As the sculpting knife slipped from the clay surface for the third time, Elvira noticed that the reflection of the blade was wrong. The cold blue luster unique to German steel was mixed with spider-web-like fluorescent patterns, as if someone had forged liquid moonlight into the metal.
"A romantic midnight courier." Max scratched the wolf claw wax on the card with his fingernail. "Next time I should give you a diamond-studded gas mask. It will suit your hard-working style."
Elvira raised the carving knife and pointed it at the ceiling light. The light spots reflected by the blade formed an incomplete constellation map on the ceiling. When she turned the handle of the knife, the light spots suddenly gathered into the shape of an upright wolf pupil, and the position of the iris reflected the studio's house number.
"What the hell." Max held his cane across his chest. "This thing has a built-in holographic projector?"
The first drop of liquid oozed out of the eye sockets of the wolf head sculpture at 2:19 a.m. When Elvira dipped a cotton swab to take a sample, she smelled a strong scent of cedar essential oil—exactly the same scent as the hooded man in her dream. The mucus solidified into pale golden crystals on the slide, revealing a nanoscale gear structure under the microscope.
"Holy tears shed from a medieval monastery?" Max raised an eyebrow at the test report, "Or a perverted way of expressing love by a tech geek."
The instruction manual in the interlayer of the courier box suddenly appeared. Under ultraviolet light, the German instruction manual turned into a bloody note: "Every tear is the key to memory - piercing the heart on the night of the lunar eclipse." The accompanying picture was an anatomical diagram, with the coordinates of Elvira's clavicle scar marked at the position of the heart.
The studio's smart air conditioner suddenly lost control, and the temperature plummeted to below zero. The white mist exhaled by Elvira condensed into frost on the surface of the sculpture, and the wolf's head wept three times faster. The mucus formed a stream on the ground, bypassing Max's leather shoes and flowing into the storage room, accumulating into a crescent-shaped puddle under the door.
"Stand back!" Max hooked the tip of his cane on Elvira's belt. The door of the storage room was corroded by mucus, leaving honeycomb-like holes. Through the holes, you can see the metal box buried in the wall - exactly the same as the culture chamber control system she had seen in the observatory.
When the alarm sounded, the mucus suddenly ignited. Twelve suspended fluorescent numbers emerged from the blue-green flames, which combined to form the hotline of Neumann Group headquarters. When Elvira poured water to put out the fire, the flames suddenly grew into a human figure, emitting an electronically synthesized roar: "Found... the angle of the moon phase..."
The surveillance video showed that the courier was wearing a full-face helmet and had a missing little finger on his left hand. When he left, he left a bloody fingerprint on the elevator mirror, which matched the bloody fingerprint in the sculpture classroom. Even more bizarre, the electronic signature on the courier slip changed over time and finally settled as "LN Rebirth Project Team."
Max found the micro-capsule when he disassembled the sculpting knife. After the laser cut the outer shell, a wolf tooth stained with motor oil rolled out, with Elvira's initials engraved on the root. Ultrasound scans showed that the pulp cavity contained a liquid memory chip, with the expiration date marked on the day of her car accident.
When Elvira pressed the wolf's fang into the sculpture's eye socket, the power supply of the entire studio suddenly went out. The moment the emergency light came on, she saw the mucus crystals spelling out the date three years ago on the wall: 11.05.2020. Max suddenly grabbed her wrist and pointed the tip of his cane at the surveillance camera in the corner of the ceiling - the camera that should have been turned off was now flashing a red light.
The sound of glass shattering came from the corridor. When they rushed out, they saw that the mirror of the fire hydrant had been painted with a bloody wolf head with mucus, and a screenshot of the ward surveillance was nailed below: Elvira's mother was sleeping, and a package of biological preparations from Neumann Group was hung on the infusion stand.