Night fell like a vast curtain of black velvet, slowly cloaking the West India Docks in silence.
The bustle of the day had long since faded, leaving only the rhythmic slap of the River Thames against its stone embankments and the occasional long blast of a ship's horn in the distance.
Warehouse No. 3, the vast building that had been filled with mystery and fear over the past month, now waited silently for its nighttime "visitors."
Deep in the belly of the beast, Lin Jie was directing the setup of a silent battlefield.
His plan sounded laughably simple, but every step reflected ingenuity far ahead of its time.
He hadn't chosen to set a straightforward killing trap at the ventilation window the enemy was bound to pass through. Against a large number of agile, unknown creatures, that would be inefficient and extremely risky.
He wasn't aiming for a one-time "capture," but an unavoidable "marking"—a "dyeing experiment" that would strip away the enemy's veil of mystery once and for all.
"Sergeant William, I need you to secure this rope to the central crossbeam on the highest level of the warehouse." Lin Jie handed William a coil of sturdy hemp rope he'd found in the warehouse. "The rope needs to hang about three meters above the ground."
William glanced at the crossbeam, more than ten meters up and lost in darkness, then looked at Lin Jie, a question in his eyes.
Working at that height would require specialized climbing equipment, even for a veteran like him.
Lin Jie saw his concern and pointed to the huge steam-powered crane in one corner of the warehouse, used for loading cargo.
"We can use that. With a slight adjustment to the hook, it can lift someone up safely."
A glimmer of approval flashed in William's eyes.
The young man always found the most direct and effective way to use whatever tools were at hand. That was a rare and valuable instinct on the battlefield.
With William's agility and basic knowledge of machinery, the hemp rope was soon secured firmly in place, hanging silently in the center of the warehouse like a strand of spider silk.
Next came the trap's key component.
Lin Jie found several sacks of white flour that were meant to be shipped to a bakery.
He carefully tied one of them to the end of the rope, making a simple "powder bomb."
"That's it?" Marcus, who had been watching for some time, finally blurted out. His voice was full of disbelief. "You're planning to take on those monsters that can bend iron bars with a hanging sack of flour? I thought you'd set up something... with spikes, at least."
"Marcus, patience is a virtue." Lin Jie smiled without explaining further.
He turned to William. "Sergeant William, now for the final step. I need you to attach one end of this thin cord to the opening of the flour sack. Then use your experience to lay the other end along the tops of the shelves where we think those little creatures are most likely to pass. We need a tripwire that's well hidden and sensitive enough to trigger easily."
That was the essence of the whole trap.
The challenge now lay not in the designer's ingenuity, but in the skill and experience of the person carrying it out.
Laying a tripwire across the tops of shelves piled with clutter, stretching for dozens of meters, so it could be triggered easily without being spotted in advance—that was an art in itself.
And William was undoubtedly a master of that art.
The silent veteran said nothing. He simply took the thin fishing line and sprang onto the shelves like a cat.
He moved through that complex "steel jungle," where ordinary people could barely stand, appearing and disappearing from view.
Using the corners of crates and the uprights of the shelves, he cleverly laid the line along its route, finally setting a flawless trigger on a path the creatures would have to take, close to the ventilation window.
The entire trap was finally in place.
A huge sack of flour hung high in the center of the warehouse, its release mechanism connected to a nearly invisible line in the darkness of the upper level, dozens of meters away.
Any target that tried to enter through the ventilation window and move along the tops of the shelves would inevitably trigger the deadly tripwire.
The three of them quietly withdrew behind a massive crate, where they had an excellent vantage point over the entire trap area.
Lin Jie raised his monocular, William lifted his Colt Revolver with its exceptionally long barrel, and Marcus folded his arms, still half-skeptical and ready to watch.
As they waited, time grew thick and slow.
At midnight, when the world outside the warehouse had fallen completely asleep, the sound of metal scraping came from the ventilation window on the upper level.
They were here!
The three of them tensed instantly.
By the faint moonlight filtering in through the window, Lin Jie finally saw the true appearance of the "Dock Whisperers" through his monocular.
They were strange creatures about the size of large macaques, but with entirely different body structures.
Their fur was a dull, rust-like iron gray, giving them perfect camouflage among the steel and shadows.
Their limbs were extremely long, and instead of fleshy hands, each ended in tiny jointed appendages with a brass-like sheen, like clockwork parts—"mechanical claws."
The claws could grip any rough surface with ease, letting them scuttle across walls and ceilings.
But the strangest thing about them was their faces.
They had no mouths. Instead, each face was set with a polished, lens-like crystal.
When they drew close to one another, the crystals emitted different-pitched buzzing sounds, as if they were communicating that way.
They had a clear objective and moved with efficiency.
One, two... More than a dozen of the creatures filed silently through the ventilation window, then expertly raced along the tops of the shelves toward their target deep inside the warehouse: a crate of brand-new tin ingots.
They had no idea that the deadly tripwire was waiting for them in the darkness.
Just before reaching their target, the metal-jointed foot of the half-mechanical monkey in the lead brushed lightly against the taut fishing line.
"Snap!"
A faint cracking sound rang out.
Several meters away, in the center of the warehouse, a force yanked open the mouth of the huge sack hanging in midair!
There was no explosion, no loud bang.
Only a dreamlike avalanche of pure white.
A great torrent of flour poured down like an upside-down waterfall, instantly forming an expanding cloud of white dust that engulfed the dozen or so fast-moving half-mechanical monkeys and the entire area around them!
"Bzzzzzz—!!!"
The previously silent troop erupted in startled, furious cries.
Their perfect stealth was ruined. Every monkey was now smeared with a thick layer of white flour.
Their iron-gray fur, which had let them blend into their surroundings, was now conspicuous and mottled.
Wherever they fled, they left unmistakable white footprints on the floor and across the shelves.
They had all been "marked"!
Through his monocular, Lin Jie watched the spectacular, ridiculous scene unfold.
His incredibly simple trap had used the cheapest materials, yet achieved better results than an ordinary killing trap ever could.
It hadn't killed a single enemy, but it had stripped them of the ability they relied on to survive—stealth.
Enraged, the monkeys scattered aimlessly around the warehouse, trying to shake off the infuriating white powder.
They moved astonishingly fast, leaping and climbing between the towering shelves like ghosts.
Had they still been hidden by their stealth and camouflage, even a crack shot like William would have struggled to catch sight of them.
But now they were nothing more than glaring white targets in the darkness.
Sergeant William's face showed undisguised shock and admiration.
He turned and looked intently at the young man beside him, who calmly held up his monocular as if everything were going according to plan.
At that moment, the last trace of doubt in his heart vanished along with the cloud of white flour.
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