Chapter 152: Getting Acquainted
“He’s not found yet?
“Okay, please look carefully. No matter what tactics they used to abduct Sloane, he can’t be brought too far away. I think that it’s even likely that Sloane is still in the building, only he’s hidden away.”
In a dim study room, a white-haired old man slowly hung up the phone with a grave expression.
The old man was in his late years. When one became old, one disliked harsh light. Therefore, there were no lights in the study room, only the faint glimmer of the glowering fire in the fireplace.
Like many elderly people, this old man was not particularly fond of installations like floor heating and air conditioning. Instead, he preferred a fireplace. This furnishing allowed him to recall the memories of his youth.
Currently, there was a brand new file in front of the old man.
There was a photo attached to the file, showing a young man with ordinary features. Upon this file, the name of this young man was stated to be — Chen Chen.
“Could it be him?”
The old man mumbled softly.
Just last month, the Als Mutual Aid a.s.sociation sent a message that the members of the Alexander family, the Edwards family, and the Rodriguez family, who were all based in Wall Street, had simultaneously regained their youth over the past months.
However, this did not attract everyone’s attention at first.
After all, there was such a thing called plastic surgery in this world. As long as one was willing to spend some money, it was not difficult to make a sixty, seventy-year-old fogey look like he was forty or fifty years old. It was just that most people thought this was unnecessary.
Even if they looked younger after plastic surgery, they would still be the age that they had always been. Their bodies could not possibly become young just because their appearance did.
Even so, as everyone received more successive news updates, they could no longer sit still.
They discovered that the members of these families had not only become younger in appearance, but their physical fitness had also improved significantly!
No, more accurately, those members of the families now looked younger because the youth of their bodies had been comprehensively restored.
In other words, those people had come across a technology that could turn them young again!
Once this conclusion was drawn, Paul Blanc could not sit still at all.
By now, Paul, who was over eighty, had long been in his sunset years. Nonetheless, he had always maintained an optimistic outlook. He still firmly believed that as technology evolved day by day, life-extending technologies would emerge sooner or later.
Due to this, he had invested in more than ten types of technologies that might extend one’s lifespan over a decade ago.
Even so, what followed next was an encounter with the cruel reality.
Three of the technologies he had invested in quickly announced failure while another four ended up the same halfway through the research. As for the remaining three, the researchers took his money, moved abroad, and changed their names, never to show themselves again...
As these technologies failed one after another, Paul’s heart gradually fell to the bottom of the pit.
Finally, he even started to suspect that perhaps the world would never allow the existence of life-extending technologies?
However, it was not until he saw the message from the Als Mutual Aid a.s.sociation that hope slowly blossomed in his heart.
According to the data, the reason this group of people had regained their youth was not plastic surgery. Rather, it was because they had gone to Namibia and met with a company named Blackwatch.
This company seemed to own a safe and effective life-extending technology.
Therefore, after investigating Chen Chen’s family background, a feeling known as greed started to swell in him.
In the end, he agreed to the mutual aid a.s.sociation’s suggestion that they kidnapped Chen Chen for interrogation. After all, as an ordinary citizen with no influence in society, the mentality of having his life in the hands of others must have been ingrained into Chen Chen’s heart, even if he was not aware of this.
However, for some reason, after Paul gave the command, the Bureau of Investigation failed in their mission.
Not only that, but before the news of this failure had spread around, his son, Sloane Blanc, went missing in broad daylight.
The first thing Blanc thought of was that this was his opponent’s revenge.
Paul’s eyes flickered with a touch of regret. Before this, he had only considered the possibility of extending his own life. All this was too tempting to him, who would see the inside of a coffin soon. Therefore, he had resorted to extreme methods without thinking twice.
He had thought that it would be a cinch, never imagining that, not only did he fail in kidnapping his target, but he also managed to gain a deadly foe.
As he thought of this, Paul picked up the phone and dialed a number in the directory.
“It’s me.”
“Please investigate — I need all the information you can get on Blackwatch Corporation. I suspect they have something to do with Sloane’s disappearance...
“Thank you.”
After hanging up, Paul started to flip through the information which had been flipped to tatters by now. However, just then, there was a sharp burst of applause from behind him.
This sound came from behind Paul but he could swear that, ever since he had sat down here in the afternoon, not a single living soul had come into this study room...
If this sound did not come from his bodyguards or servants, could it be...
Paul’s heart sank at once. He took a deep breath and slowly turned around. Instantly, he thought that he saw a figure standing in the corner of the room.
No, someone was standing there indeed!
The sound seemed mocking, but no matter how the old man stared, with his fading, blurry vision, he could only make out a figure and nothing else.
“Clap clap clap clap...”
The applause kept ringing out from that corner, following which a slightly raspy voice spoke, “Your Excellency Paul, have you already thought of the reason so soon?”
“Who are you?”
When he heard this voice, Paul Blanc said quietly, “What are you doing in my manor? If it’s money you want, I promise you that you can pick any item you like and leave without trouble.”
“No, no, no, I’m not interested in material items. I’m not here for money either.”
The voice was soft and raspy, with a taunting lilt. “I came here with a gift for you, Your Excellency.”
“A gift?”
Upon hearing that this person was not a thief, Paul was not surprised. In any case, if this man was a thief — regardless of whether he was able to sneak in through the strictly guarded periphery of the manor — if he made it in, he would stay as hidden as possible. Why would he reveal himself?
“It’s a simple gift.”
The voice continued. “But I think you’ll like it.”
With that, Paul saw a plastic bag flying through the dark air toward him.
Paul did not hesitate and immediately swiped the air with one hand, grabbing the plastic bag.
There was a cold, squishy texture within the plastic bag, like two slippery pieces of meat. Paul frowned and slowly opened the bag. A pungent stench leaped out at him.
Paul’s sense of uneasy premonition grew heavier.
“Who are you and what is this?”
“A pair of kidneys. Can’t you even recognize them?”
The dark figure laughed softly. “I picked it up nearby your house and thought that someone from your family must’ve dropped it. So, I’m sending it back to you. As for my ident.i.ty...
“Weren’t you just looking at it?”
As the figure spoke, he slowly moved out of the darkness to an area illuminated by the firelight. A face, identical to the young man on the file, was revealed.
There was a hint of a smile on the young man’s lips and a malicious glint in his eyes. These eyes were now staring coldly at Paul.
Confronted with this familiar face, Paul’s jaw slowly slackened as disbelief crept over his features.
“How could this be, it’s actually... You...”