Chapter 91 Chapter 91 How do you know I have one...
Ethan clearly informed Ryan that he had completely destroyed the USB drive. Before that, he had memorized all the account numbers on it, making Ethan truly the one and only USB drive. He knew in his head the access rights to the 2.4 billion yuan. To prove this, he wrote down the account numbers and passwords on the spot and asked Ryan to retrieve them.
"Stop the countdown and release Elio," Ethan threatened Ryan, "or I'll kill myself right now."
Ryan didn't respond for a long time. Ethan stared intently at the tiny video in Elio's eyes. Elio stared back, a drop of sweat trickling down his curly hair. In their ears, the ticking of a clock suddenly became louder than ever, and the bomb on Elio's body continued to tick.
Ten o'clock.
Elio heard a noise coming from Ryan's direction, and he shuddered. But then he realized it must have been Ryan knocking down the bomb. He breathed a sigh of relief, hurriedly stripping off his explosive vest and throwing it far away. With a splash, it fell into the sea.
"They're coming!" But before Elio could rejoice in his brief escape, he immediately shouted, "Lian wants to capture you alive, Ethan!"
The Syndicate's surrounding forces rushed forward. Elio, stripped of his weapons, quickly grabbed two untouched glasses of lemonade from the table and threw them, one in each hand, into the agent's face. Icy water splashed everywhere, and Londoners cried out in anger. But the subsequent gunshot from Ilsa's position was like a signal, sending them running.
Elio was relieved about this, but the situation was far from being one where he could completely relax.
Elio thought so and stood up. But at that moment, the assassin, who had been kneeling and sitting for a long time, stumbled and almost fell to the ground. Ethan, who was about to run away, looked at him and asked in surprise, "Are you okay?"
Elio, holding onto the table, waved his hands awkwardly, indicating that he was fine. To prove this, he snatched the headphones Ethan threw to him and put them in his ears.
"Go, Ethan, go!" Benjy shouted from inside. "We're ready!"
Elio's face lit up when he heard this. Gunfire rang out at this moment, and Ethan, who was truly worth 2.4 billion pounds, made a quick decision and fled. Elio also fought and retreated, doing his best to keep the Syndicate agent in place.
By the time the last agent who didn't have time to catch up with Ethan fell to the ground, Elio had already lost his mind in killing.
Blood pounded in his ears like drums, and Elio gasped heavily. A dark, blood-red veiled his eyes, nearly obscuring the assassin's eyes and ears. It wasn't until the police cars surrounded them, their red and blue lights flashing glaringly, that Elio finally heard what was being broadcast over the loudspeaker. He dropped the gun with a snap and slowly raised his hands.
"When I count to one," Benjy whispered in his ear, "you run out. Got it?"
"I see," Elio said.
The police officers who got out of the police car, guns drawn, slowly and cautiously approached. The red and blue light almost blinded Elio. He only squinted his eyes, and the police officer in front of him shook his gun and almost shot directly.
"Three, two, one!"
The lights suddenly crackled and went out. This corner of the city was immediately plunged into darkness, and Elio ran away.
"What time is it?!"
Elio asked loudly amid the sound of random gunfire.
"Half past eleven!" Benjy urged. "Hurry up!"
"I thought I was the more anxious one!"
Benji's voice was higher than his, "You ran the wrong way!!"
By the time Elio had shaken off the pursuers and reached the location Benjy had pointed out, he nearly collapsed to his knees. Ethan and Benjy, one on each side, held him steady, preventing him from losing his composure. Ryan, trapped in a custom glass box, stared at them with icy eyes until Elio caught his breath and stood up straight.
"Thank you for helping me with this," Elio said to him. He pulled the gold card from his pocket and tapped it against the glass. The card broke with a snap.
As the clock struck midnight, the rest of the IMF members were loading the Ryan presentation boxes into the truck. Standing aside, Elio looked at the newly appeared golden light in his hand, and his vision went dark again.
"What card is it?" Ethan came over and asked after saying goodbye to Ilsa.
Elio was startled and quickly hid the gold card, giving him an awkward smile.
"Gold card?" Ethan asked.
"Gold card." Elio nodded.
Ethan studied his expression. "Is there anything I can do to help?"
The IMF member in the car was urging him on. Elio heard it, smiled, and nudged Ethan's shoulder. "What can you do to help? Go ahead."
"You really don't want to go with us?" Ethan was pushed away by him and grabbed his hand. "Do you know what you look like now?"
Elio didn't know that, but he could probably imagine it.
“If you were to walk down the street in London like that,” Ethan pointed out, “then someone would call the police in a second.”
“…Uh,” Elio said, “give me a ride then.”
"I've been waiting for you to say that."
After getting a ride from the IMF, Elio checked into London's Continental Hotel that night. He forgot about his newly-won gold card and slept soundly, truly soundly. During that time, the Continental's receptionist suspected he had died in his room and called repeatedly to inquire about his condition. Each time, Elio simply checked the time, ordered some food, and quickly filled his stomach before falling back asleep.
And so, three days passed.
Elio, who finally woke up, sat on the bed, took out the gold card, and looked at the two people who were intimately entangled on the card in silence.
'Either end this game,' Elio thought angrily, 'or be killed by it.'
'Why is Leopold Silver?' Elio thought again in frustration.
Not that he'd ever entertain such thoughts about his friends, and Elio wasn't gay or bisexual. Back then, a desperate player would even use a silver card to attack the White Rhino. Elio had thought it was ridiculous, but now he understood the feeling of someone willing to do anything just to survive when facing imminent death.
With this heavy heart, Elio took out his cell phone to resume his social interactions and think of a solution (but found that it was out of battery), then picked up the hotel phone in a sullen manner and called Leopold first.
"I'm safe now," Elio said. "I know, I know... What, news? Haha, that must be my twin brother... Uh, sorry. You're right, this is not funny..."
Anyway, after being scolded without any curse words by Leopold, Elio, with his hair ruffled, called Alvin again, another person whose number he remembered. Alvin didn't know what had happened to him recently, so he just expressed his concern and asked about the cards.
"I hear you've made quite a scene in London," said Alvin at last. "Are you holed up in the Continental Hotel now? Stay a few days longer to avoid the limelight. If you run out of money, tell me."
Willow was next. She had no idea what her brother had gotten into, and she cheerfully shared details with Elio, like "Natasha, Diana, and I are out getting ice cream" and "Cassandra's been teaching me how to fight lately." Elio didn't know who those people were, but being on Tony Stark's turf, he felt reassured and listened to every detail with a smile.
At the end of the call, Willow casually mentioned, "Tony and Yelena are still studying my surgery."
“Let me know if anything goes wrong,” Elio said. “And let me know if you need anything.”
"I'm not a kid anymore," Willow muttered, but it was obvious that she was happy to receive the call from Elio.
After three calls, the phone charged and lit up. Elio found John Constantine and called him. The first call didn't go through, so Elio called the third time before he finally answered, breathlessly.
"What are you doing?" Elio asked.
Unexpectedly, when John heard it was him, he burst out with a curse word, and then, "You're still alive?!"
"Yeah, you wouldn't have thought."
"I thought you were dead," John said. "You know, the last seven days are long gone. I'm still regretting that delaying ritual I just found."
Elio was silent for a few seconds. "Can it be delayed?"
"It can delay it for seven days," John said, and a suspicious crackling sound came from his end. "In other words, you can extend the countdown of a card to fourteen days at most. You will definitely need it, especially if you draw a gold card."
"How did you know I had a gold card?"
John couldn't help but be silent for a while, "What card is it?"
“The sexual one,” Elio said.
"Wow."
"'Wow' what?"
"This card game has changed you," John said. "You used to be shy about talking about sex."
"Maybe it's because I almost died." Elio said humorously.
"Don't worry," John reassured him, "Your hand is pretty easy. Imagine you drew 'Conquer.'"
Elio tells him, "The one I just broke is Conquest."
The line was silent for a moment. Then Elio broke the silence again. "What's that noise over there?"
"Oh, nothing, just a bunch of Cornish elves chirping." John waved his hand nonchalantly, "Let me find where I put that procrastination ritual..."
"Oh." Then Elio reacted, "Wait, what did you say elf?"
"I know, I know," John said, tucking the phone between his ear and shoulder, flipping through the pages. "But you can't say it, you understand?"
Elio was so shocked that he was incoherent. John laughed. "I thought you weren't interested in this."
"You're kidding!" Elio yelled. "Every kid at eleven dreams of getting a letter by owl!"
"Trust me, magic isn't a good thing," John said simply. "Tap! Here it is. Can you come over sometime? You've only got a few days left on that card."
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