Chapter 62
The military research facility finally permitted a private opening to civilian organizations due to their protests. If human experimentation had truly been conducted inside, this facility would contain the most classified secrets that Dante Maxim wanted to keep hidden. This was also an opportunity to find Dante Maxim’s weaknesses.
Normally security would be so tight that even Ender couldn’t get close, but today’s opening might have created some vulnerabilities. Still, they couldn’t let their guard down. Dante Maxim would have surely hidden any incriminating materials deep enough to deceive the civilian organizations.
Swallowing nervously, Anschel looked up and noticed the day was getting darker.
“We must not kill civilians.”
Though they planned to move after the civilian organization had left, he gave this warning just in case.
Ender, who had gone ahead for reconnaissance, followed Harriet and put on a gas mask. As they prepared to infiltrate in earnest, Anschel felt like screaming. After all, hand-to-hand combat wasn’t his specialty. He swallowed hard, wondering if today might be the day he’d be dragged to hell.
But Anschel knew they couldn’t miss this opportunity. Even just watching Ender McGuire hastily put together this operation made that clear.
“We need to neutralize the soldiers up front. Without using abilities… but with two guards, the first checkpoint will be difficult.”
Anschel muttered while looking through the binoculars. Behind him, Harriet and Ender were facing each other, and even through their gas masks, a close, pink-tinged energy seemed to flow between them.
Anschel gritted his teeth at this atmosphere that was completely inappropriate for the situation. They were facing a life-or-death situation, yet these two were practically sending hearts to each other.
The group hid around the research facility, watching for an opportunity. Just then, a bus carrying the civilian organization passed by, and the door slowly closed. A CCTV blind spot created by the opening and closing of the door caught their attention.
Thinking they needed to neutralize those two soldiers immediately, Anschel tensed up when suddenly someone darted out from beside him. He didn’t even have time to make a sound. Harriet and Ender moved with incredible stealth and speed.
Ender was one thing, but Harriet was supposed to be lame?
The two charged simultaneously at the soldiers guarding the door. Harriet’s body moved with frightening agility as he twisted his body to deliver a spinning kick.
With a sharp crack, one man’s body crumpled instantly. The same happened with Ender’s target. Harriet grabbed the collar of the soldier with the dislocated jaw and set him down without making noise.
Despite the soldier’s considerable weight, Harriet supported him with one hand and lowered him very slowly, his body looking as solid as a tree rooted to the ground.
“…Top graduate.”
Anschel was stunned. He felt foolish for having worried about them. Shaking his head, he watched these monsters who had graduated at the top of their class from the Academy, the military’s finest educational institution.
‘Four-four-one’
‘Four hundred forty-one.’
Harriet turned around at the familiar voice. There, at the end of the corridor, stood a young boy in white surgical clothes with an expressionless face.
Harriet knew it was an illusion. The boy with shining blonde hair and green eyes was Harriet himself.
Remnants of that time lingered throughout the research facility. Young Harriet was dragged around daily by those in research gowns. Without ever resisting, with an expressionless face, he would be taken to what was always a laboratory.
They called Harriet “four-four-one.” Some called him “four hundred forty-one,” but that wasn’t important. Whenever they called out, the test subjects locked inside the research facility would wail. They cried, resisted, wet themselves, and raged.
After Alcita Maxim died, the orphanage he sponsored closed down. Those with nowhere to go were all sold to the research facility, including Harriet.
They called Harriet a quite valuable test subject. A genius boy whose abilities had manifested at age ten. But to them, he was nothing more than a good test subject, nothing more, nothing less.
Tap.
Harriet subdued the soldier at a speed that belied his lameness, while behind him Ender violently neutralized other guards. Though he dislocated jaws and broke limbs, he didn’t kill them. Ender seemed determined to kill only the researchers.
Harriet watched the back of Anschel’s head as he headed toward the electrical junction box to cut the CCTV wires, then slowly looked around.
‘Feels like coming home.’
He thought with good humor, smiling slightly.
Unlike the relaxed Harriet, Anschel was clearly tense, fumbling several times. His breathing was rough, and his neck was drenched with sweat.
No wonder—the darkness inside the research facility created an atmosphere straight out of a horror movie, intensifying the tension. It felt like a vicious murderer might appear with a “ta-da!” and lay waste to the place. If horror background music were added, this would be a convincing B-grade horror film set.
But this wasn’t a movie but reality, and the intruders sneaking into this movie-like military research facility were themselves.
“…Huh? The wires are already cut.”
Anschel held up a blue wire and turned around. The wire had already been cleanly cut. Not worn out over time, but cleanly sliced as if with a blade.
Only then did he realize the situation was unfolding strangely. Come to think of it, everything was unexpectedly quiet.
Anschel held his thin bag and surveyed the surroundings. The research facility was eerily quiet without a single researcher in sight. Ender gestured with his chin and pointed, while Harriet adjusted his gas mask. The three ran down the darkened corridor again.
Anschel, who had gone quite deep inside, suddenly stopped at the end of a corridor. Ender and Harriet, following behind, also pressed against the wall and waited. Anschel used hand signals to communicate with Ender and Harriet. It was a code they had agreed upon before coming here.
[There are three people inside. They don’t seem to be researchers. What should we do? It looks like they’re guarding the door.]
Ender responded with hand signals, and Anschel nodded. Harriet quietly crouched. Three, two, one—as if counting down, Ender clenched his fist, and Anschel and Harriet sprang out.
“Huh.”
Anschel gasped at the sight before him. He had expected three heavily armed soldiers guarding the door, but instead, there were only corpses lying there.
They all had ability-user markings, but appeared to have died instantly without even making a sound. Blood flowing along the floor and walls was a horrific sight. Anschel breathed heavily, looking around.
“Colonel, should we wait for now?”
Anschel asked, removing his gas mask. Ender shook his head left and right, then nodded toward the firmly closed iron door. It was a round, quite large door like those seen in dramas or movies.
By now, his dark brown hair was tangled with sweat. Anschel shook his bangs to rid them of sweat.
Though the inside of the research facility was cool, the intense movement while under tension naturally caused sweating. But the monsters before him were surveying the surroundings without even a single disturbed breath.
‘Damn, those monsters.’
Anschel inwardly cursed the two as he opened his laptop and took out the prepared USB.
“…It seems others had the same idea before us. Whether they’re allies or enemies, it doesn’t hurt to be careful. Seeing that the security has been breached, the military must have started noticing strange signs. We have about 20 minutes to finish everything. Understood? 20 minutes until escape.”
The laptop screen flickered on, and the hacking program executed. Anschel rapidly typed, hacking the security device that was firmly guarding the iron door.
He sweated profusely and clenched his teeth. This wasn’t what he had learned hacking for at the Academy.
“Open it.”
Ender replied as if there was no need to even hear Anschel’s concerns.
‘Easy for you to say.’
Anschel barely swallowed his curses and groaned. Harriet, still wearing his gas mask, was staring intently at Anschel. Though his face couldn’t be seen, Anschel could sense he was smiling slightly.
Anschel hacked all the security in the research facility, pulled out the USB, and inserted it inside the security system. As he manipulated the buttons to transmit to his laptop, the iron door that had been sealed tight clicked open.
Clap, clap, clap.
Harriet calmly applauded beside him.
“I could do that too, sunbae.”
Ender’s casual voice was also heard. Anschel, too exhausted to object, entered through the door first. He felt a chilly breeze, realizing the interior temperature was much lower.
“Sunbae, do you remember?”
Ender came in, closed the door, and unfolded a map. It was different from the research facility map they had seen in the afternoon. He didn’t know where Ender had obtained it, but looking closely, it was a map marking hidden laboratories throughout the facility.
Harriet removed his gas mask and lowered his head to examine the map. His white hair was slightly damp. His white eyes with indistinct boundaries scanned the map before he looked up.
“Mm, roughly.”
“How many research labs are there in total?”
“Not exactly sure, but 12 places. There was one main laboratory.”
Ender fell silent for a moment at hearing “12 places.” He narrowed his eyes and rhythmically tapped his forearm with his finger.
Meanwhile, Anschel observed Harriet’s expression. Despite entering the place where he had been experimented on, not a trace of anger could be found on Harriet’s face.
He was both a victim of the biological experiments here and their result. Yet Harriet showed neither anger nor sadness. He looked more lifeless than if he’d just gone for a morning walk.
How would a normal victim of biological experimentation react when entering the research facility where those experiments took place? Certainly not like Harriet.
Could it be that the experiments here weren’t all that bad? But then why did Ender McGuire so insistently argue that even the researchers had to be killed?
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
