Chapter 228: A Race Against Time

“Let him leave, then. He’s not that important anyway.”

“You don’t get it,” retorted the other. “If he’s gone, who else is going to turn a blind eye? And why is he suddenly leaving in such a hurry?”

Three days to wrap everything up—it was way too fast. Mr. Richardson scowled. Kason frowned. “We were never really after him anyway. Nothing changes for us.”

“He’s been here for three years. It’s normal for him to be transferred back. Dad, I think you’re overreacting,” Kason reasoned.

Hearing his son’s reasoning, Mr. Richardson hesitated. Maybe he was reading too much into it.

“Still, be careful. I have a feeling this isn’t as simple as it looks; just make sure nothing goes wrong on your end,” he warned.

“Don’t worry, Dad,” Kason agreed, but his brows remained furrowed.

“Three days and he’s gone?”

Hearing the confirmed timeline from Mateo, Sierra’s expression tightened. “Could it be that Shane caught wind of something?”

“Definitely. Jade holds a high position. Even though Old He and he operate in different circles, someone at his level will always hear things. He’s smart, too—he probably put the pieces together himself,” Mateo said, clearly unhappy. They could make things difficult for Shane behind the scenes, but at the end of the day, those were just minor squabbles between younger generations. Family elders wouldn’t interfere with that. But when it came to attacking someone’s foundation, that was an entirely different matter—one no one would take lightly. That’s why, for now, they could only push things this far. Just like last time, all they had done was teach Shane a “lesson.” It was the frustration of being part of a powerful family. They couldn’t act on personal grudges alone—too many things had to be considered.

Mateo didn’t spell everything out, but Sierra understood from his expression that Shane was truly a difficult opponent. She could tell—Mateo wasn’t nearly as cautious when talking about Kason. To him, getting rid of Kason was as easy as squashing an ant. But Shane was another matter entirely.

Yurtta wasn’t about to push him further on it. Instead, she said, “What worries me now is Kason catching on and wiping all the evidence.” They still hadn’t found the location of his inhumane experiments. And Kason had made it clear—if that place was discovered, the self-destruct system would trigger immediately.

If they failed to take him down this time, they might not get another chance.

16:36 PM

Chapter 228: A Race Against Time

But before she could make a call, a strong hand pressed down on hers…

“If Kason is suspicious, you’ll be in danger,” Johnathan warned, his expression dark…

“Sierra, you promised me.”

She promised she wouldn’t risk her own safety. Sierra parted her lips but didn’t speak for a long moment.

“I know, but after seeing all of that with my own eyes, I can’t just let it go.” The animals, the human test subjects, the ones who had already died… Unless you saw it yourself, you would never understand the horror.

“Johnathan. I have to do something.”

“No,” Johnathan’s voice was firm. “Stay out of this. I’ll handle the rest. I promise you, he won’t escape. That’s enough, isn’t it?”

Sierra still wanted to argue, but seeing the unyielding look on his face, she finally nodded. Johnathan wasted no time. The footage Sierra had taken yesterday was already enough to serve as partial evidence. With this, Stone’s job became much easier. But it wasn’t enough to bring Kason down completely. Johnathan had Dickson work with Stone’s people to infiltrate Richardson Pharmaceuticals’ system, searching for more incriminating data. Dickson quickly realized he was out of his league. Stone’s hackers weren’t just good—they were top-tier.

Meanwhile, they were still trying to track down the missing people. Eventually, their search led them to a crematorium.

“We found records of late-night cremations—no official documentation, no records at all,” Dickson reported excitedly. They had been trying to figure out where the bodies went. Kason wouldn’t have kept them around. Dumping them wasn’t an option—it would leave too many traces. But turning them to ash? That was plausible. So they investigated several crematoriums and eventually focused on a small, poorly regulated one. There, they discovered multiple undocumented cremations, with burn times lasting much longer than usual—too long for just a single body.

With the pieces falling into place, Stone personally arrived in Maviston to discuss the situation with Sierra and Johnathan.

“I wasn’t supposed to be handling this case in the first place,” Stone admitted. “But now that we have a lead, I’ll hand it over to a friend of mine. He’ll dig deeper.”