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Chapter 138 I’ll Be There Within An Hour
In the brightly illuminated basement, except for the icy cold walls and lustering metallic foundation, Leo was the only living being in there. He smiled faintly before casting the inexplicable emotion out of his mind and recomposing for his work.
All of a sudden, Steam’s everlasting energetic voice rang out in the basement, “Buzz! Master, an incoming unrecognizable call from Orlando, California. Answer it?”
‘Orlando, California?’
Leo’s heart trembled and thought of a possibility. “Answer it.”
The moment the call went through, a hoarse voice came out, “Mr. Erwin? It’s Green Fist.”
Green Fist and his brothers were dispatched to California by Bucky to carpet search Erik’s whereabouts. It had been several months since then. Calling back out of the blue now meant their search produced some results. However, why was he contacting Leo instead of Bucky?
Thinking of this, Leo asked, “It’s me, Erwin. What’s going on, Green Fist?”
“We’ve located Erik Stevens, but this kid is slippery!” Green Fist sounded rather furious, “We just tracked him down last night and went to his doorstep this morning to confirm the news. At that time, he was leaving with his backpack, but when he saw us, he instantly dashed to the rooftop. That kid also has a gun, can you believe that?! However, he didn’t dare to fire it, only using it to threaten us. Otherwise, one of the brothers is going to kick the bucket today!”
Green Fist was still mildly frightened. When he was the first to arrive on the rooftop and prepared to question Erik, who would’ve thought a not yet-experienced puberty brat would suddenly produce a gun out of his trouser…
Fortunately, Green Fist treaded between life and death before and thus promptly scampered off the rooftop. On top of that, Erik never fired a gun before, he was just gripping the gun tightly with his trembling hands and aiming at the stairway. No trigger was pulled, hence Green Fist escaped unscathed.
“The instant we and the kid entered a stalemate, I hurried to a pay phone and contacted Boss Bucky. Boss said to contact you directly instead.” Green explained the reason for calling Leo. “What now, Boss Erwin?”
“Where’s your current exact location? I’ll try to be there within an hour.” Leo didn’t expect such a situation occurring and he needed to deal with it personally.
On the other end of the call, Green Fist widened his eyes as if misheard Leo and hurriedly reminded Leo, “Boss, we’re in Oakland right now. West Coast of America! It’s 3000 miles from New York, you can’t reach here within an hour even with a plane!”
“Stop yapping nonsense, hurry up and tell me the location.” Leo impatiently explained, “If I say within an hour, then it’s within an hour.”
“Oh, alright then, Boss. We’re at 38 Jackson Street, Oakland. There’s a twelve-story apartment here with a basketball court in front of it. It’s very recognizable.” Green Fist then offered, “Shall I wait for you downstairs?”
“No need. Stall Erik for an hour, just don’t let him go down. Try not to attract attention as much as possible. If someone notices what’s going on, leave right away and contact Bucky, asking him to contact me.”
With instant assurances from Green Fist, Leo hung up the call and strode to the lab. From Green Fist’s description, the location they found was similar to the location where N’Jobu passed away in the ‘Black Panther’ movie.
‘Perhaps after his father’s passing, did Erik remain at the house without going anywhere? That’s possible. For a lonely young boy remaining at home at least, it provides him shelter and a place to reminisce. Why would he leave? Besides, he still can’t fire a gun now, a huge difference to Erik who kills without blinking in the future.’
One should know that Erik would serve the military black-ops unit in the future and earn the title Killmonger for his savagery in America, Afghanistan, and Iraq. But now, he was just a powerless orphan, shouldering the sadness of his father’s passing. Leo suddenly felt whether or was it okay to exploit him. What more was he didn’t want Erik to walk on the path of killing again. So he was going to bring Erik back first.
Soon, he stood before the storage that stored Viper Mark V. As his Mechanical Force drummed up, Viper Mark V automatically encased itself onto his body.
A while ago, he had planned a special elevator within El Building. Presently, he was taking this special elevator that darted straight to the rooftop.
Surveying his surroundings, the armor ignited abruptly and Leo charged into the sky.
……
After 46 minutes, the full-speed Leo arrived at Oakland’s sky under the guidance of the navigator.
Oakland and Sans Francisco were nearby and had the same three-hour difference against New York. Oakland’s local time at the moment was ten in the morning. Most of the people were still working in their position.
Coupled with the gloomy drizzling sky, Leo was able to silently reach the apartment Green Fist mentioned with the assistance of the navigator.
Hovering around 200 meters above the apartment, he activated the improved detection system and scanned the entire rooftop. The system soon detected a young black boy hiding behind a water tank.
Right now, the young boy was squatting on the floor with his back leaning against the water tank while clutching a gun in his hands. His outfits were utterly soaked by the drizzle. A sudden blow of wind made him shiver in the cold, appearing very pitiful and powerless.
Leo, in the sky, let out a silent sigh and dived down before steadily hovering in front of Erik.
The young Erik was staring nervously at the staircase entrance, afraid that the five men would suddenly appear and capture him. Seeing Leo abruptly appear before him in weird flying armor, he widened his mouth in astonishment. Even the gun in his hands was dropped to the ground.
A moment later, as if suddenly gone mad, Erik pointed at Leo and shouted, “Wakanda’s dog! You killed my father and now you return again! Are you here to kill me too?! Come! I, Erik, am not running away! I’m waiting for you to kill me here! What bullsh*t of Wakanda being a family and being brothers?! They are lies! Your king killed his own brother and now sends someone to kill his nephew! A bunch of liars! Murderers!”
Erik had misunderstood something, perhaps due to the story he listened to when young. Only Wakanda possessed this kind of flying suit. Furthermore, he discovered claw-shaped wounds on his father’s body, and the night N’Jobu passed away, he also saw a weird flying plane. Therefore, he was certain it was the Wakanda King, Black Panther, who killed his father.
Hence at the moment, he assumed Leo was someone sent by Wakanda to tie up the loose ends. His father was gone and he never met his mother before. Even the inheritance left by his father was nabbed away by his father’s former friends. He had nothing left but his life. Now, his life wasn’t even safe.
Right now, he could only vent out the fear and anger within his heart through constant insults.
Leo remained silent as he acknowledged Erik wouldn’t listen to anything, instead letting Erik vent out to his heart’s content was better.