Straight, flat asphalt streets, lush trees, blue sky, white clouds, morning suns.h.i.+ne that dazzles the eyes a little, neatly parked vehicles, and the pleasant stride of beautiful women on their early morning run. It was a picture of serenity.All four members of Party Ace were standing on the sidewalk, flanked by two neat rows of double-storey European-style houses with brown pointed roofs, white walls and bright gla.s.ses for windows. The front and rear of every house had a lawn that was about 40 square meters in size. Neat blue and white fences surrounded the beautiful lawns and the fragrant flowers inside.
A few steps in front of them was a brown-haired middle-aged man who was showing signs of going bald at the crown. He was taking care of the trees nearby. The privets, birches, and palms became well-trimmed under his scissors.
When Reef saw the man, he told the others, "This guy should be Kate"s current boyfriend, plastic surgeon Gordon Silberman. He likes machines and has some piloting experience. He"s in a much better financial position than Jackson Curtis. He should have at least one Lexus LX and a two-seater Porsche 911. Why did Kate leave the starving writer Jackson Curtis for Mr. Silberman? I think the reason is obvious. One more thing -- it appears that Mr. Silberman is not on our rescue list."
The public order in this area was obviously not very good, as all the residents there, including Gordon Silberman, were staring at Party Ace with vigilant eyes as if they were thieves. Sheyan took the initiative to greet the man.
"Mr. Gordon Silberman?"
"You are?" asked Gordon with a surprised look on his face.
Zi stepped forward and told him, "We"re here to look for Kate. There"s something very urgent we need to tell her."
Hearing her name mentioned, a beautiful woman with typical Latin American facial features walked out of the house nearby. She had long chestnut hair, high cheekbones, deep eyes, and a slightly large mouth. The wrinkles on the corners of her eyes and her forehead showed that her youth was rapidly fading away. She glanced at each member of Party Ace and came to the conclusion that she did not know any of these people standing in front of her.
"May I help you?" she asked, warily.
"I think Mr. Jackson Curtis should have mentioned us to you," replied Zi, "He"s probably told you that he found a nice job in New York. We"re his colleagues."
When Kate heard this, she immediately smiled and replied, "Well, yes, he did mention that."
Reef suddenly sighed and said, "Ms. Kate, you should know that in the great United States of America, the pay for every job is proportional to its difficulty... I don"t think Mr. Curtis told you that his new job is actually very high-risk."
Kate turned pale upon hearing that. It was obvious that the divorce did not sever her feelings for Jackson Curtis, but had deepened them instead.
"What happened?" she asked with obvious concern.
"Mr. Jackson Curtis was badly injured while he was on the job. He asked us to pick you up to go see him -- if you want to. If you do, you better hurry up. The ICU doctor said that he might not last very long. If you take too much time, you might end up attending his funeral instead," answered Sheyan in a voice filled with pain.
Tears instantly streaked down Kate"s face. She covered her face with her hands and fell onto her knees while trembling violently. She then opened her mouth at the direction of the house as if to say something, but she choked and lost her voice.
Gordon immediately shouted, "Lilly, Noah! Come out and take care of your mom!"
Zi took a step forward and said in a soft voice, "The company is sorry to see this happen. There"s no need for you to prepare anything. All your expenses will be paid by the company. Please hurry up."
It appears that Gordon was a cautious person. He first dialed Jackson Curtis number, but of course it could not be reached. Then, he asked to check their IDs, which was not a problem at all for Party Ace. Their IDs were made by professionals from the FBI. After all the doubts had been cleared up, they made preparations to leave.
But at that moment, Sheyan"s eyebrow suddenly twitched. His Perceptive Sense was the highest among them, so he could clearly feel something happening at that moment. He could feel that something which seems to be of vital importance, maybe even life-threatening, to this world, had suddenly snapped.
Forty-seven kilometers below the Pacific Plate, there was a piece of Mesozoic sedimentary rock which was only about 100 square meters in size, but it had been here for millions of years. The times changed, the terrain s.h.i.+fted, but this Mesozoic sedimentary rock had remained the same.
At this moment, however, cracks started to slowly appear in the middle of the Mesozoic sedimentary rock, and the rock snapped like a biscuit.
A terrifying series of chain reactions were triggered as soon as the Mesozoic sedimentary rock broke. The tremendous pressure it had been enduring was completely transferred to the other plate faults! The bearing capacity of those faults had already reached the critical point even before that. Now that they were put under more pressure, they broke one after another.
This domino effect could be described with a song:
A nail fell off, and the horseshoe followed; a horseshoe fell off, and the horse collapsed; a horse collapsed, and the general died; a general died, and the war was lost; a war was lost, and the country fell!
It sounded ridiculous that a nail could cause the death of a country, but when the whole series of events were carefully a.n.a.lysed, they were all logically connected. At this moment, the seemingly trivial matter of a Mesozoic sedimentary rock breaking was causing an even more serious consequence than the b.u.t.terfly effect of the nail and the country, because it was something that would determine the life and death of billions of people, maybe even the survival of the entire human race!
The 2012 apocalypse was here at last!
***
The area outside the entrance of the New York "base" was currently in complete chaos.
A large number of clothes, backpacks, plastic bags and other such things were abandoned on the ground, as if a large number of refugees had just pa.s.sed by the place. Hordes of people were crowding the entrance, fury flas.h.i.+ng in their eyes. They carried slogans on their backs, something like "Punish those f*cking cheaters" or "Return my hard-earned money".
There were even a few groups of people gathered not far away who were screaming and roaring like wild beasts. These people, who felt cheated out of their fortune and was now carrying a bunch of debts, had chosen to take extreme actions. When they saw some of the staff of the base, they dragged the staff over and beat them up! Deaths had even been reported.
"Charles, I"ve known you for decades, but I didn"t expect you to be a d.a.m.n liar! I made the mistake of believing in you, and now my reputation is completely ruined!"
A politician stood in front of Professor X and yelled in a pained voice. Unable to control his frustration and disappointment, the politician spat on Professor X"s face. Surprisingly, Professor X was the only leading figure willing to step forward to face the crowd. He was on an open-air conference stand, and there were thousands of people standing below him in anger and agony. Even when he faced such an insult, he still sat quietly in his wheelchair, asking only for more patience from the people. But no one listened to him.
There was spit not just on his face, but on his body as well. Apparently, he had been spat on by more than one person. Professor X was actually strong enough to kill all of them, but he did not do so.
Jean questioned Professor X angrily in her mind, saying that you"re a victim too, why would you let these people insult you like this? But Professor X just calmly said, "A person must have the courage to face their own mistakes. And Jean, you must make sure that our own people have full control of the airs.h.i.+ps, even if you have to resort to force!"
Not only Professor X; Magneto and Prince Dracula were also facing similar condemnations. Magneto was not spat on, but mockery and verbal abuse were unavoidable. On the other hand, Dracula was plunged into a crisis of trust and was facing internal strife. A Vampire Count was currently pointing a finger at him, questioning him loudly. They were all in a messy situation.
The only key figure who was still having it easy was Dr. Octopus. He had always had a foul temper. Anyone who dared to insult him to his face could not escape the terrible fate of being swatted away like a fly by his tentacle. It sure was convenient being an evil villain!
Just then, from the depths of the Earth, suddenly came a faint tremor!
This faint tremor was like the drop of a pin which silenced the whole crowd. Although it was weak, it struck fear into all 340 million people in the United States!
That"s because this tremor was the prelude to the beginning of the collapse of the entire Pacific Plate!
Following the weak tremor was another bout of quakes! Anyone who has experienced an earthquake before would know that even the slightest earthquake felt totally different from the tremor caused by human activities. It was an inescapable force which came from the depths of the Earth!
In contrast, even if you stand next to a pile driver, or in a bunker that was being fired at by a howitzer, it would feel different from the seemingly unstoppable power of an earthquake.
These two bouts of tremors calmed down the wild crowd near the base almost instantly. They stiffened in place like lifeless puppets. Confusion and fear started creeping into their eyes.