Owen took the phone and signaled with his eyes. Beside him, someone immediately began verifying Chen Mike's identity. This was standard procedure during an investigation—especially since the White Mask's Zheng was Asian, every Asian involved in this incident had to be thoroughly scrutinized.
"I'm Steve Owen from CTU..."
After answering the call, Owen first identified himself.
A woman's somewhat agitated voice came through the line immediately: "Thank God, I finally reached you. My name is Jessica Martin. I've been kidnapped. They're forcing my husband to help them make a bomb..."
"Your husband is Lewinsky Blazek?"
"Y-yes. How do you know that?"
Jessica didn't know that her husband had already managed to send a message to the police before her.
Owen didn't dwell on the topic and continued, "Time is of the essence. I need to confirm some information with you. This is very important. Are you and your husband in the same house?"
"Y-yes."
"Who else is in the house? How many kidnappers are there?"
"I saw an elderly couple once, but I haven't seen them in a long time. As for the kidnappers, I don't know the exact number. I saw an Asian man, a woman, two different white men who brought me food, and someone called 'Hammer'. He tried to assault me before, but the woman stopped him..."
Jessica gave a rough account of what she knew. Owen was now nearly certain that it was the White Mask gang. The combination of an Asian and a woman was too distinctive to be coincidental.
"Do you know your specific location?"
Owen asked a critical question.
"I... I don't. My husband and I were stuffed into a trunk and brought here. I can only be sure that it's not in the city. It's very quiet around here..."
Jessica's voice was anxious, and Owen tried to guide her.
"Don't worry. Look around for anything distinctive. Can you see outside? Try to describe the vegetation, any TV towers or base stations, any lakes nearby, the color of the ground, whether any planes fly overhead..."
"Wait a moment. I'll check. I'm trapped in an attic. There's a window, but it's boarded up. I can still see part of the outside..."
The line went quiet for a moment, then Jessica returned.
"There aren't many plants around. I can only tell it's suburban. But I do hear train whistles sometimes, very clearly. They must not be far..."
"Alright, Jessica, don't hang up. We'll locate you soon and get you out of there..."
"Wait, someone's coming..."
Before Owen could finish, Jessica's panicked voice came through, followed by a loud "bang" as if someone had violently thrown open a door.
"You... what are you doing, don't... stay away from me..."
Jessica's voice was frantic, and then came a deep, rough male voice yelling, "You bitch..."
"Ah~~~"
A woman's scream followed, along with the sound of things being smashed. Everyone listening on the other end was filled with concern. Just then, a fire truck roared past with a piercing siren echoing through the surroundings.
Owen reacted instantly, quickly covering the phone's receiver.
...
In the attic, Castor returned battered and bruised. He had just jumped from a height of over ten meters to avoid police pursuit, landing in a tree before climbing down and circling through the woods to escape.
He later hijacked a car to get back here, and his body was covered in injuries from the mountain. All of this was because of that woman. If she hadn't attracted Avril, he wouldn't have been sent out, let alone suffered this ordeal.
He couldn't confront Avril, so he wanted to take it out on the woman. But just now, he thought he heard something—like the siren of a fire truck.
Jessica was on edge. The siren earlier had been incredibly loud in the empty attic. She tried to act terrified, yelling to divert the attention of the burly man across from her, but it was no use.
Castor perked his ears up, trying to locate the sound inside the attic. He quickly noticed a pile of rags covering something on the floor. The sound seemed to come from there, but then it vanished.
Lifting the rags, he found a heap of broken phone parts. The exposed wires made him wonder if he had imagined the sound.
Still, he picked up a piece that looked like a receiver and listened—nothing.
Jessica nervously watched Castor fiddling with the components on the ground. Her heart sank. It felt like he would discover her secret any moment, stand up, and beat her violently.
Everyone on the other end of the line was holding their breath. The heavy breathing coming through the receiver definitely wasn't Jessica's.
The atmosphere turned heavy, so quiet it was suffocating.
Suddenly, a slightly awkward voice came from the door: "Hammer, Avril wants to see you..."
Seeing Zheng at the door, Castor stood up without a word, though his face clearly showed displeasure. Avril was obviously keeping him on a leash.
But he couldn't defy Avril's orders. Castor walked to the door, casting a reluctant glance back at Jessica. In a fit of frustration, he stomped hard on the components, smashing the already broken phone into countless pieces.
After Castor left, Jessica lunged forward, grabbed the receiver, and shouted desperately, "Hello? Hello? Can you hear me? Can you hear me?"
But there was only silence. Seeing the completely destroyed wires that couldn't be repaired, Jessica broke down and began to cry.
...
By the roadside, Owen put down the phone.
The call had been cut off, but the other side should be safe for the time being.
Owen patted Carl's shoulder. "Brother, you were a big help..."
Carl nodded. "Do you need us to help with anything else?"
Owen shook his head. He still held the same belief: the White Mask group was too dangerous. He didn't want those close to him getting involved. On the battlefield, bullets had no eyes.
He explained to Chen Mike that the phone couldn't be returned yet, just in case the other side called back or something unexpected happened. Then Owen called the CTU headquarters to report the situation.
Even though they didn't have many reference points, they had the landline number. Owen believed that with CTU's capabilities, it wouldn't be hard to trace the location.
Sure enough, not long after, Chloe called.
"Owen, the location is in western Los Angeles County, 15 kilometers off the county road, not far from Sheela Township. The house number is 13. Records show that the house belongs to an elderly couple."
"Can you find out how many people are there?"
"We can only estimate. There's no usable surveillance there, so we can't confirm through footage. But I checked the local food delivery records. They've been ordering from an Italian restaurant these past few days—each time for ten people."
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