Chapter 69 - David (1/2)
David
C city, T country
Gua Two carefully examined the corpse. He pulled out a knife and gave the bushy beard a rough shave, then scrutinized the dead man’s face. “It really isn’t Meng La,” he determined in the end, his expression turning ugly. “Although his facial features are similar, his physical condition is too poor. Moreover, unlike Meng La, his dark skin isn’t natural but has been artificially tanned over a short period of time.”
Gua One finished dealing with the aftermath of the battle and came over. Noticing that the two’s expressions weren’t right, he frowned. “What’s the matter?”
Gua Two told him.
Gua One’s face contorted to match, but he reassured them by saying, “We managed to save all of the hostages. It’s a shame we didn’t get Meng La, but he wasn’t the main target of this operation, so let’s not get distracted.”
His voice had barely died away before Old Ghost cried out in panic.
It attracted everyone’s attention and they rushed over to him.
“What’s going on?” Gua One asked as soon as he got close.
Old Ghost was supporting one of his subordinates on the floor. “They all got dizzy and nauseous out of nowhere. Something’s wrong!” he cried.
“Boss, I feel sick…” the man he was holding up said with difficulty, then turned his head to the side and vomited, his face looking worse by the second.
Gua Two glanced around at the rescued members of Phantom, taking note of their symptoms. Suddenly, he thought of something, and his expression changed. Turning to Lian Jun, he began, “Jun-shao, could they be…”
“They were given Long Shi’s poison,” Lian Jun’s tone was certain, his face sinking. “As expected, Meng La would never be so kind as to just give away his bargaining chips to Zuo Yang. Stop standing around, get ready to leave. Contact our nearest branch, tell them we’re going to send people to their hospital.”
After a moment of shock, everyone hurried off to fulfill his orders. Old Ghost arranged for his subordinates to be moved to his car. He was anxious and worried, on the verge of an emotional breakdown.
With help, he managed to save his people, he’d clearly saved them, so what was happening now? How could they be poisoned? Long Shi was in Zuo Yang’s hands now—were they back at the beginning again? Could he…
Lian Jun noticed his agitation. “Don’t worry—we collected a large amount of research data when we found Hydra’s secret lab, and that includes Long Shi’s notes as well. It’s only a matter of time until an antidote is made. We don’t need Long Shi at all,” he appeased.
Old Ghost calmed down a little. Giving him a grateful look, he said, “Truly, thank you. I’ll never forget all the help you’ve given me, and Old Ghost always repays his debts.”
Lian Jun didn’t respond, only urged his subordinates to hurry up once more. As soon as everyone got in the cars, he ordered the team to split up—Gua Five would escort Old Ghost and his people to the hospital by a more concealed, alternate route, and the rest of the troops would follow Lian Jun on the main route.
“Jun-shao?” Gua Five frowned, unwilling to separate from the main team.
“Do as I said. Meng La must’ve known this was a trap and stayed hidden in the dark, and now Zuo Yang also knows that he’s been tricked. They will both mobilize forces to kill me in order to stabilize the situation, and a fierce battle is unavoidable. Old Ghost’s people can’t afford to wait for medical help, but it would be inconvenient to take them with us,” Lian Jun explained.
Still reluctant, Gua Five acknowledged the order. Fists clenched, he said he would keep in contact with Gua One, and exited the car.
All preparations finished, Lian Jun took a last glance at the mess in front of the hospital entrance and ordered everyone to leave.
It was only after they’d set off that Old Ghost came to know about Lian Jun’s arrangements from Gua Five. Understanding that Lian Jun was covering his retreat, he glanced at his subordinates in the back of the van, who had already fallen into a coma, and scrubbed his hands over his face.
The motorcade quickly reached the main road. Then, as it passed through a complicated intersection, several of the vehicles discreetly broke off and mixed into the flow of traffic, turned onto another road out of the city, and disappeared.
After confirming that Gua Five had safely entered the alternate evacuation route, Lian Jun put down his phone and instructed, “Turn around, regroup, and split into two teams. One team is to attack Gunfire’s city headquarters, the other Nine Eagles’. You don’t need to wipe them out, just keep them occupied enough that they won’t have strength to spare to track down Old Ghost.”
Gua One and Gua Two both looked at him in surprise. Gua Two asked, “Aren’t we withdrawing?”
“The best way to withdraw is to attack,” Lian Jun replied, then clarified, “We need to buy Old Ghost time. Besides, though Meng La didn’t come to the hospital, he’s probably in C city, just in case the deal wasn’t a trap. Let’s try to flush him out.”
Gua One and Gua Two looked at each other, eyes lit with fighting spirit. They acknowledged the order and started to divide the troops.
L country’s capital, the private hospital
Shi Jin forced everyone to have a leisurely breakfast together. He seemed to be relaxed, but in fact, his nerves were pulled so tense they were about to snap.
Anxious, Xiao Si warned, <Your progress bar is going up fast, it’s already reached 700.>
“Someone is targeting me—eight out of ten, Gunfire. Zuo Yang fell for Lian Jun’s bait and wouldn’t risk attacking me again.” Shi Jin stuffed an egg in his mouth, pretending not to see Fei Yujing and the officials’ impatience. After swallowing, he looked at one of the officials and threw out a casual question. “Oh, right, did L country’s authorities send news? Have any suspicious people or vehicles entered the capital these past few days?”
“No, everything is as usual,” the man answered, his attitude stiff.
“I see.” Shi Jin cut another egg into pieces. He turned to Gua Nine. “How are things in the hospital? Were there any personnel changes?”
Gua Nine thought Shi Jin had gathered them because there was no news from Lian Jun and he wanted a distraction, that he was asking random questions because he was nervous. “No, there are only our own people in the hospital, you can rest assured.”
“Yeah, then I don’t have to worry. Come on, let’s eat fast, cold food doesn’t taste as good. Lawyer Fei, you should drink less coffee, you’ll hurt your stomach,” Shi Jin changed the topic again. He took a glance at the non-stop rise of his progress bar, pondering how to keep everyone together and stop them from leaving when breakfast was over.
Gua One and Gua Two had outstanding abilities. After Lian Jun gave the order to attack, they took only a few minutes to make arrangements and gather their men, then they rushed straight to Gunfire and Nine Eagles’ bases in C city.
The enemies hadn’t expected Lian Jun to attack instead of retreat, and both organizations had been caught by surprise. Annihilation broke through their defenses in short order, forcing them to order a hasty recall of all the people they sent out.
Lian Jun followed after Gua One’s team, who were assigned to take care of Gunfire’s base. However, as he watched Gua One enter it so easily, his expression not only didn’t relax but turned more and more somber.
Such a sloppy response and poor defense from Gunfire could only mean one thing—Meng La wasn’t there.
But if Meng La wasn’t there, where on earth was he? Hadn’t Zuo Yang’s offer of cooperation tempted him at all?
Without realizing, Lian Jun’s fingers stroked the wheelchair armrest as he fell deep in thought. All of a sudden, a memory of Shi Jin hugging him when they said goodbye flashed through his mind; shocked, he was struck by a certain possibility.
If he was Meng La, what would he do if he had doubts about Zuo Yang’s deal?
First of all, he would definitely agree to the offer, gambling on the possibility of Zuo Yang being sincere. Secondly, in order to avoid Zuo Yang leading him by the nose, he’d try his best to ensure his own safety. He would tamper with the chips he was forced to give away so that Zuo Yang wouldn’t gain the upper hand, or even set Zuo Yang up.
Finally, he would find some way to ensure that Gunfire would still be in play even if the alliance with Nine Eagles was broken beyond repair—he would try to acquire a bargaining chip big enough to let Gunfire pass through the current storm to safety.
And what chip could that be except for Shi Jin? After all, Nine Eagles forced Annihilation and Phantom to stop their attacks relying on nothing more than an “antidote to treat Shi Jin’s poison.” So, didn’t that mean that capturing Shi Jin was no different to having Annihilation wrapped around their fingers?
When Lian Jun thought of this, his heart was already ice-cold. He took out his phone and called Shi Jin—however, despite his call usually being answered in a matter of seconds, this time, he heard the prompt that the number he had dialed was out of range.
Out of range? How could a high-level private hospital in the middle of the capital be out of range? It could only mean one thing—the hospital was being covered by a signal jammer!
Lian Jun took a few deep breaths to suppress the panic surging in his chest and called Gua One’s phone, ordering, “Stop the attack and withdraw, notify Gua Two as well. We’re returning to L country immediately—Meng La isn’t here, he’s going after Shi Jin!”
Not waiting for Gua One’s response, he hung up and called the government liaison of L country, and the person in charge of Annihilation troops in L country, telling them to send people to protect Shi Jin.
Having talked enough nonsense to thoroughly annoy everyone, Shi Jin managed to delay enough that this impromptu breakfast party lasted more than half an hour, but it still came to an inevitable end. By then, the progress bar in Shi Jin’s mind had risen to 850.
“Is there still no news from Lian Jun?” In a last desperate struggle, Shi Jin grabbed Gua Nine before he rose from the table.
Gua Nine shook his head, taking out his phone to check again. “My phone didn’t ring, so… Eh? Why is there no signal?”
Surprised, Shi Jin looked at his own phone, but it was the same. After giving the progress bar a glance, he showed his phone to Gua Nine. “I also have no signal. Something must be wrong.”
Gua Nine’s eyebrows knitted. He stopped the others, who were about to leave, and asked them to check their phones.
The others had heard their conversation. They pulled out their phones and looked at them, then frowned.
It was obvious that none of their phones had a signal.
Gua Nine’s face sank. He stood up, commanding, “Don’t leave. The lack of signal is suspicious—someone might be trying to attack us. I’ll go and check the situation, you all stay here.”
Bang.
The door of the doctor’s office serving as a temporary dining room was suddenly thrown open, and the member of Annihilation in charge of protection of the hospital hurried in. “The L country officials just sent someone to inform us that the building we used to live in caught fire out of nowhere,” he said, frowning. “The emergency services are putting it out, but for the time being, is impossible to determine how many people have been trapped inside and if there were any casualties. They need us to give them a list of staff who stayed there so they will know how many people there are to rescue. Also, the signal…”
“It’s blocked,” Gua Nine interrupted him. “Strengthen the hospital defenses—that fire is likely to be deliberate, so we also need to be careful. Send people to find the signal jammer and destroy it as soon as possible. I’ll talk to the person who came with the news and tell him that the list is not needed because most of us are staying in the hospital, we only sent a few people back. Shi Jin, you…”