At the moment the gunfire erupted, Gu Ji was already holding his gun, charging towards the burgundy MPV, firing fiercely while shouting.
The 56-type assault rifle, with a bullet velocity of up to 700 meters per second, could penetrate a 6mm steel plate at 100 meters, let alone a human body. Almost as he pulled the door open, the bullets he fired instantly shattered the glass of the airport doors, hitting the first thug completely.
Blood splattered out in bursts.
But the other police officers seemed slow to react for a moment. Only Jillian and Jamie moved quickly, confirming with their eyes that the thugs were armed before immediately joining in.
It wasn't until he shouted "Open fire" for the third time that these police officers raised their guns one by one. But by then, the driver had already snapped awake, slammed the gas pedal, causing the front wheels to screech against the ground with ear-piercing noise, roaring as they fled with plumes of smoke.
Suddenly, the gunfire ceased. Gu Ji quickly took out a magazine and changed it up swiftly, but the thugs' vehicle had already vanished from his sight. "Damn!"
The police didn't immediately follow his fire concentration, plus due to time constraints, many didn't fully load their magazines and ran out of bullets after only a few shots.
A perfectly good ambush opportunity wasted.
If over a dozen 56 rifles had fired simultaneously, creating a firepower net covering the MPV, the thugs would surely have been doomed!
"Ah——!"
"Run quickly!"
...
As soon as the gunfire stopped, the crowd immediately fell into chaos. Despite the frequent civil wars in Ethiopia, incidents of shootouts in the capital were still rare, let alone at an international airport.
"Quickly evacuate the crowd, gather the passengers to a safe location!"
Gu Ji, carrying his gun, returned to the hall, "Contact the control center. Have the Federal Police Station and the government army been called for support?"
"Con... contacted!"
An airport security officer stammered and quickly corrected, "But only the Federal Police Station was contacted, not the army..."
"Contact them immediately, these people are not ones regular police can handle!"
Gu Ji surveyed the area, "Who's the duty manager for the airport?"
"Me! It's me..."
At this moment, a middle-aged man of mixed race, dressed in a navy blue suit with brown skin and graying hair, hurriedly pushed through.
Confirming the silver badge on his chest, Gu Ji continued, "Turn off the annoying fire alarm, contact the surveillance center immediately, closely monitor all cameras inside and outside the airport. Give me a walkie-talkie, I need to be aware of the thugs' position at all times. Also, get me a copy of the airport's structural layout, quick!"
"Ah... okay!"
Gu Ji's voice wasn't loud, but his tone was cold and unyielding, easily getting the airport manager to comply with his instructions. The manager pulled a black walkie-talkie from his waist and handed it to him.
Observing from the side, Jillian noticed his swift and decisive command, indeed resembling a commander experienced in special or counter-terrorism operations, and couldn't help but ask, "Do you think the thugs will attack again?"
"There's a 90% chance they will; this round of ambush at most harmed two of them, and the evidence I hold is something they absolutely cannot let go of."
Mentioning "evidence," Jillian thought of those photos, "Mr. Song, we've already done as you asked. Now it's your turn to share the intel you have..."
Buzz~~~
Mid-sentence, the massive white ceiling lights in the atrium suddenly went out, plunging the entire terminal hall into dimness.
After a delay of more than a second, the white emergency floodlights on the walls lit up, mixed with the afternoon sunlight reflecting in from outside, it wasn't dark enough to obscure faces.
"The battle isn't over yet. Once this crisis is resolved, I'll give you what you want!"
Gu Ji's face twitched, not expecting them to be so impatient.
Indeed, given the involvement of arms dealers, hundreds of innocent lives, and even attacking a 4D international airport, it's clearly not a trivial case.
"Zizz, Command Center, this is the Control Room. A fault occurred in the power circuits of the airport's terminal building main substation. We are attempting a remote start of the backup power, but it's failed, likely needing manual activation. Currently, the airport is temporarily powered by the emergency generator!"
Soon, the walkie-talkie in Gu Ji's hand transmitted a report from the airport control room.
He promptly pressed the call button, "Surveillance Center, can you hear me? Have you noticed anything?"
"This is the Surveillance Center, we discovered a dark red MPV attacked the main substation and shattered the surveillance cameras. They are now moving toward the northern part of the terminal."
"Smart."
Gu Ji squinted his eyes.
Cutting the power, causing panic, disrupting visibility, the next step is...
In mid-thought, a barrage of gunfire suddenly erupted from behind. Everyone quickly turned back; it came from the security checkpoint, the domestic boarding gate!
Dadadada...
Bullets sprayed across, shattering the glass of the boarding gate, large shards falling to the ground, crackling like hailstones.
"Hurry! Get to the boarding gate immediately!"
A federal policeman hastily shouted, raising his gun to go support.
But he was promptly stopped by Gu Ji's sharp rebuke, "Don't rush too many people there. The thugs suffered trying to engage us head-on last time, resulting in casualties, and they don't have the firepower advantage. They are unlikely to attack directly from the first floor; it's a diversion!"
Here, his tone suddenly shifted. Picking up the walkie-talkie, he asked, "Where is your Surveillance Center located?"
"In... the northwest side of the terminal."
Just as expected!
After disabling the power, they circled from the north. The next step is to breach the surveillance center, knocking out their visual monitoring.
Never underestimate this point, in special counter-terrorism operations, intelligence is the primary element, and any excellent tactics are tailored according to intelligence; having a surveillance view is equivalent to enabling a "God's perspective" in a game, allowing continuous monitoring of enemy movements. As long as the firepower gap is not too disparate, it is entirely possible to remain undefeated.
Conversely, without a "view plug-in".
If the terrorists possess the airport building schematic and are proficient in CQB cooperative operations, they can almost move through the terminal "unhindered"!
"Everyone, immediately go to the police office to organize equipment. Felsen, arrange seven people to guard the boarding gates on the first and second floor, the viewing platform atrium on the second floor, and the airport hall on the first floor, to prevent breaking in through windows and doors on all sides; the remaining people, follow me to intercept the terrorists from the side."
After discerning the terrorists' next target, Gu Ji began to arrange, speaking extremely quickly.
Felsen stared wide-eyed, seemingly completely overwhelmed by this sudden appearance of an Asian. From the moment the terrorist attack was discovered at the power station until now, it had only taken five or six seconds for him to devise a detailed action plan. This experience was terrifyingly seasoned, so much so that he ignored how the counterpart had called out his name directly.
There are two police offices at Laird Airport, with each office manned by six Federal Police officers.
Excluding the personnel maintaining order and those assigned guard duties, the same few "old hands" still followed Gu Ji, except this time without Sam.
"Where should we begin the interception?"
In the police office equipment room, Jillian donned a bulletproof vest, loading magazines as she asked.
Gu Ji did not answer verbally but remained composed as he organized his gear.
Soon, a young security guy came running in, panting heavily, raising his phone and saying, "This... This is the fire map of the airport terminal captured by our duty manager. Do you think it's okay?"
Gu Ji took the phone and glanced at it. This fire map appeared to be a photo of a promotional board taken by the manager on some wall. Although it didn't indicate wall attributes, structure, thickness, etc., it at least clarified room functions, pipelines, drainage systems, and other critical elements.
To ensure a clear view of the boarding gates, airport terminals often use large floor-to-ceiling windows between the main entrance and the runway-facing parts, while the remaining areas are all brick walls.
Judging from the firepower setup displayed by the terrorists in the three rounds of fatal restarts, the most powerful was the 82-2 type grenade. They did not use high explosives or professional breaching tools.
Otherwise, in the second round at the security checkpoint, the terrorists would have installed C4 to blow open the non-load-bearing sidewall for a forceful breach instead of wasting time taking a detour through the ventilation ducts.
Thus, Gu Ji tended to believe they would infiltrate via the ducts.
But most of the airport's ventilation ducts are concentrated on the ceiling, and a few external wall ventilation openings are also blocked by sturdy steel mesh to prevent entry by stray animals.
Could there be no other infiltration points?
Gu Ji carefully enlarged the fire map and suddenly found a special room on the right: the garbage processing room!
In large public spaces like airports and malls, for easy centralized processing of multi-floor garbage, a special garbage processing room is usually set up, connected by a broad garbage chute.
He glanced again at the location of the garbage processing room, which happened to be near the monitoring center!
"It's here. They must be using the garbage chute to infiltrate!"
Putting down the phone, Gu Ji swiftly pulled back the bolt of the Type 56 rifle, scanning the crowd with a sharp gaze, "Is everyone ready?"
"Ready!"
Everyone responded in unison.
"Move out!"
At the command, Gu Ji immediately shouldered his gun, hugged the wall, and quickly moved toward the garbage processing room marked on the fire map.
Behind him, Jillian, Jamie, and then the guy with the afro along with some middle-aged police officers followed in line, with Felsen guarding the rear.
With different intelligence information, a different starting point, and different configurations of enemy and friendly firepower, Gu Ji developed two entirely different tactical styles.
At the early stages, when the enemy was strong and their ultimate goal was unclear, he primarily focused on survival and self-protection.
Since discovering the ultimate goal was "protecting airport passengers" in the second round, his strategy had to change; he could no longer focus on defense. Besides, the airport was too large, and there were too many vulnerabilities; he couldn't cover everything.
This round started well, not only injuring the terrorists but also concentrating all the police force within the airport under Gu Ji's command.
The balance of firepower between the two sides had inverted.
Therefore, he decided to take initiative, using offense as the best defense, ambushing the terrorists, and trying to prevent more civilian casualties.
Along the wall into the restroom corridor.
To not affect the aesthetics of the public areas, many airport offices and restaurant kitchens are actually hidden behind these public zones.
Gu Ji passed through the corridor and arrived at a beige anti-theft iron door marked "No Unauthorized Personnel Inside." Opening it with a loud creak, a slightly damp mildew smell immediately permeated the air.
Due to the collapse of the airport's electrical system, only the emergency power remained, so except for an emergency white light every ten meters, the only other illumination came from green glowing escape signs at the base of the walls.
A few seconds into the corridor, his pupils began to dilate, adjusting to the dim light.
Then, his waist talkie crackled, and the voice from the monitoring center came through, "The terrorists' vehicle disappeared from surveillance. The last location visible was at the northeast side of the terminal. Personnel got off the car, but they quickly broke the monitor, and the exact number of people wasn't clear."
"Quickly find a place to hide."
Gu Ji hadn't expected the terrorists to move so swiftly, and after a brief reminder, he switched the talkie to silent mode. Without tactical headphones, it was still inconvenient. "The terrorists probably have entered. Everyone be cautious, and especially pay attention to any sounds from above!"
Jillian looked up.
Gazing at the dark plastic ceiling, she immediately thought of the ventilation ducts inside, becoming tense at once.
If there happened to be a terrorist up there, a burst of gunfire through the plastic panel and duct metal would likely decimate everyone in the corridor.
Likewise, if they discovered the terrorist hiding in there first, the outcome would be the same.
This is CQB—the danger of Close Quarters Battle, because you never know if you'll encounter an enemy around the next corner.
Who lives and who dies.
Might only be separated by a few milliseconds!