Chapter 4

"Just let me make one phone call! I'll call my unit commander, and he'll confirm it for you directly!" I added.

Captain Hunter fell silent and glanced at the bloodied marks on my wrists from the handcuffs.

"Unlock one of his hands. Keep him in sight, and don't let him make any sudden moves."

I powered on my phone. The moment the screen lit up, dozens of messages popped up. All of them were from my unit commander, Herman Baxter.

"Julius, where are you?"

"The EOD team at the hotel can't defuse the bomb!"

"You're the only one with practical experience on the Ghost-7!"

"Would you just answer your damn phone?"

The last one was a voice message.

I tapped it and put it on speaker.

Captain Baxter's furious voice exploded inside the command vehicle.

"Julius, where are you? The on-site EOD team has already pulled out. Luther says he's never seen anything like this bomb's structure in his entire life! If you don't get here in 20 minutes, half the building is going to collapse!

"There are still hundreds of kids being evacuated, and there's not enough time. You're the only person in the whole state who can disarm this thing! I've already reported this to the higher-ups, and they personally called the municipal bureau to coordinate. Where the hell are you?"

The message ended, and silence filled the command vehicle.

Captain Hunter's expression softened. He took my phone and scrolled through the chat log with Captain Baxter, his brow furrowing deeper by the second.

"Is this Captain Baxter from headquarters?"

"Yes! He's the commander of the headquarters EOD unit, Herman Baxter. You can call him back right now and verify!"

Captain Hunter was about to hit the call button when Christine suddenly spoke up.

"Wait." She rose from her seat and pointed at my phone screen. "Captain Hunter, don't let him fool you. Look at this chat log. The profile picture is the default gray one, and there's not even a real-name verification.

"It's so easy these days to just set up a WhatsApp account and pretend to be a superior. And that voice message? AI voice-cloning software costs 100 dollars and can generate ten thousand messages like that."

Captain Hunter's finger hovered over the call button.

I was on the verge of losing my mind. "Just call him, and you'll find out whether it's real! It's one phone call!"

But Christine moved first, pressing her hand firmly over Captain Hunter's.

"Captain Hunter, think about it. If he really were a bomb disposal expert, why would his own intern report him? If a normal specialist brings an intern to a scene, wouldn't the intern know what's in the bag?

"Unless he's no expert at all, and that's not a bomb disposal gear he's carrying."

When she finished, she made a point of looking back at me, a slight smile playing at her lips.

"And if he were really that urgent, why didn't he just show his credentials properly at the security checkpoint in the first place? Instead, he had to sneak around.

"And when he got stopped, he started putting on a show. Don't you think that means he's hiding something?"

Captain Hunter pulled his hand back.

"Keep him detained. We'll wait for headquarters to confirm."

"No! We can't wait anymore!"

I lunged desperately for the phone, the chain of the handcuffs straining to its limit.

"Let me make the call! Just one call! If you don't believe me, you can make the call yourself! I'll give you the number. If we don't call now, everyone is going to die!"

Captain Hunter stood up, turning his back to me as he walked toward the door.

"Sit tight. Once the verification comes through, we'll release you."

"It'll be too late!"

No sooner had the words left my mouth than a deafening roar tore through the sky.

The explosion ripped the night sky apart, and the shockwave sent the two police motorcycles outside the command vehicle flying. Hairline cracks instantly spiderwebbed across the blast-proof glass.

I was thrown from my chair by the force of it, the back of my skull slamming against the vehicle wall as my vision went black.