As soon as Bruce walked out of the detention room, Reid came up to him and asked, "Hey, what were you guys doing at the end?"
"Why don't you guess?" Bruce blinked and smirked, but his heart was heavy.
Although he already knew that mutated humans existed in this world, he still felt a little surprised when a group of suspected mutated humans suddenly appeared in front of him.
Moreover, the strange thing was that this was a world where mutated humans did exist, but ordinary people seemed to be completely unaware of them. Unlike the X-Men that Bruce knew of, where the two sides were constantly at odds with each other, it was unknown if the characters in his memories, such as Professor X and Magneto, really existed. Bruce suddenly thought of Wanda … But was she the Scarlet Witch just because she had a special ability? He seemed to have taken it for granted before.
His mind was a little confused, so Bruce decided to put these questions aside. The most important thing now was what kind of special ability did this Unsub have? Flame or explosion? No, it wasn't an explosion. The first few cases didn't cause an explosion. It should be a flame, but why did they choose a gas station? Was it easy to cause huge damage? As long as there was an open flame, gasoline could easily be ignited. After burning the equipment, the gasoline would leak and mix with the air, easily causing an explosion.
"Forget it if you don't want to say." Reid snorted and continued, "A new gas station explosion happened in Maxim an hour ago. They're already on their way. Pack up, we're going there too. "
Bruce realized that his team members were gone, and only he and Reid were left. When he was putting away the documents in the office, he asked Reid, "By the way, where's Maxim?" They predicted the town where the Unsub would commit the next crime, but Maxim wasn't one of them. In fact, Bruce hadn't even heard of this place.
Reid was taking down the photos on the case board when he heard the question. He walked to the map, picked up a pen and pointed on the map. "Here, a small town."
Bruce walked over to take a look and frowned. "This place has deviated from Interstate 81. The Unsub changed direction?"
"Not necessarily. Perhaps this was his original intention." Reid used a pen to draw a line along Interstate 81 on the map, then paused somewhere to connect to Maxim. "I think he changed to Interstate 66. If he goes down this road, he can reach …" Maxim was on this road, and Reid drew Interstate 66.
The destination was Washington, DC.
"If that's the case, then he's really arrogant." All the way to the capital, the Unsub did not attempt to change its direction. However, the Unsub was only relying on his ability. If he needed any ignition device, there was no way that the roadblocks set up along the way and the towns along the way would not have detected it. However, changing from Interstate 81 to Interstate 66 would reduce their list of suspects by quite a bit. The three suspects with arson convictions that Garcia had originally listed had all been eliminated as suspects.
On the way to Maxim, Bruce and Reid were informed that there had been a breakthrough in the case. Their destination had become Centerville.
Mr. Lawrence, yes, Bruce's neighbor and the person in charge of the Tribute Club, contacted the team members through the case hotline on the news and told them that he had received a text message today. The message said, "You know my next target. You will regret rejecting me. I have proven my ability."
This reminded Lawrence of a person who had applied to join Tribute a few months ago but was rejected. He provided the name and the next target — Centerville. In 1983, Tribute was founded by Mr. Lawrence's father. It was also where Mr. Lawrence used to live. Centerville was also a town that Interstate 66 passed through.
"Being rejected by a literature club can cause such a huge rage? He blew up all the way from his hometown in Tennessee to destroy the place where the club was founded? "Reid, who was in the passenger seat, looked at the information on his phone with a puzzled expression. Unfortunately, Mr. Lawrence rejected their offer of protection. After the call, he went to attend an important consultation and could not be contacted now.
"Maybe the club's current location, Washington, DC." Bruce could roughly guess what was going on and scoffed at the literature club. Maybe Lawrence knew that this reason was too unreliable and did not contact them. But even if he was rejected by a club of mutants, it should not be like this. Forget it, he did not want to understand the psychology of a serial killer. Bruce shrugged. "We have to catch this guy before then."
It was already night when they arrived in Centerville. After a night's rest, the team members were assigned to the former Lawrence's house and several nearby gas stations the next day. Fortunately, Centerville was only a small town, and there were not many gas stations. There were only two gas stations close to the former Lawrence's house. Of course, these two were treated as key targets.
Bruce drove to the gas station, one of the two closest ones. Rossi was at the Lawrence's house, and Hotch was at the other gas station. Almost all of them were plainclothes police officers, and so were the service staff at the gas station. There were also police officers disguised as service staff at the entrance to stop cars, telling the vehicles that wanted to enter that one of the gas stations was broken. There were a lot of people in the line, and if it was not necessary, they advised the visitors to change to another gas station.
This was to avoid alerting the enemy and to make sure that the suspect would be discovered the moment he appeared at the gas station. Driving into the gas station for the third time, Bruce, who was standing next to the gas station and pretending to refuel, was bored as he listened to the report that there was no discovery. He looked at the busy scene around him and began to doubt the feasibility of this method. Wouldn't the unsub be suspicious if a gas station in a small town suddenly became so busy?
"Hello, Mr. Jones." A person walked over.
"Mr. Ramos? Why are you here? " Bruce was secretly vigilant. Although it seemed that he was just standing there casually, his body had been adjusted to the most suitable position for exerting force. In theory, Ramos was still in the police station when Mark's case happened, so he had a sufficient alibi. But how did this person come to this place? Bruce did not believe that it was just a coincidence.
"Don't worry, I got the news from Mr. Lawrence." Ramos seemed to know his doubts and spread his hands to show that he was harmless. "You know that I am a freelance journalist. If there is an exclusive report on this case, many media outlets are willing to pay a lot of money to buy it."
"You should know how dangerous this place is. Maybe there will be an explosion." Being a journalist was also a tough job.
"In fact, my ability is related to water." Ramos lowered his voice. "I can use the water vapor in the air. When I was injured last time, I was indeed very close to the explosion site. I condensed a layer of water on the surface of my body, effectively blocking most of the impact of the explosion and preventing myself from being burned. Unfortunately, I forgot my hair and clothes." He smiled. "I will be careful this time. By the way, your ability is ice? Do you need help if there is an explosion? "
… Were all mutants so friendly to talk about their abilities with almost strangers? Bruce was a little confused. Or was there some other purpose? He refused rather coldly. "No, thank you."
"Well, I don't know if you mind if I ask you some questions about this case? I believe that many media outlets are also interested in internal information. "
Bruce was just about to refuse when a car at the entrance of a gas station not far away suddenly caught fire and smoke rose. The nearby plainclothes police officers pulled out their guns and rushed in that direction.
"It seems that the murderer is here." Ramos was also excited and ran in that direction with the camera hanging on his chest.
Bruce was a little speechless and pulled him back. "Wait, can you lend me your card? It's the key ring with the Tribute logo on it. "
"Okay, it would be better if you have some internal information." The key ring was thrown, and Bruce caught it.
Bruce soon arrived and found that the police officers were surrounding a car with guns. It was a shabby-looking gray sedan. The door on the driver's side was open, and a person was leaning against the door.
It was the suspect that Lawrence had given. The suspect's information was already known to the police officers. This person didn't wear any disguise, so it was no wonder that the plainclothes police officers at the entrance recognized him.
"Back off, back off, at least fifty feet away. You know, as long as I gently press this button, we'll all be blown to pieces." The suspect was holding something like a remote control in his hand. Suddenly being pointed at by so many guns, he looked a little flustered.
"Do as he says." The local sheriff, who was also present, signaled the officers to back off.
Bruce came to the sheriff and said, "I'll talk to him." Then he walked forward.
"Stop, who are you?" The suspect gripped the remote control and gestured.
"Don't be nervous." Bruce walked to about ten feet away from the suspect and opened his hands to show that he didn't have a weapon. The key ring was in his hand, and he waved it at the suspect. "We all know that it's useless." Bruce was referring to the remote control.
The suspect had a complicated expression, and his voice was louder with hysteria. "You were sent by them? Are you regretting rejecting my offer? I've proven my ability. I'm not weak and useless. I'm so good … "
Bruce didn't quite understand who they were, but from the suspect's words, it seemed that joining the club required a test of strength. He didn't answer the suspect and only said, "Let me tell you something. The valve of the fuel pipe in the gas station has been closed, and there's only a small amount of gas in the tank. Even if you ignite it, it won't cause much damage."
The suspect had a strange smile and lowered his voice. "You don't seem to understand my ability. Even if the gas station is out of gas, there are so many cars nearby. As long as I want to, I can light a fire in the gas tank of each car. Tell me that you regret agreeing to let me join. "
Bruce closed his eyes slightly. He didn't know anything about this organization. If the suspect could really light up the gas tanks of the nearby cars as he said, most of the people here would be in trouble.
Did he care about these people? In his heart, he didn't have any feelings for these people. However, he shouldn't have put these people in such danger. Right and wrong wouldn't condemn him at all, but he knew right and wrong. Of course, he could do nothing and turn a blind eye to the danger these people were in, but since he wanted to make a change, then …
"God gave you such an ability, and you used it to be a human lighter?" Bruce said softly. Without waiting for the suspect to answer, he let out a sigh as if he had made a decision. "You don't understand my ability either." The voice was soft but firm.
Bruce opened his eyes and looked up at the sky.
In the scorching August, snowflakes gradually floated in the sky. At first, there were only a few scattered pieces, but they gradually became bigger. Soon, the sky was filled with snow. The snow quickly covered the ground, but it didn't show any signs of melting. It repeatedly condensed into ice crystals that reflected the sun's rays. Soon, the gas station and the nearby cars were covered by a thin layer of ice.
"Do you want to try? Even if you light a fire, it's impossible for the gas to reach the ignition point." Bruce's face was expressionless, but his tone was mocking.
"Changing the weather on a large scale?" The suspect had an expression that looked like he was crying and laughing at the same time. "If I had such a powerful ability, how could I … Forget it, no wonder they sent you. It's my honor to be stopped by someone like you." After saying that, the suspect pulled out a gun and shot himself in the head.
Bruce looked on indifferently and had no intention of stopping him. A police officer came up to check the suspect's pulse and shook his head.
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