Chapter 387: Eteon Base
Deckard Shaw's Underground Hideout
As a former world-renowned terrorist, Deckard naturally understood the importance of having multiple hideouts, having prepared several in the UK long ago. This underground garage was one of them.
"Can you tell me who that bulletproof black psychopath is?" Ron's face appeared on Deckard Shaw's computer screen.
"It's a long story. He was supposed to be dead. I shot him in the head eight years ago."
"So the Terminator has returned. No wonder he can control the media." Ron switched the screen to a news page about fugitives, with photos of Deckard Shaw, his sister, and Hobbs prominently displayed. "Congratulations on getting an international news column. How about debuting as a celebrity after you get out of prison?"
"Obviously, they've controlled the media. I'd heard rumors about these people before, but I thought they were all made up. I didn't expect them to be so powerful. Hey! They made my photos look terrible!"
Ron saw that Hobbs was still in the mood to joke around, so he knew they weren't taking it seriously and finally felt a little relieved.
The most important thing for a secret agent is mindset. No matter the situation, you must always keep your mind absolutely calm. Only then can you handle problems in the most appropriate way.
However, Eteon is truly cunning; they managed to get a major media outlet like the BBC to repeat Hobbs and his team's news all day, portraying them as irredeemably evil villains. Such tactics are befitting of the BBC, known for its manipulative nature.
"Okay, you all look good. In that case, let me introduce you to a new friend." Ron switched the camera back to video mode, revealing the old man strapped to a chair behind him. "This is the scientist who developed the virus, Professor Andreiko. Let him see what he's done."
Hattie held her hand up to the camera, revealing three petal-like wounds. Ron grabbed the professor by the collar. "Now, tell us everything you know."
The scientist exclaimed in surprise, "My God, when did she come into contact with it?"
"About thirty hours ago."
"In that case, the capsule is still intact." The scientist patted his chest, relieved.
"So, how exactly do you disable it?"
"That's not easy." The scientist shook his head, his voice filled with fear. "It's not controlled by any genetic sequence, it's deadly to everyone, and in 72 hours it will dissolve and infect her. The virus will spread through the air, and within a week, no one in the world will be spared."
"Then why did you develop this thing?" Ron demanded.
"Because I was one of them," the scientist said, bowing his head. "They claimed they could save the world with technology, and I believed them. I invented the Snowflake Virus intending it to be a vaccine carrier, a panacea for curing the world. But they turned it into a programmable apocalypse; the virus attacks the weakest individuals, those who aren't worth their time."
"As a scientist, you're really stupid," Deckard Shaw scoffed.
"No, I've seen stupider ones," Ron thought of his family's physicist, sighing. "But perhaps it's this disregard for intrigue that allows them to be so engrossed in science."
"Whatever, I have two Nobel Prizes anyway," the scientist said casually.
Thankfully, Sheldon wasn't here, otherwise he'd be envious again. Sheldon has worked so hard all this time and hasn't even won a Nobel Prize yet.
"OK, we can chat about this another time. What I want to know now is how to get the virus out." Ron slapped the table and said seriously.
"There are two ways. The first one is very simple..." On the other end of the video, the three people stared nervously at the screen. The scientist's words rekindled their hope, but the next sentence immediately plunged them back to despair. "That is to kill her, and immediately burn her body completely to prevent the virus from spreading through the corpse."
"That's impossible. Just tell me the second one." Ron refused outright.
"There's a machine that can remove the virus from her body and keep her alive…"
"That's the option I want," Ron interrupted quickly. "Where is that machine?"
"That's exactly what I was about to say. They can't get their hands on it. It's in Eteon's lab, where they're developing the snowflake technology. That secret black technology base is guarded by Eteon's army, hidden in the most desolate part of Russia. Even if you go, you'll just be throwing your lives away."
The scientist shrugged, indicating that he was powerless to help, but Ron wasn't about to give up. "Tell me, how long would it take you to build another machine like that?"
"I can't build machines. Those are the engineers there. Their top engineers spent more than two months from design to completion. I don't think you'll have enough time."
Okay, Ron had originally planned to have him send the design requirements to Howard so Howard could build one, but now it seemed that Ron's third option was not viable.
So, only the last option remained: go to Russia.
"OK, I have an old friend in Moscow, we've known each other for years. She and her crew are making inroads in the local criminal underworld, especially with Russian crime syndicates. I can ask her for help," Deckard spoke first.
Ron thought for a moment, then decided it was better to split up, so he agreed. "Alright, you, Hobbs, and Hattie go. Don't report to me on anything, just go ahead. We'll head out now too, see if we can provide you with some support."
"As for you," Ron turned to the bewildered scientist, "if you keep hiding like this, you'll eventually be caught by Eteon's people. I have a very safe private island with a research institute there. Would you like to live there?"
"Of course!" the scientist exclaimed excitedly.
In the middle of a desolate frozen plain in south-central Russia, an old power station that looked dilapidated was unusually busy with a large number of vehicles coming and going. This was undoubtedly Eteon's base.
"How are Hobbs and the others?" Ron asked the passenger in a large truck hidden in a birch forest.
"A little over an hour ago, they approached a local gang and borrowed their equipment. Then the gang handed Hattie over to Eteon's men. I guess their goal was to make them think they had caught her, lower their guard, and thus make it easier for them to infiltrate."
"Oh, and it's especially worth mentioning that they also took a large amount of high explosives from the gang, enough to flatten the entire power plant. I still don't know how they plan to infiltrate it. Ron, do you know what their plan is?"
Marcus reported, pulling out a form he'd just obtained after speaking with the female gang leader. Interestingly, this female gang leader was not only Deckard Shaw's ex-girlfriend but also one of Orlov's strategic partners in the arms trade, which explained why everything was going so smoothly.
"Of course," Ron looked up at the patrol fighter jets flying overhead. "The ground defenses are too tight, and the drainage system is too dirty, so I guess they'll definitely come from the air."
"From the air?" Marcus looked up and saw two small black dots ejecting from a plane, and was immediately stunned. "What a crazy idea! I thought you were crazy enough, but your men are even crazier!"
"So, you see, compared to their infiltration methods, mine are utterly insignificant. My dear Marcus, why not let my precious little treasures out for some fresh air?" Ron spread his hands, trying to justify himself.
"No, you're all crazy!" Marcus glared at Ron, then helplessly pressed a button under the passenger seat.
The cargo hold behind him creaked open from both sides, revealing three menacing TOS-1A rocket launchers. These were new products Orlov had helped him acquire from the Russian mafia, intended for a major push in the international arms market, but Ron had beaten him to it first.
The TOS-1 self-propelled rocket launcher, developed by the Soviet Union in the late 1970s, is a heavy, long-range multiple rocket launcher equipped with incendiary and thermobaric warheads. It consists of 30 220mm rocket tubes in four layers, making its destructive power immense.
It can be equipped with special thermobaric ammunition, which, upon detonation, generates a large amount of high-temperature, high-pressure gas dozens of times greater than ordinary ammunition through a special catalyst within the projectile. This results in significant damage to personnel, vehicles, towns, and buildings in target areas, open terrain, and fortifications.
In actual use, a single TOS-1 launcher firing 30 rockets in a salvo can destroy a small village or a large cluster of targets in 7.5 seconds, truly embodying the Soviet Union's aesthetic of brute force. Ron possessed three of these systems.
Orlov originally intended to sell them to an African warlord, but Ron reasoned that it was better to give them to someone who could truly utilize their power than to let incompetent Africans use them to indiscriminately bombard the region.
"Marcus, let me confirm with you one last time. You weren't lying when you told me you had artillery experience, were you?"
"Of course not."
"OK." Ron jumped out of the truck and walked towards the truck behind. They had come in two trucks. "Then I'm relieved. You understand combined infantry and artillery tactics, right? That's what I need."
"Although the intelligence said Eteon had a small army here, and that's what we saw, in my opinion, they're just a bunch of bodyguards or thugs, not even as good as mercenaries. I don't think these half-baked guys know anything about real tactics. It's time we taught them a lesson."
Ron curled his lip, his words full of contempt for Eteon's forces.
Ron opened the rear door of the second truck. Inside, the powered armor that had appeared once before on another Russian territory was clearly visible.
Ron climbed into the driver's cab.
"Alright, let's begin!" The truck's rear hatch opened, and a power armored suit nearly two people tall sat up from the vehicle, then sped off towards the Eteon base.
"What the hell is that?!" The sentry at the base gate stared dumbfounded at the monster charging out of the birch forest, quickly nudging his companion beside him. "Quick, call for backup! Call for help!"
Before his companion could even pick up the phone, three rockets, accompanied by a hissing sound, streaked through the air and landed on their heads.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Explosions rang out simultaneously from multiple locations within the base. The two main gates, the parking lot, and several warehouses were hit. The immense pressure from the thermobaric warheads instantly destroyed all the facilities, let alone the two sentries.
The first round of operations was a success, and Ron rushed to the base.
Ron's plan was to proceed cautiously at the beginning, since he didn't know where Hattie would be held. He would only use rockets to seal off the front and rear exits of the base and destroy any visible vehicles.
Then, Ron would act as Marcus's eyes, while Marcus would aim and, guided by Ron, illuminate each pre-defined area of the base with firepower.
"Well done!"
"Shut up!" Ron shouted into the communicator. "Now set fire to A4, A6, B4, B5, and B6!"
Ron had just reached the base entrance when he was blocked by soldiers who had temporarily emerged from the power plant. Ron even saw two rocket launchers.
Although his power armor was sturdy enough, it was only relative to light weapons; he didn't think it could withstand anti-tank rounds capable of penetrating tank armor head-on.
Fortunately, he wasn't alone; he could call for fire support.
"Understood!"
Another whistling sound rang out as five rockets landed in an inverted "U" shape in front of Ron. A massive flash of fire immediately engulfed the previously arrogant soldiers, while Ron, standing in the empty space, was unharmed except for the screen being temporarily filled with flames.
When the fire subsided, not a single living person could be seen, only charred corpses littering the ground.
"What's going on outside?"
The burly black man Ron had met once before had just surrounded Hobbs and Deckard Shaw, who had illegally entered the base, and was about to start mocking them when the entire base suddenly shook violently. He immediately had a bad feeling.
"Maybe it's an earthquake. Why don't you put on a diaper and hide under a table so you don't accidentally wet your pants?" Hobbs mocked.
"Shut up! You idiot! It must be your doing!" The burly black man's eyes were full of venom. "You have people outside! Do you believe I'll kill you right now?"
Before he finished speaking, Hattie suddenly pulled out a dagger, pointed the blade at her neck, and said, "If you dare to kill him now, I'll die right here!"
The capsule can only be removed while the person is alive. Once the host dies, the only way to prevent the virus from spreading is to completely destroy her body. However, that would mean Eteon would never be able to obtain the virus again.
She believed the other party wouldn't dare to take that bet with her.
(End of Chapter)
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