The heavy metal grating of the exhaust shaft exploded outward with a loud and scary boom. A sudden rain of fast bullets tore through the freezing mountain air, making a terrible buzzing sound. The hot lead missed Ethan Cole’s main climbing cables by just a few tiny inches, hitting the hard mountain stone and making bright yellow sparks fly into the dark whiteout. "They see us, Ethan!" Cynthia Vance cried out from below, her voice shaking badly from pure terror as she held the cold rope. "They are shooting right at our lines!" "Just hold your grip tight on the harness!" Ethan called down to her, his voice perfectly steady and not scared at all. "Do not look away from my boots!" "I am trying!" she screamed back through the wild wind. "But the bullets are cutting the air right next to my head!" "They cannot hit the main wire from that angle," Ethan told her flatly. "Just keep

General Zhao Chen tried to crawl slowly toward a secondary side arm gun on the floor. His fingers shook wildly as he reached out through the white dust and oil.Ethan Cole did not say a word, his face remaining like a hard piece of gray stone. He stepped forward with a slow, terrifying momentum.His heavy tactical boot came down with a massive force, pinching the general's hand completely flat against the concrete floorboards."Ah! Stop! Get your foot off my hand!" Zhao Chen screamed out in a big, raw panic. "You cannot do this to me!""You tried to steal from my grandfather's house, Zhao," Ethan whispered softly, his gray eyes turning completely dead. "And now you must pay the total bill.""I have an army outside!" the general shrieked, his chest heaving fast. "They will shoot this whole room to pieces if you do not lift your boot!""Your army is already buried under the mountain ice," Ethan told him coldly. "You have absolutely zero leverage left on this layout."The loud, sickening

Three days later, a sleek, private supersonic jet touched down at JFK International Airport. It landed under the cover of a pitch-black midnight rainstorm. The heavy tires hit the wet runway pavement with a big splash, sending water high into the dark air. The loud engines hummed softly as the plane slowed down. "We have landed safely, boss," the pilot called out over the speaker. "The road is open and your trucks are waiting at the gate lane." "Keep the engines running until we clear the tarmac," Vincent Cross commanded into his radio box. "We need to move fast." "The yard is totally secure," an operator called back from the ground. "No other cars are in this sector." "Good," Vincent murmured, his eyes scanning the dark fences. "Let's get the king back into his city." Ethan Cole stepped onto the wet tarmac pavement with a slow, steady, and very majestic mome

Every single television screen, stock ticker display, and smartphone terminal in the entire state of New York suddenly displayed a single live video feed. The sudden change happened all at once, stopping every normal broadcast on the air. The bright screens on the streets and inside the big houses blinked rapidly before locking into a steady, high-definition signal lane. People everywhere stopped walking, their eyes wide as they stared at their small phone panels. "Look at your phone right now!" a man screamed on a busy sidewalk in the middle of Times Square. "The whole system just changed to a weird video!" "My screen is totally locked up too!" a woman called out back, her face pale with total surprise. "I can't clear the picture at all!" "Every channel is showing the same thing!" a taxi driver yelled from his open window. "The whole city grid has been taken over by someone!" "T