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Although he had so doubts about riding a tal beast, Jack Reacher still swung himself onto it. The sound of police sirens was getting closer and closer—there wasn't much ti left to think.
Only after mounting did he realize sothing else:
How had this tal panther appeared in the first place? And how exactly was it supposed to leave?
When the creature showed up, he hadn't heard a single sound, nor noticed any warning signs. It was as if it had simply appeared out of nowhere.
Then ca a form of aerial maneuvering so absurd it nearly made him scream like a little girl.
The chanical beast took off from the alley in a running posture.
What had begun as a casual straddle instantly turned into a desperate cling. As the creature charged vertically up the side of a building, Reacher flattened himself against its back, feet locked onto footholds, hands gripping handles, securing himself as tightly as possible.
Since Henry had never tested what would happen to an unprotected ordinary human riding outside the armor under the full acceleration of the launch system, he didn't activate the near-teleportation movent mode. He didn't want to accidentally kill Reacher.
Even so, the Duck-Leopard Armor's gravity-launch movent system—flying through the air at speeds of two hundred kiloters per hour—was more than enough to make Reacher miserable.
Compared with an airplane, it was slower.
But airplanes moved at a steady speed.
Kitty's Duck-Leopard Armor, however, was not nearly so considerate.
Like any four-legged animal in motion, propulsion ca only when a foot pushed off the ground—or in this case, simulated push-off force from each limb. The four legs alternated constantly.
That ant each burst of acceleration was fastest at the instant of "push-off," then gradually slowed until another leg accelerated again.
Normal animals only seed to run smoothly because millions of years of evolution had perfectly matched stride length and step frequency into harmonious motion.
But Kitty, "running" through the air with the Duck-Leopard Armor, still used a tiger's natural stepping rhythm while her stride length had been dramatically increased.
That was what allowed a tiger—normally capable of short bursts around sixty-five kiloters per hour—to sustain two hundred kiloters per hour.
To Kitty, this wasn't even running.
It was just walking.
Scientifically speaking, the reason armored Kitty could move at such speeds despite a modest step frequency was because her stride length had beco absurdly large.
So while the average speed was two hundred kiloters per hour based on distance over ti, her instantaneous speed fluctuated wildly—speeding up and slowing down like a hopping rabbit.
Even if the rhythm was regular, it was not a pleasant ride.
Especially not for over an hour.
When the Duck-Leopard Armor finally landed, Reacher could barely stand after climbing off.
The fact that he didn't collapse to his knees and vomit like a civilian was already proof of exceptional toughness. It also required excellent physical conditioning to survive that ordeal.
The support drone Little Duck detached from its docking slot on the armor's back and activated its hovering system again.
Kitty imdiately entered the fitting corridor, where the armor could be removed.
After taking several deep breaths, Reacher grumbled, "I thought joining the Army ant I'd be rid of all that damn flying. That thing was supposed to be a panther, wasn't it? Since when do panthers fly?"
"Uh… I heard the Army uses helicopters to move troops too," Henry replied through Little Duck.
"That's why I was Military Police—not Rangers, and definitely not Delta."
Fair enough.
Henry suddenly understood why, after leaving the service and beginning his wandering life, this guy only traveled by bus.
Not only did bus tickets not require proper ID registration—
He also hated flying.
"Where is this place?" Reacher asked casually after finishing his complaints.
"I can only say this is my secret base. Please don't deliberately investigate where it is. And if you figure it out, don't say it aloud."
Henry paused.
"That would spare the dilemma of deciding whether I need to silence you."
The thought crossed Reacher's mind for only a second before he answered smoothly, "Understood."
He had no desire to argue with soone who controlled a flying tal panther.
At that mont, a small hatch beneath the container house opened.
Reacher expected a person.
Instead, a robot no higher than his calves rolled out carrying a tray.
Its body consisted of two stacked spheres, the lower one acting as a rolling base.
So "rolled out" was not sarcasm—it was literally what happened.
On the tray sat an unopened bottle of water, the kind sold in any supermarket.
Little Duck emitted an electronic voice.
"After one hour of high-speed travel while exposed to the air, you are experiencing at least mild dehydration. You may replenish fluids."
"Thanks."
Reacher took the bottle, twisted the cap open, and drained the entire six hundred milliliters in one go.
Though it looked rough and careless, he had already inspected it.
No puncture marks. No odd spray behavior when squeezed. The cap seal was intact.
That was why he trusted it enough to drink.
During this brief rest, he watched the tal chanical panther erge from the container passageway—
As an ordinary tiger.
A real tiger.
Apparently soone had a hobby of making a tiger disguise itself as a panther.
Reacher couldn't fully process that level of weirdness, so he simply chose silence.
Kitty paid no attention to the only human present or the floating drone.
She went straight to her usual sleeping spot and lay down.
Reacher hadn't forgotten—it was nightti now.
Though tigers could move at night, they weren't truly nocturnal animals. Once the hour ca, she got sleepy.
Henry naturally had no intention of making Reacher sleep outside in the wild.
Leaving aside the fact that there was a tiger nearby, the poor giant had just been thoroughly brutalized by vampires. He needed real rest, not a night under the open sky.
Near the container house door, the support drone used a multifunction chanical arm to unlock the crude padlock hanging there.
The shabby door opened.
Lights inside flicked on.
After many renovations, the secret base was no longer just the primitive chemistry lab it had once been.
It now served many more functions.
Little Duck spoke to Reacher standing outside.
"Big guy, co inside and rest. I believe you would rather not sleep in the wilderness beside a tiger."
Though everything around him felt unfamiliar and unsafe, Reacher had to admit—
A roof overhead was far better than sleeping outside.
At the very least, inside looked civilized.
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