The walls surrounding the Ratway didn't just appear out of nowhere; they were the existing walls of the adjacent buildings, modified to create the tunnel.
A hole broken in the wall naturally connected to a room.
Milisen had been startled by the sudden appearance of the three men. Although her "Bat Backpack" had helped her repel the enemies, she didn't dare move forward. Just as she was about to turn back to find Joan, a pair of eyes flashed in a crack in the wall beneath her feet.
As if confirming something, the crack was pushed open to the side, revealing a child's head.
Milisen recognized this child. Not long ago, she had given him a few meat skewers, and he had snatched them away and run off without a word.
Although she had listened to Amir and let go of her resentment, the encounter had left a deep impression on her.
So seeing him here surprised Milisen greatly.
The child whispered to Milisen, "Quick, come in!"
Is he trying to help me?
Milisen hesitated for a moment but decided to crawl in.
Joan and she had been pursued relentlessly. If this hole was passable, they could evade the chase.
Crawling into the hole, Milisen found herself in a small room. It was dim but surprisingly tidy.
Seeing the dirty child about to close the stone slab, Milisen reached out to stop it, leaving a small gap.
"There's someone else outside!" Milisen explained.
The child nodded and didn't ask further questions. He just waited aside, watching Milisen peer through the crack to check the situation outside.
Finally, she saw Joan, followed by a brief scuffle, and then silence fell outside.
"This leads to the outside," the dirty child said to Joan after poking his head out.
Joan fell silent.
Milisen waved her hand anxiously. "Come on, Joan! We can get out."
"You hide here first, Milisen. Don't worry about me; I'll come back for you later." Joan refused the request, crouching down to block the hole.
Facing the dark wall, Milisen was puzzled. Why won't Joan come in? It's dangerous outside. What is she going to do?
"I want to go out too!" Milisen tried to open the hole to follow Joan, but the child blocked her.
"Do you want to go to the Dead Hand camp?" the child asked.
"Yes, I have to go. Thanks for your help!" Milisen tried to leave again, but the child blocked her once more.
"I can take you there!"
Milisen looked at the child in confusion. He was much smaller than her, his hair was messy, and his clothes were just as dirty, but his eyes were bright.
"Follow me." The child didn't explain further. Instead, he turned and walked toward another corner of the room.
Milisen hesitated for a moment, then followed.
She could sense that Joan had been distracted trying to protect her earlier. Without her, Joan might have already shaken off the pursuers and escaped.
Hiding here might actually be helping.
But she wasn't willing to just wait.
Amir, 32, and the others were all acting; she had to do something too.
"My name is Milisen. What's yours?" she asked, looking at the child who was propping up a ladder ahead.
The child thought for two seconds before replying, "Kexi."
"How do you know where the Dead Hand camp is?"
"I've been there."
Milisen wanted to ask more, but Kexi had already lowered the ladder and climbed up quickly. He opened another window on the roof, poked his head out to look around for a moment, then looked down and said to Milisen, "Come up."
. . .
Joan realized she had severely underestimated the Dead Hand's defenses. After leaving Milisen in a safe place, she burst out of the Ratway with force and climbed onto the roof.
Looking down, she could see over a dozen people within her line of sight alone who had heard the gunshots and were closing in on her.
If she and Valera had stuck to their original plan, their situation would have been even worse. Infiltrating undetected would have been extremely difficult, and it would have eventually turned into a firefight anyway.
However, now that someone was sharing the pressure, Joan didn't feel the danger was too great.
Against just these people, she was confident she could escape.
Soon, the Dead Hand members surrounding the area saw a young girl zip past over their heads. Following her movement, an alloy sphere dropped into their midst.
A few seconds later, a massive explosion erupted.
On a nearby roof, Joan looked back at the soaring flames and smiled.
"That packs quite a punch."
Amir had already left the room he was hiding in. The residents of this district didn't dare show their faces anymore. They were mostly hiding in their rooms or shrinking into basements if they had them, doing whatever they could to stay safe and survive.
Dead Hand was fierce and brutal to begin with. Only by paying enough protection money could one live in peace for a while. But if you accidentally provoked them, you'd be skinned regardless of whether you paid, and if you met a particularly nasty thug, you might be beaten to death on the spot.
Now that Dead Hand was clearly making a big move, no one dared to cause trouble. They could only hide indoors and hope not to get involved.
The room Amir had slipped into earlier had a basement where two people were hiding.
Without letting them discover him, Amir found an opportunity to leave.
He had learned the direction of the Dead Hand camp; now he just had to find a way to get there.
Ahead, a Rodian was approaching. A man stopped him in his tracks.
"We have intruders," the man said.
"I saw. There are bound to be plenty of people eyeing us today. We have to stop them, or Nuludin will settle the score with us later." The Rodian put a death stick in his mouth. Before he could light it, an explosion occurred in the distance, startling him so much he dropped the stick.
"What the—!?"
"Looks like it's not just some blind kids. That kind of explosive power isn't something ordinary people can get their hands on. I'll go take a look. You go report to the Boss immediately!" The man picked up his blaster rifle and ran toward the explosion.
The Rodian crouched down to pick up his death stick, dusted it off, and walked away quickly.
Hiding in a corner, Amir heard the entire conversation and released the spider droid from his wristguard.
Beep-bloop-bzz! BD-4 chirped from the eaves above Amir's head.
"You go too, BD-4. Follow that Rodian closely."
BD-4 nodded and disappeared over the roof.
His small size made him hard to spot.
Amir began to wait. Going out rashly was too risky. It was better to let the two droids check the situation. If following this Rodian led to Nuludin, the leader of Dead Hand, it would save a lot of trouble later.
. . .
32 was very clear about his role. Relying on his powerful chassis, he had to draw away a large number of enemies.
Leaping repeatedly across the rooftops, 32 used the auto-targeting guns on his back to clear all the lookouts.
Having done this, 32 estimated the number of pursuers behind him, then decisively dropped into an alley and activated the lightsaber in his hand.
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