Chapter 223: The Hound Dogs of the Syndicate
The cold light inside the holding cell cast long, sharp shadows across the floor, painting the bare walls in muted, sterile hues. Lin Qing stood unmoving in the center of the small room, her frame rigid and her hand hovering near the textured grip of her holstered sidearm.
She stared down at the woman, her dark eyes searching her face for any subtle twitch, any shift in expression, or any sign of deceit.
The immediate, calm compliance had caught Lin Qing completely off guard.
Lin Qing’s eyes narrowed into a sharp, searching glare that had broken far tougher men during field interrogations. "Why?" she asked, her voice low, sharp, and cutting through the quiet room like a chilled blade. "Why give it up so easily? I haven’t offered you freedom. I haven’t offered you better quarters, extra rations, or immunity. So why are you so eager to talk the second I step through that door?"
The woman on the cot did not flinch under the intense, intimidating scrutiny. She leaned her head back slightly against the cold wall, her face surprisingly serene in the dim light. Her breathing remained rhythmic and steady, completely unbothered by the presence of an armed soldier standing over her. A small, almost imperceptible curve touched the corner of her lips.
"Because you look deeply troubled," the woman replied softly, her voice smooth, unhurried, and carrying a quiet resonance that seemed far too calm for a prisoner in an underground lockup. "You carry the heavy weight of this entire base on your shoulders tonight, and panic—no matter how well hidden—is a very noisy thing. It echoes down these quiet halls long before your boots ever hit the floor."
"Don’t attempt to read me," Lin Qing snapped, her tone hardening into pure steel. "And don’t dodge the question. Who are you? What was your actual position in The Apex?"
The woman simply looked at her, her eyes remaining completely unreadable. She offered no name, no rank, and not a single detail regarding her personal past or her former status within the fallen facility. She bypassed the personal line of questioning entirely, treating Lin Qing’s attempt to dig into her identity as nothing more than a minor, insignificant distraction from the real issue at hand.
"What matters tonight is not my name, but what is currently moving toward your base," the woman said calmly, shifting her posture slightly on the narrow mattress. "You came down here asking about The Apex. What is it you truly wish to know first?"
Lin Qing stared at her for a long, heavy second, her jaw clenched as she realized the woman had absolutely no intention of revealing her background. Recognizing the futility of pushing that boundary right now, Lin Qing set her personal frustration aside, forcing her mind back onto the immediate operational threat facing the Research Center.
"Start with their ultimate objective," Lin Qing commanded, taking one deliberate step closer to the foot of the iron cot. "And why a massive syndicate is fixated on expanding into this specific sector."
The woman rested her thin hands loosely in her lap, her playful demeanor instantly vanishing, replaced by a dark, somber gravity. "The Apex is not just a regional militia, nor are they a collection of opportunistic warlords scrap-hunting in the ruins. They are a massive, highly militarized network with established facilities and deep sleeper cells spread across every major territory in the country. Their ultimate objective is absolute, unquestioned domination over whatever remains of this apocalyptic world. They firmly believe that order cannot be restored through treaties or governance, but through absolute, crushing force—and true force requires superior assets."
"What kind of assets?" Lin Qing pressed.
"People," the woman answered directly, her eyes locking onto Lin Qing’s. "Specifically, human beings born or altered with high-tier powers. In the eyes of The Apex high command, standard military hardware, armored tanks, and conventional firepower are entirely obsolete in the world. They actively hunt down powered humans across the wasteland, regardless of where they hide or what faction they belong to. The stronger and more capable the individual, the higher their acquisition value. They capture them, systematically strip away their autonomy, and use them to forge an unstoppable vanguard of modified super-soldiers."
Lin Qing’s jaw tightened, a cold chill running down her spine. She knew this already from Ye Lin and had even seen it firsthand but hearing about The Apex hunting humans still disgusted her.
"And the mutated horde that just attacked us?" Lin Qing asked, her mind rapidly piecing together the events of the past twenty-four hours. "The scout we captured mentioned they were tracking energy signatures."
"That is probably a new operational strategy," the woman noted, her voice dropping into a quiet, cold, and analytical register. "Direct military assaults on fortified subterranean facilities like this Research Center are exceptionally costly in terms of trained personnel, heavy armor, and high-tech equipment. It would be far easier, and vastly more efficient, for them to use high-frequency core beacons and acoustic drivers to herd massive, mutated swarms straight toward human settlements."
She leaned forward slightly, the light catching the sharp contours of her face. "The horde will act as a brutal, natural hammer. It breaks open the outer defenses, destroys the perimeter walls, and forces the target base into a corner where they have no choice but to deploy their strongest defenders just to survive. Once your powered individuals step up to save their people—unleashing their abilities to turn the tide—The Apex will simply sit back on the horizon, measures the massive energy spikes on their long-range sensors, and prepares to move in to collect the prize once the base is thoroughly exhausted."
Lin Qing’s breathing hitched slightly. The Blue Core siege, the brutal clash in the slush field, Su Xiao’s desperate telekinetic barrier, and Han Zheng’s sweeping kinetic bridge—it hadn’t just been a desperate fight for survival against mindless monsters. It had been an unintentional beacon, lighting up the dark mountain range and signaling their exact location to a ruthless predator.
"Block C was their regional hub in this territory," Lin Qing stated, carefully observing the woman’s reaction to see if the loss of the facility mattered. "And Block C was completely wiped out. That loss should buy us a significant window of time before they can reorganize."
The woman offered a faint, somber shake of her head, her expression grim. "You deeply misunderstand how the syndicate’s command chain operates. The destruction of Block C does not mean they will abandon this sector—it simply means the higher-ups have lost their local eyes on the ground. They will not send standard, un-enhanced infantry units to investigate the sudden dark blackout of a major regional facility combined with a massive power spike."
"What will they send instead?"
"Their hounds," the woman replied softly, the word hanging heavy in the air. "Powered individuals who have already been captured, broken, bio-mechanically modified, and bound entirely to the syndicate’s absolute will. They function as tracking dogs for the high command. They do not care about collateral damage, they do not care about human casualty counts, and they certainly do not care about negotiating. If the regional command detects high-tier power usage in these mountains, those hounds are likely already mobilized, moving through the passes to hunt down the source."
The silence inside the small concrete cell grew thick, heavy, and deeply oppressive. Lin Qing listened to the quiet, rhythmic hum of the distant ventilation shafts, feeling the cold, inescapable reality of their situation settle like lead into her chest.
Strategic motives, grand organizational goals, and background were useful for understanding the broader political scope of the world, but none of it would keep the gates intact when a specialized strike team arrived at their outer threshold.
Lin Qing took another step forward, her hand dropping off the handle of her sidearm to rest flat against her belt. Her eyes burned with a sharp, desperate intensity that demanded immediate, practical solutions.
"I didn’t come down to this cell for a broad political history lesson," Lin Qing said, her voice dropping into a whisper that carried no patience for abstract warnings. "I need actionable information that will actually help me protect this base and the people inside it. I need structural weaknesses, energy frequencies, tracking ranges, operational limits—anything that gives us leverage against these so-called hounds. Tell me something concrete that we can actually use to survive."
The woman stopped talking. She slowly looked up at Lin Qing, taking in the fierce, unyielding determination burning in her eyes, alongside the deep, silent physical fatigue that Lin Qing was desperately trying to mask beneath her rigid posture.
Slowly, the woman let out a long, quiet sigh, the air whistling softly through her lips.
She uncrossed her long legs, resting her worn boots flat against the cold concrete floor, and rolled her shoulders back with a faint, quiet wince of discomfort.
"Detailed data and complex operational frequencies require a clear, relaxed head," the woman said, a faint, amused light flickering back into her eyes as she gestured vaguely around the small room that enclosed them. "And quite honestly, I have been locked inside this dreary, suffocating room for so long that I haven’t even been granted the simple luxury of stretching my legs."
She looked directly up into Lin Qing’s eyes, a faint, enigmatic smile returning to her lips as she made her surprising request without a single shred of fear or intimidation.
"How about we take a walk together first?"