同章对照

“This is stupid!”

“Lanka…” Jamie trailed off at the back of the car. “Calm down.”

Ryan listened to their bickering while peeking through his car’s window. Dynamis’ Star Studios—which won a prize for name originality—spanned roughly two and a half square kilometers of surface, located east of New Rome. They had an entire open park dedicated to them and roughly seven warehouses. From afar, Ryan noticed the staff moving cardboard cutouts, interns carrying coffee to their superiors, and stuntmen prepping themselves. The studios only had one checkpoint entrance, and few guards; they clearly didn’t expect an attack.

Still, the group had parked outside the studio’s confines, unable to find a path inside without security cameras in the way. Ki-jung napped with her head against her boyfriend’s shoulder, her eyes closed. While the group remained at safe distance from the studios, she had sent her rats to do scouting work.

From what Ryan understood, Chitter’s enhanced rat family acted as relays, allowing her to control a swarm of vermin over a large area. Ryan suspected that instead of true telepathy, which was a Blue power, Chitter physically modified her rats into an extension of her own nervous system. On one hand, it meant destroying her main rats would cancel her power for a time, but on the other hand, her vermin familiars could act independently without her direct input.

“I mean, why would we risk ourselves fighting Wyvern, aka the dragon shapeshifter who can take on the Boss, so he,” Lanka pointed an accusing finger at Ryan, who made an offended pose, “can earn himself a personal favor?”

“Because Vulcan wants it, and she’s one of the Capos,” Jamie replied, “and with luck, we won’t have to face her. I doubt she has time for actor work.”

“What happens if you’re wrong? None of us can take her on!”

Thing was, Ryan had a bad feeling too.

He couldn’t explain it, but the courier had developed a strong intuition over his various loops. And right now, his sixth sense warned him of danger, of someone watching him. Yet their current location should be a blind spot for the security cameras.

He should install a radar in his car.

A bit distraught, Ryan put on the radio and activated the special feature, hoping to find good old-school music to drown out the noise. “—in other news, the Roman Republic is still under curfew, after Gaius Julius Caesar’s assassination—”

Again with Caesar? It had been two thousand years! “What news channel is that?” Jamie asked, curious. “I don’t recognize the speaker.”

“It’s my Chronoradio,” Ryan explained, changing the channel. “It listens to channels across space and time. But for some reason, it usually defaults to the Roman Republic era.”

“You should work on your stories, blabbermouth,” Lanka taunted him. “They didn’t have radios two thousand years ago.”

“In one version of the past, they did.”

“You can’t have multiple versions of the past.”

Ryan looked at her with a deadpan look. It was wasted effort with his mask on, but still. “That’s not how time works,” he said, with the same tone as an adult talking to a petulant child.

“Fuck you, Einstein.”

“Whenever you want,” Ryan replied, before finally finding the Post-Apocalyptic Blues channel. Ki-jung chose this moment to wake up.

“So?” Jamie asked her.

“Wyvern isn’t present,” she said, scratching her neck. “Someone’s filling in for her.”

“See, I knew she didn’t do her own stunts,” Jamie told Lanka, vindicated. “She’s probably too busy with fieldwork.”

“There’s no guarantee she won’t fly in after somebody calls the alarm,” she replied, opening the window and lighting a cigarette.

“The bad news, however, is that Wardrobe replaces her for the stunts,” Ki-jung continued, “and Atom Cat is there too.”

Jamie didn’t sound concerned about Wardrobe, but instantly bristled when she mentioned the other Genome. “Wardrobe gains power based on her costume, right?” Ryan asked, trying to stir up his memory.

“If she dresses as a vampire she drinks blood and burns in the sun, if she dresses as Wyvern, then she can fly.” Ki-jung nodded. “It’s a very weak version of the real thing, so even if she dresses like Augustus you can still hurt her, and the effect lasts only as long as her clothes are relatively intact.”

“Yellow Genomes are bullshit,” Lanka complained.

“I can understand Wardrobe's presence, but Atom Cat?” Jamie asked his girlfriend.

“He’s doing a guest appearance in the movie,” she replied, showing concern. “Do we abort?”

“Abort?” Ryan turned his head around. “Why abort? He’s that powerful?”

“Atom Cat is... was, one of us,” Jamie said.

“He’s a spy?” Ryan asked. “Like James Bond?”

“No. It’s complicated.” Jamie joined his fingers, trying to find the right words. “He’s having a teenage rebellion phase, but he’ll come back into the fold, eventually. His parents are part of Augustus’ inner circle, and we’ve been explicitly forbidden from endangering him in any way.”

“Don’t let him touch you, blabbermouth,” Lanka said, “or you go boom.”

“He can transform anything into a bomb, but only with direct skin contact,” Ki-jung added.

“Interesting,” Ryan lied, before asking the really important question to Ki-jung. “CGI, special effects, or stop motion?”

“They use CGI.”

The courier put his head on the steering wheel, mourning the loss of cinema's golden age.

“So what do we do?” Lanka asked Jamie. “We go in gun blazing, make a ruckus, and then bolt away?”

“No,” Jamie replied, turning to his girlfriend. “Here’s what we’ll do. You flood the studios with rats from afar, make a ruckus, then we immediately drive away.”

Ryan immediately understood the obvious flaw in this plan. “Wait, we don’t fight anyone?”

“No.”

“Betrayal. Betrayal!” the courier pointed a finger at Jamie. “You can’t do this to me!”

“I won’t let you get in a firefight with Atom Cat, Quicksave,” Jamie replied. “I’m sorry, but I don’t want any trouble on that front.”

“You ask too much!” the courier said, his fellow Genome sighing in defeat. “You’re killing me, Jamie! You’re killing me!”

“You’ll live through it.” The swordsman shrugged, before turning to Ki-jung. “So?”

“I’m your girl,” she said, falling asleep. Ryan turned to Lanka for support, but she simply looked out of the window, finishing her cigarette. He couldn’t blame them since they weren’t immortal, but damn, it sucked all the fun out of this mission.

As minutes passed, Ryan noticed agitation near the studio. People getting out of the warehouses, screaming.

Then they came crawling.

Hordes of thousands of black and brown rats. They escaped from the warehouses, breaking windows under their sheer weight. There were so many of them, that the rodents had to climb on one another to advance, forming waves and walls of fur.

Ryan almost felt pity for the poor Dynamis trainees, confronted with this terror while they toiled without any hope for a paycheck. Obviously, panic spread all around the area, the staff fleeing in all directions, coffee cups being spilled, guards desperately trying to shoot the rodents…

“My, my…” Ryan whistled. “This city has a rat problem..”

“That should satisfy Vulcan,” Jamie chuckled. “Now, let’s go home before the Private Security arrives.”

The courier couldn’t agree more, especially since he still felt uneasy.

Ryan pushed the accelerator pedal, abandoning the vermin-infested studio for the city’s broad lanes. As he drove all the way to the group’s shared house, he almost hoped for Wyvern to come from the skies, or Atom Cat to track them down on a motorcycle for an epic car chase. Or even the Meta to ambush them.

Instead, they returned home without a problem.

Frankly, New Rome's heroes disappointed the courier. Perhaps Leo Hargraves' Carnival had given Ryan a false image of what superheroes should be, since they were brutally competent, but Dynamis' corporate champions didn't impress him much.

“You’re sulking, blabbermouth?” Lanka asked him, finishing her smoke and throwing it out of the window. Ryan stopped time, caught the smoke, and put it in an ashtray in the glove compartment.

“It’s just, I expected a road bump of some kind,” Ryan replied when time resumed. His gut may have been mistaken. “This is boring.”

“See the bright side, you will finally see your girlfriend again,” Jamie tried to comfort him.

“What’s she like?” Ki-jung asked.

“I will present her to you,” Ryan said, much to her delight. He had to admit, he started to like this group. He wouldn’t get too attached nor make the effort to know them better since they could forget him anytime, but for professional criminals, they were quite nice to hang out with.

Parking the car in front of the house, Ryan let the others climb down but didn’t follow yet. “I’ll just listen to the radio for a bit,” he replied. “Can you call Vulcan?”

“Sure,” Jamie promised, “Also, it’s movie night. Robocop or Robocop 2?”

Ryan raised two fingers since he liked movies with stop motion; even if he had seen both films countless times already. He was busy trying to find the Jazz Sixties channel on his chronoradio when Ki-jung reached the house’s door, exchanging pleasantries with Lanka.

Except Ki-jung suddenly stopped, as she was within an inch of the door handle. Ryan lowered his car window. “What’s up?”

“I can’t sense the rats I left at home,” the rodent master replied, bothered.

“They scampered off?” Jamie asked.

His girlfriend shook her head. “I explicitly told them to stay and watch the place.”

Now, Ryan wasn’t the only one with a bad feeling. Lanka drew her gun, moving first with a frown on her face. Ki-jung took a step back, while her female friend put a hand on the door handle, the other ready to shoot through it.

Click.

Ryan instantly stopped time when he heard that oh-so-familiar sound, but it was already too late.

When the world turned purple, his power freezing everything in place, the house had already transformed into a giant burst of flames and debris; the inferno swallowed both Lanka and Ki-jung whole and incinerated them instantly. The blast had somehow caused all his car’s reinforced windows to explode into sharp shards and triggered its alarm.

Ignoring the glass shards grazing his skin, Ryan emerged from his car and rushed at Jamie’s side, making a futile attempt to rescue him.

When time resumed, he received a mouthful of dust, ashes, and stones for his trouble, the entire house having been vaporized. Jamie, thanks to his armor, was more shocked than hurt physically.

Emotionally though...

“KI-JUNG!”

The swordsman rushed to his girlfriend’s side, but even with her Genome durability, the blast had killed the young woman instantly. Her flesh had been seared so much, her eyes had fried and one could see the bones.

“Damn,” Ryan said upon observing the corpses, before glancing around to look for the responsible. No one in sight, although he couldn’t distinguish things clearly through the smoke. “I didn’t expect that at home.”

“Ki-jung...” Jamie muttered while holding his girlfriend in his arms, his horrified eyes then wandering to Lanka’s body. He then turned to Ryan, panic overtaking him. “We have to go to the hospital!”

“It’s useless,” Ryan replied, having studied medicine enough to know they lacked either the tools or the time to make a difference, “They’re dead. You can’t do anything.”

For the first time since he met him, Jamie looked at Ryan with a new emotion: pure, undiluted fury. “That’s all you have to say?” he asked venomously. “They’re dead?”

Thing was, Ryan had seen so many people die, that he had grown numb to it. He cared on an intellectual level, but since he could still rewind time and avert this attack, the destruction carried no emotional weight. The courier liked both girls and would make sure they survived next time, but he didn’t see the point of being sad now; he would rather gather as much information as possible to make sure he prevailed in the future.

Ryan would have loved to say he had become a creature of logic… but apathy would have been a better word.

Still, Jamie’s incensed, distraught expression saddened the courier enough to make an effort; after all, the swordsman had tried to help him with his own lingering sadness. “It’s okay, I can bring them back,” Ryan promised. “I can—”

The courier noticed movement at the edge of his vision and turned around.

The glass shards from his car flew at him like thrown knives.

Worse, Jamie’s armor suddenly seemed to suffer from a short circuit, a surge of lightning electrocuting him. The swordsman Genome let out a scream of pain, as the sheer voltage fried his flesh and forced him to release Ki-jung’s corpse.

Shit, the killer was still nearby!

Ryan stopped time to dodge the knives. He looked around to locate for the source of the attack, but no one was in sight. Was the attacker invisible again?

He never had the time to confirm it, no pun intended.

The moment time resumed, the courier felt a sharp pain in his neck. His vision turned upside down, his entire body below the throat going numb as his ear hit the grass. Glass shards swirled above him like a tornado, shredding Jamie alive before he could recover from his own armor’s incapacitation.

…

Was that Ryan’s headless body at his side?

The beheaded courier could only widen his eyes, before all the glass shards fell on his skull like a rain of swords.

---

Ryan woke up at his Plymouth’s driver wheel, back to the beginning.

Instead of moving directly to Renesco’s place, the Genome parked his car near the city’s entrance, staying still as he gathered his thoughts.

“Twice!” he snarled out loud. He had been had twice when he was so close to finding happiness!

Okay, now, that settled it.

Someone was after him. Someone bold enough to attack while he had a whole group of Genomes at his back.

But who? Ryan was flattered to have a secret archenemy, but he didn’t see anyone with the means and motives except the Meta. Or did the assassin target him on principle due to joining the Augusti?

Was it a lone wolf? This person seemed like a professional, and you would need a mighty bomb to cause an explosion that powerful. Ryan dying right after he stopped time implied that the killer had figured out his cooldown period, and Chitter’s rodents had been killed to prevent them from warning their master. That must have involved a lot of information gathering, perhaps even a whole crew.

The way it happened… the one responsible could clearly control glass. Since they could fry the technological components of Jamie’s armor, perhaps even a silica kinetic. It could also explain the presumed invisibility as an optical illusion, or some kind of mirror suit.

The attack had been brutal, unexpected, and lasted less than five minutes. The killer was no inexperienced would-be hero like the Panda, but a cold-blooded professional.

The courier considered what to do next. Thing was, even if he succeeded on the mission Vulcan gave him and avoided the ambush at the house, continuing without dealing with the assassin might lead them directly to Len.

Although it infuriated him, Ryan decided to put his main quest on hold until he had dealt with that roadblock. That mysterious killer had already murdered him twice without ever showing up directly and clearly couldn’t care less about collateral damage. Worse, if the killer wasn’t a lone wolf but an agent of someone else, then killing them would only win Ryan a reprieve.

The meaning of life was finding happiness. Ryan didn’t feel happy without Len. Intentionally or not, this killer kept them apart, and so had to go. The end.

He didn’t want Jamie and his friends to die either. The courier took no pleasure in the suffering of others, notwithstanding assholes like Ghoul. His Perfect Run would involve everyone he liked being happy, and Jamie’s group was now part of that VIP category.

He wouldn’t let them die.

Ryan considered the matter with cold logic, to see how he could solve the problem in this new loop. So far, the killer had only attacked the Augusti or the courier himself, but that may be because Ryan worked with the criminal syndicate. Excluding the lone wolf hypothesis, only two organizations had the Genomes, motives, and resources to attack them: the Meta, and Dynamis.

If it was the Meta, well, Ryan had already promised to wipe them out, so it would be killing two birds with one stone. But his gut told him he had missed a detail, and he quickly remembered what.

The harbor.

Ryan remembered a flyer rescuing members of the Private Security when he had fought Ghoul and Sarin there. He thought he couldn’t see them clearly due to the darkness, but maybe it was because they were invisible, their presence only revealed by the smoke. Since the figure hadn’t helped the Meta but did rescue Dynamis’ employees, Ryan excluded the former as the guilty party.

This left only a lone vigilante… or an agent of Dynamis.

Time to take up Wyvern on her offer.

“这简直蠢透了！”

“兰卡……”后座上的杰米欲言又止。“冷静点。”

瑞恩听着他们斗嘴，一边透过车窗往外看。迪纳米斯的明星制片厂——光这名字的创意就够拿奖了——位于新罗马以东，占地约两点五平方公里。他们有整整一片专用的露天园区，以及大约七座仓库。远远望去，瑞恩看见工作人员搬着纸板人像，实习生给上司送咖啡，特技演员则在做准备。制片厂只有一处设卡检查的入口，守卫也寥寥无几；他们显然没料到会有人袭击。

不过，一行人还是把车停在了制片厂外，因为找不到一条能避开监控摄像头的路进去。基贞闭着眼睛，头靠在男友肩上打盹。其余人留在离制片厂足够远的安全地带，她则派出了自己的老鼠去侦察。

据瑞恩了解，吱喳那一大家子强化老鼠充当着中继节点，让她能在很大一片区域内操纵成群的鼠类。瑞恩怀疑，吱喳用的并不是真正的心灵感应——那是蓝系能力——而是从生理层面改造了她的老鼠，让它们成了自身神经系统的延伸。一方面，这意味着干掉那几只核心老鼠，就能让她的能力暂时失效；但另一方面，她的老鼠使魔不需要她直接下令，也能独立行动。

“我是说，我们凭什么冒着性命危险，去跟双足飞龙打？那个能变成龙、能跟老大过招的女人！就为了让他——”兰卡伸出手指，指控般地指着瑞恩，后者摆出一副深受冒犯的姿态，“给自己换来一个人情？”

“因为伏尔甘想要我们这么做，而她是干部之一，”杰米答道，“而且运气好的话，我们根本不用跟双足飞龙碰面。我怀疑她压根没时间演戏。”

“要是你猜错了呢？我们谁都打不过她！”

问题是，瑞恩也有种不祥的预感。

他解释不清，但在一次又一次的循环中，这位快递员已经练出了敏锐的直觉。此时此刻，他的第六感正在警告他：有危险，有人在盯着他。可他们现在的位置，按说应该是监控摄像头的盲区。

他该给自己的车装个雷达。

瑞恩心里有点烦乱，便打开收音机，启动特殊功能，希望找点好听的老歌盖过这些杂音。“——其他消息，盖乌斯·尤利乌斯·凯撒遇刺身亡后，罗马共和国仍在实行宵禁——”

又是凯撒？都两千年了！“这是什么新闻台？”杰米好奇地问，“这个播音员的声音我没听过。”

“这是我的时空收音机。”瑞恩一边解释，一边换台。“它能收听跨越时空的频道。但不知为什么，通常都会默认调到罗马共和国时代。”

“你编故事的本事还得练练，话痨，”兰卡讥讽道，“两千年前可没有收音机。”

“在过去的某一个版本里，是有的。”

“过去不可能有好几个版本。”

瑞恩面无表情地看着她。他戴着面具，这表情做了也是白做，不过该做还是得做。“时间不是那么运作的。”他的口吻就像大人在跟一个任性的小孩说话。

“操你，爱因斯坦。”

“随时恭候。”瑞恩说，终于找到了末日后蓝调频道。基贞恰好在这时醒了。

“怎么样？”杰米问她。

“双足飞龙不在。”她挠了挠脖子。“有人在替她演。”

“看吧，我就知道她的特技戏不是亲自上的。”杰米得意地对兰卡说，“她多半在忙外勤，抽不开身。”

“可谁能保证，一有人拉响警报，她不会立刻飞过来？”兰卡说着，打开车窗，点了一根烟。

“不过，坏消息是，给她当特技替身的是衣橱，”基贞接着说，“而且原子猫也在。”

杰米听到衣橱时还不怎么在意，可一提到另一名基因者，他立刻紧绷起来。“衣橱会根据自己的服装获得能力，对吧？”瑞恩问，努力搜刮着记忆。

“如果她扮成吸血鬼，就会喝血，被太阳烧伤；如果扮成双足飞龙，就能飞。”基贞点点头。“但她得到的只是原版能力的极弱化版本，所以就算她扮成奥古斯都，你照样能伤到她。而且只有在她的衣服还算完好时，效果才能维持。”

“黄系基因者真他妈不讲道理。”兰卡抱怨道。

“衣橱在那儿我能理解，可原子猫是怎么回事？”杰米问女友。

“他在这部电影里客串。”她回答，面露忧色。“我们要中止行动吗？”

“中止？”瑞恩转过头。“为什么要中止？他有那么厉害？”

“原子猫是……曾经是我们的人。”杰米说。

“他是间谍？”瑞恩问，“像詹姆斯·邦德那样？”

“不是。事情很复杂。”杰米把手指交拢，斟酌着措辞。“他现在正处于青春期叛逆阶段，但迟早会回归家族的。他父母都是 奥古斯都的核心亲信，上面明确下过命令，禁止我们以任何方式危及他的安全。”

“别让他碰到你，话痨，”兰卡说，“不然你就砰的一声炸了。”

“他能把任何东西变成炸弹，但必须用皮肤直接接触。”基贞补充道。

“有意思。”瑞恩违心地说，然后问了基贞一个真正重要的问题。“电脑合成、实景特效，还是定格动画？”

“他们用电脑合成。”

快递员把脑袋抵在方向盘上，哀悼电影黄金时代的逝去。

“那我们怎么办？”兰卡问杰米，“冲进去一通扫射，大闹一场，然后跑路？”

“不。”杰米说着，转向女友。“我们这么办：你在远处操纵鼠群淹了制片厂，大闹一场，然后我们立刻开车走人。”

瑞恩立刻看出了这个计划的明显缺陷。“等等，我们谁也不打？”

“不打。”

“背叛。这是背叛！”快递员伸手指着杰米。“你不能这样对我！”

“我不会让你跟原子猫交火的，快存。”杰米回答。“抱歉，但我不想在这件事上惹麻烦。”

“你的要求太过分了！”快递员说，他的基因者同伴无可奈何地叹了口气。“你这是要我的命啊，杰米！要我的命！”

“你死不了的。”剑士耸耸肩，又转向基贞。“怎么样？”

“交给我吧。”她说完，便睡了过去。瑞恩转向兰卡寻求支持，她却只是望着窗外，把烟抽完。毕竟他们又不是不死之身，他也怪不了他们，可是该死，这下任务还有什么乐趣可言。

几分钟过去，瑞恩注意到制片厂那边骚动起来。人们尖叫着从仓库里跑了出来。

紧接着，它们爬了出来。

成千上万的黑鼠与褐鼠，密密麻麻。它们涌出仓库，光是堆积的重量就压碎了窗户。老鼠实在太多，必须爬到彼此身上才能前进，翻涌成一波波毛茸茸的浪潮，堆成一道道鼠墙。

瑞恩几乎有些同情迪纳米斯那些可怜的实习生了。他们埋头苦干，连工资都指望不上，现在还得面对这种恐怖场面。不出所料，恐慌迅速蔓延了整个园区，工作人员四散逃窜，咖啡杯纷纷打翻，守卫们拼了命地朝老鼠开枪……

“啧啧……”瑞恩吹了声口哨。“这城里的鼠患可够严重的。”

“这应该能让伏尔甘满意了。”杰米轻笑道。“好了，趁私人安保队还没到，我们回家吧。”

快递员再同意不过了，尤其是那股不安仍未散去。

瑞恩踩下油门，把鼠群肆虐的制片厂抛在身后，驶上城里宽阔的车道。一路开往众人合住的房子时，他甚至有点盼着双足飞龙从天而降，或者原子猫骑着摩托追上来，来一场史诗级的飙车追逐。哪怕超能帮来伏击他们也行。

结果，他们平平安安地回到了家。

说真的，新罗马的英雄让这位快递员很失望。也许是利奥·哈格雷夫斯的嘉年华让瑞恩对超级英雄产生了不切实际的期待——他们实在能干得吓人——但迪纳米斯旗下这些企业英雄，着实没让他眼前一亮。

“生闷气呢，话痨？”兰卡问他，抽完烟，把烟头扔出了车窗。瑞恩暂停时间，接住烟头，放进手套箱里的烟灰缸。

“就是，我原本以为总会遇上点波折。”时间恢复流动后，瑞恩回答。也许是他的直觉出了错。“这也太无聊了。”

“往好处想，你终于能再见到女朋友了。”杰米试着安慰他。

“她是个什么样的人？”基贞问。

“到时候介绍你们认识。”瑞恩说，她听了很高兴。他不得不承认，自己开始喜欢这群人了。他不会投入太多感情，也不会刻意加深了解，毕竟他们随时都可能忘记他。不过，对一群职业罪犯来说，他们相处起来还真挺不错。

瑞恩把车停在房子前，让其他人先下去，自己却没有跟上。“我再听一会儿收音机。”他说。“能帮我给伏尔甘打个电话吗？”

“没问题。”杰米答应道。“还有，今晚是电影之夜。《机械战警》还是《机械战警2》？”

瑞恩竖起两根手指，因为他喜欢有定格动画的电影；虽然这两部他都已经看过无数遍了。他正忙着在时空收音机里找六十年代爵士频道，基贞则走到房门前，跟兰卡闲聊着。

然而，就在手离门把只差一英寸时，基贞突然停住了。瑞恩降下车窗。“怎么了？”

“我感觉不到留在家里的那些老鼠了。”这位鼠群的主人回答，神色不安。

“它们跑出去了？”杰米问。

女友摇了摇头。“我明确吩咐过，让它们留在这里看家。”

这下，有不祥预感的不止瑞恩一个了。兰卡皱起眉，拔出枪，率先上前。基贞退后一步，兰卡则一只手握住门把，另一只手举着枪，随时准备隔门射击。

咔哒。

听到那个再熟悉不过的声音，瑞恩立刻暂停了时间，但已经太迟了。

世界染上紫色，他的能力将一切冻结在原地，而房子已经化作一团巨大的火焰与碎片；烈火彻底吞没了兰卡和基贞，瞬间将她们烧死。爆炸不知怎的还震碎了他车上所有的强化玻璃窗，炸出无数锋利的碎片，触发了警报。

瑞恩顾不上擦破皮肤的玻璃碴，冲出车，奔到杰米身边，徒劳地试图救下他。

时间恢复流动时，他这一番努力只换来满嘴尘土、灰烬和碎石，整栋房子已经灰飞烟灭。杰米有装甲保护，身体没受多少伤，更多的是震惊。

可心里受到的伤害……

“基贞！”

剑士冲到女友身边，但即使有基因者的强韧体魄，她也在爆炸发生的瞬间就死了。她的皮肉烧得焦烂，眼睛都烧熟了，有些地方露出了骨头。

“该死。”瑞恩看过尸体，随即扫视四周，寻找凶手。视野里一个人也没有，不过烟雾弥漫，他也看不真切。“没想到会在家里来这一出。”

“基贞……”杰米把女友抱在怀里，喃喃念着她的名字，惊恐的目光又移向兰卡的尸体。随后他转向瑞恩，彻底慌了神。“我们得去医院！”

“没用的。”瑞恩回答。他学过足够多的医学知识，清楚他们既没有所需的设备，也没有足够的时间挽回什么。“她们已经死了。你什么也做不了。”

自相识以来，杰米第一次用一种全新的情绪看着瑞恩：纯粹而毫无杂质的暴怒。“你就只有这句话？”他恶狠狠地问，“她们已经死了？”

问题是，瑞恩见过太多人死去，早已麻木了。理智上，他是在乎的；可既然他仍能倒转时间，阻止这场袭击，那么眼前的毁灭便激不起什么情绪。快递员喜欢这两个姑娘，也会确保她们下一轮活下来，但他看不出现在难过有什么意义；他宁可尽可能多地搜集信息，确保将来自己能赢。

瑞恩很想说，自己已经成了一个纯粹遵循逻辑的生物……但用冷漠来形容，或许更恰当。

不过，杰米那愤怒而悲痛欲绝的神情，还是让快递员难受到了愿意试着安慰他的地步；毕竟，这位剑士也曾想帮他摆脱心头挥之不去的悲伤。“没事的，我能让她们回来。”瑞恩保证道。“我能——”

快递员眼角瞥见了动静，转过身去。

他车上的玻璃碎片像飞刀一样向他射来。

更糟的是，杰米的装甲突然像是短路了，一股电光涌出，狠狠电在他身上。这位基因者剑士发出一声痛苦的惨叫，强大的电压灼焦了他的皮肉，逼得他松开了基贞的尸体。

操，杀手还在附近！

瑞恩暂停时间，躲开那些玻璃飞刀。他环顾四周，寻找攻击的来源，却一个人影也没看见。袭击者又隐形了？

他根本没时间确认——绝无双关之意。

时间恢复的刹那，快递员感到脖子一阵剧痛。眼前的一切倒转过来，喉咙以下的整个身体失去了知觉，耳朵撞上了草地。玻璃碎片在他上方旋成一阵龙卷风，杰米还没能从装甲造成的瘫痪中恢复过来，就被活活绞碎。

……

旁边那具没了脑袋的身体，是瑞恩自己的？

被斩首的快递员只能瞪大双眼，随即，所有玻璃碎片如剑雨般落向他的头颅。

---

瑞恩在普利茅斯的方向盘前醒来，回到了起点。

这次他没有直接前往雷内斯科那里，而是把车停在城市入口附近，坐着不动，整理思绪。

“两次！”他咬牙吼道。幸福明明已经近在咫尺，他却被人算计了两次！

好吧，这下可以确定了。

有人盯上了他。而且那人胆子大到，即使他身边有一整队基因者撑腰，也敢动手。

可那人是谁？能有个秘密宿敌，瑞恩还真有些受宠若惊，但除了超能帮，他想不出还有谁既有手段又有动机。又或者，这名刺客只是因为他加入了奥古斯蒂，便出于某种原则把他列为了目标？

是独狼吗？这人看起来像个职业杀手，而要造成那么猛烈的爆炸，也需要一枚威力惊人的炸弹。瑞恩刚用过时间暂停就死了，说明杀手已经摸清了他的冷却时间；吱喳的老鼠也被提前杀掉，免得它们向主人示警。这必然需要大量的情报搜集工作，甚至可能有一整支团队参与。

从袭击的方式来看……凶手显然能够操纵玻璃。既然对方还可以烧毁杰米装甲中的科技元件，那甚至可能是个二氧化硅操控者。这也能解释所谓的隐形——或许是光学幻象，或是某种镜面服装。

袭击凶狠、突然，整个过程不到五分钟。杀手不是熊猫那样毫无经验、妄想当英雄的愣头青，而是一个冷血的专业人士。

快递员考虑着下一步该怎么做。问题在于，就算他完成了伏尔甘交给他的任务，也避开了家里的伏击，但要是不先解决这个刺客就继续下去，可能会把对方直接引到蕾恩身边。

尽管这让他恼火至极，瑞恩还是决定先搁置主线任务，清除这个路障再说。那个神秘杀手从未直接露面，就已经杀了他两次，而且显然根本不在乎殃及旁人。更糟的是，如果杀手并非独狼，而是在替别人办事，那么干掉对方，也只能让瑞恩暂时喘口气。

人生的意义就是寻找幸福。没有蕾恩，瑞恩就不幸福。不论有意无意，这个杀手都在阻挠他们重逢，因此必须除掉。就这么简单。

他也不想让杰米和他的朋友们死去。除食尸鬼那样的混蛋之外，快递员不会从别人的痛苦中寻得乐趣。他的完美通关，应该让每一个他喜欢的人都幸福，而杰米这群人如今也进了这份贵宾名单。

他不会让他们死。

瑞恩用冷静的逻辑审视整件事，思考该如何在新一轮循环里解决问题。到目前为止，杀手只袭击过奥古斯蒂的人和快递员本人，但后者可能也是因为瑞恩在和这个犯罪集团合作。排除独狼的假设后，只有两个组织同时具备发起袭击所需的基因者、动机和资源：超能帮，以及迪纳米斯。

如果是超能帮，那好办，瑞恩早就答应过要灭掉他们，正好一石二鸟。但直觉告诉他，他漏掉了一个细节，而他很快就想起了是什么。

港口。

瑞恩记得，自己在那里与食尸鬼和沙林交手时，有个会飞的人救走了私人安保队的成员。他当时以为是天黑，才没能看清对方，但也许是因为那人隐了形，只是烟雾勾勒出了轮廓。既然那道人影没有帮助超能帮，却救了迪纳米斯的员工，瑞恩便将前者从嫌疑名单中排除了。

剩下的可能就只有一个独行义警……或者迪纳米斯的特工。

是时候接受双足飞龙的邀请了。