Savior (Part 2 - Button)

The car which was found by the military besides the railway tracks was at one of the military facility and Roy, Riza, and Alex went there after exploring the warehouse. They went to the office of the chief of the forensics responsible for searching the car for clues. He was waiting for them because Alex had already informed him. Once they entered inside, the chief was standing. Watching him, Alex questioned, "Did you find anything?"

"We collected some evidence from inside the car," The chief informed.

"Can you show us the evidence?" Alex asked.

The chief opened the lid of a box on his desk and then showed them the things which were collected from the car. Roy first picked up a photograph from the box. It was a black and white old photograph which had the images of Thomas, Rolan, Richard (Oliver's maths teacher), Richard's daughter and Scar's Master. In the image, everyone was smiling and Rolan was carrying Richard's 5-year-old daughter on his arms. "Mr. Pandit (Scar's Master) with three of the top guns of IFF, that's interesting," Roy said.

"I know about Richard Green. Do you know the other two men as well?" Alex asked curiously.

"Yes, I…met them…in very compromising circumstances," Roy answered hesitantly.

Meanwhile, Riza noticed a button in the box. She quickly took out the button from the box to have a better look. And as soon as she saw it, she recognized the custom made button that Roy had bought for the first school uniform of his son. And watching that tiny button, Riza started chuckling with tears forming in her eyes. Her reaction caught Roy's and Alex's attention instantly. "What happened?" Roy enquired.

"He is alive…Oli is alive, "Riza replied with mild chuckles and tears of happiness.

Roy looked at the button she was holding and recognized it instantly as Riza did. He smiled as well after getting an assurance that Oliver could be alive. And then suddenly, a soldier interrupted them, "Excuse me, Colonel Armstrong."

When everyone looked at the soldier, he saluted and stood straight. "What is it?" Alex asked.

"We have collected some information about the train which you asked for. It is going to Youswell, and it stopped for the first time at East City where the driver left the train. He was panicked for some reason, because of which a new driver had to take his place. A few minutes ago it left the Cameron station," The soldier informed.

"Nice work," Alex praised.

"We have to search all the places in the route where the train has stopped or going to stop," Roy proposed.

"But, it will take a lot of time Sir, and tomorrow is the Amestris-Xing meeting," Alex said.

"The search operation won't affect the meeting Colonel. Send the photograph and description of Oliver to the Eastern Command and tell them to organize a search operation in the area where the train has stopped. Also, give them the instruction to proceed carefully if they see any person with Oliver," Roy ordered and continued, "If I am not wrong then the unconscious person who boarded the train could be the leader of IFF, Thomas Maxwell."

"Yes Sir," Alex responded.

Riza didn't think to interrupt while Roy was taking the decisions. She was standing behind quietly, eagerly waiting for Roy to give her some command.

Meanwhile, at a border village in Eastern Area, a small group of military officers including Lieutenant General Swindale Abingdon of Eastern Command were waiting for someone to arrive. After some time their wait was over when they saw some people riding on horses were proceeding toward them. It was Ling and his company who arrived there to attend the first ever official Amestris-Xing meeting, which was to be held the next day. When they got off their horses, Swindale walked toward Ling and said with a smile, "Welcome Prince Ling Yao to Amestris. I am Lieutenant General Swindale Abingdon, my subordinates and I will take care of you and your companions from here."

Ling stood straight and murmured, "Wow, this experience is very much different than the last time."

Mei who was standing right beside him heard him and whispered, "You are right, last time I had a hard time just to find some food."

Meanwhile, Hu Zemin (political advisor of Ling) came forward to talk with the General. He smiled and said, "Hello General, I am Hu Zemin, and I am Prince Ling's advisor. You can talk to me instead of talking to the prince directly."

Swindale looked at Ling curiously, due to which Ling instantly replied, "Yes, yes, you talk to him. And bring us some food."

"Sure, let me first take you to a place where you can relax and have food," Swindale said.

Ling, Yang, Hu, and Swindale then got into a big car with a military driver, and the others took another car. The other cars surrounded the big car like a layer of armor while driving. There were two cars at the front and two cars at the back of the big car. Inside the big car, Swindale and Yang were sitting opposite to Hu and Ling. While they were going to a hotel which was preoccupied with the military due to the arrival of Ling, Swindale looked at Hu and informed, "We will leave for Central by tonight's train. The meeting is tomorrow evening."

"Are all the Generals coming for tomorrow's meeting?" Hu asked.

"Except Major General Volkmar of Western Command and Lieutenant General Armstrong of Northern Command, everyone will be there," Swindale replied and after a small pause, he questioned, "May I ask you a question?"

"Yes please," Hu answered.

"Why didn't the Emperor come himself?" Swindale asked.

"Prince Ling was involved in the fight against the terrorists at Central command, so the Emperor thought that it will be better if Prince Ling goes for the first visit," Hu replied and continued, "It's good that our leaders are becoming more understanding now."

After some time they reached the hotel. When Ling got inside the hotel, the first thing he saw was a smiling fat man welcoming him and others. "Welcome Prince L-," The man greeted, but before he could complete his sentence, Ling interrupted by saying, "Where is the food?"

The man was startled for a moment, then he looked at Ling with a smile and answered, "Oh, it's in the dining hall."

"Take me there," Ling said.

"Of course, please come with me," The man turned around and began walking toward the dining room.

He took Ling to the dining hall where there was a big elliptical table, and lots of dishes were placed on it. Ling rushed to the table and started eating the food present there like a barbarian. Watching that the man started laughing hesitantly, but he stopped laughing when he saw all the Xingese join their prince at the table, except Hu.

The man walked close to Ling and asked with a hesitant chuckle, "So, how is the food, Prince?"

But, he did not receive any answer, because everyone was focused on eating. He took a few steps back and stopped when he realized that someone was standing behind him. He turned around and saw Swindale was looking at the Xingese with an annoyed face. "Aren't they ill-mannered?" Swindale commented.

The man looked at Swindale with a confused look. He didn't know whether he should agree with him or not.