Volume 14: Devastation Chapter 650: Settlement (Part 2)
94 London Road, West 3rd.
This is the famous wealthy area in West District 3. As far as the eye can see, there are all detached villas and mansions. Luxury hovercrafts worth tens of millions of credit points can be seen everywhere. Even the sidewalks on both sides are paved with white marble - this stone, which was not rare in the old era, can only be produced in this era through artificial synthesis by chemical means, and the production cost is frighteningly high.
But now, several armored vehicles blocked the intersections at both ends, and the expensive white marble tiles were crushed by the steel tracks. A wine-red convertible air-cushion sports car overturned in front of the roadblock, and the dried dark red bloodstains dragged a long trail on the road.
A man in his thirties was lying at the end of the bloodstain, his neck bent backwards at an angle that a normal person could not possibly do, his entire head was almost hanging behind his back, and he looked dead.
"The deceased is Roger Williams, the second son of United Parliamentary Group member Sean Williams." A fully armed security agent reported to Ke Lan, "When we set up a roadblock, he tried to drive through with his car. The intercepting agent could only shoot at the vehicle's air cushion device, causing the vehicle to lose balance and roll over. Roger Williams was not wearing a seat belt and was thrown out of his seat and fell to the road, dying on the spot."
"Is he in a hurry to run away?" Looking at the corpse on the ground, Ke Lan frowned - Roger Williams was the actual controller of Williams Logistics Company and one of the masterminds behind the material reselling case. Although the evidence in Ke Lan's hands was enough to eradicate the entire Williams Consortium, seeing that this guy died before he even stood trial, he always felt that it was too easy for him.
"We found two HAVOC pulse laser rifles, six full energy magazines, and this thing in the trunk of the car." The security agent handed a metal box with a "biohazard sign" to Ke Lan - this metal box was a small refrigerated storage box carried by the agents, and the things in the box were what were found in the car.
Ke Lan opened the box, and accompanied by a burst of rising white cold air, a disposable syringe in a thickened sealed bag appeared in front of him. Through the visible window on the syringe, he could see that it was filled with light blue clear liquid, with a dosage of about two to three milliliters.
"What is this? Have you taken samples for testing?" Ke Lan asked casually. The light blue liquid and the biohazard symbol reminded him of the "T virus serum" in the movie "Resident Evil".
"It has been tested and found to be highly concentrated Seed of Invasion cells... and they are Type B mutant cells." The Security Bureau agent replied.
"My goodness...what would happen if this thing was injected into the human body?"
"It only takes thirty seconds at the shortest to give birth to a rapidly changing Corrosion Seed in the infected person's body, and it is most likely a Type B mutant."
"That's really similar to the T virus." Ke Lan complained in his heart.
"By the way, how long can this thing be preserved?" Ke Lan asked again.
"In a zero-degree environment, the erosion seed cells that have not found a host and have not condensed a 'nucleus' can only survive for about forty-five days at most."
The only place on the Ark where this thing can be stored "legally" is the underground ice storage of the research institute. However, the research institute as an institution has almost been removed from the list, and the underground ice storage is completely under the control of the Crisis Management Department. It is impossible to get the cell concentrate of the type B mutant from that place.
The shelf life of this thing is one and a half months, which means that the contents of this syringe were extracted and delivered to the Williams family within one and a half months.
At this time, the underground ice storage of the institute had already been sealed. Even if there was a traitor in the institute, there was no way to steal the cells and give them to them. The only way for the Williams family to obtain the cells of the Seed of Erosion was to go to the heretical sect.
According to the time calculation, the prophet was probably already planning Alexander's awakening ceremony at this point in time. If Ke Lan hadn't used the projection of the Flame Colossus to kill the mechanical god, the Ark would probably have been in a desperate situation by now.
Some people might take this opportunity to join forces with the outside world and turn against us directly...
Although the prophet was dead, the heretical sects were not completely wiped out, especially those hidden agents on the Ark. Apart from eliminating one member of the Arasaka Group, the other traitors were hidden very deeply and it was impossible to catch them.
But the Williams family took advantage of this special period to commit a big crime, which involved a lot of clues.
Just when Ke Lan was worrying about how to find the enemies inside the Ark, the Williams family came to him.
No matter how they calculated, they could not have imagined that Ke Lan would become an official member of the Undead Crew, and with thunderous means, directly capture Sean Williams and trap all the main members of the Williams family in this mansion.
At this moment, outside the Williams family's mansion, security agents in dark gray uniforms have surrounded the entire courtyard. Several commandos equipped with light power armor are carrying power battering rams, preparing to break in by force.
"Attention, all units. Attention, all units." Ke Lan grabbed the intercom and said directly in the all-staff channel, "There may be heretics inside the target. The existence of erosion containers and black cardinals cannot be ruled out. After the assault begins, any resistance will be killed on the spot. All captured targets will be sealed with tape. If anyone is found chanting prayers, report to me immediately. And everyone evacuates the courtyard as quickly as possible."
These security agents were elites drawn from various action teams, and each of them knew very well what the Cardinal in Black meant. Ke Lan was not worried that some fool would shoot and kill the Cardinal in Black during the sacrifice, causing some uncontrollable situation. The current default way to deal with the Cardinal in Black was to wait until his sacrifice was completed, and then kill the summoned monster...especially on the Ark. If the jackpot was hit and a space-time storm was triggered, even the remaining two-thirds of the hull would be completely destroyed.
“Bang!”
With a dull thud, the power door-breaking hammer directly pushed open the door of the mansion, and four commandos wearing power armor rushed in holding riot shields.
"This is the first assault team. No members of the Williams family were found in the hall. There is only a body in a bodyguard uniform lying on the ground." The commando's message came back quickly.
"Be careful of that corpse—" Before Ke Lan could finish her words, a burst of gunfire was heard from inside the house.
"Report! A rapidly changing erosion species broke out of the corpse and has been killed. There are no casualties on our side."
"That's good. Remember to block the entrances to each room, corridor, and staircase. Advance and search floor by floor. Use the heart rate scanner and thermal infrared imagery to make sure you don't miss any corner." Ke Lan said into the intercom.
It was basically a foregone conclusion that the Williams family was connected to a heretical sect, but because of this, the originally "easy and enjoyable" house-raiding mission was now likely to turn into a tough battle.
"I hope things won't turn out like what happened in East District 9..." Ke Lan said silently.
"It shouldn't be that serious... The area of East District 9 is quite different from this villa." A familiar female voice sounded behind him. Ke Lan turned around and saw that it was Aya Breya, the leader of the Security Bureau's third field team, who had cooperated with him in the Molten Mine mission.
"Why are you here too?" Ke Lan was a little surprised.
"I just received news that the Williams family is suspected of being involved with a heretical sect. The higher-ups asked me to bring people to support you." Aya bit her lower lip lightly and looked at Ke Lan with a strange look in her eyes. "'Pope'... Your Excellency."
"Oh, it seems you got a promotion?" Ke Lan smiled at her, "Your intelligence authority has been greatly increased."
"I am currently the deputy minister of the Internal Affairs Department of the Security Bureau... In fact, the matter of Congressman Williams and his family should be handled by our Ministry of Internal Affairs."
"Purge, right?" Ke Lan handed the metal box in his hand to her. "But you came at the right time. Things may be more troublesome than we thought. More combat power is also an extra insurance."
"Is this the concentrated type B mutant cells mentioned in the report?" Aya said seriously, "Including bodyguards, nannies, cooks, etc., there are about 15 to 20 people living in the Williams family's main house. If all of them are transformed into type B mutants, it will indeed be a tough battle."
"That shouldn't be the case. Type B mutants have very high requirements for containers." Ke Lan shook his head. "Old people over sixty and children under fourteen cannot be qualified containers, so at least half of them can be ruled out."
"Ten B-type mutants should not be underestimated, especially in a building with narrow space. It is impossible to distance and use the advantages of long-range weapons. A full team of agents may not be able to defeat a single B-type mutant."
Just as Aya finished speaking, there was a loud noise from the intercom. A commando wearing power armor smashed the window at the second-floor staircase and flew out. The communication signals of other people all disappeared.
"You look a bit like Layton." Ke Lan couldn't help but say to Aya.
"What?!"
"They are all first-rate crows!" After saying this, he quickly ran towards the commando who fell to the ground.
The man was already dead, the cause of death being a fatal wound in the chest - something had torn open the breastplate of the power armor and crushed the commando's heart.
The commando was already a dead body before he broke the glass.
"We detected signs of invasion of Seed of Erosion cells at the wound...it's a Type B mutant!" the agent in charge of the autopsy said urgently.
"Strengthen the blockade of the surrounding areas and don't let anything leave this courtyard." Ke Lan said as he waved to Asano Akira, who immediately threw a black rectangular box to him.
"You...you can see?" Aya looked at Asano Akira with some surprise, then at Ke Lan.
"He can see, but he doesn't use his eyes." Ke Lan opened the box, revealing a strangely shaped gun. The main body of the gun was a transparent crystal column, and the end of the buttstock was wrapped inside a metal sphere the size of an American football. Dozens of thin metal wires extended from the surface of the sphere and were wrapped around the crystal column in circles.
This gun has no magazine, but there are three standard energy crystal slots at the front of the grip. After Ke Lan inserted three level six crystals into the slots, a layer of soft white light appeared inside the crystal and extended along the metal wires into the metal sphere.
The crystal engines of the "Amran-class" transport plane that Ke Lan and his companions had taken before only needed two level five crystals to drive, but this strange gun actually needed three level six crystals as ammunition. Its power can be imagined.
This is the treasure that Ke Lan found from the warehouse of the Undead Crew. According to the records in the archives, this "gun" came from an A-level relic, and the Ark officials spent a full 40 million credit points to exchange it from the relic hunter.
After the Alexander incident, Ke Lan lost his protective living armor. In the name of self-defense, he naturally took the gun for himself - in addition, he also took out a lot of technological creations of the Alpha civilization from the warehouse.
Anyway, they are all public property of the crew union. As a member of the union, Ke Lan certainly has the authority to use them.
"Asano Akira, let's go."
Carrying this special energy gun on his shoulder, Ke Lan immediately walked towards the open door.
"Wait a minute, I'll go too!" At this time, Ayabulia also followed. Her body was covered with a layer of ultra-light power armor similar to that of "Iron Man", and even her beautiful face was covered by the iron-gray face guard.
"As long as you have confidence that you won't become a burden."
After saying that, Ke Lan took the lead and rushed into the Williams family's mansion.
"At three o'clock, next to the guardrail on the second floor." With Asano Akira, the "human sonar" following him, Ke Lan didn't even need to activate "time stop" to search for the enemy, as the latter had already helped him locate the enemy. Ke Lan didn't even look in that direction, he just raised his gun and shot!
An inconspicuous beam of white light shot out and instantly hit the monster perched on the marble carved column, which looked 70% similar to the "Licker" in Resident Evil.
There was no loud explosion, nor blinding fire, but when the white light touched the Type B mutant, the entire monster, along with the marble column that was as thick as two people could hug, silently turned to ashes.
"Fortunately, this is just a decorative pillar. If it were a load-bearing pillar, the dome of the entire hall would have collapsed." He raised his head and looked upward, only to see the other two Type B mutants climbing along the wall at an extremely fast speed to the ceiling directly above them, and then flipped over and pounced on the heads of the three people!
