Chapter 7 Rescue the Babies
At one in the morning, Lena pushed open the door.
The old house was as usual, with the lights on and the kettle on the table still warm. But the sofa was empty, and there was no sound of children in the hallway.
Her eyes narrowed slightly, and her movement to take off her coat paused.
"Max," she pressed the communication button on her wristband.
After a moment of silence, she heard the familiar sound of a young boy breathing through her earpiece.
"Mom, I'm sorry."
Max's voice was low, filled with guilt. "We didn't wait for you. I deciphered Zoe's location and tracked the target's movements, so... we left."
"I couldn't stop Liam," Jade's voice chimed in, also apologetic. "He moved too fast... I didn't expect him to rush in."
"We were wrong," he said quietly. "I shouldn't have been so reckless, and I definitely shouldn't have put Liam and Zoe in danger."
Lena stood still, her fingers slowly tightening.
She didn't immediately scold them; instead, she asked softly, "Where are you now?"
"East District, Warehouse B5. I've sent you the location."
Twenty minutes later, outside the abandoned warehouse in the East District.
The night fog was thick, and the patrol lights swept across the ground in the distance. Only low-flying drones silently passed through the darkness.
Lena hid behind an abandoned truck, issuing a voice command to the system, "Activate jamming device."
"The secondary entrance is clear," Max's voice came through the earpiece. "The patrol group on the north side has been adjusted; you have eight minutes to pass safely."
"I'll cover the rear exit," Jade added calmly. "The west side door of Warehouse B5 can be breached, and the ventilation shaft is a backup escape route."
Lena's lips pressed tightly together.
The kids had done well, but she wished they would never have to use these skills.
She took a deep breath and darted out from behind the truck, quickly swallowed by the night.
Three minutes later, she crossed the security zone and slipped into the warehouse hallway.
The fifth side door was unlocked—this made her even more cautious.
Her fingers touched the door handle and gently pushed it open.
The air carried a familiar scent—blood, dust, and the smell of plush toys.
Inside the warehouse, two children were curled up in a corner.
Zoe's eyes were vacant, clutching a worn-out rabbit without saying a word.
Liam had a scratch on his body and was protecting her.
"Mom."
Liam's voice was barely audible when he saw her, but his back was straight.
"We didn't make a sound. She's not stable, and I didn't want to scare her."
The warehouse was unusually cold, the walls damp, and the floor covered in a layer of dust.
"You did well."
Lena quickly squatted down, scanned their condition, and calmly opened her bag. She pulled out a compressed thermal blanket and covered them, then gently injected a mini syringe into Zoe's arm.
"A sedative, low dose, it won't harm her."
Her tone was calm, her speech steady, but only she knew that when her fingers brushed against Zoe's thin wrist, her heart almost exploded.
Zoe blinked slowly, her eyes hollow, like her soul had been drained by the world.
But fortunately, her breathing was no longer erratic. She seemed to sense a familiar safety, leaning slightly towards Lena.
"Let's go."
Lena picked Zoe up, grabbed Liam's hand, and turned, retreating along the original route.
"We're in the main hallway," she pressed the earpiece. "Jade, lead the way."
To their surprise, the entire evacuation process went smoothly.
The patrol team in the warehouse area was completely absent; no one was guarding, no one was chasing, and even the sensors at the exit seemed to have been deliberately turned off.
It wasn't until they safely got into the car and drove out of the last blockade in the East District that Lena frowned slightly.
Something was wrong.
It was too smooth, making it hard not to suspect a trap.
She looked at the retreating night outside the window, her thoughts racing.
According to the Dark River's defenses, there shouldn't have been no movement. They wouldn't let people go so easily.
But that night, from her intrusion to their evacuation, a full twenty minutes—no interception, no pursuit, not even a warning.
It was as if someone had deliberately opened the door for them.
Why let them leave on purpose? What was the Dark River planning?
Lena didn't know; Killian didn't know either.
His intuition told him that those kids and this woman were somehow related to his occasional headaches.
So he withdrew the perimeter surveillance and abandoned the pursuit order.
But it wasn't because Killian was being kind-hearted; he wanted to see who they were, why he felt a strange familiarity when he met them.
The next morning, Lena took the kids to the hospital.
Zoe's condition was unstable last night, and she was still dazed this morning. Her nervous system needed further evaluation.
Lena was worried, so she brought her in for a full check-up.
After the examination, she told the kids to wait at the entrance while she stayed in the office to discuss with the attending physician.
The doctor took Zoe for a blood test, and Lena was explaining the medical history to the assistant therapist when a familiar voice suddenly sounded behind her.
"It's you?"
Lena didn't look up.
Isabella walked in, her high heels clicking, her smile sweet but her tone dripping with sarcasm. "You don't know shame... Four kids and one mom. I warn you, you'd better recognize your place and not covet things that don't belong to your kind!"
After Killian hung up the phone that day, Isabella's jealousy and anger reached their peak.
She had spent a fortune to track Killian's whereabouts, only to be beaten to the punch. Fortunately, she arrived in time, making Killian think they had made love.
But over the years, Killian hadn't touched her once!
When she saw this woman at the airport, her instinctive panic surged.
The usually cold-hearted Killian had shown mercy to her!
She couldn't let Lena with several kids become a threat!
As soon as Isabella spoke, the two figures at the door stopped simultaneously.
Lena took a deep breath and slowly retorted, "Ms. Cullen, you're a public figure. If someone recorded this and sent it to your brand partners, it might not look good. Where I live is my freedom, and you don't need to stick to me to grab attention."
Isabella's face turned beet red with anger.
But she was interrupted.
Liam obediently took Lena's hand and looked up, asking, "Mom, can we have hotpot later?"
"Sure," Lena smiled. "You all did well today, Mom's treating. As for the reckoning, we'll talk about it later."
Lena had no intention of getting entangled with Isabella and was about to leave when Isabella finally reacted and grabbed Lena's sleeve.
"Stop right there!"
At that moment, the door at the corner opened slightly.
Inside, a man in a casual shirt with fox-like eyes stood by the floor-to-ceiling window, a cigarette smoldering between his fingers.