Beast, Blue Blood - Chapter 27

Chapter 27

“That’s…”

Selena, unable to hide her astonished emotions, spoke.

“Isn’t that Young Master Hisha?”

“What?”

Jerome looked back at the photo in surprise. When he thought about it being Hisha, it indeed looked like him, but he mumbled, unable to fully comprehend it.

“But Mr. Hisha went on a trip to South America, right? Miss Ha-yeon said she spoke to him yesterday…”

Selena’s face grew serious.

“Where is Miss Ha-yeon?”

“Uh… I don’t know.”

Selena looked up at the ceiling.

“Vanessa, call Miss Ha-yeon.”

With that, the AI started making the call. But after a long signal, there was no answer. Soon a message played.

[The call cannot be answered…]

“She’s not answering.”

Jerome murmured in dismay. Selena placed her hand on her mouth, deep in thought, then spoke again.

“Call her again.”

The signal went on for a long time, and the same message played again.

[The call cannot be answered…]

“Hang up, and send her current location.”

When Selena spoke, Jerome murmured blankly,

“Didn’t Miss Ha-yeon say she’d kill us if we tracked her location?”

It wasn’t that he was being rude to his superior; he was merely quoting Ha-yeon directly.

“Don’t tell her.”

Selena said without looking back, and Jerome shook his head.

“No way.”

But as they waited for the location to appear, it still didn’t come up. Selena looked at the ceiling, puzzled.

“Vanessa?”

Then Vanessa spoke.

[Miss Ha-yeon’s current location cannot be read.]

Selena furrowed her brow.

The fact that the GPS couldn’t be read meant one of two things: either Vanessa, the super AI developed with an astronomical amount of money, was malfunctioning, or Ha-yeon was simply in a place where the GPS information couldn’t be read.

Selena spoke again.

“Show Miss Ha-yeon’s movement route for today.”

A red line began to be drawn on the map. It started from the house, wound through various shops, then headed out to the suburbs and continued straight for a long time. After a while, it entered private property.

“There…!”

Jerome gasped, his eyes widening. Selena stood up, leaning on the table.

There was no need to check; she knew well who owned that property.

Fuger-Dulloch.

Selena started walking and spoke.

“Contact the MCTC in the US and assemble the HRT (Hostage Rescue Team) immediately. Right now.”

* * *

At the sound of the door opening, Hisha turned his head away from the TV set outside the iron bars. Three people in white coats entered, followed by armed men in black. Eugene was not in sight.

Clang.

The people, looking like a mix of white and black Go stones, opened the iron door and entered. Hisha watched them blankly. One of them set a 007 case on the floor and opened it, taking out a syringe.

“What is that?”

Hisha asked. The man approached him with the syringe.

“Ms. Director ordered this.”

“Ah, Eugene…”

Hisha seemed to understand and remained still. The man tried to inject him with the syringe. But just as the needle was about to pierce his arm, Hisha kicked him away.

“She wouldn’t send someone else to do it!”

As the man was knocked over, the other men wobbled. Hisha charged at them with his whole body. Despite being an ordinary student, he was still a Luax. With his incredible strength, even the professionally trained security personnel were helpless and fell backward.

The men at the back were pushed out of the iron bars and fell. Simultaneously, Hisha rolled his body, using them as a slide, to roll out. He quickly got up and ran toward the entrance.

“Catch him!”

“Get off me!”

“Stand up!”

“He’s escaping!”

The voices behind him were a chaotic mess, but Hisha ran with all his might.

Ping!

A bullet hit the wall next to him. Startled, Hisha lowered his body and ran toward the door leading to the underground passage. The door, which had been tightly closed like Alibaba’s cave, was slightly open. He burst through it to find two armed men lying inside.

“Hah!”

Hisha stopped in shock.

“Mister! Are you okay?”

He recognized the faces as belonging to Eugene’s people.

“Ugh…”

Fortunately, one of the men was alive, groaning as he moved. Hisha immediately closed the door, lifted the man over his shoulder, and grabbed the other man by the waist, tucking him under his arm with a loud grunt.

“Haah!”

He started running with both men. As he was halfway through the passage, he heard the door open behind him. The sound of a card key unlocking, indicated there was a spy on Eugene’s side.

Bang!

A gunshot echoed, and a bullet hit somewhere on the wall. Hisha, startled, ran in a zigzag pattern to avoid the bullets and reached the stairs leading to the main building.

Just like Orpheus at the end of the cave, he saw sunlight pouring in from above. But suddenly, armed men appeared, blocking the light and aiming their guns at him. Hisha froze. His reflection, squinting against the sunlight, was visible in their goggles.

“Wait…!”

Hisha shouted in panic. At that moment, a man at the top of the stairs yelled.

“Duck!”

Hisha immediately ducked his head.

Bang! Bang bang!

Gunshots rang out overhead, and the loud sound of bodies tumbling down the stairs followed. The man at the top of the stairs quickly shouted.

“Come up, quickly!”

Simultaneously, two other men rushed down the stairs, supporting the men Hisha had been carrying. They seemed to be Eugene’s men, shielding Hisha as they climbed the stairs and entered the mansion. As they moved, Hisha asked.

“Who are those people?”

“They’re one of the factions trying to capture you by any means necessary.”

There were too many factions to pinpoint just one, but it didn’t seem to matter who they were.

Hisha noticed a man among them, handcuffed and gagged.

“Is he one of them?”

One of the men replied.

“Yes.”

Suddenly, Hisha removed the gag from the man and asked.

“What’s your objective?”

Unsurprisingly, the man didn’t respond. In an instant, Hisha bent the man’s finger back. The man screamed in indescribable pain, and simultaneously, Hisha jerked his hand back as if he had been burned.

“Ouch! Ah! Eek!”

The men couldn’t hide their astonished looks as Hisha acted as if he were the one injured. He shivered and made a fuss like a foreigner eating a live octopus for the first time.

“Ugh… it feels weird.”

Despite this, Hisha approached the man again, with a determined expression.

“Sorry. If you don’t answer, I’ll do another one…”

Realizing that Hisha was serious about causing him pain, the man quickly shouted.

“Stop!”

Hisha paused but leaned forward, ready to continue if the man didn’t speak. The man, panting, spoke.

“Our goal is to eliminate the Executive Director and take you away.”

Hisha furrowed his brow, not fully understanding.

“Eliminate…?”

The man gave a strange smile, like someone savoring a small happiness in a dire situation.

“Do you have time for this?”

Just then, a noise came from the opposite hallway, and armed forces appeared. Judging by the grim faces of the men on their side, they were not allies. Seeing the approaching forces, Hisha felt a cold sweat run down his back.

“This is bad.”

* * *

Ha-yeon contemplated as she looked at the heavily guarded mansion.

‘How am I supposed to get that big guy out?’

Getting him out and escaping was another issue. The mansion grounds were vast and isolated, making any vehicle approach immediately noticeable. As a result, Ha-yeon had only managed to sneak in alone. She planned to figure out an escape method after rescuing Hisha. She hoped something would work out, but no solution was in sight.

‘I’ll need a car.’

Since modern cars start with the owner’s biometric information, Ha-yeon needed to find an old car that could be started the old-fashioned way. But how to find such an old car?

Click.

A metallic sound came from behind, followed by a deep male voice.

“Hands up.”

Ha-yeon immediately raised her hands.

“Stand up.”

She stood up slowly as instructed.

“Slowly.”

As she stood, the man behind her patted her down to check for weapons. Ha-yeon bit her lip.

‘Damn, how could I get caught so easily?’

Once he confirmed she was unarmed, the man seemed to reach behind his ear to radio in.

“Here…”

As Ha-yeon turned around, the armed man reacted quickly, raising his gun. Fortunately, she moved faster, grabbing his arm to redirect the gun while stepping on his thigh and leaping up. In a flash, she wrapped her legs around his neck, arching her body back like a bow to use her weight to flip him over.

“…!”

Thanks to the tremendous force Ha-yeon applied with her legs, the large man fell to the ground with minimal noise. She tightened her legs around his neck. The man struggled for quite a while before finally going limp. Even then, Ha-yeon waited a bit longer before releasing her grip and checking his breath. Thankfully, he was still breathing.

“Wow. I can’t believe that worked on the first try.”

She muttered, still in disbelief, when she sensed another presence.

“What are you doing over there?”

Ha-yeon turned quickly. This time, it was a familiar face—the gardener, Pierlu. He looked unsure if he was seeing things correctly.

Ha-yeon quickly picked up the gun the man had dropped and pointed it at Pierlu.

“Stay quiet.”

Pierlu flinched and took a step back.

“I’m just a gardener.”

Ha-yeon kept the gun aimed at him, thinking. The gardener had been friendly toward Hisha. Considering his circumstances, it made sense that he would feel more sympathy for Hisha than for Eugene Fuger-Dulloch. Seeing Hisha fall in love with the young lady of the house probably felt relatable to him.

He could be helpful. Ha-yeon was desperate enough to need any help she could get.

“Hey. Look at me.”