Rescue (Part Three)

Lyla didn't have the energy to care about Thea's sarcasm at the moment. Despite seeing double, she still managed to muster the strength to prop herself up against the wall, swaying unsteadily as she surveyed the surroundings.

It was a very ordinary civilian house, with dilapidated and old furniture scattered around. Perhaps the owner had left in a hurry, as there were some miscellaneous items strewn on the floor. After observing for a while, Lyla concluded that it looked very ordinary and didn't seem like a place for holding prisoners.

The pitch-black night outside the window also indicated that this wasn't some sort of prison. With this realization, Lyla's previous worries were alleviated by more than half.

"If you're able to walk, come with me outside and take a look. I really don't know what to do about the others who are still unconscious," Thea said, her voice filled with exhaustion. She had entered the toxic area twice in a row, engaging in intense physical activity each time. Her intake during that time was much greater than that of the others who were unconscious. Right now, she was barely holding on through sheer willpower.

Lyla noticed Thea's pale face and profuse sweating. Lyla was silently enduring her own discomfort. As a former soldier and now a senior agent, she couldn't admit to feeling as weak as a noodle. If she let a sixteen-year-old girl outdo her, she would be dishonoring those days when she drank drugs like coffee.

But she simply didn't have the energy to speak. She just nodded and followed Thea to another bedroom, leaning against the wall for support.

This room had a layout similar to the previous one, just larger in size. There was a woman lying on the bed. Lyla hadn't seen Felicity in person before, only in photos attached to Thea's dossier. Initially, she didn't recognize the person without her glasses, her face flushed red. But she quickly realized it was Thea's partner. As for her name, Lyla couldn't recall it in her dazed state.

The other two in the room didn't have such good treatment. They were both disheveled and bruised, prompting Lyla to instinctively touch her own face. She hoped she didn't look like that. Although she wasn't exceptionally beautiful, she had no intention of disfiguring herself. After a brief examination, she didn't notice anything unusual, and only then did she breathe a sigh of relief and begin to carefully scrutinize the two individuals.

Among these two individuals, Lyla instantly recognized Commissioner Gordon because of his outdated attire. His characteristic beige coat, unchanged for decades, still hung on him, along with his signature glasses. Such a distinctive appearance, coupled with his unique dressing style, made him the only one in all of Gotham who fit that description in the 21st century.

"Do you have any way to wake them up?" Thea asked urgently when she saw Lyla entering the room and remaining silent for a while.

"What can I do?" Lyla, no longer pretending, sat down against the wall, feeling uncertain. As a former soldier who now mostly dealt with administrative work, she had no idea how to answer such a professional question.

Occasionally, Lyla saw a few hallucinations, including her own relatives and former comrades. She knew these were just illusions and tried to shake her head to clear her mind. Blurry-eyed, she observed the two individuals tied together and quietly speculated. The red-haired woman next to Commissioner Gordon should be his daughter. 

"Do you have any way to wake them up?" Thea asked anxiously, seeing Lyla enter the room and remain silent for a while.

What could she possibly do? Lyla didn't bother pretending anymore. Leaning against the wall, she slowly sat on the ground. She used to be a simple soldier, and her current work was more administrative. She didn't know how to answer such a specialized question.

Moreover, her mind was sometimes clear and sometimes foggy. Even if she knew, she couldn't remember. "I don't have any way. Wait, no, didn't you wake me up?" Lyla suddenly asked.

"No, you woke up on your own." Thea, now feeling dizzy from shaking her head, waved her hand dismissively. Although she did many good deeds without seeking recognition, this particular one wasn't her doing. Who knows how Lyla woke up?

"Then how did you wake up?" Lyla, with a persistent spirit of getting to the bottom of things, asked.

Thea vaguely felt that her strong willpower had played a role, combined with her relatively high level of fitness. After all, her year of hard training wasn't for nothing. Under the dual effects of physical and mental strength, she hadn't been completely knocked out by the gas that could render ordinary people unconscious. But explaining it would be too complicated, so she simply said she didn't know.

With neither of them coming up with any practical solutions to the problem at hand, Thea looked at the unconscious individuals, feeling somewhat frustrated.

Since neither of them had any ideas, they decided to ask for help from others. Although Thea didn't know many people, Lyla, being a high-ranking figure backed by a government organization, could easily request assistance. "Can you find some people to help?"

Actually, even without asking, Lyla could think of this problem. She shed her honorable military uniform to join the ranks of the special agent organization, climbing to a high position with great effort. What was it all for, if not for the organization to lend a hand at a critical moment like this?

Although the organization emphasized abandoning those who were left behind, and any sense of camaraderie had dropped to negative levels, she was still a high-ranking deputy leader. If even someone at her level didn't receive help in such situations, then the organization might as well disband.

She didn't hide it from Thea either. She took out her phone to start communicating with the liaison on the other end using a combination of codes, passwords, mission names, and a whole array of numbers and letters.

Since the password changed every day, she wasn't worried about Thea overhearing any confidential information. Being a special agent was really not easy, especially for high-ranking personnel like her. Every morning, she received the day's contact code and had to memorize it for half a day, then forget it in the evening, because a new one would be issued the next day. If one gets even a single letter wrong, it could lead to quite the spectacle.

Naturally, Thea wasn't interested in listening to her exchange the code. To avoid suspicion, she walked to the window, opened it, and let the night breeze blow into the room. With five people crammed into such a small space, Thea and Lyla had been sweating profusely. Commissioner Gordon and his daughter were half covered in dirt and half covered in blood, making the room smell unbearable.

"Amanda, I've run into trouble here. It's not convenient for me to move right now. Search for my location and send someone quickly." Although the distance was a bit far, the voice still reached Thea's ears as usual. She was contacting Amanda? It seemed like their relationship was quite good. After all, not just anyone could directly contact the highest leader when they ran into trouble. Hopefully, the reinforcements sent would be elite troops.

Not long after, the call ended. "My people will be here soon. Just hold on a bit longer," Lyla said, putting down the phone. She had some confidence in the organization's search capabilities, which made her attitude more relaxed. She casually said a few words, not sure if she was comforting Thea or encouraging herself.

The reinforcements arrived quickly. Four special agents in black suits with sunglasses found the place soon after. The leader handed over their credentials first, which Layla checked before instructing them to take the people in the room away first. She could still walk out on her own.