Chapter 902 — Another Tragedy

"Well, this time Dr. Ban Lin is going to be torn every which way—who on earth is out to get him?" Dong Jun said with a laugh. "It feels good, sitting behind the curtain like this!"

"Heh, enjoying yourself as the man behind the scenes?" Yang Ce thought back to his own earlier puzzlement over who the hidden boss might be, and felt that same maddening itch.

"Hey... don't rib me!" Dong Jun shook his head with a bitter smile. "You only went easy on me because you knew who I was—out of regard for our brotherhood, you didn't want to tear faces with me, and you gave me a chance to repent. Otherwise, how could I ever have been your match? All this time I thought I was the one moving the pieces on the board, but now I see you spinning Dr. Ban Lin in circles, and he still has no idea who his enemy is. Only then did I realize—if you'd ever wanted to come after me, I'd have had no room to fight back at all!"

"Heh. We can't keep him fooled forever, but we can fool him for a good while at least!" Yang Yan said. "For now, keeping him off balance a stretch at a time is enough!"

What Yang Ce did not say was that without the Right Elder's super-reworked Diamond Gu inheritance, dealing with an Iron Man like Krechler would truly not have been such an easy matter—at the very least, it would not have gone half so smoothly.

After a moment, Yang Ce located and confirmed Krechler II's position through his farsighted eyes, then raised the sniper rifle, took aim at Krechler II, and pulled the trigger!

In the distance, Krechler II's head burst apart. Yang Ce's marksmanship, paired with those farsighted eyes, was remarkably accurate—more accurate even than Dong Jun's. And so Krechler II met his tragedy just like that: before he had even come ashore, he was accounted for by Yang Ce's gun!

"Let's go, back we go." Yang Ce briskly disassembled the sniper rifle, packed it back into its case, stowed the case in his backpack, and said to Dong Jun.

"Right..." Dong Jun clicked his tongue. Dr. Ban Lin had run into an opponent like Yang Ce—truly helpless! This was ruthless beyond words!

Indeed. By now Dr. Ban Lin was about ready to explode with rage. From the monitors he had suddenly seen Krechler II shot through the head. But in the monitor footage no enemy was visible at all—clearly the enemy had fired from a distance with a sniper rifle, and his surveillance equipment could never cover such a range!

What Dr. Ban Lin could not work out, simply could not understand, was how the opponent knew Krechler II had left the center for the Las Vegas beach. And even granting that, how did he know Krechler II's weak point was his head?

This enemy was a little too uncanny, wasn't he? There was something almost occult about it—as if he could divine the future. Dr. Ban Lin was on the verge of tears. What on earth was going on?

Yes, he really was going mad. The enemy seemed able to read fortunes, or to know things before they happened!

An enemy was not frightening in itself; what was frightening was an enemy who anticipated everything, so that whatever Dr. Ban Lin did, he simply could not adapt.

At his wits' end, Dr. Ban Lin could only activate the automatic return function, turning the speedboat around before it ever reached the Las Vegas beach and sending it racing back to the central base on Firewolf Island. After all, he could not let the speedboat continue on to the Las Vegas beach—Dr. Ban Lin could not allow an Iron Man's corpse to fall into the hands of the local police.

Drawing a deep breath, Dr. Ban Lin understood the gravity of the situation. He had to take measures now. He had to find out exactly who his enemy was!

"Old Mule!" Dr. Ban Lin pressed the communicator and began calling for Old Mule, summoning him over in haste.

"Doctor, what is it? How are things progressing?" Old Mule asked cautiously as he stepped into Dr. Ban Lin's office.

"Dead. Another one dead!" Dr. Ban Lin said in utter despondency.

"What? Another one dead? What do you mean, Doctor? Didn't you personally remake a new Iron Man? Don't tell me he's dead too?" Old Mule asked, somewhat baffled.

"See for yourself." Dr. Ban Lin wasted no words, pulling up the surveillance footage and showing it to Old Mule.

When Old Mule saw Krechler II shot through the head with a single bullet, he could not help but start. "Doctor, you set the vital point on his head?"

"That's right. I thought the most dangerous place would be the safest—no one would ever guess an Iron Man's weak point was on his head. But who'd have thought the opponent could foresee it, and put a bullet straight through my man's skull!" Dr. Ban Lin said in anguish. "Old Mule, tell me, what am I to do? Who on earth is out to get me? This is too vicious!"

"This..." Old Mule was secretly alarmed as well. "Doctor, this opponent is no ordinary man. But he said before that he was the one who killed both Jetterson and Kevin. I think that's where we should start our investigation..."

"Oh?" Dr. Ban Lin paused, then nodded. "Right. We should investigate the causes of Jetterson's and Kevin's deaths. Old Mule, go arrange it—have our center's peripheral members in Europe focus on investigating Jetterson's death, and find members over in Las Vegas to look into Kevin's."

Dr. Ban Lin had investigated those two deaths before, but he had not clung to the matter. After all, things like the Iron Men were the center's secrets, and Dr. Ban Lin feared that digging too deep would rouse suspicion.

Kevin especially had shadowy ties to the Mystery Investigation Bureau, and word had come from that nail of theirs who had survived—it seemed Kevin's corpse had been taken away by the Mystery Investigation Bureau. So to avoid exposure, Dr. Ban Lin had suspended the investigation.

But now, in order to find this enemy of his, he had to reopen these matters. He absolutely had to get to the bottom of them!

"Yes, sir!" Old Mule acknowledged the order and said no more.

"Tell me, what should our next step be? The test drugs and reagents are all gone—things can't go on like this," Dr. Ban Lin said fretfully.

"Why don't we have our peripheral members buy these supplies and deliver them here?" Old Mule thought: since their own people could not go out without being killed the moment they set foot outside, why not have the outsiders bring things in?

"The peripheral members don't know the center's exact location, and there's no precedent for it. In the past it was always our own people from the center who went to purchase these things—some of the reagents are confidential, after all," Dr. Ban Lin said.