Chapter 39: You…bastarddddd

Anderson hoisted Amelie’s unconscious form over his shoulder once more, and the two intruders backed out of the room. Jayden pulled the heavy oak door shut behind them, locking it securely from the outside.

They hadn’t been gone for more than ten minutes when a group of opportunistic students, drawn by whispers of the hundred-million credit bounty circulating on the dark boards, crept down the hallway.

They pounded on the door. No answer. One of them tentatively gripped the brass handle and twisted it. To their surprise, the latch clicked. The door swung open.

"He’s not here," one of them whispered, stepping inside.

Their greedy eyes scanned the spacious, upscale suite. Within seconds, curiosity devolved into outright theft and vandalism.

With Morales and his visitors nowhere in sight, scavengers began tearing the room apart, pocketing anything of value and trashing the place in search of hidden cash or digital drives.

Splish!

Freezing cold water struck Morales sharply across the face.

His eyelids twitched violently.

He slowly forced his eyes open, but his vision remained smeared in a hazy, yellowish film. A sharp, rhythmic throbbing hammered against his skull, and he could feel the warm, sticky trail of dried blood matting the hair near his temple.

He tried to shift his arms. Nothing.

His wrists were bound tightly behind the wooden slats of a heavy chair, and his ankles were cinched securely to the chair legs with chains.

The room was pitch black, save for a single, naked incandescent bulb dangling from a fraying cord overhead, casting a harsh, sickly circle of light directly over him.

Morales blinked repeatedly, forcing his focus to clear.

As his vision adjusted, he realized he wasn’t in his suite anymore. And he wasn’t alone. Tied to a chair directly opposite him was Amelie.

Her head slumped forward, a thick cloth gag bound tightly across her mouth, and a dark blindfold wrapped securely over her eyes. Fresh tear tracks were still wet against her pale cheeks.

"Amelie?" Morales called out, his voice hoarse.

She let out a muffled, terrified whimour, straining against her restraints.

Morales violently yanked against the ropes binding his wrists, but the friction only bit deeper into his skin. A dark, primal wave of anger surged through his chest. He despised this feeling, waking up trapped, blind to his location, with zero telemetry on how long he had been out.

"Who’s fucking there?!" Morales demanded into the shadows.

A slow, mocking laugh echoed from the dark perimeter of the basement.

"Well, well, well. Look who finally decided to rejoin us."

Jayden Vance stepped out from the darkness, walking directly into the pool of harsh light. Morales’s expression hardened into a mask of pure ice.

"You...bastarddddd."

"Look at you," Jayden sneered, crouching down so his face was inches from Morales’s. He wore an expression of sadistic triumph. "You woke up rather quickly for a guy who just took enough blunt trauma to fracture a normal man’s skull."

Morales stared straight into Jayden’s eyes, refusing to show a shred of weakness despite the blinding pain in his head. "What do you honestly expect to gain from this pathetic stunt?"

"A lot, actually," Jayden replied smoothly, standing up and dusting off his knees.

He paced slowly around Morales’s chair like a predator circling a wounded animal. "First off, I’m going to lock this basement up tight. Nobody in Prestige knows this sub-level exists, and nobody will come looking for a gutter rat. Which means... you and your precious little group are guaranteed to fail the upcoming practical exam."

Morales’s jaw tightened into a rigid line.

Jayden continued, clearly relishing every single syllable.

"Think about it, Brown. Your group’s hard deadline is this weekend, isn’t it? Saturday morning. I deeply wonder how you will make up for it, considering you are putting effort because of the sixty rule, well boy I understand, but it’ll benefit me to see you expelled."

He chuckled darkly. "You’ll sit right here until further notice. Of course, since this sector is completely abandoned, it won’t be long before you start starving."

Morales stared at him, keeping his breathing steady, suppressing the volcanic rage threatening to tear his veins apart.

Jayden turned his back, waving dismissively toward the heavy steel door where Anderson and a couple of hired thugs were waiting. "Let’s roll, boys. Leave him to rot."

Jayden took a few steps toward the exit before pausing, glancing back over his shoulder one final time with a wicked grin. Then he pulls down a switch. "Enjoy your stay, Brown."

The heavy steel door swung shut.

Clank. Click.

The automated deadbolts engaged with a heavy, metallic finality from the outside.

Then came absolute silence. The only sound left in the damp room was the soft, muffled crying of Amelie across from him.

Morales slowly turned his head, his gaze softening slightly as he looked at her before snapping back toward the locked door.

Jayden Vance. A cold, terrifying smile settled across Morales’s bloodied face. You really, truly have no fucking idea what kind of monster you just woke up, I’ll do everything in my fucking power to make you rot six feet under your father’s company.

Amelie kept struggling against her restraints. "Mmph! Mmmph! Mmph!"

Her muffled voice filled the small room as she desperately tried to communicate something. Unfortunately, the thick cloth covering her mouth made it impossible to understand a single word.

"Calm down, Amelie. I’ll get us out of here,"

Morales instructed, his voice steady despite the searing pain in his head. He shifted his weight in the chair, attempting to test the slack of his bonds. But the exact microsecond he moved his shoulder, something razor-sharp sliced through the air right beside his ear.

He froze instantly.

His eyes scanned the dark corners of the room, but he couldn’t see anything out of place. Carefully, he tried moving his hand again, keeping his motions slow and calculated. Another invisible barrier bit his skin, stopping his movement cold.

’What the hell?’

He examined the immediate perimeter around his restraints, but the space remained entirely transparent.

Then, a chilling realization crossed his mind. ’Invisible security? Lasers?’

He wasn’t entirely certain of the exact mechanics, so he bypassed physical guesswork and immediately initiated a mental query.

’Activate enhanced vision.’

[SYSTEM]

Ding! Enhanced Vision activated.

His optical perception shifted instantaneously.

Suddenly, hundreds of hair-thin, glowing red lattice lines illuminated the room. They stretched intricately from wall to wall, weaving a lethal, high-frequency security net directly around their chairs.

His suspicion had been spot on. A laser trap. ’System, disengage the laser security network.’

[SYSTEM]

Ding! Request acknowledged. Disengaging security grid.

A second later, the intricate web of red beams flickered and vanished into the darkness.

Morales tested his range of motion again. This time, his body moved freely without encountering any invisible barriers.

Unfortunately, the physical chains securing him were an entirely different obstacle. He pulled back with all the explosive strength he could summon, but the heavy metal links dug cruelly into his bruised flesh. Fresh blood began to seep from his wrists, and the violent throbbing behind his temples intensified to an unbearable degree.

[SYSTEM WARNING]

User’s physical strength is rapidly declining due to blood loss.

Continued unassisted exertion will result in further vital statistics reduction.

-50 Energy

-50 Energy

-50 Energy

-50 Energy

Morales forced himself to stop pulling. He was already leaking too much blood, exhausting himself to the point of passing out again would completely seal his fate. He needed an external variable. He needed a lifeline.

’System contact Sophia.’

[SYSTEM]

Ding! Establishing covert mental communication with Sophia Laurent.

Meanwhile, Sophia was sitting quietly on her bed in her private residential suite, rubbing her cream before she drifts to sleep, when a sharp, direct chime rang inside her mind.

She picked up her phone, instinctively answering the audio channel. "Morales?"

Though it sounded like a standard phone call on her end, Morales was broadcasting directly through his system interface or moreover his thoughts.

"Sophia, listen to me very carefully," Morales’s voice echoed in her ear, strained and grim. "I’m transmitting my location to you right now. I’ve been kidnapped."

Sophia bolted upright from her bed, her heart skipping a beat. "Kidnapped?! What are you talking about? How is that possible?!"