Chapter 266: Undercurrent

When Xia Xue inserted the dagger into the gap of the ventilation duct, the military watch on her wrist suddenly emitted a sharp buzzing sound.

The red light spots jumping on the dial showed that three heat sources were approaching from three directions of the safe house—distance 23 meters, moving speed 1.7 meters per second.

"They used infrared shielding suits." She tore off her tactical vest, revealing the copper wire mesh wrapped around her waist. This was an electromagnetic shield dismantled from the microwave transmitter two hours ago, which could temporarily interfere with bio-electric tracking.

A subtle vibration came from the ceiling, and dust fell in a straight line. The moment Xia Xue rolled behind the sofa, a silenced bullet pierced through three layers of gypsum board, leaving a smoking bullet hole where she had just stood. The micro-camera embedded in the bullet head was still rotating, transmitting the image back to an unknown terminal.

"Bang!"

The moment the stun grenade exploded outside the window, Xia Xue kicked open the secret door and rushed into the underground passage. The foul-smelling sewage submerged her ankles. While running, she wrapped her phone in a waterproof bag—the encrypted message received seventeen minutes ago showed that Luo Fei had found her name in the experimental accident file.

Light suddenly appeared in the passage ahead, and three figures wearing night-vision goggles advanced in tactical formation. Xia Xue braked and turned, her back against the cold concrete wall. The copper wire mesh around her waist suddenly emitted high-frequency tremors; this was a sign of an electromagnetic pulse approaching. She decisively tore off the copper wire and threw it into the sewage. In the sizzling sparks, the tracker emitted an overload wail.

Taking advantage of the other party's equipment failure, Xia Xue kicked the wall and jumped up to grab the rusty iron ladder. The moment the manhole cover above her head was lifted, the salty sea breeze poured into her nose. Just as she poked her head out, she saw three long and two short car light signals on the container wharf a hundred meters away.

"Over here!" A hand covered in scars stretched out from the modified container truck; it was the Interpol undercover agent Chen Feng!

When Xia Xue jumped into the truck, the monitoring wall composed of seventeen monitors was playing city traffic footage, three of which suddenly flickered with snow—the pursuers had arrived.

Chen Feng threw her a blood-stained file bag: "2006 Qingyanshan Medical Center Fire Accident Report." Xia Xue pulled out the charred document and saw her childhood photo in the "Experimental Subject List" column, project number X-17.

"They started when you were seven..." Chen Feng's words were interrupted by an explosion.

In the container truck's rearview mirror, two black SUVs crashed through the roadblocks and rushed over, the laser sights on the roof burning charred marks on the containers.

Xia Xue tore open the bandage on her left arm, and a metal piece the size of a grain of rice was buried in the unhealed wound. This was the nano-chip removed from the surgery last night, which was currently wriggling in the glass petri dish. She connected the chip to the in-vehicle decoder, and seventeen flashing red dots suddenly appeared on the city's electronic map.

"They are all old sites of the medical center." Chen Feng slammed the steering wheel, and the truck crashed into the abandoned hospital parking lot, "Luo Team took people to Qingyanshan; leave this place to me."

———

The low temperature of the underground morgue made the pain in her wound double. Xia Xue followed the navigation signal to the third autopsy room, where charred marks remained on the dilapidated metal door. When she cut the rusted door lock with a laser pointer, an electronic voice suddenly came from the freezer: "Iris verification passed, welcome back, X-17."

The neatly arranged freezing drawers slid out automatically, and a girl similar to her in appearance lay in each drawer. The girl in drawer No. 7 had ice crystals on her eyelashes, and the nameplate on her chest was engraved: Seventh Generation Carrier · Neural Synapse Synchronization Rate 91.7%.

"So I'm a mass-produced type." Xia Xue touched the ice flowers on the glass, and her watch suddenly sounded a major alarm. Three heat sources appeared in the corridor, and the footsteps were precisely controlled at 0.79 seconds per step—the rhythm of military tactical boots.

She dodged into the monitoring blind spot and saw the leader lift his protective mask, revealing a face exactly the same as Chen Feng's. The real Chen Feng's corpse should still be in the truck cab at this moment, so this one...

The fake Chen Feng's pupils flashed with mechanical red light. When he raised his hand, metal joints were exposed at his cuffs. Xia Xue remembered the "Bionic Carrier Project" mentioned in the file; the fire in 2006 didn't just burn experimental records.

"Cognitive interference has been lifted." The robot suddenly turned to look at her hiding place, "Suggest adopting B-level clearance plan."

Xia Xue threw the scalpel before the other party raised his gun, the blade accurately stuck into the bionic man's neck energy interface. Taking advantage of the circuit short-circuit, she smashed the air window and jumped into the ventilation duct. Behind her came the charging sound of the electromagnetic pulse gun, and the inner wall of the duct was instantly burned red.

———

5:17 AM, ruins of Qingyanshan Medical Center. Luo Fei stepped on the withered branches, and the flashlight beam illuminated a baby bracelet half-buried in the soil, with a faded "X-17" printed on it. The accompanying forensic doctor dug up the damp mud, revealing a whole metal wall, and the electronic screen on the wall suddenly lit up:

【Brain-computer synchronization rate exceeds critical value, starting final purification program】

The earth began to tremble. When Luo Fei dragged the forensic doctor to retreat, seventeen blue lights shot out from the ground cracks. The police drones circling in the sky suddenly went out of control, and the operator reported in horror: "All equipment β-wave frequencies are abnormal!"

When Xia Xue rushed over from the other side of the cliff, the electromagnetic jammer in her hand was overloading and smoking. She saw the old-fashioned film camera held by Luo Fei and suddenly remembered that this was the only equipment at the scene that was not affected.

"Shoot that wall!" she roared and tackled Luo Fei. The bullets flew past her ears, and the robot pursuers had already broken through the defense line. The moment the camera shutter sounded, a laser matrix invisible to the naked eye appeared on the surface of the metal wall, leaving a weird seventeen-sided pattern on the film.

The pursuers' heads suddenly exploded with electric sparks, and they all fell stiffly to the ground. Xia Xue tore open her collar, and the same pattern as the laser matrix appeared on the skin under her collarbone—this was the biological key buried for seventeen years.

"The fire back then wasn't an accident," she stuffed the film into the evidence bag, "Someone wanted to cover up the truth of the carrier's loss of control." There was the sound of a speedboat engine in the morning mist, and the sea level was filled with blood-red morning glow. ===== CHAPTER 267 =====