Volume 5: Bottomless Sinkhole Chapter 276 Jar
Ke Lan and his team had long known that the heretical sects were in collusion with the Ark's top brass. The forces they had infiltrated were far more than just the Arasaka Group, and there were many more people secretly supporting them.
In fact, it is not difficult to understand the mentality of these people. Even if the doctrine of the heretical sect itself has no appeal to them, as long as the founder of the heretical sect is still alive, there will always be no shortage of bargaining chips in this transaction - relying solely on the ability of this person is enough to create huge benefits for these people and the forces behind them.
Not everyone can resist this temptation.
"Let's check this thing after we get back. If it doesn't work, just give it to the Security Bureau and let them worry about it." Ke Lan said to Leighton.
"Well, the people in the Security Bureau are not short of money, and this information should be able to be sold for a good price." Leighton paused and continued, "It's just... I don't know anyone from them, and I haven't had much dealings with them..."
"I know. I'll take care of it." Ke Lan said, then squatted down, grabbed the mercenary's shoulder, and asked, "You just said that your mission is to find a jar. Can you describe the details of this jar?"
"The jar... I don't know the details of the jar..." said the mercenary.
"Your mission is to find that jar, but you don't even know what the jar looks like?" Ke Lan was speechless.
"The employer didn't tell us. He just asked us to follow these exiles... I only heard a few words when they were chatting... It should be a cylindrical jar nearly two meters long and as thick as two people hugging together. It might be made of glass or quartz... As for the color, they themselves didn't seem to be sure. They only said it was either black or dark brown..." the mercenary tried to recall.
"Did they say what was in the jar?" Ke Lan continued to ask.
"No." The mercenary shook his head.
"Think about it carefully..." Ke Lan patted the mercenary on the back, "The reason you are still conscious now is because I injected you with two milligrams of adrenaline. As for your actual situation, do you want to know?"
The mercenary did not say anything, but looked at Ke Lan with fear, his pale lips trembling twice involuntarily.
"Then let me tell you," Ke Lan answered himself, "Both of your legs below the knees were blown off, but unfortunately the wounds didn't sinter. Even without considering the risk of infection, your total blood loss has exceeded 30%, and I didn't help you stop the bleeding, so the blood is still flowing out. You may go into shock at any time due to excessive blood loss."
Ke Lan stretched out a finger, dipped it into the blood that had gathered into a small puddle under the mercenary's body, and smeared the sticky plasma on his face.
"In addition, there are several metal fragments embedded in your back, chest and abdomen. If you don't deal with them immediately..."
"Save...save me...please..." Before Ke Lan could finish her words, the mercenary had already started begging.
"I want to save you, but we don't have many medical supplies. If we waste them on you, then if someone gets hurt, we won't have anything to use. I will only let you live if you can prove that you are useful. Otherwise, why would I save someone who has nothing to do with me... No, to be precise, someone who is hostile to me?"
"I'm useful! I'm useful! I can tell you the way out, as long as you can get through the blocked one--"
"Not enough, not enough at all." Ke Lan interrupted him and said, "This little bit is not enough to buy your life, and you are still lying. Why should I save an enemy who is full of lies? Should I save you and wait for you to find a chance to kill us?"
Ke Lan's words seemed to instantly penetrate the mercenary's psychological defenses. He was stunned at first, and then burst into tears: "I'm sorry! Please give me a chance! I'll tell you everything! I'll tell you everything - in fact, we have already got the jar! It's just that there were some accidents in the process, so a lot of time was wasted, causing the retreat to be more than half an hour later than the scheduled time... The jar was buried in the collapsed passage!"
"Oh? Then why didn't you tell me at the beginning?" Ke Lan asked.
"I... because... because the employer only paid us 30% of the deposit... the rest of the money will be paid after we get the goods..."
"Oh, I see. Your teammates are dead anyway. If you can trick us and get out alive, and then find a way to go back and take the jar, you can take the rest of the reward by yourself, right? I think that must be an irresistible number, otherwise you wouldn't risk your life to keep this secret, am I right?"
"As long as you get the jar, you can get the money. The employer only wants the things. He doesn't care who completes the task, whether that person is a mercenary or a relic hunter—" the mercenary said, "I have told you everything. Please save me! I don't want to die yet..."
"Actually, I lied to you. I just helped you stop the bleeding. Otherwise, do you think you could have survived until now with just a shot of adrenaline?" Ke Lan said, "It's just that we don't have any plasma. If you want to survive, it depends on whether we can escape from this place."
Ke Lan stood up and said to the hound, "It seems that we have discovered something incredible this time."
"That jar, could it be that there is something like the Seed of Corrosion in it...By the way, how do you know this guy is lying?" asked the hound in a low voice.
"Time difference." Ke Lan replied.
"Time difference?"
"Just like when we split into two teams to attack these mercenaries, as the ambush team, we had to wait until your feint team took action before we could act, and your feint team had to make sure we were in place before they could act." Ke Lan explained, "It's the same with these people. When the armed convoy attacks the tiankeng camp and the observation station, there will inevitably be an exchange of fire, and the explosion and vibration will trigger an avalanche. As the planner, it is impossible that they did not take this into consideration .
In order to avoid being trapped by teammates, the other team must enter the ruins, get ... The mercenary also said that it was because of some accidents that they missed the original retreat time and were trapped here. Otherwise, they would have left the ruins before we fell into the abyss. "
Ke Lan continued, "Since the heretic sect already knows about the existence of the secret passage, it is impossible for any accidents to happen when entering the ruins... Even if there are accidents, there should be time to solve them. Only after they enter the ruins will the course of events deviate from the predetermined trajectory in the plan."
"And how can you be sure they have found the jar?"
"That's what he said. I just know he was lying... Whether they found the jar or not, it definitely wouldn't be like what he said - 'a landslide occurred just after they entered the secret passage'."
At this time, Layton came over from a distance and shook his head at Ke Lan: "We found the entrance to the passage this guy mentioned, but it's blocked tightly. We can't dig it open with our current means - this road is blocked."
