Chapter 334: Kidnap
Zurich, Switzerland.
In the evening, Wynn, who was over 60 years old, put on a black trench coat and a black top hat and walked out of the Blackwatch Research Inst.i.tute slowly. He headed toward a 90s-style Porsche car on the side of the road.
Wynn was already very old. He originally had several senile diseases and complications such as high blood pressure and diabetes, and his hair was almost all white. However, a few months ago, he had gone to the African branch office, also known as the Eco Science City. When he came back, he had changed.
His hair had regained its black hue and the wrinkles on his face had been reduced by more than half. His dry yellowing eyes were more hydrated and his figure was not rickety like an old man’s, but much more upright.
At first glance, Wynn did not seem to be a 60-year-old man, but a middle-aged man in his early forties.
Everyone knew that this was the result of receiving the age-reversal treatment program. All the elderly who had undergone this treatment were able to miraculously pull away from old age back to middle age.
This was not just about getting younger in one’s face, but rather, the full range of changes in physical fitness. This was enough to make everyone scramble madly for a taste.
Still, the price of this treatment was really expensive. The most basic treatment cost more than 500,000 USD, let alone the more luxurious and refined treatments. At present, there were only a few wealthy and even fewer middle-cla.s.s people in the world who had the financial resources and qualifications to extend their lives.
Even though the customer base was not large and there were sanatoriums all over the world that secretly carried out the same treatment projects, this was the most authoritative and famous Eco Science City, where an appointment would still be two years away.
At this time, Wynn, the general manager of Blackwatch’s Swiss branch, got into his car while humming a Zurich folk tune. He knew that he had a date in 30 minutes.
Yes, twenty years ago, Wynn had divorced his wife and spent time alone indulging in debauchery. It was only ten years ago that his body gradually became affected and he started to restrain himself.
However, presently Eco Science City had given him a second chance, so as a romantic playboy by nature, he naturally became restless again.
Just as he got into the car and was about to start the engine, he suddenly looked into the rearview mirror of the car inexplicably.
He seemed to have seen someone sitting in the backseat.
Even so, as he looked up, he saw that the backseat was empty and there was nothing there.
“A trick of the eye?”
Wynn shook his head, then laughed at himself and started the car.
After that, Wynn drove to Page Hotel, the place that he had agreed upon with the date in advance.
Zurich was not a busy city. The population density here was extremely low. If one were not in the city’s business district, but some remote trail instead, there was almost no sign of people except the few occasional cars.
At this time, Winn drove the car down a remote trail.
Along the way, Winn was humming the Zurich tune, but just as he was about to cross the small road in front, suddenly, a dark car cut out from behind him, way ahead of the speed limit. This gave Wynn a bad fright.
“D*mn it!”
Winn hurriedly spun his steering wheel to avoid the other vehicle, but what made him a little furious was that the person did not directly pa.s.s him by. Instead, they veered toward his side as if they wanted to cut him off and pin down his car.
Helpless, Wynn hurriedly slammed the brakes to decelerate the Porsche.
Even so, the other party still doggedly drove the car in front of Wynn, obstructing the entire one-way street and completely blocking Wynn’s path.
“What are they doing?”
Wynn felt unsettled. He instinctively wanted to reverse the car, but when he looked into the side-view mirror, his expression shifted again.
Another mysterious black car had also appeared behind him, blocking his retreat.
By this point, two people finally got off the black car in front. Both of them were wearing black balaclavas and carrying guns. When they got out of the car, they rushed directly to Wynn’s car. “Get off, Mr. Wynn!”
“What are you doing?”
Wynn’s expression changed. At this moment, there was no way he would not understand that he was being kidnapped!
“We won’t hurt you.”
One of the masked men said, “We just want to take you somewhere else to discuss business. It’s too noisy here and it’ll be quieter there.”
“Do you want money?”
Wynn’s expression darkened and he could not help persuading, “How much do you want? If the amount isn’t large, I can give it to you directly, but if the amount is too large, I won’t be able to make the call at all, and it might attract the police’s attention...”
“We don’t want money. You’d better listen to our orders.”
Seeing that Wynn was nattering on and on, the masked man finally became impatient. He pulled Wynn out of the car, then quickly used a metal detector to uncover all the metal objects on Wynn. After that, he seized Wynn and walked toward the black vehicle.
Another masked man immediately drove Wynn’s car and followed the two black cars toward the suburbs of Zurich.
By now, Wynn was already very anxious. After he got in the car, he was trapped between the two. As he watched the vehicle drive in an increasingly remote direction, he suddenly asked again, “What do you want me to do? Why did you kidnap me? May I know?”
“You’ll know soon enough.”
The masked man sighed, turned his head, and said to Wynn, “Don’t be nervous, Mr. Wynn, we mean you no harm. We’re not targeting you, but the company behind you...”
“You mean, Blackwatch Corporation?”
Wynn’s expression changed and he quickly explained, “Although I’m the Swiss general manager of Blackwatch, this company was originally called Preston. I was one of the shareholders. Later, it was acquired by Blackwatch due to its poor management and I just continued to help them manage the company.
“To be honest, I’m not a core member of Blackwatch at all, and the branch in Zurich has no secrets. If you want to find a way in through me, I’m afraid you’ll be disappointed...”
“Don’t worry, of course, we know all this.”
The masked man snorted coldly. “If you were a core member of the Blackwatch Corporation, we wouldn’t treat you like this.”
“You have a grievance against Blackwatch Corporation?”
Wynn was surprised. “But since you know that I’m not a core member of Blackwatch, why kidnap me? I don’t know anything about its internal workings!”
However, following that, no matter how Wynn questioned them, the masked man stopped talking.
Seeing this, Wynn also knew that he could not persuade the other party with words, so he had to calm down.
The vehicle drove for forty to fifty minutes until it reached a forest close to the Alps, where the asphalt road was no longer visible. Only then did the vehicle stop.
“Get off, Mr. Wynn.”
The masked man took Wynn out of the car half-coercively and then pointed to a concealed, quiet path ahead. “Do you see that, Mr. Wynn? Just follow us and I hope you don’t do anything stupid.”
With that said, he walked ahead in the direction of the path.
Wynn looked around helplessly, only to see the other masked people looking at him coldly, so he shrugged and trailed behind at once.
They walked for nearly an hour. As both his mobile phone and watch were confiscated, Wynn was unable to figure out the specific duration. In short, it was only when the soles of his feet were so sore that he could barely continue walking that a wooden hut appeared in front of the path.
This seemed to be a forest ranger’s residence. Wynn subconsciously looked around, but only saw endless trees in all directions. There were only a few pieces of dried meat hung on the drying rack in front of the house and a large swathe of animal fur and leather under his feet.
Did these people live a primitive life?
This was Wynn’s only thought.
Following the instructions of the masked man in front, Wynn walked into the hut in the forest with a stunned expression. In the hut, he saw two blonde girls sitting on one side and a wireless transceiver in front of them. Both of them had lowered their heads, discussing something in low voices.
As they watched Wynn coming in from outside, the two blonde girls did not say anything, but their faces were cold.
“Well, I believe we should be able to block off all interruptions here, so we can speak freely.”
The masked man also walked in from the outside. He took off the hood over his head, revealing a young and handsome masculine face.
“Mr. Wynn, please allow me to introduce myself. My name is Fisher Oppenheimer. You should’ve heard of my name. After all, there are some intersections between our family and you.”
At this point, Wynn was taken aback in realization. This name was not unfamiliar to him. This was the surname of a large European consortium. As if he could not believe it, he confirmed loudly, “Your father is Sir Oppenheimer?”
“Yes, that’s my father.”
The young man nodded. “I also have an elder brother named Federer, but he’s dead.”
Wynn suddenly recalled the Novartis meeting homicide that shocked the whole of Europe half a year ago. A total of more than 50 Novartis shareholders were killed in the meeting, yet the killers all appeared to come from more than a dozen plutocratic families that were also Novartis shareholders.
Until now, the world had not understood what caused the madness of the dozens of killers and why they initiated this ma.s.sacre that astounded the world. It was just that those killers disappeared completely after the ma.s.sacre was launched and they were still missing today.
Federer was one of the missing persons that day.
“The whole world thinks that my brother Federer was one of the masterminds in this affair, but only I know that this isn’t the case.”
The man paced slowly in the room, seeming to fall into the memories of the past. “My brother has a perfect family, amazing talents, and even my father praises his talents and practically acknowledges him as the head of the house. Would such a person destroy his future and kill his colleagues personally?”
Wynn smiled bitterly when he heard the words. “Perhaps it’s true. I’ve seen Federer. An excellent young man. I don’t believe he’d do such a thing, but this matter seems to have nothing to do with me.”
“No, this is deeply connected to you, Mr. Wynn.”
The young man sneered. “Everyone in the world thinks this incident is a terrorist attack or even some kind of cult sacrifice ceremony, but only a few people know, that particular Novartis’ shareholder meeting was aimed at dealing with one company, one person...”
Wynn’s expression changed. “Could it be that...”
“Yes!”
Seeing that Wynn finally reacted, Fisher nodded. “The Novartis shareholders meeting had gathered one-third of the consortiums across the entire European Continent. Their purpose was to deal with the newly emerging Blackwatch Corporation and the man named Chen Chen!”
“I should’ve thought of it long ago.”
Hearing this, Winn gave a wry smile. “Blackwatch almost destroyed the sanatorium business in Europe. No wonder the major European consortiums want to deal with him. But what does this have to do with the ma.s.sacre last year?”
Fisher said with a cold expression, “Holmes once had a proverb, ‘Once you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, no matter how improbable, must be the truth.’ Therefore, there’s only one possibility, the Blackwatch Corporation is behind this ma.s.sacre!”
Wynn was silent when he heard these words and it took a long time before he said uncertainly, “But how did Blackwatch do it?”
“I’m looking for an answer too.”
Fisher shook his head. “However, after making many attempts to go against Blackwatch, we have come up with a frightening speculation that this company has amazing control over the Internet. Anything that uses electronic products or any kind of chat software, is at risk of being eavesdropped on by this company.”
“Is that possible?”
Wynn was a little bewildered. He would not have believed this, but now he had been kidnapped by the group of people in front of him, so he had no choice but to believe.
“There’s a very high chance of that.”
Fisher nodded. “Not only did we discover this, but you should also know that the consortia behind Blackwatch also occasionally leaked out information. They have joined forces to create an organization called ‘G.o.d’s Forbidden Zone’. This organization is essentially a consortium mutual aid a.s.sociation. Blackwatch always has access to countless trade secrets, allowing consortia in G.o.d’s Forbidden Zone to spend money to buy these trade secrets.
“It can also be seen from this that Blackwatch has some kind of extremely astonishing information channel, which is very similar to our speculation!”
“G.o.d’s Forbidden Zone?”
Wynn muttered in a low voice. He had heard of this organization, but he always thought it was just like Freemasonry, a mere Internet rumor. He did not expect it to exist.
“So, if we want to avoid Blackwatch’s eyes, the only way is to come to a haven with no surveillance and no electronic equipment.”
Fisher spread his hands out. “Mr. Wynn, I’m not only avenging my brother but I’ve also united a group of environmentalists and all this is for the Earth and the environment.”
“Yes, for this piece of nature.”
The blond woman who had been silent on the side also spoke. She seemed to be a member of the Environmental Protection a.s.sociation. “We and Fisher oppose this company for different reasons. Our organization found that this company is destroying Earth. They’ve developed longevity projects and researched drugs for terminal illnesses. This will increase the population on Earth and eventually lead to a population explosion. The mother planet on which we live will be destroyed in the hands of mankind...”
“Not only that, their Project Xingtian is even more ghastly!”
The other blonde woman was filled with indignation. “Can you believe it? Over the past month, millions of people with disabilities have bought Project Xingtian’s bionic prostheses and transformed themselves into androids! This group of trash is destroying human purity and the divinity of mankind. This is a depraved and blasphemous manifestation, they will inevitably go to h.e.l.l after death!”
“...”
Wynn opened his mouth but did not know what to say.
After that, they both concluded. “We dare to swear that this evil company’s next step will be to specialize in the field of artificial intelligence. It’s very possible that Skynet will be born in their hands. In any case, we must stop this evil company, no matter what price we must pay!”