Ethan stood before the gaping maw of the abandoned supermarket. With a firm kick, he forced the rusted door open and stepped inside.
The interior was a graveyard of broken commerce. Shelves were overturned, and glass-fronted drink coolers lay smashed across the floor. Exposed wires and dead light fixtures hung like vines from the cracked ceiling, draped in thick sheets of cobwebs.
No way I'm finding anything or any trail in this mess, Ethan thought, sweeping his tactical light across the wreckage. He paused, noticing deep gouges in the linoleum. Did someone fight here?
He sighed, lowering his light. There's nothing here. I should head back and regroup with Liam and Asher. That high-rise is too big for just the two of them.
"M...mm..."
A muffled, distorted groan echoed through the dark.
Ethan froze. His gaze snapped to a heavy metal door tucked behind the checkout counter. He moved forward soundlessly, his boots making no sound on the debris. He listened closely, but the noise had cut off.
He gripped the handle. Surprisingly, the door clicked and turned smoothly—the only thing in the entire building that seemed to be well-maintained. Pushing it open, he slipped into a long, dark service hallway.
An echo, Ethan noted, tracking the sound.
Further down the hall, he passed a set of elevator doors. The indicator light was dead, and the steel frame was dented.
Someone intentionally wrecked the mechanism. But why does a run-of-the-mill grocery store have an elevator?
He kept moving. At the far end of the corridor, a door stood ajar. Ethan stepped through and stopped.
A stark trail of crimson smeared the floor. Right beside it was a sequence of messy, wet boot prints in the blood.
Ethan's pulse didn't even skip. Calm as ever, he followed the grim trail until a voice drifted up from the dark.
"Yes, I already contacted him this morning. You know how time zones are—America is hours behind them."
The voice was hollow, bouncing off concrete walls. It's coming from downstairs, Ethan realized.
He quickened his pace, stepping even lighter, tracking the bloody boot prints until they led to a concrete staircase plunging into a basement. A single, dim bulb flickered at the landing.
At the bottom of the stairs stood a man with a phone pressed to his ear. The lower half of his black suit and his shoes were soaked in fresh blood. Even the man's palms were bathed in blood. A few feet away, a lifeless body lay slumped against the wall.
So the boot prints belong to him, and that's his victim, Ethan thought silently.
The man on the phone chuckled grimly. "Yeah, I took care of the guy. He was a good employee, though. Kept bringing me fresh popcorn."
Ethan closed his eyes, took a slow, deep breath, and exhaled. Time to confront him.
He stepped onto the stairs.
"Okay, I'll talk to you later," the man said, his tone shifting as he prepared to hang up. "Right now, I have to go take care of the pests who broke into my office." He disconnected the call and sighed heavily.
Then, the faint sound of Ethan's boots hitting the concrete stairs caught his attention.
The man snapped his head up. Ethan stood at the top of the stairwell, his silhouette framed entirely in black by the dim light behind him.
The man's eyes widened in sudden, absolute terror.
It can't be... he thought, his breath catching. "M-Mister... what are you doing here?"
Ethan frowned, deliberately descending into the light. "Do I know you?"
As Ethan's face finally became visible, the man's terror instantly vanished. He let out a breathless, disbelieving laugh.
"Is something funny?" Ethan asked, his voice deadpan, his expression completely unreadable. "Share the joke so we can both laugh."
The man sagged against the wall in relief. "I am so sorry. For a second, I took you for someone else."
Ethan remained perfectly still, watching him.
The man smiled, his confidence returning. "Wow. Ethan, you really possess an aura just like him. That's the only reason I thought he was standing there. You genuinely scared me for a moment."
"Who are you talking about?" Ethan demanded. "And how do you know my name?"
The man blinked, genuinely surprised. "You don't know?" He let out another soft chuckle. "Well, I have urgent business to attend to. See ya."
He began walking straight up the stairs, completely unbothered. He held his smile.
"You're not going to fight me?" Ethan asked, not moving an inch.
"Nah, I have no reason to," the man replied casually.
As he passed Ethan on the narrow staircase, he leaned in and whispered in his ear, "There's a room in the basement, at the end. Don't miss it."
With that, he kept walking, leaving Ethan alone in the dim stairwell. Ethan watched him disappear into the shadows above before turning to descend into the basement.
Outside, the man stepped out of the supermarket and into the cool night air.
How could I possibly kill Ethan? he thought, glancing back once before setting his sights on the abandoned-looking hotel across the street—the building Liam and Asher had infiltrated.
He cracked his knuckles, a brutal smile spreading across his face. "Time to deal with the intruders. That damn Beast isn't even replying to my texts."
"Once I took care of things here, I will confront Beast myself and teach him a lesson."
He kicked through the shattered glass of the hotel lobby and stepped inside.
Instantly, a mechanical, synthesized voice boomed over the building's hidden PA system, echoing through every square inch of the structure:
"Access granted. Entering: Chairman of Loop's Fourth Branch."
Thirty stories up, the automated message blared through the luxurious office speakers. Liam and Asher snapped their attention to the corridor.
"So, he's here," Liam said, his hand moving to his weapon.
Asher's eyes narrowed. "Let's give him a proper welcome."
A split second later, the heavy steel elevator doors at the end of the hall hissed open. The Chairman stepped out, locking his eyes directly onto them.