CHAPTER 173: THE SWAP [2]

"Who the hell are you?" Laohu said in Mandarin the moment he regained consciousness, which was just a few minutes after he was placed in the van.

"No one," Tag answered as he walked to the back, scanning for something for a few minutes before saying, "Zero, where the hell is it?"

Zero peeked from the partition window as he was in the driver’s seat, on his head was a high tech VR-looking helmet.

"Where’s what?" He asked, seemingly completely clueless.

Tag’s eyes twitched before he gripped as he muttered, "why did I even bring you?"

{Because he’s part of the team?} Spectra said with a chuckle, {besides, would you rather have the kid on field duty? Maybe dressed as the grandma instead of me?}

"No way," Tag shook his head, before approaching the partition window and stretching his hand, "hand it over."

"Come on, " Zero said, "just a few more minutes?"

"No," Tag responded, leaving no room for negotiation.

Zero groaned dramatically but finally removed the helmet with both hands, holding it out like a kid surrendering his favorite toy.

Which was strange since the helmet had nothing to do with toys...his reaction would’ve been understandable if that was a VR headset, but it wasn’t.

The thing was a creation by Ethan used to mess with the brain, it was the same helmet used on Dmitri and Nathaniel.

Ever since it was used on him, Zero had been stuck wanting to play with it, for a reason know to none but him.

The moment the helmet was handed over, he slumped forward before letting out a whine.

Tag ignored the theatrics and turned the helmet in his hands.

Slowly, he walked towards Laohu, who had been trying, and failing, to free him from the bindings.

"It’s useless," Tag told him, in Mandarin, "I made sure you were tightly bound, so there’s no way to escape."

Irina’s training had involved speaking in multiple languages and this just happened to be one of the few.

If knowing ten languages could be called, ’few’.

"So," Laohu said, "am I right to assume your group was the one that rescued one of yours a night ago?"

"..." Tag said nothing in response, he just continued walking forward with the helmet in hand.

"Can I be the one to put it on him," Zero,who somehow had moved from the front to back of the van requested.

"No." Tag held the helmet out of reach.

Zero froze, his hand still extended. "...no?"

"No."

That elicited another look of disappointment on his face as he went back to the front, somehow fitting through the partition window.... though, it was big enough to allow him passage.

"What’s that?" Laohu asked, looking at the helmet in Tag’s hand, "looks like some kind of toy."

Tag just smiled at his words, "a toy?" He repeated with an almost amused expression, "if only."

With that, he approached the man bound to the chair and placed it on his head, tapping a couple of times on the screen that had been added to the top of it, the helmet immediately activated.

"You might not remember anything after this, but I just wanted to say," Tag leaned forward before smiling, "did you really think we’d fall for such obvious plan?"

Before Laohu could say anything else, a wave of pain hit him. It felt as if his brain was being unraveled one strand at a time.

It hurts so much, a whole lot than any kind of torture he had experienced before. He let out a scream only to be gagged by Tag who said, "now now, we wouldn’t want people getting suspicious of what’s happening here do we."

***

While Laohu was having his memories wiped and replaced with a new set of memories, Qian finally caught up to the two men.

"Sir," the first man said in a fluent, respectful Mandarin, "there must be a misunderstanding. We didn’t take anything from your friends pocket."

Qian didn’t care as he tackled the man and asked, "who sent you?"

"No one, I swear," the man pleaded, "we were just walking and saw the way you guys were dressed, so we thought it’d be funny if we pretended to be in a spy movie and drop the info in your pocket without anyone noticing."

The second man that was being restrained by Madam Xu’s other men added, "it’s true, we meant no harm."

Qian frowned before turning, about to ask their boss what to do with the two, only to realize that he wasn’t there.

"Bring them back with us," he ordered, "we’ll find out who sent them when we get back to the safe house, for now, let’s make sure Boss Laohu is safe."

With that, two men who just wanted to pull off a prank were hauled off by a couple of dangerous men.

How they had gotten that stupid idea? They had no idea.

***

[Present]

"And after that," the avatar continued, "all they had to do was cause enough distraction to switch the real Laohu again with the one in the car."

The man was frozen as he listened to the explanation.

Suddenly he started chuckling, it started out low before becoming a full blown laughter. Whether it was due to amusement or anger was unknown but he didn’t stop for a while.

When he finally did, he wiped a tear that had formed at the side of his eye.

"I apologize OmniTech," the man finally said, "it seems I really did underestimate you, I never expected you to be so thorough but I guess that was to be expected."

"But I still have a question," the man added, "how did you get Laohu to truly believe he was Zero?"

"That," the avatar started, a smile was on his face, "is a trade secret...but for now, you can just call it hypnosis."

"I see," the man slightly leaned forward but not enough to cause the light to reveal his identity, "but I still got the biggest advantage in this game, OmniTech.."

"I know that the Vigilants are still alive," he said, "and I know they work for you, while you have Zero information on me."

"Well, that’s true," the avatar said, "but not for long."