The next day, when Russell went out, he wore a necklace around his neck—a black cord strung with a woman's ring.
It was the kind of suggestive signal that made people think he had a story, and a tragic one at that.
But Ashley did not see it that way. A girl immersed in love could repeatedly set new lows for her intelligence. She thought Russell would use the ring to propose to her. Secretly delighted yet too reserved to say anything, she merely played with the ring in her palm whenever she nestled against Russell's chest.
She played with it for an entire morning...
With a formidable enemy looming, Russell had no interest in flirting. He was not the kind of man who forgot how to walk at the sight of a woman. He sat and waited for Samantha's secondhand information.
By the afternoon, he had begun wandering around the entrances of several abandoned mines, trying to lure out a few starving Mutant Spiders with his living flesh.
Phoenix City Environmental Protection Agency Laboratory replied to Samantha. The Chemical Raw Material sample she had sent over was a prohibited item, primarily used in biomedical applications. The American government sold finished medical products overseas but prohibited the sale of raw materials. Annual production was strictly controlled, making it a monopolized resource.
Because of those restrictions, this type of Chemical Raw Material was extremely scarce. On the black market, it was worth as much as gold. The Phoenix City Environmental Protection Agency had already reported the matter, believing someone was secretly selling the product abroad.
Considering that Arizona bordered Mexico, the target market was obvious!
Besides pharmaceutical manufacturing, this Chemical Raw Material was also used in other biological research. It had a stimulating effect on insects and arthropods. Similar to growth