CHAPTER 198
Author: R. AUSTINNITE
last update2026-03-07 22:45:41

CHAPTER 198

In the darkness of the second cage, Director Vance was a ruin of a man.

His white lab coat was a map of sweat and floor dust.

He sat huddled in the corner, his stomach letting out a roar so visceral it seemed to rattle the bars.

"I had it in my hand," Vance wheezed, his voice cracking with a hysterical edge. "The Thai takeout. It was right there on my desk. Spicy basil beef.”

“I didn't eat it because I wanted to finish the quarterly projections first. Now, I’d kill... I’d kill eve
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  • CHAPTER 467

    Hearing they were going for his sister, Zarek remained perfectly still, but beneath his closed eyelids, a cold, killing intent flashed."Go," Vance commanded, his voice flat. "Send the extraction team and grab her. Let's get this over with quickly."The guard nodded, ready to cut the transmission, but Vance kept talking, his eyes drifting as if thinking aloud."Once we have her, I am going to figure out exactly why these brothers were targeting my shipping lines," Vance murmured, his fingers tightening on his cane. "I need to know if they are connected to some old family I dealt with, or if I systematically eliminated one of their relatives years ago." He paused, letting out a dry, raspy sigh that rattled through the speaker. "I have buried so many people over the last thirty years to keep House Vance at the top. Broken so many minor houses, erased so many names from the registry, that I don't remember half of them. If these Blackwoods are just the angry ghosts of some old administr

  • CHAPTER 466

    Tinny walked up beside him, tilting his head to inspect the dark corners where the pipes intersected. "Speaking of Vance... do you think there are cameras down here? The old man seems like the type to watch a live stream of his prisoners just to feel powerful."Zarek’s gaze tracked the structural beams, stopping on a dark junction where two water pipes met near the ceiling. A tiny, unblinking green light was buried in the shadow. Scanning the perimeter, he found two more hidden lenses embedded straight into the concrete.He let out a short, tired sigh. "There are three," Zarek said, his voice flat. "But the feed is local, routing to a closed monitor upstairs."He took a step forward, his expression turning incredibly cold. The calm, corporate mask he usually wore vanished, replaced by a dark focus that made the temperature in the room feel as though it had dropped to zero."We need to hurry," Zarek murmured, eyes fixing on the heavy metal door. "We need to find the person Vance ha

  • CHAPTER 465

    He tapped his medical brace with a smug grin. "You're nothing but trash from a powerful family, and we are finally sweeping you out. Enjoy the basement, because you and your brother are never seeing the light of day again."Tinny tried to speak, his jaw twitching, but only a low, dry hiss escaped his throat.Valerius laughed louder, stepping back as the elevator doors slid shut.The two guards looked down at the motionless brothers as the lift vibrated, descending into the sub-levels."So, what are we actually doing with them at the bottom?" the younger guard asked, adjusting his rifle strap. "The Director just said to secure them."The older guard let out a dry, chilling laugh. "What do you think, rookie? Think back to the Riggs family managers last year when they tried to block our transit lines. The Director threw them into this exact basement.""And they never came back up," the younger one muttered, a shiver passing through his shoulders."Exactly. Once the doors lock down ther

  • CHAPTER 464

    Both brothers violently pushed off the table, muscles tensing to launch away from the trap. But the moment their weight shifted, the neuro-paralytic slammed into their systems like a physical wall.Zarek’s knees buckled instantly. The grand marble dining hall spun in a sickening, gray-scaled blur as the synthetic compound specifically engineered by Vance’s chemists to target high-tier biological conditioning flooded his central nervous system.It felt as though his veins were being pumped full of liquid lead.Beside him, Tinny fared no better. The younger brother lunged backward, but his legs turned to water. He stumbled sideways, crashing heavily into the mahogany table. The impact sent silver platters spinning and his water crystal shattering across the floor in a sharp, mocking echo. Gripping the edge of the table, his knuckles turned white as he forced his uncooperative body to stay upright, eyes burning with shock and rage."Z-Zarek..." Tinny choked out, his throat already

  • CHAPTER 463

    The movement was slow, deliberate, carrying the heavy weight of an apex predator marking its territory."If you're trying to invent a connection between my operations and the ghosts of your past failures, you're reaching," Zarek said. "House Blackwood handles its business in the present. I don't care who you knew ten years ago, Director. It has nothing to do with why we are at this table."Vance didn't blink. He lowered the silver knife, letting the blade rest against the porcelain with a soft, ominous clink."Is that so?" Vance’s raspy voice dropped into a low frequency that vibrated through the grand hall. Ignoring Tinny, he kept his razor-sharp gaze anchored entirely on Zarek. The old director leaned back, a single finger tapping the metal handle of his cane. "You can play the ignorant upstart all you want, Mr. Blackwood, but it is entirely too obvious what is happening here. You brought your brother for one reason.”He paused, studying Zarek's expression.“You are using the boy

  • CHAPTER 462

    Across from him, Zarek leaned back into the contoured leather of his seat, his posture radiating absolute composure. Beneath the calm mask, his mind ran high-speed algorithmic calculations.He had deliberately allowed Tinny to push Valerius to the brink. It wasn't a schoolboy tantrum; it was a calculated probe to see exactly how Director Vance would react. Zarek was mapping the corporate landscape. Years ago, the Vances had dismantled the Riggs family using a hidden asset, perhaps black-market regulatory leverage. Because House Blackwood operated on that same elite tier, a standard corporate chess match wouldn't cut it. He needed to know the nature of the teeth Vance had bared against the Riggs.Zarek’s dark eyes narrowed at the silent patriarch. ‘What are you waiting for, Vance?’ he thought, his fingers tapping a slow rhythm against his knee beneath the tablecloth. ‘Are you going to deploy that same power, or is your real backup already waiting in the shadows of this cleared

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