Sneak Attack

"You saw they wouldn't even let people in over there. I was just curious. Just pretend I'm a kid who doesn't know any better, asking for fun."

Zhou Zongming slapped the desk in front of him. "You'd better not treat my warning like it's going in one ear and out the other. If you dare sneak in and get caught, they'll shoot you on the spot. You won't even get a chance to explain yourself."

"That building's so important?" Lu Bai laughed. "They're just researching a vaccine."

At that, Zhou Zongming's expression turned grave. He drew his sidearm and aimed it at Lu Bai. "Where did you hear that?"

Lu Bai spread his hands like a little bear and said unhurriedly, "You're taking this pretty seriously. If I said someone planned to steal the vaccine tonight, you'd probably jump out of your skin."

Zhou Zongming ignored the teasing in Lu Bai's words. "Do you even know what you're saying? This is no joke."

Lu Bai wore a smile, but there was no trace of amusement in his voice.

"But would you bet on it?"

"You wouldn't."

Lu Bai tilted his head back and gazed at the pristine white ceiling.

Coarse but attentive, and deeply responsible.

Zhou Zongming was the very picture of a soldier.

Though they hadn't known each other for long, Lu Bai could easily guess how Zhou Zongming would react to this news.

Since the information had come from Lu Bai, there was no way to guarantee it was reliable. So the company commander wouldn't rashly report it to his superiors, much less make a show of mobilizing the troops.

The most likely thing Zhou Zongming would do was guard the laboratory alone to ensure the vaccine's safety.

"They should've run into each other by now, right?" Lu Bai looked down at the lab worker he'd tied up like a dumpling. "Where's Professor Jiang's lab?"

At that moment, in Professor Jiang's laboratory.

Agu, dressed in a lab coat, furrowed his brows. He really couldn't understand why Zhou Zongming had suddenly shown up at the Research Center.

After the initial chaos of the zombie outbreak, only a few hundred soldiers had remained at this military base.

Once the troops had been reorganized, they amounted to five companies at most. Zhou Zongming's standing in this makeshift shelter went without saying.

After a brief moment of surprise, Agu returned to his usual mild-mannered demeanor and took the initiative to ask, "Company Commander Zhou? What brings you here?"

Zhou Zongming merely slipped his right hand into his pocket. Without appearing overly wary, he said calmly, "It's so late. What brings you here, Analyst Gu? I thought your job was to analyze the virus."

"Can't be helped. Professor Jiang asked me this evening to bring a sample of virus solution to his lab. I got busy and forgot. I only just remembered."

Agu smiled as he spoke, gradually closing the distance between them.

Zhou Zongming never took his eyes off Agu. "Is that so? Then you won't mind if I call Professor Jiang to confirm?"

"Uh... Company Commander Zhou, has something happened?"

"I received a tip that someone plans to sneak into the Research Center tonight."

The laboratory ceiling was spotless, white enough to dazzle, and not a speck of dirt remained between the floor tiles.

In the center of the lab stood an isolation chamber covering roughly five or six square meters. Frost clouded the palm-sized bulletproof window in the door, clearly showing that it was much colder inside than out.

Reflected in the two-way glass, the practised smile on Agu's face gradually stiffened. He deliberately let his displeasure show.

"Company Commander Zhou, are you suspecting me?"

Zhou Zongming shook his head. "That's not what I mean. But to be safe, I want you to stop right where you are. Once I've called Professor Jiang, I'll clear your name. If you've done nothing wrong, I'll come to your door and apologize in person—"

Before he could finish, Agu was already moving.

With a speed utterly at odds with the frail-lab-worker act, he closed in on Zhou Zongming and pinned his right hand down, preventing him from drawing his gun.

At nearly the same moment, his other arm locked around Zhou Zongming's throat. He drove a knee into Zhou Zongming's abdomen, then bent the arm around his throat and followed through with a heavy elbow strike to Zhou Zongming's temple.

Even though Zhou Zongming had been on guard, he had never expected a lab worker to be so skilled.

After taking the full combo, Zhou Zongming felt the world spin. He struggled to breathe, and even staying on his feet became nearly impossible.

Fortunately, he was a well-trained soldier. Faced with the threat of death, his body went limp and dropped. Instinctively, he rolled across the floor, trying to create some distance so he could draw his gun.

But Agu seemed to know what he was going to do. The instant Zhou Zongming pulled his sidearm from his pocket, Agu swung a powerful roundhouse kick.

The automatic pistol flew into the wall, bounced back, and landed on the floor.

It fell less than five meters from Zhou Zongming, but in his current predicament, those five meters might as well have been a thousand.

Just then.

Click—

The laboratory door opened again.

"Looks like I picked the wrong time to drop by."

Lu Bai walked in, glanced around the lab, then turned and shut the door behind him as if no one else were there. He locked it.

Only after he'd finished did he leisurely turn back and add, "I walk in, and I see Chang Wei beating up Lai Fu."

Agu: "?"

Zhou Zongming: "?"

The laboratory fell so quiet you could hear a pin drop.

A few seconds later, Zhou Zongming couldn't help drawing in a sharp breath from the pain, breaking the silence.

Agu walked over and picked up the pistol. Puzzled, he asked, "How did you get up here?"

Lu Bai was about to explain when a series of footsteps sounded outside.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

The laboratory door shook under a barrage of kicks.

"Open up!"

"Open the door! I know you're in there!"

"You're surrounded! Open the door and surrender!"

Feeling the commotion outside, Lu Bai spread his hands helplessly. "That's how I got up here."

"I thought you'd already been shot on the spot."

Agu sighed with a hint of regret.

He raised the automatic pistol and aimed it at Lu Bai. "Tell me, in theory, which kills faster: a bullet through the heart or a headshot?"

A pistol's effective range was actually shorter than most people imagined, but it was more than enough to cover the whole laboratory.

Yet Lu Bai showed no sign of being bothered by the gun aimed at him. He answered with a grin, "Two nationally renowned experts have already run a controlled experiment on that. If I remember right, they even tried to resuscitate the one who took a bullet to the heart. So you'd better aim right here."

He pointed to his forehead.