Steel steam and flame

The corner of Seventh Avenue south of Manoma, next to the factory, used to be a quite prosperous place, but as time goes by, the focus of prosperity seems to be changing. In other words, the factory itself is a desolate scene, and the noisy casting sounds of the past have long since disappeared under this sky. The hard slate concrete road, even though there are no more vehicles traveling on it, has cracked over time and has long lost its intended function. Only the weeds that are becoming increasingly lush and green in the cracks can be seen becoming more and more intertwined. .

On both sides of the road, there are endless abandoned factories with no one in sight, the doors are closed, and the rusty iron chains are hung on them. The glass on the window is gone, the walls are covered with ivy, and all the paint on the iron shed has fallen off, and now it looks like a mess. The safety stairs and handrails on the side are also covered with red rust, leaving a lot of space on the iron stairs, only they are not completely surrounded by ivy.

The only time when there is a little bit of life here is in the early morning and when night falls. Those are people who work in other areas of Manoma. It may be only at these times that you can see the shadows of a few people on the road. These people, dragging their tired bodies, slowly return to their rooms step by step and cover their heads before falling asleep. People who go down.

The weather was not very good at the moment, thin clouds covered the sky, and the moon was looming, making what should have been a clear night a little gloomy. The lights on the roadside are also intermittent. Many broken high-pressure mercury lamps have not waited for the repair staff to replace them. They have been hung under the decayed and blackened lampshades for many years. The spiders that weave webs around them have been replaced several times. , but only they have been standing there silently.

Leaning on a barely clean stone fence, he looked at the desolate scene, the dim road, the intermittent flashing lights, the confused light and dark clumps of weeds under the lights, and his head peeking into the weeds from time to time. old bottle with rusty parts. The air was full of the smell of decay. I didn't know where it came from, and Kara's keen sense of smell couldn't find its source.

There was no one around, and it wasn't time to go home from get off work yet. And the people who live here don’t come back every day. This is just their relatively quiet and comfortable residence. Many times, they deal with their sleeping problems in the large shed provided by the factory. While you're young, you can still splurge on your body. When you earn enough money, you can take the freight train back to your small town and live in peace.

The end of the road disappeared into the obscure darkness in the distance. Until now, except for the steam locomotive that drove over from Punos a few days ago, the roar of a steam engine had not been heard here for a long time.

The scene in Kara's eyes was a still life painting for a long time, and nothing could break the tranquility. So there was no shadow she wanted to see that would suddenly enter her eyes the next moment. Things around you become more disciplined and behave as they should.

The time for counting silently in her mind was up. Kara looked at the end of the road again, and then listened to the situation in the corridor. There was nothing. It was exactly the same situation as the previous few days. It has been more than ten days since I returned to Manoma, and the goods in Nolida's hands were quickly exchanged for deposits in the golden bank in the dark world. The market value of a phosphorus tube is eight million holy coins, but in the dark world, as an extremely sought-after commodity, the price has increased a lot, reaching around nine million.

There were sixty of them, excluding the one extracted during the inspection of the goods, fifty-nine of them brought Kara more than 500 million in wealth. Divide this wealth into two equal parts and store it in two golden bank cards.

I thought that Cassia would come over within a few days after returning to Manoma. But now more than ten days have passed, and his heart transfer surgery has been completed. After David and the others visited Manoma for a few days, at Kara's suggestion, they went to other prosperous areas in advance to wait for Kara. . Manoma is very dangerous here, and besides, there is no need for them to stay here. If they want to see Cassia, the last person to say hello is always Kara herself.

But this trivial thing seems to be difficult, both for Cassia now and for Kara, who is sitting at the table looking at the sniper rifle in a daze. The unfounded feeling of worry and heart palpitations was increasing day by day somewhere in her body. Kara used her ferocious wolf-like sense of smell to sense the hidden dangers around her in advance. They were looking for their own position, surrounded by the Meredith family. It's moving closer to her little by little. Just like a fishing net, it may be folded suddenly at a certain period of time. At that time, it is impossible to escape.

He never thought that the Meredith family would let him go. As a person who forcibly separated from the family, and Kara's identity in the family before entering the military school. No matter how you think about it, it is impossible for the family to ignore your separation. Those at the top are often concerned about whether their faces are bright. Kara's behavior is undoubtedly the same as using a black pen to draw heavily on a piece of snow-white printing paper. Kara was one of the most powerful people in her group and stepped on many people's heads. If these things hadn't happened, the reaction within the family might have been smaller.

"People escape from time to time. The family must want to catch me at this time, and then give a warning to everyone who wants to escape." Carla lay on the table, resting her head on her hands, squinting at the snipers on the side. gun. From the first time she came into contact with firearms, she fell in love with them irresistibly. Because of the power, because when the bullet comes out of the chamber, it makes a completely different sound from other firearms. Finally, of course, we must not forget the long range that can give her more reaction time. Most of her friends from the same period left her side one after another as she continued to grow. Either he served in a certain department of the family, or he was sent to other areas in the empire, or he turned into a cold corpse. Whether it was someone else who killed it or she killed it herself. Nothing but a sniper rifle had ever stayed with her for so long. In the course of life, many things are hard-won.

After rubbing her hair, Kara felt a little hungry.

She stood up with a sigh, looked at the metal door that had been silent, and after thinking about it, Kara turned and walked towards the small kitchen, muttering to herself.

"Just wait a little longer."