Chapter 2: Prologue, Part 2
Roy was huddled together with a pile of floor cleaner.
The sound of footsteps passed by the door, like the galloping of iron-shod horses, but it quickly returned to silence.
Roy let out a sigh of relief. He stood up, patting the dust off his clothes. He reached into the inner pocket of his suit jacket to check if his prize was still there.
He pulled out a crystal-clear blue gem. They seemed to call it Vulcan? Well, whatever its name was. It might not look like much, but obtaining it had been a complex operation.
Roy had prepared for a full three months, from creating a fake resume to get a job at the central bank, to hacking into the bank’s internal network with a computer virus and replacing all the surveillance footage. Roy had been busy for at least two months.
He spent the remaining month unlocking the door to that underground vault.
It was the most sophisticated lock in the entire bank. The bank had gone to great lengths to prevent the belongings of its wealthy clients from being stolen.
Fortunately, no matter how sophisticated the lock, Roy could crack it given enough time.
It was just that he had to work during the day as a cover and unlock it at night, which was a bit mentally taxing for Roy, a veritable sleep fiend. When he finally cracked the lock and successfully entered the vault, he used a clever little gadget—a micro-projector—to take Vulcan’s place in the glass case, making everyone think Vulcan was still there, behaving itself and not going anywhere.
He glanced at the gem, put it back into his jacket’s inner pocket, and yawned. He thought to himself, After this is over, I’m going to find some deserted mountain cave and hibernate like a brown bear for a few months.
He thought for a moment, then lay on the floor, pressing his ear to the tile to listen for any vibrations or sounds from the surrounding area.
He had to make sure that those freaks in rabbit masks who were chasing him earlier had gone far away. He had no desire for a direct confrontation.
Roy didn’t know who this gang of freaks was, but they certainly weren’t bank security. They seemed more like unhinged psychopaths.
Furthermore, he had seen that those freaks were armed with guns—guns longer than his arm, with barrels as bottomless as the eye of hell.
Wow, truly terrifying. If that muzzle flashed, Roy might really end up in hell—not in a philosophical sense, but in a physical and biological one.
He lay on the floor listening for a long time. Hearing no vibrations or footsteps, he figured the rabbit freaks had probably moved to another floor. In any case, he couldn’t stay here long. Roy had to get out quickly.
He pushed open the storage room door and, moving swiftly but silently, headed for the emergency exit.
Unfortunately, this time he forgot to be cautious.
The moment he pushed open the emergency exit door, he was met with the muzzle of a gun.
“Fuck!”
He cursed and jumped away. Luckily, his reflexes were fast; several holes had already appeared in the doorway of the emergency exit.
The next moment, the door, now battered by laser fire, was kicked open by the shooter. A man in black wearing a bulletproof mask emerged, holding a gun.
The man’s gear looked far more advanced than that of the people in rabbit masks, but right now Roy was scared to death and in no mood to analyze who was in front of him.
He lumped the man in black and the masked freaks into the same category: a bunch of violent weirdos.
“Don’t kill me, don’t kill me! Please, I’ll give you anything you want!” Roy yelled. He had nothing on him right now except for the stolen stone, and how could a stone possibly stand up to a directed-energy weapon?
At his shout, the man in black actually stopped. His gaze swept over Roy from behind the mask. Roy swallowed. He was still very nervous, yet he had a subtle feeling that this man in black didn’t seem to want to kill him.
Just then, a familiar face peeked out from the emergency exit doorway.
“Oh, sir, he’s not a bad person. He’s a new colleague who recently joined our bank.”
Hearing the familiar voice, Roy said, “Miss Betty? What… what’s going on?”
“A colleague?” The man in black continued to size him up.
“Yes, I’m a staff member here. My name is Roy Miller. I just started three months ago…” Roy quickly pulled out his work ID to prove his identity.
The man in black glanced at it but didn’t lower his gun. Instead, he said, “Please raise your hands.”
“Huh?” Roy didn’t quite understand what he was trying to do.
“A body search,” the man in black said. “There’s an inside man for the robbers in your bank. How do I know you’re not one of them?”
“Alright, alright, but I’m really not an inside man. I’m a good, law-abiding person,” Roy said, taking his ID card and putting it back into his jacket’s inner pocket. He simultaneously took the gem out and hid it in his palm.
“Okay, sir, I’m ready,” Roy said, raising his hands above his head.
“Palms facing me, please,” the man in black said.
What a pain.
Roy nearly lost control of his impulse to roll his eyes. He had no choice but to turn his palms toward the man in black. The gem that was in his palm was deftly transferred to the back of his hand. His middle finger tilted slightly forward, while his index and ring fingers bent backward, tightly securing the gem against the back of his hand.
Hurry up, hurry up and search me. Roy’s fingers were starting to hurt, and he just wanted to end this boring charade as quickly as possible.
Perhaps hearing Roy’s inner plea, the man in black stepped forward and quickly frisked Roy, mainly checking his pockets for anything suspicious.
After a thorough search, the man in black found nothing more threatening than a paperclip. “Alright, you can put your hands down.”
While the man in black was checking his pants pockets, Roy had relaxed his hand and quietly slipped the gem into his sleeve. Hearing the man’s words, Roy smiled and lowered his hands.
Good, it seems he isn’t suspicious at all.
“Come with us. I’ll take you and this lady to a safe place,” the man in black said.
Roy followed Betty, the man in black, and another person in work clothes who was also wearing a bulletproof mask and carrying a laser rifle. They went up through the emergency exit, all the way to the lobby.
Along the way, they encountered several rabbit masks who had slipped through the net. A few refused to surrender and were gunned down by the man in black; they were either dead or unconscious. Several others surrendered, dropped their guns, and were handcuffed.
Regarding the dead rabbit masks, the man in black said, “The organization will send people to clean up the scene.”
Organization?
Hearing this word, Roy’s mind raced, and he quickly guessed the identity of the man in black.
They were probably from the Interstellar Special Police, sent by the Federation’s interstellar government to deal with dangerous individuals.
Wow, I’ve run into the big leagues this time. Roy suddenly felt a little excited. Perhaps it was because he had always been fascinated by dangerous things.
Well, everyone in his line of work was like this. A life lived on a knife’s edge constantly stimulated his dopamine. Only this way could he feel that he was alive in this fucked-up world.
He licked his lips, nearly losing control of his pheromones and letting them fly everywhere. Okay, Roy, calm down, calm down, Roy thought to himself. I have to control these damn pheromones, or I might get beaten into a pulp by this Interstellar Special Agent, or whatever this man in black is.
In the lobby, more people dressed like the man in black were moving about. Several of them had special badges on their chests, which confirmed Roy’s suspicion. They were indeed Interstellar Special Police.
When those people saw them approach, they came over to meet them.
“It seems these two are innocent hostages,” one of them said.
“Take them to the medical vehicle,” said another.
The man in black who had just led them up from the basement nodded, then turned to Roy and Betty and said, “Follow me.”
Betty hurried to follow, but Roy remained in place, his brow furrowed.
Not good. He saw, not far away, a limping rabbit freak pull a gun from his pocket. The muzzle was aimed right at the man in black’s head. Behind the rabbit freak, several special agents were lunging forward, as if to stop the shot, but they were a step too late. The second before they could grab the robber, he pulled the trigger.
“Watch out!”
Roy lunged forward, tackling the man in black to the ground.
The laser bullet hit a window. The window’s glass was high-density bulletproof and remained unscathed. As for the shooter, he was pinned to the ground by the special agents and put in restraints.
Phew, good thing I reacted quickly. Roy breathed a sigh of relief. “Are you okay?” he asked, looking with concern at the man in black he had tackled.
“…Could you please get up first,” the man in black said after a pause.
He was very polite, his tone restrained and cold. Alright, he doesn’t seem to like this. Roy climbed to his feet, patting the dust off himself, and the man in black got up as well.
“Are you two alright?” Betty ran over and asked with concern.
“We’re fine,” the two answered in unison.
Roy glanced again at the rabbit mask who had just shot at them. The rabbit mask had long since been escorted away.
“Quick reflexes,” the man in black commented.
Of course, Roy thought. It’s not like I haven’t been shot at before.
“Thank you,” the man in black said.
Roy shrugged and said in a teasing tone, “Mr. Special Agent, if you want to repay me, a simple ‘thank you’ isn’t enough.”
The mask hid the man in black’s face, so Roy didn’t know what expression he was making. He subjectively guessed that the man in black was probably raising an eyebrow in confusion under the mask.
“Oh? Sir, what kind of repayment do you require?”
He even used a respectful term. Roy found him quite humorous. In private, at least, he didn’t seem as serious as he did with the mask on.
Just then, another special agent came over, interrupting their conversation. “The medical vehicle is still waiting for you.”
“Mr. 15, please escort these two hostages.”
Number 15? It was probably some kind of work code, like when you go to a restaurant and the waiter comes over and says, “I’m server number X, happy to be of service.”
“How are the robbers being handled? I’d rather not be walking them halfway there only to have another one suddenly jump out and shoot me twice,” Mr. 15 said.
“We just finished the headcount. No one slipped through the net. Of course, that doesn’t rule out the possibility of the dead robbers suddenly reviving and charging at us as zombies,” another special agent said.
“Understood,” Mr. 15 said coolly. It seemed the zombie joke didn’t work on Mr. 15. Roy imagined he was probably rolling his eyes several times under that mask.
On this medical vehicle were hostages with minor injuries—some with bruised faces holding ice packs, or others with broken arms. A medic in a white coat was applying antiseptic to someone’s scrape.
Those with serious injuries had, of course, already been rushed off for emergency treatment.
Roy was truly glad he wasn’t seriously injured, otherwise he would have been exposed if he’d been taken to a hospital for emergency care.
Mr. 15 helped Miss Betty, whose knee was bothering her, onto the medical vehicle, then hopped on himself in a few quick movements and slammed the doors shut. “Let’s go, to the hospital,” he said into the intercom to the driver.
The driver acknowledged. Roy felt a pull of inertia as the vehicle started moving.
To the hospital. This fit perfectly with Roy’s plan. Roy thought to himself, Once we get to the hospital, I can find a chance to slip away.
He stealthily glanced at Mr. 15 again. Perhaps due to an intuition honed by long-term exposure to dangerous situations, Mr. 15 sensed his gaze and looked up at Roy.
“Hi,” Roy greeted him.
“Sir, is there something you need?” Mr. 15’s tone was so calm that Roy almost thought he was a robot.
Roy glanced around. Everyone on the vehicle, except for him, seemed to be a Beta. This wasn’t surprising, since Betas made up sixty-five percent of the entire human population.
He was just curious, what was Mr. 15’s secondary gender? It was said that Interstellar Special Police all had devices like pheromone blockers to conceal their presence, so they wouldn’t expose their identity due to pheromones during a mission.
Roy guessed that Mr. 15 was probably an Alpha. After all, his aggressive and explosive style when facing the rabbit freaks was just not like a Beta or an Omega.
“Sir? Do you have a question?”
Mr. 15’s second inquiry pulled Roy out of his thoughts on ABO gender stereotypes.
“No question,” Roy said.
“Alright. If you need anything, please let me or the medical staff know,” was all Mr. 15 said.
Soon, the medical vehicle stopped. They had probably arrived at the hospital.
Mr. 15 pushed open the doors and guided the injured people off the vehicle. Several other medical staff were waiting below, helping to direct the patients where they needed to go.
“Sir, it’s time to get off,” Mr. 15 reminded Roy, seeing him remain motionless.
“Of course.” Roy seemed to finally snap out of it and got off the vehicle.
“This way,” Mr. 15 pointed the way for him.
“Thanks,” Roy said.
Before following the medical staff, Roy suddenly turned his head. At this moment, he was very close to Number 15’s bulletproof mask. Any closer and the tip of his nose would touch it. Roy said, “Mr. 15, I find you very interesting. I hope I can see you again in the future.”
“…”
Mr. 15 was silent for a moment, then said in his usual restrained and calm tone, “Then, until we meet again?”
“Sure,” Roy smiled, turned, and followed the medical staff into the hospital.
The next time we meet, Roy thought, we might be enemies.
