"Are you sure this is where it all started?" Ren asked carefully.
"At least seventy percent sure," Raymond nodded.
He still trusted the tracking skill of his Exorcist sub-personality.
And if this place really was the Hell's Angels' turf, and that gang truly had ties to the legendary fallen angel Lucifer, then none of this was strange.
As a Lord of Hell, Lucifer's followers would naturally wield powers leaning toward darkness. Abilities that could stir up anger were only to be expected.
Putting all the clues together, Raymond was basically sure that the Hell's Angels were behind this.
He just didn't say it outright to leave some room for doubt.
"I see… thank you," Ren said thoughtfully after hearing Raymond's answer.
Once he confirmed that the source of the trouble was likely the Hell's Angels, he decided to withdraw for now.
This matter had gone beyond his authority, and he had no right to make any decisions.
After all, the Hell's Angels were a huge gang across two countries. Their influence in North America might not rival the North American Hongmen, but overall, they were definitely not weaker.
On top of that, their mysterious background made things even trickier.
One wrong move could spark a bloody war between two gangs, and as a branch leader, Ren had no power to decide anything. He had to report it up the chain.
Raymond himself had hesitated once he realized this case might be tied to a Lord of Hell. If Ren had pressed him to keep working on it, he wasn't sure if he wanted to wade any deeper into this muddy water.
Seeing Ren decide to shelve it for now, Raymond was happy enough to step back.
Meanwhile, David and the others had started digging into the woman named Jia Ying.
Raymond's intel wasn't much, and not very detailed, but thanks to Skye's incredible hacking skills, she quickly tracked down their target.
This woman had appeared several times in past records, but never caught much attention.
With those scraps of info and a handful of pictures from different angles, Skye managed to reconstruct a clear image of her face.
After "borrowing" S.H.I.E.L.D.'s big data facial recognition system, she soon uncovered a lead.
To their surprise, Jia Ying's last known appearance was right in Washington, just a few days ago!
The three of them immediately launched an investigation.
The last footage of Jia Ying came from a public street camera. After confirming the location, the team went there to investigate.
"Hi, have you seen this woman?" Skye and Beth walked door to door, showing shop owners Jia Ying's photo on their phone.
The last camera sighting of her had been in this area.
To trace her steps, they naturally had to start nearby.
David stayed in the car, waiting for them. Read full story at 𝕟𝕠𝕧𝕖𝕝✶𝓯𝓲𝓻𝓮✶𝓷𝓮𝓽
When asking around about a woman's whereabouts, it was better for women to handle it.
If David, a man, went around asking, it would raise suspicion.
Before long, the two women came back.
"No one's seen her. Let's try the next street," Skye shook her head.
"Don't rush. If we keep asking, we'll defini—" Beth was saying by the car door, when suddenly, she vanished mid-sentence.
"Where's Beth?" Skye ran to the spot where Beth had disappeared, hoping to find something.
She hadn't been facing Beth directly, so she hadn't seen what happened. She only realized something was wrong when Beth's words cut off suddenly.
David's face darkened. "I think I saw someone appear behind Dr. Beth just now, and then both of them vanished. But I couldn't make out what the person looked like."
"You mean Beth was kidnapped? How could she just vanish like that?" Skye said, shocked and uncertain.
"That person must also be a superpowered person!" David frowned deeply. "The boss said this woman named Jia Ying seems to be one of the Inhumans. Maybe it was her…"
"You mean she found out we were looking for her, so…" Skye muttered, thinking hard.
"The people you asked just now, some of them were probably her informants," David continued to analyze.
"What do we do now? Beth doesn't have any powers—she must be terrified right now!" Skye panicked.
"Didn't you say you modified our phones? Can you track her quickly?" David suddenly asked.
David's reminder jolted Skye's memory—she had been too worried and forgot about it.
She quickly pulled out her phone to start tracing Beth's signal.
David stayed right next to her, watching carefully, worried that mysterious person might show up again and take Skye too.
When Beth realized something was wrong, she was already inside a dark, windowless room.
It was large, but there were no windows, no doors.
She had no idea how she ended up here, but she was sure it had to be the work of a superpowered person.
Just a moment ago, she had been talking to Skye and David. The next, she was here.
A normal person would probably have broken down crying.
Beth, having followed Raymond through a few big events, didn't fall apart immediately.
But it was impossible not to be nervous.
If she didn't believe Raymond and the others would come save her, she'd be in full panic by now.
"Who we are? Shouldn't I be asking you that… Who are you, and why are you looking for me?"
A woman's calm, magnetic voice rang out.
From the shadows, an elegant middle-aged Asian woman walked forward.
Beth's eyes widened instantly!
She recognized her—not in person, but from a photo.
This was the mysterious woman they were hunting: Jia Ying!
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