The sound of heavy footsteps collided and echoed between the pipe walls, like a cold hammer hitting Ke Yuan's nerves. Sweat mixed with the condensate oozing from the pipes and slid down the corner of his forehead. The heavy metal cover above his head did not move at all, and the mechanical lock structure emitted a subtle but anxious electronic hum under Irene's full strength.
"Eighty meters! Ke Yuan, find cover! Irene's voice was with unprecedented urgency.
Ke Yuan looked around abruptly, and there was almost nowhere to hide at the bottom of the narrow shaft. He could only cling to the cold wall of the tube, shrinking himself as much as possible into the shadow of the shaft entrance, while quickly pulling a palm-sized metal disc from the side pocket of his backpack - a portable sonic jammer in the laboratory, originally used to defend against small drones.
"Fifty meters! They turned on the bright light! As soon as Irene's warning fell, a dazzling white light pierced the darkness from the corner of the pipe, instantly illuminating the bottom of the shaft as if it were day. Ke Yuan subconsciously closed his eyes, and the brief blindness caused by the bright light caused him to go into cardiac arrest.
"Discover the target! In the shaft position! A cold, emotionless voice came through the loudspeaker, with the texture of metal rubbing.
The sound of the boots stepping on the grille suddenly accelerated, heavy and deadly. Ke Yuan could even smell the smell of gun oil mixed with cold murderous aura. He suddenly threw the sonic jammer in his hand in the direction of the light source!
"Buzz——!"
The jammer activated in mid-air, erupting into a circle of distorted air ripples visible to the naked eye. The harsh high-frequency noise instantly filled the entire pipeline, and the movements of several approaching black shadows were obviously stagnant, and the beams of the bright flashlight also shook violently.
"Interference! Short frequency coverage! The shouts of the witch hunts were drowned out by noise.
This bought precious seconds! Just when Ke Yuan thought that Irene was about to succeed-
"Click!"
There was a crisp spring sound above my head!
"The lock is open! Fast! Irene's voice was almost screaming.
Ke Yuan used all his strength to push up! The heavy metal cover bounced up a few centimeters in response, and the cold and humid air mixed with the fresh breath of rainwater poured in instantly!
"Catch him!" The witch hunt team had already rushed more than ten meters away against the noise, and the red dot of the infrared sight began to shake in the position where he had just hidden.
Ke Yuan grabbed the slippery metal ladder on the edge of the shaft with both hands and struggled to climb up. The weight of the backpack almost dragged him down. The rain immediately watered his head and face, blurring his vision. He just leaned out half of his body——
"Bang! Bang! "
Two dull gunshots exploded inside the pipe! The bullets roared and grazed the metal ladder frame under him, bursting out dazzling sparks!
"They fired!" Ke Yuan roared, his adrenaline soared, and he jumped up with his hands and feet.
"Smokescreen! Close your eyes! "Irene's instructions arrived almost simultaneously.
Ke Yuan closed his eyes suddenly, and the next second, he felt a dull popping sound coming from the pipe below, and then a strong and pungent white smoke like a gushing spring water instantly gushed out from the mouth of the shaft, quickly spreading out, completely enveloping the area around him for several meters.
"Thermal imaging failed! Goal lost! There was a furious roar and a violent cough below.
Ke Yuan took the opportunity to climb out of the shaft completely and rolled down on the cold and damp grass. He is behind a dense landscape bush on the edge of the campus of the new Shanghai University. It was raining heavily, and the street lamps in the distance were blurred into a blurred light mass in the rain. The route provided by Irene was precise, and it was less than a hundred meters from the logistics entrance of the physics building.
He gasped violently, his lungs aching hot, and he looked back at the mouth of the shaft where the smoke was still spewing out, with lingering fears. The witch hunt team is temporarily trapped, but this safety is short-lived.
At this moment, a black shadow flashed out from behind a huge camphor tree next to it like a ghost! Ke Yuan stiffened, and his hand immediately touched the tool knife hidden in his backpack.
"This way! Fast! A familiar voice sounded, deliberately suppressed.
It's Chen Ming! He was wearing a dark raincoat, with the brim of his hat pressed low, and his face was anxious and imperceptible panic. He also held a palm-sized black instrument in his hand, and the screen flashed with complex waveforms.
"Professor Chen?" Ke Yuan was suspicious and did not approach immediately. The doubt about the encrypted call in the underground pipeline instantly came to mind.
"No time to explain! They will come out soon! Chen Ming said hurriedly, his eyes scanning the surroundings vigilantly, "Follow me!" Alternate access to the quantum lab! "
Chen Ming slammed the black instrument in his hand into Ke Yuan's hand, and his speech speed was as fast as a cannon: "Hold this!" It can temporarily block passive quantum detection in a small area, but it won't last long! Erin... Her quantum characteristics are so obvious that she is like a bonfire in the dark! Come on! Pass through the gap in the bushes over there, bypass the blind spot of surveillance, and go straight thirty meters to the entrance to the abandoned boiler room of the experimental building! The access card is the physical key to 'Protocol Zero', you know the location! "
Ke Yuan looked down at the instrument in his hand, there was no marking on the cold metal shell, only a few indicator lights of unknown meaning flashing rapidly. Chen Ming's eagerness does not seem to be fake, but...
"Why are you helping me?" Ke Yuan stared at Chen Ming's eyes, and the rain flowed down his cheeks, "Who is that encrypted call?" "
Chen Ming's face looked even paler in the rain, he avoided Ke Yuan's sight, and his voice was lower and more urgent: "I'll explain later!" Trust me now! Or do you want to be dragged back by the witch hunt and watch Irene broken down into data fragments?! He suddenly pointed in the direction of the physics building, "The 'Magpie Bridge' has warmed up!" If you drag it on any longer, it's all over! "
"Magpie bridge?!" Ke Yuan's heart was shaken. The code name mentioned in the witch hunt newsletter!
At the moment when Chen Ming said this word, a faint blue beam suddenly lit up at the location of a high-rise window in the Department of Physics building, almost completely covered by the rain curtain, flashing and piercing the night sky! That light carries an unnatural, unique and strange frequency of quantum entanglement!
Chen Ming also saw the blue light, his pupils contracted suddenly, and his face instantly lost the last bit of blood, as if he had seen something extremely terrifying. "No... They launched... So fast?! His voice trembled, and he pushed Ke Yuan suddenly, "Let's go!" Come on! Go to the boiler room! No matter what happens, don't look back! Remember, the 'Magpie Bridge' is not only the receiving end, but also -"
His words were interrupted by the sound of metal crashing and a hound-like roar from the shaft below! In the thick smoke, there were already black shadows struggling to crawl out!
Chen Ming finally took a deep look at Ke Yuan, his eyes were extremely complicated, mixed with fear, determination and a hint of indescribable guilt. "The agreement... It took effect..." He muttered in a barely audible voice, then turned abruptly, rushed into another denser bush in the direction of the pursuers, and at the same time slammed a fist-sized object to the ground!
"Boom!"
A louder explosion than before, accompanied by dazzling bright light and dense colored smoke, instantly exploded in front of the pursuers! The loud sound spread far and wide in the silent rainy night.
Ke Yuan no longer hesitated, clutched the shield given by Chen Ming in his palm, as if holding the last life-saving straw, and turned around and pounced on the gap in the bushes pointed out by Chen Ming. The icy rain whipped his face, followed by the angry roars of witch hunts, the piercing sirens and the pursuers temporarily blocked by the explosion. The window of the physics building that had just lit up blue light had now returned to darkness, like a silent black hole full of malice.
Chen Ming's unfinished words - "The magpie bridge is not only the receiving end" - is like a cold poisonous snake, wrapping around Ke Yuan's heart. And Irene, deep in his mind, fell into an abnormal silence, only an extremely faint chaotic fluctuation, as if from the depths of a distant quantum ocean, like a low cry before a storm, looming.