Superhunt

Chapter 18: "High-end player"

"Yes," Jonathan touched the spider mask on his face that had been half shattered, "We just returned from a meeting, and someone tried to kill me on the way. There's no such coincidence in this world."

"Our companions can't possibly betray us!" Fox exclaimed in shock.

"Then why do you think someone wants to kill me? Just me?"

Fox stammered, pondering for a long time, "Because you are an undercover?"

This was his most special identity, Jonathan. He was the deputy commander of the port bombing mission, but others also played important roles in this mission. There was no reason for him to be the primary target. He was an undercover agent of the investigation department, only this identity was unusual and eye-catching.

"I speculate that there is a mole among those who attended the meeting tonight, and this mole is involved with the investigation department. The mole noticed my unusual identity from the meeting and decided to assassinate me," Jonathan said, "But there's a contradiction."

"What contradiction?" Fox couldn't follow Jonathan's train of thought.

Jonathan said, "One of the responsibilities of the investigation department is to eliminate Xenobiotics creatures, so how can they drive Xenobiotics creatures to parasitize the killer?"

The disgusting spider-like Xenobiotics creature parasitized the killer's brain. When the killer failed to complete the assassination mission, the Xenobiotics creature immediately killed him and ate his brain, liquefying his body without a trace. The Xenobiotics creature also dissipated with the death of the killer.

He had seen parasitic hydra before. The human body, parasitized by the parasitic hydra, is deformed, but tonight's killer could still talk normally after being parasitized and only died when the Xenobiotics creature came out.

Jonathan had reason to believe that the killer was a puppet controlled by the parasitic alien creature. Someone put the alien creature into the killer's body, so the killer did these things involuntarily under the parasitism of the alien creature.

Fox said he had never seen this type of spider-like Xenobiotics creature before.

Who was controlling this Xenobiotics creature? Who put the Xenobiotics creature into the killer's body?

Jonathan pondered this as he ascended to the third floor and checked near the window without glass. The view from the third floor was not wide, and the killer did not fire from there. He checked around the fourth floor again. When he got to the fifth floor, his instinct to avoid danger stopped him.

Jonathan thought momentarily and said to Fox, "I'm going over there. The window on the fifth floor is too open, and there's no cover; you shield me with a water curtain."

"Alright," Fox said.

He walked up the stairs to the window, bent over to search, and found a shell casing.

The killer fired from the second window on the west side of the fifth floor. Jonathan walked closer and found more shell casings under the window.

Fortunately, the killer was using a rifle. A single bullet could penetrate his alloy skull if he had used a high-performance sniper rifle like the K80.

Jonathan stood in front of the wide-open window, completely exposed.

Suddenly, the "Danger Avoidance" was triggered again! The red dot of a laser sight assisting a firearm appeared on Jonathan.

Still a suppressor, the bullet silently fired. This time, Fox was prepared at Jonathan's prompt. The water curtain extended instantly, and the bullet hit the water curtain, spinning and stopping, losing its kinetic energy.

Fox's water curtain wrapped Jonathan in a 360-degree, no-blind-spot manner, afraid he would be hit.

"Serial ambush!" Fox was taken aback, "Someone is still ambushing you!"

He shivered.

Jonathan was shot on the road but survived and went to the abandoned residential building to chase the killer. The killer died, and Jonathan examined the crime scene in the abandoned residential building. At this moment, another bullet was fired diagonally.

If Jonathan was slightly slackened by the killer's death and thought he was out of danger, he would be a dead man now!

"Let's go after them!" Fox said.

"Did you see the red dot that appeared on me? This time, it's not a rifle; it's a sniper rifle. It's too far, and we can't catch up." Jonathan calmly chose to give up, "The mastermind behind the scenes is very, very cautious."

He and Fox left the window and withdrew from the abandoned residential building, finding a relatively safe corner to wait for Red's arrival.

"Among all the people who attended the meeting tonight, who would it be if I asked you to choose the person you trust the most?" Jonathan looked at Fox.

"Red." Fox said, "He's one of the oldest members."

"What if I asked you to choose the person you trust most?"

Fox said, "I'm unfamiliar with some people, so I can't judge."

Jonathan said, "They might not have betrayed, but were parasitically controlled. If Xenobiotics creatures can parasitize awakened beings..."

"The headquarters will figure out what that Xenobiotics creature is," Fox said, his eyes sinking.

Jonathan tightened the hood of his sweatshirt, covering his face as thoroughly as possible. His mask was damaged, but only a small portion of his forehead was exposed.

In the dark night, the gunman was far away. Night vision devices could see the figure but not the face. Jonathan didn't know if his metal skull was exposed when the first shot hit. Was the mastermind observing secretly nearby or manipulating from afar? Did he guess the way he blocked the bullet?

He understood that letting all team members send real-time locations was not an absolutely rigorous practice. Locations could be manipulated, and a qualified mastermind would not expose himself in minor details. He called to check everyone's status, bluff the opponent, and he could lock the mastermind's identity if the opponent made a mistake.

Unfortunately, this time, the mastermind was a "high-end player," hiding very well, even setting up a series of ambushes.

Five minutes later, Red arrived. He was racing on a motorcycle on the street with the bartender in the back seat. Both of them were wearing disguise masks.

The bartender was the first to get out of the vehicle. The pupils of his eyes under the mask turned Red. He looked around, "No surveillance devices, no suspicious people carrying weapons, safe for now."

Red flicked his wind-blown dyed hair, looked Jonathan up and down, and threw him a potion. "Here, for external use. So the wound is on your head, indeed conspicuous. This new type of drug will heal in three hours after application, don't worry."

Jonathan opened the packaging of the potion, reached into the hood, and applied the medicine to his forehead. "I've sent the report to headquarters."

"Did you catch the person?" Red asked.

"He's dead. I was investigating the scene while waiting for you and then attacked again. I didn't chase during the second attack, and the gunman was too far away." Jonathan took out his bracelet and sent the photos he took to Red, "All the photos are here. The physical evidence consists of a communicator and a gun, which Fox holds onto."

"Xenobiotics creature I've never seen before." Red disgusted, "Only you would take such disgusting pictures."

The bartender leaned in to take a look and also frowned.

"The killer's body is on the second floor... Of course, it's now only blood and water; only a sample can be taken. During the second attack, the abandoned residential building was used as an observation point; the gunman's position should be between four o'clock and five o'clock... if you go now to investigate, you should be able to find some bullet casings or something."

"We have a traitor among us." Red came to the same conclusion as Jonathan without needing any further details, "It's too much of a coincidence; there can't be such a coincidence..."

Although Red's outfit was weird, his mind was still sharp.

"I deliberately changed my route home with Fox, but the enemy tracked me down," Jonathan said.

"How did the enemy track us? Manual tracking? Micro-mechanics?" Fox said gravely, "Our situation is too dangerous."

"I didn't sense any tracking devices. The opponent did not track us with technological equipment. As for manual tracking, Fox and Richguy would certainly detect. It's not ruled out that the opponent has an extraordinary ability in tracking and surveillance," the bartender said.

Jonathan glanced sideways. The bartender's super ability seemed to be related to sensing and surveillance, and could detect high-tech devices?

"Don't go home, it's too dangerous. Returning before understanding the enemy's tracking methods can expose the address easily. Richguy, you and Fox go back to the safe house to rest," Red said, "I'll contact headquarters in a while to get a few auxiliary teams to investigate the scene."

The members of the auxiliary teams are generally ordinary people without super abilities, often engaged in logistics such as cleaning the battlefield, assembling weapons, technical analysis, and so on. Not having super abilities doesn't mean they are cannon fodder; each team member has received rigorous training and is proficient in their expertise.

Ordinary people make up most of the Mechanical Dawn organization compared to the awakened.

"I'll leave the rest to you. Unlike you, I have to go to work, who can arrange time flexibly," Jonathan said.

"Okay," Red said, "You focus on dealing with the investigation department, and I'll handle the traitor behind us."

There was a murderous aura about him.

"Bring him to me alive if you can," Jonathan said. "I want to know who he is."