As the evening approached, the temperature became lower and lower. It was now approaching the rainy season of the desert climate, and the temperature difference between day and night was very large. During the hottest time of the day, even staying in a cave would make people sweat. But at night,
It's so cold that you have to wear cotton-padded clothes even if you're having a campfire.
Schiller used more wood to stoke the fire a little more, and Stark, who had recovered a little, began to sort out the parts of communication equipment that his kidnappers had looted from the military communications room that Schiller said.
Although the wound on his back still hurt terribly, Stark still had the strength to support him. Even when he couldn't lift his arm, he tried to use the hand far away from the wound to search for something that might be useful.
of parts.
Schiller walked to him and squatted down, looked at him and asked: "Want to help?"
Stark sat on his knees on the ground, breathing hard. He turned to look at Schiller, but what he could see more clearly was the sweat dripping from his eyelashes.
"No, no, how long has it been since you slept?" Stark turned his head back and continued rummaging, and said, "You haven't had a rest since I came here, right? Aren't you going to take a nap?"
"I don't need to sleep."
"Don't be stupid, all humans need to sleep." Stark picked up a circuit board and looked at it carefully, and said, "Sleep not only restores physical strength, it also relaxes your spirit."
"Do you think it would be a good thing to relax here?"
"Okay, I know you are a psychiatrist." Stark pursed his lips and said in a slightly angry tone: "Then go and do something else, don't look at me here, I don't need you.
help."
Schiller left.
Stark seemed to be even more angry. He stared at Schiller's back with wide eyes. After taking a deep breath, he tried to return his attention to the circuit board in his hand.
He picked through the parts for a long time and found several circuit boards, a bunch of spare wires that he had not yet used, and some metal used to assemble the shell.
Stark piled these things on the ground next to him. After playing with them for a long time, he started to have trouble again. Looking at Schiller's motionless figure sitting in front of the campfire, he cleared his throat, trying to attract the other person's attention.
Schiller didn't notice him at all.
Stark could only speak with a slight complaint: "This is the disadvantage of dealing with illiterate people, isn't it? There are only parts here, no tools, and no workbench. How can I build weapons for them, imagination?"
Schiller suddenly made a silencing gesture towards him, and Stark was like a chicken with its neck strangled, afraid to say anything.
In the silence, Stark also heard a rustling sound coming from the entrance of the cave. It sounded like something moving the grass, most likely a pathfinding stick.
Schiller is missing.
Stark didn't see how he disappeared, and then a dark head poked out of the hole. It was a local man wearing a jacket and a worn-out baseball cap. He looked very young.
But sneaky.
His eyes lit up when he saw Stark, and he and the other two people quickly climbed up from the entrance of the cave. Stark saw that they were covered in grass clippings, and they obviously came from cross-country, and Stark remembered that he came here
The road was clearly smooth at that time.
In other words, the other party did not take the main road, but climbed over from the nearby mountain. What did they want to do?
Suddenly, a black gun was pointed at Stark. Out of need for self-protection, Stark immediately raised his hands and shouted to them in English: "Don't shoot! What are you going to do?"
The other party didn't seem to understand English, but one of them pointed a gun at Stark, and the other two walked towards Stark. They didn't look like they were going to attack him, but they still knocked him to the ground.
.
These three male youths were all very strong, at least much stronger than Stark. As soon as Stark was thrown to the ground by them, one of them started groping up and down on Stark's body.
Stark immediately knew that they might be locals who had heard the news and knew that the kidnappers had captured a rich man and wanted to come over and seize his belongings.
Stark gritted his teeth and remained silent, then he heard a "boom" sound, and the black figure holding the gun fell down. The other two hurriedly turned their heads, but saw nothing.
Stark, who was lying on the ground, saw through the faint moonlight shining through the hole that a black figure flashed behind one of the black men at an unimaginable speed, and the other black man immediately collapsed.
At the last one, Stark finally saw clearly how Schiller killed people. He picked up the man who was bending over Stark and groping for him, holding his head with one hand and pressing his shoulders with the other.
, only a slight "click" sound was heard, and the other party stopped moving.
Schiller broke the necks of three men in thirty seconds.
Stark, who was lying on the ground, now understood why Schiller said he didn't need a weapon to kill.
Stark heard his fitness coach say that the neck-twisting method that often appears in movies and TV shows is not that easy to use. It requires a very skilled way of exerting force, rich experience and sufficient strength. Sometimes he also watches a little.
Luck, but if you have these, why not just attack the soft belly?
One of the three corpses was half resting on Stark's body. It was a completely different touch from that of a living person. Stark could clearly feel how the other person's pulse gradually weakened and how his body temperature dropped.
It was as if they were a hamburger steak growing cold due to neglect.
This brought unimaginable fear to Stark.
His breathing rate began to increase, a feeling of suffocation came from his throat, and panic overwhelmed his heart, so that he desperately wanted to escape.
Suddenly, a hand pulled him out of the pile of corpses. Schiller helped Stark to sit down next to the bonfire, and then pressed his shoulders hard with both hands, making Stark feel that he was about to be pressed to the ground.
inside.
This heavy falling feeling calmed his racing heart. Schiller took out a pill and stuffed it into his mouth. Feeling the pill gradually melting and becoming bitter, Stark finally breathed.
"what is that?"
"Valium, you're having a panic attack." Schiller walked to the opposite side of Stark, looked into his eyes and said, "You didn't tell me that you had a history of mental illness, otherwise I could take them further away.
.”
Stark ignored all the important points in this passage, but grabbed the least important point and asked: "Are you alone? Early in the morning? With bare hands?"
Schiller tilted his head as if helpless. Stark stared at him closely and said, "You are just lucky. Their target was me and they did not find you hiding in the shadows. But if they had been prepared, as long as they
One shot and you're done."
"I won't."
"No one can." Stark turned to look at the corpse on the ground and said, "Do you know how scary guns are? If a bullet hits you anywhere on your body, the probability of your death is at least 50%.
"
"I'm a surgeon, I'm better than you..."
"You don't know this any better than I do!" Stark interrupted Schiller: "What if they find you and just shoot? What if they call people? What if they have missiles?"
"Then I will leave you and run away."
Stark was speechless.
After a while, he looked at Schiller with a complicated expression and said, "Why are you so contradictory? Sometimes you look like a killer, and sometimes you look like a child."
"I'm autistic."
"God!" Stark looked at Schiller without blinking. He stood up and walked to the body. His eyes followed Schiller. When Schiller started dragging the body, he asked: "They don't even have autism."
Don’t you let go of your child?”
Schiller didn't answer. He turned over the body of the leading black man, took off the gun he was holding, turned around and threw it to Stark.
Stark's chatter was interrupted by this action. He looked at the pistol that fell in front of him in shock, then turned to stare at Schiller and asked: "You actually gave me the gun??"
"Because only you can use it."
Stark choked back his next words again. He found that the doctor in front of him was really a topic stopper, and he was also a hopeless allergic patient.
Unfortunately, what Schiller said was true, and Stark had to admit it. Schiller didn't need to use a gun at all.
"Then you are not afraid..."
Schiller, who was searching another corpse, turned his head and his eyes fell on Stark's face, and then on his arms and wrists.
Like a cat whose tail was stepped on, Stark almost jumped up and said: "My shooting skills are very accurate! I go to the shooting range to train every week!"
Schiller nodded perfunctorily, and threw over another pack of cigarettes he took out of the other party's jacket pocket, but at this moment his hand stopped moving.
Stark watched Schiller's movements pause. He couldn't help but squeeze the gun in his hand, frowned and asked, "What's wrong?"
"Nothing." Schiller then took out the thing from under the cigarette, and Stark saw that it seemed to be a metal badge.
Schiller rubbed the badge with his thumb, and Stark came over to the side. He saw a slightly familiar symbol on the badge, but Stark couldn't remember where he had seen it before.
"What is this?" Stark asked.
"The badge of a mercenary organization." Schiller recalled, "I saw it on the way out. There was a group of mercenaries patrolling around the laboratory."
Stark frowned deeply. When he heard the word mercenary, a few pictures flashed through his mind. Suddenly his eyes widened, and the pattern of the armband worn by Eric flashed in his mind.
And then, the two overlapped together.
"You said you have seen mercenaries from this organization? Around the laboratory where you are? Do you know what they are here for?"
Schiller looked at the badge and said: "Because there are some things that the army is not convenient to do directly, mercenaries usually do it."
Stark continued to stare at Schiller. Schiller shook his head and said, "You don't need to know. Knowing it won't change anything."
"Raw materials for human experiments, right?" Stark clenched his fists and said, "They can't transport people from across the ocean, they can only use local materials."
Schiller said nothing and threw the badge into the bonfire. Then he stood up and said to Stark: "This group of people may be a group of habitual thieves, but it's hard to say whether they are outsiders or locals. It's better to be
Get rid of the body or you'll get into trouble."
Stark looked up at Schiller. He hesitated and then said: "They actually don't know that you are a killer. You didn't let them know that you can kill people."
"They don't need to know."
"Then I..."
"That's to get you to cooperate with the treatment. I'm not a quack."
