113: Chapter 113 The Sky Flickers, Humanity Panic

Washington, D.C., Federal Detention Center, east exit.

When Diana Hopkins pushed open the heavy iron door and stepped out, the noon sun made her squint slightly.

The silk dress she had been wearing, stained with dust and blood in the ruins of Warehouse 18, had long since been changed.

She was now dressed in casual dark grey clothes sent by someone, her hair tied into a simple low ponytail, and her face devoid of any makeup, yet that stern countenance showed no sign of the dishevelment one might expect from someone just released from a detention center.

Following behind her were Sterling Remington and Augustus Knox, and further behind them were their respective personal bodyguards and a small number of attendants.

The connections these three giants held in the military and judicial systems had allowed them to complete the entire bail process in under twenty-four hours.

For power brokers of their level, being released on bail was never a difficult matter.

The real problem was what came after the bail.

As the three of them stood under the awning at the entrance of the detention center waiting for their respective bulletproof cars to arrive, Sterling was the first to lose his composure.

His custom suit jacket was crumpled and draped over his arm, his tie had been left in some interrogation room, and the top two buttons of his shirt were undone.

On that face, usually characterized by the aristocratic air of an arms dealer, the usual calm and arrogance had been replaced by the shadows left behind by repeated bouts of anxiety.

"If the Longevity Faction can defeat the Grey Alien... then things will be fine."

He lowered his voice to a level only the three of them could hear, his tone sounding like he was talking to himself, though the volume was intentionally meant to be heard.

"We keep working for Lord Zhang Long, transplanting organs when needed, researching immortality when needed, it doesn't matter."

"But what if they can't win?"

"The day the million-strong fleet of Zeta Star arrives, we will be on the Longevity Faction's list, and we will also be on Zeta Star's kill list."

"Caught in the middle, the first to die won't be them, it will be us!"

Augustus Knox's expression darkened immediately upon hearing this.

He threw his own equally crumpled jacket over his shoulder, turned to glare at Sterling, his voice low but his anger undisguised:

"Can you stop talking? What is the point of saying all this?"

"The louder you say it, will the Grey Alien stop coming to kill us?"

"Shut up, will you!"

Sterling was stunned by his shout, and then became angry as well, wanting to retort, but he found he didn't even have the confidence to argue back.

Augustus was right; fear itself was not wrong, but once fear reached one's lips, it turned into noise.

The two of them were silent under the awning for a moment, then simultaneously turned to Diana.

Diana stood at the front, having not participated in their argument from start to finish, not even turning her head.

She withdrew her gaze from the black bulletproof Cadillac approaching from afar, turned her head to look at Sterling and Augustus, her voice as calm as if the previous argument had nothing to do with her.

"My method is very simple: two paths, taken at the same time."

"The first path: wait."

"Wait for Lord Zhang Long to appear."

"The power of the Longevity Faction cannot possibly be crushed one-sidedly by Zeta Star. As long as we can hold on until Lord Zhang Long comes to give me the next instruction, we will know whether there is still any chance of winning if we continue to follow the Longevity Faction."

"The second path..."

She paused, her gaze sweeping across Augustus's face before landing on Sterling.

"During the time I was detained, the people from the Colt Association found a crashed Grey Alien saucer wreckage in the desert southeast of Hoover Dam."

"It is currently being studied in the Hopkins Family's professional laboratory."

Sterling was startled by this, and then his eyes suddenly lit up.

Augustus also immediately recovered from his previous dejected state, took half a step forward, and lowered his voice, almost squeezing the words out through his teeth:

"If we can find... find a way to contact the Grey Alien in that wreckage..."

He did not finish his sentence, but all three of them understood what he hadn't said:

If they could establish contact with Zeta Star, they would have one more option in their hands.

But they also knew clearly that this matter must never be known to Lord Zhang Long of the Longevity Faction.

Hedging their bets by standing on the edge of the neighboring camp would be a catastrophe if discovered by either side.

Sterling shook out his jacket from his arm, draped it over himself, and while lowering his voice, said something that wasn't a compliment, but carried the weight of one:

"Diana, the Colt Association of your Hopkins Family can even transmit all important developments from the outside world to your ears while you are in the federal detention center."

"My people can't do it, and the people from the Knox family can't do it either."

Diana did not respond to this assessment, simply turning and walking towards the bulletproof Cadillac already parked on the roadside.

Sterling and Augustus exchanged a brief look, then followed with their respective attendants.

They wanted to go to the laboratory immediately to see for themselves if anything could be found in that alien wreckage.

The three bulletproof Cadillacs drove out of the city along the main road outside the detention center, heading towards a secret research base of the Hopkins Family on the outskirts of Scottsdale.

Diana sat in the back of the second car, her fingers tapping lightly on her knee.

Then, at the seventh tap, she suddenly stopped.

The sky outside the car window, without any warning, turned from the bright white light of noon into an abyss-like pitch black.

It was not the gradual darkening of dusk, nor the slow obscuration of a solar eclipse, but as if someone had pressed the power switch for the entire firmament.

With a snap, the daylight was cut off.

In less than three seconds, the sky suddenly lit up again, returning to the normal white light of noon.

Then it went black again.

Daytime, night, daytime, night...

The entire firmament flickered violently between the two states, each switch accompanied by a strange and piercing 'crackle' sound,

As if someone had set up a huge, old-fashioned CRT television on the zenith and was roughly twisting the channel knob.

Static screens and distorted signal stripes covered the entire sky.

The three Cadillacs braked sharply and stopped on the roadside almost simultaneously.

The car doors popped open, everyone got out, and everyone looked up.

Diana stood by the car, one hand resting on the roof, looking up at the sky that was flickering violently, her lips pressed tightly, but the pupils in her eyes were contracting involuntarily.

Sterling climbed out of the third car, and before he had even put his jacket on properly, he looked up, then froze in place, his lips moving several times before he squeezed out a few words:

"Million-strong fleet... the Grey Alien's million-strong fleet!"

"It's over, we're finished..."

Augustus turned abruptly and grabbed Sterling by the collar, almost dragging him in front of himself, nose to nose, saliva splattering onto the lenses of Sterling's glasses:

"Stop screaming! Is there any point in you screaming back and forth?"

"If you scream louder, will the Grey Alien not come?"

"If you scream even louder, will the alien technology not be superior to ours?"

"Shut up!"

Sterling was forced back two steps by his roar, his back hitting the door of the Cadillac, and he didn't retort again.

He looked up again at the sky that was still flickering crazily, sweat from his forehead streaming down his temples.

Behind them,

Those armed attendants who had walked out of the federal detention center with the three great families, each and every one of them were veterans who had seen the battle between the 200,000 Space Fleet and 2,000 alien saucers in the ruins of Hoover Dam with their own eyes.

At this moment, some had weak legs and were squatting on the ground holding their heads with both hands,

Some had their hands on their gun handles, fingers trembling, faces turning pale,

Some were staring at the sky, repeating the same prayer over and over, reciting it faster and more incoherently.