同章对照

Ryan hated hospital rooms. Even if useful for sanitization purposes, the constant whiteness made him feel sick and isolated.

Hours had gone by since the orphanage battle, its occupants evacuated by Dynamis and moved to one of the company’s hospitals. Psyshock’s victim had been put in an artificial slumber, laying on a warm bed with a respirator and brain scanning devices near her. Wyvern stood near the window, clearly struggling against the urge to sleep.

“Will she be okay?” Ryan asked Wyvern, both having stood watch over the girl for a while. “I know from experience you can recover from Psyshock’s ‘brain connection,’ but I have yet to see someone sedated afterward.”

“Medics said her brainwave patterns are highly abnormal,” Wyvern told him. “They will keep her in observation for a few days until they are certain she won’t suffer from sequelae.”

This worried Ryan a bit, making him wonder if Psyshock had refined his powers since the last time they met. At least the vile Psycho was dead for this loop, allowing the courier to relax.

Enrique ‘Blackthorn’ Manada chose that moment to enter the room, carrying a bright, exquisite bouquet in his arms.

“Well, well, I believe congratulations are in order,” the corporate mastermind said, putting the flowers next to the window. “A bit heavy-handed for my taste, but I expected collateral damage from your part, Romano.”

“What will happen to the children?” Wyvern asked, sounding quite familiar with her manager.

“We will take care of them,” Enrique said. “They will be hosted in a secure facility far away from Rust Town, and many people voiced their intention to adopt some of them. Let it not be said that Dynamis is not family-friendly.”

Of course they would try to exploit the situation for a publicity stunt. “Well, I’m sure everyone cared about them before I posted these photos on the Dynanet,” Ryan mused.

“Speaking of photos, Romano, I am highly disappointed in you,” Enrique scolded him. “I remember telling you that your name was Timelord now, yet you introduce yourself in your pictures as ‘Quicksave and his cat.’ Now the damage is done, and it might be even too late to correct that mistake.”

“Wait, that’s what bothers you?” Ryan asked, surprised. “You’re not mad about our little adventure?”

“Why would I?” Enrique asked, also genuinely surprised. “You and Atom Cat saved an orphanage while dealing a savage blow to this city’s criminal underbelly. You did good.”

“Yeah, but I skipped the training, and you said you didn’t like loose cannons.”

“I don’t, but I believe you are under a misconception. You are free to do as you wish, as long as you accept the consequences. If your actions, no matter how irresponsible, lead to a victory, then obviously it was done with Dynamis’ full approval; if you fuck up, then you did it on your own.”

“So, if I succeed,” Ryan summarized, to make sure he had heard it straight. “You take the credit, and if I fail, I take the blame?”

“No, no,” Enrique reassured him. “If you succeed we share the credit, and if you fail, you take the blame.”

A distinction without a difference. “I admire your pragmatism, sir. You are a genius, sir.”

“Enough with the fake servility, Romano, I get enough of that from the trainees.” He then joined his hands in a calculating mastermind pose. “Now, the bitter part.”

“Oh, I know that expression,” Ryan mused, who had seen it over and over again. “You are going to crush all our hopes and dreams with the dullest tone possible.”

“You catch on quickly, Romano,” Enrique replied dryly. “Vulcan is to be released.”

Wyvern’s eyes widened in fury, the first time Ryan had seen her lose her cool. “After she tried to murder two of our own? No! No way!”

“Wyvern, I understand how you feel but—”

“If she gets away with a slap on her back, I quit.”

As the silence stretched on, Ryan noticed the rose on Enrique’s cashmere suit started growing thorns, shifting as if ready to jump from its holder and attack. Even the flowers near the bedroom’s windows seemed to gain a life of their own, their petals swirling.

“Believe me,” Blackthorn said, his voice calm but betraying an undercurrent of anger, “I fully share your frustration. However, I do not have the luxury to act on it, and neither do you. The order comes straight from the CEO.”

“Hector himself? But why?” Wyvern asked, all but choking. “She’s the only one who knows how to make advanced armors! If she’s taken out, their entire operation takes a blow!”

“My father doesn’t want to spark retaliation from Augustus.” Enrique sighed. “We are in a period of detente with him. Don Hector believes another direct conflict would cost us more than sweeping this incident under the rug, especially after Atom Cat's poaching. If Vulcan remains in custody, Mars and Venus may convince their master to get down from his mountain.”

“What happened today wasn’t detente at all,” Wyvern pointed out. “Can’t you talk your father out of this?”

“I tried,” Enrique replied with a sigh. “I even called Alphonse for support, but it didn’t change anything. It would have been a different story if someone on our team had died, but since both your teammates and Vulcan survived, she will be allowed to leave with a warning. If she or another Capo tries anything like that again though, then it’s war.”

Wyvern closed her eyes, breathing heavily. “This can’t continue, Enrique.”

“Be patient, Wyvern,” Enrique said. “The time to clean this city will come.”

“You’ve been saying that for two years,” she pointed out.

“And I may say that for two more years if it prevents another Malta.”

“Huh? What happened in Malta?” Ryan asked. He heard rumors, but nothing detailed.

“It sank,” Enrique replied dryly, checking his watch under his sleeve. “I must go. Wyvern, Quicksave.”

At least he stopped using that name. Once Blackthorn left and the flowers turned inanimate again, Ryan glanced at Wyvern. The superheroine’s face had turned distraught, her eyes glancing through the window with disappointment.

“Wyvern, tell me,” Ryan coughed, "The armors used by the Private Security elite… it’s Vulcan’s work, right?” She nodded slowly. “I heard you two were close.”

“We were.” The superheroine frowned a bit. “Why are you insisting on the close part?”

“Her obsession with you seems… I dunno… a bit too passionate.”

Wyvern looked at him with an incredulous face, then a thought seemed to cross her mind. “No,” she said after some hesitation. “It’s…”

She let out a sigh, clearly not eager to speak about it. Ryan waited, knowing she would speak if not pressured. “She was my partner once,” Wyvern finally admitted, “Even before I joined Il Migliore.”

“Your sidekick?”

“My partner,” Wyvern insisted. “She was the brains, I was the brawn. However, since I was the only one in the field, the media and citizens attributed most of our success to me. Eventually, she tried to rebrand herself as a solo hero, but since she was a Genius, and the backbone of its high-tech military, Dynamis didn’t want her out of a lab. She was too precious to risk in a direct confrontation, but she didn’t see it that way. She felt sidelined and disrespected.”

Huh, so she stewed in her resentment, and eventually, Augustus approached her with a promise of a cushy Capo rank and total autonomy if she switched sides. “And you never noticed? I guess you weren’t that close then.”

“She never told me anything before she exploded, how was I supposed to know?” Wyvern replied with annoyance. “I trusted her.”

The bedroom’s door opened, a feline walking inside without making a sound. “Wyvern,” Atom Cat nodded politely, double-checking the door’s lock before turning towards Ryan, “Quicksave, you said the Meta had a supply of elixirs? What made you think that?”

“I can tell when Psychos suffer from withdrawal.” He had a long experience managing someone like Bloodstream. “None of them were, and they haven’t behaved like normal Psychos for weeks. It seemed to be the likeliest explanation.”

“Mosquito died while in medical care.”

Ryan immediately caught on, though Wyvern didn’t connect the dots. “What are you suggesting?” she asked, confused.

“The reptilians,” Ryan explained. “The reptilians struck again. They’re everywhere.”

Wyvern stared at him without a word.

She knew he was onto her!

“Can you be serious a minute?” Atom Cat replied, completely missing the joke. “Don’t you find it strange?”

“He could have died of natural causes,” Wyvern said, not really bothered by the fact she might be responsible. “I hit him hard.”

“Maybe, but if Quicksave’s theory is correct, then the Meta must have gotten their extra Elixirs from someone.”

Wyvern crossed her arms, thoughtful. “It is true that Private Security members tried to help Ghoul escape confinement,” she conceded. “But what you are suggesting is a very serious accusation.”

“Someone inside Dynamis is clearly helping the Meta,” Atom Cat declared boldly. “Supplying them with knockoff Elixirs, information, and support while covering their tracks. That’s the only explanation.”

“I don’t know, Felix,” Wyvern said. “I don’t—”

“Wait, your name is Felix?” Ryan cut off Wyvern, glancing at his sidekick. “And your superhero name is Atom Cat?”

“I don’t see the problem,” he lied. Ryan didn’t say anything, even if the jokes wrote themselves. That would be too easy.

Wyvern waited a second for him to calm down, before finishing her sentence. “I don’t doubt that some divisions of Dynamis are corrupt and that the Meta could pay off Private Security grunts to provide information and support. The Augusti do it too, and that has been a problem for years. However, Elixirs are something else. For anyone to secure a steady supply, they would need cooperation from top executives or key people, all heavily scrutinized. Even the Augusti need to buy the knockoffs through corrupt intermediaries to avoid detection.”

“They could be making their own,” Ryan suggested the obvious.

“Even the Augusti haven’t managed that feat yet,” Wyvern dismissed it. “I’m more worried about that bunker Mosquito told us about, honestly. I always wondered why the Meta-Gang never attacked Dynamis establishments, or tried to expand. Even their attacks on the Augusti were only an attempt to keep them out of Rust Town.”

It said everything about Psychos that attacking an orphanage was considered restrained on their part. “So all they want is that bunker?” Atom Cat asked. “They’re trying not to draw attention to themselves while they unearth it?”

“And if Adam wants it, it can’t be good.”

“Well, my good friends, the path ahead is clear,” Ryan said. “We go to the Junkyard and see for ourselves.”

Much to his consternation, neither seemed keen on the idea. “If they want this bunker so much, they probably have all their heavy hitters stationed in the Junkyard,” Wyvern pointed out. “Frank the Mad is physically stronger than me, Acid Rain possesses a devastating capacity for destruction, and Adam himself is as cunning as he is powerful. We also received reports that they recruited lone wolf Psychos like the Land, and with Psyshock’s demise, they will expect an attack. We will need numbers, recon, and an attack plan.”

“But can it be done?” Atom Cat asked. “Or will we let them go to avoid ‘escalating tensions’?”

Clearly, Enrique had given him the talk on his way out. Unlike the Augusti though, Wyvern seemed optimistic on that front. “The Meta aren’t Augustus,” she said. “Especially after that stunt, the public will want us to take action against th-”

She stopped talking, touching her earplug.

“What’s up?” Ryan asked. “Another late night commercial?”

“It’s the harbor,” Wyvern said grimly. “There has been a massacre.”

---

As dawn started to appear beyond the horizon and he fought off drowsiness, Ryan realized that he should have anticipated something like that.

He had ‘seen’ the assassin at the harbor, and the bathysphere shipment was scheduled long before the courier himself entered the picture. Of course Zanbato would maintain it even without Ryan’s presence, and with Ghoul’s arrest, the Meta sent Sarin to attack the meeting alone.

It must have seemed like a golden opportunity to score a few easy kills.

“Quicksave and his cat,” Felix the Atom Cat muttered on the front passenger seat, as Ryan parked near the security chord Dynamis established around the harbor. “I should sue you.”

Ryan looked straight into his eyes. “Your name is Felix, Cat.”

“It means lucky!” Atom Cat protested. “You’re never going to let me live it down, are you?”

“No, never.”

“Then I will call you Quickie from now on.”

“I'll be blunt,” Ryan sighed. “That makes it sound like you have a thing for me.”

“Oh my, no!” Atom Cat replied, his tone dripping with sarcasm. “I don’t wish that on anyone, you’re horrible! You wouldn’t be able to handle half of me anyway!”

“Believe me, Kitty, if I took you, the experience would be so intense, that you would never be able to enjoy a girl ever again. I invented positions so powerful, the authorities had to make them illegal.”

When they arrived at the spot where Ryan had first met with Luigi and his goons, the duo only found corpses and Private Security members taking pictures of the crime scene. Sarin had left a few holes in the dock, indicating that she hadn’t gone quietly; her empty hazmat suit had already been recovered, drained of its contents. Ryan wondered if she had somehow survived.

The Augusti’s remains left nothing to interpretation.

Luigi and his unpowered goons had been torn to shreds by sharp blades, their corpses tossed into the ocean. Their blood colored the water red. Zanbato’s armor had short-circuited like during the last loop, shocking him to death; considering the hole in his chest, Sarin had exploited the opportunity to land a direct shot at his vitals, killing him instantly. The samurai laid on his back, a fallen warrior.

“The Punisher struck again,” Ryan muttered to himself, feeling slight guilt upon seeing Jamie’s remains. He liked the guy, and the fact he couldn’t save him during this loop made him feel a bit down.

The courier knew he could bring the swordsman back and he had seen people die so often he had grown numb to it, but still.

After a shocked silence, Atom Cat seemed devastated, immediately rushing to Zanbato’s side. “Fuck, it’s Jamie!”

Huh? “You knew him?”

“Yeah, we were pals before I left the family.” Atom Cat examined the corpse with hollow eyes. “Shit… shit!”

Ryan said nothing, unsure how to react. His last attempt to comfort someone had gone horribly wrong.

“I knew this day would come, I knew it. But he has a girl at home, man. Shit.” Atom Cat shook his head, clearly distraught and confused. “Quickie, do you mind giving me a ride?”

“You want to see his girlfriend?” Ryan guessed.

“Yeah, I believe an old friend should deliver the news. Even if I burned that bridge, Jamie deserved that much.”

Ryan turned to his sidekick, remembering how he himself died at Jamie’s house in the previous loop. “That’s not a good idea.”

Atom Cat looked ready to protest, but to his credit, he considered the courier’s words rationally. “You think they will target her next?”

Yes. This disaster confirmed that the assassin wasn't after Ryan specifically, but the Genomes associated with the Augusti. The courier felt a little wounded at not having a secret nemesis, though it didn’t explain how that mysterious vigilante figured out his cooldown limit.

Outside of Dynamis, who could be mad enough to take on an organization as powerful as Augustus’ and know Ryan enough to figure out his time—

Then it clicked.

“Oh,” Ryan spoke out loud. “No way!”

“What?”

“I think I know who did this,” Ryan replied, opening his cell phone, “Which is both awesome and terrifying.” On one hand, that meant another route to unlock, but on the other hand… yeesh, the boss fights would be terrible.

Atom Cat cracked his knuckles. “So what do we do?”

Ryan showed him his cell phone and the location where he had tracked the hacker’s IP address. “We catch the lion in its own den of course.”

瑞恩讨厌病房。虽说方便清洁消毒，但那一成不变的白色总让他觉得恶心又孤独。

孤儿院那场战斗结束后，已经过去了几个小时。迪纳米斯将院里的人撤走，送到集团旗下的一家医院。遭心震袭击的那个女孩已经被药物诱导入睡，躺在温暖的病床上，旁边摆着呼吸机和脑部扫描设备。双足飞龙站在窗边，显然正努力抵抗睡意。

“她会没事吗？”瑞恩问双足飞龙。两人已经守了女孩一阵子。“按我的经验，人是能从心震的‘大脑连接’中恢复过来的，不过事后还要用药让人睡过去，我倒是头一回见。”

“医生说，她的脑电波模式非常异常。”双足飞龙告诉他，“他们会留她观察几天，直到确定不会有后遗症。”

瑞恩有些担心，不禁怀疑，自上次见面以来，心震是不是又精进了自己的能力。至少这一轮里，那个恶毒的疯魔已经死了，信使也能松口气。

恩里克·“黑棘”·马纳达恰在这时走进病房，怀里抱着一束鲜艳精美的花。

“哎呀，看来该道一声恭喜了。”这位公司的幕后谋划者将花放到窗边，“依我看，手段稍嫌粗暴，不过罗马诺，你会造成附带损失，本就在我的预料之中。”

“孩子们会怎么安置？”双足飞龙问道，听语气，她和这位上司相当熟悉。

“我们会照顾他们。”恩里克说，“他们会被安置在远离锈镇的一处安全场所，已经有不少人表示愿意收养。总不能让人说迪纳米斯不重视家庭。”

果然，他们要拿这件事大做宣传。“嗯，我相信，在我把那些照片发到迪纳网上之前，大家就已经很关心他们了。”瑞恩悠悠说道。

“说起照片，罗马诺，你让我非常失望。”恩里克责备道，“我记得我说过，你现在叫时间领主，可你在照片里给自己的介绍却是‘快存和他的猫’。如今损害已经造成，再想纠正这个错误，说不定都来不及了。”

“等等，你在意的是这个？”瑞恩很惊讶，“我们出去小小冒险了一趟，你不生气？”

“我为什么要生气？”恩里克反问，竟也真的很惊讶，“你和原子猫救下了一家孤儿院，还狠狠打击了这座城市的地下犯罪势力。你们干得不错。”

“是啊，可我翘了训练，而且你说过，你不喜欢不受控制的人。”

“我是不喜欢，但我想你有一点误会。只要愿意承担后果，你想做什么都可以。如果你的行动取得了胜利，那么无论有多不负责任，显然都是在迪纳米斯的充分授权下进行的；如果你搞砸了，那就是你擅自行动。”

“也就是说，如果我成功了，”瑞恩总结道，想确认自己没听错，“功劳归你；如果我失败了，黑锅归我？”

“不，不。”恩里克宽慰道，“你成功了，功劳我们共享；你失败了，黑锅归你。”

这区别跟没有一样。“我很钦佩您的务实精神，长官。您真是个天才，长官。”

“收起你那套假恭敬吧，罗马诺。培训生那边，这种话我已经听够了。”随后，他将双手合拢，摆出一副老谋深算的架势。“现在，该说不愉快的部分了。”

“哦，这个表情我熟。”瑞恩说，他见过太多次了。“你准备拿最平淡乏味的语气，碾碎我们所有的希望和梦想。”

“你领会得很快，罗马诺。”恩里克干巴巴地答道，“伏尔甘会被释放。”

双足飞龙愤怒地瞪大了眼睛，瑞恩还是第一次见她失去冷静。“她都企图杀害我们两个自己人了？不行！绝对不行！”

“双足飞龙，我理解你的感受，但——”

“要是就这么不痛不痒地放过她，我就辞职。”

沉默持续着，瑞恩注意到，恩里克羊绒西装上的玫瑰开始长出尖刺，还在微微扭动，仿佛随时准备从佩戴者身上跳出去发动攻击。就连病房窗边的鲜花也像是有了自己的生命，花瓣旋动起来。

“相信我，”黑棘的声音很平静，却透着一股压抑的怒意，“你的愤怒，我完全感同身受。但我没资格意气用事，你也一样。这道命令是首席执行官直接下达的。”

“埃克托亲自下令？可为什么？”双足飞龙问，几乎要噎住了，“只有她才知道怎么制造那些先进装甲！拿下她，就能打击他们整个组织的运作！”

“我父亲不想招来奥古斯都的报复。”恩里克叹了口气，“我们和他正处于关系缓和期。埃克托先生认为，再一次正面冲突的代价，比把这件事压下去更大，尤其是我们才刚挖来原子猫。如果继续扣押伏尔甘，玛尔斯和维纳斯可能会说动他们的主人下山。”

“今天发生的事，可一点也不像关系缓和。”双足飞龙指出，“你就不能劝劝你父亲，让他改主意吗？”

“我试过了。”恩里克叹息道，“我甚至打电话找阿尔方斯帮忙，但还是没用。如果我们这边死了人，那就另当别论。可你的两名队友和伏尔甘都活了下来，所以给她一个警告，就得放她走。不过，如果她或者其他头目再敢做这种事，那就开战。”

双足飞龙闭上眼，呼吸沉重。“不能再这样下去了，恩里克。”

“耐心点，双足飞龙。”恩里克说，“肃清这座城市的时机会来的。”

“这话你已经说了两年了。”她指出。

“如果能避免再出现一个马耳他，我不介意再说两年。”

“嗯？马耳他怎么了？”瑞恩问。他听过一些传闻，但都没什么细节。

“沉了。”恩里克干巴巴地答道，抬起袖口看了眼手表，“我得走了。双足飞龙，快存。”

至少他不再用那个名字了。黑棘离开后，鲜花也恢复了静止。瑞恩看向双足飞龙。女英雄一脸愁容，失望地望着窗外。

“双足飞龙，问你个事。”瑞恩清了清嗓子，“私人安保队精锐用的那些装甲……是伏尔甘做的，对吧？”她缓缓点头。“我听说，你们两个以前很亲密。”

“是。”女英雄微微皱眉，“你干吗非要强调亲密？”

“她对你那股执着劲儿，好像……怎么说呢……热烈得有点过头了。”

双足飞龙难以置信地看着他，随后似乎想到了什么。“不是。”她犹豫了一下才说，“这事……”

她叹了口气，显然不大愿意谈。瑞恩等着，他知道，只要不催，她会开口的。“她以前是我的搭档。”双足飞龙终于承认，“在我加入至优者之前就是了。”

“你的跟班？”

“我的搭档。”双足飞龙强调道，“她动脑，我动手。但上前线的只有我，所以媒体和市民把我们的大部分功劳都算在了我头上。后来，她想换个定位，成为独当一面的英雄，可她是天才，又是迪纳米斯高科技军事力量的支柱，公司不愿意让她离开实验室。她太宝贵了，不能冒险让她参与正面交锋，但她不这么看。她觉得自己被边缘化了，得不到尊重。”

哦，所以她一直憋着怨气，最后奥古斯都找上了门，许诺只要她倒戈，就给她一个优渥的头目职位和完全的自主权。“你从来都没发现？看来你们也没那么亲密嘛。”

“她爆发之前什么也没跟我说，我怎么会知道？”双足飞龙恼火地答道，“我信任她。”

病房的门打开了，一只猫无声无息地走了进来。“双足飞龙。”原子猫礼貌地点头致意，又确认了一遍门锁，才转向瑞恩，“快存，你说超能帮有灵药供应？为什么这么想？”

“疯魔有没有犯戒断反应，我看得出来。”照料血流那样的人，他有的是经验。“他们一个都没有，而且几个星期以来的行为都不像一般疯魔。这个解释最说得通。”

“蚊子在治疗期间死了。”

瑞恩立刻明白了，双足飞龙却没把两件事联系起来。“你想说什么？”她困惑地问。

“蜥蜴人。”瑞恩解释道，“蜥蜴人又出手了。他们无处不在。”

双足飞龙盯着他，一言不发。

她知道他识破她了！

“你能正经一分钟吗？”原子猫完全没听懂这个笑话，“你不觉得奇怪吗？”

“他也可能是自然死亡。”双足飞龙说，并不怎么介意自己可能就是死因，“我那一下打得很重。”

“也许吧，但如果快存的推测没错，超能帮那些额外的灵药总得是有人给的。”

双足飞龙抱起双臂，若有所思。“私人安保队里确实有人试图帮食尸鬼逃脱拘禁。”她承认道，“但你暗示的可是很严重的指控。”

“显然，迪纳米斯内部有人在帮超能帮。”原子猫直言不讳，“给他们提供仿制灵药、情报和支援，同时掩盖痕迹。这是唯一的解释。”

“我不确定，菲利克斯。”双足飞龙说，“我不——”

“等等，你叫菲利克斯？”瑞恩打断了双足飞龙，望向自己的助手，“然后你的超级英雄代号叫原子猫？”

“我不觉得有什么问题。”他撒谎道。瑞恩什么也没说，尽管笑话简直自己就往外冒。这也太容易了。

双足飞龙等了片刻，让他安静下来，才把话说完。“我不怀疑迪纳米斯的一些部门存在腐败，也不怀疑超能帮能收买私人安保队的基层人员，让他们提供情报和支援。奥古斯蒂也这么干，这个问题已经存在很多年了。但灵药是另一回事。要获得稳定的供应，就必须有高层主管或关键人员配合，而这些人都受到严密审查。就连奥古斯蒂也得通过腐败的中间人购买仿制品，才能避开监控。”

“也可能是他们自己造的。”瑞恩提出了这个显而易见的可能。

“连奥古斯蒂都还没能做到这一步。”双足飞龙否定了这个猜想，“说实话，我更担心蚊子说的那个地堡。我一直奇怪，超能帮为什么从来不袭击迪纳米斯的设施，也不试着扩张地盘。就连袭击奥古斯蒂，都只是想把他们挡在锈镇之外。”

袭击孤儿院居然都算克制，疯魔是什么德性，也就不言而喻了。“所以，他们一门心思就想要那个地堡？”原子猫问，“挖地堡的时候，他们在尽量避免引人注目？”

“亚当想要的东西，肯定不是什么好玩意儿。”

“那么，我的好朋友们，接下来该怎么办已经很清楚了。”瑞恩说，“我们去废料场，亲眼看看。”

令他懊恼的是，那两人似乎都不怎么赞同。“如果他们这么想要那个地堡，很可能已经把所有强手都部署在废料场了。”双足飞龙指出，“疯子弗兰克的身体力量比我更强，酸雨的破坏力极其惊人，亚当本人不仅实力强大，还极其狡猾。我们也收到报告，说他们招募了大地之类独来独往的疯魔。再加上心震已死，他们会做好遭到袭击的准备。我们需要人手、侦察，还有进攻计划。”

“可这事能成吗？”原子猫问，“还是说，我们又要为了避免‘局势升级’，放过他们？”

显然，恩里克出门时也跟他谈过了。不过，与奥古斯蒂那件事不同，双足飞龙对此似乎颇为乐观。“超能帮可不是奥古斯都。”她说，“尤其是闹出这档子事以后，民众肯定会要求我们出手对付他——”

她止住话头，摸了摸耳塞。

“怎么了？”瑞恩问，“又有深夜广告要拍？”

“是港口。”双足飞龙神情凝重，“那里发生了一场屠杀。”

---

天边开始泛起曙光。瑞恩强打精神抵抗困意，意识到自己早该料到会发生这种事。

他曾在港口“看见”过那个刺客，而深潜球的交货时间，早在信使本人介入之前就已经定好了。瑞恩不在场，斩马刀当然也会照常交易。食尸鬼被捕后，超能帮便派沙林独自去袭击那场碰头。

这想必被当成了轻松收下几条人命的绝好机会。

瑞恩把车停在迪纳米斯于港口周围拉起的警戒线附近，副驾驶座上的原子猫菲利克斯嘀咕道：“快存和他的猫。我真该告你。”

瑞恩直视着他的眼睛。“你叫菲利克斯，猫咪。”

“那名字的意思是幸运！”原子猫抗议，“你这辈子都不打算放过这个梗了，是不是？”

“没错，这辈子都不。”

“那我以后就叫你快枪手。”

“我直说了吧。”瑞恩叹气，“听着像你对我有意思。”

“天哪，可千万别！”原子猫的语气里满是讥讽，“我可不希望有谁倒这种霉，你太可怕了！再说，你连半个我都吃不消！”

“相信我，猫咪，我要是真上了你，那滋味会强烈得让你这辈子都没法再从姑娘身上得到乐趣。我发明过几种姿势，威力大得当局都不得不把它们列为违法。”

到了瑞恩第一次与路易吉及其手下碰面的地方，两人只看见尸体，以及正在给案发现场拍照的私人安保队队员。沙林在码头上留下了几个窟窿，显然她并没有坐以待毙；那套空荡荡的防化服已经被回收，里面什么也没剩。瑞恩不禁想，她会不会用什么办法活了下来。

奥古斯蒂成员的遗骸，却让人对他们的生死没有半点疑问。

路易吉和他那些没有超能力的手下被利刃撕成了碎块，尸体抛进海里，鲜血染红了海水。斩马刀的装甲和上一轮一样发生了短路，将他电死；从他胸口的洞来看，沙林趁机直接命中了他的要害，让他当场毙命。武士仰面躺着，一个倒下的战士。

“惩罚者又出手了。”瑞恩喃喃自语，看着杰米的遗体，心里泛起一丝愧疚。他挺喜欢这家伙，这一轮没能救下他，让瑞恩有些低落。

信使知道自己能让这个剑客活过来，也看过太多人死去，早已麻木，但心里终究还是不好受。

原子猫震惊地沉默了片刻，随后像是整个人都垮了，立刻冲到斩马刀身边。“操，是杰米！”

嗯？“你认识他？”

“是啊，离开家族之前，我们是朋友。”原子猫双眼空洞地查看着尸体，“妈的……妈的！”

瑞恩没说话，不知道该如何反应。他上一次试着安慰别人，结果糟得不能再糟。

“我知道迟早会有这么一天，我知道。可他家里还有个姑娘啊，老兄。妈的。”原子猫摇了摇头，显然已经悲痛得乱了方寸。“快枪手，能载我一程吗？”

“你想去见他女朋友？”瑞恩猜道。

“是啊，我想这消息该由一个老朋友来告诉她。就算是我自己断了往来，至少也该为杰米做这点事。”

瑞恩转向自己的助手，想起上一轮自己是怎么死在杰米家的。“这不是个好主意。”

原子猫眼看就要反对，但好在他还是理智地考虑了信使的话。“你觉得他们下一个会对她下手？”

是的。这场惨剧证实，刺客并不是专门冲着瑞恩来的，而是在猎杀与奥古斯蒂有关的基因者。原来自己并没有一个秘密宿敌，信使为此有点受伤。不过，这仍然无法解释，那个神秘的私刑者究竟是怎么摸清他的冷却时限的。

除了迪纳米斯，还有谁疯狂到敢与奥古斯都手下那么强大的组织为敌，又足够了解瑞恩，能摸清他的时间——

他突然想通了。

“哦。”瑞恩脱口而出，“不会吧！”

“什么？”

“我想我知道是谁干的了。”瑞恩说着打开手机，“这可真是既棒又吓人。”一方面，这意味着又有一条路线可以解锁；可另一方面……嘶，那些首领战一定会难打得要命。

原子猫把指关节捏得咔咔作响。“那我们怎么办？”

瑞恩亮出手机，给他看自己循着黑客的IP地址追踪到的位置。“当然是直捣狮穴，把狮子逮住。”