Rising from the Ashes (Andrew) novel Chapter 2289

Isabelle glared at him with wide eyes. She snapped, "What misunderstanding? I don't care! Either way, you messed with me, and I can't guarantee I won't spread the word about this."

With that, she grabbed her skirt and bolted like lightning.

Andrew shook his head and cursed his bad luck under his breath. Then, he pushed aside his distracting thoughts and headed straight to Ezekiel's suite door.

He knocked hard on the door, but there was no response from inside.

Andrew knocked again, this time louder and more insistent. Suddenly, the door swung open to reveal a bearded face, followed immediately by the dark barrel of a gun pointed straight at him.

Andrew's face showed genuine terror as he threw up his hands. In an exaggerated Eastonian accent, he said, "Sorry, sorry!"

The bearded man was caught off guard and blurted out in Soryan, "What the hell! We're Soryan, not Eastonian, you idiot!"

Suddenly, Andrew's fist shot out like lightning and slammed into the man's forehead.

The bearded guard looked stunned before collapsing to the floor. His fall made quite a commotion, and immediately the rest of the black-suited bodyguards came charging out of the room, shouting angrily.

Andrew spun around and ran as most of Ezekiel's security team split off to chase him. They kept yelling Soryan curses as they pursued him through the hallway.

Andrew did not look back, focused only on leading the bodyguards in the opposite direction. Then, he glanced at his watch.

It was time for Aspen to make her move. However, time was running short; only two minutes remained. If she could not succeed within that window, either the experts downstairs in the main hall or these diverted guards would notice something was wrong and return.

…

The black-suited guard's face went rigid. He wanted to turn and look at Aspen, but he had lost all strength and collapsed to the floor.

A gruesome wound on the back of his neck had ended his life instantly.

Aspen's assassination skills had reached perfection and been proven in real combat. She bit down on the bloody dagger and began searching the two corpses, but aside from their weapons, neither bodyguard carried any keys.

Aspen remained calm, silently reciting the killer's principles Andrew had taught her. "As an assassin, the first rule is to stay cool. The second rule is still to stay cool. The third rule is to be fast, and the fourth is to escape above all else… That's what matters most."

She opened the black briefcase first but found only documents inside, no Blackstar Crystal. That meant the crystal was most likely hidden in the safe.

Aspen's slender fingers moved toward the combination lock. However, at the last moment, she suddenly froze.