Hu Lei walked back to the desk with a casual gait and started rummaging the odds and ends on the surface and in the drawers. After a moment, she found a letter opener and picked it up. She tossed it in her hand as if weighing it.
She knew that she should probably start thinking of an escape route and even message Zhong Feng. She had picked up enough technical skills to send a signal of her location with the ŀȧptop on the desk.
However, at that moment, she only felt bloodlust. She wanted to destroy Harriet Brown and rid the world of the plague.
The thoughts in her mind seemed to give her golden eyes a red tinge. She seemed like a demon from hell.
Dr Brown watched her with overwhelming fear.
She had been around the block and knew that this situation could not be going in a good direction.
Involuntarily, the images of the young men who had faced her scalpel came to mind. She tried to push those thoughts from her mind, but they lingered like ghosts, and those ghosts were laughing at her as she experienced the fear they did.
It had always excited her when she carved those pretty men. Every time her scalpel sliced through their thin skins, she would yearn for more.
Their screams… They were like music. She would laugh wildly as they struggled hopelessly. Once they lost their will to fight, she would dispose of them.
Now, she felt that she might be the one suffering under the knife when she looked at Hu Lei.
However, she had never been at the receiving end of cruel acts, but she knew that it would be an excruciating experience.
She fought through the blinding pain which made her mind groggy and stood up. She only had to reach the door or even make a loud sound in the office, and someone might come to help her.
However, just as she stood to attempt an escape, Hu Lei was before her. She held her by the neck and drove the letter opener into her hand.
She wanted to scream even with her dislocated jaw and stuffed mouth. However, with the hand around her throat. She could only make garbled muffled sounds.
The demon smiled at Dr Brown.
"Do you wonder why I told you about the secrets of my body?" She smiled lightly as she unhanded the fragile neck.
"Because I know how much you are itching to get to your lab and get started with your little experiments. Your mind has probably formulated a complete action plan for your research. You would sell your soul to do it right now, wouldn't you?" Hu Lei said.
She had lived with a mad scientist and knew how they thought. It was pathological how people like Hu Ming and Harriet Brown obsessed over pushing the boundaries.
"I wanted you to get your hopes up. How else could I rob you of your momentary joy?" She laughed and pulled out the letter opener.
"Don't worry. I won't kill you." Hu Lei said. "Well, I probably won't kill you."
The fear in Dr Brown's eyes intensified.
"Don't look at me like that. Accidents happen even to the best of us." She ran the blade over Harriet's cheek. "But you should know that my heart is in the right place. I only intend to cripple your limbs and make it impossible for you to lay your hands on other people again."
Dr Brown immediately fought to stand up, but her legs had been injured when Hu Lei held her neck and pulled her roughly to the floor again.
"That got your attention, didn't it?" Hu Lei lifted her brow. "I know how people who love dissecting like their flexible, agile hands."
She pulled out the letter opener from the bleeding hand.
"Did you know anything can be a knife in the right hands? I met this guy who could slit a throat with paper. One minute you are playing poker, the next, bye-bye." She looked at the vintage opener with a smile.
"Of course, I do not have such talents. But I make up for it with my strength. I have to thank my father for designing me so perfectly."
"The only problem is most people will not hold still while you cut them. You know what I'm talking about, don't you, Dr Brown?"
The scientists in the Antarctica lab often cut into their subjects without providing anaesthesia in case they 'tainted the data'. She had seen the look in their eyes. It was the look of people who enjoyed torturing others.
After knowing so many monsters in life, she could smell them. She was one of them. But Dr Brown had the scent of a monster overlord.
Seeing that darkness in Hu Lei's eyes, Dr Brown shook her painful head, protesting.
Hu Lei acted like she did not see it. She put aside the letter opener. "The key is…" With unrushed movements, she disconnected Harriet's arm bones from the shoulder blade sockets.
At that moment, Dr Brown realised that she had never understood her prey at all. Usually, she would be over prepared and cautious. Otherwise, she would not have survived the harsh environments of illegal laboratories and a bureaucratic charity organisation.
Part of her carelessness came from the last report she had gotten from Helen before she had been captured. Her sister had said that she could not imagine the potential capabilities of Hu Lei and feared that it was only a matter of time before the monster broke free from the underground prison.
Harriet had laughed at the report because it made Hu Lei sound like a supernatural creature. Even when the capture mission she had posted had led to the loss of mercenaries, she had not imagined it had anything to do with Hu Lei. She thought it was all Zhong Feng.
Hu Lei did not care about her thoughts and continued without care after dislocating her shoulders.
"Most people do not realise that the human body is like a plastic doll. Just a couple of pieces held together like toys. But I'm sure you know that, Dr Brown. I bet you used to rip body parts from your sister's dolls as a child."
She picked the letter opener again. "I have wasted so much time talking. Let's get to work."
Outside the office, a few minutes later, Frank looked at his companion.
"Do you hear something?" He asked.
"What? I don't hear anything. The soundproofing for this office is pretty good." The man responded.
"Really? I swear I heard something."
"Wait, I hear it too. But I don't think that it is coming from the office."
While they were contemplating the sound, the emergency alarm blared.