29 seconds. An insignificant amount of time. Yet that was all Xia Lei needed to get what he wanted.
As the God’s system fell into his meticulously set trap and entered its 29-second sleep mode, Xia Lei infiltrated Area 51. The area was vast and certainly unable to be covered within twenty-nine seconds. But he had a goal. He wanted to get into the heart of Area 51.
29 seconds was far from enough to dismantle the central servers, or to expose all the top-secret information from within, but to retrieve a single document.
The shepherd project was now in Xia Lei’s hands.
Back at the ward, the night was serene. The four women and the children were in deep sleep, bringing about a sense of tranquillity. Xia Lei took to appreciate the soothing ambience after he finished reading the shepherd project.
Reading it through led him to conclude that their trip to Las Vegas was a victory secured.
Right then, Long Bing cracked her eyes open, taking a quick peek at her husband before she whispered, “Why are you still up this late at night? Come lie down here, we can squeeze a little.”
“They arranged a bed for me. I will rest there for the night,” Xia Lei added.
“I want you cuddling me,” Long Bing coyly added.
Xia Lei chuckled at her remark. “You’ve convinced me.”
He strode over to her and gave her a tight smooch on her forehead.
On the other bed, Liang Siyao was also awoken as she turned her head towards them, “This is a ward. Are you both sure that’s what you wanted to do?”
Long Bing glared at her, “All I want is for him to lay by my side for just a moment, what else were you thinking?”
Liang Siyao chuckled, “Alright, alright, just don’t wake the other two up, or else you both are up for a treat.”
Xia Lei mumbled, “Siyao, I’ll come over in a bit alright.”
Liang Siyao nodded, that was exactly what she was waiting for.
Xia Lei flipped over Long Bing’s sheets and she promptly nudged slightly to the side, clearing a space for him to lie down. Just as he was closing in on a sitting position, his ears perked from a faint noise from a distance. It appeared to be sounds of vehicle tyres rolling across the tar road. It was so soft and sudden that one blink was all it took to miss it. But not Xia Lei.
A vehicle disappeared into thin air?
Xia Lei’s awareness heightened as he tweaked his ears to capture the surrounding sounds.
After the evolution of his right eye, his ears had begun to receive new upgrades. Nevertheless, after he noticed that his ears began to exceed beyond the ordinary, he never really got to use much of its abilities.
One of the reasons was because his eyes were far too reliable. It had become a subconscious habit for him to rely on it instinctively for all matters at hand. His ears were naturally relegated to the sidelines.
Nevertheless, in an extremely silent hospital environment, any sound beyond the corridor was amplified through his ears. Almost instantly after he caught the odd sound, his mind began piecing several visualisations together into one. A surgical cart, footsteps of four different people but the breathing of five.
Just as the picture began taking shape in Xia Lei’s head, the scene of four medical personnel pushing the surgical cart began flashing in his mind.
However, given the venue they were in, it was not uncommon for that to be happening.
Nevertheless, an ominous feeling began encircling his mind!
Both eyes instantly switched to Xray mode as his vision zoomed past wall after wall, pillar after pillar with an unobstructed view.
His vision had promptly fixated upon a group of medical staff pushing a surgical cart towards the direction of the elevator. Two at the front had their hands placed on the edges of the cart, while the other two at the back each had a hand firmly on the handle.
All four medical personnel moved almost in unison, so much so even their footsteps aligned with one another as if the cart was empty.
Lying on the stretcher was a patient drenched in blood, his eyes wide open, seemingly in distraught. His eyes however were filled with animosity, resonating a chilling aura at his presence.
Xia Lei expanded the range and intensity of his X-ray vision, scanning the five medical ‘personnel’ from top to bottom, an action that would promptly leave him terrified.
All five of them were strapped with firearms, even explosives!
If it were not for his enhanced hearing, with just his X-ray vision, he would easily have overlooked the four medical personnel with their desperate patient!
But humans have time and time again been deceived by their eyes, and in that case, it was almost a mistake that would have cost the lives of his family!
Xia Lei stood up stiff, with a dull voice he murmured, “Get up! We have company!”
Long Bing and Liang Siyao were petrified, but nevertheless quickly snapped out of it as they hurried off their respective hospital beds.
“Tell Fan Fan and Ruyi to hide in the bathroom, along with the kids,” Xia Lei then urged.
“What about you…” Liang Siyao worryingly blurted.
“Go, now!”
Long Bing and Liang Siyao carried their children before respectively waking up Jiang Ruyi and Fan Fan.
Shaken from a deep slumber, Fan Fan was still completely dumbfounded by the situation but before she could ask she was muffled by Liang Siyao’s hand over her mouth!
“There are people out there trying to kill us, take the kids and get into the bathroom,”
Over on the opposite corner of the room, Long Bing and Jiang Ruyi were in similar circumstances.
While the four women and their kids retreated into the bathroom, Xia Lei had already rung the medical attention signal and positioned himself by the door. His hands were occupied with the Viper pistol on one hand and a military-grade knife on the other.
The five assassins eventually arrived by the door of the ward. Just as they were ready for assault however, a stationed nurse made her way towards their direction in urgent strides.
The nurse halted her footsteps before the five assassins, completely catching them off guard.
Behind the door, Xia Lei had his gun cocked towards the killer lying on the surgical trolley.
“Doctor.” The nurse, completely oblivious of the tension building up around her, took to asking, “This is the gynaecology floor. I’m not sure you’re in the right place.”
The five assassins remained silent while the one by the back drew his silenced pistol, ready to get rid of the interference.
Just as he had his gun hoisted right at the back of her head, an explosive shot was heard behind the door. In that instant, the head of the killer on the surgical cart popped like an overcharged battery.
Xia Lei consciously chose the idle killer as his target because he knew he was a suicide bomber. To him, it was clear that the stationary man on the surgical cart was clearly the imminent threat. He needed to get rid of the most imminent threat to the situation!
Once the first shot was fired, the four other gunmen reactively hurled themselves away from the surgical trolley, towards both sides of the door. Two of the assassins managed to retrieve their assault rifles during the process.
“Argh!” The nurse attempted a prompt exit as she shrieked, “Murderers!”
Bang! The gunman with the pistol shot right through her abdomen, and down the nurse went. Blood gushed out the wound as it drenched the white of her nurse uniform.
Brrr!
BANG BANG!
The deafening sounds of gunfire rang out as bullets tore through the wooden door. Bullets fired at all directions while others ricocheted, wreaking any and all in their paths. It didn’t take long before the four previously occu[ied hospital beds were reduced to shreds.
“Break down the door!” A gunman ordered.
But it was in Japanese!
The gunman with the pistol then clenched his hands on the cart handle, steered it towards the door and hurled it towards the tattered door.
BANG! Another slew of gunshots was heard as the killer by the handle was shot in the knee and promptly kneeled on the ground. The surgical cart that was aimed at the flimsy door swayed from its intended destination and crashed into the gunman closest to the door!
The next second he crawled back to his feet, gave an agonizing howl and once again had both hands on the handle, steering the surgical cart towards the door!
The human sacrifice might be dead, but the explosives were still primed and active. As long as it was detonated in the ward, it would be a successful mission.
Another bullet once again came firing out of the door, and this time around without surprise still aimed at the gunman by the handle. Before he could evaluate the attack he felt excruciating pain on his left leg. His only functioning leg was hit at the knee! His body promptly lost its balance once again as he tumbled onto the ground.
“You cunt!” The gunman by the door scowled as he lashed out from the wall that was shielding him all this while and came barging at the door with his shoulder.
BANG! The next bullet came through and drilled through his forehead, putting his best effort to an abrupt halt.
Thump!
The dying killer’s collapse resembled the final straw that broke the camel’s back, tumbling onto the compromised door.
Another gunman saw the opportunity and forced the surgical trolley into the ward.
“Put down your weapons now, or we will fire at will!” Right at the moment, special ops began marching out of the stairway with a warning call.
“Get in!” The assassin with the assault rifle hastily shifted his target towards the special ops unit, an array of bullets sprayed onto the backup unit effectively putting them back on defence.
Glass shattered through the hallway from the rain of bullets!
POP! A lone sniper bullet came flying in like a silent missile, and in a flash, the bullet bore a hole into the cranium of the unhinged gunman with the assault rifle.
Blood and innards began spewing out of the wound, and another corpse laid among the pile.
And now there were two.
One diligently mended the surgical cart, while the other decisively sacrificed himself to shield the other from the vision. His life was worth the seconds needed for their suicide plan to work!
Nevertheless, it was all wishful thinking for the simpleminded. As he bravely stood with broad arms before his teammate, the captain of the special ops barged through the stairwell. Three successive shots were fired from his handgun before he had even landed!
Bang Bang Bang!
Three shots, three bullets, two right at the killer’s abdomen, and the last in his heart.
The special ops captain tumbled onto the ground.
The last assassin broke into the ward. He did it.