69novels Chapter 44 Cleanup Operation
Chapter 44 Cleanup Operation
"800 meters deep, three nautical miles southeast of the base." Acha's voice sounded somewhat distorted on the communication channel. "Lin Mo, that's an old-fashioned military-grade underwater listening device. It's a very old model, but the signal encryption method... is the remnant code of 'Phoenix.' It's collecting voiceprints, especially Suya's bioelectric current reactions."
Lin Mo didn't speak, but simply checked the wetsuit's seal with a blank expression. The titanium alloy shell gleamed coldly under the light, and the heavy oxygen tank on his back made his back slightly hunched, but the weight made him feel at ease—this was the weight of a hunter.
"Are you sure you want to go in person?" Acha hesitated. "I can try to interfere with it remotely using an electronic virus."
"No." Lin Mo's voice came through the throat microphone, deep and suppressed. "It's tempting us. This level of listening device must be connected to a deeper awakening program. Once you attack, Su Ya's nervous system will overload again."
He pulled down his mask, concealing his eyes, which had now turned completely dark gold.
"It must be physically destroyed."
"But Suya, she..."
"She's asleep," Lin Mo interrupted Acha. "I gave her a sedative. Before she wakes up, I'm going to wash all the filth out of this sea."
The icy seawater instantly engulfed Lin Mo.
The immense water pressure pressed in from all directions, causing a sharp, piercing pain in his eardrums. The world fell silent for a moment, broken only by the faint bubbling of the oxygen regulator and his own steady heartbeat.
Like a black ghost shark, he glided toward the red dot on the screen, aided by the faint blue light of the thrusters.
The deeper you go, the thinner the light becomes. Endless darkness surrounds you, with only the occasional deep-sea creature trailing a fluorescent tail as it flees in terror. The deathly silence is maddening, reminiscent of the sealed culture chamber in "Eden," and countless nights spent immersed in nutrient solution.
But he wasn't reminiscing.
He went there to kill someone.
The red dot was getting closer. It was a metal cylinder half-buried in the seabed sediment, its surface covered with biological deposits, but the core signal transmitter was still flashing red light regularly. It lay there quietly, like a time bomb buried next to a heart.
Lin Mo hovered above it, silently activating the high-pressure water jet in his hand, the blue ion light blade drawing a beautiful arc in the deep sea.
Just then, the blinking frequency of the listener suddenly changed.
It was no longer a regular "beep beep" sound, but a distorted and extremely piercing infrasound wave.
That was a communication frequency unique to the top management of "Phoenix".
Although he couldn't hear, Lin Mo could feel a sharp, piercing pain deep within his brain. It was the pain resonance of a "twin virus" host. People in the shadows were talking; they were mocking, provoking, and trying to reawaken Lin Mo's killing instinct through this signal.
"You want me to lose control?"
A cruel smile curled at the corners of Lin Mo's mouth beneath his mask.
He did not destroy it immediately.
He reached out his gloved hand and grabbed the listening device. The immense force ripped it from the seabed, severing the data cables buried deep underground in the process.
Immediately afterwards, he pulled out a high-frequency vibrating dagger from his waist.
Instead of rushing to sever its core, he, like a patient butcher, peeled away the outer shell of the metal device piece by piece in the silence of the deep sea.
The screws were unscrewed, the circuit board was cut, and the sensor was pried off.
He is showing the lurking observers in the shadows: your surveillance, your control, your seduction are utterly ineffective in the face of absolute power.
Until that red dot goes out completely, until all signal transmission is interrupted.
Lin Mo casually tossed the scrap metal in his hand into a nearby deep-sea crevice.
After doing all this, he did not return immediately.
He hovered in the void above the deep sea, slowly turning around. His dark golden eyes seemed to pierce through time and space, looking directly at the unknown terminal screen that was receiving signals.
He remained there for a full three seconds.
That was a silent declaration of war, and the most terrifying warning.
He then turned off the thruster lights and disappeared into the endless darkness, leaving only a string of rising bubbles as proof that he had been there.
When Lin Mo returned to the base deck, the sky was already beginning to lighten.
He took off his soaking wet diving suit and tossed it to the ground. The water seeping from the suit carried the chill of the deep sea and a faint, almost imperceptible, smell of blood—from an old wound that had reopened due to excessive exertion in the deep sea.
"The signal is gone." Acha's voice carried a sense of relief, as if she had just escaped death. "Lin Mo, what did you do? I just detected severe physical damage to that node, and..."
"I greeted them."
Lin Mo wiped his hands and walked to the bedside. Su Ya was still fast asleep, her breathing steady, her eyelashes fluttering slightly, as if she were having a dream that was no longer terrifying.
He gently took her hand.
The hand that had just destroyed the listening device in the deep sea, stained with blood, was now as gentle as a feather.
"Go to sleep."
He said in a low voice, his gaze fixed on the calm sea outside the window.
"I have sealed the mouth of the abyss."
"Next up is your throats."