At Mingfa City Plaza, a group in sharkskin armor examined the marks on the ground and quickly found the hastily buried bodies.

"Yuan Changjiang's unit. They're dead." The speaker wore a black eyepatch that gave his face a particular quality of menace. "Tire tracks head toward Taishan Town."

Someone crouching to examine the tracks looked up. "The track depth is substantial — axle spread close to five meters. This vehicle weighs at least a hundred tons. Heavy modified truck. Probably an Eastern Theater Command iron person."

"Eastern Theater Command iron person? What are they doing back here? Patched up and coming for revenge?"

"Doesn't matter why they came. They came — they're not leaving. Black Blood Group needs iron people to maintain equipment. Kill the jin people. Keep the iron person as labor."

"Boss, it's getting dark. Do we go check Taishan Town?"

"No." The eyepatch man's voice was flat. "Ghoul Babies come ashore at night in the river. Get tangled up with a Ghoul Baby and you won't know how to write the character for 'death.'"

"What if the iron person runs?"

"They can't run far. Every road out of the Heliuqu area has been cut except the two expressways back to Yizheng. A vehicle that size has no off-road capability. They either head into Heliuqu or come back through Taishan Town. Let the Ghoul Babies give them a proper welcome tonight." The eyepatch man waved his hand. "Tonight we go back to the Rat House station. Pedal through the tunnel to Yizheng, report to Group headquarters. Tomorrow we come back with more people and take the iron person and the vehicle together."

Seven rat-catchers mounted their stilts.

Two meters up was nothing to them — a single jump and they were elevated and moving. Within moments all seven were gliding through the ruins in sharkskin, the wide padded tips of the stilts silent against the rubble, moving like shadows.

Three minutes at that pace brought them to a particular section of ruins. They dismounted, shifted a massive stone slab, and revealed an opening below.

A tunnel.

A battered…