13 The Forbidden Zone (5)

If Commander Eric were to know about what was going to happen to the temporary laboratory, he would not have decided to chase after the Martian spy. Unfortunately, Eric did not have the ability to see into the future, nor did he have the telepathy skill that was offered to Daniel a while beforehand.

After leaving Dr. James and Daniel behind to the care of his fellow soldiers, the commander instantly sped towards the direction of the perpetrator, putting his manual driving skills to the test as he started swerving around the debris caused by the meteorite strike.

As the military have only managed to clean two different roads leading to the center of the quarantine zone from different directions, the others were still littered with trash everywhere, from daily goods to glass shards to office supplies.

Fortunately, Eric is a racing enthusiast and would often rent a race car just to drift on obstacle courses on his days off, so he simply looked as though he was taking a walk in a park as he swerved through the contaminated roadway. Of course, the person sitting next to him was having much less of a good time.

"Commander, you're driving too—" Lieutenant Travis was about to complain when he suddenly had the urge to barf. He instantly opened the side window and released all the content from within his throat out towards the road, adding on to the litter that were already covering the ground.

"Hang on, Lieutenant! We're going to catch up with the perpetrator soon!" The commander shouted in reply.

It was at this time that someone from military headquarters connected directly with Eric's nanochip.

"Eric, I've just gotten briefed by Minerva about the situation. How's it going on your side?" A mature and solemn voice sounded from the other side of the mental connection, giving off the feel of a stern commander.

"General Thomas!" Eric exclaimed in surprise before instantly getting back to the topic at hand.

"2 minutes ago, our convoy have been attacked. Truck #1's gas tank exploded inexplicably, causing it to flip and crash upon Truck #2. I instantly went according to standard emergency procedures for an attack on VIPs, getting the remaining vehicles to scatter in different directions to prevent our enemy from striking us all at the same time." Eric relayed within his mind as it was much faster than talking.

"After realizing that the perpetrator is escaping, I guessed that the attack on our convoy was a one-off assassination attempt, so I decided to leave the protection duty to the others while splitting up. We are now closing in on the perpetrator from 2 different directions. ETA: 24 seconds."

"Good work Eric, I'll take over command from here." The general commanded curtly. Without even giving Eric the time to adjust to his new role, Thomas instantly started to give out his instructions.

"Eric would directly engage with the target from the front, while Truck #4's team will reinforce from the back. Since the target is currently escaping by jumping across the roofs of adjacent buildings, I'll send a combat drone over as soon as possible. The drone will arrive in about 3 minutes. Eric, keep the target busy until it arrives."

"Roger that." Eric confirmed.

Within seconds, he lifted his head out the side window and saw his target running on the edge of the roof at inhuman speeds. Within that instant, the perpetrator of the earlier attack seemed to have noticed someone staring at me and tilted his head back. It was then that Eric and the subject's eyes met for less than a second before the subject tilted his head away again.

"Travis, we're getting off the car." Commander Eric abruptly said in a solemn tone.

"But we're gonna crash if—" Travis was about to complain when he's instantly cut off by Eric again.

"Open the door and activate your magnetic boots. We're jumping off in 5 seconds." Eric opened the car door to his side while the truck was still moving in high speeds. He stood up, keeping one foot on the pedal while placing a hand on top of the swinging door to lift his head out of the car.

Seeing Eric's actions, Lieutenant Travis immediately scrambled to do the same on the opposite side.

"3, 2, 1. Jump!" The commander Eric shouted and leapt from the car as he finished his countdown. He did not even both to look at the status of his companion and simply ran the second his magnetic boots landed on the ground.

Even though his truck was speeding at 200km/h when he jumped, he wasn't even hurt one bit when both his feet landed on the roadway. This was because Minerva had activated the emergency magnetic levitation system on the road the second before Eric landed on the floor.

If one were to look closer, they would be able to see that Travis and Eric didn't actually land on the road but is currently levitating a few centimeters above it. Due to the lack of friction from the 'impact', the both of them were able to continue and glide through the road at the exact same speed as the truck from when they got off, propelling them forwards without even moving their bodies.

The both of them simply acted as though they were skiing down a mountain slope as they dodged all the obstacles in front of them.

Eric's distant to the Martian spy is drawing closer and closer. Just as the target used his jetpack to propel himself through the air towards the opposite building's roof, Eric instantly jumped. Minerva manipulated the magnetic road, using it like an invisible spring as the road pulled on Eric's entire weight until he was forced to kneel on the ground. It was then that the magnetic force suddenly reversed, instantly propelling Eric towards the sky.

The commander flew towards the direction of the target at a breakneck speed, completely shocking the spy as he tried to move away from Eric's line of flight to no avail. Eric directly crashed against the spy's body, instantly breaking most of the bones within the spy's ribcage as the both of them started falling again from the impact.

Even as the spy felt the intense pain as blood unconsciously spilled out from his mouth, he managed to struggle away from Eric's hold and flipped himself on top of Eric's body as they landed heavily on the roof of the adjacent building.

Landing so hard on the concrete roof with the weight of two people knocked the wind out of Eric as he coughed out some blood from his throat. Luckily, the land was much softer than his impact against the spy, so except for some minor internal injuries, he still had the strength to fight.

The spy turned on the jetpack, wanting to get away from Eric, but just as he was about to take flight, Eric managed to grab onto his ankle and pull the spy back towards himself. This turned into a tug-of-war between Eric's strength and the strength of the jetpack, forcing the both of them into a stalemate where the spy couldn't get away while Eric couldn't act any further as he used all his strength to pull on the spy's ankle with both hands.

"Let go." Finally, the spy spoke when he saw his unfavorable situation.

"If you answer my questions first." Eric replied with a hostile look. Not hearing any response from the latter, Eric simply began his interrogation, "Who are you? Who do you work for? Why have you attacked our convoy just now?"

The spy looked as though he was about to speak when he suddenly coughed out a huge amount of blood. Since the spy was hooded and masked completely, even covering his own eyes, Eric did not manage to get a good look on his face but knew that the other person's situation should not be too good.

"I said let go." The spy's voice is raspy, probably as a result of his throat still being filled with his own blood.

Eric simply shook his head and continued, "I don't know who you are, but if you're willing to talk, I promise to try and get the authorities to go easy on you."

To that, the spy simply gave a cold sneer.

"From your body stature, you must only be a teenager, right?" Eric probed. "Instead of running around for a country who doesn't even care about you, or spending every day in hiding, don't you want to become a normal citizen? Go to a normal high school, make friends like a normal high school student, and fall in love like a normal teenager? You don't have to fight anymore if you simply come with us and answer all our questions."

The spy looked as though he was hesitating for a second, but in the end, he simply gave one final sneer before stating, "It's too late."

Eric looked as though he was about to speak again when suddenly a large explosion could be heard from behind him. As Eric tilted his head towards the direction of the explosion, he couldn't help but widen his eyes in surprise.

"Daniel!"