Chapter 237 Passing The Baton
With a wave of her hand, Anastasia made a signal to her men. About ten minutes later, Leonard and Linda were brought to the scene. On top of that, they also pushed Kevin, whose entire body was wrapped in bandages, to the scene on the hospital bed.
Anastasia then activated the countdown by pushing a button on the bomb. “You only have five minutes. If you still refuse to speak, this bomb will send you and your family straight to hell!”
Linda hollered straight away, “Quick, Jenny, tell her!”
“I don’t want to die, Jennifer! Just give it to them if you have it!” Kevin chimed in.
A conflicted visage appeared on Jennifer’s face before she muttered, “Okay, I’ll talk. But you have to free all of them.”
Wearing a bright smile, Anastasia agreed, “Sure! Tyler, kill everyone except Jennifer’s family!”
Upon hearing her words, Jennifer yelled right away, “No! Please don’t! Let them go! Otherwise, I won’t tell you anything!”
Slap!
Anastasia landed a tight slap across Jennifer’s face. “Did you actually think you have the right to bargain with me right now?”
A trail of blood instantly appeared on Jennifer’s fair cheek. She lifted her head and remarked obstinately, “How could you be so sure I haven’t copied the content of the flash drive? And how could you be sure I haven’t shown it to a third party?”
“How gutsy,” scoffed Anastasia coldly. “Release twenty of them first.”
“I want every single one of them out of here, everyone except for me!” demanded Jennifer, looking all the more determined. She was still holding onto the bomb. There were three minutes left on the timer before the bomb would explode.
Slap!
Anastasia flung her palm and gave Jennifer another smack on the face. “Fine, I’ll take a final step back. They can go, but your family can’t! If I hear one more word from you, I’ll kill your parents immediately! Just let me finish checking the flash drive first, and then I’ll let you guys off!”
“Okay.” Jennifer nodded.
Linda began crying as she yelled, “Please, no! We want to leave this place too. Jenny, beg her for our sake! We really don’t know anything at all!”
“That’s right! Plead with her, Jennifer!” urged Kevin.
Leonard, too, piped up, “Say something, Jennifer!”
Letting out a chortle, Anastasia uttered, “Oh, my… It seems your parents don’t really care about you, Ms. Wilson. They’d rather leave you here all alone! Tyler, get these hundred people to Building No. 9 first!”
Beep! Beep! Beep! Beep!
As the detonation time drew closer and closer, both Leonard and Linda cowered in terror. They could not stop themselves from retreating away from Jennifer.
“The flash drive is in my coat pocket,” informed Jennifer with reddened eyes.
At that moment, all she felt was utter loneliness.
Dipping her hand into the pocket of Jennifer’s coat, Anastasia rummaged for the flash drive and finally found it. A bandit hurriedly fetched the laptop.
“It’s password-protected. It also shows that the flash drive had been opened once, but nothing was copied out of it,” reported the bandit after a round of investigation.
Clutching the flash drive in her palm, Anastasia was pleased as she instructed, “Get the chopper ready. It’s time to go.”
Following that, she looked at Jennifer with an amused smirk. “My poor Jennifer, I think I ought to explain how this bomb works. Let’s see… There are less than two minutes left before it explodes, so if someone’s willing to switch places with you and place their hands on this chip, you can then escape. The timer would revert itself to five minutes, but of course, it’ll only work once.”
She even gave an example to Jennifer by elaborating. “If you want to live, get your father, mother, or brother to help you with the bomb. I won’t end your life, just like I’d promised.”
Anastasia was savoring the pleasure of every moment as though she was the predator torturing her prey.
She came face to face with Leonard and queried softly, “Would you like to lend a hand to your precious daughter to handle the bomb, Mr. Wilson?”
Leonard’s face paled to a ghastly white. He hastily shook his hand. “A-Are you kidding me?”
Anastasia then paced toward Linda instead. Flashing an ever-so-evil grin, she asked, “How about you, Mrs. Wilson? Are you willing to help your daughter?”
