54: Chapter 54 Organ Hunter

"Mr. Brute, that peer of yours who harvests hearts has a cleaner incision than you."

Three days later, this comment turned into a much more unsettling conclusion.

June 12th, 4:00 AM.

Yan Zheng crouched in front of the workbench in the Underground Room, with three body scan images projected from the system panel spread out before him, arranged chronologically from left to right.

The first, June 9th, 47th Street, North District, heart harvested.

The second, June 11th, 50th Street, North District, liver harvested.

The third, early this morning, 53rd Street, North District, eyeball harvested.

Three corpses, three different organs, three different crime scenes.

But the width, depth, and angle of the incisions were almost identical.

Yan Zheng: (ꐦ ˘ ͈ ᴗ ˘ ͈) "The same knife, the same hand."

He stacked the three scan images together, and the outlines of the incisions overlapped perfectly.

"Or rather, the same standard operating procedure."

Yan Zheng stood up, walked over to the intelligence wall, and connected the coordinates of the three crime scenes with red thread.

"Three times, three different organs, but what is the logic behind choosing the targets?"

He sat back down on the folding chair, opened the system panel, and pulled up the complete scan data of the three corpses before they were collected.

"System, compare the biological characteristics of the three corpses and find the commonalities."

The data stream on the panel ran for about forty seconds before the results popped up.

[Common characteristic detection complete. Trace amounts of exogenous variant hormone residue were detected in all three targets, with a concentration range of 0.03 - 0.07 mg/L. Metabolic cycle calculations estimate the injection time to be 72-120 hours before death.]

Yan Zheng's finger paused on the tabletop.

"Variant hormones."

Yan Zheng: (ꐦ ⌓ ꐦ) He was no stranger to this term.

He rummaged through the drawer to find the handwritten ledger, flipped to the first few pages, and found a record from three months ago.

"Liu Kun's boxing ring, underground fighting matches."

Yan Zheng's finger tapped on that line of text.

"Liu Kun mentioned to me back then that some of his fighters were using a type of 'enhancement drug' that could briefly boost strength and reaction speed, but the side effects were severe, causing organ failure with prolonged use."

He put down the ledger, leaned back in the chair, and the lenses of his gold-rimmed glasses reflected the line of green data on the panel.

"I didn't pay attention at the time because those fighters were just ordinary human materials to me, lacking the X-Gene and thus having limited value."

"But now it seems someone cares more about these drug-modified ordinary people than I do."

Yan Zheng: (˵ ꐦ ˘ ꈊ ˘ ˵) He stood up, paced twice in the Underground Room, and tapped his fingers silently against the edge of the workbench.

"Let's organize the logical chain."

"First, among the gang members in Hell's Kitchen, some have been injected with variant hormones."

"Second, The Punisher kills gang members indiscriminately, which must include those who have been injected with the hormones."

"Third, the organ hunters arrive at the scene after The Punisher's actions, but they don't touch every corpse, only selecting those injected with variant hormones."

"Fourth, the types of organs they harvest vary—heart, liver, eyeball—which indicates they aren't trafficking organs, but rather conducting systematic sample collection."

Yan Zheng stopped and turned to face the intelligence wall.

"Organ trafficking only requires kidneys and livers because those two are the most valuable."

"But they even take the eyeballs."

"What kind of buyer would want an eyeball soaked in variant hormones?"

Yan Zheng: (ꐦ ˘ ‸ ˘) There is only one answer.

"A laboratory."

He walked back to the workbench, picked up a pen, and wrote a line on a sticky note.

"E.S.S. isn't trafficking organs; they are conducting systematic research on the effects of variant hormones on various human organs."

"Heart, to observe the modification effects of the hormone on cardiomyocytes."

"Liver, to observe the metabolic pathway and residual distribution of the hormone."

"Eyeball, to observe the hormone's impact on nerve endings and sensory tissues."

"Every organ is a puzzle piece; put together, they form a complete 'Human Effect Report on Variant Hormones'."

Yan Zheng stuck the note on the intelligence wall and stepped back.

"They are researching this hormone."

"No, more accurately, they are optimizing this hormone."

"Collecting modified organ samples, analyzing the hormone's performance in different tissues, and finding the optimal injection protocol and dosage ratio."

"And then what?"

Yan Zheng's gaze fell next to the note labeled "E.S.S." on the wall, resting on another, earlier note that had three words written on it.

"HYDRA."

Yan Zheng: (˵ ꐦ ≖ ꒳ ≖ ˵) He recalled the shipment at the docks labeled as biohazardous materials, and the half-scratched HYDRA logo on the side of the crates.

"The source of the variant hormones, HYDRA's biological weapons research department."

"The genetic archive templates used by E.S.S. are independent of HYDRA's coding system, but the samples they collect are directly related to HYDRA's products."

"Two possibilities."

"First, E.S.S. is a subordinate laboratory of HYDRA, responsible for a specific sub-project."

"Second, E.S.S. is an independent organization that obtained the variant hormone technology or finished products from HYDRA and is currently performing reverse engineering."

Yan Zheng wrote the two possibilities on separate sticky notes, stuck them on the wall, and drew a question mark between them.

"Regardless of which it is, one thing is certain."

He turned around and looked at the silent Brute in the corner.

"These people are systematically collecting modified human tissues; the scale is not small, and the frequency is increasing."

"Three corpses in three days, and that's only the part I've discovered."

"Outside my range of perception, they might have already collected more."

Yan Zheng walked back to the workbench, sat down, and picked up that glass of Water that was always cold.

"A complete industrial chain is emerging."

"Upstream: HYDRA provides the variant hormone technology."

"Midstream: Middlemen like Kingpin are responsible for distributing the hormones on the black market, using gang members as lab rats."

"Downstream: E.S.S. field personnel are responsible for recovering the hormone-modified organ samples and sending them back to the laboratory for analysis."

Yan Zheng: (ꐦ ˘ ω ˘) He placed the glass on the table and traced a circle on the side of the glass with his finger.

"Kingpin thinks he's making money selling enhancement drugs."

"Gang members think they are using the drugs to become stronger."

"The Punisher thinks he's punishing evil and promoting good."

"In reality, everyone is working for E.S.S."

"Kingpin is the distributor, the gang members are the test subjects, The Punisher is the slaughterman, and I am the scavenger."

"And E.S.S. is the one sitting at the very top, harvesting the data."

Yan Zheng stood up, walked to the entrance of the stairs, and looked back at the increasingly complex network of relationships on the intelligence wall.

"These people are much more organized than I imagined."

"They have field collection teams, professional surgical tools, cold-chain transport equipment, and outposts."

"This is not a scale that a few rogue scientists could pull off."

His fingers gripped the stair railing.

"Yan Zheng, you are not facing a person now; you are facing an organization."

"An organization doing the same thing as you."

"You collect bones; they collect organs."

"You piece together the undead; they piece together data."

"The only difference is that they have more manpower, better equipment, and a wider intelligence network than you."

Yan Zheng: (ꐦ ˘ ͈ ‸ ˘ ͈) He went up the stairs, walked behind the first-floor counter, picked up the "New York Antique Appraisal Quarterly," and flipped through two pages without reading a single word.

"But they have one fatal weakness."

Yan Zheng closed the quarterly and looked through the glass door at the gray, misty street outside.

"They don't know I exist."

"And I already know about them."

He put the quarterly back on the shelf and walked to the back kitchen to boil Water.

"What needs to be done next is very simple."

"Find their people, follow their cars, and track down their nest."

The kettle on the stove began to gurgle. Yan Zheng leaned against the kitchen doorframe, his gold-rimmed glasses reflecting the brightening sky outside the window.

"Friends at E.S.S., your collection efficiency is indeed higher than mine."

"But you've forgotten one thing."

"In the food chain, the collector is never at the very top."

"The one at the very top is the one that eats the collector."