New chapter is live.
Settle in, take your time, and let’s see what waits in the dark 🖤
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“Tracking failed.
We’ve lost the signal.
The Security Department?
They should’ve been wiped out by now.”
In a truck on the outskirts of Loplers, the man in the white coat sat in the driver’s seat, speaking with his superior while tapping across his tablet.
“Those idiots thought a few tranquilizer guns would bring down T-Lilith.
Of course they couldn’t.
If that were enough, why would we develop B.O.W.s at all?
She is the biotechnology division’s finest achievement after years of research.”
He listened for a moment.
“Sir, we can no longer send another conventional security team into Loplers.
Local forces have sealed the town, and the BSAA will intervene very soon.
I recommend activating Suitor’s autonomous tracking system.
That will let us avoid direct conflict with local forces while gathering combat data on T-Lilith.”
Another pause.
“Don’t worry.
Suitor can absolutely defeat T-Lilith head-on.
T-Lilith is also a Tyrant-series B.O.W., but her limiter-release functions are incomplete.
She can’t access the full mutation response conventional Tyrants can.
We can let Suitor break her limbs and recover her safely.”
He smiled.
“Yes, sir.
We will complete T-Lilith’s recovery before the BSAA intervenes.”
The man hung up and looked down at the tablet.
On the screen was the final image transmitted by the exoskeleton armor worn by B.O.W.
codename Suitor before the armor failed.
He zoomed in and saw T-Lilith at the mouth of an alley, with the mercenary beside her and the BSAA soldier nearby.
“I don’t know what game you’re playing,” he murmured, “but it doesn’t matter.”
His fingers moved quickly over the tablet.
Somewhere inside Loplers, the powerful monster began moving again.
“A B.O.W.
like Suitor can crush anything in its path.”
“BSAA reinforcements have departed.
The team we evacuated earlier is already turning back and will be the first BSAA unit to reach us,” Chris said after receiving the latest update from command.
“The second wave will include BSAA personnel and nearby U.N.
peacekeeping troops.
More than a hundred people, armored vehicles, heavy weapons.”
“What is that, everything you’ve got?” Adrian was surprised by the scale.
“After I reported Nemesis’s appearance in Loplers, BSAA headquarters treated it as a high priority.
They contacted the nearby U.N.
peacekeeping troops for assistance.
Once the U.S.
contingent stationed in the area received approval from above, it moved directly toward Loplers.
They expect to rendezvous with BSAA elements and enter the town within the hour.” Chris explained it without hesitation.
“Data on Nemesis is extremely limited.
Headquarters values the sample.
Recovering a Nemesis would help us understand this type of B.O.W.
and avoid unnecessary casualties if our teams encounter similar threats in future operations.”
Adrian looked at Chris’s earnest expression.
‘So they want the B.O.W.
sample.
The higher-ups sure know how to make it sound noble.
Even worse, this earnest fool actually believes them.’
He shrugged.
He had no interest in judging Chris, and no need to.
Adrian knew that in a few more years, reality would beat that idealistic wall of muscle half to death without needing his help.
“Then let’s discuss the next operation.” Adrian looked around.
“We removed the tracker, but if I’m guessing right, that thing will find us again soon.”
“Why?” Norman asked.
“It just will.”
Adrian had no idea.
He would also like to know exactly how Nemesis had tracked S.T.A.R.S.
survivors through Raccoon City back in the day.
“I’ve heard that another research team tried to equip it with a pursuit system capable of analyzing environmental traces to estimate the target’s direction.
Once it receives a new order, it will follow those traces here before long.”
“So our goal is to avoid direct confrontation as much as possible and hold until reinforcements arrive?” Norman asked.
“In general, yes.
But we can put obstacles in its way.” Chris looked serious.
“Loplers still has civilians.
We need to protect them as much as we can.”
“Don’t worry about that.
Loplers doesn’t have civilians.” Adrian waved it off.
“But alley guerrilla tactics won’t work against Nemesis anymore.
We need to choose our own battlefield.”
“Choose our own battlefield?” Chris asked.
“Exactly.
I know a good place.
Even if we paint the floor red, we won’t involve anyone nearby.”
Adrian looked at Kelly, a dangerous smile spreading across his face.
“Remember that warehouse I mentioned?
The one for disposing of outsider corpses?”
Frederica Sawyer wasn’t getting much sleep tonight.
From midnight onward, gunfire kept rattling outside her window.
Judging by the direction, it was coming from the area around Adrian Voss’s office.
The Mad Dog must have offended someone again.
Sawyer dragged a pillow over her head.
Before long, the noises outside grew even louder, explosions joining the gunfire in a constant roar.
What was going on out there?
Had the military finally gone to war with the Italians?
Did they blow up the Mad Dog’s office while they were at it?
Just thinking about how many bodies she might have to process in the morning made Miss Sawyer irritable.
Eventually, after what felt like hours, the gunfire faded.
Sawyer had just begun sinking back into sleep when a violent pounding shook the door.
Thud.
Thud.
Thud.
Sawyer wrapped the pillow over her head and pulled the blanket up, fully intending to ignore it.
Thud.
Thud.
Thud.
She tightened her grip on the pillow.
Thud.
Thud.
Thud.
Sawyer sat up in one sharp motion.
With her left hand, she grabbed the collar from her bedside and fastened it around the terrible scar on her throat.
Then she got out of bed, hair a mess, wearing only underwear, and walked expressionlessly toward the door of her residence.
On the way, she picked up the chainsaw beside the bedroom door, its teeth stained with something that might have been old blood or red rust.
Whoever was outside, she was going to kill them tonight.
She unlocked the iron door and yanked it open.
Before she could raise the chainsaw, a cold gun barrel pressed against her forehead.
“Yo.
Been a while, Sawyer.” Adrian held a Glock to her brow and smiled.
Sawyer looked past him.
Behind him stood one silver-haired woman, one wall of muscle, one sharp-eyed woman, and one bald man.
Sawyer turned off the chainsaw.
Adrian lowered the gun.
“Why.
Are you.
Here.
This late?” Her hoarse, segmented voice came through the collar.
“I.
Was asleep.”
“Business.
I need to borrow your warehouse.”
“What. Visit novelping.com for the full chapter.
For?”
“Trade secret.”
“Can I.
Refuse?”
“What do you think?” Adrian smiled happily, the Glock in his hand looking just a little too eager to have an accident.
The chainsaw-wielding young woman stared at Adrian and the group behind him.
Her pale face showed resignation.
She rested the chainsaw on her shoulder, and the collar produced a flat, emotionless voice.
“Wait.
Here.
I’ll get.
The key.”
As soon as Sawyer returned inside, T-Lilith tugged at Adrian’s sleeve.
“Who is that woman?”
“A friend…
sort of?” Adrian scratched his head, not entirely sure.
“Adrian.
Cheating?”
Her beautiful face remained expressionless, but Adrian somehow saw an unmistakable accusation in those red eyes.
“Of course not.
T-Lilith, don’t imagine things.” Adrian could swear that while this body had been involved with plenty of women before, Frederica Sawyer was someone he had barely touched.
Probably.
Soon, Sawyer returned.
She wore a black-and-purple Gothic dress, leather shoes, and black thigh-high stockings.
A key hung from her left hand, the chainsaw from her right.
Dark circles framed her dead, unblinking eyes as she stared at Adrian.
“Move.”
The collar made her voice hoarse and flat.
Adrian stepped aside.
Sawyer walked straight past him without even looking at him.
Adrian did not mind.
He knew what she was like.
T-Lilith, however, watched Sawyer so intensely that it looked as if she might bite.
Sawyer shivered.
She felt the silver-haired woman behind her staring hard enough to peel skin.
“What exactly is your relationship with that woman?” Kelly slipped closer while T-Lilith was not paying attention and asked Adrian quietly.
Chris had no interest in this sort of topic.
Norman, however, kept a cold face while his feet drifted closer despite himself.
Why was this bald man so nosy?
Adrian shook his head.
“There really isn’t anything complicated.
We cross paths because of work.
If I have to define it, she’s more or less a friend.”
Kelly clearly did not find that satisfying, but under Adrian’s stare she swallowed the next question.
Adrian did not actually know much about Frederica Sawyer.
In this garbage town, she was the cleaner.
Her job was disposing of corpses, or treating living people as corpses when necessary.
A hideous scar circled half her throat, as if someone had once tried to sever her head and failed.
She could no longer speak normally, so she always wore a collar that concealed the scar and housed an electronic voice box.
The device gave her speech its flat, broken rhythm.
When he usually saw her, she wore work clothes: oversized rubber boots, a white coat, a surgeon’s cap, and a medical mask.
In private, she was a gloomy Gothic young woman.
Adrian had to admit Sawyer was exactly the kind of woman he would have noticed in his previous life.
The cold-blooded mercenary who had owned the body before him had apparently decided she lacked the curves worth pursuing and barely looked at her.
Adrian glanced at T-Lilith, who was still staring holes into the back of Sawyer’s head, and nearly laughed.
“Pick up the pace,” Chris said at last, unable to stand it anymore.
He shot Adrian a look.
“There will be plenty of time for irrelevant things later.
Now is not the time to relax.”
“Don’t forget,” Chris added, “we’re still being hunted.”
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Want to keep going?
I hope this chapter gave you another reason to stay with the story.
There’s still plenty ahead, and things are only starting to unfold.