Chapter 958: Shiler's

After Shiler got into the FBI vehicle, silence filled the car. Shiler's complexion was sallow, and his breathing was extremely rapid. The escort agent sitting beside him finally couldn't help but ask, "What's wrong with you? Do you need medication?"

"I have a very severe stress response. You must... must immediately provide me with a sufficient amount of sedative medication, otherwise, I cannot guarantee that I will be alive to see your superiors..." Shiler said while panting.

The driver didn't hesitate at all. He immediately picked up the communicator and said, "Send someone to the hospital to get a sufficient amount of sedative medication."

After saying that, he turned his head to observe Shiler's symptoms and then added, "Make it a potent sedative, targeted at mania and nervous agitation..."

"Thank you, you're even more professional than my students." Shiler tilted his head back and leaned against the headrest of the back seat.

The agents' attitude was actually quite good. A female agent sitting in the passenger seat said, "Just hold on a little longer. We must take you to our temporary base first before we can administer the medication."

Shiler had already closed his eyes, using the Gray Mist to suppress his nervous agitation. However, because it was a psychogenic nervous reaction, as long as the stimulus remained, the agitation would not stop. Specific symptoms included hyperventilation, limb tremors, and elevated blood pressure.

Just as Shiler was leaning against the backrest with a pale face, the female agent in the passenger seat whispered to the driver, "Scott, under these circumstances, can we put a hood on him? That would easily lead to apnea, right? If he goes into shock, we don't have any emergency measures..."

After saying that, she glanced at the road outside and said, "The streets are full of broccoli now; we can't even drive fast. If he really goes into shock, we won't even be able to take him to the hospital."

"There is equipment in the car; monitor his heart rate and blood pressure. If the reaction is really intense, then don't use the hood. Anyway, he won't have the energy to pay attention to where he's being taken," Scott, who was driving, replied.

"But..." the female agent looked back at Shiler again and said, "What if he's faking it? He's a very formidable psychologist; he might be able to hypnotize himself to produce these symptoms..."

"But we can't gamble." Scott manipulated the steering wheel to avoid a piece of broccoli and slowly turned a corner, saying, "Regardless of whether his claimed identity is true or not, we have already reported it. We must deliver him safely to Washington. If any mishaps occur on the way, it will be our responsibility."

"He can die, but he absolutely cannot die at our hands. From the moment he revealed his identity, our mission became to ensure his safety by any means possible."

"Fine, you're the expert, so be it." The female agent looked left and right and said, "No, we can't get through ahead. Let's find a route here."

The car slowly came to a stop. The female agent in the passenger seat was the first to get out to scout the situation. After a while, she returned, knocked on the car window, and said, "Get out, follow me."

After the escort agent on the left got out, the one on the right also wanted to get out, but Shiler sat in place without moving at all.

This agent looked back at him, then said to the female agent, "No, I'm afraid he has lost the ability to move. We have to drive the car as close to the stronghold as possible; otherwise, if he faints halfway, there will be great danger."

The female agent hammered the car window and said, "Fine, I'll direct you to back the car into that alley. There's an entrance there."

Scott sat back in the driver's seat. Under the female agent's direction, the car backed into the alley. In a daze, Shiler felt himself being dragged out of the car. In a blur, he saw a sewer entrance appear before him.

Even though he was feeling so unwell that his mind was unclear, he still spoke up: "I really didn't expect your base to be in a sewer. It's not the era where you call spies 'moles' anymore, is it? Sewer pests?"

The female agent was so angry she hammered the wall hard. She looked at the driver beside her and said, "He's this weak, yet he still doesn't forget to insult people?! Are all psychologists like him? People are about to die, yet their mouths are still this tough?!"

"Calm down, Laurena. I hope he has this much to say during interrogation," the driver said coldly, then opened the sewer entrance. The group entered the sewer.

Less than two minutes after they left, a pitch-black figure appeared above the alley wall.

When Batman first jumped down, he didn't discover anything unusual in this alley because all traces here had been cleaned up. Like all dark alleys in Cat Getan, it was gloomy and cramped, with a broken car parked in the middle of the road.

However, the tracking device installed on Shiler's raincoat showed the destination was right here. Batman jumped down from the roof of the car and realized something was wrong: this alley was too clean.

Everyone knew that in a city like Cat Getan, it was hard to expect anyone to have civic virtue. The vast majority of people wouldn't care whether they stepped on flowers or grass on the side of the road while driving or walking, let alone deliberately clean up their muddy footprints.

Yet, in this alley, not only were there no footprints from getting in or out of the car, but the weeds on the ground and the moss on the road showed no signs of being damaged. This was not something that group of burly truck drivers could have done.

Batman often heard some tavern owners describe Cat Getan's truck drivers as being like one road roller after another; no matter where they went, they would leave the place in a mess. Having lived in the slums for a period of time, Batman knew they were right. Expecting this group of people to be clean and tidy was definitely wishful thinking.

However, although there was a semi-new pickup truck parked here, there were no traces of moving cargo, no footprints, no drunken vomit, no coughed-up phlegm, not even a cigarette butt. No matter how you looked at it, it was highly suspicious.

This alley had no place to hide people, and the most eye-catching thing was that sewer manhole cover. Batman walked over and discovered that the moss on the edge of the manhole cover also showed no signs of being damaged, but this didn't mean no one had touched it.

Batman alone knew at least three ways to move bricks or manhole covers without damaging the moss and weeds.

Discovering the manhole cover might be problematic, he didn't rush to pry it open directly. Instead, he followed the manhole's ventilation opening and lowered a night-vision monitoring device tied with a string.

Taking a screen out of his utility belt, Batman saw that the situation in the sewer was not unexpected: it was filled with dense ice, with no place for people to walk at all.

Batman narrowed his eyes, controlled the camera to rotate left and right, and then saw a very hidden small red dot amidst the darkness and ice layers.

He controlled the camera to zoom in and discovered that there seemed to be a power distribution room hidden behind the ice layer. At this moment, a certain device was flashing with a red light.

Cat Getan's sewer system was very vast and complex. When the floodwaters inundated it, not every place was breached immediately. There were some functional rooms built later with better quality that only had slight water seepage, and the ice layer wasn't thick, making them suitable for shelter.

The only problem was, how exactly did they get in? Batman frowned and began to think.

The power distribution room was separated from the sewer manhole entrance by a thick layer of dense ice. Batman didn't think they had the ability to break through this kind of ice layer, and even if they could break it, it would be impossible to restore it to its original state.

Confirming there was no danger below, Batman put away the monitoring equipment, opened the manhole cover, and jumped down himself.

When the floodwaters inundated it, the water rushing into this passage was wave-shaped. At the moment it froze, a certain amount of space remained below the sewer manhole entrance, which could accommodate Batman.

After he jumped down, he discovered that not only was there space above the ice layer, but there was also a very narrow gap on the side, right next to the power distribution room. Because the moment the water flow surged and froze, there was no water there, and consequently, no ice.

Sliding toward the narrow gap on the side and reaching the bottom, Batman discovered that someone had dug a hole here.

The wall at the door seam of the power distribution room had been dug open, and there was a hole on the side of the wall slanting downward, just wide enough for one person to pass through. Under the cover of the ice layer, this hole could not be seen from near the sewer entrance.

After taking a look at the nearby support structure, Batman understood that this hole had not been dug in a day or two. Had the Federal Bureau of Investigation really gone to such lengths just to control Cat Getan?

Batman turned on his flashlight and walked inside, but the further he went, the more Batman felt something was wrong. Logically speaking, the soil quality under Cat Getan was not this solid; to dig such a long tunnel, they would definitely need to use various wooden or metal structures to support the tunnel.

However, this path was very complete, without any support, yet it had not collapsed at all. Batman reached out to touch the walls of the underground passage and discovered that they were very dry, not even seeping water at all.

In a city with abundant groundwater resources, frequent rain, and terrible drainage facilities, this was almost impossible.

Batman immediately became vigilant because he knew that with his current engineering level, it was almost impossible to achieve this—to strike such a long passage deep underground without any support structures and have it not collapse, and without any waterproofing measures and have it not seep water at all. He could not do it, and naturally, the Federal Bureau of Investigation could not either.

Continuing along the passage, he arrived at another sewer entrance. There was still a thick layer of ice here, but there were still gaps leading to another passage that continued downward.

Just as Batman's figure disappeared into the dark passage, light suddenly appeared before Schiller's eyes. Led by the agents, he had taken many turns and walked for who knows how long, finally arriving back in a room with light.

He was brought to a chair in the center of the room, then looked up at the agent and said, "When will my medicine arrive? I hope you all had better move a little faster. I mean, if I recover my condition as soon as possible, you can take me to catch a plane and leave here, otherwise..."

Schiller shook his head, then said weakly, "The reason you all created so many tunnels under Cat Getan is nothing more than because you have no way to attack this city from the surface, which also means you are clear about how much danger is here."

"I must remind you all that if you want to get me out of this city, you will very likely face extremely great danger... *cough cough*..." Schiller gasped for breath a few more times and continued, "I hope that in the upcoming journey, you can trust me. Only I can lead you out of here, otherwise... *cough cough cough*..."

"Go find him some medicine quickly," the female agent said. "He has already started talking nonsense... Listen, Mr. Rodriguez, we do indeed have to take you away from here, because this place does not meet the conditions for interrogation."

"But how we are going to leave and where we are going are things only we can decide. You are just a prisoner right now."

"You had better take deep breaths quickly to alleviate your symptoms; your heart rate has already reached the edge of danger." The female agent walked up, checked Schiller's pupils, looked at the reading on the heart rate monitoring device worn on his wrist, and shook her head.

She stepped back two paces and said to the two agents nearby, "Call and urge the agents who went to get the medicine again. Tell them to hurry up. By the way, prepare some blood pressure and heart rate stabilizing medication; we cannot let him die here..."

"Boom! Boom! Boom!"

A continuous series of huge sounds and tremors came from a place very close to this room. Instantly, everyone was a bit unsteady on their feet, and the chair Schiller was sitting on was shaken directly to the ground.

"What's going on?!

What is making that sound?!

" The female agent, Laurenna, looked around. One of the agents said loudly, "This sounds like engineering blasting! Someone is blowing up the sewers!"

Schiller crawled up from the ground, knelt halfway in place to recover his strength, then gritted his teeth and said, "Take me away quickly! This place is collapsing, and none of us will be able to run! Don't tell me that when you were digging rat holes, you didn't even prepare emergency exits..."

Laurenna seemed to have just reacted, saying, "Oh, right! Quickly, support him! We'll go out the back door, hurry!"

Just as the agents were supporting Schiller and trying to head toward the back door, Schiller broke free from them, swayed as he leaned against the wall, pointed at the center of the room, and said with his eyes closed, "Start a fire... build a fire... hurry!

!"

"What are you doing? Leave here quickly!

" Laurenna shouted very anxiously. She looked up at the ceiling and said, "This place is going to collapse!"

"Light the fire quickly!

!

"

Laurenna and a few agents stepped forward and found that they really couldn't pull Schiller away. She had no choice but to dismantle the wooden chair and then use ignition powder to light a fire.

Amidst the thick smoke, Schiller was choked into coughing continuously, but he still used the fastest speed to take off his raincoat, remove his watch, and take off all extra accessories on his body except for his tie, throwing them all into the fire.

When Batman followed the passage created by the explosion and arrived in this room, he discovered that Schiller was not here, and the signal tracking Schiller's location had completely disappeared.