Chapter 476 Sophia Is Taken Away
Sophia: "Not necessarily. What you're doing is illegal, and I don't do illegal things."
Lachlan's eyes suddenly turned cold. "The law? If the law can't make bad people get the punishment they deserve, what's the point of it?"
"So that gives you the right to experiment on innocent children? They're so young, their lives have endless possibilities, and you've destroyed them all!"
Whenever Sophia thought about those children who died horribly in the experiments, and the families torn apart by their children's disappearances, her heart ached.
Back then, she was one of them, too, just lucky enough to survive.
But countless other unfortunate children were killed.
"The research I'm doing can change the world. For human evolution, their deaths are meaningful!"
Lachlan's eyes gradually became crazed. "Sophia, stop stalling. Benjamin won't be back anytime soon."
Sophia closed her eyes tightly and stopped trying to persuade him.
You can never wake someone who's pretending to be asleep.
Lachlan... he'd gone mad, and her bodyguards were about to give in too.
She picked up her phone to check the time, then looked up at Lachlan. "Fine, I'll go with you, but... I have one condition."
"Go ahead." Lachlan waved his hand, signaling everyone fighting to stop.
Hearing the order, they immediately backed off and retreated behind Lachlan.
"You're so ruthless. How can a defenseless woman like me make sure I'll be safe?"
Sophia frowned, her small face full of worry.
Lachlan's tense heart slowly relaxed, and his lips curved slightly. "Don't worry, as long as I'm around, nothing will happen to you."
Sophia snorted coldly. "How do I know you're not just fooling me, trying to trick me, and then get rid of me once I'm no longer useful?"
Lachlan sighed helplessly. "If I really wanted to hurt you, would I need to go through all this trouble?"
But Sophia still stood in place, insisting on her position.
After a moment of silence, Lachlan sent an address directly to Sophia's phone.
It was an abandoned warehouse in Celestria.
"This is the headquarters of the GeneCipher Society. I can even allow you to come and go freely."
Sophia's eyes darted around as she pulled out her phone. "I need to call my husband to let him know, or he'll worry."
"No! If you keep bargaining, I don't mind tying you up and taking you."
Sophia had to put her phone away. "Fine, but you can't hurt them. I'll go with you now."
"Give me your phone."
Lachlan snatched the phone from her hand, checked it, and, finding nothing unusual, put it in his own pocket.
The bodyguards, beaten and badly injured, some unconscious and some wounded, could only watch helplessly as Sophia was taken away, powerless to stop it.
Benjamin ignored the bodyguards' apologies and got up to look around the doorway.
Knowing Sophia, she must have prepared something in advance and would have left him a clue.
But he searched everywhere and found nothing.
He suddenly stood up and ran quickly upstairs.
The room was empty, the bedding still messy, with a laptop on the bed.
He immediately opened it and found that Sophia had indeed left him something.
He first clicked on an audio file and heard the conversation between Sophia and Lachlan, his heart sinking.
If he hadn't stopped at the mall to buy things, he probably would have made it back in time. It was all his fault!
However, at least Sophia was smart and knew to protect herself first in a dangerous situation.
Although Lachlan was a madman, Sophia was still useful to him, so she was safe for now.
After closing the recording, he dialed Sophia's number and found it was already turned off.
He checked his phone and found that Sophia's phone location had stopped moving on the highway.
Lachlan was cautious and worried about being tracked, so he threw away Sophia's phone.
But he still didn't understand him and Sophia well enough.
He immediately exited and opened another app, and a map instantly popped up on the computer screen.
A red dot kept flashing and jumping, continuously moving toward the airport.
The necklace he gave Sophia two years ago had a tracking system, and recently, Sophia had modified the tracking device hidden in the ring.
It was meant as a precaution, and now it was actually coming in handy.
He stood up and immediately called Alaric and the others, telling them that Sophia had been taken.
Everyone was shocked, and they all dropped everything they were doing to go find Sophia.
"Don't panic yet. If Sophia did this, she must have her reasons."
In the recording, her tone was very calm. She voluntarily agreed to go with Lachlan, so she must have her own plan.
But as soon as he said this, he was immediately cursed at by the others.
Alaric: "Your wife has been kidnapped, and you can still be this calm!"
Matthew: "You better pray Sophia's okay, or I'll never forgive you!"
Even Magnus, forgetting that Benjamin was his own son, coldly scolded: "If anything happens to Sophia, I won't let you off either!"
Benjamin: "...You didn't see me when I was panicking."
"Alright, put all this nonsense aside. The most important thing is how to rescue Sophia." Benjamin, still rational, spoke up.
Magnus and Matthew immediately fell silent.
"Matthew, come with me to chase them. Alaric, Dad... you wait at home for news."
Magnus's mind was completely focused on how to save Sophia and didn't notice the change in Benjamin's way of addressing him.
Only after Benjamin left did he realize it, freezing in place.
"Did Benjamin just... call me Dad?"
Alaric thought back and realized he actually did.
He smiled with relief. "Looks like he's just stubborn. Deep down, he doesn't resent you that much anymore."
Magnus was overjoyed but forced himself to stay calm, silently telling himself: Now's not the time to think about this.
But he couldn't suppress the smile on his face.
Alaric felt both helpless and amused, but ultimately still couldn't bring himself to call out "Dad" like Benjamin did.
The hurt Magnus's departure had caused him to run much deeper than Benjamin's.
He still couldn't let go of his resentment toward Magnus.
Alaric gathered his thoughts and called his subordinates in Celestria, telling them to keep a close eye on things there.
In Sophia's recording, he heard an address, which happened to be one of the locations they had people watching.
If this really was the GeneCipher Society's headquarters, things would become much simpler.
Meanwhile, Benjamin sent Sophia's location to Matthew's phone, and the two sped off at top speed to track down Lachlan.
However, they were quite far away, so catching up with them wouldn't be easy.
Along the way, Benjamin noticed that the red dot on his phone screen had changed direction.
"What's going on?"
Matthew's anxious voice came through the Bluetooth earpiece, and Benjamin's heart tensed up too.