Chapter 280 - 261: Burn to Ashes

A tangled mess.

Fortunately, the International Gene Cooperation Company had absorbed a substantial portion of Osborne Group’s industries, otherwise, there wouldn’t even be a place to treat the wounded.

The majority of the wounded had only minor injuries, nothing but scrapes and sprains that could be easily treated and discharged.

A few were cut by shards and debris, and a very few were hit by stray bullets, losing a lot of blood.

If it were any other time, such situations would be quite difficult to manage, since blood resources have always been scarce and expensive, but here, there was no shortage of blood.

Lille and the Governor hurried towards the hospital, and as they walked, Lille said,

"The NYPD already got the shooter’s route map, we should be able to find their point of departure soon.

Secondly, Martin has caught two guys who were behind the scenes controlling that transhuman, but they aren’t spilling anything.

Besides knowing that Harren Reich is the CEO of Cyber Technology, what else can you dig up on your end?"

The Governor nodded, he had hardly suffered any serious injuries; his prosthetics just needed a bit of recharging.

"We’ve got someone on our side, William Rollins, from the Rollins Family. Heard he enlisted before, not sure why he got involved in this."

"No worries, we can ask the target— are you sure this guy’s name is Frank Castle?"

"Of course, you’d be scared if you knew without checking, he’s a celebrity, a Marine Corps celebrity, distinguished service, just googling brings up a photo of him with the former President.

However, he’s disappeared for a while, I guess... you know, this is deep waters, what do you plan on doing?"

The two stopped in front of the special care ward, but Lille was thinking: this name was no ordinary one, Frank Castle, former Marine Corps captain.

In a series of Marvel comics, there’s another name: the Punisher.

An extreme anti-hero who would take extrajudicial measures against criminals, and as a human, his combat ability was already at the ceiling.

This was a character without many origin stories, no matter the iteration, he’s essentially an old soldier abandoned by the government, his family all dead from purging.

It was this guilt and regret that drove his extremely extreme way of doing things because what he had gone through was extreme.

But not this time.

Lille said, "If the water is deep, then it’s even better, I wonder how much we can blow up with this bomb."

"Wait." The Governor stopped Lille, "This isn’t proper, a lot of politicians..."

Lille looked towards the Governor, contemplating how to persuade the Governor and his party to blow this issue up.

Politicians have disagreements, but generally, these disagreements are only internal.

If the Frank issue is big enough to affect the government, the opposition party would consider negotiating with the other side in secret.

After some thought, Lille realized it was going to be difficult to persuade them, and besides, since the Governor had spoken this way, it meant this was the current opinion of the opposition party.

Convincing them would require Lille to reach out one by one, but strictly speaking, he was a political newcomer.

Not many in the opposition party were acquainted with him, so persuading an entire party in such a short time wasn’t realistic.

He would have to rely on the tactic of acting first and reporting later.

Of course, he still had to go through the motions at least, at the very least to gain the stage for acting first and reporting later.

"...so assassination is within the rules?" Lille said, "Governor, don’t be naive, the assassination itself has already crossed what you consider the baseline.

Blowing this out of proportion, thoroughly putting the ruling party on the hot seat, is what we should be doing."

"No, Lille, listen to me, even if we advocate for peace and they for war, we still have to consider the national image.

Let’s resolve matters within the military internally, some things are not suitable... for public knowledge."

"Do you know what’s going on?" Lille’s eyebrows raised.

"I don’t know, and I don’t need to know, that’s how we handle things," the Governor shook his head:

"But I assure you we can secure enough benefits, and Mr. Castle here as well."

Lille looked at the Governor— a typical politician who mentally relies on the national level.

No matter the facts, he’s unwilling to engage in actions that would harm the nation, to him, all struggles between the two parties and the division of interests should be dealt with under the national umbrella.

Put simply, he was fond of "considering the bigger picture," and for him, that bigger picture was Mei Country.

But Lille didn’t see it that way: it was this kind of thinking that caused the opposition to be at a disadvantage in previous conflicts.

The enemy wanted global action, so you had to look at the issue from a global perspective as well.

There was also technical proof: the out-of-control programs were largely due to Hydra’s omnipresent surveillance, covering the globe.

"...Governor, do you know there was a serious disturbance in the global network just now?"

The Governor paused and then nodded, "I know, but what does that have to do with what’s happening now? Shouldn’t we first discuss the issues here?"

Lille looked at the governor...

He wasn’t lying, he genuinely didn’t understand and also lacked sensitivity to such issues.

If he cared, he would have immediately checked the impact of the fluctuation.

But no matter, someone would understand, and the governor was just one representative of the opposition party.

"Okay," Lille nodded, "I get it, but this soldier has to attend. The ruling party’s promises are bullshit, it’s bad enough that my witness is suffocating, but I won’t have him lacking security."

The governor looked at Lille in surprise, "Of course... that’s possible, but you’re doing this for someone you’ve hardly met..."

"Reputation is something you build yourself," Lille continued, "and besides, don’t you think that a soldier with such distinguished service, no matter if his actions were unforgivable...

...is expected to act without self-awareness, isn’t he? And now Mei Country wants to betray him."

This made the governor’s expression complicated, and he sighed, "If we were in power, it definitely wouldn’t be like this."

In the end, he patted Lille on the shoulder, "Also, if you want to get involved in politics, you’ve got to learn to be disingenuous, this is no place for the honest."

Lille nodded, "Maybe, but I’m the kind who prefers to tell the truth."

"But there’s also good news today: remember those policies I promised? They’re in place now, and with the current network situation, I should probably also send you the infrastructure list."

"Much obliged."

The governor smiled and then looked towards the special care ward door. He was supposed to go in with Lille to confirm Frank’s thoughts.

But having said that, he felt it was fine to leave it to Lille.

This young man was receptive to advice and capable, just a bit young.

The sole request, for Frank to testify, wasn’t really excessive:

After all, if you want to coerce the other party into conceding interests, it naturally has to be convincing, the more convincing the better.

On balance, he might as well return to his job earlier, to prepare for the upcoming events.

This time, he was safe and it was time to reap the rewards.

So, he thought for a moment and said, "Never mind, I won’t go in then, I’ll leave this to you, I need to hurry back to California.

Before I leave, I’d like your opinion... do you think I’ll encounter an attack like the one before?"

Theoretically, Hydra should be too busy dealing with the server explosion to bother with this.

Still, Lille thought for a moment and said, "If you’re not at ease, I suggest hiring Xin’an Security. Their bodyguards are definitely more reliable than your men."

"Alright... I’ll consider it, it’s been a pleasure working with you, young man."

The governor showed a very cheerful smile, shook hands with Lille, and then turned to leave.

Lille opened the surgery door and strode in—

In the entire incident, Frank was the most seriously wounded, struck by three bullets; one hit his rib, while the other two hit near the spine.

He didn’t feel it at first, but after such intense activity for so long, it had caused nerve damage.

The strong man now lay in bed unable to move; thanks to advanced brain-computer interface technology, Lille had already cut off the nerve signals near the wound, blocking the pain.

Otherwise, Frank would pass out in a second.

His wife, shot in the lower abdomen and having lost a lot of blood, was already saved and resting in another bed.

Their two children were dozing by their mother’s bedside.

Frank, however, lay with his eyes open.

"I guess... you’re here to persuade me to selectively tell the truth, and then you’ll give me some benefits," he said.

Lille sat down in front of Frank, smiling meaningfully, "So you’re pissed off."

"Of course I’m pissed off, not at you, just... I don’t know what to think," Frank said, his gaze hollow as he looked at the ceiling.

"Decades of service, countless near-death experiences, so much sacrifice, all for this.

I don’t want any benefits, just protect me and my family, and there are some teammates of mine..."

"Wait, don’t just babble on about yourself."

Lille grabbed an apple from the table and undid his suit.

The vulgar tone and sudden change in atmosphere caught Frank off guard as he lay in the bed.

His gaze was no longer hollow, one could even say he was bewildered.

Lille took a bite of the apple and casually rested his arm on the chairback.

"Since you’re pissed off... how about joining me and burning to ashes whatever it is that’s pissing you off?"