Chapter 4

The red light at the intersection ahead looked blurry through the rain, its color bleeding across the windshield with fuzzy edges. Ethan didn't slow down. The car hugged the roadside barrier as it cut through the turn, tires scraping across the pooled water with a sharp screech. The whole vehicle fishtailed slightly on the slick surface, but he quickly pulled it back under control.

The earpiece stayed silent.

Lena wasn't responding.

This wasn't normal.

She wasn't the type to panic into silence when things went wrong, and she definitely wouldn't go completely dark right after he'd entered the port. Unless something had happened on her end too—something even more complicated than what he was dealing with now.

Ethan glanced at the port district map on the center console, his expression darkening bit by bit. The drive here had been too smooth, so smooth it didn't feel like chasing someone. It felt more like someone had cleared all the obstacles ahead of time, just waiting for him to follow the set route straight into a trap.

The moment that thought surfaced, he jerked the steering wheel. The car instantly veered off the navigation route, cutting into an abandoned freight service road.

The second the car turned onto that road, the streetlights on both sides went out simultaneously.

The entire service road plunged into darkness, visibility dropping to almost nothing. The next second, three heavy forklift trucks burst out from behind containers on both sides, blocking the road horizontally with no gap to pass through.

Ethan's eyes darkened, but his foot pressed harder on the gas.

In that instant, several flashes of fire lit up the darkness.

Bullets hammered into the car body in rapid succession, the sounds muffled and dense.

Ethan held the steering wheel with one hand while pulling a pistol from under the seat with the other. Without even looking back, relying only on the sound of gunfire and position, he fired three shots. A suppressed scream immediately came from behind, and someone collapsed from behind cover.

But the ambush clearly had more than one layer.

The car had just charged onto the yard's elevated road when a blinding high beam met him head-on. It wasn't an ordinary vehicle's headlight, but a towing truck with high-intensity spotlights mounted on top, coming straight at him. It was clearly meant to ram him and his car to death on the elevated road.

Ethan stared at the approaching white light, a hint of barely contained ruthlessness finally showing in his eyes.

"Kane."

He spoke the name in a low voice, not loud, but as if grinding it out from between his teeth.

He didn't slow down, didn't evade.

Even so, the two vehicles still collided hard.

The impact threw Ethan's head against the window frame, cutting his temple on the spot. But he didn't even blink, his movements stayed steady, and once the car stabilized, he immediately kept pushing forward.

Because he'd already seen it.

Under the main support beam at the end of the elevated bridge, a red light was blinking rapidly.

That was the third explosion point.

And behind him, the towing truck had stopped.

The door opened, and a person in a black raincoat stepped down from the driver's seat, standing in the rain, watching the direction Ethan had gone. Then they raised a hand and said just one sentence into their headset, "He's arrived."

At the same time, deep in the main control level, Kane sat in a metal chair, facing an entire wall of surveillance screens.

He toyed with a black ring in his hand, the inverted triangle on its face reflecting a dark gleam under the light. After hearing the report in his earpiece, he slowly stood up and walked to the main screen in the center.

Kane watched that figure, his lips slowly curving upward.

He knew very well that the more Ethan acted like this, the more it meant he'd truly entered his zone. At times like this, he was actually more dangerous than usual.

"Zero." Kane repeated this codename that no one had dared mention to his face in years, his tone carrying a hint of interest. "I gave you three paths. Go to the warehouse to save people, come to Shadows Bridge to defuse the bomb, or go back to save that woman. But no matter which one you choose, you'll end up in front of me."

Just as he finished speaking, a cold voice suddenly came from the shadows behind him.

"So, you think you've already won?"

Kane's smile paused slightly, then he turned around.

Raven was somehow already standing at the door, his slender folding knife slowly opening in his hand, the blade reflecting a line of cold light under the white fluorescent glow. He didn't rush forward, and Kane didn't immediately move either. The two men faced each other across a few feet of distance, and the room suddenly fell quiet.

Kane looked at him, his expression showing a bit of surprise, but not too much.

"I knew you weren't dead."

Raven took two steps inside, his voice flat, "You're still alive, how could I bear to go down first."

Kane clapped lightly twice, as if he'd heard something fairly interesting, "Too bad you came too early. Right now, you can't save Lena, and you can't save Ethan either."

"I'm not here to save anyone." Raven looked at him, his tone showing no emotion. "I just want to confirm something."

"What?"

"Whether you're still the same Kane from back then."

After hearing this, the hint of amusement in Kane's eyes finally slowly faded.

And below the elevated bridge, Ethan was already standing in front of the main support beam.

The red dot was inside the support beam, the countdown already down to just a few minutes. He crouched down, his fingertips touching the cold steel beam, pressing lightly along the surface, immediately feeling the vibration coming from inside.

This wasn't an ordinary explosive device.

Rain continued to pound down, the steel beam's surface covered in water, the sound densely filling the surroundings.

Ethan slowly raised his head, looking toward the pitch-black area at the end of the elevated road. His gaze lingered for a few seconds before he finally spoke in a low voice, "So it really is you."

His voice wasn't loud, but the person at the end of the bridge still heard it.

It was a figure standing in the darkness, body hidden under a raincoat, the specific outline unclear, only visible as they slowly walked forward two steps.

"So it really is you, still alive." Ethan looked at him, his tone still low.

After the person stopped, they slowly spoke, "Aren't you still alive too, Zero."

Hearing this form of address, Ethan's eyes instantly turned cold.

"Don't call me that."

Ethan didn't speak immediately, just walked forward step by step. Rain flowed down from his temple, the blood on his face still unwashed, but he actually seemed calmer than before.

"Louis Cox." He finally called out the name. "Weren't you already dead?"

Hearing this, Louis's expression didn't change. He just raised his hand to pull open his raincoat collar, revealing the sunken old wound below his collarbone.

"Many people wanted me dead. Kane wanted me dead, those people in the main control level wanted me dead, and even you thought I should die back then."

Ethan's steps paused as he looked at the old wound, his voice still steady, "That order didn't come from me."

Louis stared at him, then after half a second continued, "But the person who pulled the trigger in the end was you."

Louis raised his hand to point at the bullet scar below his collarbone, his lips pulling into a faint smile, "That shot of yours was actually very accurate. Half an inch off, and I wouldn't be standing here talking to you now."