“It’s just past the intersection ahead!” Caliban said to Logan from the passenger seat.
“I remember there’s an unlicensed clinic around there.
The doctor’s skilled and knows his way around gunshot wounds…”
“Shit, just make sure you’re pointing us in the right direction!”
Logan cursed irritably, tearing through the streets of Oklahoma City in his pickup truck.
Guided by Caliban, he finally veered into a back alley reeking of urine and rot.
Caliban had once been a black-market broker.
Back when mutants were active, his business had stretched across most of North America.
Even though he had fallen on hard times, his accumulated intelligence and network of contacts hadn’t vanished entirely.
To him, these dark corners of the city—places normal people actively avoided—were his most familiar territory.
Under his guidance, the pickup pulled up in front of a low-slung, cramped building.
“This is it,” Caliban said, pointing to an iron door covered in strange graffiti.
“Dammit…
you better pray you’re right!”
Distraught and agitated over Charles’s injury, Logan cursed as he stopped the truck.
He hoisted the unconscious Charles onto his back without hesitation.
Laura supported the equally drowsy Miles, helping him along as she, Logan, and Caliban headed through the door together.
“Ugh…” Miles groaned, clutching his head in pain.
His brain was completely overextended, leaving him unable to even speak.
By all accounts, he should have been resting long ago, but he couldn’t bring himself to close his eyes without seeing old Charles safe with his own eyes.
Just as Caliban had said, this was an underground clinic.
The air inside was thick with the pungent stench of antiseptic mixed with rust.
In the room, a tall, burly Hispanic man with a rough, fleshy face sat with a cigar dangling from his mouth, legs crossed as he flipped through an adult magazine.
Seeing them enter, he looked up.
“Fernando, I need your help,” Caliban got straight to the point.
The underground doctor, Fernando, raised his head.
Recognizing Caliban, he glanced at Logan, who was carrying the wounded patient on his back, and smirked.
“Well, look who it is.
Our old friend Caliban…
You look a hell of a lot worse than the last time I saw you.
Who’s the patient?
That old geezer?”
Logan didn’t waste breath on useless banter.
He laid Charles directly onto an operating table stained with unidentified smudges, then said coldly, “Fix him.”
“Just so we’re clear, my fees aren’t cheap,” Fernando muttered.
Fernando walked over and used a pair of barely sterilized scissors to crudely cut open Charles’s clothes.
Seeing the bullet lodged deep in the flesh, he clicked his tongue in wonder.
“Nine-millimeter.
Luckily, it missed the spine.
The old man is lucky to be alive.”
Then, he rummaged through a nearby toolbox, pulled out a scalpel and tweezers, ran them over an alcohol lamp, and prepared to start the procedure.
“Wait, use some anesthesia!” Caliban warned.
“Sure, but that costs extra,” Fernando replied.
“…Fine,” Caliban agreed.
He didn’t dare let Charles undergo surgery without anesthesia. New chapters come out on g.com first.
If the intense pain triggered Charles’s psychic powers to flare up…
everyone here would be in grave danger!
That kind of agony was something no one wanted to experience a second time.
And so, the operation proceeded.
Dr.
Fernando carefully administered the anesthetic, then skillfully made a small incision with his scalpel.
Amidst the bloody mess, he slowly extracted the bullet…
Laura watched tensely, her hands balling into tight fists.
Logan leaned against the wall and quietly lit a cigar.
Shrouded in the drifting smoke, his expression was unreadable.
Finally, Fernando pried the deformed bullet from Charles’s flesh and dropped it into a metal tray with a sharp metallic clink.
“Alright, he won’t die for now,” Fernando said.
He quickly treated the wound, stitched it up, and wiped the blood off his hands.
Under the influence of the drugs, Charles’s breathing gradually stabilized in his deep sleep, allowing everyone to let out a collective sigh of relief.
“Going to sleep…” Miles, who had been pushing through sheer willpower, finally couldn’t hold out any longer.
He murmured to Laura before his head slumped sideways, falling into a deep sleep in her arms.
He had long since reached his limit; both his mind and body desperately needed rest.
“Okay, my job’s done.” Fernando clapped his hands and rubbed his fingers together.
“Now, let’s talk price.
Surgery fee, hush money, medical costs…
I want twenty thousand dollars.”
“Fuck, that’s highway robbery!” Caliban snapped angrily.
“Don’t treat me like some clueless idiot!
Fernando, this surgery is nowhere near worth that much!”
“Yeah, it’s not,” Dr.
Fernando agreed, nodding.
Then he added, “But if I’m not mistaken, these folks are all mutants, aren’t they?
In this day and age, do you think it’s easy to find a clinic willing to operate on mutants?”
“…”
Caliban and Logan exchanged a look, both of their expressions turning sour.
The bastard was right, but the price was indeed astronomical.
Even if they pooled all the cash they had on them, they wouldn’t have enough.
For a split second, Logan even felt the urge to slaughter this greedy underground doctor.
But after a moment’s thought, he dismissed the idea.
Snuffing out his cigar, he said to Caliban, “Let’s go.”
“We need to go to the bank to get the cash.”
…
The midday sun was intense as Logan and Caliban walked hurriedly toward the bank.
“Seriously, I don’t think we can keep doing this,” Logan broke the silence first, his voice low.
“Those two brats are nothing but giant trouble.
Charles already took a bullet.
God knows what other dangers we’ll face if we keep going.”
“Is that what you think?” Caliban asked softly.
“But you saw Miles’s abilities.
If those people show up again, we aren’t completely defenseless.”
my gut tells me that kid himself is the biggest threat!”
“I have a feeling all those guys were lured here because of him!
You know my instincts are never wrong!”
“…”
Hearing this, Caliban fell silent.
It was true.
Logan’s animalistic instincts were always spot on.
Yet, as Caliban stared at the bright glass doors of the bank, the youthful but resilient faces of Miles and Laura flashed through his mind.
The two reached the outside of the bank.
Just as Logan was about to step inside to withdraw the money, Caliban stepped ahead of him.
“Let me do it,” Caliban said, looking at Logan with a calm gaze.
“I still have some savings left…
Keep your money so you and Charles can buy that boat.”
Caliban knew Logan had been hoarding cash to buy a boat, hoping to take Charles out to sea to live out the rest of their days in peace.
“Why?” Logan asked, somewhat surprised.
Caliban paused, the passing pedestrians reflected in his pale, gray eyes.
“You know, Logan…
in Miles and Laura, I see…
who you and Charles used to be.”
“I know that little guy Miles…
he’s dangerous.
Back at the casino, he genuinely wanted to kill everyone…
but in the end, he maintained his restraint.”
“So…
I think…
they might just have a different future.”
“I want to see it with my own eyes.”
With that, Caliban walked into the bank.
Logan stood in place, lost in thought.
He thought of his dream boat, the *Sunseeker*.
He had indeed been prepared to dip into his retirement fund, but Caliban’s words sent a rare tremor through his long-dead heart.
“A different future, huh…”
With a beard thick enough to serve as a bird’s nest, old Logan let out a self-deprecating chuckle, then cursed fiercely, “Fuck!
In this piece-of-shit world, where the hell is there any future?”
He said no more, quietly puffing on his cigar outside.
Minutes ticked by.
Five minutes, ten minutes…
As more time passed, a creeping sense of unease settled in Logan’s gut.
Something was wrong.
Something was definitely wrong!
Logan threw down his cigar butt and burst into the bank.
People were bustling about the lobby, everything seemingly normal, but that familiar figure—Caliban, who always kept himself completely bundled up—was nowhere to be seen.
“Caliban?”
“Caliban, where are you?!”
Logan kept shouting.
He went around questioning several people in quick succession, but he couldn’t get any word of Caliban.