"Hugo!"

Harvey Cheney’s lips were trembling.

In that moment, he actually looked like a loving father.

"Sierra Sullivan! Jayce! What will it take for you to let my son go?"

Harvey Cheney’s voice was quiet when he asked, and it was tinged with a sob.

It sounded less like a question and more like a plea.

Compared to the insufferably arrogant man he was before, he seemed like a completely different person.

Sierra Sullivan chuckled. "You really know when to bend the knee, don’t you?" 𝘧𝓇ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝘣𝓃ℴ𝓋𝑒𝑙.𝑐𝘰𝑚

Harvey Cheney didn’t get angry at Sierra Sullivan’s mockery. He just kept looking at her with pleading eyes.

"Sierra Sullivan, my son’s been shot. The wound is still bleeding, we can’t delay. Can you please let a doctor—"

"No." Sierra Sullivan refused flatly. "The good die young, but a scourge lasts a millennium. Don’t worry. Hugo isn’t just a scourge, he’s a scourge with a Superpower. Losing a little blood won’t kill him!"

Jayce immediately added, "Instead of wasting time here begging us and spouting this useless nonsense, you should be thinking hard about how you’re going to admit your guilt, how you’re going to apologize, and how you’re going to compensate the families of the people you killed."

"Okay! Yes, yes, yes!" Harvey Cheney nodded repeatedly. "I’ll do whatever you say! Just let my son go! I’ll listen to anything! I’ll apologize properly, I’ll admit my guilt properly, and I’ll compensate them properly! I can give them supplies, or I can give up the house I’m living in now—anything! Just let my son go!"

It looked like Harvey Cheney was willing to do anything for Hugo.

But in reality, he was saying all this for his own sake.

He understood one thing from what happened to Hugo: Sierra Sullivan and Jayce weren’t bluffing. When they said they’d act, they acted, without any hesitation or scruples.

If he let Hugo die just like that, he, the father, wouldn’t be able to get out of it either.

’Begging for your life isn’t shameful!’

Jayce looked at Kevin Everett. "Dad, I’ll let you guys handle the negotiations. Sierra and I won’t say much more. But we’ll be staying right here. If anyone dares to not cooperate... heh!"

That final, cold laugh made Harvey Cheney and all his men tremble.

Before, they had just thought Jayce was a newborn calf that didn’t fear the tiger.

But now, they understood. Jayce was a madman!

Pissing off a madman like that would get them nowhere good.

Kevin Everett had lived for many years and experienced a great deal.

This was the first time his son had his back when trouble arose.

His youngest son had grown into a capable adult, able to shield him, his father, from the wind and rain.

The feeling was novel, but it was also surprisingly good.

Kevin Everett quickly suppressed the messy thoughts in his mind and started discussing business with Harvey Cheney.

Kevin Everett’s demands were laid out, one by one, with perfect clarity.

Harvey Cheney didn’t dare refute a single word, agreeing to everything in earnest.

After they finished their discussion, Sierra Sullivan finally voiced the question that had been bugging her. "Why did you decide to use people for experiments? What’s the difference between your experiments and a normal Superpower awakening?"

Sierra Sullivan had always felt that experimenting on living people wasn’t something an ordinary person could even conceive of.

Even if some people had the idea, without the ability or the relevant professional knowledge, it would be impossible for them to actually act on it.

For Harvey Cheney and his group to be doing something like this, there must have been a ringleader.

Right now, Sierra Sullivan was very curious to know who that ringleader was.

Harvey Cheney hadn’t expected Sierra Sullivan to suddenly ask this question. "Well..."

"What?" Sierra Sullivan raised an eyebrow. "Still protecting that person, even now? It seems they’re more important to you than you and your son."

"Of course not!" Harvey Cheney denied it immediately. "That person is Dr. Hayes."

"Dr. Hayes? Where is he?"

Harvey Cheney’s expression was conflicted, as if he was hesitating about whether to say.

Seeing him like this, Sierra Sullivan knew it couldn’t be that simple.

However, she didn’t press him.

Pressing too hard at a time like this could backfire.

It was better to wait patiently. Barring any surprises, Harvey Cheney would definitely talk.

Just as Sierra Sullivan expected.

A few minutes later, Harvey Cheney let out a long, heavy breath and finally spoke.

"Dr. Hayes is in Building Twelve, in another lab..."

After saying those last few words, Harvey Cheney closed his eyes, but his brow slowly unfurrowed.

He looked as if he had just spat out a giant boulder that had been weighing on his heart.

At that moment, Sierra Sullivan finally understood why Harvey Cheney had been so hesitant.

There was another lab!

Doesn’t that mean even more people were killed?

Just thinking about it made goosebumps crawl all over Sierra Sullivan’s skin, and the rage in her heart burned even hotter.

Kevin Everett’s eyes also widened as he stared at Harvey Cheney. "Harvey Cheney! Are you insane? Tell me! How many more labs like this are there in this base?!"

"No more!" Harvey Cheney shook his head frantically. "There are only these two, no others! None that I know of!"

’None that I know of’... that means there could be others he doesn’t know about!

"What kind of person is this Dr. Hayes, exactly?" Sierra Sullivan pressed.

"I only know that he’s a research fanatic. He approached me, and he’s the one who helped Hugo awaken his Superpower. He said that with his experiments, he could greatly increase the success rate of awakening a Superpower. He said that maybe, in the future, I could also become a powerful Superpower User... I was bewitched by him! He bewitched me! Otherwise, I never would have done this!"

Harvey Cheney sounded sincere, but of course, no one believed him.

At a time like this, of course he would shift the blame onto someone else if he could.

Harvey Cheney was definitely not as innocent as he claimed to be.

"Besides this so-called Dr. Hayes, who else is in that other lab?" Jayce asked.

"Some of the research staff he brought with him, and also..."

"And also what?"

"General Aldridge and his men."

General Aldridge, of course, was not a real general.

He was called "General" by those in the underworld simply because he had connections in both the criminal and legitimate worlds and kept a large number of thugs on his payroll.

On top of that, he had arranged seemingly legitimate jobs for all of them, leaving no loose ends for anyone to grab onto. There was nothing anyone could do about him.

Kevin Everett had dealt with General Aldridge plenty of times before and knew how difficult the man was.

Upon hearing the name "General Aldridge," Kevin Everett’s brow furrowed tightly.

Jayce, however, wasn’t concerned. "Dad, don’t worry. His name is General Aldridge, but he’s not a real general. Dealing with him won’t be difficult."