"Boom!"
Dust surged into the air, and flames shot up toward the sky. Even from five or six kilometers away, the ground trembled faintly, as if a small earthquake had just occurred.
Through the BAU team's binoculars, the distant, solitary stone mountain appeared as though a volcano was erupting, or like a high-pressure cooker exploding after its valve was sealed.
Countless sparks and dust erupted from the mountain's interior. After a violent tremor, the mountain abruptly sank, losing a significant portion of its height.
As the dust gradually dispersed, the once rugged and towering peak was nowhere to be seen. The entire mountain had transformed, changing from a pointed, spire-like shape into a mound of rubble and sand.
By this time, eight days had passed since the massacre in Meihu Town. Five days ago, a nearly thousand-strong National Guard unit had been dispatched to the vicinity of the "Clark Test Site."
Under the direction of the half-dead Manard Andrews, the National Guard cordoned off the area surrounding the stone mountain near the "Clark Test Site."
This location was originally an abandoned gold mine, later repurposed as an underground armory filled with numerous tunnels and several interconnected underground warehouses. It had even been used in a secret nuclear test to evaluate the effects of a nuclear blast.
At some point, this abandoned armory was taken over by the ogres and became their lair.
After spending three days and losing dozens of soldiers, the National Guard gave up on clearing out the monsters. Instead, they planted several tons of explosives within the mountain.
Then, the FBI witnessed the scene that unfolded before them.
The news of the monster attack on the town was eventually suppressed. After the ogres that attacked the town were annihilated, Reid successfully contacted the outside world using a shortwave radio.
The Colorado State Emergency Response Center, which had previously cooperated with the team during the plane crash case, reacted swiftly. All the FBI-SWAT teams stationed in Denver boarded helicopters overnight and rushed to Meihu Town.
They first blocked the festival-goers by the lake, who, after dawn, had tried to return to town. Then, under the pretext of a terrorist attack, they sealed off the entire town.
Though some rumors still spread and some questioned why terrorists would target such an isolated and insignificant town, in the modern age, cutting off the internet in a place essentially turned it into an information black hole.
Jeremy's sabotage of local communications inadvertently worked in the FBI and the Colorado authorities' favor.
As long as they controlled the local network and kept nosy reporters away, whatever happened in this town was up to those who truly wielded power.
If schools and hospitals were blown up, the narrative could always be spun—"It wasn't the righteous victims of NC, but rather your own misfired rocket barrage, blah blah."
Of course, the attack on Meihu Town didn't require such extreme measures. A few weeks later, a well-funded oil and gas company from Texas made a strong entrance into the area, becoming the real explosive news.
Soon enough, no one paid attention to the small, low-casualty "terrorist" incident anymore.
That old nuclear bomb did end up having some effect after all. After half a century of settling, the oil and gas resources near the "Clark Test Site" could once again be extracted.
At least the radiation levels in the natural gas had dropped to a reassuring level. As Rossi put it, it was far more environmentally friendly than the wastewater being dumped into the ocean by a certain island nation.
Of course, what followed had nothing to do with Jack. This encounter with the ogres had cost him dearly—his Ford F150 was written off after barely finishing its break-in period.
And unlike his previous experience in New Mexico, there was no beautiful woman to embrace, no shiny gold to collect. Aside from giving Jiejie a firsthand experience of the adrenaline crash, he had gained absolutely nothing.
Not long after returning to Los Angeles, Jack attended a grand yet low-key wedding.
The grandeur came from the fact that nearly every major political figure in California and Greater Los Angeles attended.
The low-key aspect was that not a single TV or online media outlet reported on the wedding's details. It only occupied a small corner of the next day's Los Angeles Times.
The wedding was also unusual because it featured two brides in wedding dresses—but no groom.
Of course, this was the same-sex wedding of Zoe Anderson and Maureen Cahill.
The real groom spent the entire day busy in the kitchen, not daring to show his face. With two brides in wedding gowns stealing the spotlight, someone in the know was in a foul mood all day long.
It took Jack a full week to coax Hannah back to a good mood. And then, Hannah told Jiejie all about it.
Fortunately, the gentle Jiejie didn't give Jack too hard of a time. She was still a bit shaken from witnessing the effects of his adrenaline surge and didn't dare provoke him too much for the time being.
Thankfully, a new case soon arose, and it was confirmed to be a serial murder case. As the team shook off the psychological shadows from the ogre incident and entered the conference room, they were in fairly good spirits.
"Six victims, all killed in a series of home invasion murders. The crime scenes are scattered across central California, starting with Bakersfield, then Fresno, Chico, and finally Sacramento two days ago," Jiejie listed the victims' photos on the screen.
"California again? How many cases have we handled in California now?" Jack couldn't help but feel that Rossi's decision to base the BAU in Los Angeles had been a stroke of genius.
"Isn't the area a bit too large? Are we sure it's the same suspect?" Rossi, oblivious to Jack's internal commentary, was fully immersed in the case.
"Same DNA found in each victim's home," Jiejie nodded.
Hotchner added, "We didn't connect the cases earlier due to the jurisdictional overlap, and the DNA testing took too long."
"Sacramento PD has formed a multi-agency task force and wants us to lead the investigation," Hotchner continued.
Reid frowned as he scanned the long list of names in the files. "Isn't the team a bit large? I see at least 40 to 50 detectives listed."
Hotchner nodded in agreement. "I'll streamline the personnel as needed."
"You should know they've given the suspect a nickname—the 'Highway 99 Killer,'" Jiejie said with a bitter smile.
Everyone's expressions darkened, not out of superstition but because the act of naming serial killers triggered bad memories.
A certain fallen FBI agent had once made that very mistake.
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