Chapter 717: Chapter 717: Countermeasures
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After obtaining intelligence on the enemy and receiving reinforcements led by one of the High Table’s Elders, the New York Continental did not immediately launch a purge of the underground sewer world.
The reason was simple.
Their only truly effective weapons against the enemy—the ultraviolet ammunition series—were in such short supply that they couldn’t even issue every operative a full magazine and a single grenade.
Their top priority, therefore, was stockpiling enough ammunition to prepare for what would essentially be a small-scale war.
After all, even if a large percentage of the sewer dwellers had simply become food for the Reapers, the number that had been transformed into Reapers would still be alarmingly high.
That didn’t mean the Continental spent those days sitting idle.
The limited supply of UV ammunition allowed a select group of elite operatives to venture into the underground on rotating reconnaissance missions.
By mapping out areas confirmed to be abandoned, they could save precious time once the main assault force eventually invaded the sewer network.
The Continental’s large-scale mobilization naturally wasn’t the only response.
The world above ground had begun reacting as well.
The media, however, remained completely silent.
There were still no reports about the underground world. No news outlet mentioned Reapers prowling the night, and not even the tabloids carried stories of monster sightings.
Still, from the occasional hints Gwen let slip, Henry knew the NYPD hadn’t remained inactive.
Chief George Stacy was busier than ever, of course, but the department’s biggest undertaking lately had been sealing entrances to the city’s sewer system.
Even if they couldn’t weld every manhole cover shut, they reinforced them as much as possible.
Large drainage tunnels were fitted with steel bars, heavy grates, and chain-link fencing.
Whether any of it could truly stop the Reapers was another matter.
At the very least, it gave people some peace of mind.
Henry himself had only visited the Continental once.
John Wick’s message had been intended more as an early warning for someone living in New York than as a request for significant assistance.
Yet between providing intelligence about the Reapers from the vampire hunters on the West Coast and creating a serum capable of treating Reaper virus infection almost immediately—even if the serum came with severe side effects—Henry’s contribution had been far greater than most people could imagine.
As a reward, Henry received a single Continental gold coin.
One shouldn’t assume the Continental was being stingy by giving him only one.
Within the Continental’s system, a single achievement by a single person generally earned no more than one coin, perhaps supplemented with ordinary cash compensation.
Personally, though, Henry felt the greatest reward was something else entirely.
The Continental hadn’t dragged him into all the trouble that followed.
Even though everyone knew Henry Brown was a bulletproof mutant, nobody tried to push him onto the front lines to clash head-on with the Reapers.
Or perhaps...
Henry Brown had already been categorized as support personnel.
In a world where practically everyone could handle firearms with deadly proficiency, throwing the one man capable of saving lives into the front line would simply be irresponsible toward everyone else.
Although the Continental hadn’t assigned him any missions, Henry certainly wasn’t sitting around at home waiting for others to solve the problem.
Given how quickly the Reaper virus evolved, it wouldn’t surprise him in the least if an even more terrifying strain appeared.
If things spiraled into a global catastrophe on the level of the T-virus outbreak, would he still be able to live peacefully?
Or was he supposed to go colonize Mars?
Besides...
According to Henry’s memories from before crossing over, assuming this world hadn’t diverged too much from the movie, the Reaper virus had originally been created by one of the vampire Elders.
Its creator sought nothing less than the next stage of vampire evolution.
Although the resulting creatures were generally mindless beasts, they had already overcome two of vampires’ inherent weaknesses:
Garlic.
Silver.
Only sunlight remained.
If that final weakness could also be eliminated while preserving normal intelligence, vampires would effectively become the perfect species.
...Which was probably why the vampires wanted Blade—the Daywalker—as their ally.
Or rather...
Why they intended to stab him in the back.
They were after the unique traits contained in Blade’s DNA, hoping to use them to further modify the vampire virus.
The affairs of the West Coast were beyond Henry’s reach.
Besides, Blade wasn’t the type who appreciated people meddling in his business.
Rather than issuing warnings about events that hadn’t happened yet—or prematurely exposing the vampire Elder’s plans—it was more practical to deal with New York’s problems first.
Henry simply passed along a warning to Whistler while operating as the Man in Black.
He wasn’t especially cryptic, but neither did he openly reveal the vampires’ true objective.
After all, the old "I have a friend..." approach worked wonders.
How much they chose to believe was out of Henry’s hands.
He still had no idea how the Reapers had made their way to New York.
But the fall of the underground sewer community was probably even worse than what had happened in Los Angeles.
No one could accurately estimate the unregistered population living below the city.
Even if only one-tenth had been transformed into Reapers while everyone else became food...
That still meant a time bomb of tens of thousands lurked beneath New York.
If those Reapers ever emerged one night and went on a rampage...
The Big Apple could become a post-apocalyptic wasteland before sunrise.
Looking back, impulsively buying property in New York a while ago because the price seemed like a bargain had been an absolutely terrible decision.
The aftermath of last year’s terrorist attacks still lingered.
Even if he were willing to sell at a loss now, he doubted anyone would actually buy it.
If he wanted to keep the majority of his savings from going down the drain, he’d have to quietly help solve the Reaper problem himself.
Before rescuing Skye from the sewers, Henry had accidentally forgotten about the three reconnaissance drones codenamed Sparrows, leaving them to wander the underground maze like headless flies.
Fortunately, before their batteries were completely depleted, the drones activated their emergency power protocol.
Instead of self-destructing, all three automatically returned to their designated rendezvous point.
Only then did Henry remember the poor little machines.
After replacing their batteries and downloading the collected data, he made an unexpected discovery.
His accidental oversight had allowed the three Sparrows to map most of New York’s underground sewer world.
Granted, it was only topographical data.
Judging from the surveyed areas, many sections weren’t part of New York City’s original sewer infrastructure at all.
They were enormous caverns excavated over time by the people living underground.
Now, with the goal of eliminating the Reapers, Henry sent the Sparrows back underground.
Besides completing the unexplored portions of the map, their primary mission was locating Reaper nests and estimating their actual numbers.
At the same time, Henry had to begin mass-producing ultraviolet radiation solution to fill ammunition of every size—from pistol rounds to miniature missile warheads.
Ever since massacring a horde of vampires beneath Los Angeles at the Temple of Eternal Night, the remaining stragglers had been left to the vampire hunters.
Neither the Man in Black nor Green Arrow Duck had intervened again.
As a result, the ammunition expended during that battle had never been replenished.
Moreover, UV rounds were the hardest of all specialty ammunition to preserve.
Over time, the radiation slowly dissipated.
The visible blue glow would gradually fade until it disappeared entirely.
Once that happened, the rounds became nothing more than ordinary hollow-point bullets, completely ineffective against vampires.
As for the other specialty ammunition...
Although it stored much longer, none of it worked against Reapers anymore.
In other words, the coming battle required manufacturing an entirely new stockpile of munitions from scratch.
Unfortunately, both the East Coast and West Coast had begun producing UV ammunition on a massive scale after learning about the Reapers.
The necessary raw materials had been almost completely bought out.
Anything still available cost several times its normal price.
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