Chapter 7: Scar Tissue

The safe house bathroom mirror showed a face Jiang Se no longer recognized. Gauze strips crosshatched her features like a mummified doll. When she peeled back the bandages, the left socket had scabbed over—an ugly starfish-shaped wound from which thin red tendrils extended toward her hairline.

Lu Chen knocked with his boot. "You done playing Frankenstein? We've got a city to burn."

She emerged to find him dissecting a street map with combat knives. Pushpins marked locations that matched the scar under her breast—each a former Qin Shu clinic now disguised as flower shops or pet salons.

"Surgery's at noon." He tossed her a janitor's uniform. "You'll pose as a furnace cleaner."

The fabric stank of industrial detergent. "What happened to subtlety?"

"Subtlety got my sister killed." He strapped a bulletproof vest over his tailored shirt. "Today we're making fireworks."

Golden Blossom Flower Market, 11:58 AM

Jiang Se's mop bucket rattled with concealed explosives. The flower shop's back room buzzed with refrigerators preserving roses in shades nature never intended—black with gold veins, transparent like jellyfish, one variety that screamed when cut.

The manager intercepted her at the freezer. "New girl?"

His name tag read Dr. Kwon. Scalpel scars peeked above his collar.

"Temporary." She adjusted the eye patch. "Just cleaning the vents."

He sniffed her hair. "You smell like disappointment and sodium nitrate."

Jiang Se drove the mop handle into his gut. The plastic snapped, releasing hidden blades that carved through his abdomen like warm brie.

"And you smell dead." She stepped back as he folded.

Alarms shrieked. Lu Chen's voice crackled in her hidden earpiece. "They've got Mingyu's scent trackers. Move!"

She sprinted past disintegrating lilies. The freezers bled pink slush that burned through her boots. At the furnace room's rusted door, her stolen keycard sparked but refused entry.

"Hurry!" Lu Chen shouted.

Jiang Se pressed her palm to the scanner. The scar tissue glowed burgundy.

Click.

Qin Shu's Sanctum

The furnace was a lie. Behind its soot-stained exterior sprawled a laboratory where clones floated in honey-colored fluid. Not Jiang Ses this time—Lu Chens. Dozens of them, each with different modifications: gills, retractable claws, one with a second face growing from his shoulder.

"Touching." The real Lu Chen aimed his pistol at the tanks. "He really captured my good side."

Jiang Se found the control console. "We've got six minutes before the charges blow."

"Make it three." He nodded at the ceiling vents.

Black liquid oozed through the grates, forming into Mingyu's new body—taller, with Jiang Se's curves and Lu Chen's smirk.

"Family reunion!" She spread arms that dripped corrosive ooze. "Let's play hide and seek with your guts."

Lu Chen fired. The bullet passed through her head, splattering the clones.

"Persistent bastard." Mingyu's wound sealed instantly. "But I brought presents!"

The clone tanks cracked. Dozens of mutant Lu Chen's crawled forth, their movements synchronized like a spider's legs.

Jiang Se activated the furnace. "Get down!"

Flames roared through the chamber, incinerating clones. Mingyu laughed through melting lips. "You think fire scares me?"

"No." Jiang Se grabbed the real Lu Chen. "But this should."

She detonated the hidden charges.

Underground River, 2:14 PM

They surfaced in a drainage tunnel thick with mutant algae. Lu Chen spat out a glowing tadpole.

"Remind me to kill you later."

Jiang Se peeled leeches from her neck. "Where's Mingyu?"

A child's giggle answered. The current carried a severed hand that crawled toward them, fingers spelling M-O-M in sign language.

Lu Chen crushed it under a rock. "She's getting creative."

The scar under Jiang Se's breast pulsed. "Next lab's under the police station."

"Perfect." He checked his waterlogged pistol. "I'll arrest myself on the way."

Central Police HQ, 4:30 PM

Chief Inspector Ma's office smelled of peppermint and paranoia. Jiang Se watched through air vents as Lu Chen presented falsified evidence.

"—confirmed traces of methyl jasmonate at both crime scenes." He placed a perfume bottle on the desk. "Standard in Jiang's products."

The chief squinted. "You're saying the perfumer..."

"Is the bomber. Yes." Lu Chen's smile could frost hell. "I'll need full access to evidence lockup."

As they descended to the vaults, Jiang Se crawled through ductwork, her scar burning brighter with each lab proximity.

The evidence room contained a single item—Qin Shu's original corpse flower, preserved under glass.

"Jackpot." Lu Chen shattered the case.

The bloom emitted a wail that shattered light. Jiang Se's scar split open, revealing a USB port.

Mingyu materialized, now composed of police file confetti. "Did you miss me?"

Lu Chen shoved the corpse flower into her chest. "Like a toothache."

The explosion of light left them in darkness. When emergency power resumed, the flower and Mingyu were gone.

Jiang Se touched her exposed USB scar. "It's a key."

Lu Chen grinned. "Then let's go unlock hell."

Abandoned Hospital, 11:11 PM

The final lab's elevator descended for seventeen minutes. When the doors opened, Qin Shu waited with a tea set.

"Darling. You've grown new eyes."

He hadn't aged a day.