"What do you mean? Don't you realize that we only have five minutes left until the deadline to rescue Heidi? We don't have any other choice!" Director Abbot yelled at the top of his voice.
"I know we only have five minutes, but Alex hasn't tried yet," Celia replied.
"We can't rely on Alex Ambrose. If Ash couldn't resolve the situation peacefully, no one can," the director barked back.
From his position lying on the ground, Ash supported Gavin. In a deep voice, he said, "Ms. Turner, Alex Ambrose is a fake. That man has no real combat experience. If he goes into the building, he'll only make things worse for the hostage."
"If Alex can save Heidi in five minutes without making things worse, I'll kneel before him and beg forgiveness," Ash said, looking at Alex with scorn.
"Old man, why are you so pessimistic?" Alex replied quietly.
Ash snorted. "What? You still think you can do it when I failed? I have years of combat experience, and you're just fresh from university." The more he looked at Alex, the angrier he became.
Celia stepped forward and said, "Don't waste your time arguing with him. We have so little time left, we must focus on saving Heidi. We don't have time to watch you two martial arts masters argue with each other."
"Hehe, master? Did you call him a master? Boy, do you really see yourself as a martial arts master?" Ash asked mockingly.
Alex didn't answer. He just nodded to Celia.
"You have no idea what you're dealing with. Inside they all have heavy machine guns. If you try to go in, they'll be waiting for you," Ash said in a threatening voice.
He continued, "They'll threaten to kill the hostage, and don't think they're empty threats, either. These people are serious. If you try to enter, they might easily kill the girl. You don't know all this and yet you think you can save people? What a joke."
Even Celia was worried when she heard what Ash said. Their whole mission was to save the hostage. If the hostage was killed while they were trying to save her, their mission would fail. The result would be the same as if they had just bombed the building directly with shells.
Celia thought about what Ash had said for a moment and hesitated, unsure on the best course of action.
She thought, If these hired kidnappers don't value their own lives, they certainly won't have any sympathy for Heidi.
Initially, she had been sure that it wasn't the right thing to do, but now she reconsidered Director Abbott's suggestion of blowing up the building.
"So, what do you think, Alex? Aren't you going to go in after all?" Ash said mockingly to Alex.
It was clear that Ash had no intention of stopping Alex.
Everyone was in silent contemplation. The situation seemed hopeless. Even the best martial artists would struggle to enter such a heavily defended building. Then, if the hostage ended up being killed anyway as a result of the attempt to save them, all their efforts would have been in vain.
They all felt that there was very little possibility of a good outcome to this impossible task.
Director Abbott sneered at Alex and said, "Alex, if you want to die, we won't stop you. You can go in."
In truth, he really wanted Alex to be killed so that there would be less evidence against him in court.
"Well, I don't care what happens to me now," Ash said. He no longer seemed to have the demeanor of the martial arts master that he was supposed to be.
"I don't want to hear you feeling sorry for yourself," Alex finally said. "What's important is that we find a way to save Heidi and the people in the building. We can talk about the everything else later." Then, Alex turned and walked away.
"Where's Mr. Ambrose?" Ethan asked when he returned to the group.
"It looks like he's running away," Ash answered complacently.
In a voice full of ridicule and disdain, Director Abbott commented, "I can't believe that Celia invited such a fake to help us. It's a good job the truth was revealed—"
"Gavin Abbott, you shut your mouth!" Ethan roared. Gavin stopped talking immediately and stepped right back. He was terrified of Ethan's temper and was scared that he was going to hit him.
Alex had only been gone a couple of minutes.
Everyone waited for several moments, but Alex didn't return. No one seemed to know what to do.
"It's time to get on with it!" Gavin roared angrily. He was referring to his plan of shelling the building.
If Heidi's father couldn't withstand the pressure and revealed the secrets of his research, then there was no option but for Heidi to die.
But if Heidi was dead, then there would be no motivation for Heidi's father to reveal the secret.
Although Celia had some hesitations about the plan, she couldn't think of any real reasons to forbid it.
A shell was immediately readied to launch. It held enough explosives that, once it was launched, the entire abandoned factory would be decimated. No one inside the building would be able to survive it.
Everyone had lost hope of finding a better solution. They accepted that this was the only course of action available to them.
The shell left the launcher with a loud crack and headed toward the abandoned factory building. Celia and Ethan looked away. If Alex had entered the factory to try to save Heidi, he was surely now about to die. There was no other possible ending.
It seemed that even Alex had been unable to resolve the crisis. They wondered if they had put too much faith in him.
Everyone felt heavy-hearted. Shelling the building had been the absolute last resort, and no one had wanted to witness such a tragic ending to the situation.
They all knew that the shell would completely demolish the abandoned factory and everyone inside it. They all sighed deeply.
But suddenly, a figure seemed to fly out above the roof of the factory. They looked at the figure curiously and realized that it was Alex.
He appeared to be carrying a heavy burden on his back, but he still flew through the air with great agility. The shell was heading straight for him. Everyone gasped in horror.
No one dared to blink as they waited to see what happened. And what happened next was truly incredible. No one could really believe what they were witnessing. Just as the shell was about to hit the factory building, Alex managed to grab it and launch it in another direction.
It appeared that the shell was trapped by something, and it stayed in the air for a second. Everyone thought it was surely going to explode, but its trajectory changed, and it slowly fell to the roof without detonating.
Nobody could believe what they had just seen. They didn't understand what had happened.