You’re Alive 9: Chapter 9: Oh My God!
You’re Alive Luca gave a small chuckle, stood up, and let out a soft laugh.
“Everyone here is my witness.
I didn’t force him to inject that.
That was suicide, plain and simple.
Nothing to do with me.” Tony and Ho Yinsen looked at each other, saying nothing.
They began looking around the office, mocking the rustic taste of this warlord leader.
“Look at this painting on the wall.
What is this supposed to be?
A Middle Eastern Mona Lisa?
Damn, this taste is a desecration of art,” Tony complained, pointing to an oil painting on the wall.
Luca walked over to the open safe and gave it a kick.
“This guy actually kept dozens of gold bars in his safe.
Talk about archaic aesthetics.
Who even hoards physical gold these days?” Teasing aside, they still had serious work to do.
Tony piloted the armor over to the desk.
But he realized the heavy metal hands couldn’t type on a keyboard at all.
“Damn it, the suit is too clunky,” Tony grumbled.
Reaching for a catch on his chest, he released it, slipping out of the armor amid a series of metallic clanks.
Sniffing the rank mix of odors clinging to his clothes, his expression turned to disgust.
“When I get back to New York, I’m soaking in a bathtub for a full day!” Muttering to himself, Tony sat in the chair before the desk and began clacking away at the computer keyboard.
Standing beside him, Luca watched Tony’s fingers fly across the keys and couldn’t help laughing.
“Tony, your typing speed looks like you’ve got arthritis.
Want me to grab you some lubricant?” “Shut up, you brainless mutant lump of muscle,” Tony shot back without looking up.
“I’m bypassing their firewall.
These idiots are actually using United States military-grade encryption.
Looks like there really is a big fish backing them.” Before long, lines of green code flooded the computer screen.
“Got it.” Tony raised an eyebrow.
He had cracked a deeply hidden, encrypted offline file.
Tony opened the file, and the first item to pop up was a grainy audio recording of a call.
Without overthinking it, he clicked play.
The recording played the bald leader’s heavily accented English: “The money you gave isn’t enough.
I found out the person we captured isn’t just Tony Stark.
Their lives are worth far more than this…” Then, a voice altered by a voice changer came from the other end: “Kill them according to the original plan.
The remaining balance will be wired to your account.
Do not cause extra complications.” The recording ended there.
Immediately after, Tony opened another document in the file.
It was a detailed financial ledger of arms smuggling transactions.
It recorded a vast number of money transfers.
Tony traced the transfer logs backward, trying to locate the ultimate source of the funds.
But when the final result displayed on the screen, Tony’s fingers froze.
The origin account of the funds bore a familiar encrypted emblem.
It was an encryption key exclusive to executive board members of Stark Industries!
Seeing that emblem…
Tony and Luca’s faces darkened instantly.
“Fuck!
Those miserable bastards!” Luca dropped his playful smirk and swore, unhidden murderous intent flashing in his eyes.
Tony slammed his fist heavily onto the desk as well.
“Traitorous scum!” Tony snarled through gritted teeth.
Now, everything was crystal clear.
This wasn’t a terrorist attack, nor was it simple extortion.
It was a long-premeditated assassination!
High-ranking executives inside Stark Industries wanted both brothers dead in this desolate desert so they could legitimately swallow up the entirety of Stark Industries!
The two brothers exchanged a look, immediately understanding each other’s thoughts.
“Back to New York.” Tony’s eyes were cold as ice.
“We drag this damned mole out into the light!” Luca clenched his fists, knuckles cracking loudly.
They spoke briefly, arriving at a consensus.
No matter which board member was behind this, once caught, he would pay the most excruciating price.
But first, they obviously had to leave this wretched place.
Tony quickly pulled the cable from the computer and shoved the hard drive containing the evidence into his pocket.
Then he walked back to the armor, opened some hidden panels, and yanked out several wires.
Next, Tony picked up the detonation remote the bald leader had dropped on the floor earlier.
After a quick round of modifications, he rewired it to the base’s internal explosive grid and set a countdown timer.
“I never leave weapons behind for enemies.
Let’s move.” Tony dusted himself off and stood up.
Luca nodded.
He stepped between the two.
Grabbing Ho Yinsen by the collar with one hand and Tony’s shoulder with the other.
“Ready for takeoff, old men?” Luca teased.
In the next second.
Carrying the two men, Luca crashed through the office roof and shot straight up the base’s ventilation shaft into the sky at top speed.
Just as they flew out of the mountain— *BOOM!!!* Accompanied by an earth-shattering explosion, the entire mountain shuddered violently.
Flames erupted skyward, and thick plumes of smoke billowed into the clouds.
The explosives set by Tony had detonated, burying all the evil within beneath the rubble.
Midair.
Holding the two men while feeling the howling wind on his face, Luca finally felt himself relax.
The rushing wind forced Tony to squint as he shouted out complaints: “Hey, Luca!
Slow down!
I remember back at the amusement park you were so terrified of roller coasters your legs went weak!
Didn’t you have severe acrophobia?
How are you flying so high now?
Aren’t you afraid of wetting your pants?!” Hearing his brother bring up his embarrassing past, Luca shot back without hesitation.
“That was ten years ago!
And that wasn’t acrophobia—I was just voicing valid safety concerns about roller coasters!” “Look at you, Tony!
You’re shivering like a quail right now.
Need me to find you a diaper?!” The two bickered back and forth in midair, as if the life-or-death crisis from moments ago had never even happened.
Ho Yinsen’s face was distorted by the rushing wind, but listening to the two air out each other’s embarrassing secrets, he closed his eyes in helpless amusement.
Soon enough.
To avoid drawing unwanted attention by flying around up high, Luca carried them a short distance before landing on a flat sand dune.
After landing, Tony pulled out a satellite phone he had snatched from the base earlier.
It was the one the bald leader had used to contact the outside world.
Tony expertly dialed an encrypted number.
The line rang twice before picking up.
“This is Rhodes.
Who is this?” a tired, serious voice answered on the other end.
“It’s me, Tony.
Come pick me up quickly.
All I want right now is to lie on a couch and sip a chilled martini,” Tony said casually.
Silence held the line for a second before an ecstatic shout erupted from the phone: “Tony?!
Oh, God!
You’re alive!
Where on earth are you?!” “Yeah, I’m alive, and barring any accidents, I plan on staying alive for a few more decades.” Tony glanced up at the sun’s position, rattled off an approximate set of coordinates, and promptly hung up.