Farewell, Dr. Erskine

Following Howard into an underground warehouse, Han Lin saw a large number of energy weapons and an extra-long vintage car. Curious, he looked over Schmidt's ride.

After circling around it, Han Lin saw Dr. Zola, who looked like a big-headed doll and wore glasses, tightly bound to one of the tires by Howard. He was holding a piece of metal and sawing at the rope.

Han Lin gave Howard a strange look and asked, "Buddy, do you have some kind of special fetish? Did you specifically study bondage techniques? You're a lot like certain perverts from island nations."

Howard was completely baffled. He stared at Han Lin with a face full of question marks.

Without waiting for him to speak, Han Lin addressed Dr. Zola directly. "Arnim Zola, an exiled geneticist and the first human genetic engineer in history. After being recruited by Hydra, you devoted yourself to developing the Tesseract. Those energy weapons outside were your work, weren't they?"

The big-headed Zola looked at Han Lin gloomily. "I know you, Han Lin. Schmidt put you and Steve Rogers on his kill list. I never expected you to become this powerful. Haven't you seen what happened to Dr. Erskine?"

Han Lin cut the rope, hauled the short man up from the ground, and held him before his eyes. He said mockingly, "The powerful Red Skull Schmidt you imagined abandoned you and the entire base and ran away. He didn't even dare meet me, yet you think I should fear him? Did Schmidt's brutality scare you stupid?"

Dr. Zola said, as if trying to convince himself, "Hydra is the guidance of the gods. Schmidt will send all of you to hell."

Han Lin was so irritated that he laughed. Turning to Howard, he said, "Take him to Steve. We need someone specifically assigned to watch Dr. Zola. He's important to Schmidt, and having him in our hands will disrupt Schmidt's plans. Have Steve lock him up with Dr. Betthold Stenberg. Then we can take them back and hand them over to Colonel Phillips."

Han Lin looked at the extended vintage car. If his weapons storage had not been too small, he would have been quite interested in taking the huge thing with him.

Shaking his head in disappointment, Han Lin turned to the neatly arranged energy weapons. He was only interested in the two energy cannons at the back that had not been mounted on armored vehicles. The rest were not particularly useful. Their firing rate was slow, and they took too long to charge. At this point, the two M1911s were far deadlier in Han Lin's hands than these powerful but slow-firing energy guns.

He stored one of the energy cannons in his weapons storage, then picked up an energy cube glowing with an azure light.

"Ding. Detected spatial energy available for absorption. Absorption can restart the Blacklight System. Absorb?"

Han Lin, who had been planning to study the energy cube, froze at the sound. Looking at the cube in his hand, he chose to absorb it.

"Absorption complete. Trace amount of spatial energy absorbed. Blacklight System activation: 0.01%."

Hearing the system's message, Han Lin looked speechlessly at the fewer than one hundred energy cubes before him.

"So I need to absorb ten thousand energy cubes to activate the system. Even if I absorb all of these, it won't increase by even one percent."

Han Lin shook his head in disappointment and looked at Agent Carter, who had come down through the passage. "Send people to transport these out. Let the soldiers keep the ones they're carrying. Take the rest back and ask Colonel Phillips about them. Find a larger box to store those energy cubes together. Howard's primary research subject from now on will be these.

"Oh, right. Can I drive this car back? I think I really like it." By the end, Han Lin asked somewhat hesitantly.

Carter stared at Han Lin with her beautiful eyes wide open and pointed at the extra-long car. "You want it? What do you need such a huge car for? You couldn't even drive it in New York!"

Han Lin blushed as he looked at Carter. "Don't you think it would look especially cool to drive it around?"

"If you want it, then drive it back. We should be heading to New York after this. When the time comes, you can ask Colonel Phillips to arrange a route and take it back to New York." Agent Carter rolled her eyes prettily.

"That's great..." Han Lin was excited like an overgrown child. "Clean up the battlefield. We're fighting our way back. There are so many of us, so we need to prepare for enemy attacks on the road back."

After two days of fighting, Han Lin led more than four hundred Allied soldiers and over three hundred German prisoners back to Colonel Phillips's camp. Seeing Han Lin at the front, driving that extra-long car and leading the enormous procession back to the base, Colonel Phillips stood there in a daze.

"Did you go sightseeing behind enemy lines? Why did you bring such a big thing back?" As he spoke, he kicked the front of the car.

Han Lin smiled and saluted Colonel Phillips. "Captain Han Lin, the rescue mission behind enemy lines has been completed. During the mission, we discovered new rescue targets and rescued Arnim Zola,

Dr. Betthold Stenberg, two researchers. We freed 463 detained Allied personnel, captured 327 enemy soldiers, destroyed an important Hydra research base, and found a map showing the distribution of Hydra research bases at the enemy facility."

Phillips brought Steve, Carter, and Howard into his office. Looking delightedly at the two doctors Steve had brought over, he said,

"Tomorrow, you'll return to New York with me. The people above want to see you. This time, you may be promoted to field-grade officers. You completed this mission far better than I expected, so the higher-ups need Steve to make more public appearances."

Han Lin asked, somewhat confused, "You mean Steve and me together? They only built up Steve's image. Why add me this time?"

Colonel Phillips also said with some confusion, "The higher-ups didn't tell me the details. I only know they told me to bring you back! I originally tried to put them off by saying you were on a mission, but now that the mission has been completed perfectly, I believe the people above will learn about it soon. So I thought I'd just take you back to have a look.

"Besides, the doctor has made some progress, so they want us to go back and see."

When Han Lin heard that the doctor had made some research progress, he was delighted as well. The doctor's research could only involve Han Lin's blood or the Super Soldier Serum. Progress in either area would be of tremendous help to Han Lin.

He quickly nodded, then went to rest with Steve and the other two.

Early the next morning, Colonel Phillips arranged for a large transport plane to carry Han Lin's extra-long car, an energy tank, an energy cannon, and several energy weapons back. Howard piloted the plane.

Steve had looked confused ever since hearing the colonel mention the doctor the previous day, so Han Lin could only have Carter explain that Dr. Erskine was alive. She clearly explained the whole story from beginning to end, and Steve went from surprise to shock at Han Lin's abilities.

Thinking back to his first meeting with Han Lin, Steve asked, "Did you know I would become Captain America from the moment you first saw me?"

"Yes. I also knew that if I hadn't intervened, Congressman Brand would have taken you away to be a performing monkey selling war bonds. After all, you were already an unsung hero back then." Han Lin teased Steve.

Han Lin casually revealed the plan he had kept in his heart. "Then you must have known I wouldn't expose Dr. Erskine. Why didn't you tell me he wasn't dead?"

"I needed the enemy to know that Dr. Erskine was dead. And you, his finest creation, would display the power of his vengeance. If I had told you, with your personality, I think you would have suffered even greater losses on the battlefield.

"That's why I didn't tell you. Only then could Steve Rogers become that great Captain America. You're a good man who radiates kindness from the depths of his heart. A good man needs a bad man like me to protect him."

After hearing Han Lin's explanation, Steve became increasingly emotional. Dr. Erskine, the man who had given him a second life, was alive. With the tension he had been holding in finally released, the exhaustion from battle suddenly swept over him, and he fell asleep leaning against Agent Carter.

The plane arrived in New York at noon, and Phillips took everything to the U.S. military base.

Han Lin and the others were picked up by Howard's private car, but Han Lin drove his own car onto the road. After struggling through traffic for two hours, he finally arrived slowly at Howard's secret base, drawing countless stares along the way.

Han Lin cursed angrily, "Motherfucker, I'm never driving this thing out again..." Then he turned and gave Dr. Erskine a hug.