33. Hawk, the Hit-and-Run Thief

How fast can a building collapse? The answers vary.

But here, at the Quantico military base, the Gamma Research Building—already damaged from Bruce Banner’s infamous gamma explosion—could no longer withstand the sudden massive blast erupting from underground. It began to crumble.

In less than five seconds, the three-story Gamma Research Building was reduced to rubble.

Dust roared as it slammed against the surrounding corrugated iron sheets.

The iron sheets rattled loudly under the impact.

The emergency response team soldiers, who had just been preparing to storm in and eliminate the intruder, quickly retreated. They watched in silence as the building turned to ruins in the blink of an eye, then swallowed hard in unison.

There was no other explanation.

If they had entered just seconds earlier, they would have perished alongside the collapsing building.

After the shock and relief, the team members all fixed their gaze on their captain.

“Number One, what’s the plan now?”

“…How the hell should I know?”

After a brief silence, the captain muttered helplessly, “Stand down.”

The team was stunned.

“Ah!”

“What the hell, it’s already collapsed. What else can we do? Dig out the intruder’s corpse?”

The captain rolled his eyes.

He had expected a fierce battle.

But instead… it ended abruptly and anticlimactically.

At that moment, the lieutenant colonel who had just finished reporting to General Thaddeus Ross arrived in a jeep.

“Number Two, stand down.”

“Yes, sir!”

The emergency captain signaled his deputy and casually patted his assault rifle as he approached the lieutenant colonel.

Without waiting for a salute, the lieutenant colonel’s gaze fell on the dust-stirring ruins of the Gamma Research Building.

“What happened?”

The captain shook his head. “Honestly, not entirely clear. But I can confirm there was only one intruder.”

He then recounted what the fleeing lab personnel had reported and explained how the building collapsed just as he was about to lead his team inside.

Hearing there was only one intruder, the lieutenant colonel’s expression turned vacant.

“You’re sure, just one?”

“Yes.”

“Goddamn…”

The lieutenant colonel cursed under his breath, feeling the absurdity of it all. “Just one person? How dare he?”

Quantico had faced intrusions before.

But those overseas operatives always came in teams, and most never even got past the main gate before being subdued.

No one expected an individual to treat Quantico like a solo raid.

The lieutenant colonel couldn’t comprehend it.

The captain shrugged and glanced at the collapsed Gamma Building. He offered a possibility: “Maybe it was a suicide mission. The target was this building from the start, with no intention of coming back.”

The lieutenant colonel considered it, then nodded.

“That’s the only explanation.”

“Damn!”

“I even notified the general. If I’d known, I wouldn’t have bothered.”

The lieutenant colonel’s face darkened as he recalled the frantic call to General Ross on the way over.

Had he known the intruder was on a suicide run, he wouldn’t have called—at least not so urgently.

Now, he had to call again.

Sighing, he ordered his deputy to cancel the base-wide alert and took out his phone to report once more to General Thaddeus Ross.

The call connected quickly.

“Report!”

“General, the intruder is dead.”

“Dead?”

General Ross, urging his driver to rush to Quantico, was momentarily stunned again.

“What happened?”

“The intruder’s identity is unknown for now, but it was only one person. The Gamma Building collapsed, likely a suicide mission…”

“Boom!”

“Shit!”

As the lieutenant colonel was relaying the report, a deafening explosion erupted from the ruins of the Gamma Building.

The next instant, under the searchlights trained on the rubble, a silhouette suddenly burst forth, frozen in place after the blast.

The emergency captain standing nearby gasped in disbelief.

But he quickly regained his composure.

“Enemy attack!”

“Fire! Fire!”

“Rat-a-tat-tat, rat-a-tat-tat!”

Reacting first, the captain’s team snapped to attention, raising their weapons and firing at the shadowy figure emerging from the smoke amidst the ruins.

At the same time, the intrusion alarm, just moments ago lifted, blared again.

The piercing siren left the recently disbanded soldiers momentarily bewildered.

What’s going on?

Wasn’t the alarm just canceled? Why is it sounding again?

As they pondered whether the base control center had pressed the wrong button, the sudden gunfire made them realize one thing.

“Shit!”

“Another intrusion!”

“Quick! Quick!”

“Rat-a-tat-tat, rat-a-tat-tat!”

Hawk’s figure flickered swiftly over the Gamma Building’s ruins.

Beneath the debris, the last trace of his internal energy was drawn back into him.

Hawk glanced at the soldiers firing at him and the reinforcements rushing toward him.

Then at the rumbling tanks rolling in and the armed helicopters slowly lifting off with the whir of rotors.

Clearly, he had stirred up a hornet’s nest.

Still…

My job’s done. Now, to find a place to burn off this haul.

Hawk thought as the smoke around him began to dissipate. Raising an eyebrow, he turned away without hesitation.

At the moment he bent his knees, the rubble beneath his feet cracked again, and he shot upward like a cannonball.

The next second, tracked by the searchlights, he traced a graceful arc through the air and landed in the forest beyond the base.

All set.

The swift mission was complete. Time for the next step.

The wind howled fiercely!