Joe offered no reaction as he stared back at Ethan without flinching or trying to pull away.
Even the others tensed up at the sudden outburst.
Hayley then asked. "Does this change the plan then? Do we go for the girl?"
Ethan let go of Joe’s collar and took a step back, raising one hand toward Hayley while shaking his head firmly.
"No, no," he said, his breathing still uneven. "That’s Bettie we’re talking about. We’re not risking her life that way."
He paused for just a second, letting his mind churn through everything.
"You know what?" Ethan continued, his tone returning to focus now. "The plan stays the sa. We’ll make a few changes, but it’ll remain as is."
Everyone just stared at him as he turned back toward Joe.
"I need your eyes," Ethan said quickly. "Can you make it to that place in half an hour?"
Joe nodded. "In less."
"Good, good," Ethan said, as the pieces started falling into place in his head. "I need to know just how many of them are at this new place waiting for . Then I can know how much of the plan needs adjusting."
Joe gave another nod, then moved out in a burst of speed. In the next mont, he was gone.
Eduardo moved up imdiately after Joe left, "Master Ethan, I’m sorry, but I will not let you go there alone."
"You can’t walk in there alone." Isabella said almost at the sa ti, because it did sound as if Ethan was insinuating exactly that.
"Yeah, man," Percival added. "It’d be stupid."
"I know, I know!" Ethan groaned in frustration. "Just... ugh! Let’s just wait on the summon first."
-
Almost twenty minutes later...
Joe’s voice ca through the bond link in Ethan’s mind. "I’m in position."
Right now, Joe was on a high rooftop almost four thousand ters away from the main point Ethan had been asked to co to.
He already had Katarina out and was doing extra surveillance through its sniper’s scope.
Ethan’s vision overlaid with Joe’s as it looked as though he stared ahead at nothing while everyone else watched him in tensed silence.
Ethan asked urgently, "Where’s Elizabeth? Is she hard?"
Joe turned his scope over toward a corner of the factory floor visible through one of the broken windows. He zood in on a girl lying on the ground beside so old crates.
"No," Joe said. "She doesn’t look it from here."
Ethan let out a breath of relief.
Joe went on speaking further as he continued scanning the area with his scope.
"So far, it’s just three here," Joe reported. "Casper, Greta, and I don’t know who the last guy is."
Ethan couldn’t discern either since this third person had a newsboy cap pulled low over his head and a mask covering most of his face.
"Greta’s leaving..." Joe said suddenly, watching as she walked toward a car parked by the factory’s side entrance. She went into the backseat, and the car drove away the next month.
Joe added after watching her go, "If Greta was here, ans there’s so spell she cast. But I can’t say which."
Ethan processed that information quickly and said to himself, though everyone around him could hear it too:
"If she’s leaving despite casting a spell, ans sothing is anchoring the spell."
Everyone else just watched him without saying anything.
Ethan spoke again through the bond link, directing Joe. "Look for anything like a stone with glowing markings or..." He trailed off for half a second and quickly turned toward Valerie as though wanting her to remind him what other forms totems could take.
She understood imdiately what he needed and said , "Dolls, crystals, wooden idols..."
As she said these words, Ethan repeated them, "Dolls, crystals, wooden idols.."
Joe swept his scope across different sections of the factory floor. Then he stopped on sothing on one of the support pillars.
"I see sothing," Joe said. "A skull... two skulls with glowing eyes."
"Yes, that’s it," Ethan said at the sa ti as he saw it too through the sniper’s vision.
Then he added quickly, "Look around. See if you find more."
Joe continued sweeping his scope across every corner he could find from his vantage point.
In total when Joe finished looking, he found four skulls placed strategically around different points of the factory floor.
Based on their positions, they ford a rough square that covered a defined radius. Bettie lay unconscious at the center of it, while Casper and the masked man stood outside the periter.
"It’s a trap," Joe said.
Ethan nodded. "Yeah..."
Then he said, "Stay on sight. Don’t let them see you."
Joe said nothing in response but retracted Katarina back and shifted positions on the rooftop to stay concealed behind a ventilation unit.
-
On Casper’s end...
The psycho had turned around a few tis over the last couple of minutes, staring up at sky but at nothing in particular.
Dante glanced at him a few tis without saying anything or reacting v to whatever Casper was doing.
"...This sensation," Casper whispered to himself with a grin creeping across his face.
Then his grin widened further as his voice turned sarcastic.
"Are you staring from beyond, Joe?!" Casper called out loudly. "That is good! It is only fair that you bear witness as I condemn your killer to his end!"
Dante said nothing in response, unsure if this was just the ramblings of a madman or if Casper actually knew sothing he didn’t.
——
Back on Ethan’s side...
Everyone had gathered around him in a tight circle as he made quick readjustnts to the plan.
Ethan looked down at his watch and felt his heart skip a beat. He had about twenty-seven minutes left to act.
He hurried explained the situation at the new site, adding this part "But here’s the problem. Joe’s intel suggests Casper could be stronger than the normal S-tier. We’re not dealing with soone predictable."
He let that sink in for a second before continuing.
"I’m going, and I don’t mind bringing soone with . But there’s one condition, you need a way to remain undetected until the right mont...
..This Casper guy has so screws loose, and the last thing I’m willing to risk is Bettie’s life over my inability to comply with whatever ga he’s playing."
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