Chapter 207: Explosion
T'Chaka and T'Challa entered the designated Wakandan delegation area.
It was 9:45 a.m.
Lynn sat quietly in the lounge outside the main conference hall.
Diplomatic entourages from several countries occupied the surrounding seating areas, speaking in low voices while security personnel moved between them.
To everyone else, Lynn appeared to be an ordinary medical consultant waiting for the ceremony to begin.
His All-Seeing Eye told him otherwise.
His perception passed through the partition wall.
The entire conference hall unfolded in his mind.
One hundred and sixty-three individuals.
Diplomats.
Security officers.
Reporters.
Technical personnel.
Medical staff.
Every heartbeat.
Every weapon.
Every electronic device.
Every concealed object.
At the front of the hall, King T'Chaka stood before the podium.
"...When power exceeds responsibility, disaster follows."
His voice carried steadily through the conference hall.
"The lessons of Sokovia have shown us that extraordinary abilities cannot exist without extraordinary accountability—"
Lynn's perception continued downward.
Underground.
Parking Level B2.
A white commercial van sat beside one of the reinforced structural pillars.
Lynn's eyes narrowed slightly.
Approximately one hundred and fifty kilograms of military-grade plastic explosive.
The quantity was sufficient to severely damage the parking structure and send a powerful shockwave into the levels above.
This was not a random terrorist attack.
Someone had designed it to cause structural collapse.
Lynn shifted his perception.
A second explosive device had been concealed inside an electrical-services access corridor.
Two thin sheets of C4 were attached to the inner wall of a utility duct.
Both devices were independently detonatable.
The arrangement was clever.
If security personnel discovered the vehicle and jammed the obvious communications frequencies, the second device could still be activated separately.
Lynn's perception continued upward.
Ventilation level.
One of the T-shaped junctions had been replaced.
Inside it...
A miniature camera.
A signal amplifier.
And a concealed transmission unit.
Someone had already established an intelligence-gathering network inside the building.
Lynn's attention returned to the conference hall.
9:59 a.m.
He rapidly filtered the entire crowd.
There.
Seventh row.
Fourth seat from the left.
A middle-aged man in a gray suit.
Nothing about him appeared suspicious.
His heartbeat was steady.
His breathing was normal.
His clothing was unremarkable.
But inside his jacket...
A small electronic remote.
Lynn's gaze remained there for two seconds.
10:00 a.m.
T'Chaka continued speaking.
"...We have gathered here not to condemn those who possess extraordinary abilities, but to establish a framework in which power and responsibility can coexist."
Lynn looked down at his tea.
Then he stood.
He walked to the nearby waste container.
And poured the remaining Longjing tea into it.
At the podium, T'Chaka reached the end of his prepared statement.
"...Let us work together to ensure that the tragedies of the past are never—"
The first explosion came from beneath the building.
BOOM.
The floor shook violently.
A tremendous pressure wave surged upward through the lower structure.
Windows shattered.
Concrete cracked.
Emergency alarms erupted throughout the complex.
The glass wall of the conference hall fractured almost simultaneously, spraying fragments across the room.
Screams erupted.
Diplomats ducked beneath tables.
Security officers drew weapons.
Natasha reacted before almost everyone around her.
She seized the nearest diplomat by the shoulder and forced him beneath the conference table.
A glass fragment tore through the back of her jacket.
Tony dropped behind a structural support.
"Damn it."
He touched the activation control on his wrist.
The compact armor-storage system began deploying.
Bruce immediately opened the emergency communications channel.
"Seal the eastern corridor."
"Medical personnel through the southern access."
"Keep the evacuation route moving toward the west."
"Don't allow the crowd to bottleneck."
His commands were precise even as the building shook.
Then—
The second explosion detonated.
This one was directly beneath the Wakandan delegation.
The floor erupted.
The shockwave punched upward through the conference hall.
T'Challa moved instantly.
He seized his father and shoved him sideways.
The action saved T'Chaka from the worst of the initial blast.
But several fragments of the shattered floor structure still tore into T'Challa's torso.
One large piece of twisted metal struck his chest and another penetrated his abdomen.
His enhanced reflexes allowed him to remain conscious.
He stumbled backward.
His body struck a stone support pillar.
"T'Chaka!"
He immediately turned toward his father.
King T'Chaka had been thrown across the floor.
Blood spread beneath him.
Wakandan guards rushed forward.
T'Challa dropped beside his father.
"Father!"
He pressed both hands against the wounds.
"Stay with me."
"Look at me!"
The king's breathing became shallow.
His pupils were beginning to dilate.
The remaining delegates scattered as security personnel attempted to establish an evacuation perimeter.
Smoke poured through the shattered windows.
Dust reduced visibility to almost nothing.
Then Lynn appeared beside the Wakandan delegation.
Two Dora Milaje guards immediately crossed their weapons in front of him.
Lynn stopped.
He raised both hands.
His medical credentials were clearly visible.
"Doctor."
The guards hesitated.
The situation was chaotic, but his status as a medical consultant had already been circulated among the security details.
They allowed him through.
Lynn crouched beside T'Chaka.
The All-Seeing Eye completed a full-body scan.
Severe internal trauma.
The left ventricle had been torn open by penetrating debris.
The root of the aorta had ruptured.
Blood was flooding the thoracic cavity.
The blast had also produced severe neurological trauma.
Intracranial pressure was rising.
This was critical.
Lynn carefully moved one of T'Chaka's hands away from his chest wound so he could inspect the damage directly.
"Hold his shoulders."
A Wakandan guard immediately obeyed.
"And keep the prince away from the wound."
"He needs to remain outside the sterile field."
T'Challa's hands were already soaked with his father's blood.
His eyes fixed on Lynn.
"Save him."
Lynn didn't look away from the patient.
"I'm treating him."
His fingers moved with clinical precision.
Around them, security personnel struggled to control the evacuation.
But Lynn's attention remained entirely on T'Chaka.
Elsewhere within the building...
Another mechanism activated.
The miniature device concealed inside the ventilation junction released a cloud of microscopic particulate material.
The particles entered the ventilation system and were carried toward an internal security air-sampling system.
The particles contained traces of materials collected from previous investigations.
Blood.
Skin.
Fabric fragments.
And digitally reconstructed biometric information.
Among the data was a carefully manufactured identification profile.
Bucky Barnes.
Winter Soldier.
The system absorbed the particles.
The building's automated security network began running its identification protocols.
Then the cameras picked up an image.
A man.
A dark silhouette.
A metal arm.
A familiar profile.
The image was deliberately convincing.
Moments later, the security system automatically flagged the individual as the primary suspect.
Tony saw the alert appear on his temporary tactical display.
His brow furrowed.
He enlarged the image.
Something was wrong.
"That's too fast."
Natasha moved beside him.
"What?"
Tony pointed at the screen.
"They've identified a suspect before the emergency response has even finished."
His eyes narrowed.
"Whoever planted this evidence wanted us to find it."
Natasha studied the photograph.
Then looked toward the damaged ventilation system.
"You're right."
Outside the venue, the world's media networks had already switched into breaking-news mode.
Emergency banners appeared across television screens around the planet.
VIENNA INTERNATIONAL CENTRE ATTACKED
KING T'CHAKA OF WAKANDA SERIOUSLY INJURED
WINTER SOLDIER NAMED AS PRIMARY SUSPECT
MULTIPLE CASUALTIES REPORTED
SUPERHUMAN ACCORDS SIGNING CEREMONY INTERRUPTED
Inside the Wakandan delegation area...
Lynn remained kneeling beside T'Chaka.
T'Challa gripped Lynn's sleeve.
His voice trembled despite his attempt to remain composed.
"Tell me he can be saved."
Lynn activated his portable diagnostic module.
The system interface appeared automatically in his field of vision.
[Automatic Diagnosis Initiated—]
[Patient: T'Chaka — King of Wakanda]
[Injury Assessment:]
[1. Penetrating rupture of the left ventricle with retained metallic fragments; approximately 70% reduction in cardiac output.]
[2. Traumatic rupture of the aortic root with massive hemothorax.]
[3. Severe cerebral trauma caused by secondary blast acceleration, with rapidly increasing intracranial pressure.]
[4. Two penetrating abdominal wounds with splenic contusion and rupture; estimated blood loss exceeding 1200 ml.]
[Overall mortality rate: 97.3%.]
[Estimated time to natural death: 4–7 minutes.]
He could use dimensional control to instantly repair his injuries.
A person with a torn heart, a ruptured aorta, and a brainstem concussion, instantly brought back to life in his hands?
This was not what he expected.
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