Chapter 202: Breakout from Desperate Situation
Lu Zhao held the lock box and panted. He heard short reports from the main control room coming from the intercom. Su Wanqing's legs were still stained with oil, and the iron door behind her was illuminated by the alarm lights.
Lin Che moved quickly, blocking the two of them with his body. Without further ado, he grasped Su Wanqing's arm with his right hand, and spoke in a low voice that only a few people could hear: "The passage is blocked, and we are being pursued from all directions. The roads to the north and west are all blocked, so we can only go down."
Su Wanqing frowned, lowered her head to look at the jade bracelet, and her fingers brushed across the embedded small screen, and the light spots connected into a string of data.
She brought the jade bracelet close to Lu Zhao's handheld terminal, and their devices flashed.
After the data was compared, the screen clearly showed that the main channel had fallen into red alert and all the backup channels had warning symbols lit up.
A voice came through the intercom: "Team one, medical area cleared. Team two, underground engineering has been cleared, prepare to attack the north side."
Lu Zhao stared at the map and gritted his teeth: "Three teams rush over directly. The main control room is completely sealed, and the ventilation shaft and elevator are out of the question."
Su Wanqing fastened the jade bracelet again: "The noise is too loud, they are using high-pressure tactics. You two come closer here first." She leaned against the metal wall and subconsciously touched her waist bag.
The alarm sounded again. Lu Zhao took out a loudspeaker from the toolbox and lowered his voice: "There is an abandoned maintenance well on the northernmost side, but no one has ever walked through this area on the engineering map."
Lin Che stared at his surroundings quietly without saying anything. His breathing was extremely slow, and veins on his clenched fists were bulging.
He suddenly pulled the two of them and knocked lightly three times on the half-bent wall.
A rusty panel not far away popped open. He tried to pry open the entrance as lightly as possible.
Su Wanqing used the jade bracelet to scan the surroundings and found no high-energy signal leakage.
Lu Zhao took a deep breath, and the three of them went in one after another.
The inside of the pipe was slippery and cramped, and every meter forward one could hear chaotic footsteps and metal collisions in the distance.
Less than 30 meters later, a huge cloud of dust hit us in the face. The entire pipeline had sunk halfway, and two pieces of iron sheets had collapsed in irregular patterns.
Lu Zhao knocked with a tool: "A few meters further is a dead end. This place can't hold out for too long."
Lin Che looked around calmly, without any hesitation, "There is something we can try with this passage."
He reached out and pried up a broken support beam, making just enough space for his body to fit through.
Su Wanqing lowered her head and opened the jade bracelet. She slid her fingertips to call up the application, and the emergency reinforcement liquid stored in the material area immediately flashed on the interface.
She pressed the instant button, and a can of polymer emergency glue stored in the jade bracelet seeped out of the nozzle and quickly coated the landslide fulcrum.
Half a minute later, the colloid solidified into a transparent block and the pipe was held up with difficulty.
Lu Zhao immediately got through, his body hurt by the iron sheet. He waved back.
Su Wanqing used her hands and feet to crawl forward, panting all the way. Behind her, Lin Che held the two of them steadily and was the last one to get through.
A few people got out at the last second before the landslide, and a slight rumbling sound and a slight collapse sound were heard behind them.
As soon as he climbed out of the landslide area, Lu Zhao's terminal suddenly popped up an alarm.
"The heat signal from the rear is approaching. It's the special forces team. They are carrying new equipment."
Su Wanqing panted very quietly, "Thermal imaging, they can track them into the pipes."
There were noisy footsteps coming from the front, and the sound of military communications could be heard faintly.
"No target in sight thirty meters ahead, keep moving forward."
Lin Che slowly turned her head and looked back, "Two minutes, a team will catch up."
The pipe outlet was facing a half-open inspection well. Su Wanqing massaged her wrist while taking out the jade bracelet.
She reminded in a low voice: "We have to hurry up, it's dangerous to leave the exit now."
Lu Zhao's fingers were trembling, and just as he was about to speak, a strong beam of infrared light swept across the crack in the side wall.
A flashlight was lit and shone into the inspection well in an instant, and three special forces soldiers were approaching silently.
The other party walked steadily, their red goggles flickered in the darkness, and their movements were calm as they scanned the surroundings. Each of them had a brand-new model of suppressed firearms and capture net guns on his waist.
Lin Che lowered his head, his voice extremely hoarse: "Don't make a sound."
He ducked and rushed out, but before the first special forces soldier could pull the trigger, Lin Che punched him in the shoulder.
He simply knocked the other person over with his shoulder, slid along the ground, and knocked the thermal imaging device out of the second soldier's hand.
As soon as the third person pulled the safety, Lin Che's hands were extremely fast. He twisted the opponent's capture net gun with one hand, and then used his backhand to hit the opponent's posterior cervical ganglion, knocking him down.
The whole action took less than ten seconds. Lin Che's breathing became irregular, and he wiped the corners of his lips fiercely with his sleeve, leaving a few drops of red between his fingers.
He shook his head and blocked the entrance to the passage: "Keep going, don't stop."
Su Wanqing glanced at his red palms, but she didn't mention it. She just urged Lu Zhao to drag the special forces' equipment into a hidden place, and then lead the way out of the last section of the pipeline.
"There is an infrared heat source approaching behind the pipe, so we can only use the underground drainage system."
Lu Zhao held the lock box firmly under his armpit, tilted his head and asked, "Can you hold on?"
Lin Che didn't respond. "If you can leave, leave."
When they reached the end of the water pipe, Su Wanqing saw a drainage well. Without hesitation, she inserted the second energy core into the interface of the jade bracelet.
The jade bracelet suddenly emitted a blue light, illuminating the entire drainage well.
She was stunned for a moment, the blue light formed a straight circle, and the jade bracelet screen switched automatically, revealing several unfamiliar operating interfaces.
The capacity of the "Storage" column doubled, and a "Memory Bank" module lit up for two seconds. She hurriedly downloaded part of the data, and a string of garbled characters froze in place.
"The jade bracelet has plenty of space, so I can use it." Su Wanqing reported in a low voice.
Lu Zhao held onto the wall of the well, and before he could take a closer look at the string of data, he spotted a rusty iron door on the left and pushed it open hastily.
“This one isn’t new, but it’s still alive, and behind it is an abandoned drainage area.”
Lin Che supported himself against the wall with one hand and paused for a moment, a little more blood seeping out from the corner of his lips.
His movements slowed down, and his hand holding the knife trembled slightly, but he did not retreat. Su Wanqing noticed that his breathing was getting heavier, and his chest was rising and falling slightly.
Without saying much, she handed all the first aid supplies in her hand to Lu Zhao, who then took out her jade bracelet and adjusted it to the maximum lighting setting.
After turning into the drainage channel, the three of them were choked by the sewage. Behind the iron door was a low passage with discarded sensor parts embedded on the top and old water marks all around. Only the blue light from the jade bracelet was still bright.
The end of the pipe was blocked by a fallen steel plate, but there was still a little space left.
The exit in front was not far away. Just as Lu Zhao was about to speed up his pace, he heard a slight gasp from behind him.
Lin Che bent over and kicked away a piece of iron plate. His eyes were a little dark and his lips were lighter than before.
"Here, you can go out."
Lu Zhao quickened his pace and looked back at Lin Che. He said in a low voice: "Your injury... don't care?"
Lin Che raised his hand to stop him, then looked up at Su Wanqing with a calm and restrained look: "Su Wanqing——"
He paused, as if thinking about every word. "This core is not an ordinary energy source, it is also a key. Once you have collected it, don't let anyone influence you, no matter who it is, including me."
He coughed as he said this, blood oozing out from his lips. He held onto a support pole, gritted his teeth, tore off the rusty door handle, and slammed hard against the old iron door on the outside.
The wall was shaken off, and the iron door burst open with a creaking noise. Outside was an open channel that ran across the entire ground floor, and Lu Zhao was the first to jump out, dragging Su Wanqing with him.
Lin Che followed suit, his physical strength reaching its limit. He took another step forward, leaning against the wall of the tube, blood rolling down his fingertips.
In the distance, a new team of armed men were chasing after him, and the noise was dense. Su Wanqing resisted the urge to help Lin Che, and buckled the jade bracelet in her hand, whispering: "Hurry... over there!"
Several people staggered out of the abandoned drainage area. No one dared to stop, and they could only grope forward along the narrowest line.
Lu Zhao held the lock box tightly in his hands, his lips tightly pursed. Su Wanqing deliberately squeezed the jade bracelet. The data she had just downloaded was stuck on the initial interface. She clicked on the "memory library" to see a few blurry short videos, but the content was incomplete.
"It would be nice to have a little more information." She muttered subconsciously, her voice very soft.
Lu Zhao heard it, but said nothing. He just urged her to concentrate on running away.
Not far away, the footsteps of the pursuers behind him gradually faded away, but the alarm and communication continued.
When the last section of the open channel ramp closed on the ground, the three people were finally free.
Lu Zhao leaned on a broken pipe, turned on the main control device, and put the lock box into his arms.
Lin Che's movements were even slower. His right palm was gripping the broken handle, blood seeping from between his fingers, but he did not say anything and did not hesitate at all.
Su Wanqing was still catching her breath when she suddenly turned around and saw Lin Che stopped at the exit of the open channel. He gritted his teeth and said coldly, "The way out is now completely blocked."
After he finished speaking, he put his hands on the wall and ran towards the last iron gate blocking the way due to inertia.
The iron door was finally deformed. Lin Che's breathing was uneven and his body shook twice.
He barely opened a small gap to leave room for the two to pass through.
Lu Zhao didn't waste any words and pushed Su Wanqing out first. The light outside could only see the shadows on the opposite side. He walked in front with the lock box on his back.
Lin Che lowered his head, wiped the blood from the corner of his lips with his sleeve, and turned his back to Su Wanqing.
The other side of the passage is the safe zone at the edge of the building. Finally, his back became stiffer than before, but his voice was a little heavy, "Let's go."
Su Wanqing exited the passage, and Lu Zhao was sorting out the lock box. Lin Che finally moved to the exit, kicked away the debris, looked back at Su Wanqing, but said nothing.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
