Owen was momentarily stunned when he heard the voice on the phone. A mental image of a foodie girl happily devouring a plate of Kung Pao Chicken flashed through his mind. He hesitantly asked, "Chloe?"
"Of course, it's me. Oh my God, you look so tempting when you eat... Alright, alright, it's work time now, let's get down to business."
Owen could clearly hear Chloe swallowing on the other end of the line before she grumbled, "Owen, you were so hard to find. We've been looking for you all night…"
"How did you find me?"
"Facial recognition…" Chloe started rambling. "This is the latest research breakthrough from Stanford this year. We even used Stanford's supercomputer.
It involved distributed computing, multi-point markers, intelligent retrieval, and a whole series of new technologies. Never mind, explaining all this to you is pointless—you wouldn't understand anyway.
All you need to know is that we scanned through the last 18 hours of footage from 6,000 surveillance cameras across Los Angeles just to find you. CTU spent nearly $500,000 on this search alone…"
Owen shrugged. He was well aware of how powerful facial recognition technology was. In future movies, it would be used to the point of cliché. But at this moment, it was still an emerging technology, and it seemed far from mature.
"Did CTU take over the cartel case?"
Owen asked instinctively. There was no way CTU would go to such great lengths just for personal reasons. The most likely explanation was that they had gotten involved in the cartel situation.
"Yes and no…"
"What do you mean?"
Chloe explained, "The cartel case is still being led by the FBI. They lost so many people; there's no way they'd just hand it over. The DEA is involved too, but they're basically playing a minor role. CTU isn't planning to interfere directly.
But that guy put out an insanely high bounty, and now the whole of Los Angeles has turned into a battlefield. The state and city governments absolutely won't tolerate this, so CTU stepped in—but only to contain the chaos. The rest is still being handled by the FBI. Everyone has their own responsibilities."
Owen understood now. Whether they were mercenaries drawn in by the bounty or desperate criminals looking to cash in, the fact that they were engaging in large-scale firefights within the city—using anti-aircraft missiles and rocket launchers, no less—made this effectively a terrorist attack. There was no way CTU could ignore it.
With this realization, he asked, "So what's the situation now?"
With CTU backing him up, Owen instantly felt more confident. Their vast intelligence network could be of great help to him. As for potential moles within CTU, he already had a plan: as long as he moved fast enough and got Alex to the military base as soon as possible, the mole wouldn't be able to do anything about it.
CTU clearly knew a lot. Chloe continued, "Not great. Besides the mercenary squad you wiped out yesterday, we've identified three more groups.
They could be mercenaries, or they could be Montel family operatives. They're all scouring the city for you. Jack is already on his way to your location… Oh, crap! Those three groups just suddenly changed course toward your direction. How is this possible? Why? Someone tipped them off…"
Chloe's voice was filled with panic. She immediately realized how unusual this was. At this moment, only CTU knew where Owen was. And yet, those people received the information almost instantly. Who would believe this was just a coincidence?
"Alright, I have to hang up. Chloe, I'll call you from my new number. Give that number to Jack—only to Jack, no one else. Also, help me find the mole…"
Owen ended the call, and the light-hearted mood of the morning vanished without a trace.
Inside CTU, Chloe put down the phone and then turned around, her face filled with anger as she scanned the people around her. She was just a regular tech specialist; she couldn't hide her emotions.
A mole inside CTU—this was no small matter. She knew the traitor had to be among these people, but every face looked so innocent.
By the phone, Monica cast a questioning glance at Owen. He said, "We've been exposed. We need to leave immediately. Watch Alex. I'll find us a car…"
Monica nodded. In the distance, the familiar ringing sound of a tram echoed as a tourist streetcar approached. Despite being a sightseeing vehicle, its speed wasn't much different from that of a car when in motion.
Owen stood at the roadside, intending to wait for the tram to pass before making his next move.
As the tram got closer, Alex, who had been behaving obediently all this time, suddenly dashed forward and jumped to the other side just before the tram passed, narrowly escaping to the opposite side. By the time Owen and Monica realized what had happened, it was too late—the tram had cut off their path.
Shit!
Owen never expected Alex, who had been so cooperative, to pull such a stunt. He had let his guard down. By the time the tram had passed, Alex was nowhere to be seen.
Owen scanned the surroundings. There was no way Alex could have run that fast. Turning back, he finally spotted him—clinging to the back of the tram, getting further and further away.
"After him!"
As Owen and Monica started sprinting, the tram had already put some distance between them. Monica only ran a few steps before stopping—right beside an off-road vehicle that had pulled over to let the tram pass.
The driver was leisurely admiring Monica's beauty when she suddenly yanked him out of the car and jumped into the driver's seat, immediately speeding off in pursuit.
Owen ran a few more steps before realizing running wouldn't cut it. At that moment, a motorcyclist riding a street bike—what people commonly referred to as a sportbike—came up beside him.
The contrast between the biker's effortless cruising and Owen's desperate sprinting was almost comical. The rider matched Owen's pace, clearly enjoying the scene. He lifted his helmet's visor and joked, "Dude, this is way too old-school. Need a ride?"
"Yeah, let me borrow your bike…"
Owen grabbed the motorcyclist, yanked him off, and took off on the stolen bike. It was a three-cylinder MV Agusta with a powerful engine. The muscular design of the frame seamlessly integrated with the fuel tank, and its three-pipe exhaust system gave it an artistic flair.
With 130 horsepower from its liquid-cooled triple-cylinder engine, a slight twist of the throttle sent the bike shooting forward, leaving the stunned rider behind in utter disbelief.
Owen sped forward on the Agusta, the scenery on both sides blurring past. Monica's off-road vehicle was just ahead, tearing through the streets and causing quite a bit of chaos.
But soon, an even greater chaos erupted.
Several black SUVs suddenly emerged from a side road at high speed, joining the chase and inserting themselves between Owen and Monica.
Owen immediately knew—those guys had arrived!
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Hello, if you enjoy mythology novels, I invite you to check out "I Am Thalos, Odin's Older Brother", a story inspired by Norse mythology