Chapter 357: Swinging
"Nash," Rei whispered, stepping close to him. "Is this really what you want? After all this? We’re giving up everything we got tonight? All that evidence, all that risk, for nothing?"
He didn’t answer, keeping his eyes fixed on Monique.
Monique gave her men a signal, then stepped forward herself, gently pulling Saya by the arm toward the center of the parking lot, exactly as agreed.
Saya stumbled along beside her, her hands still cuffed behind her back, throwing one last look at Nash, begging him with her eyes, but she said nothing more, understanding there was nothing left she could change now.
Nash turned to Harlan, slowly pulling the drive from his pocket.
"Nash," Harlan said, his voice shaking, taking the drive with hesitant fingers. "You sure about this?"
"Go," Nash said, simply.
Harlan hesitated for a fraction of a second, his fingers closing nervously around the case, before starting forward with a hesitant step across the asphalt.
"Rei," Aiko whispered, tugging discreetly on her arm. "Do you understand what’s going on here?"
"No," Rei breathed, just as lost. "No idea."
The two figures kept advancing, each from their own side, Monique and Saya on one end, Harlan on the other, slowly closing the distance toward the center of the lot, the gap between them shrinking second by second.
Harlan kept his eyes locked on Monique, the drive gripped tight in his fist, his breathing growing more ragged the closer the distance got.
It was the moment they reached the center that something in him snapped.
All the tension that had built up since the start of the night, all the fear, all the guilt, all that quiet rage he’d been holding back for years against Monique, against Hector, against this entire existence spent crawling in front of people who openly despised him, all of it exploded at once, without warning, without him really having time to think about what he was doing.
After everything he’d been through, he was supposed to just hand over the ultimate weapon to bring down Hector? For his own rise to power? Hell no. Not in this life.
Harlan lunged at her.
The drive still clenched in his fist, he threw his full weight against Monique, both hands closing around her throat before she could react, sending her toppling backward and crashing hard onto the asphalt, him on top of her.
"HARLAN!" Aiko screamed.
"What an idiot!" Rei snarled.
A cry of surprise escaped Monique, her head hitting the ground, Harlan’s fingers tightening around her neck, her throat constricting under the pressure.
The agents reacted instantly, rushing toward them, weapons raised, shouts and orders tangling together in sudden, total confusion.
Nash stood still for a moment, watching the scene with something that looked almost like satisfaction.
Of course, he thought. Of course he was going to do something stupid.
That was exactly what he’d planned for.
In the chaos unfolding in front of him, agents rushing toward Harlan and Monique, their weapons momentarily pulled away from Nash and the others, the entire attention of the parking lot swinging toward the two heads of Apex, Nash had a clear path in front of him.
"Now," he said, addressing Rei and Aiko. "Saya!"
Saya jumped, finding herself alone in the middle of the chaos now that Monique was down, nobody really holding onto her anymore. She understood immediately, her legs already running before her brain finished forming the thought. Nash grabbed her by the arm the moment she was within reach, and all four of them bolted toward the edge of the lot, the chaos behind them still growing.
Harlan held Monique firmly by the throat, one knee planted in her back, his other hand pressing viciously against the fresh wound on her temple.
She screamed, a shrill sound tearing through the air, more rage than pain.
"Back off!" Harlan barked, his voice shaking but loaded with desperate resolve. "Back off, all of you, or I break her neck!"
The agents stopped dead, weapons still raised but none of them daring to fire, all of them frozen, eyes darting between Harlan and their boss pinned beneath him.
"Lower your weapons!" Monique screamed, her voice choked but still commanding despite the humiliating position she was in. "Lower them, you idiots!"
The agents obeyed, slowly, reluctantly, barrels dropping one by one.
Harlan pulled Monique backward, hauling himself up as best he could, dragging her along as a makeshift shield, his eyes sweeping frantically across the lot in search of a clear path to his own car, parked a bit further off.
"Nobody moves," he repeated, his voice climbing, almost hysterical now. "Nobody!"
He kept backing up, step by step, dragging Monique with him, still pressing his hand against the wound on her temple, making her wince with every squeeze.
One of the agents, younger, more impatient, made a move toward his weapon.
"DON’T MOVE!" Harlan screamed, tightening his grip on Monique’s throat, making her choke for a moment.
"Aargh... just wait, you idiot!" Monique hissed, directed at her own agent, her priority clearly her own survival above everything else.
The agent froze, his hand slowly lowering.
Harlan kept backing away, finally reaching his car, opening the back door with one trembling hand while keeping a firm hold on Monique with the other.
"Get in," he spat, shoving her inside without any care, letting her collapse onto the seat.
"Aargh... you... you’re making the worst mistake of your life," Monique hissed, trying to sit up, but Harlan pushed her back down with one hand, slamming the door shut before she could react any further.
He threw himself behind the wheel, locking all the doors in one frantic motion, his hands shaking so badly he struggled to get the key in.
The agents, hesitant just a moment ago, panicked at the sight of Monique disappearing inside the vehicle.
"He’s taking her!" one of them shouted. "He’s taking her with him!"
"Shoot the tires!" another yelled, raising his weapon hastily.
"NO!" the security chief barked, one hand raised to stop the motion. "He’s unstable, you idiot, you want to get her killed?"
Harlan’s car peeled out with a screech of tires, tearing toward the exit before anyone could really react, the agents left frozen, helpless, watching the taillights vanish into the night with their boss inside.
Heavy silence settled over the parking lot, broken only by the distant wail of the car alarm still echoing somewhere.
"Where is she," the security chief finally said, turning to his men. "Where’s he taking her?"
"The GPS," one agent said, phone already at his ear. "Madame’s phone and some of her jewelry have built-in trackers. We can follow it in real time."
"Then let’s go," another said, already heading toward a vehicle.
"No," the chief cut in, stopping him with a sharp gesture. "If we show up ourselves, guns out, in the middle of the city, and it goes wrong, we’ve got a body to deal with in front of traffic cameras and witnesses. Not to mention the questions about who we are and who we work for."
"So what do we do," the agent asked, tense.
"We call the police," the chief said. "Anonymously. A clean, legal kidnapping report. They’ve got the authority to block roads and step in without any of it tracing back to us."
He turned to an agent standing off to the side, already dialing a number.
"We track the GPS from a distance. We get Madame back once it’s over, and we take out that traitor before they get him processed. Call them. Now."
"What about Blaze," another agent asked, hesitant, glancing toward the spot where Nash’s Porsche had vanished a few minutes earlier.
Nobody answered, each of them slowly grasping the full scale of the disaster — their boss kidnapped, held hostage by her own traitor, and the man they were supposed to be arresting in the first place already gone, vanished into the night with everything they’d tried to recover.
The Porsche was already far away, tearing through the empty streets of the Spires, Nash at the wheel, eyes fixed straight ahead, Aiko and Rei pressed close together in the back with Saya between them.
Nobody spoke for a long moment, only the engine noise and everyone’s ragged breathing filling the car.
Saya was the first to break the silence, her voice shaking, thick with tears she no longer bothered holding back.
"Why’d you do that," she said, almost a sob. "Why’d you save me. You had the drive, you had everything, and you—" she cut herself off, shaking her head violently. "Why would you throw all that away for me."
"It’s not for you," Aiko answered flatly, not even bothering to soften her tone, arms crossed tight. "Well, okay, partly, but mostly, it’s all the other girls still stuck in there who deserve the sympathy. All the ones who are gonna keep getting sold while we sit here crying over what happens to you."
"Aiko," Rei said.
"What, it’s true," Aiko shot back, not backing down. "We literally had the proof to save all of them, and—"
"A human life matters more than any plan," Rei cut in, turning toward Saya, her voice softening. "That’s the priority. Always. No matter what else we lose."
Saya kept shaking her head, unable to calm down, guilt and confusion warring across her face.
"But the drive," she said. "You had the drive, and now—"
"They won’t be prisoners for long," Nash said finally, his voice cutting quietly through the conversation.
"What?" Saya leaned forward slightly, confused.
Nash slipped a hand into his pocket, without even taking his eyes off the road.
"Since we have this," he said, a faint smile finally appearing on his face, pulling out a small black hard drive.