Chapter 54: Experiment
It was already dawn by the time they had gotten to Marcus’s condo.
Without wasting much time, Marcus connected his flash drive to his system while his fingers flew across the keyboard. For almost half an hour, they got nothing, and Seline was already getting impatient.
"I don’t think there are any useful files in here," Seline said, taking a seat beside Marcus.
Jark shook his head, dismissing Seline’s words as he pointed to the monitor.
"There are. I think they have been cleared."
Marcus turned to look at Jark with pride.
"That’s why Jark has always been my favorite."
Seline rolled her eyes at Marcus.
Jark brought out his system and began typing lines of code. Seline stood up from her chair and remained by the side since she wasn’t that great at hacking.
Within half an hour, they were able to retrieve the deleted files.
Marcus quickly went through the files. Most of them were useless, with very little information. Some showed the government’s involvement and some of their sponsors, but they were not interested in that. They already knew about the government’s involvement, so Marcus was left disappointed.
Just as he was about to log out of the files, Jark stopped him, taking control of the mouse and flipping through thousands of files until his eyes locked onto one. At first, it looked ordinary, but after taking a closer look, he could tell that the file was locked.
Marcus, seeing that he had missed such a tiny detail, looked at Jark with disdain and sneered.
"Are you trying to show off in front of me?"
"I wouldn’t dare. I’m just showing you something you missed."
Jark replied, his eyes still focused on the monitor.
Seline couldn’t help but hold back her laughter after seeing Marcus’s frustrated expression.
Marcus pulled the monitor back toward himself and hacked the file’s security. The screen flickered black and white before a full list appeared.
"This is the list of people used in their experiments."
Marcus said as he scrolled through the names.
Seline leaned closer to the screen.
"I can’t believe they used thousands of people in their experiments."
"And they all failed."
Marcus shook his head mockingly.
Jark, who had been silently observing the screen, pointed at the folder on the left that was marked with a green tick.
"No. Click the older folder."
"You don’t have to teach me, boy."
Marcus sneered as he clicked the folder.
Within seconds, four names appeared on the new list.
The three of them stared at the screen in shock.
Marcus turned to look at Jark in disbelief.
Even Jark, who was rarely shaken, couldn’t help but stare at the screen in shock.
"How can her name appear here? She is being used for experiments... but how?"
Seline asked as she looked at the screen before turning back to Jark, her expression filled with disbelief and doubt.
Jark stared at the folder, his face more composed than the rest. He quickly logged out of the folder and opened it again, but Kathe’s name still appeared on the list of ongoing successful experiments.
"Her roots run deep."
Marcus sighed.
"I’m not that shocked. If her blood can cause a war in the underground world, it doesn’t surprise me that she’s part of an ongoing experiment. But from what I can tell, even the masked lady is still behind. It seems someone beat her to it first."
"Jark, I don’t think so. Everything is connected. She might be ahead, or she might not, so we can’t say much."
Jark nodded after thinking carefully.
"I need to dig deeper. I don’t know why most of her identity was erased, but I know I need to investigate further."
Seline was still observing the names on the screen. After a while, she called their attention back to it.
"You all seem so focused on Kathe’s name that you failed to notice the other three. Their names aren’t mentioned."
After a moment of silence, Marcus finally spoke.
"It’s only Kathe and the one marked with an X that are still ongoing experiments. The other two are already successful."
"Their identities were hidden on purpose. We need to find the remaining two quickly."
Jark said.
They all nodded at his words.
Marcus logged out of the files and went straight to the video.
"How can they be so careless as to leave just one video?"
Marcus logged out of the files and went straight to the video.
"How can they be so careless as to leave just one video?"
He clicked on the video, and the first thing that greeted them was the sound of screams and bones cracking.
Then a man walked toward one of the people chained up and screaming. His back was turned to the camera, showing only his lab coat. He injected a long syringe into the man’s neck and quickly stepped back.
Within seconds, the man’s body began to change. His bones cracked, his features twisted, his veins began popping out, and his skin changed into different shades.
Seline frowned in disgust.
"Jeez, what are they doing?"
Jark frowned too.
"They are making hybrids... human-animal hybrids."
Just as Jark finished speaking, the hair on the man’s head fell off, and he transformed into something that looked like a half-human, half-wolf.
Pain was written all over the man’s face as he struggled against the chains. His eyes changed into a different shade, but they couldn’t hide the killing instinct within them.
Just as the transformation was about to be completed, his body burst apart like a balloon being popped.
The doctor quickly stepped back, avoiding the blood from staining his lab coat.
He slowly turned toward the camera with a creepy smile on his half-burned face and shouted,
"Next subject."
The moment they saw the man’s face, one name came to their minds.
Mad Scientist Philip.
He had been discovered by the former government, and his medical license had been revoked because of the dangerous experiments he carried out on young children, causing many families to lose their loved ones.
The public had been told that he was sentenced to death. Unknown to them, however, the government had secretly taken him away and continued sponsoring his twisted experiments.
Marcus had hunted him down years ago, and they all believed he had died then.
None of them expected him to still be alive, much less continuing his experiments in an even more dangerous way.
Seline and Jark turned to look at Marcus with complicated expressions.
Marcus quickly shot the screen, avoiding everyone’s eyes.
"What? Why are you both looking at me like that?"
He tried focusing on another direction, but he could still feel their stares.
"I thought you said he was dead."
Jark’s eyes remained fixed on him.
Seline repeated Jark’s words.
"You said you made sure to set his body ablaze."
"Of course I did."
He paused and shook his head in disappointment.
"Or... I thought I did."
"Then..."
Jark trailed off.
Marcus glared at him. He didn’t like being interrogated, but he still explained.
"After I set the building and his lab ablaze, he was still inside. I had tied him to the table. I made sure he couldn’t escape. Later, I went back to recover his body, but I discovered another body in his place."
"After the autopsy, I realized it wasn’t his body. I returned to the building again, but I couldn’t find his body anywhere."
"I only came up with two possibilities. Either he was burned completely to ashes, or someone rescued him."
"Of course, only he could be crazy enough to go this far."
Seline shook her head in pity for the innocent lives that had become victims.
Then she added, her voice filled with disgust toward the government,
"I can’t believe the government is involved in this."
"It’s their way of escaping death."
Marcus replied thoughtfully.
Just as they were lost in thought, Marcus switched on the television with a satisfied smile on his face.
"Breaking News. In the middle of the night, at what was believed to be an abandoned—or rather, restricted—government site, a huge laboratory was discovered. Human body parts were found inside the lab."
"This morning, several missing children were found near the subway station. They described the horrifying experiments carried out inside the laboratory."
"They claimed that if not for the three mysterious heroes who rescued them and exposed the laboratory, they would never have escaped."
"The public is now questioning whether the government is connected to the laboratory."
"When we return, we will discuss the government’s possible involvement. But first, let’s show the little footage we gathered of the heroes who saved those children."
Their footage appeared on the television screen.
Jark and Seline turned toward Marcus with knowing smiles, finally understanding why he had insisted they wear masks.
"I see what you did."
"They’re putting the government in a very tight spot."
Jark said with a pleased smile.
It was rare for Jark to praise someone. Seeing Jark acknowledge his work, Marcus couldn’t help but grin.
"You can say I’m a prodigy." Marcus raised his head proudly.