Volume 16 Tower of Babel Chapter 946: Escape
"It's useless even if we are prepared." The Joker also climbed to the top of the tower, "In the face of absolute power, all means are meaningless."
"Are you so sure that the people sent by Zeus are here to kill us?" Soap muttered softly, "Besides, are they really that strong?"
"You'll know when you watch." The Joker didn't care about Soap's doubts, "But we must move in time before the team is wiped out."
"Why? Isn't it safe from such a distance?" Soap was a little confused.
"The research institute has a device that can spy on the memory of the human brain... Even for dead people, the memory in the brain can be preserved for a period of time after death. If they find that there are still people alive in this team, they will definitely conduct a carpet search of this area and even send more people. At that time, it will become very difficult for us to leave here."
"There is such a thing?" Soap said in astonishment, "Can the memories of a dead person be dug out? This thing sounds even more mysterious than Meng Po soup."
"I've heard of this thing." Noir nodded slightly. "I saw this thing in an operation. That time, we got intelligence in advance that a group of exiles controlled by a heretical sect were going to attack a remote transit station. The Field Corps and the Security Bureau agents teamed up to set up an ambush and caught the attackers in one fell swoop. I saw the Security Bureau people use that thing on living people... and quickly dug out the location of their lair, and planned a counterattack plan in less than half an hour. I was the pilot who flew a bomber to attack that settlement in the counterattack plan."
"That's also used on living people... I remember that when a person dies, brain cells also die quickly, right?" Soap muttered, "Faced with a pile of rotten protein and fat, what can those machines find..."
"I don't know if that kind of equipment can be used on dead people, but the soldier who stayed behind at the transfer station and was responsible for guarding the prisoners later told me that among the six people whose memories were 'searched', four died on the spot, and one of the remaining two went crazy and the other became demented... The damage to the brain caused by that thing is completely irreversible. When those electrodes are attached to a person's head, it's like inserting an egg beater into the brain, stirring the brain matter crazily... This description may be a bit exaggerated, but it is said that during the 'interrogation process', one of the prisoners' nose bleeds so much that it even sprays onto the top of the tent."
"I don't think it's cruel to use that kind of thing on heretical sects... but if it's used against our own people..." Soap shuddered and didn't continue.
Half an hour passed quickly, and there was no movement from the safe house. The anti-spying design also prevented Soap and Noir from seeing what was going on inside the house. Just as Soap was about to put down the telescope and eat something to fill his stomach, a slight "buzzing" sound came from far away and gradually approached the block.
"Here it comes!" Soap raised his hands, put the telescope in front of his eyes, and looked towards the source of the sound.
It was a completely black "special floating vehicle for the Ark", but the model of this floating vehicle was something Soap had never seen before. Moreover, the surface of the vehicle was covered with shocking wounds, as if it had experienced many brutal battles. The buzzing sound like a beeper came from one of the damaged suspension engines.
"They... they seem to have broken out of the blockade?" Seeing the miserable state of the floating vehicle, Soap felt a little puzzled. Was the other party acting? But this was too realistic, wasn't it? According to the Joker, if Zeus's people could really crush the team with absolute strength, there would be no need for them to act.
A black floating vehicle hovered right above the safe house. Several soldiers in black clothes and black pants slid down to the ground along the rappelling rope. Not long after, the iron gate of the safe house opened a crack, and a figure emerged from the crack.
That man was familiar to everyone. He was the observer of the scout team—no, now it should be the sniper, Simon Villiers.
Although he was not the one facing the men in black, Soap couldn't help but hold his breath, and his heart rate rose noticeably.
To be honest, he had a pretty good impression of Simon. If possible, Soap still hoped that Simon could survive——
Those men in black did not take action directly as Soap had expected, but instead let Simon board the airborne vehicle... Not long after, everyone else in the safe house came out and climbed into the cabin of the airborne vehicle one by one.
"Are you lying to me?!" Soap turned around and looked at the clown, "Those people didn't do anything at all!"
"So where do you think they will take these people?" The Joker said, "Obviously, Simon told them what happened in the safe house, which made them change their mind... In comparison, I am the 'big fish' that they care more about."
"Then why didn't they kill Simon and the others?" Noir also asked, "If they needed to extract information from them, wouldn't it be better to use that kind of equipment?"
"That kind of equipment has many limitations, and the memories it retrieves may not be complete. If they are willing to cooperate, it will naturally be better than using force." The Joker said, "What's more, the memory-searching equipment is more effective ."
"Don't you think your explanation is a little weak?" Soap said, "You told us so much before, but it's all just your one-sided statement. From my perspective, everything has been going according to plan so far - except you."
"Then you can go back now, I won't stop you." The clown shrugged and said in an indifferent tone.
"You... you bastard!" Soap cursed in a low voice, "If I go back now, I will only be regarded as a cowardly traitor! Do you think they will believe your words like I did?"
"Whether you believe it or not is entirely up to you. You could have chosen to stay at that time. I gave you a chance."
"You were threatening me at that time!" Soap whispered.
"Stop arguing!" Simon, who had been observing the situation in the safe house, suddenly said, "There seems to be something wrong with that floating vehicle."
"What's wrong?" Hearing Nouard say this, Soap immediately grabbed the telescope and looked towards the safe house.
He was very conflicted now. He hoped that those men in black were really enemies who came to kill them as the Joker said, but he also didn't want the other members of the team and his old partner Giraffe to die... This tangled mentality made Soap very irritable and he couldn't calm down and think about the problem properly.
"Pay attention to the engine of that floating vehicle..." Noir reminded.
"Just tell me what you've discovered, don't play dumb with me." Soap said impatiently, "I've never flown a plane, and I don't understand mechanics. Even if you put that thing in front of me and let me see it, I still can't figure it out."
"Well..." Noir continued, "The engine used by that floating vehicle is LVL8 produced by 'Lope Aerodynamics', which means 'eighth-generation light vertical lift engine'..."
"What's the meaning?"
"The Amran-class transport aircraft uses the eleventh-generation LVL. The eighth-generation LVL has long been eliminated. Only some civilian companies that use second-hand parts to piece together "unusual assembly machines" will use this engine." Noir said, "No wonder I don't recognize the model of this floating vehicle. This is not a standard model vehicle at all."
"What does this mean?" Soap wondered, "Is it possible that all the vehicles with advanced engines were destroyed or put into battle, so they can only drive these shabby old antiques to join us?"
"No... Do you know why the eighth generation LVL was eliminated?"
"What is it?" Soap followed up with the question.
"It's reliability. Even if a single engine of the commonly used 10th, 11th and 12th generation LVL is damaged, the remaining engine will maintain the balance of the aircraft under computer regulation. But if one engine of the 8th generation LVL fails, the entire aircraft will immediately lose balance. If the other engine is not turned off immediately, the aircraft will be thrown out like an out-of-control kite and then crash."
"You are wondering why the hovercraft can still fly, right?" Soap asked, "Could it be that they modified the engine? It looks like an eighth-generation shell on the outside, but the core inside is a ninth-generation, tenth-generation, or even newer one?"
"No...that machine...it...you switch the telescope to thermal infrared mode! This...this is impossible!!" Nouval suddenly exclaimed.
"What's wrong?" Soap was startled by his exclamation and immediately turned the knob on the side of the telescope to switch to thermal infrared mode.
In the thermal infrared mode, the floating fighter in the distance is a red block, and inside the block, there are orange and yellow blocks representing higher temperatures squirming.
"A normal machine body shouldn't look like this in thermal infrared mode. If it did, the cooling system would have failed and it would have exploded due to overheating!" Noir said. "It doesn't look like a mechanical creation... It looks more like a living thing!"
"It's alive." The Joker said behind the two of them, "That kind of 'meme' can not only infect organisms, but can even infect programs like a computer virus...even AI. With the technology left over from some secret research groups at the institute, plus the 'good stuff' in the underground ice storage, they can definitely combine organisms and machines to form a brand new life form."
"That... isn't that a cyborg?" Soap asked, "A combination of biology and machinery..."
"No, that direction is completely opposite to cyborg prosthesis." The Joker rejected it outright. "Cyborg prosthesis is to install biochemical machinery on a living organism, or to place the consciousness of a living organism into a mechanical container. But this technology is to fuse cells with machinery, allowing the machinery to give birth to self-awareness like a new life... The human civilization of this time and space once used this technology to create a super biological computer that can control the operation of the entire hive, and the core brain of the Ark also originated from this technology."
While they were talking, the black floating vehicle had already flown away from the neighborhood... Just as Soap breathed a sigh of relief, he heard a teeth-grinding "click" sound above his head.
He looked up quickly and saw that the huge steel dome was being torn apart by a terrifying force. The fleshy fungal blanket covering the surface of the Ark was invading from the cracks in the dome, quickly occupying every inch of space above their heads.
"Did they find us?" Soap asked the Joker in horror.
"Our exact location should not have been exposed yet." The Joker shook his head, "But that doesn't mean much to them... These things will fill every corner of this block and devour everything they touch."
"We have to get out of here! Quickly!" Nouvel put away the telescope, turned around and ran towards the stairs, while the clown jumped directly from the top of the tower like before.
"Damn it! Damn it!" Soap cursed twice, pushed a diluted sedative into his arm with trembling hands, and ran quickly behind Noir.
It would be more appropriate to use the word "jump" to describe it rather than running. The two men were jumping down almost floor by floor, completely ignoring whether this dilapidated water purification tower could withstand the impact of a fully armored soldier falling from a great height - the growth rate of those fleshy fungal blankets was too fast, just like dough with yeast added under an accelerated lens. In just a few seconds, the original steel structure dome was completely invisible.
