Chapter 16

Chapter 16

Even as he talked with the two men, Wen Jueqian's hands never stopped moving. He could feel the binding was down to its last thread of connection.

He gave it a gentle tug—almost there. One more solid yank and it should snap clean off.

He didn't break free right away. Instead, he stashed the blade and kept up the act of being tied up.

Not yet.

The car stopped.

Wen Jueqian cracked his eyes open and peered out the window. Sector One's barrier was just ahead—a pale blue membrane of light standing out starkly against the night, like an upside-down bowl over the whole island.

"How much surveillance can you knock out?" Jin Wang asked.

The masked man answered, "Not much. Mostly just the patrol routes from the last few days."

"Knock out everything you can. Make it so they can't pinpoint us."

They had no clue Wen Jueqian still had the Wen family's specialized tracker on him—they'd only blocked the location app in his optical brain.

The masked man nodded and wrapped it up quickly.

Time was up.

Wen Yanxu powered down the barrier right on schedule.

It was almost three in the morning—the dead of night.

On a hidden rise along the eastern coast, Wen Yanxu lay flat behind a rock, a thermal imager strapped to his face.

They'd already set the ambush.

The sniper was set. Wang Xin and his team were ready to move in on a moment's notice. Everyone was on a razor's edge.

The speedboat was already in place.

Wen Yanxu had suspected the speedboat was a decoy to throw them off. But Wen Jueqian's tracker had been heading steadily this way.

And then, all of a sudden.

The tracker veered off—no longer coming this way.

He immediately ordered everyone to move out without blowing their cover.

To stay hidden, the aircraft hadn't been parked close. He sent a high-altitude stealth drone to scope things out first.

His mind raced through the possibilities.

Some elevated platform? Air support ready to extract them?

He quickly ruled that out. Jueying Island's air defense was still up—any unidentified aircraft in the surrounding airspace would be flagged. But the command center had reported nothing.

Another beach, then?

The Federal Coast Guard was almost here, and Rustfire had already pulled back. Any boat trying to come by sea to extract them would be sailing straight into a trap.

Wen Yanxu still couldn't pin down where they were headed.

Then, something shifted.

A wave of heat surged up from deep inside him, out of nowhere.

Wen Yanxu's breath went ragged in an instant, cold sweat breaking out on his forehead.

It was his heat cycle, back with a vengeance.

Qiao Yuexun caught the datura pheromones the second they hit the air.

Without a beat, he moved closer to Wen Yanxu. The cool, crisp scent of tuberose drifted on the night breeze, wrapping around and calming Wen Yanxu's restless pheromones.

As if he'd been waiting for this exact moment.

Their gazes locked.

Wen Yanxu choked back the urge surging inside him, his voice brooking no argument. "When you release your pheromones, stay away from me."

A flicker of annoyance crossed Qiao Yuexun's eyes. He hid it fast, backed off a few steps, and let out an even stronger wave of pheromones.

Wen Yanxu gritted his teeth, forcing himself to stay sharp as he boarded the aircraft.

————

The patrol car passed through where the barrier used to be without a hitch, stopping halfway up a mountainside. The road ahead was narrow and twisty—no way the car could make it.

Jin Wang got out. The masked man pulled two sets of nano-armor and helmets from the car, both stamped with the Aegis logo—probably swiped using his old identity.

The two loaded up with extra gear, then hauled Wen Jueqian out.

Wen Jueqian's legs were still shaky, and he stumbled climbing out of the car.

The masked man muttered a low "careful" and steadied him as they hurried up the slope.

The rocks were jagged and slick. With his hands tied, Wen Jueqian had a rough time climbing, and the masked man caught him every time he almost went down.

Soon they reached the top of a steep cliff.

The two got to work on something, leaving Wen Jueqian to wait by himself.

Wen Jueqian got it now—the speedboat they'd asked for was just a decoy.

He walked slowly to the edge of the cliff.

In the dark, he couldn't see what was below—just the salt tang of the sea breeze and waves slamming into the rocks, over and over.

"Mr. Wen."

The masked man had crept up without a sound. His voice came from right at Wen Jueqian's ear—way too close.

"Say—if someone were to slip and fall from here, would they be lucky enough to hit the water, or unlucky enough to die on the rocks?"

Wen Jueqian flinched hard, his whole back going rigid.

The masked man ignored how pale he'd gone, stepped around in front of him, and crouched down. "Get on."

He... was going to carry him?

Wen Jueqian had no clue what he was up to. He stayed put.

"If you want to live," the masked man said without turning back, "you'd better behave."

"My hands are tied."

The masked man had his back to him.

The back of his neck, between armor and helmet, was completely exposed.

Wen Jueqian tightened his grip on the blade. If he could break free fast enough, before the man could react, he might have a shot at wounding him.

But Jin Wang was still not far away.

Even though he was busy setting up some equipment, any disturbance here would catch his attention right away.

With the two of them working together, he stood no chance.

Was this the best opportunity?

Wen Jueqian's heart pounded with anxiety.

After hesitating a few seconds, he gave up on the idea of making a move and leaned in instead.

The moment his chest touched the masked man's back, rope bound him firmly to the other man.

The masked man grabbed a rope anchored to a fixed point, leaned back, and braced his feet apart against the cliff face, his body forming a right angle with the rock wall.

Wen Jueqian was carried along, dangling in midair, his back to the sea.

The rope bit into his back and lower waist, all his weight bearing down on those restraints. His body hung parallel to the sea, like an object dangled off the cliff.

He couldn't move an inch—his life was completely in someone else's hands.

Wen Jueqian clenched his teeth, but his body instinctively began to tremble. His heart pounded so hard it felt like it might burst out of his chest, and his breathing became rapid and erratic.

He didn't dare look down, just stared at the masked man's back, feeling the drop in his stomach with every rope descent.

The masked man slowly paid out the rope, walking steadily down the cliff face.

Before they reached the bottom, the masked man suddenly stopped descending.

Then Wen Jueqian heard machinery whirring to life.

The cliff wall beside them slowly split open, revealing an entrance.

The masked man led him inside and untied the rope that bound them together.

Having been bound during that fall from such a height, all his weight had been concentrated where the rope had dug in.

Even through his clothes, the spots now stung with a burning pain.

The masked man started to tie his arms again, but seeing how uncomfortable he was, he let it go.

Wen Jueqian silently breathed a sigh of relief. If he got tied up again, he'd really have no chance to escape.

A few minutes later, Jin Wang showed up.

The two led Wen Jueqian further down the passage.

The air was thick with the salty tang of seawater, mixed with a stale, musty odor.

Jin Wang pulled out a special communicator and started contacting their pickup: "Hinge, we're almost at the designated location. When's your pickup coming?"

A muffled voice crackled through the communicator: "Hinge received. ETA five minutes. Pickup is a submarine. You need to get to..."

The light from the optical device only lit the path at their feet, and the voice echoed through the narrow passage, barely audible.

Wen Jueqian demanded, "Where are you taking me?"

"Wen Yanxu already kept his promise. You should let me go."

Jin Wang was focused on the communicator and completely ignored him.

The masked man replied, "Mr. Wen, don't worry. Keeping you alive does us more good than killing you."

With that, he said nothing more.

The passage sloped downward, and the three of them kept descending. Wen Jueqian wondered if they'd already gone below sea level.

The passage finally ended.

Jin Wang switched on a powerful flashlight, illuminating the space.

It was a temporary supply depot, with dusty shelves and cabinets lined up in rows.

The masked man and Jin Wang headed straight for a specific cabinet, where their pre-stashed supplies should be.

Wen Jueqian's eyes swept the room quickly.

He noticed those cabinets weren't ordinary storage units—they were constant-temperature cabinets for experimental materials.

Even though they'd long since lost their original function after being abandoned, the heavy metal doors could still stop ordinary bullets.

The masked man found the diving suits they'd prepared and was checking the gear.

Jin Wang was watching a screen, checking what was happening outside.

"Damn it!" Jin Wang suddenly cursed.

"Wen Yanxu's found us!"

He handed the video to the masked man—it was from a hidden camera he'd left on the cliff.

In the footage, Wen Yanxu was showing up at the top of the cliff with his men.

The masked man's voice went tight: "How did they find us?"

Jin Wang realized something and whipped his head toward Wen Jueqian: "You've still got a tracker on you!"

Busted!

==========Author's Note:==========

Posting at a cliffhanger—will it get more views?