Colin arrived at the place Pim mentioned. This is a typical North American civilian community. There are horizontal and vertical roads, and the lawns on both sides are lined with plain-colored bungalows. The highest is only two or three floors, and they all have their own rolling shutter doors.
garage.
The weather here is extremely dry, with almost no rain all year round. Due to geographical reasons, the monsoon is not available here.
The two met in a house that had been requisitioned by the Countermeasures Bureau for investigation work for two weeks.
Because the person living across from this house is the most powerful infected person in Las Vegas, whose status is equivalent to the Butcher No. 1 in Los Angeles.
It was noon, and the sun was shining brightly, baking the asphalt road and creating a dense heat wave.
The blinds were rolled up slightly, and Pim's eyes were observing the situation of the house opposite through the gap.
The ceiling fan was spinning feebly. It was much hotter here than in Southern California. Even though it was already winter, Colin took off his coat and wore only a white shirt.
Since the houses in this community are quite old, there is no central air conditioning at all.
Because the infected person's insight is extremely sharp, in order to avoid unnecessary trouble, Pim did not even turn on the vertical air conditioner in the living room.
"Is it right across the street? I went directly to him."
Colin waited for more than ten minutes and was already a little impatient. He had already encountered too many powerful people and did not take the person opposite him seriously.
"That's not the plan."
"We have sent an S-class infected person to find out his details."
"Although the chance is extremely small, just in case, we can't rule out the possibility that you will be killed."
"The strength of this infected person is completely unknown. He was only found using the latest research results of the Second Department."
Pim closed the blinds with extreme caution.
"Is that so?"
Colin was not surprised. This is most like the style of the Countermeasures Bureau, maximizing profits and not making unnecessary sacrifices. It is basically useless to send low-level infected people. If you send yourself there, you are worried about accidents and losing the ability to fight against SCT.
Strength itself has been regarded as a strategic resource.
"The latest research results?"
Colin was somewhat interested.
"You should know that the diving depth detector once developed has a very short range."
"This thing is an upgraded version of that thing. It is used to widely detect infected people above S level. Like radar, it can be used within a range of one hundred meters."
"According to the report of the agents of the 24th Section, this thing exploded when it met that person because of a short-term pressure overload. The location at that time was in a casino. According to surveillance and facial matching, it was quickly screened out.
Out of him."
Pim explained, thinking that there was nothing wrong with this operation. Strictly speaking, Colin was among the top ten in the combat catalog. He was at the top, and it would not be a problem to deal with an unknown person.
"Did it explode?"
Colin recalled that when he was an official agent, he had a similar alarm, but it also exploded.
at this time.
A message came from Pim's terminal, and his face became a little gloomy.
"What's wrong?"
Colin was a little ready to make a move.
"Very weird..."
"The agent failed, but the infected person didn't kill him. He came back alive."
Pim couldn't react to the content of the message for a while.
"Isn't this a good thing? Maybe he still has the potential to be recruited as an agent. As a citizen of Las Vegas, he has an obligation to contribute to public security."
Colin suddenly lost all interest.
"No."
"The strange thing is that the agent seemed to remember nothing. He was a little confused and his cognition was still stuck on last night. He said that the mission would not be carried out until tomorrow, which is today, and thought that others had remembered the wrong date."
Pim was a little confused as to what kind of hint could accomplish such a thing.
"You wait here for a while, I'll ask someone from the first department to check the information database."
He turned his head to tell Colin not to act without permission, but Colin had disappeared.
"Damn..."
Pim opened the blinds and scanned the street, but did not find Colin. In less than a second, the door of the house opposite had been violently broken open.
…
…
…
Ten seconds have passed.
Within thirty-three seconds, time was completely frozen.
Colin had already arrived at the residence. At this moment, he was standing next to the infected person, found a chair and sat down. The person in front of him was different from the photo in the information, and was more gloomy.
He was looking at an unknown manuscript that was roughly bound, and his movements and expressions were completely frozen.
This person is the most powerful infected person in Las Vegas, a man named Rod.
Unmarried, 28 years old, a former data engineer who resigned three years ago. It is very likely that he was infected as early as the solar eclipse, but he has not taken any action.
According to the second department's research report, those who are infected earlier are the ones who are most derailed from the symbolic world, and if they survive, they are also the most powerful.
Today's world is like a ship. The closer people are to the edge, the easier it is to be pushed off. And these people have never been on the ship.
He has a somewhat morbidly tall figure, like a stage actor, with a few strands of messily combed-back hair hanging in front of his forehead, a somewhat haggard face, and is wearing a double-button black vest with a striped shirt underneath.
Time starts to flow.
When Rhodes reacted, a ferocious-looking man was sitting on a chair like a gangster, holding a pistol in a bored manner, but the muzzle was not pointed at him.
This person appeared without warning, appearing out of thin air as if time had been cut away.
Their eyes met, and the atmosphere suddenly became extremely heavy. No one spoke first.
And Rhodes was not as shocked as Colin imagined. His face was expressionless, as if he had already sensed that he was coming.
"What Kiba stuff are you looking at?"
Colin spoke in elegant terms and did not take this man seriously at all.
"Is this it?"
"The warlocks call this... the original codex."
Rhodes had no reservations.
Colin was a little surprised. He stood up and grabbed it directly, but there was no word on it, just some yellowed cardboard.
"It's not the real thing, but a scholar's tracing of the fragments before his death."
Rhodes took this time to gently open the drawer and took out an arsenal standard pistol, but the model was a bit old, Colt m1911.
Colin discovered that it was not that there were no words, but rather strange protrusions like Braille. But unlike Braille, these protrusions were not composed of a few dots, but complex and disorderly snake-like textures, densely packed, like
It is a wrinkle caused by skin soaked in water for a long time.
"Wrinkles caused by prolonged soaking in water."
"That's what you were thinking just now, right?"
Rhodes opened the safety of the pistol and pointed the gun at Colin.
"What are you talking about?"
Colin didn't care about those kinds of children's toys. Did this man guess his mind just now?
"Wrinkles...are you asking about the reason or something? The reason why wrinkles occur."
"It's because from a distant era, people's instinct is to increase friction in order to escape from dangerous waters, this bottomless abyss."
"These genes have been passed down from ancient times."
To be continued...