indianbanksassociation Chapter 682 High-Risk Fugitive!
Chapter 682 High-Risk Fugitive!
“Mora and Clement are just bait!” Lynn looked at the unconscious Mora and the countless lights faintly visible on the distant wasteland. “The real threat is still in that prison! I need to go back immediately!”
Harris and the Secret Service agents rushed in and quickly subdued Mora.
Lynn stood in the middle of the chaotic gas station, letting the wind and sand tousle his hair. He looked at the controller in his hand, then at the state prison in the distance, which lay like a giant beast in the night.
"The mission isn't over yet," Lynn muttered to himself, stuffing the last piece of chocolate into his mouth, his eyes hardening again.
The next day, as the first rays of sunlight pierced the Nevada desert, Lynn was already aboard a helicopter bound for the state prison. The helicopter's rotors roared deafeningly, and outside the cabin stretched an endless expanse of reddish-brown earth.
Lynn leaned against the bulkhead, fiddling with the controller he'd seized from Mora. His arm was wrapped in thick bandages, marks left from last night's battle.
"Detective, are you really not going to take a break?" Harris sat opposite him, his eyes full of respect.
"A break?" Lynn gave a wry smile, gazing at the distant horizon. "I hope to be in the audience when Gwen's concert starts. Until then, these problems need to be resolved."
The helicopter traced a graceful arc in the air as it sped toward the mutant prison buried deep beneath the desert, a place rife with unknowns and dangers.
Deep within that prison, an even greater storm is brewing. And Lynn, the federal agent who rose from the bustling streets of New York, is once again plunging headlong into his never-ending battle, bearing his scars and unwavering conviction.
"Gwen, remember to keep an eye on your chemistry experiments," Lynn silently told himself.
The helicopter swooped down, dust billowing from Carson City below. The smoke of battle never truly dissipated.
As the helicopter slowly landed on the state prison's helipad, which was covered with barbed wire and guard towers, Lynn had already prepared for the worst.
"Detective, the warden is already waiting for you at the command center," a fully armed guard jogged over and shouted.
Lynn nodded, jumped off the plane, and the sound of his leather boots echoing crisply on the concrete floor. He walked through one heavy sensor door after another, each step perfectly timed with the tense atmosphere.
The atmosphere inside the prison was oppressive and suffocating. The lights in the corridors flickered, and dried bloodstains and scratches from a struggle were faintly visible on the floor.
Pushing open the door to the command center, the room was filled with electronic screens flashing images from various surveillance cameras. A burly man with a full beard paced anxiously back and forth; he was Warden Vaughn.
“Detective Lynn, thank goodness you’re here.” Vaughn wiped the sweat from his brow. “Mora and Clement are just the beginning. Those guys in the lower tiers have already cracked the walls. Without outside reinforcements, we won’t make it through the night.”
Lynn walked to the control panel, his sharp gaze sweeping over the monitor screens: "The situation is worse than I thought. Warden Vaughn, tell me, what exactly did Mora mean by the 'seed' she mentioned?"
Vaughn's face turned deathly pale: "That was the code name for a top-secret experimental project... They planned to use mutant genetic sequences to implant an... an irreversible mutation virus into the local ecosystem."
"Virus?" Lynn's heart sank. "So Mora appeared at the gas station last night not to cause trouble, but to detonate a virus spreader?"
“That’s right.” Vaughn nodded. “Luckily you intercepted the controller. But there’s a main reactor at the bottom of the prison. If that’s lost, the entire water supply in Nevada will be contaminated.”
Lynn was silent for a moment, then turned around and gave orders to Harris and his team: "Harris, take your men and seal off all exits leading to the bottom reactor. The rest of you, come down with me."
“Detective, there’s a bunch of lunatics waiting for you down there.” Harris hesitated for a moment.
Lynn straightened his tie, a cold smile playing on his lips: "I know. But don't forget, I'm here to support the quelling of the riots, not to visit."
He picked up his tactical vest, skillfully fastened the buckle, and checked the magazine of his sidearm.
"Set off."
The elevator's descent was long and agonizing, the metal cables screeching against each other in the bottomless shaft. Indicator lights flashed across Lynn's pale face, a countdown to their descent from -1 to the bottom of -5.
With a "click," the elevator shook violently before finally coming to a stop at the bottom of the abyss.
The door slowly opened, and a blast of cold air, a mixture of gunpowder smoke, disinfectant, and the smell of rotting meat, rushed in. The emergency lights in the corridor flickered, emitting a pale, dark red glow. Lynn stepped out of the elevator, his leather boots making a crisp "plop" sound on the puddle floor.
“Harris, please respond if you hear me. I have reached level -5.” Lynn pressed his earpiece, but there was only a noisy electrical interference.
"Damn it, the shielding field has completely covered this area." He cursed under his breath, his right hand gripping his sidearm firmly, while his left hand drew a folding tactical baton from his waist.
At the end of the corridor, a massive gash had been ripped open in a heavy blast-proof door, the steel plate billowing outwards like the fangs of a giant beast. Lynn slowly approached, pressed against the wall, and heard breathing—heavy, slow, with the gurgling sound of some viscous liquid.
"Who's there?" Lynn's voice echoed in the empty corridor, carrying an undisguised air of intimidation.
From the shadows, a twisted figure slowly crawled out. It should have been a prisoner, but now his spine was abnormally convex, several pale joints piercing his skin and writhing incessantly on his back. His eyes were nothing but pure black, without pupils, only an endless abyss.
"The experiment... isn't over yet..." The mutant made a sound like sandpaper rubbing in his throat. He suddenly pushed off the ground, and his whole body turned into a gray afterimage, moving faster than human intuition.
Lynn's pupils contracted sharply. Instead of retreating, he crouched down to face the afterimage.
"call!"
The sharp bone blade grazed his scalp, severing a few strands of hair. Lynn rolled to the side, firing three shots with his right-hand pistol as he slid.
"Bang! Bang! Bang!"
The bullet struck the mutant in the abdomen, splattering a trail of dark red blood. However, the monster merely twitched in the air before landing and regaining its balance instantly, seemingly oblivious to the pain.
"Physical attacks are ineffective?" Lynn put away his gun, gripped the short stick with both hands, and pressed the switch.
"Zi-"
High-voltage electricity surged at the tip of the short stick, illuminating his calm profile with blue light. The mutant roared and charged again, this time his arms eerily elongated, his fingers transforming into sharp claws, tearing through the air as he reached for Lynn's throat.
Lynn used his waist to propel himself backward like a taut spring, the grappling hook tearing through the mutant's tactical vest and tearing up a few fibers. Taking advantage of the moment when the mutant's old strength had dissipated and new strength had not yet been generated, he swung his right short stick upward sharply, striking the mutant precisely under the armpit. "Crack!"
The sound of bones shattering was exceptionally piercing, and high-voltage electricity instantly surged into the mutant's body. The monster convulsed violently, letting out a painful roar, and was thrown into the water by the enormous impact, creating a splash of murky water.
Lynn gave his opponent no chance to breathe. He strode forward, his short stick swung downwards, and thrust it straight into the mutant's nape.
"Zizzi-"
Amidst the smell of burning, the mutant kicked his legs a couple more times before collapsing completely into the pool, his back joints ceasing all movement.
Lynn stood up, panting, wiping the cold sweat from his face. He glanced at his watch; there were still fifteen minutes until the reactor self-destructed.
“The first one,” he muttered to himself, his gaze drifting deeper into the reactor control room.
Passing through the shattered blast door, the sight before him made Lynn's heart skip a beat. The once silvery-white research corridor was now covered with a dark purple, mycelial substance. The mycelium seemed alive, pulsating slightly in a rhythm, and a faint purple powder filled the air.
“The ‘seeds’ have already begun to spread.” Lynn covered his mouth and nose and quickened his pace.
Ahead was a crossroads. Suddenly, the ventilation duct overhead made a loud noise, and a slender figure hung upside down.
That was one of the "high-risk" fugitives Mora mentioned, codenamed "Phantom".
Her body had a translucent quality, as if she might blend into the surrounding shadows at any moment. Instead of attacking, she opened her mouth and emitted a series of low-frequency vibrations.
Lynn felt a sharp pain in his brain, and the images before his eyes began to distort and overlap. He saw the laboratory in Lassava Harbor, he saw Lina covered in wounds, and he even saw Gwen crying in the firelight.
"Another hallucination?" Lynn bit his tongue hard, the sharp pain instantly clearing his mind.
He pulled a high-powered flashlight from his waist and turned it to maximum power.
"what!"
A sharp scream rang out. The intense white light was the natural enemy of these translucent mutants. Mora's body rapidly solidified under the light; she painfully covered her eyes and fell from the ventilation duct.
Lynn lunged forward without a second thought, showing no mercy, and with his right fist carrying all his strength, slammed heavily into her abdomen.
"boom!"
Mora slammed into the wall like a rag doll, shattering a large patch of the dark purple mycelium. Lynn stepped forward, pressing his knee into her chest, and swiftly locked the electromagnetic lock on her wrists.
“Tell me, where is the reactor’s backup switch?” Lynn grabbed her by the neck, his voice chilling.
Mora coughed, a sinister smile spreading across her face, blood trickling from the corner of her mouth. "It's...too late...the 'doctor' is already downstairs...waiting for you...he won't let you...shut down the mainframe..."
“A doctor?” Lynn frowned.
Just then, the floor began to shake violently. A muffled explosion came from beneath our feet, and a wave of heat surged out through the ventilation ducts, instantly igniting the surrounding purple powder and turning the corridor into a fiery dragon.
Ignoring Mora, Lynn pushed open an iron door next to him that read "High Voltage Machine Room" and slid down the emergency ladder to the final -6 level—the reactor core area.
The temperature here was astonishingly high. A massive spherical reactor hummed in the center of the room, pale blue arcs of electricity leaping across its surface. And in front of the reactor's control panel stood a man in a neat white lab coat.
He wore gold-rimmed glasses, his hair was neatly combed, and he held a test tube filled with purple liquid in his hand, gazing tenderly at the reactor core.
“Detective Lynn, you’re three minutes and forty seconds slower than I expected.” The man turned around, his voice elegant and calm, as if this were not hell, but his private laboratory.
"You're the 'doctor' Warden Vaughn mentioned?" Lynn clenched his fists, sweat trickling down his back. "These mutants, are they all your creation?"
“Works? No, no, no, they are the cornerstones of the new world.” The doctor smiled and pushed up his glasses. “Lynn, have you ever thought about why humans have to endure aging and disease? Why are we trapped in fragile bodies? These ‘seeds’ can bring a leap forward to the entire human civilization.”
"Is the price of this leap to turn everyone into monsters?" Lynn approached step by step, the short stick in his hand recharging. "Don't be ridiculous, Doctor. Shut down the reactor and hand over the vaccine."
“Vaccines? There’s no such thing.” The doctor casually tossed the test tube into the reactor’s circulation pump. “Only evolution or death.”
As the purple liquid was injected, the originally blue reactor instantly turned into an eerie dark purple, and a piercing alarm sounded throughout the underground space.
"Self-destruct program activated, five minutes countdown." A mechanical female voice echoed in the room.
"Madman!" Lynn roared, charging towards the control panel like a cannonball.
The doctor sighed and slowly took off his white coat, revealing his arms covered with fine black scales.
"Since you insist on maintaining that humble form, then I will send you on your way."
The doctor's movements weren't fast, but each strike carried a heavy, oppressive force. His punch seemed to compress the air itself. Lynn tried to block with his short stick, but felt an irresistible force, sending him flying and crashing into the reactor's metal railing.
"puff!"
Lynn coughed up a mouthful of blood, feeling as if at least two of his sternums were broken.
“Your reaction time and strength are decent for a human, but they are still insignificant in the face of ‘perfect evolution.’” The doctor approached step by step, each step leaving a cracked footprint on the concrete floor.
Lynn struggled to his feet, wiping the blood from the corner of his mouth. He knew that a direct confrontation would surely kill him. He glanced at the tangled web of cables and exposed cooling pipes around him.
"You're a doctor, so you should know that even evolved cells are vulnerable to extremely unstable environments, right?" Lynn sneered, suddenly raising his gun and firing at a thick cooling pipe overhead. (End of Chapter)