Chapter 418: Chapter 418 – Escaped

Chapter 418 Escaped

Zhang Heng scopped Leah up in one hand, put her in the back seat, and used his other hand to ride the snowmobile . He managed to calmly avoid all the stones as he carved a path through the thick woods . At the same time, he said, “Snowboard . ”

When he said that, Leah understood immediately . “Who are those people that are chasing me?” she asked .

“They are from Black Nest . Your brother Edward has key evidence that Black Nest is using CTOS to collect data and violate the privacy of citizens . Once the situation deteriorates to a certain extent, they will use you to blackmail your brother . ”

“Black Nest? That technology company?! Many people around me are using their devices . According to what I heard, they come up with pretty high-quality products . ” Zhang Heng swiftly maneuvered the snowmobile along the unmarked track, dodging trees along his way like he would bullets . “Black Nest isn’t your regular tech corporation . They have other motives hidden in the dark . In other words, we are in a perilous situation . They will use every means available to them to prevent the disclosure of their secrets . ”

“Dangerous? How dangerous?”

“Just now, one of our people responsible for leading the pursuer away was almost sniped by their assassin . ” “Here? At the ski resort? In broad daylight?!” “Yes, and they have a dirty relationship with the police . It means they can get police support whenever they want . ”

“Does that mean we are on our own now?”

“Hold on tight,” Zhang Heng replied, not answering Leah’s question this time .

He then turned abruptly, and the snowmobile drew an arc . Despite being reminded in advance, Leah was almost thrown off, and she subconsciously reached out to grab Zhang Heng’s waist .

“Why stop?”

Leah’s question was automatically answered after a few seconds . The snowmobile had stopped on the edge of the cliff . Initial visual observation confirmed that they were a good 20 meters above the ground below . Zhang Heng got off and took out the snowboard that he tucked behind the snowmobile, and quickly put it on the ground . “This is as far as the snowmobile goes . There is a way around the cliff, but the forest is simply too dense for the snowmobile to pass through . We’ll have to snowboard from now . ”

“Ugh… but I just threw away my snowboard since you asked me to…”

“It doesn’t matter, just cling to my back and hug me tightly . Even if you have your board with you, you can’t cross this path seeing how bad you are at skiing . ”

“That’s true…”

Leah was not as hypocritical as other girls, not hesitating to jump on Zhang Heng’s back after she heard what he said .

Zhang Heng paused . “…you are too fast . I haven’t even strapped on my snowboard properly . ”

“Oh! Sorry… should I get down then?”

“No need . ” Zhang Heng had properly clamped his ski shoes to the snowboard . “Make sure you hold on to me tightly . I can’t take care of you when we begin our descent,” he said .

“Okay,” Leah nodded . To lose all the extra weight on her, she took off the ski shoes on her feet .

As the snowboard started moving, they steadily increased speed, and the sound of wind whooshing past their ears could be soon heard . Zhang Heng wasn’t too worried about the four enemies behind him . Even if they somehow managed to catch up to him, Zhang Heng was confident that he could get rid of them . Hence, he raced against time and risked a safe descent to prevent Black Nest from using the same trail he had carved to get down the mountain .

The good news was that Piercings had not only led the enemies away from Leah but even the squad that Vincent had placed along the foot of the mountain . That way, even if Vincent realized what was going on, it would be difficult for him to go all the way to the other side of the mountain in the shortest time possible .

In fact, Vincent wasn’t really too happy right now . He had done everything that he could do, but the other party was always one step ahead of him . Whether it was Piercings who acted as bait or Leah who chose to ski off the beaten path, he had been caught off guard each time his enemies made a move .

Such an elaborate plan couldn’t have just materialized overnight . The other party had obviously done a great deal of preparation, and they were only waiting for Leah to show up at the ski resort . The two people involved in the operation were also extremely good at what they did, definitely not ordinary folk . This was the worst outcome for Black Nest . It meant an unknown force had interfered in Edward’s business, undoubtedly a situation Black Nest hoped not to encounter .

“What should I do now?” the young man asked with innocent eyes .

“Notify the fourth team, ask them to give up pursuing the target, and intercept Leah instead . At the same time, we will head down the mountain as well,” Vincent said . Still, he knew that this was just a temporary solution, and it wasn’t going to help much with their plan . it appeared Piercings had led the fouth team to a random ravine . It was now impossible for them to catch up with Vincent .

Besides, they were still at the mountainside, and even if they threw away all the equipment, it would still take a considerably long time before they could get to the foot . Vincent regretted the decision he made—the group of people Black Nest assigned to monitor Leah weren’t too good at skiing . From the very beginning, he should have never allow Leah to head to the ski resort and take the risk .

It was now too late for any sort of remorse . Now, Vincent needed to think about how to deal with the aftermath of the whole situation .

Sure enough, when they finally got to the other side of the mountain, they only saw discarded snowboards . Leah and the snowmobile rider were gone . Then, another piece of bad news came along right after this one . Piercings managed to ditch his pursuers behind him and disappeared in the snow .

Not only did Black Nest lose Leah, but they also failed to capture anyone on their list . The mission was a complete failure .

Vincent kicked a trash can next to him out of frustration . He took a few deep breaths to calm himself down, took out his newly purchased phone, and dialed a number .

“We lost Leah…” “Yes… We have no options left . Edward has lost control . It’s time to implement the cleanup plan to stop him… I’m pretty sure they have professionals helping them . Otherwise, rescuing Leah wouldn’t have been so easy . It appears that other parties may be interested in her as well . We need to speed up the plan . Right, I understand, I won’t let this happen again . ”

The young man raised his eyebrows . “Did they call us trash?” he asked .

Vincent hung up the call . “No, you have watched too many movies,” he said, “but headquarters realized we must be short-staffed and they are sending new people to support us . ”

“Oh, you mean the new people that are going to strip you off of your hold on the operation?”

Vincent frowned, “This isn’t the time for internal conflict . We must put our prejudice aside, work together, locate Edward as quickly as possible, and neutralize the threat once and for all . ”

“Ah, has headquarters finally made up their mind?”

Vincent turned to look at the young man with sharp eyes . “You seem to share a good relationship with Edward . You are in charge of the safety of his area before . You’ve also apparently played chess with him before,” he replied with a cold tone .

“Do you have a problem with executing him?”

“I have always had a clear distinction between work and life . I even killed my brother-in-law back then . He is just an ordinary friend to me . I have no problem with killing him,” the young man shrugged, “not to mention that my rankings in chess will improve if I kill Edward . I don’t see a reason why I should reject this job . ”

Chapter 419: 419

Chapter 419 Joint Operation

“Then… should we introduce ourselves?” Waldo stammered, sounding much less confident he usually did on Facebook and Instagram .

This was mainly due to Leah being extremely attractive, even more so than certain female celebrities and hosts whose pictures he used to browse on the internet . In fact, most of the photos the celebrities took in private weren’t nearly as good as those posted on the internet

—some even looked like entirely different people .

Leah was one of those hailing from the rarer breed . She looked even prettier in person .

This was the first time Waldo had ever been in such proximity to such a beautiful girl . He was a nervous wreck . Stretching his hand, he spluttered, “I… my name is Waldo . Erm… I’m twenty-four and single . I like Gundam and DOTA2… Oh, and I’m Gaspard’s friend too . ”

“Oh? The two of you know Gaspard?” Leah looked at Waldo, eyes wide . “Huh?” Waldo nearly choked at her response . He turned to look at Zhang Heng with a panicked look on his face, “Didn’t you… didn’t you use Gaspard’s identity to get in touch with her?”

“No, I told her we’re Edward’s friends,” Zhang Heng answered .

The whole 01 team was flabbergasted . “Huh?!”

Little Boy cocked her head . “Why did she believe you then?” she asked .

“Rocky is a stray puppy that my brother and I picked up . At that time, my mother didn’t allow us to keep any pets . So, we found a cardboard box and built a home for him in the yard and brought him food every day . But a week later, Rocky disappeared . We searched everywhere for him but to no avail . He just disappeared so suddenly . We haven’t seen him since . This is a secret between my brother and me . No one else knows about it,” Leah explained .

It all suddenly dawned on Philip . “No wonder you told Leo to write down ‘Rocky will be back next week . ’ Wait a minute,” He looked at Zhang Heng, “How did you know that?”

Leah suddenly turned wary . “Didn’t my brother send you guys? Who are you?”

“We are Edward’s friends, and he did send us to save you . As for Rocky, I will explain everything to you when this is all over,” Zhang Heng said, not even flinching, although he made a promise that he knew would never be fulfilled .

By the time everything ended, all the players, including him, would have to leave the quest . There was no need for him to explain anything Ponytail had the Digital Video ready . He said to Leah, “Do you have anything you want to say to your brother?” .

“Is this some kind of prank show?” Leah raised her eyebrows .

“No, we have to send evidence to Edward to prove that we’ve saved you from Black Nest so that he will reveal the next phase of the operation to us . ”

“And… What is the next phase of the operation?” Leah inquired as she accepted the camcorder .

“Edward will leak the evidence the press exposing Black Nest’s misdeeds by using CTOS to collect private data from citizens . ”

“Then?”

“Err… then the CTOS project will most probably die under public pressure, or its launching will be put on hold until they can protect the privacy of people effectively . ”

un

“I was asking about my brother . ”

“Uhh… I… I don’t know . ” Philip cast a helpless look at Zhang Heng .

“We will protect Edward from Black Nest until the whole thing is made public,” Zhang Heng replied .

“And then? What happens after that?” Leah asked, adamant about getting an answer .

“Then, there would be no reason for Black Nest to go after your brother . After all, this has nothing to do with personal grievances . Black Nest is only hunting Edward to prevent him from exposing evidence . Once it is out in the open, Black Nest probably wouldn’t bother your brother anymore, because if something did happen to him, the public would view Black Nest in an even worse light than before,” said Zhang Heng, “Of course, anything can happen, but as long as I’m here, I will keep your brother safe . ”

Leah did not know if she should believe him or not . “One last question: if you have to choose between my brother’s life and exposing Black Nest, which would you choose?”

“Edward,” Zhang Heng answered without hesitation . Even though exposing Black Nest seemed to be more important, his main mission was to help Edward escape . If Edward died, it would mean nothing to the players who chose this side even if he could expose Black Nest .

Of course, Zhang Heng still supported the idea of exposing the tech company . As he said, once their secrets were leaked, Black Nest would have no reason to continue chasing Edward . After all, they were not a gang but an advocacy group . Advocacy groups were generally sensible and rarely worked themselves up over personal grievances .

The 01 Guerillas had also chosen Edward, but their reasoning was simpler—they did not want anyone to sacrifice their lives .

Leah rested her chin in her hands and contemplated their words . Waldo and the others waited nervously until she lifted her head .

“Why are you all looking at me?” Leah asked .

“We’re waiting for you to make a decision . ”

“What decision? I’m already in your car, and there are so many of you . I can’t fight you . What else can I do besides going along with your plan?” Leah said .

“What she says makes sense,” Waldo shook his head, “No, we’re not the bad guys . Whatever it is, we are helping your brother . You have to do this voluntarily . ”

“Alright, I never said you guys are bad,” Leah said, “At least you won’t be monitoring me twenty-four-seven like those Black Nest people . It’s what I loathe the most . When I think about how somebody is constantly scrutinizing every single thing I do or say, I get goosebumps all over . If what you’re saying is true, I don’t want CTOS to go online either . After all, all of us have secrets we don’t want anyone else to know, right?”

“I think she thinks like us hackers,” Waldo’s eyes brightened, “Can we recruit her into the 01 Guerrillas?”

“Dream on, buddy . You guys are galaxies apart,” Little Boy answered, “Just give up already . There’s no hope for you . Ask her if you don’t believe me . ”

“I’m sorry, but you’re not my type . It might be hurtful to hear such harsh words, but I don’t want to raise your hopes, then disappoint you later on,” said Leah, “…but you are quite cute . I’m sure you’ll have plenty of girls wanting you . ” Waldo’s face turned pink . He did not expect his love to come and go quickly . The whole thing only lasted less than three minutes .

Leah returned the video recording to Ponytail, and Zhang Heng handed his mobile phone to her .

“Take another one . I have a friend who prefers to work alone . He participated in this rescue, so he’ll need the video to prove to Edward . ”

“Hah, so this is a joint operation?”

Tip: You can use left, right, A and D keyboard keys to browse between chapters .