The two familiar faces were that of Folsom and Hattori Mei. However, there was an addition of a stranger in the room. It was a man with dark skin and features pointing towards a Hispanic origin. The stranger looked to be about in his early forties, his body stature strong and powerful.
Noticing his appearance, Xia Lei quickly abandoned the thought of barging in. He quickly pulled away Zhu Xuanyue.
Zhu Xuanyue was confused. “Uncle Xia why…?”
With a swift motion, Xia Lei pulled her into his embrace and placed a palm over her mouth at the same time. He ducks down to place his lips near her ear. “Shh! Keep quiet. I need to know what they’re talking about inside.”
A string of mumbled words came out of Zhu Xuanyue’s mouth despite there being a hand over it.
Her words may be difficult to comprehend but she was clearly asking, “Whoa, you can hear them?”
Xia Lei opted to ignore her, holding his palm firmly against her lips. At the same time, he kept his left eye in active X-ray vision mode along with the lip-reading ability to comprehend the conversation happening within the room.
“Madam Folsom, we would happily work with you.” The Mexican man continued, “However, we will not do this for free. We need your party to fulfil some conditions.”
“Weapons and money, these are things we can give you. Other than that, what else do you want?” questioned Folsom.
“A legal status.” The Mexican man stared at her intently. “The FA Organization must disappear from America’s hit list. You must release everyone captured by the US in the last few years.”
“Mister Franco, you’re asking too much from us,” warned Hattori Mei.
Franco, the Mexican man, flashed her a smile. “You want us to sacrifice ourselves for your needs and yet you refuse to satisfy our terms and conditions. Is there a need to continue this discussion any further?”
Folsom replied, “Alright, I agree. But I must know when will you be able to start the operation?”
“We’ll start as soon as we get the things we want,” answered Franco confidently.
“Very well, I’d like to hear your plans.” Folsom said, “After all, the target of the operation is Xia Lei. He’s a man much more difficult to handle than the Middle Eastern terrorists.”
“Yeah, he’s one of the most difficult opponents we’ve encountered so far.” Franco went on. “One of our members, Dark Mona, had perished in his hands. The bastard had also destroyed our training facility in the Far East.”
Folsom scowled. “I don’t think you understood my question right. I was asking for plans. You’re about to receive all your demands. I have the right to learn of the operation details.”
“You’re just trying to evaluate if we’re able to kill Xia Lei off, right?” Franco asked.
Folsom kept quiet.
Hattori Mei continued the conversation. “That’s right, Mister Franco. Our investment in the operation is no small sum. As your prime investors, we must ensure that our funds will not be wasted. Money and weapons are honestly no big deal but to clean the FA Organization’s records and status would require plenty of assistance and resources.”
“We need military-use drones, precision-guided missiles and intelligence support,” requested Franco.
“Xia Lei is in China at the moment. Our military drones are useless against China’s air defence system.” Folsom shifted and leaned forward to stare at Franco intensely, expression judgemental and filled with scepticism. “How exactly are you planning to get the job done?”
Franco chortled. “The drones we need are not the current serving models. We need you to customize a drone that’s devoid of any sort of company or American army logos. The same goes to the precision-guided missile. We’re going to enter China through the land, then have the drone and missiles shipped into Chinese territory.”
Folsom and Hattori Mei couldn’t help but look at each other wide-eyed.
Franco continued, “After we smuggle the drone and missiles into China, we’ll implement targeted clearance within the territory. By the time their air defence system discovers us, Xia Lei would be dead. The Thunder Horse Military Factory will be reduced into ashes.”
Folsom grinned. “Unmarked drones, missiles and targeted clearance huh? It’s a bold plan for sure but it might just work. If you can destroy the military factory, we’re willing to pay you an extra one hundred million USD as a reward. But of course, Xia Lei is our main target.”
“Aside from this plan, we have a backup plan,” mentioned Franco.
“What’s the backup plan like?” Folsom seemed genuinely interested.
Surprisingly, Franco shook his head slowly. “The plan will only be executed in dire situations. Our leader has made it clear that we’re going to convince you to believe in our capabilities but the backup plan shall not be revealed. However, I assure you, Madam Folsom, If the first plan fails, Xia Lei and Thunder Horse Military Factory will be done for as soon as we put the backup plan into action. Therefore, please prepare the one hundred million USD reward you mentioned. We definitely have this in the bag.”
“Hehehe, very well.” Folsom was absolutely delighted.
To her, the success rate for the first plan was bound to exceed a good seventy per cent. Plus, the FA Organization had another plan in mind that seemed much promising than its proposed plan. This felt like an effective tranquiliser for Folsom’s worry.
Hattori Mei picked up a glass of red wine from the coffee table. “Mister Franco, Japan will be your logistics base. Put down your reservations and go all out.”
Franco imitated her gesture and raised a glass. “To our cooperation and success.”
Clink! The mouth of three glasses met each other, eliciting a crisp sound.
But as the scheming trio were about to take a sip, the door was pushed open. There were a young Asian man and a woman standing at the entrance.
Out of surprise, Folsom’s glass slipped from between her grip to smash unceremoniously on the floor.
Franco quickly reached for his pistol. Before he could draw the weapon out, the man’s body froze. He could no longer control his movements and his mind!
In the face of Zhu Xuanyue, impressive assassins and the best special agents the world were no big deal. In her eyes, everyone was just mere sustenance.
“Don’t kill him!” Xia Lei yelled in warning.
“What if I turn him into an idiot instead?” Zhu Xuanyue tilted her head.
“No!” Xia Lei felt the violent urge to slap the back of her skull but decided against it. Her mental age was that of a child. It would be unreasonable to demand her to think like an adult or to even understand his intentions like a professional agent. It was difficult to have her cooperate with him but as long as she gave him no additional trouble, the man was content.
“Ah, how boring.” Zhu Xuanyue shrugged.
Abruptly, Hattori Mei screamed towards the door. “HELP...”
She wanted to scream for help but before she could complete her sentence, a limb swayed over and landed itself heavily on her lower abdomen. The woman’s feet levitated and she crashed loudly against the floor.
“Who are you? What do you want?” Folsom was panicking but as the proud CEO of Lockheed Martin, she was determined to keep her air of leadership afloat. This was why she could still question Xia Lei calmly in such a threatening situation.
Slap! Xia Lei swung his arm vehemently to let the flesh of his palm collide with Folsom’s cheek. The woman’s body rotated a half-circle midair before landing itself onto the flooring. Half of her face was now pitifully swollen. She stared at Xia Lei, utterly terrified. Folsom was unwilling to believe that such a thing would occur in her life. Her fear rendered her at a loss for words, afraid to spew out another word that may offend her assaulter.
After subduing Hattori Mei and Folsom, Xia Lei went ahead to take Franco’s pistol away and searched his body. From that, he found a smartphone, a wallet and some white powder substance inside a small plastic bag. Franco was obviously carrying drugs around.
Xia Lei unlocked Franco’s phone, beginning to memorize every single shown content on the screen. He memorized all the numbers in his contact list, messages and even pictures in his gallery. Many of his pictures were taken with a certain woman.
“Is this your wife or girlfriend?” Xia Lei shoved the phone into Franco’s face. On the screen was an Indo-European mixed woman clad in a thong. Her bottom was scarcely covered by the scanty garment and there was not a single trace of fabric on her upper body. The background in the particular picture shown seemed like a village.
Franco remained unmoving like a piece of wood, completely motionless.
Xia Lei was reminded of something. The man turned around to face Zhu Xuanyue. “No need to control him anymore, I need to talk to him.”
“Sure.” Zhu Xuanyue responded.
Abruptly, Franco’s control over his body was regained. In the next second, he lunged forward for the exit.
Xia Lei extended a leg.
Crash!
Franco tripped and toppled over into the flooring.
Xia Lei stomped a foot heavily against the Mexican’s back. “Who is the leader of FA?”
“Who the fuck are you?” Franco’s eyes were ablaze with rage. The man had no idea what happened just now and who he was facing at the moment.
Xia Lei lifted his foot and stomped it on Franco’s waist instead.
Franco groaned, body coiling up in defence. The intense pain almost had him suffocated, causing the man to shiver from the sensation.
“What do you want?” Folsom called out. “If you want money, I can give you money.”
“Shut the fuck up, old bitch!” Zhu Xuanyue lunged and kicked Folsom in the waist.
“AAAAAHHH!” A shrill scream rang out and Folsom was sent flying at an undetectable rapid speed. Before anyone knew it, the woman had crashed into the glass window and fell out of it.
Xia Lei gaped in shock.
Zhu Xuanyue panicked and covered her mouth, unable to look at Xia Lei in the eyes.
She was probably trying to imitate Xia Lei’s movements to attack Folsom like a roleplaying game but the woman had failed miserably at controlling her strength. Her inhuman strength was something that even Xia Lei was no match for!
The motive behind Xia Lei’s bold entrance and forbidding Zhu Xuanyue from killing anyone was to obtain more information for future purposes. The man was most definitely going to kill Folsom and Hattori Mei but that would have to wait until he had gotten his hands on valuable intel. However, the man had not expected Zhu Xuanyue’s streak of mischief to trigger a shocking accident like this.
Bam! A loud crash was heard from the ground.
Folsom’s body was gruesomely smashed onto the roof of her Chevrolet Suburban off-road van, which had formed a dent from the impact. The glasses were destroyed from the sheer force that resulted from her high fall.
The vehicle alarm began to pierce through the air.
Lockheed Martin’s armed security quickly went over to evaluate the situation.
In another few seconds, a rapid alarm blared throughout the building.