Becoming A Tech Tycoon Begins With Regression novel Chapter 154

Chapter 154: Carver

To anyone else, the culprit was obvious, after all, he was the only one alive out of the two but to Ethan, being dead didn’t remove you from his list.

Besides, he knew better.

He wouldn’t conclude that anyone was dead, not until he was a hundred percent sure.

"Focus on Carver," he said. "The death certificate?"

{Forged,} Athena confirmed immediately. {Cross-referencing biometrics from the Libyan site shows a mismatch. The corpse’s dental pattern belonged to a man named Ilian Petrov. Carver used it to disappear.}

Ethan’s eyes narrowed. "So he’s still alive."

{Yes. And the tattoo matches a unit emblem used by a splinter group of Helix Global Corp. The three slashes through the circle—designation ’Trident Squad.’} Athena explained, {he was part of that team before his ’death’.}

"I see," Ethan nodded looking through the data Athena had pulled up on Reid Carver.

Helix Global was quite a popular name in the future.

They were known for being one of the best mercenaries in the future without a failed job to their name... if it was illegal, profitable, or morally questionable, Helix Global had probably dabbled in it.

They were unofficially known as ’The cleaners’ for those who had fat enough pockets.

But what Ethan didn’t know was that they dated this far back. They hadn’t come to light till late 2022, in his timeline so how was he involved with them right now..

He sent that question to the back of one of his minds as he refocused on finding Lillian.

"What was Carver’s most recent location?" Ethan asked.

{Reid Carver now goes by the name Henry Lith and his last known location was Los Angeles County, California,} Athena replied. {Last verifiable sighting was two days before Lillian’s kidnapping. He checked into a storage facility under an alias — ’H. Lith’ — in the outskirts of Glendale. Payment was made in untraceable crypto, but the timestamp aligns with his movements from an unregistered airfield north of the city.}

Ethan’s gaze darkened. "So he was already in California before the Caldwell meeting."

{Yes,} she simply responded.

Ethan silently placed both hand, clasped together, a bit above his upper lip and under his nose as he thought about it.

If they had kidnapped Lillian, that meant they wanted his identity and they’d do anything to get it.

He didn’t know why they were targeting him and neither did he care, all he cared about was that they touched one of his and they were going to regret.

Someone was going to get murdered, and it wasn’t Lillian.

"Pull up all known affiliates of Helix operating within the States," he ordered.

{Already done,} Athena replied. {Cross-referencing company proxies, contractor networks, and shell corporations. Approximately forty-seven entities tied to Helix operate in North America — mostly private security, shipping, and data encryption fronts. But only five show anomalous transaction spikes in the last seventy-two hours.}

"List them."

{One stands out. Longfield Logistics, LLC. Based in San Francisco. Registered to an individual named Mr. Jian Long.}

Ethan’s brows furrowed. "Longfield Logistics..."

{Yes. It’s a Helix proxy — operational for two years, mostly dormant. However, the account received a recent transfer of 1.2 million USD in Monero, originating from an offshore Chinese account under the name Hua Trade Imports.}

"China?" Ethan muttered, leaning forward. "Athena, who’s behind Hua Trade?"

There was a short pause — data streams flickering across the holo-display.

{That’s the strange part. The ownership is masked behind seven shell layers across Singapore, Macau, and mainland China. But the routing pattern seems it’s familiar.}

"Familiar how?"

{It matches a variety of accounts once flagged by the Chinese Ministry of State Security during an internal leak suppression operation by the Elderwoods, with the designation ’Xu-8’.}

Ethan’s eyes hardened. "Xu."

{Yes, but the name is too common to isolate without more—}

"Don’t bother," Ethan interrupted. "You said the payment went from Hua Trade to Longfield, which ties back to Helix, which ties back to Carver. That’s enough for now."

With that, he stood up and walked towards his phone which was back in the living room,

"Call, Isabela."

Athena complied and the phone only let out a single ring before it was answered. Isabela was silent on the other end for a few minutes before she spoke up,

"My men are searching for her."

This wasn’t being done because of Ethan, not because she stood to gain anything from it.

She was doing this because she had genuinely developed a liking for Lillian and an attempt at harming her was as much her concern as it was Ethan’s.

Ethan didn’t respond to her words just yet, there was silence on both ends for a moment before he finally spoke up, "I want someone kidnapped."

"Who?" Was the only question Isabela asked.

"A dead man."

***

Reid Carver and his two underlings reached the indicated meeting place before he ordered the to take out the crate in which Isabela was placed.

This was the exchange point arranged with their boss, whoever was paying them, so they just put it down and waited for a while.

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