73: Chapter 73 Further Advance
Zhen Lu pressed connect.
"Did you go to Bald Eagle Cliff last night?"
Sun Yi's voice came through the communicator, getting straight to the point without even a greeting.
"I went to provide support."
"After the riot suppression, some critically injured prisoners were temporarily detained in the prison medical area. They only received emergency treatment and haven't been scheduled for systematic treatment yet. In the next two days, you might be reassigned to the prison by the Guardians for follow-up treatment. When that happens, someone will send you an item in advance. You must bring it with you when you enter the prison."
Zhen Lu's fingers tightened slightly around the communicator.
"What item?"
"Just bring it, no need to ask. This counts as an official mission for you, and there will be 100,000 credits upon completion."
Zhen Lu looked up at Bishop Lin.
Bishop Lin held his teacup, his chin nodding almost imperceptibly.
"Fine." Zhen Lu said to the communicator.
The call ended.
He placed the communicator on the table and picked up his tea.
Bishop Lin put down his teacup and leaned back in his chair.
"The item they want you to bring is likely some kind of receiver. The Mechanic among the high-ranking members of The Resistance probably has information that hasn't been transmitted yet. You bring the item in, the information should be recorded automatically, and then you bring it out. You won't touch the information throughout the entire process."
"Just bring the item when you go to the prison; you don't need to do anything else."
Zhen Lu put down his teacup and nodded. "Understood."
When leaving the church, Bishop Lin walked him to the side door and pulled a palm-sized, flat metal box from the inner pocket of his robe to hand to him.
The casing was matte silver-gray, with no markings or buttons, only an extremely thin card slot on the side.
Bishop Lin flipped the box over and pointed toward the card slot.
"This is a scanner, specially made by the Holy See's technical department to record residual energy. Anything placed on the scanning surface will have all information attached to it read automatically, including Mental Power fluctuations, data stream traces, and energy imprints. It saves automatically after reading, leaving no trace."
"Take this home. Scan the item The Resistance wants you to bring first, then take the original in as planned. After you return, place the item on it for a second scan. Once the information from both sides is combined, we will be able to copy a complete version of what The Resistance is transmitting."
Zhen Lu took the scanner and weighed it in his palm; it was very light. He tucked it into the inner pocket of his jacket, where it was completely invisible from the outside.
He said goodbye to Bishop Lin and walked along the streets of Central City back to his apartment.
Back home, he placed the scanner on the coffee table, went to the kitchen to heat up a bowl of oatmeal, and after eating, leaned back on the sofa to close his eyes and rest.
Not long after, there were two knocks on the door, neither heavy nor light, carrying a cautious tone.
Zhen Lu stood up and opened the door.
He recognized the person standing outside.
High cheekbones, dark gray short jacket, with two finger marks that had faded to a pale yellow still remaining on his neck.
The moment the tall, thin man saw Zhen Lu, his eyes darted to the side, his Adam's apple bobbed up and down, and then he quickly handed over the briefcase in his hand.
"Everything is in the case, there are instructions on top, please take a look yourself."
After saying this, he bowed his head in a salute and turned to leave.
His pace was more than twice as fast as when he came last time. The sound of footsteps in the hallway grew distant, finally swallowed by the sound of the elevator door closing.
Zhen Lu carried the case back into the room, sat on the sofa, opened the latches, and lifted the lid.
There were no instructions inside the case, only a bracelet. A row of things resembling crushed gemstones was strung on the thin chain, with varying colors and sizes, each embedded in a metal setting. It was impossible to tell which one was the receiver and which one was just decoration.
He placed the bracelet on the coffee table first, picked up the scanner, opened the lid, and placed the entire bracelet on the scanning surface.
The scanner made no sound and had no changes in light, but a few seconds after the bracelet was placed on it, a faint blue light flashed very briefly along the edge of the scanning surface and then extinguished.
He put the scanner away in his jacket pocket, picked up the bracelet, and put it on his left wrist.
The chain fit against his skin, neither too loose nor too tight, and was perfectly covered when he pulled his sleeve down.
After doing all this, the sleepiness set in.
He hadn't slept all night, and now his body was finally demanding its due.
He went to the kitchen to wash the bowl, brushed his teeth, and lay straight down on the bed. The daylight leaking through the gap in the curtains slowly changed from pale gold to warm yellow and then gradually dimmed. He tossed and turned a few times and fell into a deep sleep.
When the communicator rang, it was pitch black outside the window.
He reached for the communicator and checked the time; it was past seven in the evening.
He pressed connect, and on the other end was Dong Zhida.
"Mr. Zhen Lu, several critically injured prisoners at Bald Eagle Cliff prison have had their conditions deteriorate, and ordinary medical means can no longer maintain their vital signs. The Branch Bureau is officially summoning you to the prison medical area's treatment room for emergency care. The flying car to pick you up is already waiting downstairs."
Zhen Lu hung up the communicator and sat up from the bed.
He looked down at the bracelet on his left wrist, pulled his sleeve down to cover it, put on his jacket, and pushed the door open to go downstairs.
It was the same gray-black Guardians flying car, with the same uniformed driver, parked at the temporary stop downstairs of the apartment building.
He opened the door and sat in. The flying car ascended, crossing over the buildings of Central City and speeding toward the western suburbs.
The outline of Bald Eagle Cliff became clearer in the night, with searchlight beams still sweeping back and forth in the sky. The cordon around the prison perimeter had been pulled back more than last night, several temporary tents had been taken down, and the medical station was still lit.
The flying car landed outside the prison gate.
A prison guard who had been waiting for a long time led Zhen Lu through the access channel and straight to the treatment room inside the prison.
The treatment room was at the end of the medical area, a large, isolated room with a "Intensive Care" sign hanging on the door.
The guard pushed the door open. Inside, several adjustable restraint-style emergency beds were lined up, with people locked onto each one.
Some wore ability-suppressing handcuffs, others were fixed to the bed frames with restraint straps in a crisscross pattern, and all of them had wounds that hadn't healed yet.
The monitors at the head of the beds emitted a chorus of low-frequency alarms, and several medical assistants in protective suits were busy and flustered, changing IV bags by the bedsides.
The middle-aged prisoner on the bed closest to the door had been hit head-on in the chest by some kind of shockwave; several ribs were fractured, and there was an abrasion on the pericardium.
Zhen Lu hovered his palm over his chest and activated Holy Light. White light permeated the area, causing the fractured bone fragments to realign and reconnect within the light, and the torn muscle fibers to knit back together.
After treating one, he moved to the next bed, and then the next, without stopping his pace.
The beds in the treatment room were cleared one by one, and the alarms on the monitors quieted down one after another.
When he reached the bed against the wall, the bracelet on his left wrist suddenly vibrated slightly.
It was an extremely subtle vibration, coming from one of the gemstones, and it stopped in less than a second.
Zhen Lu glanced down at the bracelet; there was no change in light, and the gemstones remained quietly embedded in the chain.
He pulled his sleeve down again to cover the bracelet and continued toward the last bed.
The chest cavity of the last critically injured prisoner in the prison treatment room knit back together in the white light of the Holy Light, and the almost flat line on the monitor began to pulse again.
The prison guard standing nearby breathed a sigh of relief and led Zhen Lu through the corridor. His attitude was much more respectful than when he had brought him in earlier, and he thanked him repeatedly for his hard work.
The flying car was already waiting outside the prison gate. The driver was still the same silent, uniformed person, who opened the car door for Zhen Lu when he saw him come out.
The flying car ascended, the searchlight beams of Bald Eagle Cliff growing distant outside the window, and the buildings of Central City slowly emerging from the night ahead.