The power system was interrupted and the hall plunged into darkness. The only thing visible was the flames burning on the platform just above the hall. Burning droplets dripped from the edge of the platform continuously and the burning thick smoke gathered above like heavy clouds.
*Cough cough...* Norman pushed down the stone slab on his chest and stood up with his rifle.
The polyethylene bullet-proof plate on his chest was cracked and pressed against his ribcage. He called out the hologram screen and deactivated the front armor. He heard the sound of air being filled as he ripped off the armor in front of his chest.
Dust was everywhere.
"Garrett!"Norman who regained his breath, opened his helmet mask and shouted.
"Damn! Bill!"
"Cough, I'm not dead. I'm here."
The sound came from the radio channel.
Upon hearing the sound, Norman immediately turned on his tactical flashlight, searched around, and soon saw a hand sticking up in the gravel pile.
Norman ran to it with his rifle. He moved the stone pressed against Bill and pulled him out of the rubble. Under the driving force of the kinetic skeleton, this weight was nothing at all.
"Sh*t, my leg would've been gone if I was there a bit longer." As he collapsed by the side, Bill gritted his teeth and extracted his deformed right leg armor.Then Norman rescued three other comrades one after the other, but he didn't find his captain Garret.
"Garrett! Damnit, where are you?!"
The life signal detection device was on the captain who happened to be missing. Norman anxiously scanned the captain's previous position, but the blast had already sent Garret to God-knew-where. Not to mention he could be dead or alive!
"What about the mission?"
"Bill, you go with Sean and Freddy to the captain's room. Jim and I will stay here to search for the captain!"
"Okay!" Bill nodded and gestured to his comrades.
"Wait!"
"What happened?"
"Be careful." Norman looked at him in the eyes and said seriously, "Our enemies aren't just zombies."
A few figures suddenly dashed in from the entrance. Norman, Bill, and others immediately raised their rifles.
Both teams aimed at each other.
Tactical flashlights under the muzzle forced him to narrow his eyes; he couldn't see who was at the door.
Just then, a hoarse voice entered the communication channel.
"Friendly."
Norman was taken aback. He immediately confirmed the presence of green dots on the map then lowered the rifle in his hands.
It seemed that after the explosion, they were in a coma for some time, and at this time, the reinforcements arrived.
From the digital camouflage kinetic skeleton, the other team was indeed the Marines, the primary task unit of Celestial Trade. Norman, like Captain Garrett, was transferred from the Marines to the Rapid Response Force, so they were on familiar terms.
But what he hadn't expected was an unexpected person behind the force.
Jiang Chen!
Celestial Trade's boss! Why would he show up here?
Soldiers entering the hall divided into two teams - a team to open the life detection device to join the search and rescue work, and the other team stayed by Jiang Chen's side.
Under the protection of more than a dozen Marines, Jiang Chen walked up to Norman.
Norman put down his rifle, stood up straight and saluted.
"What happened?" Jiang Chen glanced at the fragments around the place and asked in a deep and concerned tone.
"We broke into the hall and cleared the zombies. The captain heard a cry for help and walked over, but someone detonated a bomb," Norman immediately reported.
Jiang Chen nodded and remained silent, but he looked directly above the hall platform.
The interior decorations were ignited and the fire had begun to spread. Even across a distance of ten meters, he could still clearly feel the rising heat waves.
After a brief silence, Jiang Chen suddenly laughed, shook his head and said to himself.
"It seems my approach was too merciful."
"Sir?" Norman asked with confusion.
"Nothing. I just think that treating some villains should be like treating zombies. Before they cause any more harm, shoot them, regardless of the consequences, and make their heartbeats stop... Sergeant Norman, do you agree with me?"
All along, Jiang Chen hadn't cared too much about the Kurofune. Or, even if he cared, he didn't invest too much energy to investigate.
Takeda Pharmaceutical was a Nippon-owned company and was a reputable firm in the country. However, there was a high risk of executing military operations in developed countries, not to mention that FBA and CIB had been involved in the investigation. So, Jiang Chen also didn't concern himself with it. He sent a Ghost Agent, but he didn't authorize her to execute a capture, or infiltrate and carry out other illegal espionage activities. Instead, he simply wanted her to gather intelligence…
Originally, he thought "Kurofune" would be restrained by the Nippon government to some extent, but he was wrong.
Although affiliated with the government, they obviously didn't completely listen to the government.
After all, counting on a bunch of terrorists who wanted to destroy humans was impractical from any perspective.
Soon, the Marines dragged Garrett out from the rubble.
"Still alive?" Jiang Chen asked.
"His life signal is active, but it's weak and he needs urgent medical treatment," replied the soldier who carried the stretcher.
"Go quickly."
"ROGER!"
The fire was spreading ablaze, and the soldiers beside Jiang Chen stepped forward and whispered to him.
"The fire is out of control, Commander, please retreat."
Jiang Chen nodded and said nothing. He turned and left.
Escorted by a soldier, Jiang Chen returned to the helicopter. Looking at the cruise ship, the fire had spread to the middle of the cruise ship. The cruise ship was like an alcohol lamp floating on the high sea.
Two hundred survivors curled up on the deck of the rescue boat with no joy of survival on their faces - there was only deep horror.
Three thousand tourists in total, who had bought tickets to enjoy the holidays, hadn't expected such hellish terror to break out on the Pacific Ocean on this beautiful day.
A child wailed to his mother, a man gently patted a woman's back and said words that couldn't even comfort himself. Medical staff on the deck traversed throughout the crowd, checking their bodies and injecting Future Biology's anti-T virus vaccine...
The evacuation was successful; some were wounded, but no one was fatally hurt.
The worst off was Sergeant Garrett - the explosion damaged his spine. He would probably have to spend the rest of his life in a wheelchair…
The fire was becoming more ferocious. Once it reached the fuel tank, the cruise ship was likely to explode. In order to prevent themselves from being affected, the helicopters and rescue boat evacuated immediately.
Jiang Chen looked expressionlessly at the cruise ship disappearing. Just then, his phone suddenly rang.
He picked up.
"Hey."
"Among the survivors was a man called Zhu Tianyou. When we found him, he was being tied up in a bathtub full of water. When he was rescued, he was unconscious. We suspected he might be associated with this terrorist attack, so he's under intensive care and being monitored by our medical staff. "
"You did well. Send him to New Moon Island, and I will personally ask him."
"Yes!"
After he hung up the phone, Jiang Chen called Ayesha.
"Order the Ghost Agents to go to Nippon. Within a week, I'd like to see the President of Takeda Pharmaceutical appearing in the interrogation room on New Moon Island."
