ups, now!"