Bang!
With a kick, a wrecked door car was opened. Out came a severely bloodied Sirita from the driver seat. Soon after her emergence, the two back doors of the Mercedes-Benz GL450 were forced open too. Augustan and Yan Fo emerged from the door drenched in red, it almost looked as if they were scooped out from a puddle of blood.
The three of the FA members were severely injured. It was a miracle that they were still alive.
They said nothing but turned to stare at the upside-down GL450 in unison. Thank goodness this vehicle had a custom bulletproof body. Out of sheer luck, their car was at the tail of the convoy when the explosion occurred. If not, they would’ve ended up like those CIA members, blasted to a form that was beyond recognition.
Out of the entire convoy, only three of them had survived. They were lucky but the thought of the incident earlier made the three shudder in fear.
Sirita’s attention was nabbed by a headless corpse. The unfortunate body was blasted to mushy pieces of flesh and blood. However, from the remnants of its garments, Sirita could identify that this was Jack’s body. Not far away from Jack’s body was Ton’s. The older man’s skull was blown off with an arm missing. His wounds made it look like he got gnawed on by a huge grizzly bear. The sight was horrible.
The woman averted her gaze abruptly onto the road surface a few metres away from the two bodies, where she saw a sole penis. Two deflated tyres were stuck to the asphalt road to act as a ‘foundation’ of sorts for the little penis, which made it possible for the organ to stand upright.
Sirita glanced at a spot between Jack’s legs and immediately found its owner. At that instance, her expression darkened. She spat lightly and cussed, “Fucking idiot!”
“Hahaha…” Augustan broke into a burst of maniacal laughter abruptly.
Sirita and Yan Fo turned to look at him, unsure of why he was laughing.
Augustan stopped. “The CIA is a bunch of clowns. Ton and Jack thought they were so close to capturing the king but they’ve stepped into his trap instead unknowingly.”
“We were tricked as well. If it wasn’t for the CIA taking the first leap, we would’ve ended up like them,” commented Yan Fo.
“What do you think the king will do next?” Augustan questioned.
Sirita shook her head.
Yan Fo replied, “If there’s another missile loaded on the drone and if I was Xia Lei, where do you think I’ll destroy next?”
“The Lockheed Martin building?” guessed Sirita.
Lockheed Martin was desperate to rid the earth of Xia Lei. They wanted to destroy Thunder Horse Organization’s Jingdu headquarters and the company was undeniably Thunder Horse’s number one competitor. Hence, Xia Lei did seem to have enough reason to bomb Lockheed Martin.
However, Yan Fo shook his head. “Xia Lei is not an idiot. Would he not be aware that America’s air defence system is so advanced and could neutralize the drone easily? Forget about the drone, even if a country had deployed all of its fighter jets to bomb Lockheed Martin, the success rate would still be a complete zero.”
Sirita was perplexed. “Then where would he destroy next?”
“Wait!” Something clicked in Augustan’s mind. “He… He’s going to bomb our headquarters!”
Yan Fo’s expression was heavy. “That’ was my guess. The Mexican air defence is close to non-existent and Predator B has anti-radar features of a certain extent. As long as it enters Mexican air space and into Jalisco, it’ll be easy to bomb the headquarters. That itself is not impossible…”
Before Yan Fo could finish his sentence, Augustan frantically searched for his phone. The sight of his phone felt like a punch to his gut. His device was completely shattered by the violent explosion earlier, it was unusable.
Yan Fo and Sirita pulled their phones out, immediately freezing at the sight of it. Their devices suffered the same fate as Augustan’s. Their phones had fallen victim to the Skunk Surprise.
If their vehicles were completely shattered, how could the durability of a handphone be compared to a metal vehicle? Honestly, the terrifying injuries Augustan, Yan Fo and Sirita sustained would be the answer to that. They almost died, how would a measly device survive the explosion?
“Fuck!” Yan Fo threw his messed up phone harshly onto the ground.
He could guess Xia Lei’s next step but he had no means to stop the man. What was worse was that the problem would’ve been easily solved with a phone call but Yan Fo had no device on hand.
“Search around, check if any of their phones are usable,” instructed Yan Fo anxiously. He limped towards a comparatively complete CIA agent corpse.
“It’s no use.” Sirita added, “Our phones are destroyed, would there be any different?”
Despite that, Yan Fo stubbornly went on. All he could find from the body was nothing but a pile of scattered phone parts.
“There should be phones on the farm. We need to get there,” said Augustan.
“Yes! We need to go to the farm!” Yan Fo felt like there was still hope. “We must tell our comrades at the headquarters. They must evacuate the premises urgently!”
Sirita walked over and helped Yan Fo up with a heave. The simple motion made the ace assassin of the FA Organization wince in pain, blood began to pour out of his numerous wounds. Despite that, Sirita managed to help Yan Fo stand.
The three significant figures of the FA Organization began their journey towards the farm. The burning car wrecks and scattered bodies became their background. A scene like this would typically appear as the ending of a hero movie. The victorious heroes had managed to leave the battle filled with injuries, they had each other’s back as they returned to their homes. Awaiting their return was their beautiful lovers, cute children and the promise of a peaceful and loving life.
However, the reality was far from movie portrayal.
At that moment, roaring engine sounds were heard from a distance in the sky. Several helicopters soon came from four directions, searchlights on its nose illuminating the area. On land, armoured off-road vehicles and armoured cars turned on their lights as they zoomed over rapidly.
From an armed helicopter, a Special Forces commander spat out his chewing gum and screamed into a loudspeaker. “You’ve been surrounded! Surrender now! Kneel and put your hands above your head!”
“We’re…” As Yan Fo attempted to declare his identity, he paused and gulped.
It wasn’t common knowledge among the Special Forces that the FA Organizations were working with the American government now.
Bang! Bang! Bang! Rapid bullets were shot from the helicopter, triggering some friction sparks against the asphalt road.
“Kneel! This is your last warning!” The commander roared.
Anxiety, anger, and helplessness engulfed the three FA members in that split second. They were at wit’s end. Added with their severe injuries, they could no longer push on. Their knees gave out and they slumped into a kneel.
At this same time, the Predator B weaved through the Mexican air space without a care in the world. Its destination was Jalisco.
Yan Fo was right but he had no means to contact his headquarters.
This was probably the saddest thing he had encountered in his life.
Under the same sky, a Land Rover Defender exited downtown Juarez and drove a kilometre along the Grand River towards the Gulf of Mexico. As Xia Lei drove, he spared brief glances towards the laptop screen perched on top of the passenger seat. On the screen was Predator B’s control interface and live feedback footage. However, due to its altitude, all feedback produced were of clouds and blurry land.
But those were not important. Xia Lei had already entered an autopilot command along with the coordinates of the FA Organization. As soon as the FA is within its shooting range, it will let the ‘Key to Hell’ loose. According to its travelling speed, the aircraft would arrive in Tuxpan city, Jalisco in another hour. Then, it would fire the missile towards a group of isolated buildings serving as the FA headquarters in the middle of the desert.
Predator B resumed its journey, gliding through the air. ‘Xiao Qian’, which was planted in its system, was extracting all the raw data about the drone for later use. Those figures would then be of great use to Thunder Horse’s research and drone pilots.
Time passed by steadily as the Land Rover drove further and further away from Juarez city.
At one point, Xia Lei produced the satellite phone used to communicate with the Chinese Zodiac Battle Team.
“Hello, it’s me. I’ll be reaching Matamoros in five hours. Prepare me a ride home,” instructed Xia Lei.
It was Sa’im on the other end of the call. “Ah, I knew it was you. How could you not bring us along and cause havoc at Lockheed Martin alone? Have you not considered the consequences?”
Xia Lei chuckled. “We’ll talk about it when we meet.”
“Sure, we’ll see you in Matamoros five hours later.”
“How’s everyone doing?”
There was a brief pause before Sa’im answered, “I have some bad news.”
“What’s the matter?” Xia Lei’s anxiety flared.
Sa’im paused for a bit before speaking, “Tsukino Kyoko gained weight.”
Smash! The crash of what sounded like a glass cup against the wall rang over the phone.
Though Xia Lei wasn’t there, he could imagine it. A furious female ninja snatching a glass cup and throwing it in Sa’im’s direction. Though Sa’im had dodged the attack, the unfortunate glassware was shattered into shards against the hard wall.
Xia Lei had nothing to say about the prank but weirdly, it warmed his heart. The sensation was comfortable.
Ending the call, Xia Lei pulled the car over and watched the laptop screen closely. At that exact moment, the device speaker let out a sharp alarming beep. Predator B was not alarming him about getting targeted by the Mexican air defence radar, it was notifying him that it was now approaching its destination.
Predator B had reached the location one minute earlier than Xia Lei’s estimate.
The drone lowered its altitude, its camera returning footage of the ground. What Xia Lei could see was a vast desert filled with yellow sand and cacti. There was the occasional sight of villages that had agave plantations for Tequila brewing.
Soon enough, a group of buildings made its appearance.