Chapter 110: Mist
Chapter 110: Mist
"Look at that pathetic loser — bet he just pissed his pants!"
Grace flipped off the door, then turned to Ethan and let out an excited whistle.
"Nice work! That's exactly how you deal with disgusting pieces of shit like him! Party's not over — nobody's leaving until we finish every last bottle of champagne in here!"
The electronic bass kicked back in, filling the VIP room, and Hailey finally let out a long breath of relief, pulling Mia down onto the couch beside her.
But just as Ethan stepped up to the bar, before he could even pour himself another whiskey, his phone buzzed in his pocket.
Noah?
Ethan frowned and picked up.
"Boss." Noah's voice was urgent on the other end.
"We've got a problem. I just sent people back to clean up and take inventory of the lab wreckage — the core gene serum trial data has been stolen."
Ethan froze, his glass suspended in mid-air. "How? You've got people everywhere out there. Not even a fly could get through."
"It was someone on the inside."
"One of our senior lab staff — still in uniform. While everyone was cleaning up, he hacked into the backup server in the chaos, copied the files, knocked out two security guards, and ran. He was almost certainly a plant."
Ethan understood immediately.
The attack on the company, the chaos it created, using Mia to pull his attention away — it all had one purpose:
To draw him completely away from the lab.
They had timed it perfectly. They'd calculated the gap — him leaving to deal with the Friesen family, then rushing off to save Mia — and used that window to let their mole inside grab exactly what they were really after.
The Aeterna Causality...
These people were a lot more sophisticated than he'd given them credit for.
"Send me the coordinates." Ethan slammed his glass down on the bar. "I'm on my way."
"Copy that. I've already got three cars on him. Sending you the live location now." Noah hung up without another word.
Ethan turned around and looked at the girls still moving to the music.
"Party's over." His voice wasn't loud, but it cut right through the noise.
Mia stopped instantly. She knew Ethan too well — one look at his eyes and she knew something had gone seriously wrong.
"What happened?" She stood up.
"Minor issue. I need to go take out some trash at the office." Ethan was already heading for the door, not looking back. "Mia, get everyone back to the villa right now. Stay there. Don't go anywhere. Wait for me."
With that, he pushed open the door and walked out.
Three minutes later, a black sports car shot out into the night.
Ethan steered with one hand, the other holding his phone, watching a red dot moving fast across the screen.
The roads ahead were getting emptier. He was entering the industrial district.
Noah's three black SUVs had a silver sedan boxed in on a run-down street.
The driver of the silver car clearly knew the area well — he cut hard into an extremely narrow alley.
Too narrow for the SUVs. The moment they tried to follow, one clipped a shipping container and got wedged in tight. No way through.
Ethan watched the silver car disappearing deeper into the alley and slammed the brakes. His hands spun the wheel hard and fast.
The black sports car whipped into a drift, reversing direction, and launched up an abandoned highway on-ramp beside the alley.
He pushed the car hard across the overpass, eyes locked on the silver sedan threading through the alley below.
He was calculating time. Calculating distance.
Now.
The instant the silver car was about to burst out of the alley exit, Ethan wrenched the wheel all the way over. The black sports car smashed straight through the guardrail at the edge of the overpass.
The entire car flew off the bridge, dropping several stories through the air.
A thunderous crash. The black sports car slammed down right at the alley exit, landing sideways and completely blocking the road.
The silver car's driver stomped the brakes in a panic, the front bumper stopping just inches from Ethan's door.
Ethan kicked the crumpled door open and stepped out.
A moment later, the silver car's door swung open.
A lean man climbed out.
He was still wearing a white lab coat with Ethan's company logo on it, a black briefcase clutched in his hand.
A senior researcher. His name was Kieran.
Before Ethan could say a word, Kieran smiled.
"Still Ethan, through and through."
He clapped slowly.
"The Aeterna Causality threw everything they had at slowing you down — all those people, all that money — and you still got here. Your strength is genuinely impressive."
"Cut the talk." Ethan's eyes were fixed on the briefcase. "Hand it over. I might make this quick for you."
Kieran let out an exaggerated laugh. "Ethan, did all that time in prison actually rot your brain? You think after everything I went through to get this, I'm just going to hand it back to you like a good boy?"
"You're strong, I'll give you that. But you're naive. You really think I'd drive out here alone?"
Before the words had fully left his mouth, Kieran slowly raised his right hand and snapped his fingers.
"Show him what real power looks like."
The wall of an abandoned three-story building above and to Ethan's right exploded outward.
Broken bricks and rebar rained down.
An enormous dark shape dropped from the building and crashed into the ground between Ethan and Kieran.
The dust settled.
It was a man — built like a tank, massive beyond reason.