Chapter 103 Action

Chapter 103 Action

This time, the misdirection was ours. We were the bait, drawing every eye to the Skyline Terrace press conference, carving out the safest window for the rescue.

One hour later.

The Skyline Terrace event began on schedule.

I stood alone beneath the glare of a hundred lenses.

I explained nothing. I ignored the accusations against Arthur. I just looked straight into the cameras, straight at Allen, who I knew was somewhere out there watching.

"Mr. Miller, I don't know who gave you the courage to think you could step between me and my fiance.

"But I'll tell you this—the game has only just begun.

"And you've already lost."

When I finished, the room froze. Then, without hesitation, I turned and slid a USB drive into the projector.

On it were the records—Allen abusing FBI authority, illegally investigating civilians, colluding with unknown forces. Everything Lisa and I had dug up in the last hour. Enough to destroy him completely.

The press hall erupted.

I walked away from the chaos, slipping into the backstage area.

My phone buzzed once. A text from Arthur.

Arthur: [Action.]

Meanwhile, on the outskirts of Asteria City, the abandoned medical center lay shrouded in vines and decades of silence.

A convoy of black, unmarked SUVs slipped into position, surrounding the building without a sound.

Doors opened. Dozens of men in black combat gear, armed with top-tier weapons, moved into place under the cover of darkness.

Arthur stepped out of the lead vehicle, dressed the same, his face carved with cold intent.

He checked his watch, then spoke into the comm.

"Except for Sophia's mother," his voice was pure ice, "leave no one alive."

The noise of the press hall was muffled, like it was coming through thick glass.

I didn't care.

I was crouched in a cramped backstage storage room, the only light coming from my laptop screen.

My fingers flew over the keys, fast enough to throw sparks.

My battlefield was here.

That damned medical center.

I knew its bones, but thirty years had passed. The man behind this wouldn't have left it untouched.

Sure enough, the moment I tried to breach, a fresh, high-grade corporate firewall slammed down.

I smiled without warmth.

Did he really think that would stop me?

I didn't attack head-on. Instead, I called up an ancient maintenance protocol my father had left behind. One only the blood of the Davis Family would know. It worked.

The screen shifted. Blue 3D schematics unfolded, the building's skeleton laid bare before me.

Heat imaging lit up—red points pulsing across the map.

I counted fast. Twenty... no, twenty-five. At least twenty-five men, heavily armed, moving like a trained strike team.

Static hissed in my earpiece, then Arthur's voice cut in, low and urgent. "We're in. East entrance. Heavy resistance."

Gunfire cracked in the background, sharp and relentless.

My chest tightened.

"Don't get bogged down!"

I barked into the mic, eyes locked on the red points.

"Third floor, section C. Two sentries around the corner, left side behind the wall. They're trying to push you south!"

I watched as the blue markers—Arthur's team—were herded toward a narrow space.

The incinerator room.

No exits. A kill box.

The bastard knew me. Knew every vicious design my father had built.

"It's a trap! Arthur, they're driving you into the incinerator! Pull back, use the section B ventilation shaft!"

"Copy." His breath was heavy.

I tracked the blue markers as they shifted, slipping into the wall structure, bypassing the kill zone.

Sweat ran down my back. This was ten times more intense than facing a room full of lawyers ready to gut me.

My eyes swept the schematics and locked on the second basement.

A room marked Private Study. Fully isolated.

The one place I had been forbidden to enter as a child.

That's where he was keeping her.

"Arthur, I've got her. Second basement, far end. One entrance. Six guards minimum."

"How do we get in?"

"There's a way." I forced my voice steady.

"Below the specimen storage room on the first floor, there's an old freight elevator. It runs straight to the third basement, right under the study."

"Send your men down there. They'll never expect you to come from beneath."

I hammered at the keyboard, breaking into the elevator's ancient control system.

"Safety locks disengaged. Doors opening in thirty seconds."

"Sophia." His voice cut in again.

"What?"

"Wait for me."

The line went dead.

On the screen, the blue markers gathered at the elevator position, then vanished one by one.

They were gone, swallowed by the blind zone. I couldn't see a damn thing anymore.