Chapter 368: Brothers Reunited
The mercenary leader dispatched the first four-man fire team. Taking advantage of a lull in the Barrett's firing, the experienced squad first lobbed two smoke grenades out of the villa's side entrance, obscuring the sight lines.
The team leader signaled to his operators: "One, two, three, GO!"
The two assault elements, one lead and one trail, immediately pushed out under cover of the smoke screen. But someone was faster. The instant Christian spotted movement in the smoke, he immediately dropped his sniper rifle, transitioned to the rifle he'd just captured, and opened fire into the haze.
He instantly dropped one of the mercenaries.
"Break contact!" the team leader shouted. The three remaining operators immediately dispersed to both flanks, evading the incoming fire. Two of them dove into the roadside vegetation, and the last one rolled behind a nearby vehicle.
Fortunately, one of the two who went into the bushes was cut down by Christian during his movement; otherwise, his tactical position would have been significantly worse.
Even so, the situation was extremely disadvantageous for him. The two survivors had established a crossfire, forming an L-shaped ambush around him. Whenever he engaged one target, rounds would immediately come from the other position.
Christian could only suppress the man behind the vehicle while advancing toward the vegetation. Reaching the mercenary he'd just neutralized, he delivered a controlled pair to the head.
The mercenary concealed in the bushes immediately brought his weapon up, but he was a fraction too slow. His fate was sealed.
"Bap-bap-bap!" Christian fired a tight burst, killing him instantly. Before the operator behind the vehicle could react, Christian rolled over the low wall beside the bushes.
"Bap-bap-bap..." He barely avoided a burst of rounds from the mercenary behind the vehicle. This firefight was textbook close-quarters combat!
The mercenary behind the opposite vehicle laid down suppressive fire as he advanced. Christian, calculating the location of the muzzle flashes, waited until the mercenary reached the low wall, then suddenly grabbed the weapon of the dead mercenary beside him, kicked off the wall with both feet, and brought the rifle up, aiming directly at the mercenary looking down.
"Bap-bap-bap~" Another controlled three-round burst—two center mass, one through the forehead. With that, he'd single-handedly eliminated the entire fire team sent to the front entrance.
At the rear entrance, Ron's situation was even more precarious than Christian's, as there were five hostiles there.
Moreover, Ron's hand-to-hand elimination of the mercenaries at the back door wasn't entirely silent; the subtle sounds became exceptionally pronounced in the quiet night, and they immediately triangulated his position.
The lead mercenary signaled, and the five operators split into two elements, flanking Ron from different vectors.
Ron simply drove his elbow through the glass wall, shattering it, and appeared to enter the villa from outside.
"Move! He's inside." Two teams—one went through the door, the other pushed through the glass wall Ron had smashed. But just as they entered the villa, the grass outside suddenly shifted, and a figure rose from the vegetation and rolled to the side.
At that same moment, a flash erupted from inside near the glass wall, engulfing the three mercenaries who had just breached.
"BOOM!" The three were thrown to the ground by the blast. Ron immediately emerged and delivered a double-tap to each of them.
It turned out that Ron had only smashed the glass wall to create the illusion of entry; he hadn't actually gone in. He'd simply lobbed a fragmentation grenade inside, while he retrieved a ghillie suit from his system inventory and draped it over himself, blending seamlessly into the grass.
Because the gunfire from the front entrance was so intense, the mercenaries, eager to quickly neutralize the intruders at the back door and reinforce the front, rushed over after hearing the commotion, walking right into Ron's ambush.
The grenade's delay fuse was four seconds, and it took them three and a half seconds to reach the glass wall, placing them directly inside the fragmentation radius.
Just after the explosion, the two remaining mercenaries who had entered through the alternate door reached the corridor behind the glass wall. Before they could even assess the situation, Ron casually dropped them both with two precise shots.
"Tch~ bunch of amateurs."
With both the front and rear entrances of the villa compromised, the mercenaries inside had been completely eliminated, leaving only the villa's owner, Silverberg, and the mercenary team leader.
"Listen up, you're surrounded! Anyone with half a brain will surrender immediately, and I promise you a quick death."
Before arriving, Ron had already reviewed the surveillance footage to count how many tangos were inside the villa. Now, tallying up the bodies, besides the old man, only the team leader remained. This time, he held all the cards. He immediately called out without hesitation.
"Oh God, what do we do? You'll protect me, right?" Silverberg shook the mercenary leader violently, clutching at him like a drowning man.
But the man didn't respond, instead sitting motionless in the chair in front of the monitors, as if in shock.
"Christian? Is that you?" The mercenary leader suddenly stood up, recognizing his long-lost brother's tactical signature.
Wait, if it was his brother, that voice earlier didn't match. Okay, maybe it was a teammate?
The mercenary leader dropped his weapon: "Christian, I know you're here! Show yourself!"
"What the hell is going on?!" Silverberg sensed something was seriously wrong. How did the mercenaries he'd hired seem to be in cahoots with the attackers outside?
The camera panned down the villa's corridor, revealing two figures in the darkness: Ron and Christian, whose name had just been called by the mercenary leader. "Know each other? How about I give you boys some time to catch up, then we'll discuss what happens next?"
"Appreciate it." Christian nodded, pursing his lips, then turned to the mercenary leader. "Long time no see, Braxton."
"FUCK! You lying sons of bitches! You planned this whole thing, didn't you?" Silverberg was nearly hysterical. "Goddamn mercenaries, you're all a bunch of—"
Before Silverberg could finish, Ron grabbed him by the collar and slammed him against the wall like a rag doll. "Listen up, the rest is between them. I suggest we stay out of it. Let's talk about our own business, shall we?"
"Our business? Who the hell are you?" Silverberg stared at the man before him in terror.
Ron didn't answer directly. Instead, he pulled zip-ties from his belt, ignored Silverberg's struggling, and trussed him up like a Thanksgiving turkey, propping him against the wall.
After finishing, he spoke again: "IRS. I'd like to inquire whether you've paid taxes on the illegal proceeds you've obtained through falsifying financial reports over the years?"
"Of course, I know you won't give me straight answers from the get-go, so I'm going to give you a sporting chance."
Ron retrieved a large sledgehammer from a nearby toolbox, tore off a section of cloth, blindfolded himself, and raised the hammer with both hands.
"Now I'm going to swing this hammer, and with each swing you'll have one opportunity to answer truthfully. If you're still here when the hammer comes down, I'll turn your skull into something resembling a smashed pumpkin. Tell me the truth about your illegal profits, and I guarantee I'll give you the privilege of spending the rest of your natural life in a federal penitentiary. Sound fair?"
In the darkness, Ron's congenial smile appeared demonic, filling Silverberg with profound terror.
(End of Chapter)
[Power Stone Goal: 500 = +1 Chapter]
[Review Goal: 10 = +1 Chapter]
If you liked it, feel free to leave a review.
80+chapters ahead on P1treon Soulforger