Chapter 499

"!"

The woman stopped in her tracks, pressed the documents against her white coat, tried hard to appear calm, and controlled her rapid breathing.

"It's okay." Sofia muttered to herself, "I'm looking for the room of 'SCP-4051'. Is this it?"

The woman she was facing blinked slowly.

"Yes, this is Rainer's room. He..."

She paused, sized up Sofia's face for a while, and hesitated:

"Excuse me, have we met before?"

Sofia shrugged:

"I don't think so—I'm from an outside site, but I guess you work at Site-17?"

Hearing this news, the woman was visibly relieved; her tense back slumped slightly, her shoulders dropped, and her hands hung at her sides.

"Oh, right, I work in anomalous pediatrics—that is, pediatrics for containing anomalies, not within an anomalous field."

"Sorry, forgot to introduce myself, my name is Jules, Level 2 clearance."

"Nice to meet you!"

Sofia, Level 4 clearance, Site Director.

She nodded slightly, revealed a smile, and introduced herself:

"Sofia... are there any rules against coming here?"

"Uh, not officially, no."

Jules kept shifting her weight, probably wondering if she should try to escape again.

"But you know what management is like—well, I guess you don't."

"Management usually transfers those people to investigate Rainer's... situation."

Sofia frowned:

"Did they give any special reason?"

Jules shrugged:

"I haven't been transferred yet, so if they did, I wouldn't know."

Sofia: "A lack of transparency doesn't seem very ideal."

"Fine, talk to me when you have a hammer."

Jules started fiddling with the documents again, clearly wanting to leave, but constrained by the Foundation's strict hierarchy, she had to stay.

Silence lingered.

Sofia walked away from the wooden door, her gaze falling on the young man sleeping on the hospital bed, her tone very puzzled:

"Why is he here instead of being contained?"

Even for a Safe-class anomaly, the treatment location would only be a containment cell, not a regular hospital room that had absolutely no suppression capability for anomalies.

Like this room, the anomaly in front of her.

This was very much against the rules.

In a certain site, a sleeping Level 5 reality bender created a very large space.

Can't understand what the high-level staff at Site-17 are thinking.

Being with this bunch of vermin, one cannot build the Foundation well!

Sofia's casual question, however, caused Jules's heart rate to climb straight up.

She exhaled sharply behind Sofia and didn't inhale for several seconds.

Making Sofia suspect for a moment whether this anomalous pediatrician had quietly left the room.

While her back was turned to her.

"He... his ability is a bit troublesome..." Jules said, "Have you read his file?"

"I have." Sofia replied, still looking at the young man in front of her.

"Ah..." Jules touched her neck awkwardly, not expecting the other party to be prepared.

· ·Seeking flowers··· 0

She paused, returned to the bedside, and looked down at the sleeping "SCP-4051."

"RAISA chose to focus on my connection with him. I've been his therapist for about a year."

"He... can pull small objects out of portals."

"However, he can also pull out the inversion of an object, thereby destroying the original, which also brings some complex problems to containment."

A very dangerous ability... Sofia nodded:

"And yet he is considered a temporary asset."

Jules took a deep breath and made up her mind.

She raised her head, met Sofia's questioning gaze, and tried to state the facts calmly:

"Management sometimes transports him away from the site, so it's easier to just leave him here."

"They sedate him until they need to use him, and then put him back down below."

"I don't know what they want to use him for, because they never let me know, but—"

Sofia stared at her:

"Jules."

"Yeah?"

Countless thoughts were swimming in Sofia's mind.

She was trembling, shaking, asking herself simple questions without answers over and over again, until they became white noise in her soul.

The buzzing of medical equipment roared in her ears, instantly flashing and striking her from all directions.

She gritted her teeth, straightened her back, and forced her clenched fingers to her sides.

0..........

She asked a question:

"Do you think what's happening here is okay?"

The tone was slow, steady, and not hard to hear clearly.

Jules hesitated before answering:

"I don't."

Sofia bit the inside of her lip gently; she wouldn't leave the bedside until she got an answer.

"Do you think there's a better way to handle this?"

"I... hey? Are you okay, Sofia?" Jules was a bit hesitant.

Sofia faced Jules, her eyes begging to hear the last sentence.

"Then if you were in management, you would do something, right?"

"Well, not—"

Sigh... Sofia shook her head.

She strode forward, grabbed the door handle, pulled the door open, stepped into the corridor, and then looked back to meet Jules's confused and concerned gaze.

"I've done well enough. Thank you for joking with me."

She smiled at the pediatrician, closed the door, and walked back to the tarmac.

The helicopter flew low over the tundra, leaving Site-17 behind the horizon.

Although the northern blizzard showed no signs of abating when they first descended, the afternoon sun still shone unobstructed into the pasture area below Sofia's transport plane.

Her phone vibrated in her front pocket.

She pulled it out absentmindedly, flipped it open, and answered the call from the only person who would call her now.

"Hello, Vaux."

The words spilled from her mouth almost effortlessly.

"I'm returning from Site-17."

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"Ah, that's great!"

Her assistant paused, perhaps scribbling the information on a stack of paper.

"What did you learn about that child?"

Sofia shrugged to herself, looking out the side window at the passing scenery.