Chapter 3

At the end of the corridor, a figure slowly walked in, backlit by the light from the doorway.

The man clutched his shoulder, staring at the figure as his voice dropped, "Aren't you supposed to be dead?"

Lena remained still, her eyes fixed on the person.

She recognized him.

More precisely, she recognized his fighting style, and she recognized the codename.

Raven.

Lena looked at him and spoke first, "You're late."

Raven's gaze swept across her face, his voice somewhat hoarse, "Better late than showing up to collect your body."

The man across from them actually laughed at that, though the smile looked particularly ugly on his blood-covered face, "Seems you've all forgotten who really runs this place."

After saying this, he suddenly raised his hand and pressed a hidden device on the side of his watch.

The alarm was instantly triggered.

The lights throughout the underground passage switched to red, warning lights began flashing nonstop, and the previously clear space felt even more compressed under the red glow. At the same time, a deep rumble came from deeper in the equipment room, like some gate being forcibly locked down by the system.

Hearing that sound, Lena's expression changed.

This wasn't an ordinary alarm.

He was trying to seal off this entire level.

The screen flashed again: Third ignition countdown 09:59

Lena's scalp tightened, "He's already activated it?"

Raven strode quickly to the main console, his fingers rapidly tapping the keyboard. A structural diagram of the port area immediately appeared on screen.

There were three red dots on the map, distributed across the warehouse, the yard, and the main support bridge, with the middle dot continuously flashing.

"The third explosion point isn't the warehouse, it's Shadows Bridge." Raven's voice was low. "Once it's blown, both the storage area and the outer ring dispatch zone will be paralyzed. The port will be down for at least twelve hours. Worst part is, Ethan's current route goes right through that section."

Lena grabbed the edge of the desk, "He deliberately led Ethan there!"

Raven didn't speak, just quickly zoomed in on the image.

On the route map, a blue trajectory of a vehicle was continuously approaching the red dot area.

Ethan was almost there.

"I'll contact him." Lena reached for her earpiece.

"Won't work." Raven didn't look up. "The main control level has set up interference. All regular communications are cut off. Whatever you send him now, all he'll get is noise."

"Then what do we do?"

Raven finally stopped and glanced at her, "Two options. First, I go down and disarm the third explosion point. Second, you go release the lockdown at the bottom level of the Black Gate and let Ethan take the internal maintenance passage to avoid the guided route."

"What about you?"

"I'm going after Kane."

"No." Lena rejected it almost immediately. "That's exactly what he's waiting for—you two splitting up. If you go alone, you're walking right into his hands."

Raven pulled at the corner of his mouth slightly, "You think I'm afraid of him?"

Lena stared hard at him, "I'm not saying you're afraid. I'm saying you're all too alike. Ethan's like this, you're like this too—thinking as long as you're fast enough, ruthless enough, you can handle any problem. But Kane doesn't want to beat you at all. What he wants is for you to make the wrong choice yourselves."

The air suddenly went quiet.

Raven looked at her, his eyes showing a different emotion for the first time, like scrutiny, or like seeing her anew.

But the injured man across from them suddenly laughed lowly, "Well said. Too bad it's already too late."

As soon as he finished speaking, the gun on the floor fired by itself.

The bullet flew past Lena's ear and shattered a screen. Glass exploded, sparks flew everywhere, and the technician ducked down with his head in his hands.

Raven's reaction was incredibly fast. He dodged, then flicked another steel nail with his backhand, hitting the man squarely in the wrist.

The gun fell completely.

But in that same second, an inconspicuous badge on the man's chest suddenly glowed red.

Raven's expression changed drastically, "Get back!"

He lunged at Lena, pressing her down behind the main console.

The next second, the man exploded.

Not an explosion in the figurative sense, but an actual close-range self-destruct. Blood, bone, fabric scraps, and metal fragments mixed together and burst apart. The equipment room was instantly thrown into chaos by the shockwave. Half the monitoring wall went dark, the overhead lights swung wildly, and the alarm became even more shrill and piercing after the blast.

Lena's ears were filled with ringing, her vision completely white.

She only felt Raven pressed on top of her, his arms braced on the ground, shielding her from the most direct wave of impact.

By the time she barely recovered some vision, Raven had already gotten up.

His right outer arm had been sliced open by metal fragments, blood running down his glove, but he acted like he couldn't feel the pain at all, directly pulling out the damaged wiring and reconnecting it to backup power.

A third of the screens lit up.

The countdown was still running.

08:21

"Crazy..." The technician's voice trembled. "They installed explosive devices inside their own people..."

"Not them." Raven said coldly. "Kane installed them. He never cares whether his subordinates live or die."

Lena steadied herself against the desk and stood up, her face pale, "You knew all along?"

"I only knew he likes to give everyone a 'final purpose.'" Raven looked at the countdown. "No time for talk now. You go to the bottom level and open the maintenance passage. I'll go to Shadows Bridge."

"Didn't you say you were going after Kane?"

Raven fell silent for a brief moment, as if recalculating something.

"Since he activated the third explosion point, he won't be far from the main control level." He said. "He needs to watch Ethan walk into it. Which means, as long as I go to Shadows Bridge, he'll show up sooner or later."

Lena understood.

This wasn't about defusing a bomb—this was using himself as bait.

She clenched her teeth, "You never planned to come back alive."

Raven didn't answer, just slapped a black access card on the desk, "Take this. There are two gates at the bottom level. Swipe your old card for the first one, this one for the second. Once you're in, don't hesitate. Pull the switch immediately to let him through, even if the system alarms—don't stop."

He turned to leave after speaking.

"Raven!" Lena suddenly called out to him.

He stopped but didn't turn around.

"If you see Ethan..." Lena's voice paused, as if many words were stuck in her throat, but in the end only one sentence remained, "Tell him to stop trying to be a hero alone."

Raven laughed very softly, the sound so faint it was almost inaudible.

"You'd better stay alive and tell him that yourself."

With those words, he had already rushed into the corridor flashing with red lights.

Lena didn't hesitate anymore, grabbing the still-trembling technician, "Where's the entrance to the bottom level?"

The technician quickly pointed in a direction.

The two of them circled around the half-collapsed equipment room and rushed toward the deeper stairwell.

At the same time.

Port outer ring.

The rain was falling harder.

Ethan sat in the car, the wipers moving at high speed, still unable to keep up with the water constantly rolling down the windshield.