A suitcase stuffed with documents, two large bags of guns and ammunition, a bunch of stinky rations, seven horses, and twelve energy hunters, including Zhong Xiaoguang and Cheng Xu, this is all the belongings of the Armored Mouse Company.

Everyone followed the same path back to the grove where they had been hiding, and Cheng Xu and his party had to wait until it was dark before moving, carrying supplies on horseback, so they had to lead the horse on foot.

In the grove, Zhong Xiaoguang sat next to Zhou Qian, and asked Kiamiko if she was okay with a blushing face, Zhou Zhen just nodded absentmindedly, and said perfunctorily that it was good, Zhong Xiaoguang still wanted to ask, but he had already gotten up and walked away alone.

Cheng Xu saw that Zhou Qian's face was full of clouds, and he exchanged glances with Zhong Xiaoguang, and found Zhou Zhen and handed him a cigarette: "What's wrong?" Suddenly, I was preoccupied. ”

Zhou Zhen took the cigarette, turned it between his fingers but did not light it, and after a long silence, he suddenly said: "Lao Cheng, what should the armored rat company do next?" ”

"You ask me?"

Cheng Xu raised his finger holding the cigarette and pointed at himself: "You can do what you say, where do I have an idea." ”

"To be honest, I don't know what to do anymore."

Zhou Zhen looked up at the little sunlight shining in the shade of the trees, he already had a vague answer in his heart about the leaker, but it was an answer that he was unwilling to tell anyone.

Someone who has the ability to crack the encrypted network, knows all about the secret passages in and out of A21, and disassociated himself from the company just three months ago, even if confidential information is leaked, will not point to him.

But why would she do it? And why do you want to redact all information that points to an individual? Zhou Zhen really couldn't figure it out.

"Old Zhou, if you don't know what to do, just ask Thomas, this kid's brain is faster than all of us."

Cheng Xu interrupted his thoughts with a smoke.

This sentence seemed to wake up Zhou Zhen, and he snapped his fingers: "Yes, why didn't I think of it." ”

Before Cheng Xu could reply, Zhou Zhen had already disappeared out of thin air, he shook his head with a cigarette in his mouth, and scolded: "The older you get, the more nervous you become." ”

A few minutes later, on the road to A21, a security guard was squatting in the grass on the side of the road, when he suddenly heard a bang behind his head, and his head quickly became as warm as his buttocks.

Zhou Zhen threw away the stones, pinched his nose to bypass the fruits of the security guard's labor, fumbled his pocket, took out the portable terminal, checked the battery, and activated the phantom system to disappear again.

"Old Cheng, hurry up and help me contact Thomas."

When Zhou Zhen appeared in front of Cheng Xu again, he threw him a snatched portable terminal.

Cheng Xu scratched his head and asked, "It's not safe to contact like this, right?" ”

Zhou Zhen rubbed his chin impatiently: "You just say let him call back, don't say anything else, the energy laboratory must have its own encrypted line." ”

Cheng Xu made a voice call as he said, and a few seconds later, an encrypted number on the terminal screen called.

Zhou Zhen picked it up, neither greeting nor introducing himself, and said bluntly: "Server address." ”

Thomas, apparently prepared, replied more simply: "Yes." ”

At the same time that Zhou Zhen took out a pen and paper from his satchel, a string of latitude and longitude was reported." ”

The voice hung up, Zhou Zhen picked up the paper, deleted the call log, activated the phantom system and ran back to the fainted security guard, and threw the portable terminal back to him.

On the way back to the woods, Zhou Zhi pondered the string of latitude and longitude, and couldn't help but be stunned for a while, the location they represented was too familiar to him, and the beginning of everything, on the mission briefing, this string of numbers was written at the beginning.

The light of technology!

"Lao Cheng, find two horses and let them go to the basin barracks by themselves, and you come with me."

Zhou Zhen suddenly appeared in front of Cheng Xu and said anxiously.

If his guess is correct, the person he is looking for is extremely intelligent and unpredictable, not only can he not delay for a moment, but he also has to prepare a witness for this face.

Cheng Xu was leaning on the trunk of the tree to clean up his prosthetics, and was startled by Zhou Qian, his body fell to the ground crookedly, and he scolded and asked, "What's the matter?" It's like a convulsion. ”

"I'll explain it to you on the way."

Zhou Zhen left Cheng Xu to find Zhong Xiaoguang and told him that his plan had changed, and he would not go to A01 first.

"You're not looking for Natasha anymore?"

Zhong Xiaoguang touched the head of the green beard and asked.

Zhou Zhen was stunned for two seconds by his question, and after prevaricating a lack of confidence, he immediately changed the topic without waiting for him to ask, and told him to hand over the Maya box to Thomas.

Zhou Zhen guessed that the leaker was Natasha, but he must hide it from Zhong Xiaoguang and Cheng Xu now, the loss caused by this leak is too great, this is a blood debt of more than 30 lives, and it is impossible to write it off lightly.

Blood debt and blood repayment is not the result he wants to see, even if it is not mixed with any personal emotions, Natasha is an important key, maybe the only one.

A few minutes later, Cheng Xu packed up the two good horses, Zhou Zhen didn't say goodbye to anyone, jumped on the horse's back and kicked the horse's belly, and galloped towards the light of science and technology.

Escaping the suspicious eyes of everyone in the woods, Zhou Zhen gently pulled the reins to reduce his speed, and at this time, it was noon, and his neck was burning in the autumn sun, he untied the kettle from the saddle, and slapped a handful of water on his red face.

Cheng Xu caught up from the rear and rode a meter away from Zhou Qian's side, a colleague for decades, even if his brain was not bright, he also saw that Zhou Zhen must have something unspeakable, and wanted to ask carefully several times, but every time he dialed the horse and leaned over, Zhou Zhen took a nap with the horse's head and let the horse dodge to the side.

In this way, from noon to evening, the two never said a word, until the sunset fell into the valley in the distance, Cheng Xu couldn't help it, pulled the reins of Zhou's horse, and pulled him towards him: "Old Zhou, I said, I'm not your daughter-in-law, what kind of cold violence are you playing with me?" ”

As soon as he exerted his hand, Zhou Zhen's body was crooked, and he actually flipped off the horse, Cheng Xu only heard a pop, and then there was a scream, he hurriedly turned over and dismounted, only to see Zhou Zhen lying on the ground rubbing his waist, and the side of his forehead was drenched in blood.

"You, are you really asleep? I thought..."

Cheng Xu hurriedly helped him up.

"You're dark."

Zhou Zhen's eyes were blood-red, because he didn't want to explain his guess to Cheng Xu, he kept pretending to be dozing, but he didn't expect to really fall asleep after a long time, he was completely defenseless when he fell, and hit his head on the stone on the road, fortunately there was a hat to cushion it slightly, otherwise he would really die in the hands of Cheng Xu.

"I'm sorry, Lao Zhou, I actually made a big hole."

Cheng Xu took out the first-aid kit from the saddle bag, hung the oil lamp on the saddle to illuminate it, and began to stitch up the wound for Zhou Xu, who had been on the battlefield and in the field for most of his life, and it was not difficult for Cheng Xu to deal with the wound, but after all, he was almost sixty years old, the light was dim and the old eyes were dizzy, and the sewing on his hands was not light or heavy for more than an hour, and the painful Zhou Zhen had to faint several times.

After treating the wound, Cheng Xu wiped the sweat from his forehead, looked at Zhou Qian, whose face was covered with blood, and shook his head and said, "Old Zhou, you can't travel overnight with this injury, let's camp here." ”

Zhou Zhen had a splitting headache, and his already impatient mood was even more infuriating, so he staggered up on the ground, and pointed to the horse with a double image in front of him: "Less, less nonsense, hurry up and get me up." ”

The injury slowed down the speed of travel, and once the horse accelerated and galloped, Zhou Zhi felt that the world was spinning, but this also brought a benefit, Cheng Xu didn't know whether it was out of guilt or sympathy, and he never asked about the purpose of the trip along the way.

The trip took them three days, and at noon on the fourth day, the two finally arrived in the old city.

After a whole summer, the vegetation in the streets has become more luxuriant, with lake-like grass rippling in the wind, dwarf trees with red leaves, deer competing for wild fruits from the bushes, and green and golden vines covering the buildings.

He remembered the story he had read when he was a child: 'When a whale falls, everything is born', which means that after a whale dies, its corpse will become a whale fall, and tens of thousands of creatures will rely on the nutrients in the whale fall to sprout and grow, until a new deep-sea oasis is formed, and such an ecosystem can prosper for hundreds of years.

After death, the city was like a huge whale fall, and he couldn't help but wonder what human beings were, the cells that sustained the whale's survival, or the virus that took the whale's life?

Cheng Xu was also shocked by the beautiful scenery, and said a few words on the side, mixed with a few fucking words.

His exclamation pulled Zhou Zhen back to reality from philosophical thinking, Zhou Zhen said that he was in place, dismounted and handed the reins to Cheng Xu, and sat on the ground and rubbed his head.

Cheng Xu hid the two horses in the bushes, turned his head and asked, "Do you want to take the guys?" ”

Zhou Zhen shook his head categorically, he didn't want Cheng Xu to kill Natasha in anger.

Avoiding the snakes and rats scurrying under their feet, driving away the mosquitoes and flies in front of them, the two of them trudged towards the light of science and technology with difficulty.