Vincent jumped into his car and sped off, but the area was remote. Even at full speed, it would take him at least forty minutes to reach his destination.

After twenty minutes of driving… suddenly—Boom! A towering plume of smoke billowed up in the distance ahead of him.

In that instant, his heart sank. Vincent realized the smoke was rising from Katelyn’s location.

Jaxen was puzzled when he discovered his hacked computer had been restored—the hacker had gone. Without wasting a moment, he sat down and quickly checked all the surveillance cameras around Katelyn’s location. However, the cameras revealed nothing but a scene engulfed in smoke and dust, making it impossible to see what was happening.

Panic rising, Jaxen called Vincent. “The cameras are down. I can’t see anything. What’s going on?”

Since Jaxen was much farther from Katelyn’s location than Vincent, he hadn’t yet seen the massive plume of smoke rising in that direction. Vincent slammed his foot on the accelerator, his voice tight and icy. “There was an explosion. A big one.”

In that moment, Jaxen’s mind went blank, as if his thoughts had just exploded along with the blast.

An explosion? At Katelyn’s location? Was she okay?

Jaxen couldn’t bring himself to imagine what might have happened. What if she…

Frantically, he flipped through the surveillance feeds, but all he could see was the devastating aftermath of the blast. The explosion had torn through a vast area, leveling almost the entire impoverished neighborhood. Given the circumstances, Katelyn’s chances of surviving this seemed slim, if not impossible.

A cold wave of dread washed over Jaxen, his limbs numb as if he had lost control of his body. Guilt, regret, and self-blame swirled in his mind.

L?tτ ?нαρτ?rs ιn glov?ls.

This was his fault. If he hadn’t dragged her into this, Katelyn wouldn’t be in danger, and none of this would have happened. Jaxen felt like the ground was slipping out from beneath him, his world crumbling around him.

No, she had to be okay. Katelyn was strong—she would survive this.

Vincent’s eyes were as cold as ice, sharp and unyielding. His voice sliced through the tension. “Turn every traffic light on this route green, immediately.” His normally calm and composed demeanor was gone, replaced by urgency that made his voice tremble with desperation.

Jaxen understood what Vincent was planning and didn’t argue. Pushing aside his own fears and guilt, he nodded. “On it.”

Within minutes, Jaxen had hacked the traffic system and turned every light green.

Vincent’s car surged forward like a bullet, its speed almost inhuman as he raced against time. The world outside blurred into streaks, too fast for him to make out anything clearly.

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