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Chapter 94 c
🕑 Added 2025-03-14 16:58:46 +0000 UTCChapter 94 c
Once they drew their guns, none of them actually holstered them again.
“You guys stay here to protect the vehicles and the News54 crew. The rest of you, follow me inside.”
Connor had just twenty officers in total. Under normal circumstances, dividing up a force this small would be a grave mistake. However, none of them knew what might be waiting inside the compound. If they went in together and ran into an ambush in unfamiliar territory, they could all die anyway. Meanwhile, they couldn’t very well drive their cars inside, and if no one stayed back to guard the vehicles, who knew what these hostile gang members might do to them?
If the cars remained intact, Connor and his men might still have a shot at salvaging the day by heading to their real target afterward. But if their vehicles were trashed, even escaping in one piece wouldn’t fix the problem. They’d lose any chance of completing their original mission. And when they finally reported back, Connor would most likely be finished.
Whatever else could be said about Commissioner Fort, generosity was not his strong suit. Connor was sure that if everything went wrong here, he’d be lucky to avoid getting booted off the force entirely.
Though he himself felt that this order was the worst possible option, Connor still gritted his teeth and told half his people to remain outside.
The small chapel stood in the depths of the compound. Despite being called a “small” chapel, the interior felt quite spacious, with decor resembling any ordinary place of worship—except the walls were covered in Eden Gang graffiti. A large crowd of Eden members filled the chapel.
Their leader, the so-called Holy Father, stood among them.
Behind him stretched a wall that had been deliberately carved into a shape like a crossed star—almost like a cross with four diagonal arms added. A beam of sunlight fell through that symbol, illuminating the Holy Father as if bathing him in divine radiance, making him look like a true messenger of God.
The moment Connor and the other outsiders arrived, a murmur of excitement swept through the chapel.
“They’re here!”
“Are they trying to arrest the Father?”
“Protect the Father!”
Someone in the crowd shouted, and that only further fueled the mob’s paranoia. Some rushed to shield the Holy Father behind their own bodies, while even more edged forward to surround Connor’s group. Unlike the gun-toting guards outside, these members were unarmed. Yet their fanaticism burned just as intensely.
Standing in their midst, the Holy Father spoke in a gentle, hymn-like cadence: “A great event draws near. Can’t you feel it? Humanity is nearing its breaking point, and soon we will face the final judgment. That is why we began this plan—because we know what comes next. They will come for us. They will take our guns, our freedom… even our faith. But we will not let them succeed. We won’t allow their greed or sins or depravity to harm us any longer.
Nobody else will suffer under them again!”
Sensing the situation careening out of control, Connor hurriedly raised his voice. “N-no, that’s not it at all, Mr. Seed… Father… You misunderstand. We’re not here to arrest you.”
The Holy Father fixed him with a gaze that made Connor feel like he’d said the stupidest thing in the world. “Officer, your people are armed to the teeth, and you even brought along News54. Now you want me to believe you aren’t here to arrest me? You came all this way just to share a joke?”
Connor raised both hands in a calming gesture. “It’s all a mistake, I promise you, Mr. Seed… Father. Believe it or not, we took a wrong turn. We were supposed to go after 6th Street, but our navigation system led us here by mistake. So I beg you, please have your men open the gate and let us leave in peace.”
Meanwhile, back in the surveillance room, Leo and Lucy realized that a jamming signal had been activated throughout the compound, cutting off their ability to reach Rebecca or El Capitán. Lucy, who had never run into a true worst-case scenario like this, felt her nerves tighten. In contrast, Leo remained surprisingly calm. He clasped Lucy’s hand gently.
“Don’t worry. I’ve got this.”
Lucy nodded. Seeing his confidence helped ease her own tension. After soothing her, Leo weighed their current predicament. He had already tried several methods; nothing worked. The jammer was installed underground, in the exact opposite direction from them, and there was no way they could sneak there undetected to shut it off.
“Are we completely out of options?”
Just then, a sudden inspiration hit him. He turned to Lucy. “This netrunner chair—can you use it?”
She nodded, though she wasn’t sure why he asked.
“I need you to do something on purpose: force your way into the MaxTac subnet. Think you can manage that?”
A jamming device only blocked communications; it wasn’t an EMP. They could still hack. Lucy frowned. “The equipment here is really poor. There’s no way I can successfully hack MaxTac’s subnet.”
“That’s fine. I don’t need you to succeed. I just need you to provoke them enough so they get mad, trace the signal, and come right here.”
Elsewhere, in the chapel, the Holy Father silently stared at Connor. The atmosphere felt stifling, as if the slightest provocation would set off the powder keg. Connor’s officers shifted nervously, surrounded by Eden fanatics brimming with hostility.
“Father…?” one of them ventured, trying to regain his attention.
But the Father gazed at everyone in the chapel with deep sorrow in his eyes, as if they were lost children. “They’re here. These people are but locusts in our garden. We all saw them come to get me, to destroy everything we have built. We always knew this day would come, and we’re prepared. God will not allow them to take me away. I looked when the Lamb opened the first of the seven seals, and I heard one of the four living creatures say, ‘Come and see’—and behold, a pale horse… and Hell followed with it.”
Connor’s heart sank. He knew exactly what the Father was insinuating. Around them, Eden members advanced with the slow, unsettling certainty of predators on the hunt. Though they held no weapons, his officers were so unnerved that they clutched their Lexingtons with trembling hands.
“Stay back! I’m warning you, don’t come any closer!” several officers yelled. Connor, too, gave up on trying to keep his sidearms holstered. He drew his Lexington, aiming at a member who crept closer.
“I’m Detective Connor of the NCPD. I order you to step back!”
Still, not a single Eden follower wavered. Without weapons, they simply kept pressing in. Fear and dread escalated among the officers, and in that tense standoff, one officer finally panicked and pulled the trigger.
The single gunshot thundered through the chapel like a starter’s pistol, and in an instant the Eden faithful charged forward like a horde of frenzied zombies. Gunfire, furious shouts, and agonized screams erupted in the small chapel, echoing without end.
