"Ugh..."
The suddenly deployed airbag filled the entire driver's seat tightly. Owen struggled to reach under his arm.
"Bang, bang bang~~"
In an awkward position, Owen shot the airbag, finally relieving some of the pressure. As it deflated slightly, he fired two more shots at the edge of the windshield before kicking out a hole in the glass and crawling out.
As soon as he emerged, he saw Salim and Ethan climbing out of their wrecked vehicle not far ahead.
That's right—it was him. The man was dressed just like Allen, but his face had changed. Owen's suspicion had been correct. It had to be one of those 3D-printed silicone masks.
From the moment he suspected it, a name had been lingering in his mind: Mission Impossible Squad.
The other side saw Owen as well, but without hesitation, Ethan grabbed Salim and started running.
"Bang bang bang~~"
Owen fired a few shots at the vehicle's body, sparks flying, but Ethan didn't even look back. He was solely focused on dragging Salim away, while Owen pursued closely.
Salim, handcuffed, was struggling to run, slowing them down. Ethan, pulling him along, spoke into his earpiece.
"Luther, I'm heading to Extraction Point Two. I need support."
"Got it, en route to Extraction Point Two."
At the same time, in a dark hideout, Luther quickly shut his laptop, jumped down from his seat, and moments later, the sound of an engine starting echoed.
On the streets, the chase continued.
"Owen, stall them! Tony and the others are on their way..."
This time, it was Nina speaking. Owen was the only agent currently engaging the targets. As long as he could delay them, Tony and his team would arrive in just a few minutes.
Owen sprinted at full speed, keeping a tight pursuit without letting up for even a second.
Despite the intensity, he felt a slight thrill—he was going head-to-head with Ethan Hunt and was about to capture him. Owen had a strange sense of rewriting the script and even hummed the classic Mission: Impossible theme song.
Ahead, Ethan Hunt dragged a stumbling Salim through the crowd, occasionally firing shots to create panic and slow Owen down.
As the theme music in his head finished, Owen stopped, raised his gun, and aimed. However, the frightened pedestrians, panicking from the gunfire, caused chaos, forcing him to lower his weapon and continue chasing on foot.
After covering some distance, they passed the accident site, and the crowd thinned. In the distance, there was only a bridge and the open sea. Owen stopped and shouted, "Stop right now, or I'll shoot!"
Perhaps sensing his determination, Ethan and Salim halted at the bridge's edge and slowly turned around. Ethan's face remained unreadable.
Owen, gun raised, cautiously approached. Something felt off—Ethan's expression wasn't that of a man with no escape.
At that moment, the sound of an engine revving reached Owen's ears. Just as he processed it, Ethan and Salim suddenly fell backward off the bridge without warning.
Owen rushed forward, only to see a speedboat slicing through the water below. The two had landed perfectly on it and were already racing away.
On the water, white waves churned in the boat's wake. Ethan Hunt, standing on the vessel, wore an expressionless face, yet it somehow exuded mockery.
So close!
Owen angrily kicked the bridge railing and spoke into his radio, his voice filled with frustration. "They got away... They escaped..."
"What?! How?"
Nina was in disbelief. Since this area had no surveillance cameras, she hadn't seen the incident unfold.
"They took a boat. A speedboat..."
"A boat?"
Nina froze for a second. The ocean had no traffic system or cameras, but she quickly realized something and turned to Neymar. "Neymar, contact the NSA immediately! We need satellite access!"
Neymar hesitated. "It's too late. We need Jack's authorization code to access the satellites, and even then, the satellite isn't in position—it'll take at least fifteen minutes to adjust..."
When Owen returned to CTU, the atmosphere was heavy.
They had all been played. Worse, they had a chance to catch him, but he had still escaped.
Owen felt stifled. In his previous life, watching movies, he had always marveled at how the protagonist narrowly escaped danger every time. But now that he was part of the story, he was just the side character who failed.
They had an entire agency with vast resources, yet they had been outmaneuvered by a small team. And to think, he had even dared to hum the Mission: Impossible theme.
CTU had an advanced information system, but they were powerless against a single hacker. If not for Chloe's unconventional approach—choosing not to crack their systems but instead disrupt them—Owen figured they wouldn't have even gotten close.
For the first time, Owen felt completely outmatched. In terms of technology, tactics, and execution, CTU had been outclassed.
If the enemy had made one mistake, it was choosing to impersonate Allen. They probably hadn't expected Allen to appear on a live presidential broadcast; otherwise, their cover might have remained intact.
The data team was still scouring security footage, trying to trace their movements before the mission, but Owen knew it was futile. The enemy wouldn't have left themselves exposed.
Sure enough, the latest update came in—the vehicle was last seen entering an underground parking garage. It was a stolen car. The trail was cold.
As for the two bodyguards they had taken down earlier, their identities had been verified—they were registered actors in Hollywood. Obscure ones.
The only clue left was the silicone mask recovered from the scene. Tony and Nina were examining it closely. The craftsmanship was so intricate that even the seasoned CTU agents were seeing something like it for the first time.
"Owen, you got a look at his real face. Try reconstructing it..."
Owen acted as if he hadn't heard. A nagging suspicion lingered in his mind—silicone masks, a covert team, Ethan Hunt?
"Owen?"
Nina noticed his distraction and called again. Owen finally snapped out of it.
"What's on your mind?"
She was sharp enough to sense something was off with him.
Owen hesitated, then finally said, "The people who took Salim... might be CIA."
For a moment, the entire room fell silent. The busy agents froze, turning to stare at Owen.
"How do you know?"
"When I trained in Latvia, one of the instructors mentioned these silicone masks. He said they were 3D-printed, a top-tier CIA development. They're incredibly expensive and haven't been mass-produced. Even within the CIA, they're considered high-end gear..."
Owen stopped short of revealing the Mission Impossible Squad's identity. He simply had no way to explain how he knew. The last thing he wanted was for Nina to drag him in for another polygraph test.
_________________________
[Check out my Patreon for +200 additional chapters in all my fanfics! Only $5 per novel or $15 for all!!] [www.p@treon.com/Mutter]