Chapter 261: The Tethered Blade

The hum of the master transmitter pulsed through the black marble floor of the command suite, sending faint vibrations through Han Zheng’s combat boots.

Across the threshold, Su Yun stood motionless, her rifle aimed directly at Han Zheng’s chest. Her unblinking eyes reflected the warm glow of the displays, showing none of the sharp awareness that usually defined her.

"Attack," Commander Lu said calmly from his elevated dais, taking another sip from his glass.

The single word triggered the secondary transponder.

Her finger tightened around the trigger.

Han Zheng reacted instantly. Rather than drawing his weapon or striking Su Yun directly, he thrust his left palm forward, releasing a narrow burst of kinetic force aimed at her rifle’s receiver.

THUM-CRACK!

The pulse struck the weapon, tearing it from Su Yun’s grip and sending it spinning across the marble floor. It crashed against a server rack, its frame breaking apart on impact.

"Ah Hua, restrain her! Don’t injure her!" Han Zheng ordered, stepping forward with his hands open.

"Got it!"

Ah Hua lunged forward, extending his mechanical arm to catch both of Su Yun’s wrists.

But Su Yun was already moving.

Despite losing her rifle, her response was immediate. She moved with the precision of a trained operative, but without the judgment that usually guided her actions.

Instead of retreating from Ah Hua, she stepped into his guard and ducked beneath his mechanical arm. Her right hand flashed toward her waist, drawing a blade in a reverse grip.

She slashed upward, aiming for the hydraulic lines along Ah Hua’s elbow.

SPARK!

Ah Hua pulled his arm back just in time. The blade scraped across his shoulder plating, leaving a deep gouge and scattering sparks.

"Dammit, she’s completely wild!" Ah Hua shouted.

He shifted his weight, trying to catch her by the collar without knocking her into the marble floor. But Su Yun was already turning toward his exposed side.

"Watch her left!" Lin Qing warned, rushing in from the flank.

She raised her rifle, using its padded stock to block Su Yun’s next strike rather than firing.

"Su Yun! Wake up! It’s us!"

The rifle stock struck Su Yun’s wrist with a sharp CLANG.

Su Yun didn’t acknowledge her.

Her expression remained blank as she released the knife from her right hand, caught it with her left, and drove the blade toward Lin Qing’s ribs.

At that moment, Lin Qing’s rear boot caught a spent shell casing scattered near the doorway, causing her to slip backward several inches. The blade passed through the space where her body had been a moment earlier, missing her vest by a hair.

Lin Qing regained her balance, startled by how close the strike had come.

"Ah Hua, grab her legs! Lin Qing, secure her left arm!" Han Zheng commanded, moving between them.

The confrontation quickly became a struggle to restrain Su Yun without seriously hurting her.

Under normal circumstances, the three of them could have overwhelmed a single opponent in seconds. But Su Yun was their teammate, and none of them was willing to use the force they would have directed at an enemy.

Worse, she knew their fighting styles.

She anticipated Ah Hua’s attempts to grab her, avoided Lin Qing’s rifle stock, and countered Han Zheng’s movements.

Han Zheng stepped within her reach, intercepting a rapid series of palm strikes and knife thrusts. Each time their hands met, he released small pulses of kinetic energy to slow her movements without damaging her joints.

"She’s not feeling pain!" Han Zheng grunted as a powerful side kick struck his tactical vest, forcing him backward. "The transponder is overriding her body’s safety limits!"

Su Yun dropped low and swept her leg toward Ah Hua’s ankle.

He absorbed the strike, then used the opening to wrap his left arm around her waist, pinning her torso against his chest.

"I’ve got her!" Ah Hua shouted, tightening his hold. "Lin Qing, get the knife!"

Su Yun twisted violently inside his grip. Her elbow drove backward into his abdomen, forcing a gasp from his lungs despite his enhanced strength.

Before he could recover, she raised her free hand toward his throat.

Han Zheng caught her wrist.

Lin Qing rushed in from the opposite side, securing Su Yun’s other arm and wrenching the knife from her fingers.

CLATTER.

The blade fell onto the marble.

Together, the three forced Su Yun onto her knees. Ah Hua held her arms behind her back with his mechanical hand, carefully controlling the pressure, while Han Zheng placed a hand against the back of her neck to prevent her from thrashing.

Su Yun continued struggling for several seconds, but with her arms restrained and her balance controlled, she could no longer break free.

Then she went still.

Her breathing remained shallow and even. Her eyes stared at the floor, showing no sign that she understood what had happened.

Ah Hua exhaled, wiping sweat from his forehead with his sleeve.

"Jesus... holding her down without breaking a bone was harder than taking out those Hounds."

"Is she injured?" Lin Qing asked, kneeling beside Su Yun.

She checked her wrists for bruising, then examined her face.

"Su Yun? Can you hear me?"

There was no response.

Lin Qing gently touched her cheek, searching for even the smallest flicker of recognition.

Nothing.

Han Zheng kept his attention on the elevated dais.

"She can’t hear you, Lin Qing."

Lin Qing glanced toward the faint crimson glow beneath Su Yun’s skin. The light continued pulsing at regular intervals.

"Then we need to get that thing out of her," she said.

"Not here," Han Zheng replied. "We don’t know what Sterling connected it to. Removing it without understanding the mechanism could kill her."

Lin Qing pressed her lips together.

She hated leaving Su Yun like this, but she knew he was right. They had already seen what the transponder could do, and they had no way of knowing whether it contained another safeguard.

From the far end of the command suite came a slow, deliberate sound.

CLAP... CLAP... CLAP...

Commander Lu stood behind his obsidian desk, setting his glass onto a coaster. A smile spread across his face as he applauded.

"Fascinating," he said, chuckling. "Truly fascinating. I must commend you."

He looked down at Su Yun, still restrained between the three of them.

"Most people would have put a round through her shoulder the moment she raised that rifle. But you actually spent three minutes wrestling her into submission like a disobedient pet."

Ah Hua glared at him.

"Shut your mouth, Lu! Your guards are wiped out, Tier Three is compromised, and your little sleeper trick failed! You’ve got nowhere left to run!"

Commander Lu stopped clapping.

His smile remained.

"Failed?" he repeated, stepping around his desk.

He held the matte-black remote loosely in his right hand, turning it between his fingers.

"My dear, heavy-handed friend... do you honestly believe her node was designed merely to make her swing a knife?"

Han Zheng’s expression changed.

He had been watching Commander Lu’s hands since entering the room. The remote was still active, its red indicator blinking steadily.

"Ah Hua," he warned. "Get Su Yun away from—"

Commander Lu pressed a golden switch on the side of the remote.

BEEP-THUM.

A pulse passed through the master transmitter above the doorway.

There was no audible alarm. No flash of light or visible wave of energy.

Yet in the next instant, an overwhelming pressure descended upon Han Zheng, Lin Qing, and Ah Hua.

Han Zheng’s knees bent slightly as his muscles locked.

He tried to move his left hand, but his fingers wouldn’t respond.

The pressure wasn’t a conventional kinetic attack. It seemed to affect his entire body at once, interfering with both his nervous system and the flow of core energy through his channels.

He attempted to ignite his kinetic ability.

Nothing happened.

For the first time since entering the facility, Han Zheng found himself unable to summon even the smallest burst of power.

Beside him, Ah Hua let out a strained grunt.

His mechanical arm froze around Su Yun’s wrists. The servos in his shoulder whined as he tried to force the joints to move, but the control signals wouldn’t respond.

"What... did you... do?" Ah Hua managed through clenched teeth.

Lin Qing remained crouched beside Su Yun, her hands locked in place. She tried to turn her head toward Han Zheng, but even that small movement was impossible.

Her rifle was within reach.

She couldn’t lift a finger to grab it.

All three were trapped in their positions, conscious but unable to move.

Su Yun, however, was unaffected.

The moment the pulse activated, she stopped resisting. As Ah Hua’s mechanical grip lost its active tension, she slipped free and rose to her feet.

Lin Qing watched helplessly as Su Yun straightened her tactical vest, smoothing the fabric with slow, deliberate movements.

"Su Yun..." she tried to say.

The words barely left her throat.

Su Yun didn’t look back..She walked toward the elevated dais, her steps returning to the same unnatural rhythm they had followed in the corridor.

She climbed the marble stairs and stopped two feet behind Commander Lu’s right shoulder.

There, she stood at attention, her hands resting at her sides.

Like a loyal guard awaiting orders.

Commander Lu descended the steps, his polished shoes clicking against the marble as he approached the immobilized squad.

He stopped in front of Han Zheng.

For several seconds, he simply studied him, taking obvious pleasure in seeing the man who had fought his way through the facility now unable to move.

Han Zheng stared back, his anger plain despite his frozen expression.

Commander Lu reached into his uniform pocket and produced a white handkerchief. He wiped a speck of dust from his sleeve before dropping the cloth beside Han Zheng’s boot.

"You fought so hard to reach Tier Two," he said quietly. "You broke my containment wing, freed my test subjects, and marched straight into the heart of my facility."

He glanced toward the holographic displays showing the ongoing fighting below.

"Your little rebellion is causing quite a disturbance. I’ll give you that."

Ah Hua strained against the paralysis again, but his mechanical arm remained useless.

Commander Lu barely spared him a glance.

"But you made one rather unfortunate assumption," he continued, returning his attention to Han Zheng. "You believed every obstacle between you and this room was meant to keep you out."

He gestured toward Su Yun.

"Some of them were meant to bring you here."

Lin Qing felt a chill despite the pressure holding her body motionless.

Su Yun had been allowed to accompany them through the facility. The first neural pulse had exposed her vulnerability, and Ye Lin’s intervention had made them believe the danger was over.

Then the secondary protocol had activated at precisely the moment they reached Commander Lu’s door.

The entire sequence had led them here.

Commander Lu crouched slightly, bringing his face closer to Han Zheng’s.

"I really must thank you all," he whispered, his smile widening. "For hand-delivering my most prized experiment right back to my front door."