With Aziz's command in Arabic, a chained forklift tore a large hole in the belly of a statue, revealing a large box with a yellow and black radiation warning symbol inside.
Several terrorists stepped forward and bustled around, quickly lifting the box from the statue and placing it on a pre-prepared workbench.
As the lid of the box was opened and the lead seal broken, a cone-shaped object, approximately 30 centimeters in diameter at its thickest point and about a meter long, appeared before everyone.
It was the fairing of an AGM-86 air-launched cruise missile, or rather, the warhead. Although painted gray-black, the yellow and black radiation warning symbol on it was chilling.
However, what truly horrified Jack and Harry was the apparent opening of the outer fairing. Extending from the base of the warhead were several wires, not belonging to the warhead itself, connected to a control console with a display and keypad.
This was clearly not the configuration of a normal missile warhead, and there was only one possible reason for this: Dark Jihad had actually successfully modified it, bypassing the PAL system and its anti-tampering mechanism.
Aziz used a Geiger counter to confirm that the radiation was within a safe range, and with satisfaction, he touched this "big treasure" with his hands. Then, he waved to his men, "Bring them here."
Jack and the other three were pushed in front of the warhead. He asked triumphantly, "Do you two know what this is?"
This question was, of course, directed at Jack and Harry. Before Jack could even open his mouth, Harry spoke first, "Of course I do."
A smile crossed Aziz's face. This was precisely one of the reasons he had gone to such great lengths to capture Harry, to have this guy, clearly a federal agent, personally prove that he possessed a powerful weapon, and more than one.
But his smile froze the next moment as Harry continued, "It's an espresso machine. Oh, no, a shaved ice machine? Yes, that's right, it's a shaved ice machine."
Seeing Aziz slowly approaching with a sullen face, Harry, already bracing himself for a savage blow and then taking the opportunity to hold him hostage, continued to try to provoke him.
He'd even mentally planned his next move: dislocating his left thumb, instantly freeing himself from the handcuffs, then snatching the pistol from Aziz's waistband and pressing it against the man's head.
"Is this a water heater?" Harry's muscles tensed slightly, ready to strike.
Jack, receiving his eye contact, blinked repeatedly, finding his objections ineffective. He could only slightly sideways, shifting his weight towards Juno's position.
Juno, standing at the workbench, had an AKM at her fingertips. Only by holding her hostage and obtaining the weapon could he be sure of protecting Helen and Jessie in the chaos.
However, Aziz didn't lose his temper in the rage Harry had anticipated. Perhaps having seen this opponent's formidable character before in Washington, D.C., he subconsciously didn't want to get too close to this psychopath who'd jumped off a building on horseback to chase him.
He drew his dagger, grabbed Helen's hair, and pressed it against her neck. "Do you know why I wasted my time bringing you all here?"
Helen screamed, shaking her head frantically. Harry's face darkened.
Aziz answered himself, "Because I need your husband to prove to the world that the Dark Jihad possesses powerful nuclear weapons."
Helen was so devastated that she burst into tears. She still couldn't comprehend what had happened. "By God, he's just a useless salesman,"
Harry's face darkened.
Aziz applied pressure to the dagger, and Helen, feeling the pain, struggled to raise her head.
"You have one last chance. If you answer incorrectly, oh no,"
Aziz said, grimly glancing at Jessie, who was desperately trying to break free from the terrorists holding her. Perhaps because they felt neither woman posed much of a threat, neither Helen nor Jessie were handcuffed.
"I almost forgot you have a daughter, so you have two more chances."
Harry shook his head slightly, sighed, and finally gave in.
"This is a W-80 nuclear warhead with adjustable yield, mainly used for air-launched cruise missiles. The three in your hand should be the nuclear warheads on the ten AGM-86 air-launched cruise missiles that were lost during the Afghan retreat five years ago. They have an equivalent of 15,000 tons of TNT.
Later, the military recovered five of them, and the CIA intercepted the other two in Turkey, but it is obvious that was just a smokescreen you deliberately threw out."
Before Harry finished speaking, Jack sneered, "I have to say you did a great job, hiding the nuclear bombs in the looted ancient Persian artifacts and transporting them out of Greece.
Some countries obviously do not have the vision of the Syrians, and choose to send national treasures that have been engraved with their thousands of years of history to another ancient civilization for long-term exhibition to avoid war."
"I said you are an interesting FBI." Juno seemed to be completely unaware of the sarcasm in Jack's eyes as he looked at her, and was laughing uncontrollably.
She raised her chin towards Aziz, as if to claim credit. "Now you still question my decision to bring them all here? One of them is from the FBI, and the other is a federal agent. They'll be your best witnesses."
Unfortunately, Aziz ignored the madwoman and instead beckoned to his men, "Hurry and retrieve the remaining two nuclear bombs. We don't have much time."
"Don't you have anything to say to me?" Helen, regaining consciousness, seemed to suddenly understand everything. Tears welled in her eyes, but she looked at her husband as if he were a stranger.
"Yes, just as you thought, I'm a secret federal agent." Harry turned his head away from his wife's eyes, and the next moment, he was punched hard, falling to the ground in dismay.
"You bastard! You liar! Son of the Beach! You've deceived me for over twenty years, and you're still trying to deceive me!"
Only then did Helen piece everything together, including her daughter's strange behavior. Everything made sense now.
Thinking of all the fears and humiliations she had endured before, and even the humiliation of pretending to be a call girl last night, the feeling of being socially unwell in front of her family turned into double the anger, plunging her into complete hysteria.
"I'm sorry, dear." Poor Harry, all the injuries he had suffered so far were from his wife's attacks. Of course, this was not worthy of sympathy, as it was purely self-inflicted.
"Don't call me that again, you damned pig! You're an asshole!"
Poor Helen could only curse at him with these two sentences over and over again, her vocabulary was pitifully poor, and Jack and Jess, who were standing beside him, could only stare at each other in silence.
(End of this chapter)