Just a second later, another gunshot sounded.
This time, the window of the car directly shattered, and the speeding bullet directly exploded the driver's head into a mist of flesh and blood. The vehicle, now out of control, swerved around the bend and slid off the road, skimming a long distance.
"Two snipers, one o'clock direction, modified large-caliber snipers. Distance is about three hundred meters. There are also three suspicious individuals closing in. Ratt, you three handle them. Newt and I will escort the boss out," Wallace's voice came from the walkie-talkie on the driver's lifeless body. The vehicle ahead immediately accelerated and sped toward the one o'clock direction.
The vehicle behind pulled up on the right side of the car Luke Field was in. A modified business van, elevated by a whole car's height, was positioned perfectly to block the enemy sniper's line of sight. The door was opened, and Wallace waved, signaling Luke and Ina to switch vehicles.
Luke calmly opened the car door, pressing down on the somewhat flustered Ina Sandra's back, pushing both her and a silver-white small box she was holding toward the car where Wallace was. He then crouched down, sprinted, and with Wallace's help, was pulled into the car. The door quickly slammed shut, and the vehicle sped away from the scene.
"My God, how dare they? Why is this happening?"
Ina Sandra was a bit shaken.
She gripped Luke's hand tightly, her emotions frantic as she spoke.When it came to handling affairs, she was always decisive and unfazed, because everything was within her control. But this situation, one that was beyond her control, was something she had never experienced in her life.
This forced Luke to divert some of his attention to comfort her. Although his own heart was also pounding in his chest. Since he realized what kind of world this was, he knew that one day he would have to face situations like this, and he had prepared as best as he could for it. But even though he had thought about it and prepared for it, facing it for the first time still made him a bit nervous.
But he was only nervous in the beginning.
Now, back in the car, Luke had calmed down, even able to comfort the panicking Ina with a relaxed expression. Normally, she always presented herself as calm and composed in front of others, but her sudden panic was a rare sight. To those familiar with her, it even seemed a little endearing.
A few minutes passed, and Ina finally calmed down, regaining her usual composure. She first released her tight grip on Luke's hand, then fixed her hair, glancing out the window. Suddenly, she sensed something was wrong.
"This isn't the route to Heblon. Where are we going?" Ina Sandra frowned.
"To where we need to go." Wallace, who was sitting beside them, answered. Then, the barrel of a gun pressed against Luke's waist.
"Damn it! Newt, stop the car!" Ina Sandra shouted at the driver, Newt. However, Newt seemed deaf and blind to the situation, ignoring the voices and the events in the back seat. He even raised the rearview mirror with his hand.
"Please remain quiet, Ms. Sandra. The fact that you were attacked won't be hidden for long, so my time is tight, and I can't waste it on useless words." Wallace smiled, "If you don't want your genius boy to be hurt or killed in front of you, please don't make any unnecessary moves, and don't say anything unnecessary, alright?"
"I trusted you so much!" Ina Sandra lowered her voice, seemingly afraid that if she spoke too loudly, Wallace would punch Luke Field, who was being held hostage beside her.
"Trust?" Wallace scoffed. "Trust itself is a luxury for people like me."
"Is Newt your man?" Luke, calm despite being held hostage with a gun pressed against his side, glanced at Newt, who was silently driving ahead, and asked.
"That's a hard question to answer," Wallace shrugged.
"Did you plan this attack? The earlier sniper fire was just to divert Ratt and the others, so that Ina and I would get into your car willingly? You can't be the mastermind. Who's behind you? Did I offend someone? The few people I know who could order someone like you around are the ones I've had conflicts with. Is it Justin Hammer? With his strong military connections and enough influence and power, I think he's the only one I've pissed off." Luke Field speculated.
"Why can't it be something I wanted to do myself?" Wallace asked with a smile.
"I don't believe that with Ina's meticulous work style, she would choose security personnel without doing a background check. Since you were selected, aside from being good at your job, your past records and personality assessment must have made her think you were trustworthy," Luke Field sighed.
"I want something. I know you have it with you today. The box in your hand—tell me the password!" Wallace said. "Don't make me go to unnecessary lengths. You're both smart, you must already know how tonight will end, so please don't make it worse for yourselves before the end, alright?"
"The R&D data from Heblon Technologies!" Ina Sandra glared at Wallace.
"That's it. Hand it over. I'll make it quick for you." Wallace nodded, giving Ina Sandra a polite smile, despite the anger in her eyes.
"Corporate espionage, I knew it! You think you can't get what you want through regular means, so you resort to unconventional methods?" Luke Field raised his eyes. "You've been preparing for this from the beginning—just like an old arms dealer. It seems the military and Heblon Technologies's dealings really hit a nerve with him."
"With high-end companies like Stark Industries, he can't break in, so he resorts to counterfeiting Stark's products and raising the value of his own company by lifting up so-called geniuses to compete with Tony Stark. But again, if the real thing is available and the price is right, why settle for a flawed imitation? Hammer Industries has been struggling with their performance lately, and now they have to face Heblon, a new competitor who's been taking the market away from them. Mr. Hammer is probably pulling his hair out now. I don't think he's treating my technology as a lifeline, is he?"
Wallace remained silent.
"This has nothing to do with anyone else. Newt and I just wanted to make some money for retirement. There are buyers on the black market looking to purchase your technology, and the reward is substantial."
"Flawless. I believe, barring any surprises, everything will be neatly handled by the people behind you. Even if, in the end, Hammer Industries gets their hands on Heblon Technologies's tech and detectives follow the trail back, they can only trace it to the black market, or even to the lost Heblon Technologies they acquired later. When there are no other options and the profit is large enough, his connections will be enough to clear up this suspicion. It's the classic winner-takes-all mentality."
"However, Lieutenant Wallace, your success of all this depends on nothing going wrong." Luke Field said.
Wallace instinctively felt that something was wrong, but before he could react, both he and Newt, the driver, suddenly felt as if their limbs were bound by an invisible rope. Their arms were forced to stick to their sides, and their bodies convulsed, leaving them slumped and paralyzed in their seats. The car, now without a driver, swerved uncontrollably across the road in a serpentine pattern, before finally coming to a stop under Luke's control.
"Using my creations to capture me? This is too interesting."
Luke Field, who had moved from the driver's seat back to the rear, looked at the Heblon Tech gloves and mechanical boots still on Wallace's hands and feet, feeling both amused and helpless.
After the continuous shocks and the miraculous turn of events, Ina Sandra's brain was overloaded. But once the car stopped, she finally came back to her senses. Under Luke's stunned gaze, she lifted her long legs, wearing high heels, and kicked Wallace hard in his male-specific area twice.
"I've messed things up." Afterward, Ina Sandra looked at Luke with some shame. To think that within the security team she personally selected and assembled, there were two undercover agents! One of them was even the captain of the security team! It was absurd!
"Who could've expected this? If you ask me, compared to people, machines are far more reliable." Luke Field had already decided that once his talent upgraded again, he would expand and build his own mechanical team! As his creations, those mechanical beings would be powerful and loyal!
Ina Sandra couldn't refute this, as in the end, the turnaround relied on the products created by Luke. Although she didn't know that, even without those products, Wallace and his team wouldn't have been able to harm Luke or her. After all, over the past five years of talent awakening and prize draws, Luke had accumulated a good amount of useful things.
"Leave the people to you. Help me make some trouble for Mr. Justin Hammer. I don't care if he's the mastermind behind this or not, but he's the prime suspect! Bullying the weak and fearing the strong is not a good character trait! He doesn't dare to mess with Stark, but he dares to cause trouble for me—this is unacceptable." Luke Field wasn't planning to take action against Justin Hammer just yet. After all, unless something unexpected happened, this master of Stark product counterfeiting wouldn't have much time left to cause trouble.