Chapter 31
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He wiped his nose on his sleeve and stared at Zoe, his face a mix of shock and gratitude. “I made it. I’m still alive? Zoe, you saved me. Thank you so much. I can’t believe that fish was actually poisonous.”
The realization hit everyone like a punch in the gut. That fish had been deadly, and it was Zoe’s quick thinking that had saved Mike. The crowd was stunned into silence.
But the thought that lingered in everyone’s mind was unsettling. Zoe was just a girl from a small town. It seemed impossible that she could have known about the poison.
It was as if she’d been through this kind of thing before, like she’d faced danger and survived countless times.
The shock rippled through the crowd. Cheryl’s eyes widened, Herbert looked bewildered, and Jacob shook his head in disbelief. Even Eunice seemed taken aback. For a moment, a flicker of something cold crossed her face, but she quickly composed herself.
She looked at Zoe and said, “So, you knew the fish was poisonous. You must have seen something like this back in your hometown, right?” Her words seemed to snap everyone out of their daze. Suddenly, the crowd started to murmur, as if they’d all reached the same conclusion. To them, Zoe was just a country bumpkin, used to scraping by. She’d probably eaten anything she could find just to survive. That’s how she’d learned about the poison. It made sense.
‘People like her are always resourceful. If it weren’t for this survival challenge, none of us would ever have to eat this kind of stuff.
Zoe tuned out the buzz of voices around her. She crossed her arms, leaned back against a tree, and let her eyes drift shut.
She was all too aware that Shawn must be keeping a close eye on her every move through the drones and cameras that never stopped recording. To throw Shawn off the scent and push ahead with her plan to take him down, she had to swallow her pride and bide her time. This was turning into a game of patience, a slow–burning duel between her and Shawn.
Just as Zoe had imagined, in the control room, Shawn stood before a bank of monitors, his fingers tapping lightly on the console. His eyes were fixed on the screen, scrutinizing every detail of Zoe’s movements.
“Chase, Shawn said, his voice flat but sharp. He didn’t look away from the screen, focusing on Zoe’s suspicious actions.
Chase stepped forward, saluting crisply. “Sir, what’s the plan?”
Shawn’s lips curled into a half–smile, as if he had already made up his mind about something. He spoke in a clear, cold tone, “Tell them to step it up. Give them an extra push.
Chase hesitated, his expression wary. He knew exactly what “extra push” meant in Shawn’s vocabulary. With a face full of shock, he pressed on, “Sir, they’re just teenagers. Won’t that be a bit much?”
Shawn’s smile turned cold, and his eyes gleamed like those of a hunter who had been waiting for years. He said with a chilling calm, “If I don’t turn up the heat, how am I supposed to get my little prey to bite?”
When Chase finished listening to Shawn’s words, he glanced up at the surveillance screen and froze the image on Zoe. His eyes narrowed sharply. Given Shawn’s actions and the earlier probe into Zoe’s background, Chase’s eyes bulged in disbelief. “Mr. Ludwig, you can’t seriously be thinking that this ordinary girl–who just got back from a small town–is actually the legendary mercenary, Firefox, right?”
It was absurd to even consider. On one hand, there was the internationally feared battlefield queen, a match for Shawn himself. On the other, there was a small–town girl from a minor family in Jelonsburg. No way these two could be the same person.
11:58 AM
