Liz smiled and shook her head. She held Hesta's hand, and then hugged her hard, and Hesta responded equally enthusiastically.
The guard looked at Liz's reaction - it seemed that the woman who came early in the morning was obviously not lying, and the lieutenant did know her.
So the guard breathed a sigh of relief and said to Liz, "Then, you two, talk slowly."
…
Soon, the guard left, and Liz watched his leaving figure disappear at the entrance of the corridor, and then turned back. Hesta was already sitting at her work station - she immediately saw the glass jar filled with wine-filled chocolates on the table, and was trying to open the lid at the moment.
Liz closed the door, turned around and punched Hesta hard on the shoulder.
"Since you can come here today, why did you lie to us before that you didn't have time?"
The chocolate that Hesta had just peeled off almost fell to the ground.
"I'm not lying. I was about to tell you that I can only stay here for more than an hour today. I will have to go to Wulian North Station soon, transfer to the train to Bolqiao, and then go to the Third District from there. On the southern border, I thought, since I can’t see Turan and Rico, I won’t say anything more, so as not to make them uncomfortable.”
Hesta answered, tossing up bean-sized pieces of chocolate and eating them one bite at a time.
These chocolates were the snacks that Miss Valenti always kept with her in the past. However, it was not until recently that Hesta tasted real wine-filled chocolate for the first time and was choked speechless by the rich and spicy wine-flavored sweet syrup. Only then did she realize that the "wine heart" contained in Miss Valenti's bag was just a figure of speech to coax children.
"Still have missions?"
"Well." Hesta chewed, "It's not convenient to chat here, let's go for a walk outside?"
"Okay," Liz said in a brisk voice, "You can go anywhere."
The two left the office and took a walk in the hazy drizzle. The rain and mist condensed into tiny water droplets, which stuck to their clothes and hair.
"What's the matter with you looking like this? What is Youleka, your code name?"
"No, I don't have a code name yet. Youleka is just a temporary pseudonym," Hesta answered one by one. "I already have more than a dozen such names, Rebecca, Jessica, Monica... one A mission, an identity.”
As he spoke, Hesta tugged at his "scalp" and said, "This is a wig, can't you tell?"
"Already... more than a dozen missions?" Liz felt incredible. "How come there are so many? You were clearly not on the base's graduation list last year... You should still be in reserve now. They can't treat you like this."
"No longer." Hesta shook his head, "After the 24 weeks of special training, the base felt that my ability was relatively special, so they directly transferred me to another job. However, my external status is still maintained as a reserve. I also You can’t tell anyone else in writing.”
Liz was suddenly silent for a moment, "Then what are you doing now, can I ask?"
"Yes. I confirmed the scope of our conversation to both the base and Miss Chiba before coming here, but you need to keep our conversation confidential."
"Okay, I understand, you continue talking." Liz said softly, "What does special mean?"
"Since I haven't awakened for the second time yet—"
"...What?" Liz was stunned again, "The time you and Turan were in danger before—"
"Yes, because I can only temporarily enter the bullet time state when facing chelates. The base feels that I am very suitable for luring the aberrants hiding in the wasteland."
Aberrations refer specifically to chelates that have undergone multiple mutations after the onset of the disease.
The occurrence rate of aberrations is extremely low, and they generally only appear in the tide of wasteland chelates that are completely out of control.
Compared with ordinary chelates, aberrations have stronger ability increases, longer lifespans, and are more likely to produce cooperative behaviors. There is even a small amount of evidence that ordinary chelates may show some compliance in the presence of aberrations.
After the chelate tide breaks out, it is always a headache for neighboring habitable areas to mark the aberrants among the scattered chelates and annihilate them as soon as possible.
At the beginning, the way people usually identify aberrants is to screen them step by step. First, they use dense incendiary bombs to kill the chelates in batches, and set up a burning zone in the isolation area. In this case, the chelates can still break through the encirclement. They are all regarded as aberrations and are annihilated by Mercury Needle's elite team.
This situation lasted until 4601. Someone discovered that the aberrations seemed to be very sensitive to the smell of some reserve mercury needles, especially those seedlings that had not yet awakened for the second time. The aberrations had an almost stubborn desire to hunt.
At this point, the Mercury Needles finally began a series of attempts to actively mark and trap "distortions". They asked the Mercury Needles, who are particularly good at running, to carry simulated pheromones and run wildly into no man's land in order to draw out the distortions. Once the distortions are marked, Or, mercury needles can solve the remaining chelate threats in a more efficient and safe way.
This method is called the "pheromone trapping and marking method", and its success rate is only about 30% to 45% - the aberrations are very sensitive to the relevant pheromones, and once they realize that the smell does not come from the real first awakening mercury Needle, will immediately give up the chase.
Liz's face almost turned pale: All action plans against the chelate tide, whether it is a salvage operation to find new mercury needles or a hunting operation to annihilate the enemy, must be carried out by a senior mercury with more than 5 years of combat experience. Needless to say, why would Ahgas allow a newcomer from Hesta to participate in such a highly dangerous mission as "baiting and killing aberrations"...
——No need to think about it, Chiba Masaki must be among the people who proposed this battle plan.
No wonder the base has completely hidden Hesta's whereabouts in recent years. No wonder her name and identity were fake when she appeared today...
There are of course some traditional reasons for confidentiality: for example, all non-mercury needles have the possibility of becoming chelates or even aberrants. In order to prevent ordinary people from knowing too many details of the battles of mercury needles after the disease, most of the details of the battles in mercury needles are kept secret. They will not be disclosed easily.
However, considering the task of marking the aberrants is extremely dangerous. If anyone with an intention learns that Ahgas has allowed young people like Hesta to directly participate, another public opinion storm will inevitably brew.
"Liz." Hesta suddenly called her.
"Um?"
"Have you been unhappy these past few years?"
Liz was puzzled, "...I'm very happy. Who told you that I wasn't happy?"
Hesta stretched out her finger and pressed it to Liz's frown.
"Now when your face is expressionless, your brows are also wrinkled here, which was not the case before."
Liz was startled for a moment - is there such a change? She didn't notice it herself. However, perhaps only friends like Hesta, who have not seen each other for several years, can be keenly aware of the differences in each other at the first moment of meeting.
Thinking of this, she chuckled and pushed Hesta's hand away.
With this brief glance, she saw a subtle color difference on the back of Hesta's right hand, like the marks left by exposure to the sun while wearing fingerless gloves.
"Have you just come back from the tropics?"
"Oh, no." Hesta followed Liz's gaze and looked at her right hand. "When I participated in the booby-trapping mission for the second time, the four fingers on my right hand were accidentally cut off by a chelate. Afterwards, I had surgery. It was not in time, so only the index finger was reattached, and the rest was installed by the base with a prosthetic limb - just like Turan's."
In front of Liz, Hesta clenched her fist and stretched it, repeatedly, with dexterous movements.
"As a result, the index finger is now not as flexible as the remaining fingers, and occasionally suffers from joint pain. I really shouldn't have put it back at that time."
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