Folsom was dead.
Her death was a tragedy but not a terrible one.
With her passing, Lockheed Martin was bound to have a new CEO. This wouldn’t affect anything in the company but it sure would bring great impacts to Xia Lei’s future plans. Folsom was no regular civilian. The incident of her murder at the Lockheed Martin Washington office was going to attract chaos and attention from the American society.
Xia Lei did plan to get rid of Folsom eventually, but the man was only going to take action after he had obtained valuable information. The most vital thing to accomplish now was to hide Folsom’s body to delay the American Intelligence Department from learning of her death. Doing this would help decrease the risk and impact factor to its minimum. After all, Folsom was Lockheed Martin’s CEO! How would the American Intelligence Department not go berserk at the death of an important figure?
It was because of Zhu Xuanyue’s kick that things were developing towards a direction Xia Lei did not wish to see.
“Uh… Uncle Xia, it was an accident.” Zhu Xuanyue lowered her head, looking like a misbehaved child.
Xia Lei didn’t know how to deal with her.
At that split second, Franco made a mad dash to the door.
Xia Lei quickly extended a leg out on reflex, tripping Franco over onto the ground. The man mercilessly drew out his military knife and drove it deep into Franco’s thigh. Drops of maroon splattered everywhere as the Mexican man screamed in agony.
Abruptly, Zhu Xuanyue’s gaze fell on Hattori Mei, her eyes glimmering with excitement.
Hattori Mei was still unconscious, eyes shut and motionless on the cold hard floor.
Rapid and messy footsteps were heard echoing about in the empty corridors outside the door. It was not difficult to tell that Lockheed Martin’s security team had found the heaps of bodies lying around.
Xia Lei pointed to the door and yelled at Zhu Xuanyue, “Why are you still here? Get out and stop those people from coming close!”
“Can I…”
“You can do whatever you want!” Xia Lei roared at her urgently.
“Haha!” Zhu Xuanyue immediately ignored Hattori Mei and ran out of the door.
As soon as she stepped foot outside, her normal claims to kneel and submit rang out from the hall. Following not long after were sounds of guns cocking and shrill screams, it sounded like utter chaos.
The happiest things to Zhu Xuanyue were undoubtedly being able to kill and feed on humans.
Xia Lei, who was left behind in the room, began doing what he needed to do. With a twist of his wrist, the man rotated the embedded military knife in Franco’s thigh. “Tell me, who is the leader of the FA? What is the backup plan?”
“Ptui!” Franco spat a mouthful of blood at Xia Lei.
Xia Lei pulled out the knife and swung his arms horizontally to impale Franco’s lower abdomen. Blood gushed out from the sides of the blade, hurriedly drenching the floor in red.
“Gaaaaah!” Franco choked out a cry.
“Spit it out!” Xia Lei threatened.
“Who the fuck are you?!”
Xia Lei gripped the handle, pulled it out and stabbed it back into Franco’s abdomen.
Franco gasped, beginning to inhale painfully.
Xia Lei repeated his savage motion, driving the knife into Franco once again. It took another three stabs to immobilize Franco. Weirdly, the man’s eyes were devoid of fear. His eyes glimmered with something akin to sickening pleasure.
“Kill me! Kill me! Who are you?! Who are you?!” Franco was beginning to be delirious.
This was the fourth time Xia Lei had drawn his knife out of Franco. This time, the man aimed it at Franco’s heart instead. “This is your last chance. Tell me who the leader of FA is and what is the backup plan about!”
Suspiciously, Franco’s gaze averted to the side of the window.
This reminded Xia Lei of something, quickly following Franco’s line of sight.
At that moment, the initially unconscious Hattori Mei abruptly leapt from the floor. She wasn’t throwing herself onto Xia Lei and she wasn’t lunging forward for the exit. The woman turned around and threw herself out of the window that Folsom had broken earlier. In that split second, her body went through the shattered frame and began to fall like a rag doll.
Bam! Another muffled impact was heard.
But her crash sounded much lighter than Folsom’s.
Xia Lei finally wrapped his head around the situation. Hattori Mei wasn’t suicidal, she was trying to escape!
She had been pretending to be unconscious, awaiting the perfect chance for her to flee. The glass window had shattered thanks to the kick Folsom had received from Zhu Xuanyue. While Folsom may have died due to the fall, it was now a cushion for Hattori Mei’s escape. This was the seventh floor and while this decision had its risks, it was her best option!
Regardless of the terrifying and neurotic woman or the savage Asian youth that was driving his knife repeatedly into Franco, this was Hattori Mei’s decision. She was clear that staying behind would mean that she would be next after the man was done with Franco!
Ear-piercing sirens blared from a handful of police cars and special force vehicles urgently from below.
“Hahaha…” Franco cackled insanely. “You must be Xia Lei’s underling, aye? Xia Lei is going to be done for. You’re going to be done for too. I’ll see you in hell.”
With a swift motion, Xia Lei dove the blade deep into his heart.
Franco was silenced for eternity. The man revealed no secrets to Xia Lei. He knew nothing would change even if he came clean. He was destined to die today.
Xia Lei came to the window and extended his torso out to peek.
Where Hattori Mei had landed was right on top of Folsom’s body. The Japanese woman was motionless on the vehicle’s roof. It was difficult to tell if she was alive or dead. On the empty square before the skyscraper was hoards of policemen and national guards. They were heading for the building and their numbers were immense. It was difficult to pinpoint their exact amount.
“Someone’s up there!” A national guard general abruptly pointed at the shattered window.
A machine gunner aimed his weapon towards the window on top of a military vehicle.
Xia Lei backed off as a storm of armour piercing bullets flooded the window and the ceiling. Plaster debris began to fall from it, along with some concrete pieces from the top.
Xia Lei ran out of the room.
Corpses were messily strewn around the corridor. In the distance, Zhu Xuanyue was using a military knife to stab a still-living security guard. The unfortunate fella was filled with gashes and holes. He looked like a strainer that was rapidly bleeding out to death.
“Speak! What secrets do you know?” Zhu Xuanyue dove the knife into the guard’s lower abdomen.
“AAAAHHHH!” He screamed in terror. “Please don’t kill me, please don’t kill me…”
“Enough!” Xia Lei halted her. “Stop tormenting him, we need to leave.”
“Oh, okay.” Zhu Xuanyue stuck her palm against the guard’s head. In a split second, the man stopped groaning. The blood in his face drained, accompanied by a wild dilation of his pupils.
His fate was gruesome. He ended his life as Zhu Xuanyue’s plaything then her meal.
Xia Lei made no move to stop her cruel acts. He was clear that even if Zhu Xuanyue decided to spare him, the guard wasn’t going to make it with the number of injuries he sustained. More importantly, he had seen both his and Zhu Xuanyue’s face.
Xia Lei grabbed Zhu Xuanyue’s arm and made a run to the roof.
The current operation was considered complete, but the man had not a single clue if this was a success or a miserable failure.
Getting rid of Folsom could be counted as a win. The four military aces of America had formed an alliance and Folsom was its leader. With her dead, there would be new blood taking over her spot and it would require time before they could devise a new plan. Therefore, killing Folsom was equivalent to buying themselves more time.
Truthfully, the biggest gain today was finding out that the FA had two operation plans. Although only one was made known, the information was still very important to him. He did not need to install a missile air defence system over the Thunder Horse Military Factory, all he needed to do was to inform Long Bing or Tang Yuyan about this. The women would help report the threat to the higher-ups and a defence plan could be implemented.
Despite that, there were regrettable parts.
His first failure was not having Zhu Xuanyue question Franco about his plans. Zhu Xuanyue had the ability to interpret and excavate messages and information stored in the brain. If he had let her interrogate Franco, Xia Lei would’ve successfully learnt the particulars of the backup plan along with the identity of the leader of FA organization. He was worried that Folsom or Hattori Mei was going to trigger some kind of secret emergency button, hence his burst of attacks. While Zhu Xuanyue had rendered Franco stationary, Xia Lei took the chance to kick Hattori Mei and subdued Folsom. It was the kick packed with Xia Lei’s urge to vent his fury that sent Franco flying that became the precursor to a series of unfortunate events. Seeing that, the mischievous Zhu Xuanyue imitated him and kicked Folsom. It was that unintentional kick that sent Folsom to her doom.
All in all, this was a hasty operation. There was no detailed plan and the situation was a mess. In addition to Zhu Xuanyue’s unpredictable actions, this operation ended up with such an outcome.
However, who was there to blame?
“Are you angry with me?” On the roof, Zhu Xuanyue popped the meek question at Xia Lei.
Xia Lei huffed and glared at her angrily. “We’ll talk about this when we get back.”
“You’re definitely angry with me…”
“We need to go now!” Xia Lei lunged forward and sprinted to the edge of the roof. As he approached the end, he made a strong leap and tossed himself forward for about tens of metres in trajectory onto the roof of the lower building opposite Lockheed Martin’s building.
Zhu Xuanyue followed suit, jumping off the edge after a sprint. She began to fall towards the opposite roof.
“Catch me!” Zhu Xuanyue squealed excitedly at Xia Lei who had just steadied his stance.
Xia Lei stared at her and took a step back.
Splat!
Zhu Xuanyue face planted the concrete floor with her outstretched limbs.
“You…” Zhu Xuanyue lifted her chin to look at Xia Lei. “You did this on purpose!”
Xia Lei shrugged nonchalantly. “Are you blaming me?”
“Hmph!” Zhu Xuanyue clambered up from the floor, rubbing her proud bosoms in circular motions. “Ouch! The fall really hurt my boobs!”
There was light coming from Lockheed Martin’s building. It was a beam emitted by a tactical flashlight held by a national guard.
Before the beam could catch their presence, Xia Lei had pulled Zhu Xuanyue into a stairway.
The Washington police force and national guard had just begun their search, but to capture a man with X-ray vision and Zhu Xuanyue was destined to be impossible.
“Uncle Xia, where shall we sleep tonight?” As they descended the stairs for the ground, Zhu Xuanyue did not forget to bring up her most anticipated benefit.
Xia Lei, on the other hand, opted to keep his mouth shut.