Chapter 482 Only Death Can Keep Us Alive
Back at the Yaeger residence, Hayes’ face paled to a ghastly white as the line was cut off out of the clear blue sky. He staggered a couple of steps backward before slumping onto the couch.
One of the soldiers was busy drafting a report at the side but became a nervous wreck the second he caught sight of Hayes’ demeanor. “What’s the matter, Commander?” came his query as he stepped forward.
“Go and investigate it…” muttered Hayes.
His whole body was trembling involuntarily.
Being Hayes’ personal bodyguard, that soldier was also thunderstruck, gawking blankly at Hayes’ bearing at that point in time.
“What do you want me to investigate, Commander?”
“Summon everybody back. I want every single one of them to get their butts over to the proving ground!”
Hayes leaped up and sent the table in front of him tumbling to the floor with a hard kick.
“Make sure the entire army of Lumonburg is present, be it the ones in the mess hall or anyone who’s currently on a mission. No one shall be excused from the assembly!”
He quickly added, “Also, fetch me the whole batch of charters of the general’s armory, especially those that involved sniper rifles of the model M03. Leave nothing behind, including the accompanying bullets. Compare them one by one and submit the results to me. I expect zero errors.”
“On it!”
The soldier gave a loud and firm response after receiving the instruction from Hayes. With that, he spun on his heels.
Hayes, in turn, secretly gnashed his teeth.
“F*ck! Some nerve they have taking my gun to deal with Mr. Goldstein. Once I get to know who that fellow is, there will be hell for that person to pay!”
In the meantime, the father-and-son duo, Philip and Zane, were sitting face to face in the garden at the Gomez residence.
“Dad, I think something cropped up on Dark Web,” uttered Zane in a deep tone.
He was holding the satellite phone while breaking that piece of news to his father.
That satellite phone was the one-and-only medium for Zane to stay in contact with Dark Web. Despite the phone’s awkward, bulky appearance, the primary strength of using it was that the conversation would never be susceptible to any forms of wiretaps.
At first, Philip was helping himself to some tea. The moment the words “Dark Web” reached his ears, however, his hands froze temporarily before he eventually gulped down the drink in one go.
“What happened?”
“I received a private message from Dark Web, saying that they were attacked by a horde of hackers a few days ago. And they’ve been tracing the source of interception to pinpoint the hackers’ location, but it had all been in vain.”
Zane continued, “Just a minute ago, one of them from Dark Web successfully cracked the hackers’ scheme. After a round of in-depth digging, it was found that the hackers merely wanted to check out the bounty list.”
Speaking of which, Zane flashed Philip a worried gaze.
“Among the forty-five records that have been snooped on, the bounty placed by us, the Gomez family, on Jonathan’s head has also been read. I’m not very sure about whether we have been exposed, but Dark Web is going to remit us the reward of the bounty. They even cautioned us to stay on guard. Danger may be coming to knock on our doors at any time.”
After dropping the words, Zane fell silent straight away. All he could do was look at his father with a concerned visage.
At that very juncture, Philip was staring at the cup on the table, his face as grim as death.
After infiltrating the core of Dark Web like that, not even in a million years would the other party wash their dirty linens in public.
Yet, despite the extremely slim probability of the Gomez family being the target—one out of all forty-five issuances of bounty—it was still better for the Gomez family to not be at risk at all.
If the other party was indeed going after the Gomez family, the latter might really be in the soup.
After all, the other party had the courage to go head-on with Dark Web yet managed to withdraw unscathed. They were definitely not the sort of individuals whom an ordinary family like the Gomez family could compete against.
“Could it be Jonathan himself?
A glint flitted across Philip’s eyes on that note.
“Zane, contact the Osborne family at once. Tell them we’ve been exposed.”
“The Osborne family have always belittled us. What makes you think that they’ll even care about us, Dad?” A sigh escaped from Zane’s lips as he spoke.
“I didn’t expect them to care, okay? I only need to gauge where they stand when they’re informed of this matter,” was Philip’s remark. His voice was as deep as a bottomless pit.
He then went on, “The Osborne family is trying to get Jonathan’s blood on our hands, but so far, we still have too little knowledge about Jonathan’s background. Tell them directly that we can no longer stay under the radar, and if they, in turn, could reassure us to be at ease, then it means that they can hold a candle to Jonathan’s backer. In that case, even if the other party really comes after us, we’ll have nothing to worry about because we still have the Osborne family’s support.”
Zane bobbed his head upon hearing the statement. “But what if they suddenly decided to ditch us…”
“That means even the Osborne family doesn’t have what it takes to overcome Jonathan and the force behind him easily.” Philip heaved a sigh at that and added, “If that’s the case, it no longer matters if we’re the reason Dark Web got hacked this time. We’ll have no choice but to put our plan B into action and divert all attention away from Quinton, or it’ll be too late once Jonathan really shows up.”
As Philip was talking, he reached out all of a sudden to touch the cup on the table and directed his gaze toward the outside of the garden.
“Who is it?”
“It’s me, Grandpa…”
A feeble voice sounded as a figure crossed the parapet before falling deep into the bushes on the spot.
“Quinton!” exclaimed Philip in surprise.
He quickly made a leap and arrived at where Quinton was at.
Bolting over from behind, Zane saw his son’s appearance at that time and was flustered, not knowing what to do.
“Grandpa—”
Quinton had blood all over his nose and mouth. Before he could say something more, Philip patted the former’s chest and cut him off immediately.
Spurt!
An expulsion of tainted blood came right out of Quinton’s mouth. He reached out his intact left hand and clenched Philip’s arm with all his might.
“Stop talking. You’re going through spiritual energy reflux. We should get it sorted out first!”
Philip gritted his teeth the whole time as he spoke softly.
“Grandpa…” Quinton’s face reddened like a tomato, and his eyes already became bloodshot. “Jonathan is here.”
“What?”
Philip was taken aback.
“Who told you that? You shouldn’t be in the know of the bounty!”
“Juliette told me. Jonathan already found out that we had a bounty on him. He’s a martial arts grandmaster. Run… Now…” Quinton could barely open his mouth to utter another word.
After finishing those sentences, Quinton completely passed out there and then.
“Quinton!” yelled Zane in an instant when he saw his son losing consciousness.
The second he bellowed, Philip struck his vocal cord, muting him altogether.
“What are you shouting for? Quinton’s not dead. He’s only fainted because he was badly injured!”
“Uh…” Looking at his son on the ground, Zane grew even more anxious. “We can’t beat a grandmaster, Dad. You should take Quinton and leave right now!”
“Leave?” Philip let out a snort. “If what Quinton said is true, where do you think we can go? A martial arts grandmaster would be on our tails in seconds no matter where we run to. Not even the heavens can cover our tracks.”
“What do we do, then? We mustn’t linger around here as sitting ducks,” said Zane despondently.
Philip shifted his gaze to his grandson lying on the floor. A few seconds later, he lifted his head once more.
“Get Arnold. Tell him to replace Quinton with a doppelganger, preferably one who’s cold and distant. It’s best if the person is an orphan.”
“Dad… What are you…” Zane seemed to have gotten the gist of it but still attempted to probe further to clarify his own perplexity.
Philip raised his hand to grab the dagger at Quinton’s shoulder. Immediately afterward, he forcefully drew the dagger and pressed on Quinton’s wound.
Philip went all out to spend however much spiritual energy he had to stop his grandson’s wound from bleeding.
“Our family is going to meet our doom this time. We won’t make it if we escape together in a large group like this. Only when there’s bloodshed, could we have a shot at surviving!”
