Chapter 5

Ethan looked at the old wound on Louis's chest, his face showing no change, even his eyes remained calm.

Louis stood there, watching his movements, and said quietly, "Still the same as before."

After saying that, he reached behind and pulled out a long blade. The blade was completely black, very narrow, and made almost no sound when drawn.

On the other side, the atmosphere in the main control level had completely changed.

Raven and Kane stared at each other, neither making the first move, yet the air felt even more tense than before.

"You suspect I'm not Kane?" Kane smiled slightly. "Or would you rather I wasn't?"

Raven stared at him, his voice steady, "The real Kane wouldn't set the third explosion point on Shadows Bridge."

Kane looked at him. "Why not?"

"Because Ethan is best at handling this kind of situation." Raven's answer was direct. "If you really wanted to kill him, there's no need to do it this way. Setting up the situation like this only shows you're not trying to blow this place up, but using him to confirm something."

At the same time, Lena had already rushed to the second gate.

She moved quickly, slapping that black access card into the scanner. The system reacted for a second, then displayed a line of text.

Highest clearance approved.

When the technician next to her saw those words, his voice changed, "Lena, are you really opening it? Once this door is released, the main control level will immediately get an alert."

Lena didn't explain to him at all, just replied, "Don't worry about it."

Then she grabbed the lever and pulled it all the way down.

Almost at the same moment, the entire underground passage lit up with a row of emergency lights. The previously dim darkness was suddenly illuminated, and a series of mechanical locks could be heard unlocking in the circuits.

At the same time, Ethan fired his gun. Louis dodged to the side, the bullet grazing past his ear and embedding itself in the bridge pillar behind him. After both men retreated a bit, they stood facing each other again through the rain.

One with a long blade, one with a short knife.

The rain kept falling, the ground already covered in water.

The look in Louis's eyes finally couldn't be suppressed anymore, and his voice began to carry a nearly uncontrolled excitement, "Yes, that's it. Don't defuse it yet, finish this fight first."

Ethan glanced at the countdown.

00:43.

When he spoke, his voice was still very low, "You still want to die that badly."

Louis actually laughed after hearing this, his laughter carrying heavy obsession, "What's death? If today I can drag you back to who you used to be, it'll be worth it."

This time, Ethan didn't retreat, but charged straight forward.

The two men collided again beneath the main beam of the elevated bridge. Louis's blade strikes were heavy, each one aimed at cutting right through a person, but Ethan always kept the distance very close, alternating between his short blade and gun, moving fast and efficiently, with no wasted motion.

After several close exchanges, Ethan suddenly cut into Louis's right side, slamming his elbow hard into his chest, forcing him back two steps.

He didn't pursue.

As soon as Louis's stance faltered, Ethan had already turned and rushed back to the main beam, gripping the edge of the first cover plate with both hands and flipping it open.

Inside the bridge column's cavity were three layers of panels. The first was a disguise layer, the second a buffer layer, and the real explosive cutting device was hidden in the middle of the third layer.

Once the first disguise panel was flipped open, the buffer layer underneath was immediately exposed.

After Louis steadied himself, he looked at Ethan's back, his expression slowly darkening.

"Even now, you still choose the mission first, not yourself."

As his words fell, he raised his hand to press the micro-device behind his ear.

Almost at the same second, a faint red light appeared at the position of the old bullet wound on his chest.

Ethan whipped around, his expression truly changing for the first time.

"You have a trigger chip in your body too?"

Louis grinned, but the smile was already somewhat vicious, "Kane left everyone with a final purpose, me included."

At this point, Ethan finally completely understood why Louis had dared to keep stalling from the beginning.

Because he wasn't just here to obstruct.

He was the final failsafe.

As soon as Ethan got to the critical part of defusing, he would rush over and detonate himself, and the entire bridge section, device, and Ethan would all be blown to pieces together.

"You're really insane."

Louis gasped for breath, his eyes full of things that had been suppressed too long, "I've been insane for a long time."

After saying this, he charged forward again.

Ethan didn't hesitate, lifting his foot to kick.

This kick hit Louis square in the chest with great force, sending him flying backward. His back hit the steel frame, then he rolled to the side, unconscious.

The countdown continued.

00:31.

Ethan had no time to be distracted. Gritting his teeth, he lifted his hand and tore open the second buffer layer.

But when this layer broke open, he discovered it was full of fine glass fibers. When the panel tore, some of those fibers were pulled into the air, while more stuck directly to his arm and palm.

At first it was just itchy and prickly.

The next second, the pain surged up violently.

These glass fibers were so fine they were almost invisible. Once they touched skin, they would all burrow in along the surface. At first it felt like burning, then it became waves of pain drilling into the bone. The more force he used with his hand, the more obvious the sensation became.

Ethan's hand movements instinctively trembled.

His face darkened immediately.

Not far away, Louis also saw this scene. Even though his chest was already aching from that kick, he still laughed quietly, "You think Kane would only put one shell on the outside?"

Ethan ignored him, just forcibly suppressed his breathing, trying to steady his hand.

But the pain came too fast and too directly. The more he tried to exert force, the deeper the glass fibers dug in, and his entire arm trembled uncontrollably.

He couldn't let this state continue.

As soon as this thought emerged, Ethan barely hesitated.

He rolled up his sleeve, exposing the section of skin covered in glass fibers, then took his dagger and aimed it at the most severely injured area, slashing hard.

The motion was decisive, almost brutal.

A large piece of skin and flesh, along with those tiny fibers, was cut away together. Blood immediately flowed down his arm.

Sharp pain rushed up. The veins at Ethan's temple bulged, but he didn't even grunt. He just immediately used his clothes to wrap that section of the wound tightly, suppressing the remaining uncontrolled trembling.

When he lifted his hand again, although his fingers still had blood on them, his movements had steadied again.

He took a deep breath, forcibly evening out his breathing, before lowering his head again to look at the device structure now truly exposed before him.

At this point, he could finally see clearly what was inside the third layer.

Ethan stared at the device before him, his pupils contracting slightly.

Three wires—red, blue, black—all connected to the same trigger point.

A standard three-choice trap.

But Kane wouldn't use standard methods.

His gaze quickly swept over the entire structure, suddenly noticing an extremely thin transparent film beneath the black wire.

Under the film, there was a fourth wire hidden.

White.

"Found it."

Ethan didn't hesitate, directly using the tip of his dagger to lift the film, exposing that white wire. His fingers were very steady, the blade tip slowly cutting along the wire body, bit by bit stripping away the outer insulation.

The countdown jumped to 00:18.

He took a deep breath, gripped the dagger, and aimed at the center of the white wire.

One cut.

The red light on the device instantly went out.

The countdown stopped at 00:11.

Ethan released the dagger and slowly sat down against the bridge pillar, blood still dripping from his arm.

"It's over," he said quietly.

Ethan sat against the bridge pillar for a few seconds, then forced himself to stand up.

He looked down at the wound on his arm. Blood had soaked through the wrapped cloth, but at least it no longer affected his movement.

The rain kept falling.

Louis lay not far away, his chest rising and falling very weakly, but he was still alive.

Ethan walked over, crouched down, and pressed his hand against Louis's carotid artery to check his pulse. Very weak, but stable.

He didn't call for an ambulance, just searched Louis's body for that micro-communication device, held it in his hand and looked at it for a few seconds, then crushed it and threw it into the water pooled under the bridge.

After doing this, he stood up again and looked toward the main control level in the distance.

Rainwater flowed down his face, mixed with blood and sweat.

Lena's voice came through the earpiece, "Ethan, finally got through to you. How's your situation?"

"I just fought with Louis. He's unconscious now. Send someone to pick him up."

Then static came through the earpiece, and Lena's words became choppy.

"Ethan... can you hear..."

"Raven... still trapped... upstairs..."

"The real... main control room... isn't at..."

The last sentence was almost completely drowned out by noise, leaving only a few fuzzy syllables.

"...not at the main control level..."

Then the communication cut out completely.

Ethan didn't stay, turning and heading toward the old cold storage.

His steps were steady, but with each step he took, the wound on his arm would throb. He ignored it, just quickening his pace.

Ten minutes later, he entered the maintenance shaft on the west side of the old cold storage.

The passage was very narrow, both sides lined with old pipes and supports, the air carrying a heavy smell of rust.

Ethan went down along the shaft, moving quickly with almost no pause.

The wounds on his shoulder and back were still there, but he was completely used to this level of pain—even his breathing hadn't become irregular.

At the end of the shaft was a heavy iron door.

There was no lock on the door, only an old-style mechanical handle.

Ethan lifted his hand to grip the handle, twisted hard, and the door opened.

Behind the door was a dim space.

Only a faint light shone in the deepest part.