Marvel Magic Case Files

Chapter 1288 "The Eraser" Jet Fighter (Second Update)

Layers of leaden-gray clouds trudged along the coastline. Due to the storm and flooding, much of the city's infrastructure had lost power. Under the cover of night, the moonlight was obscured by the clouds, and only scattered lights illuminated the city. The darkness resembled that of an industrially polluted city, where one could see the stars just by looking up. Aside from the occasional passing kayak engine, the most common sound was the suppressed sob. No one smiled; the pungent, earthy smell of floodwater made it hard to breathe.

Just like Hurricane Katrina, which made landfall in Florida in 2005, causing widespread damage to many cities in Florida without warning, this disaster caught everyone off guard. Even the state's air force bases and airports suffered severe damage, several military aircraft were struck by the hurricane, and several passenger planes crashed. The rescue teams that have been dispatched so far are completely unable to salvage the situation. Following the floods came various diseases, with hospitals far exceeding the capacity of medical staff. Combined with locals who had previously sought refuge in hospitals, almost all public facilities were overwhelmed in a short period of time.

Even though the weather service claimed the hurricane had dissipated inland and Florida was about to see sunshine again, the state government's state of emergency remained in effect for several days, and a state of anarchy began to spread. Gunfights occurred daily, and rational people struggled to maintain order while retrieving bodies from waist-deep, murky floodwaters to prevent the creation of more deaths.

Hunger, cold, disease—all were under Amon's watchful eye.

The Eraser jet fighter was a suborbital high-altitude fighter with a phenomenal payload and powerful firepower, capable of carrying out certain transport missions and possessing extremely strong stealth capabilities. The Imperial Guard waited approximately five minutes (including landing) before the gunship arrived at Oxfordshire Manor via suborbital travel (16 times the speed of sound). After another twenty minutes of suborbital travel and atmospheric reentry, it finally arrived on this land.

Like almost all Latvian flying vehicles, the Eraser was a vertical takeoff and landing aircraft. The jet fighter swept relatively slowly over the city, its blinding searchlights illuminating the yellowish-brown water rippling from its engines. The Guardian's modified eyesight keenly caught a glimpse, in the distant edge of the searchlight's glow, of a figure wrapped in a thermal blanket sitting on a gray-black rooftop, a clump of green vegetation barely rising from the water, and a wrecked car perched on the roof. In a mere instant, Amon discerned the person's race, approximate age, mental state, and physical condition; if he donned his helmet and accessed the Guardian's database, he would know everything about the man.

From family information to driver's license insurance, from call recordings to mortgage information, from website browsing history to Uber trips, and even location information and conversation logs could be obtained when smartphones were turned off. This information, obtained by Latvinia through technical means from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the CIA, provided significant assistance to the Secret Guard and even defense intelligence agencies.

The man stood up hopefully and waved the thermal blanket in his hand with all his might.

This operation wasn't a rescue; it could even be a killing spree, and Amon didn't know if this person would be implicated. He ordered the pilot to turn off the searchlights, reduce engine power, and increase altitude—not only to avoid giving the people below false hope, but also because they needed to enter the military base as inconspicuously as possible. At least, to avoid attracting the attention of the National Guard and Coast Guard, who were currently weaving through the patrol routes of their respective agencies. "Ms. Malik, I hope this operation goes smoothly," Amon said gravely to the other passenger who had squeezed into the plane. "I also hope your assessment of Ruby Hale isn't too far off."

“I can understand Ruby, because I was almost exactly like her in the past, both loyal to our family ideals. General Hale gave her a dream of becoming a powerful person, and my father gave me a dream of kneeling before the gods.” Stephanie Malik shook her head with a wry smile. Her voice, transmitted through the earpiece to Amon's communicator, sounded somewhat distorted for some reason. “But she’s already seen him once, and I’m sure she’s still reliving that encounter. Our narrow-minded pasts shattered the moment we met him, opening up new possibilities and incidentally giving our pride a pat on the back. He’s happy to do that. Now even the CIA and the Department of Homeland Security don’t know Stephanie Malik’s true identity, and I can still play the role of a politician’s daughter, with many people seeing me as the future Hilary Clinton. Sometimes I really don’t know if that’s a compliment or an insult, especially after looking at the Clinton family files.”

"I don't understand. I don't believe anyone would make a judgment that affects their own interests based on a promise that hasn't even been made yet. It's human nature to seek advantage and avoid harm, especially for a fully developed adolescent girl," Amon said truthfully. "I know that hormones can cause people to make irrational decisions, but Ruby should know the future she will face and what the consequences of her decisions might be. She couldn't possibly be unaware of this, and even the most impulsive person would calm down after considering the consequences."

"It's possible she doesn't want to realize it, or it's possible you overestimate humanity, or more likely you and your master are just as indifferent to humanity." Stephanie's voice was so soft it was almost inaudible, but the microphone still relayed her murmurs to the Royal Guard. "You can hardly imagine what it's like to be by his side all the time, after all, you're with him every moment, aren't you?"

Even though he was incredibly clueless about romance, Amon didn't dwell on the issue.

"I hope Mr. Gideon Malik has sufficient reason to take the soldiers from those military bases. Intelligence indicates that the soldiers there are almost all General Hale's cronies, radical Hydra loyalists whom Dr. Danny Whitehall trained at that facility, and all the soldiers are white," he said. "If we are forced to engage in combat with them, it means that our contact with Ruby has been exposed, and we will have to take her away. In that case, the outcome of the operation will not be in accordance with our Lord's expectations."

General Hale consistently believed her contact with the Kree was a cover, and that she was saving the planet. Unbeknownst to her, the psychic energy emitted by the rudimentary Kree machines she painstakingly built according to blueprints was always within the monitoring range of Kamar-Taj's planetary defense system. Each time General Hale communicated with the Kree through that machine, it was those psychic signals that allowed Kamar-Taj to track down the Kree outposts and hawkish soldiers that had been roaming the edge of the solar system.

Although it's impossible to send knights to the outpost to eliminate the Kree in the short term, the Kree soldiers there can be lured to Earth one by one and annihilated. In this plan, Ruby, the Aryan eugenics offspring born from General Hale's womb, is the best spy. This is a crucial operation, which is why Amon repeatedly confirmed the mission details. To conceal the striking effect of his golden armor, he even wore a dynamic thermal imaging camouflage cloak, large enough to completely envelop the entire Royal Guard.

“Trust the Malik family a little more, Amon.” Stephanie tapped the microphone. “You’ll be working with people outside the order quite often. The Royal Guard is already embedded in the military and political systems, and as a herald, you’ll be the Royal Guard member who works most with ordinary people. How does that role sound? At least it breaks free from the common prejudice that the Royal Guard are just war machines. Now, are you starting to look forward to the future?”

Please vote for me!

(End of this chapter)