105: Chapter 106 Hunter and Prey

The results of the prisoner interrogation were delivered to Zahariel two hours after he exited the hatch.

Eight prisoners.

Remnants of the Sun Warriors from Manila Fortress.

The interrogation was presided over by TW-201.

Li Cang gave him a simple command: find out everything about Kara Enzo.

TW-201 had been recovering at the base for three weeks; his right shoulder wasn't fully healed, but his mouth worked better than his shoulder.

He had interrogated deserters, workers stealing supplies, and refugees trying to sneak into the base.

Every time, he managed to make them talk.

He didn't rely on threats, but on a kind of patience that made people lower their guard.

Six of the eight were ordinary soldiers who only knew how to follow orders, so nothing of value could be gleaned from them.

One was a signalman responsible for operating the jammer; he knew some technical details but nothing involving strategy.

The last one was different.

Morris.

The logistics supervisor of Manila Fortress.

He was in charge of material allocation for the underground munitions factory, knowing where every batch of raw materials came from and where every finished product went.

It took TW-201 three hours to get Morris to open up.

"She will know," Morris said no less than ten times. "She will know everything."

His fingers drummed incessantly on the tabletop, his nails bitten to the quick, the skin at his fingertips peeling to reveal the pink, tender flesh beneath.

The light in the interrogation room beat down on his face, beads of sweat sliding from his temples and dripping onto the table.

TW-201 sat opposite him, motionless. After Morris said "She will know everything" for the tenth time, TW-201 spoke.

"When the reinforcements arrived, Kara Enzo was the first to run."

Morris's fingers stopped.

"She didn't take you," TW-201 said. "She didn't take anyone. She ran off by herself."

Morris stared at the tabletop.

"Do you think she still cares what you say?"

The interrogation room fell silent for a long time. Morris's bitten fingers began drumming the table again, the frequency slowing until they finally stopped.

Then he began to speak.

Li Cang read through the interrogation records line by line.

The initial content was basically consistent with the results of Doom's interrogation.

Kara Enzo was Doom's third adjutant, an engineer by trade, and in charge of the entire munitions system.

Manila Fortress was one of three factories she had established.

Then Li Cang read a certain passage.

His hand stopped.

Morris's exact words:

"Manila Fortress isn't the main factory. It never was. Carla never intended to use Manila Fortress long-term from the very beginning."

"She said something once. She said Manila Fortress was a display window. Put out there for people to see."

"Doom knew about Manila Fortress. Carla let him know on purpose. Because she knew Doom—he has a loose mouth. He would be caught sooner or later, and once caught, he would talk. He would give up Manila Fortress."

"And then you would come."

"Once you came, she could watch. Watch how many people you have, what weapons you use, how you fight, and how quickly you can call for reinforcements. She installed recorders in the warehouse's surveillance system. Every move you made in Manila Fortress, she saw it all."

Li Cang leaned back against his chair.

He stared at that passage for a long time.

A display window.

Manila Fortress was a display window.

Thirty people had been sent to Manila Fortress.

Nine died. TW-078 and twenty-one others held out in the ruins for twelve hours.

C-19 charged the walking vehicle alone, his left arm burned by hydraulic oil.

All of this was Kara Enzo's method of intelligence gathering.

Li Cang closed his eyes.

He remembered what Doom had said during his interrogation.

"Every step she takes is calculated. She won't do anything she's not sure of."

He opened his eyes and continued reading.

Morris mentioned something else.

"There are three lines for material allocation.

Manila Fortress is the first line, bringing in raw materials from the abandoned mines to the north.

I don't know where the second line ends, but I know the transit station.

About four hundred kilometers south along the coastline, there's a fishing village called Balanga. Twice a month, fishing boats are used for transport.

I know nothing about the third line.

Carla doesn't let anyone from one factory know the locations of the others."

Balanga.

Li Cang found the name on the tactical map.

Four hundred kilometers south along the coastline. A small gray dot. Unexplored territory.

Not the factory's location, but a transit station. However, following the transit station would lead to the factory.

He marked a red dot at Balanga's location.

Then he opened another report.

The results of the reverse engineering analysis of the walking vehicle wreckage.

[Reverse Engineering Analysis Complete]

[Crimson Six-Legged walking vehicle, Destroyed]

[Recoverable Components: Hydraulic Drive System (87% integrity), Armor Plate Samples, Gait Control Module]

[Non-recoverable: thermal weapon Core, destroyed by Chainsword]

[New Blueprint Fragment: Thermal Focusing Lens 12%, can be used for future thermal weapon research]

[six-legged walking platform Blueprint Integrity: 94% → 97%]

The six-legged walking platform had increased from 94% to 97%. Just a little more and it would be fully unlocked.

The Thermal Focusing Lens was only at 12%. It was still far from being usable, but it was a start.

He closed the report.

Now he had three things in hand.

The location of a transit station.

A C-19 upgraded to SSS-rank.

A Kara Enzo who knows nothing of C-19.

He looked at the red dot on the tactical map.

Balanga.

At the same moment. Six hundred kilometers south of the coastline.

A place with no name.

From the outside, it was just a ruin swallowed by tropical jungle.

Collapsed concrete buildings were covered in vines and shrubs, and rusted corrugated iron roofs were overgrown with moss, no different from thousands of other abandoned settlements in the Pan-Pacific region.

But beneath the ruins was another world.

The underground factory was three times larger than the one in Manila Fortress.

Kara Enzo stood in the factory's central control room, before a wall composed of twelve spliced screens.

The screens were playing footage of the Battle of Manila Fortress.

The surveillance system had recorded everything.

From the moment the Tracking Squad entered the warehouse to the moment the reinforcements crushed the remnants of the Sun Warriors, every frame was recorded, numbered, and archived.

Carla stood before the screens with her left hand behind her back.

Her left hand was missing two fingers—the ring finger and the pinky—the stumps being old wounds that had healed cleanly.

Her right hand held a pen, its tip resting on a clipboard.

The clipboard was densely covered with data.

She was watching a specific piece of footage.

In the video, a figure in gray power armor was charging at full speed from the direction of the main road.

The walking vehicle's thermal weapon fired, an orange-red beam streaking past his side.

He didn't slow down. Seven seconds later, he was in front of the walking vehicle, his Chainsword severing the hydraulic lines of its front right leg.

The walking vehicle collapsed. He leaped onto it and plunged the sword into the cooling fins.

Carla watched this footage eleven times.

Each time she watched, she would note something down on the clipboard.

First pass: Reaction speed. He began evasive maneuvers a second before the thermal weapon fired. Anticipation, not reaction.

Second pass: Running speed.

One hundred meters in seven seconds.

Forty percent faster than a standard Thunder Warrior.

Third pass: Strength. It took less than two seconds for the Chainsword to cut through the hydraulic lines. A standard Thunder Warrior would need at least five seconds.

Fourth pass: Tactical judgment. He didn't attack the armor but went straight for the joints. He knows where the weaknesses are.

Fifth through eleventh passes: Details. Stride length, turning angle, sword grip, jump height, landing cushioning method.

She put the pen down.

"This person is different," Carla said.

There was another person in the control room. A young man in an engineer's jumpsuit stood in the corner. Carla's assistant, named Wren.

"Different?" Wren asked.

"Other Thunder Warriors are mass-produced," Carla said. "Their movement patterns are highly consistent, and their tactical choices are predictable. But this one—"

She pointed at the frozen image on the screen. The figure in gray power armor stood atop the wreckage of the walking vehicle, the Chainsword still embedded in the cooling fins.

"He is custom-made."

Wren walked over and glanced at the screen.

"Can we win?"

Carla didn't answer immediately.

She turned and walked to a door on the other side of the control room. A door made of reinforced steel plate, requiring dual verification of a password and a palm print. She entered the password and pressed her palm against it. The door opened.

Behind the door was a massive workshop.

Two walking vehicles were parked in the workshop.

Crimson six-legged walking vehicles, identical to the one at Manila Fortress.

But not exactly the same. These two had thicker armor and an extra layer of shielding at the joints, with the hydraulic lines completely encased within the shielding, invisible and unreachable from the outside.

Improvements Carla had made after watching the footage from Manila Fortress.

She had watched the footage of that gray figure severing the hydraulic lines and then added shielding to the remaining two walking vehicles.

It took four days from identifying the problem to completing the improvements.

"One can't win," Carla said. "Two can."

She turned back to look at Wren.

"He will be here soon," she said. "They got Morris. Morris knows about Balanga. If they follow the trail from Balanga, they will find this place."

"Then should we evacuate?"

"No."

Wren looked at her.

Carla walked back to the screen and looked at the frozen image of the gray figure.

"I let them win once at Manila Fortress," she said. "Because I needed to see how they fight. Now, I've seen enough."

She reached out her right hand and tapped the position of the gray figure on the screen.

"Next time, I won't hold back."