TWD - Zomboid - Chapter 263: Friendly Exchange with the Southern City-State (Patreon)

Rebecca continued to be tormented by her insatiable scientific curiosity.

Meanwhile, Ada called Luke into the intelligence room. Now that the female agent had parted ways with Wesker, her allegiance naturally shifted to Luke’s camp.

Luke therefore allowed Ada to establish the Commonwealth Intelligence Department, with Ada also serving as its director.

“I’ve made contact with an informant in that southern city-state and learned quite a bit. Today, we can finally have a formal talk with Mr. President.” Ada sat at the communications console and tucked a strand of black hair behind her ear.

Luke pulled over a chair and sat beside her, then sent someone to bring Ashley over.

Ashley arrived shortly afterward.

Her last visit to Luke’s house had left quite an impression on her.

Even now, Ashley still looked at Luke a little strangely, especially whenever her gaze drifted toward his waist.

“Why’d you call me here?” the young girl asked, blinking.

“Nothing much. Just wanted to remind you to remember to say ‘Dad’ later!” Luke said.

Ada smacked him.

“Stop talking nonsense!” She explained, “We’re going to contact your father. If the negotiations go smoothly, you’ll be able to return to his side very soon.”

Ashley immediately brightened at the thought of speaking to her father.

Ada adjusted the encrypted radio and locked onto the frequency.

“Crackle!”

Static hissed through the room.

“I want to speak to your president. We have information about his daughter. Hurry. You have one minute.”

Before long, an authoritative voice came through.

“...Who are you?”

The instant Ashley heard her father’s voice, she became visibly excited, but Luke covered her mouth and signaled for her to stay quiet for now.

“How did you obtain this communications channel? Identify yourselves!”

This was an encrypted channel accessible only to the city-state’s inner circle.

With strangers suddenly breaking into it, his suspicion was only natural.

“President Graham, hello. How we obtained this channel isn’t important. What matters is...”

“Your daughter, Ashley, is in our hands.”

Ada carefully controlled the pace of the conversation.

The other end of the radio fell silent for a moment.

Faint voices could still be heard in the background. The president was probably asking his staff if they had any ideas.

Three minutes later, the president demanded angrily, “You... what have you done to my daughter? If you dare touch a single hair on her head!”

“Mr. President, calm down.”

Ada interrupted in an even tone. “Your daughter is completely safe. If you don’t believe us, you can hear it from her yourself. We came here to negotiate in good faith.”

She handed the encrypted radio to Ashley.

“You can talk to your father now.”

Ashley eagerly took the radio in both hands.

“Dad! It’s me! It’s Ashley!”

“Ashley!”

Joy entered the president’s voice. “Is it really you? This isn’t a recording, is it? Are you really all right?”

“Have they mistreated you? Where are you? Dad will send someone to pick you up right now!”

“I’m fine, Dad. I’m doing great!”

Ashley hurried to reassure him. “Don’t worry. It was... it was Luke... they saved me! They’re all good people. They just might sound... a little aggressive!”

“If it weren’t for them, those monsters would’ve taken me long ago! They’re good people, Dad!”

The president finally breathed a sigh of relief.

Judging from his daughter’s tone, she didn’t seem to be under duress.

He did his best to comfort Ashley, asking whether she was eating well and whether she was comfortable where she was staying.

Listening from the side, Luke noticed that the president was also probing carefully, hoping Ashley might accidentally reveal their location.

Mr. President probably still had no idea that his precious daughter had once been kidnapped by Los Iluminados, nearly implanted with parasite eggs, and almost sent back to the Southern City-State afterward.

In a roundabout way, Luke had saved the Southern City-State’s life.

No, that wasn’t right. He had saved two hundred thousand lives.

He was practically a saint.

After a little more small talk, Ada took the radio back.

“You should be convinced now. Your daughter really is safe, and what you just heard obviously wasn’t a recording.”

“Thank you for saving Ashley,” the president said. “But since you saved her and still haven’t returned my daughter, I assume there’s something you want.”

“Go ahead. What do you want?”

“As long as I can get my daughter back, whether it’s supplies, weapons, manpower, territory... whatever your terms are, we can negotiate.”

Clearly, the president had mistaken Luke and the others for mercenaries who had happened to rescue his daughter by chance.

After all, he could never have imagined that, in the apocalypse, someone could locate Ashley so precisely and bring her back.

The president didn’t even know who had kidnapped his daughter in the first place.

“Oh? Anything can be traded? It seems President Graham really values his daughter.” Luke spoke up.

“Then this is easy!”

Luke tested the waters. “If I asked you for a nuclear bomb, would you hand one over too?”

“Impossible!”

The president’s voice immediately hardened.

“Young man, anything else can be discussed, but a nuclear warhead is absolutely nonnegotiable. Not even in exchange for my daughter!”

“Ashley, looks like your father doesn’t love you that much after all.” Luke looked over at her.

“Don’t bother trying to drive a wedge between us. Ashley was born into a family like this. She has responsibilities of her own, and my daughter understands that very well!”

The president firmly refused such an extreme demand. “Besides, with your capabilities, you couldn’t possibly maintain a nuclear weapon! Those things are extremely delicate. They require a professional team, a temperature-controlled environment, and regular maintenance!”

“If I gave one to you, best case, it would eventually become scrap metal. Worst case... it could kill you yourselves!”

Luke listened without showing any reaction.

He was definitely getting his hands on a nuclear bomb.

Even in peacetime, nuclear deterrence mattered.

All the more so in the apocalypse.

The Southern City-State possessed three nuclear bombs. If they were ever used, any faction would be completely outmatched.

No one wanted to live with a blade hanging over their neck.

Luke might never actually use the bomb, but he had to possess one.

If the Commonwealth had even a single nuclear weapon, it could stand above every faction on the continent with the power to destroy any of them at will. It wouldn’t matter whether the enemy had two hundred thousand people, one million, or ten million.

One bomb, and everyone was equal.

“You don’t need to worry about maintenance, Mr. President. If we were able to find out that you had something like this, do you really think we wouldn’t have prepared for it?” Luke smiled.

“Still, you do have a point.”

He abruptly changed tack. “Trading your daughter for a nuclear warhead really is... asking a bit much. Business is about buying and selling. As long as both sides put up something of equal value, everyone walks away happy.”

“This deal wouldn’t be worth it for you. If something annoyed you afterward, you could casually toss a nuclear bomb at us like a firecracker.”

“That would put us in a very vulnerable position.”

The president rubbed his brow. “I’m not insane. Nuclear weapons can’t just be deployed whenever I feel like it. The committee has to discuss and approve it first. What do you think I am, some kind of oligarch?”

Luke chuckled. “Mr. President, you’ve got three nuclear bombs under your control, and you’re still playing by the whole democratic republic system? I have to admit, that’s not what I expected!”