The confession agent was prepared before his trip to China, but based on experience, this drug could not provide highly precise details and contained a certain degree of misleading information. Worse, sometimes the confession agent would not immediately make the subject recall all answers, but would slowly take effect over a week; it was not a very convenient interrogation tool.
If he had not been at his wit’s end, he would not have resorted to such a method.
Si Nan began to struggle in a daze, causing the handcuffs to jingle, but was firmly pressed down by Romuel.
“Where is the ultimate antibody?” He gripped Si Nan’s sweat-soaked chin, preventing him from turning away: “The shockproof freezer you carried after your plane crash, where is the ultimate antibody inside?”
Si Nan moaned, his eyelids barely opening, unable to see anything clearly.
“Did you inject it?” Romuel asked repeatedly in both Chinese and English, forcing him to look at him: “Did you inject the antibody?”
Antibody… Ultimate antibody…
Si Nan gasped, as if floating in the deep sea, with boundless waters isolating all sounds, seeping into his body through every pore, squeezing his internal organs into a ball.
“No antibody,” he heard a plaintive female voice slowly say.
In a trance, he became very small, with the Twelve Disciples looking down at him through the church’s stained glass windows. To look higher, he would need to completely bend his neck to see the white carved cross piercing the sky.
A woman in black mourning dress held his hand, standing before a black pine wood coffin.
The priest asked: “Have you made up your mind, madam?”
“I pulled him back from hell, yet cannot completely bring him back to the living. He is neither alive nor dead. He wanders in my laboratory, day after day, autumn to winter, emitting lonely and resentful sobs…”
Tears flowed down her delicate face, wetting the white flowers on her chest.
“Pandora’s box has been opened, with disaster, plague, virus, and pain laughing wildly as they fly out, ultimately covering the earth before winter arrives, destroying the entire world before spring comes.”
“I am powerless. There is no antidote in the world to save all this, I can only personally close the box again…”
The woman stepped forward, took a black wooden box from the priest’s hand, opened it, and removed a green test tube about two fingers thick, placing it on the coffin before pulling a blazing torch from the wall.
Little Si Nan fearfully took half a step back.
In the firelight, the green tube looked like a snake’s fangs, gleaming with an attractive yet deadly light.
Suddenly, the door burst open. The woman turned in shock as a bullet flew through the air, knocking the torch from her hand.
Soldiers rushed into the church, with cries and curses drowning everything out. Si Nan was knocked down in the escaping crowd, and soldiers pounced like wolves, snatching the test tube from the woman’s hand.
“Report, report, virus original liquid successfully obtained…”
“Run!” The woman’s piercing roar cut through the chaos: “Quickly run—!”
Si Nan only remembered the ground constantly trembling, which was actually him stumbling backward. The last scene before his consciousness completely disappeared was soldiers opening the freezer, carefully placing the green test tube in the swirling white mist.
On the freezer lid was cast a white eagle with spread wings, expressionless.
On the laboratory roof, the white eagle relief was etched on the metal ceiling.
The last drop of green liquid from the syringe was injected into the spine.
After minutes of silence, the dead body began to twitch, emitting a muffled, indistinct roar from deep in its chest.
Applause erupted, with experimental staff congratulating each other—the dead body staggered and fell, grabbing the nearest experimenter and biting their ankle!
Blood splashing, followed by frantic footsteps of escape.
Si Nan stood behind the glass wall at the laboratory’s top, looking down at these people pounding the door, calling out in despair. The living dead discarded the half-eaten corpse, crawling toward them, trailing long black blood.
Si Nan raised his gun but hesitated to act until someone appeared behind him: “Noah.”
Si Nan pulled the trigger.
With a light whoosh, the zombie two or three steps from the terrified crowd was shot in the head, brains splattered on the ground.
“What were you just doing?” the newcomer asked coldly.
Si Nan did not answer, turned and threw away the empty gun, straightened his cuffs, and walked out.
However, as they passed, Romuel suddenly grabbed his collar, pressing him against the glass wall, staring closely into his indifferent eyes:
“You could have killed it the moment you discovered the experiment failed. Why did you hesitate?”
Si Nan remained silent.
“You deliberately watched that experimenter being bitten to death,” Romuel said softly, “because he had interrogated you when you were a child. Isn’t that right?”
After a long moment of eye contact, the corners of Si Nan’s mouth curved slightly.
“You’ve torn up my request to destroy the virus and terminate the experiment again, haven’t you?”
Romuel’s eyebrows twitched instantly.
“It doesn’t matter,” Sinan interrupted his unspoken defense, his voice carrying its usual slightly hoarse texture: “This is the last time anyway.”
Sinan broke free from restraint and walked toward the door. Romuel watched his straight back and shouted: “How many more times do I need to tell you, Noah! The ‘Pandora’ virus is a breakthrough in extending human life and resurrection. From now on, there will be no gods; humans can achieve eternity by themselves!”
Sinan did not look back.
“Your mother’s experiment failed because she didn’t unlock the final code of the virus. That is the key to the secret of immortality. Just like the last thing in Pandora’s box, hope – now is the time for humans to release it. Only by persisting can the final code…”
“There is no such thing,” Sinan said flatly, “That is not hope.”
Romuel crossed his arms, frowning, watching as Sinan turned his face slightly.
“The last thing left in the box is an unrealistic fantasy. In mythology, it paved the way to the hell managed by Aias.”
“Like everything you are doing today, when the box is opened again, the final code of the virus will bury humanity, dragging the entire world into hell…”
“But what does that have to do with me.” Sinan paused, and then surprisingly smiled again: “Anyway, I won’t die.”
Romuel stood frozen in place, watching him walk out steadily.
The campfire burned brightly, illuminating the hovering insects around the fire and the dark, dense forest within a few meters. The young man sat cross-legged by the fire. The special forces soldier walked back and forth setting up a hammock, repeatedly turning back and staring unblinkingly at his casual side profile.
The soldier set up the hammock and tested its stability. The young man watched his busy back contentedly, propping his chin.
The soldier laughed, walking over to ruffle the young man’s hair.
“I don’t want to sleep in the hammock,” the young man said, turning over by the fire with a berry pit in his mouth, speaking indistinctly.
“Why? Uncomfortable?”
“Cold.”
“Can’t be helped.”
The young man twisted around the campfire, surprisingly agile, dodging the soldier’s attempt to carry him to the hammock.
“Little classmate!” the soldier was helpless, touching his forehead: “What exactly do you want?”
In the firelight, the young man’s glass-like bright eyes rolled around, and he laughed: “I’ll sit here and keep watch. Give me the gun, you go sleep.”
Before he could finish, the soldier plopped down by the campfire and beckoned: “Come here.”
“What?”
“I’ll show you a magic trick.”
