Vance"s blood spread out before An Zhe"s eyes, a deep red. The people in the queue heard the movements and turned to look over here. Seeing what happened, they turned back as usual, as if nothing had happened.
However, Vance died. A man was killed at the gates of the human base and no one disputed it.
An Zhe suddenly realized that this person was the Judge, the man Vance had mentioned to him a day earlier. He was the master of the Trial Court, the judge of whether everyone who entered the gate was human or heterogenous. He could decide the life and death of any person, no matter who, with no reason needed.
Now it was An Zhe"s turn to stand trial. At first, his heart beat hard. The moment the muzzle pointed at him, An Zhe realized he was really going to die. Yet looking at the judge"s cold green eyes, he gradually returned to calm. Coming to the Northern Base was a decision he had to make. So this trial was his end, no matter the outcome.
He was quiet and counted the seconds in his heart.
One, two, three.
The sound of the gun didn"t ring out. The judge pointed the gun at him and walked slowly to this side. The people on the queue sped up their pace. They spontaneously moved forward and after a few moments, this place was empty with only An Zhe remaining.
11, 12, 13.
By the 14th second, the judge had come to him. The ring finger clasped the handle of the gun as he lowered the muzzle. Then he put away his weapon. An Zhe heard him say, "Come with me."
The tone was cold and plain, like this eyes. An Zhe stood there waiting for him to leave but three seconds later, the man hadn"t moved.He looked up in disbelief. Then he heard the judge"s voice that was colder than before. "Reach out your hand."
An Zhe held out his hand.
Click.
He s.h.i.+vered at the icy feeling. One end of the silver handcuffs was around his wrist while the other was held by the officer.
An Zhe was led away like this. Curiously, when Vance had been shot, the people in the queue didn"t respond. Now that he was taken away by the judge, they turned their heads and whispered to each other.
An Zhe only had time to look at the fallen Vance"s body when he was dragged through the gate of the city. Inside the gate, he found it wasn"t a narrow pa.s.sage but a vast area divided into several s.p.a.ces with white lights everywhere. The lights reflected on the steel walls, like a grey shade reflecting the light of winter.
The heavily armed soldiers and heavy weapons were no less than there were outside. In the tight encirclement of heavy weapons and soldiers, there was a long white table. Three officers in black uniforms like the judge were sitting at a long table. An Zhe guessed that they were the judges. A human was sitting opposite them and a judge asked, "How is your relations.h.i.+p with your wife? She didn"t go out of the city with you this time?"
Based on An Ze"s memories, An Zhe learned that in addition to changes in appearance and behaviour habits, the mind and memory would also be affected. Thus, an interrogation was one of the ways to identify a heterogenous species.
Then the man who brought him in looked over to the judges and said, "Hurry up."
After the central judge said, "Yes," he looked at the person on trial opposite him. "You can go."
The man looked like he survived a disaster. He got up with a smile on his face and quickly sped through the gate pa.s.sage. Only then did An Zhe know that the man who brought him over was indeed a judge. He didn"t say "hurry up" to speed up the interrogation but to show he had judged that the man on trial was a human.
The next person on trial came from the queue to the long table. The distance between the queue and the long table was very long and there were several door-shaped machines in the middle. They were placed at certain distances and the person had to go uphill and downhill. An Zhe realized that this was to show the actions of the person to the judges as much as possible.
However, he couldn"t see anymore because the next second, he had turned a corner and was led into a long corridor. The man took out a black communication device and said, "The Trial Court, Lu Feng, is applying for genetic testing."
An Zhe guessed that the two words in the middle were his name. Then a mechanical door opened in front of them. Lu Feng went straight in while pulling An Zhe. He staggered and also followed.
It was a silver-white room with unknown machinery from the ground to the ceiling. Six soldiers were standing guard around the room. Behind the workbench at one end of the room was a young man with short blond hair, blue eyes and wearing a white lab coat. An Zhe was dragged over and had to stagger to keep up.
"Colonel Lu actually came here." The man pushed his gla.s.ses up the bridge of his nose and raised his voice defiantly. "Don"t you solve all problems with bullets?"
Lu Feng spoke coldly, "Doctor, please cooperate."
The doctor glance at Lu Feng as if to laugh. He got up and told An Zhe, "Come with me."
After going with him, An Zhe was arranged to live on a silver-white platform. His limbs were fixed with mechanical bracelets and foot rings. The doctor ordered, "Don"t move."
Immediately after, there was a pain in his arm. He turned his head and saw the doctor slowly pulling a tube of bright red blood from his body. The doctor said, "The colour of your blood is healthy."
An Zhe replied, "Thank you for the compliment."
The doctor was amused by his answer. "The blood will be sent for genetic testing, which takes one hour. The full body enhancement scan is expected to take 40 minutes so don"t move."
He finished speaking and blue light rose on the silver platform. There was a low hum that had no direction. Every grain of air was the source of the sound. The sound coming from all directions reminded An Zhe of the distant nights in the Abyss. The sound of waves came from the distant sea. When the night was darkest, there would be howls of unknown creatures in that direction. The waves that couldn"t be described with human language would sweep over the land during the rainy season.
The electric current was like countless ants crawling and biting him. 40 minutes wasn"t a long time for a mushroom. However, An Zhe thought it might be the last 40 minutes of his life so he cherished it, carefully looking up at the mechanical lines on the ceiling.
It was unknown how much time pa.s.sed when he heard Lu Feng speaking outside, "Seran told me that your inspection has been upgraded."
"You are very well informed," the doctor said. "We found that when the human body mutates, some special segments of the DNA are activated. We named it the target. There are two types of target, animal variation and plant variation. The improved gene detection is carried out using two processes at the same time. One is the animal target detection and the other is plant-based. This takes one hour in total."
Lu Feng stated, "Congratulations."
The doctor smiled. "Colonel, if the time and cost of genetic testing are greatly reduced then won"t your Trial Court be closed?"
"I"m looking forward to it."
"You"re boring."
They stopped talking.
Meanwhile, An Zhe looked at the silver-white ceiling and wondered what his species was. He was a mushroom. The doctor said that the variation was divided into animal variation and plant variation. An Zhe felt that first of all, a mushroom wasn"t an animal. Second, mushrooms didn"t seem to be plants. He had no leaves. An Zhe was confused. He tried hard to cla.s.sify himself as a plant but didn"t find enough evidence.
It took him too long thinking about this. Before he came up with any results, the blue light disappeared from him like low tide.
"Yes." The doctor"s voice was heard and the mechanical rings loosened automatically.
He heard the doctor continue to say, "Colonel, can I ask you why you took him for a genetic test?"
"No."
The doctor obviously choked.
He helped An Zhe up, helped An Zhe sit down on a side chair and touched An Zhe"s head. "Good, take a rest here. I"ll go see the result of the blood test."
An Zhe sat down.
The judge, the colonel, was sitting opposite him and still staring at him with cold green eyes. This was a young face with a sharp outline. A few locks of black hair hung over the forehead under the cap and touched slanting eyebrows. The tip of the brow and the corner of the eye were plated with a thin layer of cold light, like a knife had sc.r.a.ped it.
An Zhe was cold after being stared at by such a pair of eyes. Mushrooms were afraid of the cold. Thus, he turned the swivel chair around and turned his back to the colonel. He felt colder. A long time pa.s.sed before the doctor"s footsteps were heard again, unfreezing the room."The genetic report is normal. You can go."
After a few seconds of silence, Lu Feng asked, "You are 100% sure he is human?"
"It might disappoint you but we haven"t found any targets. It is dissimilar to the other infected people and heterogenous species."
Having said this, he added, "look, the child doesn"t want to talk to you."
Then the colonel ordered, "Turn back."
An Zhe silently turned back. He avoided Lu Feng"s eyes because he really wasn"t human. He avoided it but as a result, he didn"t know how he provoked the colonel. The colonel"s voice was like ice water as he questioned, "What are you afraid of?"
An Zhe was silent. He intuitively sensed that saying something in front of this person would be a mistake and perhaps his handle would be caught.
Finally, Lu Feng raised his eyebrows. "You aren"t going?"
An Zhe jumped out of the chair and left with this person. This time, he was freed and not handcuffed. In the uninhabited corridor, they had walked halfway through when Lu Feng suddenly opened his mouth. "The first time I saw you, my intuition told me that you aren"t human."
An Zhe almost went into cardiac arrest. After a full three seconds, he finally said, "That… what about the second glance?"
"This is the first time I"ve applied for a genetic test." The colonel reached out and handed over the report sheet on the genetic examination. "You better be."
An Zhe could only take the list that showed he was normal. For a while, there were only monotonous footsteps in the silver-white corridor.
Near the exit was a turn. They ran into a team led by a judge in black uniform. Behind the judge, two heavily armed soldiers escorted a man over. Next to them was a tall, short-haired woman with a troubled face.
The judge saw Lu Feng and said, "Colonel."
Lu Feng looked at the man who was detained. The man"s throat spasmed a few times before he called out loudly, "I"m not infected!"
The judge told Lu Feng, "There is a high degree of suspicion of infection but there was no conclusive evidence. The family urged for a genetic examination."
Lu Feng let out a faint hum and the soldiers escorted the man to move on. They had just rubbed shoulders with Lu Feng when—
Bang!
Lu Feng took back his gun and walked forward without looking back. "No need."
The man"s body fell forward instantly and he was dragged by the soldiers. The woman who followed screamed and fell to the ground.
An Ze turned to look at Lu Feng"s face. This person"s eyes were so cold. An Zhe had never seen such eyes. He knew that An Ze was always gentle, Vance was generous, Horsen was full of greed and Anthony was vigilant. They were unlike Lu Feng, who had nothing in his eyes. For the judge, killing might be more normal than breathing. He wouldn"t have any mood swings because he was used to it.
An Zhe and Lu Feng came to the exit of the corridor. At the exit, two soldiers in plain clothes were waiting for him with a body covered in white cloth. An Zhe knew it was Vance. His eyes were hazy and he took a step forward, trying to remove the white cloth to look at Vance"s face. However, he was stopped by the soldiers.
The soldiers handed a blue chip to him, speaking in a steady tone. "It has been confirmed that there are no survivors in the AR1147 mercenary team. The equipment and materials have been recovered by the base. This has been converted into currency and distributed to the family members in combination with the pension. Please claim the remains."
An Zhe asked, "Where are you taking him?"
The soldier replied, "The incinerator."
His body trembled and he didn"t reach for the ID card.
Lu Feng"s voice rang out, "You don"t want it?"
An Zhe didn"t speak. After a long time, he looked up at Lu Feng. "He really… wasn"t injured."
In the cold green eyes, he saw his own image, slightly wide-eyed and with a type of calm sadness. Lu Feng was still expressionless, like it had nothing to do with him. Just as An Zhe thought the man was going to turn around and leave, An Zhe saw him step forward.
The black b.u.t.t of the gun raised the edge of the white cloth, revealing Vance"s right hand. An Zhe half-knelt down to see. On the ring finger, there was a tiny red dot, like the most insignificant stab wound. However, on the edge of the red dot, an ominous drop of black liquid was slowly oozing out.
He choked and in a flash, those scenes came to mind.
There was human blood on the sh.e.l.l of the ant. That day, Vance told him that some people hid the truth of their injuries because in places with low pollution levels, there was still a probability of not being infected. In addition, they wanted to go home.
So, so— the person stabbed by the ant"s sh.e.l.l wasn"t Anthony, it was Vance.
An Zhe was unable to breathe. His fingers trembled as he took Vance"s ID card. He put it in his pocket and turned to look at Lu Feng, only to find empty s.p.a.ce. He stood there and looked outside. He saw a sharp black back slowly disappear under the grey canopy of the city gate.
Moments later, a sudden noise came from behind him. He turned to see the woman whose companion was killed. She stumbled out, only to be stopped by the soldiers.
"Lu Feng! Judge—!" She struggled hard, cras.h.i.+ng down in front of her, waving her arms in the air and screaming, "You will die—!"
The hoa.r.s.e, sharp voice emerged from her chest and echoed through the layers of the building"s interior. However, she couldn"t get a response from the judge. The surroundings were quiet and the two bodies were carried away in turn. In the empty corridor, there was only the intermittent sound of a woman crying.