220: Chapter 220 Internal Strife within the Alliance

The notification chime for the successfully sent email was exceptionally harsh in the dead-silent secret room.

Deep beneath the Scottish Castle.

Old Morgan, Old Rockefeller, and the head of the DuPont Family—three old men whose combined age exceeded two hundred and fifty years—stared intently at the video looping on the holographic screen.

On the screen, ten people in black trench coats used a form of violence that bordered on art to tear fifty Scavengers, which they had spent a fortune to create, into a flurry of shredded flesh within five minutes.

That wasn't a battle.

It was the ruthless crushing of a primitive manual workshop by an industrial assembly line.

The cigar in Old DuPont's hand dropped onto the carpet, burning a small hole, but he didn't notice at all. His lips trembled, unable to utter a single word.

Old Rockefeller's face was even paler than the skin of the monsters on the screen. The Superhuman Project he was so proud of was nothing short of a joke in front of them.

“A generational gap...” Old Rockefeller's voice was incredibly dry. “Our biotechnology is at least half a century behind theirs.”

Bam!

Old Morgan slammed his palm onto the mahogany table, making the whiskey glasses clink.

He didn't look at the screen, but instead stared fixedly at the other two old men, his cloudy eyes filled with dread and uncontrollable fury.

“This isn't a matter of a generational gap!” Old Morgan's voice was hoarse. “This was an ambush!”

“Only the three of us knew the time and location of the attack! How could Umbrella's people have transported ten of those monsters to the warehouse in advance to wait for us?”

He spoke deliberately, each word seemingly squeezed out from between his teeth.

“There is a mole among us!”

These words instantly shattered the stagnant atmosphere in the secret room.

Old Rockefeller and Old DuPont froze, instinctively looking at each other, their eyes instantly filled with suspicion.

Old Morgan's icy gaze finally landed on Old DuPont.

“The Texas warehouse is the property of the Webers, but the one responsible for leading the team was someone from your DuPont Family,” Old Morgan said in an emotionless tone. “Your grandnephew, who holds the rank of colonel, along with his special forces soldiers, were all blown to high heaven.”

“Meanwhile, we only lost a few dozen beasts that can be remade at any time.”

Old DuPont's face instantly flushed the color of pig liver. “Richard! What do you mean? Are you suspecting me?”

“I am merely stating facts.” Old Morgan leaned back against his chair, his gaze cold. “For this failure, your DuPont Family must give us an explanation.”

Faced with an absolute gap in strength and deep suspicion, the alliance's iron triangle showed an obvious crack for the first time.

...

Geneva, a private sanatorium at the foot of the Alps.

Julian DuPont, wrapped in a blanket, was staring intently at the same video on a tablet.

He watched with cold hands and feet, a chill rushing from his tailbone straight to the crown of his head.

“Do you see that?”

Ada Wong sat opposite him, elegantly swirling the red wine in her glass. Through the slit of her cheongsam, her slender thighs were faintly visible under the light.

“This is Umbrella's regular armed force.” Ada's tone was flat, yet it made Julian feel as if he had fallen into an ice cave. “And your grandfather and the others wanted to use a bunch of stitched-together abominations to challenge such monsters.”

Julian slammed the tablet onto the ground, its screen shattering instantly.

“They are madmen! This is completely unwinnable!” he roared like a madman.

“No, they aren't madmen. They just need a sacrificial lamb.” Ada put down her wine glass, walked over to his side, leaned down, and blew her warm breath against his ear.

“Julian, don't you find it strange?”

“Why was Umbrella's ambush so precise? It's as if they had read your battle plan in advance.”

Julian suddenly snapped his head up, his bloodshot eyes filled with terror.

“You mean... Morgan and Rockefeller...”

“I didn't say that.” Ada straightened up, stepping back a bit with an innocent smile on her face. “I just think it's a bit too coincidental that only people from your DuPont Family died in this attack, while their two families remained completely unharmed.”

Her words were like a poisoned thorn, precisely piercing Julian's most suspicious and fragile nerve.

“Oh, right,” Ada said as if remembering something, pulling a micro USB drive from her pocket and handing it over. “This is data my people just intercepted from an offshore financial server. They originally wanted to check Umbrella's capital flow, but ended up finding something interesting.”

“Once you look at it, you'll probably understand.”

With trembling hands, Julian took the USB drive and plugged it into the laptop beside him.

An encrypted bank transaction record popped up.

The record showed that just six hours before the Texas attack, a massive sum of five hundred million dollars was transferred from a secret account belonging to the Morgan Consortium to a seemingly ordinary Panama trading company.

And after tracing through layers of ownership, the controlling party behind this company ultimately pointed to—none other than a shell company on the periphery of the Umbrella Corporation!

Boom!

Julian's mind exploded.

Ironclad proof! This was ironclad proof!

That old bastard Morgan, while urging his DuPont Family to send troops as cannon fodder, was secretly sending money to Chen Feng and selling out the entire operation plan!

They didn't want to test Umbrella's strength; they wanted to use Chen Feng's blade to weaken his DuPont Family's military power!

No wonder! No wonder Old Morgan targeted him at every turn back in Scotland!

No wonder he was the first to jump out and blame the DuPont Family after the attack failed!

“Bastards!”

Julian slammed his fist onto the table, his knuckles instantly dripping with blood. Fear and the rage of betrayal made him completely lose his mind.

“I want to confront them face-to-face! I want to throw this evidence right in their faces!”

“Don't be impulsive.” Ada held his shoulder, her voice gentle, but a cold glint of a successful scheme flashed in her eyes. “They must be prepared by now. If you go like this, you will only fall into their trap.”

“Then what should I do?!” Julian grabbed Ada's arm like a helpless child. “They want to devour me! They want to use our DuPont Family as a sacrifice!”

“Strike first,” Ada whispered in his ear. “Before they push you out to take the blame, nail them to the pillar of shame as traitors during the alliance's internal meeting!”

Julian's eyes lit up.

Right! Strike first!

He immediately opened the encrypted communication and initiated a request for a top-level emergency holographic meeting with the alliance.

...

Three minutes later, three holographic projections appeared simultaneously in their respective secret rooms.

As soon as Old Morgan and Old Rockefeller's projections stabilized, Julian's face, distorted with rage, filled the entire screen.

“Morgan! Rockefeller! You two shameless traitors!”

Julian's roar even cracked.

Old Morgan and Old Rockefeller exchanged a glance, both seeing astonishment and the irritation of being offended by an idiot in each other's eyes.

“Julian, watch your language.” Old Rockefeller's voice turned cold. “You had better explain what you just said.”

“An explanation? Fine! I'll give you an explanation!”

Julian shared the forged transaction record directly to the meeting channel.

“Open your dog eyes and look! Just as our people went to their deaths, money from your Morgan family had already been transferred into Umbrella's account!”

“You sold us out! You used the blood of my DuPont Family to hook up with Chen Feng!”

The secret room fell into a deathly silence.

Looking at the clear transfer record, Old Morgan was stunned at first, and then a surge of rage at being backstabbed rushed straight to his head.

He understood instantly. This evidence was fake! It was a frame-up! And Julian, this idiot, actually believed it!

Old Morgan laughed out of sheer anger, his laughter filled with cold killing intent.

“Julian, you really... have opened my eyes.”

He finally understood who the mole was. It wasn't him or Rockefeller. It was the DuPont Family! It was this idiot in front of him who was played like a fiddle by Chen Feng and still ran over to make false accusations!

The DuPont Family has completely defected to Umbrella!

Old Rockefeller also figured this out. The way he looked at Julian was as if he were looking at a dead man.

“Enough.”

Old Rockefeller coldly interrupted Julian's cursing.

“The DuPont Family's foolish actions have led to the alliance's disastrous defeat.”

“From now on, we will cut off all financial support and channel sharing for the DuPont Consortium.”

“You can face Umbrella's wrath on your own.”

With that, he unilaterally cut off the communication.

Old Morgan's holographic projection vanished as well, leaving behind only a cold sentence.

“Idiot, you will pay the price for your stupidity.”

The holographic projections disappeared.

Julian stood frozen in place alone, his mind a complete blank.

The alliance... had abandoned him.

He had become an abandoned pawn.

He was finished.

Bang!

In despair, he swept everything off the table onto the floor, then slumped powerlessly into his chair like a puddle of mud.

A warm, soft hand holding a glass of whiskey was presented before him.

Ada's voice sounded, like a devil whispering in his ear.

“See, they've abandoned you.”

“Now, you only have me.”

Julian suddenly looked up, staring at the only woman he could rely on as if grasping at the final straw.

He snatched the glass, gulped down the strong liquor, and then tightly grabbed Ada's hand, his voice hoarse and filled with pleading.

“Help me... please, help me!”

“Alright,” Ada smiled, her other hand gently caressing his cheek. “Hand over the highest-level authorization passwords for all of the DuPont Family's core laboratories and military enterprises to me.”

“Let me help you take back everything that belongs to you.”

Without the slightest hesitation, like a hypnotized puppet, Julian entered a series of passwords on the computer that represented the lifeblood of the DuPont Family's century-old foundation.

Looking at the 'Authorization Transfer Successful' notification popping up on the screen, the smile on Ada's lips grew even more charming.

She turned around, her back to the manic and despairing Julian, and silently activated the encrypted communication in her earpiece.

“Boss, the DuPont Family's pants have been stripped off.”

“We can strike now.”

War Room, Los Angeles.

Looking at the long string of passwords sent back by Ada on the screen, a cold smile played on the corner of Chen Feng's mouth.

He looked at Sarah beside him and issued the final command.

“Notify Alan Fisher.”

“Get the meat grinder ready.”

“It's time to reel in the net.”