Having nothing in common with his "crewmates," Luo Shu stayed silent, secretly texting the "borrowed" tank to divert toward the highway entrance—where his Transformer pickup awaited.
When the rogue tank veered onto the on-ramp, the company commander knew: This wasn't friendly.
After frantic radio calls, the 5th Armored Brigade commander gave the order:
"Open fire."
Higher-ups had made it clear: Luo Shu couldn't leave alive.
Thousands of migrants were dead. A few soldiers? Collateral damage.
Inside Luo Shu's tank, the commander barked:
"Jamie! Quit daydreaming—LOAD!"
Luo Shu hefted a 120mm shell—and nearly dropped it on his foot.
What kind of sadistic design is this?!
25 kg shells. Manual loading. In an era of autoloaders, only America clung to "reliable" human labor.
Somehow, he wrestled a shell into the breech.
The gunner groaned: "Jamie, you jacking off too much? That's HE! We need APFSDS for tanks!"
(High-Explosive vs. Armor-Piercing Fin-Stabilized Discarding Sabot—details mattered.)
Luckily, 12 other tanks had loaded correctly.
One salvo later, the "stolen" tank was scrap metal.
Luo Shu popped the hatch, scanning the highway—so close.
"Stopping to check the wreck!" he announced, hopping out.
By the time the crew realized "Jamie" had vanished inside the destroyed tank, Luo Shu was already sprinting to the highway.
Minutes later, they found the real Jamie back at the checkpoint, baffled.
Commander: "The hell, Jamie? You teleport back?"
Jamie: "I never left!"
Driver, shuddering: "Asian voodoo. Ghosts."
The Chase
Reunited with his Transformer pickup, Luo Shu hit the gas.
"Go! We're not safe yet!"
The border escape was just Phase One. Without a body, "God" would never believe he was dead.
And the "haunted tank" incident? A dead giveaway.
Forced to stay grounded (no flying inland), the pickup raced down Texas Highway 85 (136 km/h limit). Soon, they crossed into New Mexico.
600 km north to Colorado.
1,000 km total to the rendezvous with Marion Wheeler.
A thousand-mile gauntlet.
The Hunt Intensifies
20 mins post-escape: "God" confirmed the tank "haunting" was Luo Shu's work.
26 mins: An E-3 Sentry AWACS patrolled Texas skies, scanning for low-altitude GEVs (300 km detection range).
Luckily, the pickup stayed terrestrial.
31 mins: Military/civilian satellites began grid-searching Texas, New Mexico, Arizona.
500,000+ pickups found.
10,000+ Ford F-150s (the pickup's base model).
America's truck obsession became Luo Shu's camouflage.
53 mins: The 166th's mechanic tipped off the pickup's mods, narrowing targets to ~1,000.
107 mins: Satellite lock. An F-16 streaked overhead, launching an AGM-158 JASSM (Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile).
$2 million per missile.
Normally reserved for command centers, warships, ballistic missile sites—today, it hunted a $20,000 pickup.
The GPS-guided turbojet closed in—100 meters out.
Luo Shu flipped to Page 39:
Malice Perception.
The missile's kill intent screamed in his mind.