Take Me Away novel Chapter 144

Spencer climbed down the tree quietly and landed on a lower branch. The other man was relieving himself right below. The man had a cigarette between his lips. After zipping up his pants, he walked back to the clearing, humming and puffing smoke.

Not far from where he was, a large truck filled with jade was parked to the side of the forest path. A man sat in the driver's seat while a couple of men guarding the precious cargo looked around with vigilant eyes.

Spencer jumped off the tree and quietly followed the man.

"Hey, you sure took your time in there! Come on! We're going to be late! Hurry up!"

"Yes! I'm coming! I'm coming! I can't even catch a break!" Nevertheless, he quickened his pace at the prompt of his peers. He knew his boss's temper very well. Recently, he even noticed that he was more prone to outbursts. If they got in late because of him, he didn't know if he could walk out of his sight alive.

Spencer kept a considerable distance from the man he tailed. Once he was near the truck, he picked up a small stone and tossed it to the opposite direction, hitting a tree with perfect precision. Its sound echoed loudly in the stillness of the forest.

"Who's there? Show yourself!" The man screamed with fear as he turned around. Taking out his weapon, he aimed it at the darkness behind him.

"What's going on out there? What's taking so long?" The man in the driver's seat stepped out of the truck and joined his trembling comrade. "Who's there? Show yourself! Come out and face us, you coward!"

The two waited for a while without moving. Hearing no other sound save for their own breaths, one of them concluded,

"I guess it was nothing." The driver hit him on the back of his head and shouted, "Why are you making a fuss over nothing? Are you blind or deaf? You must be both, you useless oaf! Get back there!" Cursing under his breath, he then marched towards the truck.

The man could only follow, scratching his head. "Must be a cat or a dog or something..."

The two of them got back and, after exchanging some words with the guards, drove off to X's secret base.

The sound of the truck's engine and the wind hitting its dashboard broke the silence in the forest.

At this point, no one noticed the man clinging to the bottom of the truck, intending to infiltrate X. It was Spencer.

Inside X's base, a watchtower was lit up, casting a strong beam of light on every dark corner of the compound. No one, not even a stray animal, could possibly hide without getting detected.

Soon enough, the truck found its way to the base's gates, where it was stopped for inspection.

Hiding underneath the vehicle, Spencer could hear the conversation between the driver and the guard manning the entrance.

"We're from Mine 10. We're here to deliver these ores dug up last week. We are asked to bring them here tonight."

"You there!" the guard called out to his men. "Inspect the cargo!"

"Yes, sir!"

Spencer heard steady footsteps rushing onto the vehicle, followed by a rustling sound, as if men were shifting the contents of the truck. After a while, someone shouted, "All checked, sir! Clear!"

"Okay. Show me your permits."

"Ah, yes!"

A few seconds passed before the guard finally gave his approval. "That seems to be about it. You can go inside now."

The inspection lasted nearly twenty minutes. Spencer couldn't help but sigh, understanding how tough Charles handled security. At the same time, he sneered at how useless it all was, considering he was able to get in without getting caught.

He heard as the gates creaked open and felt the car's engine starting. After several turns, the truck came to a halt at its intended destination. Spencer was thankful to hear that the engine had finally stopped buzzing. Several people got off and someone shouted, "Unload everything here!"

Sensing that the men were occupied with the cargo, he took the opportunity to drop onto the ground and prepared to crawl out.

As it was impossible to carry the ores by hand, the back of the truck was opened and a mobile conveyor belt was pushed to transfer the cargo onto the loading deck. Seeing that the conveyor belt cast a huge shadow under the watchtower's piercing light, Spencer carefully rolled out from under the truck.

There were all sorts of buildings inside X's base, from warehouses to laboratories. Guards were positioned in every corner, giving him little space to hide.

Once he confirmed that the porters around the truck were busy unloading the jade, he took his chance and sneaked to the opposite direction. Occasionally, he would run into jade ores stacked high all over the grounds, behind which he would pause to hide and observe. When a couple of patrolmen making their rounds got too near him, he ran towards the building at the center of the base.

"Is there any update on the new drug?" From the base's control room, two people walked out and chatted casually.

Spotting them, Spencer immediately hid behind a parked car. He was about to move away when he recognized one of the figures, a man who wore a sling around his arm. It was Francis, the leader of Charles' henchmen, who tried to kill him when he rescued Celine. Beside him was an older man with glasses who wore a white lab coat.

"Well, it's still in the trial phase. But..."

"But what?" Francis frowned.

"There's a lot that can go wrong with this new formula. We can't just introduce it to the market. We need more time."

"What do you mean? We have only one year to finish this project." Francis pressed, "How much time do you still need? What side effects are we talking about?"