"Thaddeus..." Hans murmured, narrowing his eyes against the blinding spotlight.
Amidst the roaring hurricane force of the rotors, the two men exchanged a knowing smile. The absolute trust in their shared gazemunicated everything that needed to be said.
Standing at the edge of the helicopter''s open bay doors, Thaddeus was d head- to-toe in ck tactical gear. The tight fabric clung to his lean, explosive muscles, exuding a predatory dominance. Paired with dark cargo pants andbat boots, he looked like a weapon forged in the shadows. Framed by the brilliant moonlight, his rugged, chiseled silhouette was as sharp and intimidating as a freshly drawn broadsword. Nobody in their right mind would dare challenge him.
"Heh. Not a bad look," Hans chuckled softly. The praise was genuine.
He had neverplimented anyone before.
Thaddeus would be honored.
The helicopter hovered unsteadily in the violent winds, but Thaddeus stood at the edge of the drop as though his boots were bolted to the floor, an immovable mountain.
He raised his assault rifle with terrifying, clinical precision.
His eyes locked onto his targets. He pulled the trigger.
One shot. Two shots. Three shots.
Three shots, three men dropped.
He didn''t shoot to kill, but he made absolutely sure they would never get back up.
Even in the pitch ck of the forest, his aim was infallible, hitting the exact incapacitating points he aimed for.
This was the lethal, innate skill of a top-tier military academy graduate.
The helicopter descended just enough to kick out a ropedder.
"Get up here!" Thaddeusmanded, his eyes zing as he reached a hand down toward Hans.
Hans didn''t hesitate. He scaled thedder quickly.
Tworge hands mped together, as tightly bonded as the two fiercely beating hearts inside their chests.
The moment Hans''s feet left the ground, tears stung his eyes.
Light.
The man pulling him aboard was the dawn of his salvation.
This was the closest he had ever been to the light.
The deafening sirens threw the entire facility into absolute anarchy. The guards were running around like headless chickens.
"Damn it... What the hell is going on?!" Alexia roared, her face twisted in rage as she red at the wall of security monitors.
"Ms... Ms. Alexia! There are SWAT teams everywhere! The police have surrounded the perimeter!" a panicked guard screamed as he burst into themand center.
Another operative sprinted in,
shaking like a leaf. "Ms. Alexia! Hans
and 072 escaped! Hans was
extracted by a helicopter! The pilot
was the former CEO of the
Abernathy group... Thaddeus Abernathy!"
"I should have known... I should have known!"
Alexia was hysterical, mming her fists repeatedly against the console. "That ungrateful traitor! He was
Working with Thaddeus this whop..
time! Sir saved his life, trained him, trusted him, and this is how be repays it?!"
The guards pleaded frantically, "Ms. Alexia, what are our orders?!"
Suddenly remembering something, Alexia spun around and sprinted down the hall toward Elsie''s room.
When she threw the door open, two guards were already there.
Elsie was gone. In her cey the bruised, cold corpse of a female test subject.
"Ms. Alexia... the woman is gone..." the guard muttered, wiping sweat from his forehead.
Blind with rage, Alexia lunged forward and viciously pped both of them across the face.
"Useless trash! You''re all a bunch of ipetent failures!"
She had anticipated Hans might try to extract Elsie in the chaos, but she never imagined someone else in the facility would turn against her and aid his escape!
"Ms. Alexia! What do we do?! You have to make a call!" The situation was deteriorating rapidly, and the mercenaries were panicking.
"Grab the core data drives. Destroy everything else."
Alexia squeezed her eyes shut. When she opened them, they were as bloodshot and manic as a demon''s. "Execute every single test subject. Leave no survivors!"
The guards shuddered, a bone-deep chill washing over them!
In this subterraneanb, the captives ranged from seventy-year-old seniors to fifteen-year-old kids.
But to this vicious, cold-blooded psychotic woman, those living, breathing people were nothing more thanb rats. Their lives were entirely worthless!
"If the cops rescue these people, they instantly be witnesses against us. You''ve all participated in these experiments. Do you want to stand trial?"
Alexia''s dead eyes swept across the pale faces of her men. "Every single one of you has blood on your hands. If you get caught, you get the death penalty. If you don''t want to die, you do exactly what I say!"