Chapter 1498: The Gunner and the Builder

Wearing a protective mask, Zheng Kui could not only not see Xia Qing hidden up high, but also could not see the disaster-relief personnel running back and forth. His entire attention was on his own task, as if it were the only meaningful thing in the world.

Whether it was dangerous or not held no meaning whatsoever for Zheng Kui, who had already given up on life. Seeing his state, Xia Qing knew that what she had told Zheng Kui last time about joining the Ninth Center had not affected him in the slightest; he was still taking on the most dangerous missions, calmly awaiting death.

Whether to keep living was Zheng Kui's own business; whether he could be paired with Ye Yiyi to form a family was something Zhang Shi ought to consider. Xia Qing shifted her gaze, searching for dangerous targets that might exist within the mission area.

Just like at the Agricultural Department, Liehuo's people failed to get through the research institute's main gate, so they used a garbage truck to detonate several bombs, blasting the institute's gate and gatehouse to pieces.

Garbage trucks and cleaning vehicles both belong to the sanitation department, which indicates there must be a Liehuo mole inside the sanitation department.

It hasn't even been a year since Hui-3's former deputy base commander Tang Zhengrong and former First Squad's Sufeng fell from power. The explosives Liehuo used this time might have been hidden inside the safe zone before they went down. Even if they weren't, it wouldn't be difficult for their mole in the sanitation department to get explosives into the safe zone.

In an age where people will risk their lives for a single bag of rice, building a city security barrier as tight as the one before the cataclysm in a safe zone with over 1.8 million people is far too difficult.

Besides the sanitation department, Liehuo definitely has a mole inside the Hui-3 Research Institute as well. This mole received word when the meeting at the Hui-3 Agricultural Department adjourned, and called the revenge targets here to the main gate, which is why the bombs at the Agricultural Department and the research institute could detonate in succession.

A starved camel is still bigger than a horse. Liehuo, which has long occupied the top spot on Hui City's squad rankings, has deep roots and a thick trunk, and the connections it has accumulated over the years should not be underestimated. However, after this bombing incident, Liehuo's moles in the sanitation department and the research institute definitely won't be able to stay hidden.

Were the Hui-2, Hui-5, and Hui-8 bombings also orchestrated single-handedly by Liao Wendong? Liehuo's performance in this retaliatory operation strongly suggests they're planning to scatter after this one job. Is Liao Wendong really dead? What roles did Fire Phoenix and Qu Fangzhou play in this attack?

While Xia Qing was mulling over these questions, she saw a person suddenly stand up in a window of a building two hundred meters away!

With no time to shoot the target, Xia Qing grabbed the sniper rifle in one hand and He Zhongzhen in the other, and leapt straight off the rooftop. Before she even hit the ground, the position where they had been hiding was hit by a rocket and exploded violently.

After landing, Xia Qing rolled into the corridor, set He Zhongzhen down, checked the sniper rifle while issuing orders: "We've been locked on by the enemy. You stay here and hide; I'll go clear the target."

"It's too dangerous for you to go alone. I'll go with you—I can help draw the enemy's attention." Spotter He Zhongzhen stared wide-eyed at a fixed point ahead, took a deep breath, trying to quickly shake off the dizziness and regain dynamic combat capability.

Xia Qing slung the sniper rifle across her back and ordered expressionlessly: "You stay put and report the situation—say I'm with you. Then contact the research institute's disaster-relief commander directly and have him send people to distract the target hiding in Building C-9. I'll go clear that target myself."

"Yes, ma'am!"

Still dizzy, He Zhongzhen watched Xia Qing's swaying back, her excitement rising to the point of wanting to scream. This is killing me—how can their top sniper be this cool?!

Seeing Xia Qing flash across the road, Zheng Kui, who was clearing obstacles, finally showed some change in expression.

After crossing the road, Xia Qing hugged the wall and ran forward in a crouch for a few steps, then climbed through a window into Building C-8. She chose this route because it was in the blind spot of the target hiding in Building C-9, and also in the blind spot of any spotter who might have her in his sights.

Why does Xia Qing know this terrain so well? Because both Building C-8 and Building C-9 were built by her and her crew!

She and He Zhongzhen had been at the mission site less than two minutes before being attacked, and the gunner who attacked them couldn't possibly have spotted them from that window.

For this to happen, either a spotter in a better position reported Xia Qing's location to the gunner, or there's a traitor in the disaster-relief team who told the gunner where Xia Qing was.

Either way, Xia Qing is now in a dangerous situation, and using a sniper rifle to take out the gunner inside Building C-9 will be very difficult.

In that case, she'll just go over and finish him off directly.

Building C-9 is the research institute's waste-handling station, specially used for the temporary storage and treatment of hazardous waste—chemical, biological, radiological, and so on—generated during experiments. The building contains quite a bit of specialized leak-prevention and environmental treatment equipment, which is also why Xia Qing didn't let the commander send people in immediately.

Engaging in combat inside this building could cause hazardous waste to leak, triggering a chain of risks.

Building C-9's main gate was tightly shut and heavily guarded; entering through the front would alert the gunner hiding inside, so Xia Qing went in from underground. She pulled open a basement door in Building C-8, quickly passed through stacks of boxes of supplies, stopped in front of a wall, and pushed hard with her hand. The clean, smooth wall split open with a crack.

From the outside, C-8 and C-9 look six meters apart, but in reality they were built together as two buildings, and the basements were poured as one. The non-load-bearing wall in front of Xia Qing was the only passage from the C-8 basement to the C-9 basement.

Just then, Zheng Kui jumped off the obstacle-clearing vehicle with a chainsaw and began sawing through a large tree lying across the road.

Using the chainsaw noise as cover, Xia Qing quickly, with minimal sound, knocked a hole in the wall she had built with her own hands, entered C-9's power distribution room, and cut off the entire building's electricity supply. Then she moved swiftly through the building, stopped outside the room where the gunner was most likely hiding, and listened intently.

In the brief gap when the chainsaw noise paused, Xia Qing heard heavy human breathing inside, and the faint metallic scraping "clack" of metal parts.

The gunner who had attacked her was indeed hiding here, loading ammunition or assembling/disassembling a weapon. He was highly agitated—that was why his breathing was so heavy.

Here, things would be easy.

To non-construction personnel, the walls inside a building all look solid and reliable, so people hiding indoors will stay away from doors and windows and tuck themselves into corners. But in the eyes of Xia Qing, who built this building, not every wall is solid and reliable—and the person inside clearly didn't know that.

Level 6.5 strength evolver Xia Qing found the right point to apply force and shoved forward hard; the wall before her collapsed with a rumble.

The gunner, who was in the middle of loading a shell, didn't even have time to react before his intended target smashed his neck with a brick.

After killing the target, Xia Qing quickly searched his body, confirmed there was no detonation device, then swept the entire three-story building before pressing the walkie-talkie button: "The target hiding in Building C-9 has been cleared. Specialists are needed to come handle the cleanup."

"Copy that," the research institute's disaster-relief commander replied. "The special-ops squad assigned to protect you will arrive at the C-9 main gate in two minutes. The base commander orders you to withdraw from combat."

Close combat is not a top sniper's strong suit; Hui-3 Base's precious combat strength absolutely cannot be lost in this incident.