55: Chapter 55 Tracking Organ Hunters

"The one at the very top is the one that ate the harvester."

This sentence is easy to say, but doing it requires patience.

June 13th, 11:00 PM.

Yan Zheng sat on a folding chair in the Underground Room. On the system panel in front of him, a map of the northern part of Hells Kitchen was displayed, with three red markers representing the real-time positions of the three Skeleton Soldiers.

"No. 1, rooftop of the abandoned laundry on 47th Street, line of sight covering both ends of the street."

"Skeleton Soldier No. 2, maintenance manhole on 50th Street, monitoring the entrance and exit of the back alley."

"No. 3 Skeleton Soldier, top of the fire escape on 53rd Street, overlooking the entire intersection."

Yan Zheng: (˵ ꐦ ˘ ꒳ ˘ ˵)

"Three hidden sentries, triangular layout, covering the three blocks where The Punisher has been most active in the past week."

"Mr. The Punisher fires a gun in the northern district every one to two days, and the E.S.S. people arrive at the scene within one to two hours after he leaves."

"I just need to wait for The Punisher to fire, then watch the scene to see who comes to loot the bodies."

He leaned back in the chair, closed his eyes, and distributed his Mental Power evenly across the sensory links of the three Skeleton Soldiers.

"Wait."

The first night, The Punisher did not appear.

The northern district was as quiet as stagnant water; even the gang punks were huddled indoors, afraid to go out.

Yan Zheng cut the link at 4:00 AM and went upstairs to sleep.

The second night, The Punisher appeared, but he only took out two drug dealers at the East District docks and did not enter Yan Zheng's monitoring range.

There was nothing in the vision of the No. 3 Skeleton Soldier, only wild cats fighting next to a trash can.

Yan Zheng: (ꐦ ˘ ꈊ ˘)

"Patience, Yan Zheng, patience."

"A fisherman cannot be impatient."

The third night.

June 15th, 1:17 AM.

Yan Zheng was half-asleep and half-awake, maintaining the sensory link, when a dense movement of heat sources suddenly appeared in the vision of the Skeleton Soldier No. 2.

His consciousness cleared instantly.

In the direction of 50th Street, in an abandoned three-story factory, muzzle flashes flickered in the windows.

The dense gunfire lasted for about two minutes, then gradually thinned out, and finally, only sporadic single shots remained.

Finishing shots.

The Punisher's standard cleanup procedure.

Yan Zheng sat up from the bed, his bare feet touching the floor, and focused all his Mental Power on the sensory link of the Skeleton Soldier No. 2.

"Here it comes."

At 1:23 AM, the gunfire stopped completely.

At 1:25 AM, a burly dark figure walked out of the main entrance of the factory, carrying a shotgun in his right hand and an ammunition bag on his left shoulder, disappearing around the street corner with a steady pace.

The Punisher had left.

Yan Zheng: (✧ ‸ ✧)

"Starting the timer now."

1:30 AM, five minutes passed, no one appeared.

1:35 AM, ten minutes, no one.

1:40 AM, fifteen minutes.

At the edge of the vision of the Skeleton Soldier No. 2, a dark gray van drove slowly from the north, without headlights, its engine sound kept extremely low.

The van stopped in the back alley of the factory, and the doors opened.

Two figures jumped out of the van.

Yan Zheng's breathing slowed by half a beat.

"One man and one woman."

"Dark protective jumpsuits, faces covered by medical masks and goggles, each carrying a silver cooler on their backs."

"What they are holding isn't a gun, but a surgical instrument kit."

The two figures quickly crossed the back alley and slipped into the factory through the back door.

Yan Zheng issued an order in his consciousness, and the Skeleton Soldier No. 2 silently climbed up to the ground from the maintenance manhole, moving along the wall towards the back door of the factory.

The Skeleton Soldier's soul fire was pressed to its dimmest, and the entire skeleton clung to the brick wall like a gray-white shadow.

Moving to a position three meters outside the back door, the Skeleton Soldier stopped, its soul fire observing inside through the crack in the door.

The interior of the factory was a mess, with bullet holes, bloodstains, and corpses lying everywhere.

The two figures were already crouching next to three corpses near the back wall.

Yan Zheng: (˵ ꐦ ✧ ᴗ ✧ ˵)

The male took a scalpel from the instrument kit, and the blade flashed in the faint moonlight.

His movements were extremely smooth; his left hand pressed against the corpse's chest, while his right hand's blade cut precisely along the fourth intercostal space, cutting through in one motion without any unnecessary movements.

Cutting, spreading, peeling away connective tissue, extraction.

The whole process took less than ninety seconds.

A dark red heart was placed into an insulated bag inside the cooler.

The female was operating on another corpse nearby simultaneously; her target was the liver, and her speed was even faster than the male's, completing it in about seventy seconds.

"Military-grade surgical tools, laboratory-grade sterile operating procedures."

Yan Zheng silently recorded every detail in his consciousness.

"The technique is not a standard surgical procedure taught in medical school; the incision location and angle have been optimized, a collection technique specifically designed to maximize organ integrity."

"These two people have received specialized training."

As for the third corpse, the female crouched down to check it, shook her head, and stood up to walk towards the male.

"This one is unqualified; hormone residue is below the threshold."

The female's voice came through the crack in the door, clear but kept very low.

The male nodded, returned the scalpel to the instrument kit, and zipped up the cooler.

"Two samples, enough, withdraw."

Yan Zheng: (ꐦ ˘ ᗜ ˘)

"They have testing methods that can determine on-site whether the hormone residue in the corpse meets the standard."

"It's not blind collection, but precise screening."

The two figures finished packing up, shouldered the coolers, and walked quickly towards the back door.

Yan Zheng ordered the Skeleton Soldier No. 2 to retreat five meters in his consciousness, sticking into the shadows of the trash pile nearby.

The two figures came out of the back door, their footsteps fast and light, walking along the back alley towards the van.

The female paused before getting into the car, took out a palm-sized communicator from the inner pocket of her protective suit, and pressed a button on the side.

"Collection point No. 3 completed, samples recovered, returning to E.S.S. outpost."

A muffled reply came from the communicator, and Yan Zheng could not hear the content clearly from a distance of three meters.

The female put the communicator away and climbed into the passenger seat of the van.

The doors closed, the engine started, and the van slowly drove away from the back alley.

Yan Zheng: (˵ ꐦ ≖ ω ≖ ˵)

"E.S.S. outpost."

"She said it herself."

"Not a guess, not an inference, it's a confirmation."

Yan Zheng issued a tracking order in his consciousness, and the Skeleton Soldier No. 2 stood up from the shadows and followed in the direction the van had left.

The Skeleton Soldier's movement speed was not slow, but the van clearly accelerated after turning out of the back alley.

The Skeleton Soldier No. 2 followed for about four hundred meters, and the van turned onto the main road of 10th Avenue, with its speed increasing to over forty miles per hour.

The limit running speed of the Skeleton Soldier was about twenty-five miles per hour, and the gap was widening.

Five hundred meters.

Six hundred meters.

Seven hundred meters.

The taillights of the van turned into two small red dots in the night, and then disappeared at the intersection of 10th Avenue and West 57th Street.

"Lost them."

Yan Zheng cut off the sensory link, opened his eyes, and stared at the crack on the bedroom ceiling.

"The direction was north; after getting on 10th Avenue, it continued north."

"But the north is too big; once you leave Hells Kitchen, it's Midtown, and further north is the Upper West Side, Harlem."

"An unmarked gray van on the main roads of Manhattan at 2:00 AM is no different from looking for a needle in a haystack."

He rolled over and went through the information in his mind.

"But it wasn't completely without gains."

"First, it confirmed that the E.S.S. field team has at least two people, one man and one woman, who have received professional training."

"Second, it confirmed that they use a van as a mobile tool, with no markings on the body, and I didn't see the license plate clearly."

"Third, it confirmed that they have an 'outpost' in the direction north of Hells Kitchen."

"Fourth, it confirmed that their communication equipment is short-wave encrypted, not an ordinary mobile phone."

Yan Zheng: (ꐦ ˘ ͈ ꒳ ˘ ͈)

"Next time, I need to preset Skeleton Soldier relay points at a further distance."

"Or, after the Undead Knight is assembled, use the Knight's speed to chase."

He closed his eyes, and the corners of his mouth curved into a faint arc in the dark.

"Friends from E.S.S., you run quite fast."

"But that's okay, the war in Hells Kitchen is not over yet, and you will come again."

"Next time, I will be better prepared."

"Next time, your wheels will not turn faster than my bones."