mtl008 Chapter 4420 Dark Prelude (5)
Chapter 4420 Dark Prelude (5)
Chapter 4420 Dark Prelude (Part 5)
"Hello. I'm looking for Dr. Silas Stone. I'm his son."
Victor stood at the entrance of NASA's Metropolitan Aeronautics and Space Research Center. The security guard glanced at him and said, "Dr. Stone? He took the day off. Didn't he go home?"
Victor was slightly taken aback. Had his father just returned home, and he missed him? So he asked, "When did he leave?"
"He took leave last night and probably left this morning."
Victor frowned. If his father had left in the morning, he shouldn't have missed him when he returned before he even left the house.
Moreover, the very act of him taking leave was highly unusual. Victor had long known his father was a workaholic. He rarely came home, let alone for important matches, or even for holidays like Christmas when the family would gather. Why would he take leave now, when it wasn't a holiday?
Victor wanted to ask more questions, but he had a deep distrust of government agencies like NASA. He worried that asking too many questions would arouse their suspicion and delay his father's affairs. So he waved his hand and said, "I came from Gotham. I don't know if he's home yet. I'll go back and check."
After saying that, he left, found a secluded spot, and flew into the sky. He quickly returned home. He carefully checked the store and found no signs of tampering. Once inside, he connected the security cameras; his father had indeed not returned.
So Victor hacked into the security cameras at and around the research center. He discovered that his father had indeed driven away, but clearly not in the direction of home. What was he doing?
If it were work-related, he shouldn't need to ask for leave. Since he did ask for leave, it must be for personal matters. But his father basically doesn't have many friends, and because of the harassment he suffered at the hands of the military, he doesn't like socializing. He himself hasn't encountered any trouble recently. This sudden trip is really strange.
Victor thought for a moment, then followed the direction his father had disappeared, pulling up the surveillance footage along the way. The car drove to the outskirts of the metropolis, where there were few cameras. Victor had no choice but to hack into the dashcam footage. However, as the route became increasingly remote and there were far fewer cars on the road, it became impossible to pinpoint his exact route. But Victor soon discovered that his father had deliberately taken this route, seemingly to avoid being tracked down.
As his father's car disappeared from the view of the last car's dashcam, Victor completely lost track of his father's whereabouts. He became somewhat anxious. Even though his father was alone in the car, what if someone was remotely threatening him?
Victor thought for a moment, then took out his phone and called Bruce, saying, "Bruce, my father has disappeared. I wanted to go to the research center to ask him about the Mother Box, but I found out he's on leave..."
Victor told Bruce about his findings. Bruce said, "Don't worry. Since you didn't find any call records, it's unlikely he was coerced. I think it's more likely he just wanted to do something on short notice. But your concerns are valid; I'll help you look."
Victor waited anxiously at home for a while, but then he couldn't wait any longer and flew to Wayne Manor. Upon arriving at the Batcave, Bruce was reviewing the surveillance footage.
Clearly, Bruce's surveillance network was far more extensive and sophisticated than civilian networks. He also spotted Victor's father in other locations.
Connecting these punctuation marks creates a winding line on the map. This line doesn't lead directly to the destination, but rather takes many detours, though it generally points in a certain direction.
"Where...is this?" Bruce asked, pointing in that direction.
Victor was stunned in front of the screen. Many images flashed through his mind, but in the end he said, "...my mother's grave."
On the way to the cemetery, Victor was rather quiet. But after a while, he took the initiative to start talking and said, "He couldn't come back on the anniversary of my mother's death. But I know Mom wouldn't blame him. He always comforted me, saying that Dad was doing great things and there was no need to bother him with trivial things like birthdays."
“Perhaps he misses her.” Victor’s voice choked with emotion. “I miss her too. She would be so happy if she knew that Dad had broken free from the military’s control and was free to do what he wanted. He probably went to tell her that.”
Bruce didn't speak. The car arrived at the cemetery. It was a beautiful park located in the suburbs. To the left of the parking lot was a lake, and a river encircled the entire park. The cemetery was located in the very center of the park, with a small white chapel in the middle.
They crossed the river via the bridge and arrived at the cemetery. Victor kept wiping his face, his emotions running high. He walked to his mother's tombstone, knelt down on one knee, and gently stroked the name on it, tears streaming down his face.
"Why did this have to happen... Why will I never see her again..."
Bruce gently patted his shoulder. But just as he bent down, he paused. Victor noticed his unease and turned to look at him.
“Get up, Victor,” Bruce gently patted him, helping him to his feet. Victor wiped away his tears, stood up, and stepped aside. Bruce knelt down and gently stroked the base of the tombstone.
He looked at the damp dirt on his hands and said to Victor, "I know you may still not be able to accept the loss of your loved ones. I've lost my child too. I swear I have no intention of disrespecting the dead..."
“It’s alright, just tell me,” Victor said. “I can sense that something might have happened.”
Bruce lowered his eyes to the ground, and Victor followed his gaze. Bruce knelt down again, pressed his hands to the soil, and said, "Someone disturbed the grave."
"what?!"
“Someone dug this place up,” Bruce said. “There’s a lake nearby, so there’s plenty of groundwater, which means the soil at the bottom would be much wetter. The soil here is different from the surrounding graves; it must have just been dug out.”
Victor stared in shock, speechless for a moment. Whether Catholic or Protestant, desecrating a grave is an extremely blasphemous act, and even close relatives should not do such a thing.
But they had already discovered that Victor's father had come towards the cemetery, and that his mother's grave had been disturbed. This all pointed to a terrible possibility: his father might have dug up his mother's grave.
Almost instantly, Victor was blinded by rage. He roared, "How could he do this?! How dare he!!!"
“Calm down, Victor,” Bruce said, standing up. “Your father wouldn’t do this without a reason, after all, your mother has been dead for so long. If he really wanted to do something for her grave, he would have done it long ago, instead of waiting until today.”
“He was never free before! He couldn’t move freely at all while he was under military control…”
“Then you underestimate your father,” Bruce said. “Think about it, he can even use the Mother Box to resurrect you. He’s capable of more than you think. Something must have happened.”
Victor panicked and gasped for breath, trying to calm himself down. But the more he tried, the more he trembled.
Bruce pressed on his shoulder to help him catch his breath. Victor slowly crouched down and stayed on the ground for a while before he felt a little better.
He crouched down and dug into the soil with his hand, finding that Bruce had indeed said it. The soil was too wet and too loose, clearly indicating that it had been dug up. Without thinking twice, he started digging with his hands.
His mechanical arm was very strong and efficient at digging, and it didn't take long for him to see the coffin lid. He didn't even need to open the coffin; he already knew it was empty and his mother's remains were gone.
Victor slammed his fist on the ground in anger, utterly unable to comprehend why his father would do such a thing. Bruce pulled out his phone and said, "The most important thing right now is to find your father. Where do you think he'll go?"
Victor's mind went blank; he couldn't think of anything. After hesitating for a long time, he said, "The lab where he worked the longest before was STAR, but that's a pretty big lab with a lot of people. He probably won't go there. And sufficiently private labs are all under the control of the military..."
“I’ll say it again. Your father’s research capabilities are probably far beyond your imagination,” Bruce said. “Do you think he could possibly be in the Red Room?”
“The Red Room?! But that’s where the military stores artifacts left behind by extraterrestrial civilizations. How could it be… no, it’s also possible.” Victor took a deep breath and then said, “He also conducted research there for a long time, and, as you said, he has a deep understanding of the Mother Box. He was even able to fuse the Mother Box into my body right under the military’s nose. That was probably the laboratory he controlled the most.”
"So now the question is, where exactly is the Red Room? Do you know?"
Victor shook his head. He said, "I hadn't fully merged at that time, and that memory is very vague in my mind, so I can't pinpoint the exact location. I'll try to think about it."
“I’ll have someone look into it too,” Bruce said. “Ron served as an officer for a while, but I’m not sure if he was rank enough to access the Red Room. I’ll ask around, or maybe I’ll talk to Clark.”
Victor returned home heavy-hearted. He began to recall carefully. Of course, he didn't rely on his own memory, but he had previously discovered that the Mother Box also possessed memories. These memories were far more reliable than his own.
Victor calmed himself and tried to control the Mother Box to get some key clues. Several images actually appeared. Victor edited them with graphics software and sent them to Bruce.
Bruce quickly gave him an address, though it wasn't very precise. He said, "Based on the terrain you provided, it's roughly around here. You can go there and look for it carefully. If you encounter any problems, contact me immediately."
Victor took the address and immediately headed to Florida. The place was in the remote mountains. He searched extensively before finally finding a location that closely resembled his memory.
Before he could even find the entrance to the Red House, he spotted a familiar car in the woods, and a figure was walking towards it. It was his father, Silas Stone.