Chapter 153: Kidnapped

"Job done." A man wearing wearing a ski mask reported with a phone pressed on his ear."Good," the person on the other end said, "and I hope you didn’t bring anything he can use to track you?"

"No, sir," the man replied immediately, keeping his voice steady.

He stood beside a dark van parked within an abandoned industrial yard, its engine was still running. Around him, two other masked men were loading a large, sealed crate into the back.

The line went silent for a moment before the voice spoke again.

"Then dispose of the vehicle and proceed to Phase Two. Make sure she’s not harmed — not yet."

"Understood."

The phone let out a beep as the call was ended.

The man lowered his phone and turned to the others. "You heard him. Clean up, We leave in five."

The men nodded, working quickly. One began wiping the steering wheel and dashboard of the cars they’d hijacked; another poured a canister of accelerant across the seats.

Within seconds, the smell of gasoline filled the air.

The masked leader turned toward the crate reinforced steel, heavy-duty locks on each side.

Inside, Lillian lay unconscious, her wrists bound with magnetic restraints. A small puncture mark sat on her neck where the tranquilizer had been injected.

"Boss," one of the men said, glancing toward her. "You sure it’s wise keeping her alive? The guy paying us—"

The leader cut him off, "the guy paying us doesn’t want her dead, just yet, he wants leverage against them."

He knelt briefly beside the crate, checking her pulse and making sure she was still alive.

The second-in-command exhaled. "Still don’t get why she’s so important. She’s just a COO, right?"

The leader gave him a long, cold look through the ski mask. "If you’re smart, you won’t ask questions, we’re only here for the money, once we’re paid, we’re done."

That shit whatever other questions they had.

In this line of work, it was general knowledge not to ask too much questions, else you’d disappear before you even realized it.

The Leader stood back up and closed the crate before ordering, "load her up, and burn those cars down, make sure to leave no trace."

"Got it," the two lit up lighters and tossed them to each car before hurrying to the new van where Lillian had already been placed in the booth and their leader was waiting.

"Let’s go," he ordered and the third man immediately started the engine and drove off.

Boom!

The moment they exited the abandoned building, it caught up in flames as the two cars exploded.

The shockwave caused the van to shake but it still stayed on course and after a couple of turns, they disappeared into the night, with no one realizing what had just happened.... Not until they were completely gone anyway.

****

Early the next day.

[Breaking News: OmniTech Corp’s COO, Lillian Hayes was attacked and kidnapped last night.]

That was the headlines Ethan came across the moment he exited the system Library.

He had been in there for almost a month...which translated to an entire day in the real world.

Hence the reason he hadn’t gotten the ’help’ Lillian texted just before she was kidnapped, nor when Athena related said message.

While in that world, he was mentally absent from this one so nothing done to him in this world would be felt in the library.

Hence, his shock at the news....no, it wasn’t exactly shock, it was an emotion he hadn’t felt in quite a while,

Anger.

But instead of raging, he got eerily calmly, his minds were clearer than ever and he didn’t feel the least bit of exhaustion from staying in the library that long.

Calmly, Ethan walked to the couch, picked up the remote and turned up the volume as the sound of the reporter got louder.

"...Authorities are still investigating the scene of the crash which occurred at the highway close to Caldwell estate, where she had just come from late last night," the reporter’s voice was heard from the television.

"According to early reports, the vehicle was completely riddled with bullets, and the driver confirmed dead."

"However, there has been no trace of Ms. Hayes. Police suspect she may have been abducted by whoever had planned the attack. OmniTech Corp has yet to release an official statement—"

Click.

The sound of the TV turning off filled the silence that followed.

Ethan stood there for a long moment, remote still in his hand, eyes fixed on the blank screen.

His expression didn’t change in the least bit as he just calmly stood there.

"Careless," he muttered, referring to himself rather than Lillian.

He had been so worried about his own anymomity that he had forgotten that she was the one in direct line of fire.

He learnt exactly how relaxed he had gotten just because Nathaniel was out of the picture. He had forgotten that removing one threat doesn’t erase the others.

And as smart as he boasted to be, he had gotten complacent and in turn stupid.

Sigh!

Ethan let out before calling out, "Athena."

{Her message came around 9:50 last night and I had attempted to immediately track her but the signal was soon cut off,} she explained, {the last place I tracked them to was an abandoned industrial yard but that place had also gone up in flames and they don’t seem to be carrying any tech that I can gain access to.}

"I see," he turned and headed towards his office, "send a message to Aria and tell her not to worry, I’ll find Lillian."

"Also, order the PR team to craft a tightly worded statement where they’ll express support for the investigation," Ethan said, his voice was flat and without emotion. "Then freeze any external comms that could leak. I don’t want the press or stock chatter making this worse."

{PR draft queued and ready for approval,} Athena replied. {Shall I send it now?}

"Not yet, hold it for five minutes," Ethan answered. "And pull every public and private camera feed within a twenty-mile radius of the attack."

"I need traffic cams, private garages, toll booths, everything. If they stepped outside of sanctioned routes, I want to see it."

After his words, camera feeds from all his requested zones appeared on his monitors.

"Show me feed from 9:30 last night," He ordered, and the feed started rewinding quickly, passing through the events of Lillian being attacked but Ethan didn’t ask to stop.

The feed continued till the said time before Athena stopped it and pressed play.

The feed continued until 9:20 and that’s when he spotted two vehicles, black SUVs parked close to the street, almost as if they were waiting for something.

From the camera’s angle, Ethan couldn’t get a clear view of them so he continued waiting, he waited until 9:38 PM when one of them decided to step out of the car for a piss.

"Zoom in on him," Ethan ordered and the camera zoomed.

The man was wearing a ski mask so no information was gotten from him...well, almost.

"Zoom in on his arm and enhance."

It was a bit dark but Ethan was able to make out a tattoo, it was of a circular sharp-edged insignia with three diagonal slashes cutting through the center, kind of like claw marks.

It wasn’t from any gang he remembered from the future or even mercenary group, maybe it was just a personal tattoo, but that was a start.

On another screen, he took a screenshot of the tattoo and Athena immediately started cross referencing it with every single she could find.

Criminal records, passport pictures... everything.

Meanwhile, Ethan continued watching the attack play out. He imagined just how scared she might’ve been.

And this all happened because of him.

After a while Ethan had gotten everything he could, which wasn’t much since the attackers were pretty smart.

But not smart enough for Ethan Carter.

He leaned closer to the screen, "Rewind ten seconds before impact," he ordered.

The footage rolled back.

"Now, isolate the tail vehicle, the second SUV. Zoom in on the front grille."

The camera refocused, stabilizing the feed as Athena ran enhancement algorithms through the video.

A couple of zooming and magnifying later, faint markings appeared under the headlights, residue from a sticker that had been partially peeled off.

"Magnify and clean it."

The image sharpened, revealing three faded letters: KXN.

A frown appeared on his face.

"KXN Logistics," he murmured. "That company doesn’t exist yet... not until two years from now."

{Correction,} Athena replied, her tone crisp. {The shell version of KXN exists. It was registered six months ago in Nevada. However, no physical operations, staff, or online presence have been recorded.}


"So a cover identity," Ethan muttered, "log that, for now, let’s see who one of our friends were."

He turned towards the screen running the search on the tattoo. There had been quite a few people with similar ones and it had been narrowed down to three within the same height range.

Ethan immediately scratched the first off the list because according to the data collected on him, he was currently in the Netherlands happily leaving with his family, having left behind his questionable past... One which Ethan had no intention of digging into.

The other two?

One was Drax white, former U.S. Marine Corps demolitions expert. Discharged in 2006 under unclear circumstances. The other, Reid Carver, ex–private contractor out of Eastern Europe, reported dead four years ago during an oilfield raid in Libya.

"Let’s pay him a visit, shall we."