The Return of the Cannon Fodder Trillion Heiress

Chapter 1078: Chapter 1078 Back To The Present

Not long after, Luke’s people arrived. His assistant stepped in first, accompanied by several men who clearly came to provide protection.

The moment Luke had asked to be picked up from a hospital, the assistant had already guessed that something serious had happened. Without needing further explanation, he brought extra men along, just in case.

"Boss, we’ve arrived," the assistant said, bowing slightly to Luke. The men behind him followed suit, each offering the same quiet show of respect.

The soldier standing a step behind Luke immediately understood that these were likely members of Luke’s mafia faction. As their boss, such deference was only natural.

Seeing that Luke was now surrounded by more than enough men to ensure his safety, the soldier realized his presence was no longer necessary. Though none of the men appeared to be carrying weapons openly, he had no doubt they were armed. Men like these never moved without concealed guns and blades hidden beneath their suits.

After spotting his men, Luke rose from his seat and gave his assistant a brief nod before striding toward the exit. He didn’t spare the soldier a glance. He was certain the man would remain behind to guard his injured comrades, especially now that Luke had his own protection.

Outside, his Aston Martin Victor waited at the curb, with two black sedans idling behind it. His men moved efficiently into position. The assistant slipped into the driver’s seat without hesitation, intent on driving Luke himself.

"Boss... are you alright?" the assistant asked quietly as soon as he settled behind the wheel, casting a worried glance at Luke from the corner of his eye.

"Mm." Luke dismissed his subordinate’s concern with a curt sound and moved straight to business.

"Take me back to Green Dragon Manor. Then send our men to track down everyone who joined tonight’s operation. I want each of them found, alive or dead. And among them, identify the traitor who worked with the Northern Faction to ambush us."

A murderous glint flashed in his eyes as he spoke.

Luke’s assistant inhaled sharply, swallowing the lump in his throat as the air inside the car seemed to drop several degrees. He couldn’t bring himself to meet Luke’s eyes; the murderous aura around him was suffocating.

He knew Luke was seething. The best he could do was keep quiet and do his job; anything more might draw the brunt of that anger.

"Yes, Boss," he replied softly before starting the engine and pulling the car onto the road.

「Back To The Present」

After hearing Luke recount the situation, Hera grew deeply worried, a quiet panic tightening in her chest.

Zhane was crouched on the ground beside the bed while Luke sat at its edge. Luke had already taken a quick shower; his upper body was bare, and he wore only a pair of black pants. Zhane couldn’t help but furrow his brow at the sight before him.

Luke’s once smooth, pale skin was now marred with large, dark bruises, angry blotches of black and purple concentrated heavily along his right side. Even his arms were mottled with patches of discoloration. It was obvious, even without asking, that the injuries must have been painful when touched.

Yet Luke sat there as if nothing was wrong, his expression indifferent, as though he felt none of it, while Zhane carefully applied ointment to the battered skin.

Luckily, Zhane had already begun using an ancient herbal remedy, and ointment was among the medicinal preparations he kept in his collection. Even so, Zhane couldn’t hide his concern. He knew he had used an unusually large amount just to cover the expanse of the bruising; it was simply that severe.

If Hera hadn’t been injured herself, she would have insisted on tending to Luke personally. Watching Zhane apply the ointment made her hands twitch with restless worry, a helpless urge to do something, anything, for him.

Unable to help Luke directly, she called Gerald. By chance, Gerald was already near Sasha, so Hera asked him to go to him first while Luke continued recounting what had happened. Now that Gerald was with Sasha, Hera called them both.

But she felt awful, so overwhelmed that her eyes had turned red as she struggled to contain the storm of emotions churning inside her. The harder she tried to suppress it, the more uncontrollable it became, until a dark, violent urge rose within her, demanding release.

"Hello, Young Miss, I’m with Sasha now. Do you have any other instructions?" Gerald’s voice came cautiously through the phone. Hera had been silent for an unnaturally long moment after making the call, and the hesitation in her tone immediately put him on alert. He couldn’t tell exactly what was happening, but it felt as if he were walking on thin ice.

"Yes..." Hera croaked, her voice tightly controlled, holding back the anger that threatened to spill over. Even so, it carried a chilling coldness that made Luke glance at her with concern. Rafael, sitting beside her, reached out to pat her back gently, trying to soothe the fire he could feel burning inside her. He didn’t want her own fury to harm her.

"Something has happened to Dave. He’s been kidnapped by an unknown party," Hera said, her voice frighteningly steady. "I want you to find out who dared to take him, where they are now, and everyone involved."

She paused only briefly before continuing.

"Once you identify those responsible, send me Dave’s location immediately, but do it without alerting them. I’m certain they have eyes everywhere, or they’re already trying to erase their tracks to buy time and avoid being traced by Dave’s subordinates."

Her tone grew colder.

"After you’ve sent me the location, dig up everything on the people involved. Record their transactions. Find their dirtiest secrets."

Everyone in the room could feel that Hera had no intention of letting those people walk away unscathed.

"Consider it done, Young Miss," Gerald replied without hesitation.

Because Hera’s instructions also involved Sasha, Gerald immediately put the call on speaker so he could hear everything. The moment Hera gave her first command, Sasha was already typing rapidly at his keyboard. His AI assistant began pulling satellite feeds while he started backtracking Dave’s movements from earlier that morning.

Where satellite coverage failed, Sasha relied on CCTV networks, painstakingly rewinding footage and stitching together a timeline from scattered cameras. It took skill and focus to trace Dave’s route through blind spots and gaps in surveillance, but Sasha worked through them methodically.

There were no cameras in the abandoned area where the train cargo had passed, but the event had still been faintly captured by satellite. The footage was dark and heavily pixelated due to the poor lighting, yet Sasha enhanced it as best as he could. He played the clip at double speed while his AI processed the visuals in the background, flagging anything unusual as his digital lookout.

At the same time, he multitasked, beginning the deeper investigation Hera had ordered, digging into the identities and backgrounds of their enemies.

Soon, an alert flashed across Sasha’s screen. His AI assistant had flagged a segment of satellite footage, the armored vehicle that had ambushed Luke’s SUV and abducted Dave, exactly as Luke had described.

Without the AI’s assistance, the movement would have been nearly impossible to catch. At double speed, the footage was too fast for the human eye to register every critical detail. But this advantage saved them precious time, and time was something they could not afford to waste with Dave’s life on the line.

After isolating the clip he needed, Sasha shifted his focus to tracking the vehicle’s route. He delegated the information-gathering to the AI assistant. As long as it could be accessed through the internet, the AI was tasked to collect everything related to the listed individuals, like documents, records, transactions, and digital traces.

Sasha would handle the analysis of what truly mattered later, then sort it out. For now, the AI’s only job was simple: gather everything it possibly could.

After uncovering a promising lead, Sasha didn’t report to Hera immediately. He needed to be certain. Instead, he continued tracking the armored vehicle’s movement while calculating every possible route branching from the road it had taken.

By mapping out likely paths in advance, he could anticipate where it might head next and pre-activate CCTV surveillance in those areas, hoping to catch another glimpse of it and determine its destination.

The room was silent except for the relentless clatter of keys as Sasha’s fingers flew across the keyboard. He barely paused, juggling multiple prompts and commands at a dizzying pace.

Gerald, meanwhile, stood stiffly with the phone still on speaker. He hadn’t ended the call. He couldn’t. Hera hadn’t hung up, which meant she was waiting for the results in real time. The unbroken connection only added to his pressure.

Dave wasn’t just the Young Minister of their nation; he was also the Young Miss’s lover and, very likely, one of her future husbands. The weight of that reality made Gerald feel as though he were standing under a blade, knowing that any delay or mistake could have serious consequences.