Chapter 198 - Dealing With The Ambush.
Inside the bus, Olivia and the rest were peeking behind their seats at the two soldiers, finishing a mag after another at the dark Jeep behind them.
However, it seemed like the assailants in the dark Jeep weren't interested in firing back at them, as they merely kept chasing after the bus, leaving a fixed distance.
Meanwhile, at the far right of the highway, further from the bus, the armored army Jeep was still trading gunfire with the other dark Jeep.
So far, it looked like the battle was in their favor as the assailants were having difficulty firing their guns from the window. They were completely pressured into defending.
"Try to aim at their tires!" Charles shouted while having his head slightly outside of the window, trying his best to hit the tires.
Cluck! Cluck!...
A shower of bullets, landing next to his window forced him into pulling his head back inside the car.
Too bad, he shouldn't have done so, as he completely missed the sight of Felix dropping down on the assailant car's hood akin to a meteor!
BOOOM!
The Jeep's engine exploded, setting the hood on fire while the car's rear was wholly lifted in the air!
Horrified and aghast, the assailants' in the car got either thrown into the front window's glass or had their heads smashed into the dashboard like they just got hit by a truck!
The entire sequence happened so fast that the soldiers in the army Jeep, couldn't even process what their were eyes showing them before the fire from the engine reached the gasoline tank, turning the dark Jeep into an orange mushroom cloud.
BOOOM!
By the time, the explosion sound reached their ears, Felix was already back in the air, rushing towards the last dark Jeep, which had their leader on.
Charles swiftly lifted his head at the sound of the explosion, looking behind him at the rubbles of what left of the dark Jeep.
"Hahaha! Well done! Well done!" Overjoyed, Charles laughed thunderously as he praised the stunned silly soldiers in the car, who were still having difficulty processing what they had just witnessed.
"Cap..Captain Charles, it wasn't us!!" A soldier sitting at the back, finally couldn't handle but exclaim out loud, "It was a f*cking huge bird!"
"What are you talking about?! It was a silver drone!" The soldier next to him refuted.
"You guys are tripping." The last soldier, who was the nearest to the action, swore with an excited expression, "it was a winged man!"
Hearing their claims, Charles just kept staring at his squadmates, totally at loss for words. From their brightened up expressions, he knew that not one of them was messing with him.
"Winged man?" He murmured while gazing at the sky for a second before his focus switched to the bus, which was still being chased.
However, the instant his eyes landed in that direction, he saw Felix diving down on the last dark Jeep.
Slack-jawed, he watched Felix land on the hood softly, then kick the frontal window of the Jeep, shattering it with one kick!
Yet, that wasn't all as Felix folded his wings, making them smaller, and jumped right through the broken frontal window, landing on the back seat.
Charles switched his vision to look at the back window and saw Felix sitting in the middle of two soldiers with his arms around their shoulders.
He didn't know why they were sitting obediently instead of killing Felix.
'The hell?'
Startled, he exclaimed at the sight of the dark Jeep slowing down its speed until it stopped at the side of the highway.
"Go rejoin the bus. We don't know if any further attack is approaching.",
Although Charles clearly wanted to head towards the dark Jeep and understand the situation, he knew that his priority was to protect the national team.
As for the rest? He could only sound his report to his superiors and they would take it from there.
He had no doubt that whoever swung at them publicly like this was going to pay tenfolds. Such a public disregard for the country's strength was intolerable and was going raise an outrage after the videos of what happened on the highway get spread on the internet.
There might be fewer cars on the highway, but those who witnessed the ambush definitely recorded some bits of it and currently planning to release it in the media feed.
...
"So Mr. Leader, you are not going to tell me the name of your middleman, right?"
Inside the dark Jeep, which was parked at the side of the road, Felix gave an easy-going smile to the assailant to his left, who had his back neck clutched by him.
"I already told you. I only know that he refers to himself as Mr. Hire." The leader said with a gruff voice.
"Hmm...Was your mission to kill or kidnap me?" Felix suddenly asked.
"We were paid 30 million dollars upfront to kidnap you. The less wounded you were when we bring you, the more we get paid." The leader continued spelling out the beans, not daring to hold back.
The sight of his squadmates' bloody heads was in full display to him.
"I see." Felix narrowed his eyes as he questioned, "Were you asked to avoid at all cost harming other members of the team?"
"How did you know that?" The leader looked at him in bewilderment, "Mr. Hire explicitly told us that if killed a single target beside you, we will get hunted down by his people."
No wonder they never actually smashed into the bus to make it flip, but simply carried on shooting at the windows, knowingly their bullets were useless against them.
Felix figured that if he didn't come by himself, they would have taken care of the two army Jeeps first before forcing the bus into stopping. By then, they could easily raid inside and force Felix to come with them.
Slap!
Felix gave him a light slap in the back of his head, making him feel like he was hit by a hammer.
"Keep your inquires to yourself." Felix rested his chin under his hand and asked, "Was this your first awakener kidnapping mission by Mr. Hire?"
"No, this is the 6th one." The leader answered fearfully while rubbing his head.
Not surprised by his answer, Felix laid out another one, "When did you exactly start those operations?"
"7 months or so?" The leader replied, a bit uncertain.
"Did you receive any different missions from Mr. Hire?" Felix clarified, "Missions unrelated to awakeners."
"No." The leader shook his head.
"Alright, that's all I need to know." Felix smiled warmly as he used his index finger to penetrate the leader's temple at the speed of light.
Before the leader could even process his words, Felix was already wiping his bloody finger with the leader's clothes.
As for the driver and the rest? They were already taken down by Felix the moment the Jeep pulled over.
The only reason the leader was so cooperative with Felix was because he understood that his life was no longer in his hands.
He only had two options, die or give Felix what he wanted, hoping to be spared after seeing that they were merely mercenary squad, who bore no enmity to him.
Unfortunately for him, Felix had zero tolerance for those who aim at his neck.
'It seems like this was the doing of just the Hiltons.' Felix pondered to himself while getting outside of the Jeep.
Felix was already pretty certain that the Hiltons were the ones behind this kidnapping attempt by the fact Adam didn't ride the bus with them. Now, after hearing the leader's answers, he was 100% positive.
'Mr. Hire, why does the name sound familiar?' Felix rested his chin on his hand as he unfolded his wings, bursting into the air. He kept chasing the bus while contemplating on the name.
He felt like he heard it vaguely in his previous life but he couldn't pinpoint exactly when.
'Asna can you please reread carefully the same memories about next year." Felix specified, "Exactly, when I got kidnapped and almost sold."
He might not pinpoint the period, but he could narrow it to the things Mr. Hire had a relation with him. Felix getting kidnapped was one of them.
"Leave it to me!"
It seemed like Asna's boredom reached a new level when she started to get excited about rewardless labor.
Surprisingly, Asna took a while this time before reemerging from Felix's memories.
"Felix, the bastard is a hired middleman from the Gama Organization!" She swiftly clarified what she saw, "When you were handcuffed and drugged in the van, the gang, who kidnapped you was talking about Mr. Hire. They said that he wasn't giving them good deals like the rest of the gangs and groups and if they should change to another middleman to deal with the Gama Organization."
"That's all they spoke about before the van was raided by the government task force." She shrugged her shoulders, "Plus, you fainted right after."
Though he heard so, his memory of the event was still foggy as he was heavily drugged at that moment.
He was barely keeping his consciousness awake, don't even mention focusing on other matters. Though, Mr. Hire's name resounded in his mind during that moment, making him have a sense of deja vu with it.
Thud!
"Thank you." Felix narrowed his eyes as landed on the bus roof.
He believed before that Mr. Hire was a man belonging to the Hiltons, but now it seemed like he either defected in the future and became a middleman for the Gama Organization or he was already one!
Whoever he was, Felix knew that he had to find him as individuals like him, were the only ones, who could have direct contact with the Gama Organization!
The gangs, families, groups all deliver their goods to middlemen like him and he takes them to either the Gama Organization's headquarter or to a member of it!
However, for now, Felix could only work on his strength, as he was too weak to face a behemoth like them.
Plus, he had to wait until the Gama Organization comes out in the open, as that's when it would be easier to find out Mr. Hire or middlemen like him after the majority of people would turn into awakener hunters!
Knock, Knock!
Speechless by the sound, the driver turned to his right and saw Felix waving his hand at him with an innocent smile while leaning on the bus's door.
'It seems like those two months aren't going to pass peacefully with a trouble maker like him.' The driver sighed while opening up the door, letting Felix in.