Chapter 411:
“She’s not here. Search the whole damn place!”
Men spread out, sweeping through every inch of the room and the narrow storage space next to it. Then someone shouted from a lower deck.
“I just saw her! She’s running to the freezer!”
“Don’t let her escape! After her!”
The three closest men spun toward the corridor and took off.
“Seal her in!” one of them barked.
They shoved open the heavy freezer door leading to B-section. A rush of cold air slapped their faces as they entered. Everything was quiet. There was no trace of Rylie.
The three men aimed their guns ahead, forming a triangle with their backs to each other, cautiously moving inward. They believed they had adopted the best defensive stance against the enemy, but they overlooked the danger above.
In the silence above, Rylie waited. She hung from the vent like a bat, her limbs tucked close, her eyes locked on her targets. Without a sound, she unfolded her body and dropped.
When the three men realized that something was wrong and looked up, the sharp edge gleamed ominously before their eyes. The sound of three throats being slit echoed almost simultaneously. The freezing air turned the hot blood into a crimson vapor. The three men clutched their throats in horror, eyes wide with disbelief, and silently collapsed to the ground.
Rylie landed lightly, not sparing a glance at the bodies, and quickly climbed up the ventilation duct to leave the cold storage.
The very next second after she left, more people rushed into the cold storage, only to find three blood-soaked bodies lying there.
Someone sharply noticed that the vent above had been opened and immediately pointed up, shouting, “She escaped through the ventilation duct! This leads to the kitchen and the control room! She’ll show up in the kitchen for sure, but get men to guard the control room as well!”
“We have to catch her and make our brothers’ deaths count!” another roared, his voice shaking with fury.
The group, torn between rage and panic, scattered in different directions, half charging toward the kitchen, the others rushing to secure the control room.
In the kitchen, the floor was slick with grease, every step threatening to slip out from underfoot as a handful of men moved cautiously through the dim space, scanning every shadow.
Suddenly, without warning, a torrent of boiling oil cascaded from a high shelf above, striking two of the men with deadly accuracy.
“Ahhh!” Their screams tore through the air, raw and agonized, as the scalding liquid seared their flesh. Blisters rose instantly, and they collapsed writhing on the floor in unbearable pain.
From atop a large freezer, Rylie launched herself like a hunting panther. She landed in a blur of motion, dagger flashing in her grip, and drove the blade straight into the third man’s neck with flawless precision. Before he could react, she twisted it hard, ensuring there was no chance for a sound to escape his throat.
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