parentshiftbook Chapter 110 Exposure and Silence
Chapter 110 Exposure and Silence
Chapter 110 Exposure and Silence
Gunshots rang out, and bullets precisely tore apart half of the symbiote's monstrous body.
The viscous bodily fluids splattered on the stone bricks of the terrace, looking as disgusting as snot.
The monster writhed violently a few times, its mouthparts opening and closing wildly, and then—it stopped moving.
An eerie silence fell over the terrace.
The screams still echoed in the distance, but the dozen or so people near the monster's corpse, including the security guard who fired the shot, were frozen in place, staring intently at the twitching, slippery mass of biological tissue on the ground.
"Don't move!"
The first to react was a middle-aged man dressed in civilian clothes, but with a distinctly military bearing. He pushed aside the security guard blocking his way, strode to the monster's corpse, took out a handkerchief from his pocket, and carefully wrapped the mangled remains of the creature along with several pieces of paving stone around it.
"Hawk, what are you doing?"
A question came from the crowd.
Hawk Mitchell, a senior advisor at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), is attending the reception tonight as a guest of Losi Corporation.
"Seal off the scene." Mitchell said without looking up, his voice icy. "No one is to touch a single blade of grass or tree here until the military team arrives. Especially not this—corpse."
He then stood up, his gaze sweeping over the various faces around him, finally settling on the highest-ranking official present, the Deputy Secretary of the Western Eagle. "Deputy Secretary," he said, "I think it is necessary to draft a confidentiality agreement for everyone present."
Although the deputy secretary's face was somewhat pale, he understood Hawke's meaning, nodded, and said, "Gentlemen, this matter concerns national security. Please calm down. From now on, the authorities will take over everything here."
Four hours later, in Long Island, New York.
An imperial facility not listed in any public records, seven stories underground.
In the pure white laboratory, the blinding operating lights illuminated the stainless steel dissection table down to its finest detail. Hawke Mitchell stood behind a one-way mirror, watching three researchers inside, clad in fully sealed protective suits, carefully separating and sampling the monster's corpse.
"The preliminary test results are in."
A voice sounded behind him. Mitchell turned around and saw Jeffrey Lane, the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, walking wearily into the observation room. He had also been at the reception that evening and had witnessed everything.
"Speak," Mitchell said succinctly.
-
Ryan handed over the tablet computer, its screen displaying a dense array of data and spectral analysis graphs.
"First of all, this thing is not any known life form on Earth. Its genetic coding is completely different from ours."
DNA? No, it uses a combination of base pairs we've never seen before, and its information density is at least three orders of magnitude higher than that of human DNA.
Mitchell took the tablet and quickly scanned the data with the light.
"Secondly," Ryan's voice turned strange, as if suppressing some intense emotion, "we conducted an activity test on its tissue samples. The results—Mitchell, you'd better be prepared."
"explain."
"When its tissue cells come into contact with human cells, an extremely complex interaction occurs." Ryan took a deep breath. "It secretes a special polypeptide complex. Once this complex enters human cells, it—"
He paused, as if what he was about to say was so incredible that it seemed absurd even to say it aloud.
"It increases telomerase activity by 400%, more than doubles mitochondrial functional efficiency, and achieves a free radical scavenging rate seventeen times higher than normal. Moreover, these are only the preliminary observed effects. Further analysis is underway, but the existing data is sufficient to illustrate the point."
Mitchell's fingers tightened slightly, making a soft "crunching" sound as he gripped the edge of the tablet.
"you mean""
“What I mean is,” Lane stared into his eyes, emphasizing each word, “if this living thing maintains a symbiotic relationship with the human body over a long period, it can extend the lifespan of an average human by at least three to five times. At the same time, the immune system will be optimized to a near-perfect level. Cancer? AIDS? Alzheimer’s? These are not problems.”
A deathly silence fell over the observation room.
Only the ventilation system emitted a low hum, like some distant heartbeat.
After a long silence, Mitchell spoke, his voice hoarse: "How old is Viktor?"
"The file says forty-seven. But according to our preliminary calculations, the age of his mummified body—" Ryan smiled bitterly, "is over two hundred years old."
Two hundred years old.
A person who has lived for over two hundred years looks like he is in his forties.
Energetic and clear-headed, he controls a fund with billions in assets, moving freely between the political and business worlds, wielding considerable influence.
Isn't this what they've always been pursuing?
Hawke took a deep breath, just about to speak—
boom!!!
A huge explosion rang out—
The ground shook violently. Completely unprepared, Hawke and the others were thrown back by the sudden shockwave, crashing heavily against the laboratory wall.
Manhattan, New York.
An unassuming townhouse in the Upper East Side, with three basement levels.
The heavy lead door slowly closed, cutting off any possible outside prying.
In the cramped space, twelve holographic screens lit up simultaneously, each displaying a blurry human figure with no face or sound, only real-time video transmissions highly encrypted by algorithms.
But everyone knows who the other is.
"Vic has been exposed."
The first voice, processed by multiple voice changers, sounded like a sharp whistling sound of metal rubbing together, or a bizarre combination of electronic synthesized sounds.
"Not only was he exposed, but his true form was revealed to many people after his death."
The second voice was even lower, carrying a suppressed anger.
"Who did it?"
The third voice asked the most crucial question.
silence.
The blurry figures on the twelve screens simultaneously fell into an eerie silence.
"Our monitoring shows that Vic's physiological indicators were all normal fifteen minutes before his death. There was no poisoning, no external injury, and he had not suffered any known form of attack." The first voice sounded again, "Then, he suddenly lost control, as if—as if something forcibly severed the neural connection between him and the host, causing the host to age rapidly—"
"Most importantly, Vic didn't have time to break it down—"
"Those humans will soon discover all our secrets from the corpses: lifespan extension, immune system optimization, gene repair. They'll go crazy. They'll use every means to track us down."
"I've already sent people to deal with Hawke and his lab. Now, everything should be destroyed."
"This all happened too suddenly, and the action was too hasty. There must have been clues left behind." The second voice sighed. "From now on, enter a state of silence. Everyone, cease all activity!"
Dongguo, Imperial Capital University School of Biology
Inside the dormitory, Hu Biao's gaze shifted from the New York estate to the SPACEX headquarters.
He watched as Governor Ma hung up the phone, fiddled with the buttons a few times, and then put it in the trash can. The silver phone then turned into a pool of black liquid.
Then, he closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and leaned back in his chair.
In Hu Biao's eyes, countless invisible spiritual forces, like wisps of silk, converged on him from all directions of the void, and were then guided from him into the unknown void.
"Unfortunately, although my higher-dimensional vision has been upgraded, I can only see the power of faith, but I have no way of finding its whereabouts. What a hassle!"
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