Chapter 163 Street Brawl
Chapter 163 Street Brawl
Lucius lay on the ground, trying to struggle to his feet, but Wayne stepped on his face with one boot.
The tread pattern from the military boot had already carved deep into his cheekbone, and shards of glass were ground into the skin of his cheek by the sole.
Lucius let out a low, guttural sound.
Wayne bent down and picked up the guardianship waiver from the foot of Jenny's bed, unfolding it in front of Lucius.
Then he tore it apart, page by page.
The paper fragments were stained with glass shards, blood, and other filth—the white pages turned red.
Morrison witnessed all this but took no action. He had stopped trembling.
Wayne stuffed the last scrap of paper into Lucius's mouth, but his mouth was blocked by the boot—he couldn't speak.
The paper and glass fragments squeezed through the split at the corner of his mouth, tearing the inside of his oral cavity.
Lucius's voice became muffled and garbled.
Wayne's foot relaxed slightly, allowing his mouth to open about two centimeters.
"Swallow."
Lucius's body convulsed, the glass shards stabbing into his back.
Combined with the tearing sensation from the paper and glass in his mouth, the convulsing Lucius let out an inhuman scream.
But Wayne pressed his foot down harder, increasing the pressure on the cheekbone.
Lucius swallowed.
His Adam's apple bobbed up and down as he forced down the mixture of blood and pulp.
The glass fragments cut the walls of his esophagus, making his body arch and contract, pressed down by the boot sole.
Wayne crouched down, less than a foot from Lucius's ear.
"You said this was a Supreme UN Mandate."
Lucius was foaming at the mouth, his gaze vacant, but his ears still worked.
"With corresponding laws in over a hundred and seventy countries and territories."
Wayne held up a small piece of the torn paper to Lucius's lips—it still bore the blue UN seal.
"Swallow it."
Lucius swallowed again, letting out a dry heaving sound.
Wayne stood up and moved his boot off Lucius's face.
Lucius pressed his face against the broken glass, the right side of his face so cut up it was unrecognizable.
Blood mixed with paper scraps and saliva dripped from the corner of his mouth.
Wayne looked down and spoke his final words.
"Swallow it. This is what your so-called international law amounts to here—the final interpretation."
Lucius lay on the ground curled into a ball, painful sounds emerging from his throat.
Wayne turned to face Jenny's bed.
---
All the medical equipment in the room had been destroyed, but this faint sound was coming from Lucius's chest.
Because the room was extremely quiet, everyone heard it.
Morrison's first reaction was "He's got something on him."
The white-haired doctor crouched down and pressed on Lucius's collarbone for three seconds before his expression changed.
"Subcutaneous implant near the heart. Small, but transmitting a signal."
"Life signs monitor's gone into alarm—means the patient's dying," Morrison said.
"Reporting to who?" Emily asked.
No one answered her. Three seconds later, the answer appeared.
The emergency lights in the room flickered twice, then the sound of electrical current resuming came from inside the walls.
Immediately after, the blackened monitoring screen above Jenny's bed lit up again.
On the screen appeared a white-haired man of about seventy, seated at a dark wooden desk.
The background showed stone walls and ceiling lights—it felt like being underground.
He held a glass of water. The surface was perfectly still, not a single ripple.
Morrison aimed his gun at the screen.
The white-haired doctor stood and stepped back two paces, knocking over his medical kit.
The old man on screen set down his glass, first glancing at Lucius on the floor without any visible reaction, then turned his gaze to Wayne.
"Bell," Morrison forced the name through clenched teeth.
Bell didn't address Morrison. Instead, he spoke to Wayne.
Though the signal had a 0.3-second delay through satellite relay, every word came through crystal clear.
"My son is worthless."
Wayne didn't move. Bell slapped the desk.
"He made a mistake—using the law to threaten an ignorant savage. That's his fault, not yours."
Emily pulled Jenny's blanket up higher, covering the child's ears.
Bell tapped his fingers on the desk. "Wayne, six minutes ago you destroyed the Pallbearer headquarters."
"And completed the mission with four Tomahawk missiles. Well done."
After a two-second pause, he asked another question.
"Why do you think the Pallbearers can mobilize resources worldwide?"
Wayne said nothing.
"The Pallbearers' funding comes from me. I'm the licensing authority for weapons patents."
"I signed the special medical supply contracts for the Big Five Security Council representatives."
Bell placed his glass on the desk.
Of the two hundred years' worth of operating costs for the Pallbearers, 16.3% came through the Eden Council's classified budget.
The weapon in Morrison's hand trembled.
"You blew up a house, but you didn't blow up the man who built it."
Wayne spoke, his voice flat. "So now you're here."
"No." Bell shook his head. "I'm not here for revenge. Whether my son is dead or alive has nothing to do with today."
Even as Lucius convulsed and spewed blood on the floor, Bell's gaze never shifted downward.
"I'm here to tell you something has already happened."
Isaac's voice exploded through Morrison's comm, speaking twice as fast as usual.
"King, darknets worldwide are reporting massive connectivity failures."
"Not from hacking—the fiber optic cables have been cut."
Bell continued, "We established sanctuaries in seventeen countries worldwide for thirty-two thousand disabled veterans from Predator's Talon."
Wayne's right hand clenched into a fist, the broken fingers protruding slightly more.
"Three minutes ago, the municipal water systems in seventeen countries."
"Stopped providing drinking water to residents in relevant areas due to concerns about unknown infectious disease outbreaks."
Bell spoke without any change in inflection, as if reading a report.
"Additionally, the hundred and seventy-three partner hospitals under Eden Council jurisdiction."
"Have frozen all medical accounts associated with Predator's Talon personnel."
Morrison pressed the comm to his ear—every piece of information coming through matched exactly what Bell was saying.
"Confirmed. Water valves at all seventeen sanctuaries have been shut off. Municipal system data shows these as legitimate epidemic prevention measures."
Currently, over thirty-two thousand people overseas had no drinking water and no medical services.
Wayne stared at the screen.
When Bell stood, a white emblem and a bare tree appeared on the stone wall behind him.
"Wayne, you won a pathetic envoy's life, but I've cut the medical supply lines for your thirty thousand people overseas."
He clasped his hands behind his back.
"This is a game of power, not a street brawl."