Chapter 44: Other methods

"General Maxwell, if you think that it is him, then you clearly don't know the whole situation. Caen is the Commander of Level 1 branch of Variant Uprising according to our information," Xander countered right away.

Placing his hand on the table before him, he further asked, "He is not a Warlock. He only has one Physical Power of Shapeshifting. He can't use any other powers. He can explain the looks of the boy, but how can you explain the boy being able to use the powers of Zale Azarel and Clarisse?"

Xander knew that it was a stupid excuse. A person being able to use over two powers at once and most of them being similar to the powers of the Strongest Warlock and the Strongest Mage, only their son should be able to do that.

"Did you see him use his powers? Is there a video of that which I can see?" General Maxwell inquired with an amused smile on his face.

General Maxwell had also gotten involved in this case. He was also collecting information, but so far, no video has surfaced of Lucifer using his powers.

"We don't have the video of his fights, but we have four dead members and many dead citizens. We also have a video of him only a short distance away from where our men were killed. The investigation of the bodies has the clues of the powers they were probably killed with," Xander replied.

"I'll take that as a no in that case. Can't it be possible that it's a team of more than one person? One was pretending to be Lucifer, while other members were the ones that actually did the killing. It was all to throw you guys on a wild goose chase."

" If it was actually Lucifer, why would he kill humans in the restaurant that have no relations to him? Don't let yourself be fooled by the dark elements of that Rogue Organization."

General Maxwell gave a sound assumption which was challenging to disprove even by Xander. Especially when he actually had no proof that it was actually one person that killed his men. There were just no videos of Lucifer fighting.

Until now, Xander was more focused on the one lead that he assumed to be accurate, but the reasoning of General Maxwell had made him confused as well.

If it were more than one person, that would mean that it was indeed Dark Variant Uprising which was enacting some plan. That would mean General Maxwell was right, and he was chasing the wrong thing.

It also made things more complicated. Firstly, he thought that he would get the search warrant from the higher ups if General Maxwell refused to give him access to the Staff of the Facility, but now it wasn't easy.

He needed to convince the higher ups that the chances of his theory being true was over ninety percent and that the facility did something wrong, but now with this new theory of General Maxwell, that was tough.

In fact, that made it nearly impossible for him to convince the higher ups to give him the search warrant. Now the only hope that was left was getting General Maxwell's permission from him directly.

"Can I still see the video of Lucifer's last moments? Just to satisfy my curiosity? Or let me talk to the staff," Xander asked the General.

"I apologize, but the facility is working on some projects that we can't show others. There is also confidential information there. It's why I can't allow you to talk to staff or let you go through the security footage." General Maxwell refused to allow Xander.

This was the worst possible outcome for Xander that he was hoping to avoid, especially after the new theory of General Maxwell appeared. He couldn't do anything, or it would be seen as harassment at this point.

...

"General Maxwell, You know that I'm not after any sensitive information. I just want to talk to them about Lucifer and his death. I don't need anything else or any other footage. It shouldn't be a problem since he died of a medicine side effect."

"It's not like something crucial will be exposed by watching him die like that. I want to see both angles. It would be a really big deal if someone came back from the dead. Just think of the opportunities for the development of humanity it can create."

Xander kept trying to convince General Maxwell in all the possible ways he could since he couldn't use force here.

"I apologize, Captain Xander, but rules are rules. I can't break them. I can't permit anyone to interrogate my men. You can go to your higher-ups if you want to force me, but I can already tell you that it's not going to work. You should already know that," General Maxwell again refused.

"Anyway, It's time for my meeting. It was nice talking to you. Bye," he added as he disconnected the call after making an obvious excuse.

Xander was somewhat angry, but he remained calm.

He stood up and started walking towards the exit.

"We are going back."

...

As the Delta Squad left, only Doctor Rao was left behind, smirking.

"Do they really think that a dead person can come back to life? Idiots! It's even more impossible for someone to develop powers after they turn ten. There is no way that it can be Lucifer."

...

Xander left the room and walked back to the attack helicopter.

He brought out the phone and called a team member that was in the APF.

"Have the news channels started broadcasting about Lucifer?" he asked the person on the call, inquiring about his previous command in which he had told them to send Lucifer's image to news channels.

"Not yet, sir. We were preparing a few things. We just got finished. Anyway, I'll send it right away."

"Not yet? Alright. That's good. There are some changes in the plan, so don't do it anymore," Xander commanded.

' Since the straight path doesn't work, I'll have to use other means. General Maxwell, you really think you can stop me from getting what I want, don't you?' A thoughtful look shrouded Xander's face as he glanced back at the facility.