Speaking of this, Ivan looked up at the sky, and after confirming that Patriot approved of his decision, he continued,
"I will go to Chernobog with Captain and the Rhodes Island group. I'll leave this place to you. You must protect the Infected here."
Hearing Ivan's words, Big Bob and Red both solemnly agreed.
Soon, several vehicles drove out of the ruined city, carrying Patriot's most elite Shieldguards. They would serve as the vanguard, opening the way to Chernobog for the Rhodes Island group.
Inside Chernobog at this time, W sat on a stool, looking at the intelligence in her hand. Ines and Hreid had already left Chernobog, the reason being that their leader, Garrison, had been harmed. When Theresis learned of this news, Garrison, as Theresis's adjutant, chose to return to Kazdel to face punishment.
Naturally, Ines, who was inseparable from him, chose to accompany him.
The intelligence in W's hand showed that after Reunion Movement occupied Chernobog, many new faces suddenly appeared. Of course, Talulah's explanation was that the unexpected deaths of Ino and Sasha and Lyudmila's serious injuries led to vacancies in Reunion Movement's senior leadership, so she temporarily promoted people to fill the gaps.
However, through her own observations and messages from her mercenary subordinates, she found that the behavior of these suddenly appearing "Reunion Movement" members was very regular and showed strong signs of militarization, which could not be achieved by ordinary people with simple training.
At this point, W suspected that Talulah was colluding with the Ursus government. The thought sent a chill down W's spine. As the supreme leader of the Ursus resistance, yet secretly colluding with the government, she couldn't even begin to imagine what was going on in Talulah's mind.
After some thought, W decided to strike first, using her Originium Arts and buried bombs to send Talulah to her demise.
Thinking of this, she picked up a piece of intelligence that had arrived from Lungmen through special channels. The intelligence indicated that Frostnova and Skullshatterer's operations in Lungmen had failed, and both had been "killed." Misha had not returned to Lungmen but had fallen into Rhodes Island's hands.
She planned to use this news as bait to lure Talulah into an ambush and then eliminate her in one fell swoop.
With this in mind, she immediately called a subordinate and told him to inform Talulah that she had the latest news about Lungmen and Misha, and to have her come to the lower level to get it.
Upon receiving W's message, Talulah showed a disdainful smile. She had, of course, investigated W, this Sarkaz leader who had risen unexpectedly after Garrison's death, and naturally knew that W harbored ill intentions. However, based on her own strength, she did not believe W could pose much of a threat to her, so she rejected the suggestion from the Ursus Third Army envoy beside her and personally went to the location W had indicated.
In her opinion, if W was willing to follow her plan obediently, then after her plan was completed, if she was in a good mood, she might even spare W's life. But if W intended to defy her, it would be a good opportunity to eliminate this last hidden danger in Chernobog and then take control of the Sarkaz mercenaries.
Just as the two met, the Rhodes Island group also arrived outside Chernobog. With the Shieldguards providing cover, the group successfully evaded Talulah's notice and infiltrated Chernobog.
Meanwhile, after a brief exchange in the trap W set, Talulah easily dismantled W's trap. Just as she was about to deal with W, she suddenly received news: the Shieldguards under Patriot's command had suddenly returned to Chernobog. The team was led by Patriot's adjutant, and there was no trace of Patriot or other cadres.
Hearing this news, Talulah couldn't help but frown. If she had to choose someone in the entire Reunion Movement who could truly affect her plan, it would be Patriot. That's why she had specifically used a feint, sending him to the ruined city as a transit point.
And Patriot had clearly guessed something, taking almost all of his personal guards and anti-war faction members with him when he left. Talulah did not stop him.
The two reached an unspoken agreement: Patriot would not hinder Talulah's subsequent plans, but Talulah would also allow those unwilling to continue following Reunion Movement's actions to leave.
But unexpectedly, at this critical moment, Patriot's subordinates suddenly returned to Chernobog. Both Talulah and Kashchey behind her couldn't help but ponder the meaning of this.
Was Patriot planning to renege?
While she was wondering, W took the opportunity to jump into Chernobog's lower district through the large hole created by the battle. Talulah, whose mind was preoccupied with Patriot's strange actions, no longer bothered with W, that little mouse, and returned to the top floor of Chernobog. She needed to gather more intelligence on this suddenly returned Shieldguard squad to prepare for Patriot's possible challenge.
At this time, Rhodes Island had already changed into Reunion Movement uniforms and successfully infiltrated.
However, they hadn't gone far when Sharp, the vanguard of the team, noticed something amiss. Chernobog, having been ravaged by the Catastrophe, and with all the pacifists having left, now only contained either the warmongers following Talulah or Refugees who hadn't managed to leave yet. Given that Talulah didn't care about the lives of the city's residents, the entire city should, in theory, be in a state of chaos.
But Sharp found that since entering, the entire Chernobog was in a state of ordered chaos, and in many places, highly professional defensive fortifications could be seen. Patriot had also said that these fortifications were not built by the guerrillas and looked very new. Therefore, they could only have been newly constructed by Talulah after Patriot led his people away.
But after Patriot left, there were no individuals among the remaining Reunion Movement members who were highly specialized in military matters. Moreover, Patriot, after just a few glances, keenly pointed out that the construction methods and forms belonged entirely to the techniques used by the Ursus regular army.
At this point, even Patriot himself was somewhat stunned. After all, this discovery proved one thing: there was a complete Ursus army present in Chernobog in addition to Reunion Movement.
It was certainly impossible for Talulah to be completely unaware of such a thing. And the fact that this army did not appear when Reunion Movement occupied Chernobog indicated that their mission was not to protect the city.
Recalling the Doctor's previous judgment and Patriot's own understanding of Ursus's internal affairs, he judged that this hidden force likely belonged to the noble faction. They intended to use Chernobog's collision with Lungmen to launch a surprise attack on Lungmen, thereby instigating a war between the two nations, allowing the warmongering noble faction to profit from it.
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