The next moment, a bizarre scene unfolded.
The supposedly dying Sander and Rice sat up from their hospital beds. As if by unspoken agreement, they twisted their stiff waists and backs, letting out long, comfortable groans. The white, oily substance on Sander's face peeled away, revealing normal skin beneath.
Rice, meanwhile, pulled his left arm out from inside his clothes, while the "severed hand" that had been in his sleeve dangled at his side.
A doctor's assistant hurriedly picked up the severed hand and soaked it in a chemical solution—this was a genuine human hand, and if left exposed too long, it could rot and begin to stink.
Yes, everything from the announced product progress, to the boiler explosion, to Sander and Rice's injuries had been a prearranged "script." Starting five months earlier, Sander had gradually replaced all the technicians around him with Security Bureau agents.
Then Dr. Brusque had "accidentally" cured a strange epidemic that had broken out among the technicians, allowing him to be hired as the company's resident physician for a handsome salary. Naturally, he and his assistants were all Security Bureau personnel as well.
Sander was the company's Chief Technician, and with Assistant General Manager Frank helping him, secretly replacing a batch of employees had been child's play. After Joseph gave the order to "detonate," Hart, the Security Bureau's chief person in charge in London, directly commanded the operation. From the explosion's design to the costumes, makeup, and lines, everything had been rehearsed over and over.
Until today, when Bolton-Watt Company's experimental workshop had been blown up before everyone's eyes. During the blast, Sander and the others had hidden behind a safety wall and had not been hurt at all. Their mangled, bloody appearances had all been makeup effects.
The reason for making things so complicated