Building The Strongest Family-Chapter 135: Accelerant Deception

In the vast expanse of his office, Arthur was met with a striking sight, Evolon’s holographic face flickered to life on the central display.

The once calm blue visage now bore ominous streaks of crimson, warning sigils that danced across the screen.

"The Eastern Consortium has made their move," Evolon announced, urgency lacing its voice.

Arthur remained focused on the swirling schematics of Damien Veyne’s neurotoxin formula hovering before him.

His fingers glided over the molecular structure with meticulous precision. "How much did they intercept?" he asked, not yet looking up.

"Enough," Evolon replied grimly. "They’ve synthesized an accelerant. Their intention is clear: trigger the poison prematurely and frame you for a very public assassination of the mayor."

Arthur paused momentarily, absorbing the weight of this revelation. Slowly, he leaned back in his chair and exhaled through his nose. "Clever."

"Clever? They’re about to paint you as a murderer in front of the entire city!" Evolon’s voice carried a hint of helplessness.

A wry smile tugged at Arthur’s lips. "I am a murderer."

"Not the point," Evolon shot back, its hologram pulsing with urgency. "The Consortium’s local branch may be small, but their resources far exceed ours. Direct confrontation is inadvisable."

Arthur steepled his fingers thoughtfully. "Then we don’t confront; we redirect."

"What do you mean, Sir?" Evolon asked, confusion evident in its tone.

With a swift tap on the display, Arthur pulled up security blueprints of the Municipal Palace. "If they want to kill the mayor, we let them... just not in the way they planned."

Evolon’s blue face shimmered with intrigue. "Elaborate."

A razor-thin smile spread across Arthur’s face as he turned to Evolon. "We give them a patsy."

He leaned forward and asked, "How much time is left until they strike?"

"They will strike in forty-two hours!" Evolon replied urgently.

"Good!" Arthur nodded decisively before adding, "Get Silvester ready!"

"Yes Sir!"

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January 7th, 2026 - A Day Later

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Before the Eastern Consortium could make their move, Arthur had already taken action.

Evolon hacked into their encrypted channels and fed them falsified data, a fabricated "secret meeting" between the mayor and an Eastern spy.

The bait was obvious enough for their operatives to bite but subtle enough not to raise suspicion.

"They’ve taken the bait," Evolon confirmed smoothly. "Team dispatched to intercept."

Arthur watched intently from his hidden perch, peering through binoculars at a nondescript apartment overlooking a dimly lit plaza.

This was the spot where the "meeting" was set to unfold, and he could feel the tension in the air.

Two shadows darted between alleyways below him, operatives of the Consortium, armed with syringes filled with accelerant.

At precisely 02:17 AM, the trap was sprung. The operatives moved like phantoms, slipping into the plaza’s underground access tunnels, the very same ones Arthur’s intel had "leaked" as the mayor’s escape route.

What they didn’t realize was that their target wasn’t Damien; it was Silvester, cleverly disguised and grinning only for Arthur’s eyes.

"Showtime," Silvester whispered.

In a flash, the operatives struck, injecting a needle into Silvester’s neck.

A muffled gasp escaped him as he crumpled theatrically to the ground, accelerant coursing through his veins. Then came the screams.

Arthur had warned him it would hurt. But here’s the twist: while they thought they were using real accelerant on Silvester, Arthur had swapped it out for a non-lethal mimic, a compound that mimicked symptoms of neural decay without causing any lasting harm.

The operatives didn’t linger; they fled as if their lives depended on it. Mission accomplished.

Evolon’s voice crackled through Arthur’s earpiece. "They’re reporting success to their handler."

Arthur exhaled slowly, phase one complete. Now came the delicate part.

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By dawn, Neo-Luminara erupted with news headlines:Mayor Damien Survives Assassination Attempt!

Security footage, carefully doctored by Evolon, showed shadowy figures injecting something into Damien before he collapsed mid-press conference only to be "miraculously" revived by his private medical team. The syringe? Traced back to Eastern Consortium operatives who were caught fleeing the scene.

Arthur observed this chaos unfold from his study, a glass of red wine catching glimmers of morning light like jewels in a crown.

Evolon shimmered beside him on screen. "Consortium leadership is in disarray; they think their operatives were compromised by a rival faction."

Arthur swirled his drink thoughtfully. "Good."

"Traces led us to a safehouse; we’ve got all their local contacts, nothing traceable back to us," Evolon continued.

Arthur nodded approvingly. "Burn it all down; let them tear themselves apart looking for leaks."

"The Consortium will retaliate," Evolon warned, his voice low and urgent. "They’ll dig deep to find out who orchestrated this mess. I doubt they can trace it back to us, but you need to be careful, Sir. You’re already on their radar."

Arthur’s smile faded as he set down his glass with a soft clink. "I know, but they need evidence to suspect me!"

The study was awash in the pale glow of giant screen, casting long shadows across Arthur’s face as he leaned over the sleek obsidian desk.

Suddenly, Evolon’s voice broke through the tension like a crack of thunder: "Sir, the Eastern Consortium is making another move!"

Arthur didn’t lift his gaze from the three-dimensional schematics of Neo-Luminara’s underground networks floating before him. Red markers pulsed ominously at key intersections, safehouses, supply routes, blind spots in city surveillance.

"Isn’t it obvious?" Arthur murmured, rotating the map with a flick of his fingers. "I thought they wouldn’t go direct after that botched hit on the mayor."

Evolon’s blue holographic form rippled as threads of data wove through the air like liquid mercury. "Analysis suggests alternative vectors. Their preferred method? Economic sabotage, leveraging their holdings in the Night Markets to destabilize the mayor’s lower-city operations."

Arthur’s lips thinned into a line. The Night Markets were essential to Neo-Luminara’s black economy; if the Consortium squeezed Damien too hard, half his informants would vanish overnight.

"Can we preempt?" he asked.

"Not without exposing our hand," Evolon replied grimly. "Their financial networks are too entrenched."

Arthur exhaled sharply through his nose and straightened up. "Then we don’t play their game; we change the board! Just like last time, we can’t expose ourselves now."

Evolon’s interface flickered again, pulling up new personnel files. "Chairman Renshu’s lieutenant, Scarlet, oversees their local intelligence web. She is... pragmatic."

Arthur raised an eyebrow inquisitively. "Meaning?"

"She has a pattern," Evolon explained coolly. "When pressured, she eliminates liabilities before they become threats."

A slow smile crept across Arthur’s face, a predator spotting prey. "So we give her a liability." fгeewёbnoѵel.cσm

The screen shifted focus to a nondescript warehouse at the docks, a known front for the Consortium.

"Their next arms shipment arrives tonight," Evolon continued smoothly. "If intercepted by city enforcers, it would reflect poorly on Scarlet, her negligence would be evident."

Arthur tapped his fingers rhythmically against the desk as thoughts raced through his mind. "And Renshu doesn’t tolerate failure."

"Correct," Evolon confirmed.

"Then we leak it." Arthur’s voice was as cold as ice, sending a shiver down the spine. "But not to the enforcers. We’re handing this juicy tidbit over to their rivals, the Iron Serpents, right here in Neo-Luminara."

Evolon raised an eyebrow, skepticism etched on his face. "But the Serpents are fierce competitors. A bloodbath would definitely draw unwanted attention."

"Exactly," Arthur replied, leaning forward with a glint of mischief in his eyes.

"Let them tear each other apart! When the smoke clears, the Consortium will point fingers at the Serpents, and they’ll do the same back at us. And what will we be doing?"

He extended his hand as if grasping something invisible before clenching his fist tightly.

"Watching from the shadows." 🕶️

Evolon’s response was barely above a whisper, a hint of satisfaction laced with binary precision. "A surgical strike. No evidence that leads back to us."

Arthur stood up, rolling his shoulders as if shaking off any lingering doubts. "Make it happen. And Evolon..."

"Yes?"

"Keep digging deep. I want every single weakness they have."

"Already compiling that info for you, Sir!" Evolon replied.

As Arthur turned toward the window, he gazed out at Neo-Luminara’s skyline shimmering like a nest of vipers ready to strike.