A Gamble

In a dimly lit room in a building, Mountbatten was sitting on a sofa, slightly tilting the wine glass in his hand. He was looking at the screen in front of him with a deadpan look on his face. His wine glass tilted a bit too much and some of the wine spilled onto the floor.

The secretary behind him didn't seem to notice what had happened and was also staring at the screen blankly.

Crunch.

The wine glass fell onto the floor and broke, waking up the secretary from his dazed state.

Mountbatten also woke up from his daze when the wine glass hit the floor.

"Sir?"

The secretary was somewhat surprised. It was rare to see Mountbatten this shaken, but the secretary could understand why Mountbatten was like that. They had invested quite a lot of time to get those bombs planted, but it took less than an hour for all of them to get detonated because of one person.

Mountbatten scowled for a moment before breaking into laughter. He laughed so much that his secretary's face changed. The secretary, Alfred, stood stiffly, not daring to move a muscle.

Once Mountbatten was done laughing, he said,

"Either it was a coincidence or she has great acting skills."

He smirked.

"If it's the latter, I must say that she almost fooled me. Bring Thomas here. I'm sure he's quite vexed."

"Understood, sir."

Alfred gave him a light bow and left. Before going to call Thomas, he told a servant to clean up the shattered glass inside the room.

Meanwhile, Jessica was surrounded on all sides by a group of people, all pointing guns at her. It was supposed to be a serious scene but she looked very relaxed instead.

"How amusing."

She muttered.

Although the surrounding gangsters couldn't hear what she had said, they were irked because of how unfazed she looked. They glared at her.

The boss frowned and asked,

"Who sent you here?"

Jessica tilted her head and said in an innocent tone,

"Even if I said that I came here by accident, it's not like you'll believe me."

Although she looked carefree on the outside, on the inside, she was a bit annoyed. She had been minding her own business going to college by taking the bus, just like any other normal person.

Hardly an hour later, she was in this situation. The more she thought about it, the more irritated she felt. Although she loved fighting and challenges, she didn't like the current situation. Recalling the traffic accident and the bombings, she couldn't suppress her anger anymore.

The aura around her changed into something menacing. The boss noticed that and shouted while pulling the trigger,

"Shoot!"

His subordinates were about to pull on the trigger when,

Bang bang bang.

Jessica had taken out another gun and shot at all of the people surrounding her.

However, the people around her weren't normal. Not only were they actually able to dodge her shots at such a close range, they even fired back at her.

Jessica had wanted to make them retreat, but seeing that they were able to counterattack so quickly, she realized that it might be a bit more troublesome than she had thought.

The people in front of her were as skilled and experienced as soldiers in the special forces.

She gave them a menacing smile and shouted,

"Prepare to die!"

She somersaulted over the pile of cement that was nearby. While she was still in midair, she reached out and swung her arms, blowing a huge amount of cement towards the gangsters.

They hurriedly covered their eyes. That was what Jessica was aiming for. While still in midair, she took out both of her guns. As soon as her feet touched the pile of cement,

Bang, bang, bang!

She shot at those gangsters multiple times. However, those gangsters reacted fast and dodged her bullets yet again. Not only that, they shot back at her.

Jessica's lips curved up as she hopped down to the other side of the pile of cement.

'Damn, that still wasn't enough.'

She had a smile on her face even though she was in a tough situation.

'It would've been great if I had a smokescreen or something.'

Wishing for it wouldn't make it happen, but she made a mental note to keep something similar with her at all times.

'Anyway, for all of them to be able to dodge bullets at such a close range and send me a return gift while they were at it…'

"Not bad."

She muttered.

She could make an estimate of where people would jump to dodge something through their body language. She had predicted where they would move next both times and shifted her shots to that side. That technique used to work very well.

But it didn't work on them.

'To think that they could actually stage that so well. And twice, at that.'

She was impressed. Being able to bluff using non-verbals was something even experienced soldiers had a hard time pulling off. For those 'gangsters' to be able to pull that off as if it were a piece of cake, they were more skillful than veteran soldiers.

It was further proof that these people were no gangsters.

Jessica didn't stay still while she was thinking. Instead, she was bolting towards the building that was still under construction with all her might. Although it was risky to dash into the enemy's lair like that, she didn't have much of a choice.

Either she could play hide-and-seek with those people in those piles of construction material. Or she could,

'Make a gamble.'

They had mentioned a hostage before. He should be in the building. If she could use that hostage as a hostage,

'It's ridiculous, but that's the best chance I have to escape this place in one piece.'

But then she imagined trying to threaten them with the hostage and getting shot while she was still talking.

She shuddered.

'I need to guarantee my safety - wait… that's what I'm taking the hostage for.'

She wanted a better plan, but she couldn't come up with one for the time being, so she just decided to act according to the situation if the hostage plan didn't work.

The reason why she couldn't just leave was because there was no suitable path for her to escape. Other than the building and the long-*ss wall which had the passage she had come here from, there was nowhere for her to hide behind or use as a shield.

This building was in an open space with no trees or shrubs.

The only other buildings, walls or trees were far away. She'd have to rely on luck to dodge their bullets by the time she reaches there.

As for why she couldn't escape though the same route she had used when she had arrived here, it was because it was too long and too narrow. Trapped in that passage without anything to protect herself with, she'd be full of holes long before she could outrun them.

'Now that would be horrifying.'

She trembled, which caused her to stumble on a rock on the ground. However, that stumble saved her from the bullet that just grazed past her.

Her pupils dilated. She hadn't noticed that shot at all.

Judging from the direction of the bullet, it had come from one of the buildings in the distance.

'It's a sniper.'

She stopped thinking about anything unnecessary and made a death plunge into the building. As soon as she stepped inside.

Boom!

She hurriedly darted to the side to dodge the impact of the explosion.

Boom!

Dashing away from the other explosion, she got a feeling of déjà vu.

"Not again!"

She cried.

Boom, boom, boom.

The bombs didn't listen to her cries and started going off. The first bomb had started a chain reaction, making the next bomb off, which in turn made the one next to it go off.

It was similar to what Jessica had experienced not too long ago.

"Whoa!"

"Damn!"

"The heck!?"

She cursed everytime she darted away from a bomb. After a few times, she closed her mouth as she ran, jumped and ducked all over the place. Although she wasn't cursing anymore, she was seething with anger.

The only thing that kept her from exploding like the bombs around her was the thought of torturing the lunatic who had set these bombs the moment she got her hands on him.

"Hehe…"

She chuckled.

"Hehe… hehehehe…"

Her chuckles resembled more and more to those of a true lunatic as she ran up the closest flight of stairs to the second floor.

The moment she stepped on the second floor, she darted forward. Then she noticed that no bombs were going off on this floor.

'What a relief.'

Only the first two floors had had bombs going off like crazy, nearly burning her to a crisp. Thankfully, she didn't need to run for her life over here like that.

'…Right, I'm technically still running for my life.'

However, she still didn't feel the kind of urgency she had been feeling before. She even had the leisure to note how she looked right now. Unsurprisingly, she had few burns and her hair was a lot messier than before, not that it wasn't messy in the first place because of how she had been narrowly dodging the impacts of bombs before on the way here.

She then looked around and saw that there didn't seem to be anyone on this floor either. It only made her put her guard up as she proceeded forward.

Creak.

She immediately pointed one of her guns at the source of the sound.

Squeak.

A mouse came out from there, almost making her pull the trigger.

This was the second time a mouse had given her a scare.

'It's usually the other way around.'

She used to tease any mouse she came across.

'Is this karma?'

She shook her head and proceeded with vigilance. She explored the whole floor, but there were no signs of any living person anywhere.

Recalling the gangsters that must still be chasing her, Jessica quickened her pace and went upstairs to the next floor.

Pow pow pow.

Thud, thud, thud.

As soon as she reached upstairs, she heard the sound of people being hit and hitting the ground with a thud.

She stealthily went to the scene. By the time she saw it, it was almost over. The man in the middle hit the only other standing person in the jaw, knocking him out.

Thud.

The person was knocked out and fell onto the floor.

'Such efficiency.'

For each pow, she had heard one thud, which meant that the person had knocked out so many people, each in one single blow.

She looked at the man in the middle.

'He looks somewhat familiar.'

She thought. When the man turned in her direction, her jaw-dropped to the ground. She hadn't expected to see that person here.

"Mr Jacob Graham?"

It was Jacob who had been out of contact with them since yesterday, ever since he had gone out to check on Lucas's house that had been burnt down.

Jacob also saw Jessica and looked slightly surprised.

Meanwhile, a police car with the siren on was rushing on a highway.

Jessica's aunt and mentor, Olivia, was heading over to the location Jessica had sent her, which was also the location where her superior had told her to head towards.

[There was a chain of explosions that started about an hour ago…]

One of her subordinates at the scene was telling her about the current situation.

When she heard the phrase 'chain of explosions,' she immediately remembered that a certain someone had a knack for getting into such situations.

Crack.

Olivia clenched the steering wheel so hard that it cracked a bit, but she didn't notice.

"I see."

She said. After giving some orders for the other police officers at the scene, she hung up the call and opened a map on her phone.

She furrowed her brows.

'What's she doing all the way there?'

The map was showing Jessica's current location. Jessica was rather far away from the location she had sent in her text.

Olivia's eyes opened wide when she thought of something.

That chain of explosions.

'Don't tell me she actually…'

At first, it had just been a hunch. Now that she saw Jessica's current location, she knew that that really could have been the case.

Olivia grit her teeth and stepped on the gas.