Chapter 38 Chapter Thirty-eight

Lucas finally climbed to the thirty-fourth floor, holding the paper box tightly in his arms, panting.He felt exhausted, not because he had climbed too many stairs, but because he had done something illegal.Just now he was sitting behind the server, rummaging through Juliet's things, fearful, but at this moment, he still has lingering fear.He touched his chest, felt her things in his pocket, and felt his violent heartbeat. After a while, he finally regained his composure, so he reached out to push the door of the information area.At this moment, the door was suddenly pushed open, almost hitting his knuckles.The person who opened the door was Sammy, an old technician he knew.Sammy rushed out in a hurry, whizzing past him.Lucas called him, but the old technician was gone, sprinted up the stairs, and was gone in no time.

And the foyer inside was also a commotion, everyone yelling at each other.Lucas walked in cautiously, wondering what the hell they were arguing about.He pushed the door open with his elbow and got in through the crack, still holding the cardboard box tightly in his arms. Once inside, he found that the person who kept yelling seemed to be Bernard.The head of the information section stood outside the turnstile, cursing the technicians loudly, one by one.Lucas saw Sim standing not far away.He is the chief of security in the information area.At this moment, he was also pointing at the three men in gray clothes and yelling curses.Lucas was frightened by the two of them, and stood at the door not daring to move.

Then, seeing him standing at the door, Bernard suddenly stopped cursing, and immediately squeezed through the few technicians, walking quickly in front of him.The technicians were still shaking.Lucas was about to speak, but his chief didn't seem to notice, his eyes were fixed on the cardboard box in his hand. "This is it?" Bernard snatched the paper box. "this--?" "Is all that bitch's stuff in there?" Bernard suddenly lifted the lid of the box, "Is everything in there?" "Uh...that's what he gave me." Lucas stammered a little. "Mashu said—"

"Well, I know. The deputy security officer sent me an email saying that he had cramps. Damn, why didn't the 'Convention' stipulate that there should be an age limit for security work? Oh, yes, Sim!" Bernard turned Shouting to the captain of the guard, "Go to the conference room immediately, immediately." Lucas pointed to the turnstiles and the server room inside. "I guess I should go—" "Come with me." Bernard put his arms around Lucas's back and squeezed his shoulders, "I want you to participate in this matter too. These fucking shit technicians, these days, reliable technicians seem to be getting more and more Come less and less."

"Is this matter related to the server? Currently, the thirteenth server needs to—" "That's not urgent. This matter is more important." Bernard dragged him to the conference room, and the big Sim walked ahead of them. Sim walked to the door of the conference room and opened it to let them in.When Lucas passed by him, he suddenly frowned.The moment Lucas stepped through the door, he suddenly shivered.He felt the sweat on his chest, the heat in his armpits and neck, and his heart beat.He seemed to see himself being grabbed and thrown on the table, his hands and feet held down, the contents of his pockets were searched out, and he was shaken in front of him——

"Sit down." Bernard told him, then put the carton on the table, and began to check the contents of the carton with Sim.At this time, Lucas quickly sat down on the chair. "Voucher for vacation." Sim took out a stack of papers from the cardboard box.Lucas kept watching the bulging muscles in his arms, paying attention to his every little movement.Sim used to be a technician too, but as he grew stronger, he was clearly better suited for a less mentally demanding job.He sniffed the vacation vouchers, sneezed, and shrank back. "It smells like sweat," he said. "Is it fake?" Bernard asked.

Sim shook his head.Bernard is checking the small wooden box.He picked it up and shook it twice, then tapped it with his knuckles, hearing the coins rattle inside.Then he picked up the wooden box and looked it up, down, left, and right to see if there were any hinges or tenons. Lucas almost blurted out that there was a sliding lid on the box, and that the box was so delicately built that there were hardly any gaps, obviously a lot of work had gone into it.Bernard muttered a few words, then threw the box aside. "What exactly are we looking for?" Lucas asked.He approached the table, picked up the wooden box, pretending to see it for the first time, and was studying how to open it.

"Look for anything. As long as you find a fucking clue." Bernard roared, glaring at Lucas, "How on earth did that bitch climb over that dune? Did she invent something herself? Or What did our technicians do? What the hell?" Lucas still doesn't understand why he's so angry.Is it because she didn't clean the lens?In fact, it should not be that important whether the lens is washed or not. Anyway, it was just washed once two weeks ago, isn't it?Or was Bernard so angry because he couldn't figure out why she managed to stay outside for so long?Lucas felt that was more likely.Every time Bernard accidentally fixed something and didn't know how he fixed it, he would throw himself into a rage, as if he had broken something.He had seen Bernard lose his temper before, but this time it was different.He was so enraged that he was almost insane.Lucas could understand how he felt, because if he managed to accomplish something but couldn't figure out how he did it, he would be as mad as Bernard.

At this moment, Sim saw the notebook and began to pick it up and flip through it: "Hey, boss—" Bernard immediately grabbed the notebook in his hand and started to read it. "I need someone to read it carefully." He pushed the glasses on the bridge of his nose, "Maybe there are clues in it—" "Hey, look." Lucas raised the box and shouted, "Open." He pulled the slider open. "Let me see." Bernard threw the notes on the table and took the wooden box from his hand.He looked at it carefully, and suddenly frowned. "It's just a few tokens." He cursed.

He dumped the tokens in the wooden box onto the table, then lifted the wooden box to throw it aside, Sim immediately took it. "It's an antique," said the big man. "Is this a clue? Can I—" "Take it, whatever you want." Bernard waved his finger impatiently to the hall outside the window, "You seem to think that there is nothing important here except that box, don't you, pighead?" Sim shrugged, looking indifferent, and stuffed the wooden box into his pocket.Lucas wanted to get out of here, go anywhere, just don't stay here. "Maybe she just got lucky," Sim said.

Bernard poured out all the remaining contents in the box on the table, then picked it up and shook it vigorously a few times, and also poured out the manual at the bottom of the box.Lucas knew that the manual was stuck tight in the bottom of the box.Then, Bernard suddenly stopped moving, squinting at Sim. "Good luck?" Bernard said in a less than happy tone. Sim tilted his head. "Get out," Bernard told him. Sim nodded: "That's right, she's really lucky to get out of the bunker." "You made a mistake, I told you to get out!" Bernard pointed to the door, "Fuck out!" The captain of the guard smiled, as if thinking that was really funny.Still, he walked slowly to the door, walked out, and closed the door softly. "I'm surrounded by idiots." As soon as Sim walked out, Bernard immediately cursed. Lucas secretly hoped he wasn't beating around the bush. "Of course, not including you." Bernard seemed to guess what he was thinking, and immediately added another sentence. "thanks." "Hmph, at least you still have a way to fix the server. As for those other people, why should I pay them to do it?" He pushed the glasses on the bridge of his nose again, Lucas suddenly couldn't remember whether the person in charge of the information area used to swear like this.Maybe not.Is it because of being the head of the government, the pressure is too great?Lucas felt that something was wrong with him, and he suddenly felt that it was difficult for him to call Bernard as brother and brother.This person is getting higher and higher and busier.Maybe he took on too many extra responsibilities, and sent the good guy out to clean the lens, he couldn't bear the pressure, so he was about to collapse—— "I have never accepted apprentices, do you know why?" Bernard asked.He flipped through the manual, noticed the script on the reverse side, turned it over, and looked up at Lucas.Lucas spread his hands and shrugged. "Because it's hard for me to imagine anyone else capable of running this place." Lucas thought he was talking about the information area, not the bunker, because Bernard hadn't been chief for long. Bernard put down the script in his hand, turned his head to look out the window, and vaguely heard another dispute outside. "The problem is, I have to find an apprentice recently. I have lived to this age, just like your relatives and friends of your parents' generation, starting to get old and sick, and you are still young, and you won't know it yet encounter those problems." Then he turned to stare at Lucas.Only he and Bernard were left in the conference room, and the young technician suddenly felt very uncomfortable.He had never felt like this before. "A long time ago, the bunker was completely destroyed because of a person who was too proud." Bernard said to him, "Just because he didn't plan in advance, he thought he would live a long life. Just like that, one day this person suddenly left —” He raised his fingers and snapped them in mid-air. "--there is no leader in the group, and no one cares about things. After that, the bunker is over." Lucas couldn't wait to ask what his officer was talking about. "So, let's choose today." Bernard walked around the long conference table.The table was full of Juliet's things, the last vestiges of her life.Lucas kept his eyes on those things.He used to feel guilty for hiding Juliet's things, but when he saw them spoil her things like this, his guilt suddenly disappeared.Instead, he regretted that he didn't take more. "The people I need are people who have been in touch with the server before." Bernard said.Lucas turned his head and found that the short and fat person in charge of the information area was already standing next to him.He raised his hand to press the pocket on his chest, afraid that if the pocket was open, Bernard would see what was inside. "Sammy is a very good technician, I have a lot of trust in him, but unfortunately he is almost as old as me." "You're not that old." Lucas tried to be polite, and at the same time racked his brains to figure out what's going on now—— "There are very few people who can be regarded as my friends." Bernard said. "I am very honored--" "You can probably be regarded as the one who deserves to be my friend." "I think you too—" "I know your father. He's a good man." Lucas swallowed and nodded.He looked up at Bernard, and found that he was reaching out to him, and it seemed that he had been reaching out for a long time.He quickly reached out to shake his hand, but he was still confused, not knowing what his intention was. "Lucas, I must find an apprentice." Bernard said.Lucas shook his hand a few times, staring at his hand all the time, suddenly felt that his hand was so small. "I want you to be my apprentice."