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Chapter 55 c
🕑 Added 2025-03-14 16:33:34 +0000 UTCChapter 55 c
Leo closed his eyes for a moment, then opened them again. A faint smile curved his lips.
“I was trying to blend in like an ordinary person, but forget that—let’s lay all our cards on the table.”
He suddenly threw an uppercut at the unsuspecting receptionist, smashing into her chin. She shot straight up like a rocket, slamming her head into the ceiling and dangling there like a human-shaped fan.
Several guards behind the front desk raised their guns. But at that moment, Lucy’s eyes flared with a dangerous red glow.
Sizzle.
A crackling surge of electricity flickered across the guard’s weapons. They were horrified to discover that no matter how hard they pulled the triggers, the guns wouldn’t fire.
Against these guards—whose weapons Lucy had hacked—Leo didn’t even bother drawing his sword. He swung a punch at one guard, who reflexively tried to block with his malfunctioning rifle. Leo’s blow ripped the gun in half, parts of it flying everywhere like raindrops. The powered gauntlet on his arm carried on, landing heavily on the guard’s face with terrifying force.
That guard sailed backward, smashing into the metal doors. His face caved in, leaving him slumped and motionless. The other guards hadn’t yet grasped what was happening. They roared in anger and rushed forward. One stabbed at Leo’s eye with a knife, but he reacted swiftly, reversing his grip to snatch away the blade. With a firm swipe, a flash of steel streaked across two guard’s throats, and they collapsed in wide-eyed disbelief, clutching at their necks.
Another guard tried sneaking behind him, aiming a rifle butt at Leo’s head, but Lucy flicked a monowire that neatly sliced both rifle and arm into pieces. Leo followed up with a forceful elbow to the guard’s chest, sending him hurtling into a row of chairs. His chest caved in with a sickening crunch, and he didn’t rise again.
Having dispatched the hospital staff in the lobby, Leo wasted no time. Resting his left hand on the sheathed sword at his hip, he sprinted toward the corridor leading deeper inside.
“Lucy, get to that front-desk terminal and shut down the alarm system. Make sure the NCPD doesn’t catch wind.”
“On it.” Lucy nodded and ran over to the terminal, her fingers flying across the keyboard.
“V, Jackie, let’s do this. Don’t hold back—wipe out every last staff member in this place.”
“Been waiting for you to say that, Leo.”
…
Inside the first floor, guards poured out from the surveillance room and gathered in a central hallway lined with patient wards. Redwood Psychiatric Hospital was usually so peaceful that no one ever dared to stir up trouble, so the guards were complacent—either they amused themselves bullying patients or lounged around in the monitoring room playing on their phones.
They’d heard odd noises from the lobby and checked the security feeds, but the monitors showed nothing suspicious.
“What’s that noise? Where’s it coming from?”
“Could it be a drill?”
“Hell no—it’s no drill.”
No matter how they wracked their brains, it never occurred to them that someone might actually attack the place. With no response from the front desk or the guards posted in the lobby, they decided to investigate.
They reached the corridor inside, seeing a young man gripping a sword sprinting straight for them. Realizing he was no friend, the guards—no strangers to violence—lifted their weapons with a shout.
“Kill him!”
“Open fire!”
“Don’t let him through!”
Bullets raked across the corridor like a driving rain, chewing up the floor, walls, and ceiling. Leo planted his right foot hard, veered into a nearby room on the left, and ducked inside.
“You three, flush him out with grenades!” one guard barked.
Though lazy, they were ex-military, and their training showed the instant real combat began. But before the assigned guards could even grab grenades, the wall on the left side of the hallway exploded into rubble. Several flashbangs flew out.
In that brilliant white glare, a blade flashed. Two guards had their throats cut almost instantly, blood splattering across walls and floor. Then Leo’s sword slid into another guard’s chest.
Dazzled cyberoptics still couldn’t see a thing; they had no idea what was happening. But the screams of their dying teammates thundered through the hallway like the footsteps of death, and terror spread like a plague. Panicked, they opened fire blindly toward the screams, not caring if they hit their own men.
Leo ducked behind the corner of the corridor, avoiding every shot. The guards ended up killing or injuring more of themselves. He rolled a few shrapnel grenades back into their midst. After several ear-splitting blasts, the shooting ceased.
Leo lunged out with his sword again. Ten seconds later, no one else in the hallway was still breathing.
Jackie’s voice came through on comms: “Leo, second floor’s clear.”
“Same here,” Leo confirmed. “All done.”
“What about these patients? The media can’t do much except run a story.”
“Don’t worry. I’ve got a plan.”
He jogged up the stairs while making a call. “Regina, do you happen to have Jefferson Peralez’s private number?”
“What do you want that for? Weren’t you rescuing Brice?”
“We already got Brice. But Redwood Psychiatric Hospital turned out to be a bigger nightmare than expected.” Leo filled her in on what they had uncovered.
Regina immediately grasped Leo’s reasoning for wanting Peralez’s contact. After considering it, she reached the same conclusion he had and agreed it might work. “I don’t have Jefferson’s direct line, but I do have his wife Elizabeth’s number. Hang on—I’ll send it to you.”
Elizabeth Peralez was Jefferson’s partner who managed his PR team.
Once Regina hung up, Leo called the number. A dignified, elegant woman appeared on the holo-screen. She frowned. “Who are you? How did you get this number?”
“Elizabeth Peralez, wife of Jefferson Peralez, right?”
“I’m hanging up.”
“If I were you, I wouldn’t. I’m about to deliver a gift you definitely don’t want to miss.”
