Alexander and Austin could not understand why Mike admitted it.
‘Isn't he under the drug’s control? If not, why would he obey Rhea’s commands? Did we guess wrongly, and Mike's willingly
working with Rhea? Is he confronting us to show off what he did?’
Not keeping them in suspense, Mike continued, “Yes, | was the one who freed Rhea, and | did it on purpose.”
“She hypnotized me,” Mike added.
“Hypnotized?” The other two did not consider that.
However, hearing the term, Austin felt it made more sense now.
“Hypnosis,” Mike nodded and continued, “Of course, she might have used sdrug, but | wasn't sure how it worked. What | do
Follow on NovᴇlEnglish.nᴇtknow is that she performed hypnosis on me. She wanted to controlso that | would let her go. So, | did.”
Austin blinked in confusion. He held up a hand and said, “Hang on. What did you just say? You knew she wanted you to free her,
and you just did it?”
When Mike nodded, Austin could not help but say, “Do you know what you're talking about? Are you under her control or not? You
aren't still in a hypnotized state, are you?”
He curiously snapped his fingers in Mike's face. Austin saw that was how one could break a hypnotic trance in the movies and
wondered if it would work.
Alexander held Austin's hand down and looked at Mike. “She didn’t hypnotize you, did she?”
Alexander was initially confused, but seeing Mike's mindset, he roughly understood what had happened.
Mike nodded gently. “I wasn't.”
“So you—" Before Austin could finish, Alexander said, “He did it on purpose.”
Austin was puzzled while Mike looked at Alexander confirmingly.
“That's right. When | realized Rhea was trying to getto free her through hypnosis, | thought for a long tbefore deciding to
let her go,” Mike said candidly.
Austin could not help but ask, “Do you genuinely believe she would rescue your son?”
“No, | just wanted to see what she’s up to and use her to find out what's happening inside the embassy.”
“So you're trying to beca double agent?”
Follow on Novᴇl-Onlinᴇ.cᴏm
The term seemed inaccurate, but Alexander could not devise a better descriptor.
“| guess you can say that," Mike said, “I couldn't think of a better way. We were getting nowhere back then, so | did it when |
realized what she was up to.”
“Why didn’t you discuss this with us?” Austin could not get it.
After all, they would not have needed much effort studying the incident if Mike told them about it earlier.
“] worried she might see throughif it wasn’t convincing enough,” Mike said quietly, “Rhea is as sly as a fox. If | told you about it
and you hadn't tried looking everywhere for her, she would surely grow suspicious.
“Therefore, the best way is not to tell anyone about it. Only by pretending I'm now under her control would she believe she has
succeeded.”
Alexander nodded thoughtfully. Everything seemed to make sense now. He said, “I still have a question for you.”