Author's Note: I planned on uploading this earlier but priorities come first. Including when you come home from overseas for over a year. Anyway I did want to make this a more action oriented chapter but I chose a more straightforward approach. Sort of like a beginning of what Koko is building. Plus I also feel like a bit of a moron for not recognizing the ability to copy and paste translated text instead of typing it out and wasting time.
Chapter 43: The Angered Serpent
January 20th 2011 1500 Hours
Shanghai, China, Fengxian District, Koko's Safehouse
"Dangnan aemnsing thikoedkhum aetkhony phochai."
(So that's what happened. But I'm ok.)
No surprise on what came after that there was a massive amount of screaming from an angry wife on the other side of Mao's phone. He pulled his head away at the rapid fire accusations of Lao both out of embarrassment but also that his ear drums were partially ruptured from the sound of the explosion he was right next to when they breached the windows of our hotel. His ears were still a little sensitive.
"You could have used a better excuse man." I said with a deadpanned look.
"Hey you're the one that said make sure it's similar to what happened." He said with accusation.
"I didn't say that you needed to act heroic. An accident would have been fine."
He had woken up fully not too long ago. He looked sore as all hell but not so much that he still didn't want to try and help. Naturally though we told him to stay put cause he had three very important people he needed to talk to. And by "talk" I didn't mean boast that he had saved three people from a fire just as a gas line exploded. After a few more shouts and, from what I didn't need to figure out with the subtext, obscenities in Lao he addressed his wife in the same calm tone he had explained on what happened.
"Khony samad vaokab doknony daibo?"
(Can I speak to the kids now?)
…
"Hak chao khu kan."
(Love you too.)
I then left him to his conversation as I turned to Lutz and Wiley. While Lehm stayed behind to look after his friend at the safehouse and we were out planting that tracking signal they were looking up flight patterns of any choppers that were going to be flying over Shanghai. They actually came across something that was a little bit sketchy. Turns out there was a flight path that one was supposed to fly over Lake Tai. But from after some quick browsing from a hacked down looking weather satellite and comparing the time from last night, there wasn't one at all. Only problem though was that there wasn't any images where we could look over our hotel. Technology may be great but it can't do everything. It also didn't help that we didn't have one of HCLI's satellites over our head to help us out this time like our trips in Europe. For now we would have to rely on Minami on the other side of the planet.
The problem though was the waiting.
"A big plus out of this is that there weren't a lot of helicopter flights going around or over the city so the search will be kinda narrow."
As Lutz finished explaining what he and Wiley managed to scrounge up I wasn't really looking at him or paying attention. Instead I was looking out the window, it was beginning to snow again. Looks like the weakest part of that storm was about to hit the city. The real one was further inland.
But what I was really trying to do was to do my best to stop internally worrying about Sophia. I knew I had to stay as focused as possible so that I wouldn't make any terribly rash and stupid decisions or else I would have made the situation worse and I might make another mistake and lose her forever. What was excruciating was that my last image of her, besides being taken into a chopper, was her anger at me. This was a part of my curse of me simply existing. Every time I try to do something good, more often than not it winds up being worse. For both me and everything else around me, completely indiscriminate. This time though I was gonna fight against it, no matter what it decided to throw at me. I had no idea on what caused me to be this way but now I don't care. Whether it was when I started thinking for myself a lot more, my horrible luck, my training, my anger, or hell even my passion for wanting to make an impact on the world, I didn't care. I was going to win against this and continue to strive and be better than I once was.
…
But who the fuck was I kidding? How many times have I told myself that? How many times does it just really end with me killing tons of people? The first genuine loving relationship I've ever had with a woman in years and she gets taken from me. Because I helped her with her revenge. And I shouldn't have been taken in by Koko's charm. I wouldn't blame her but it was my fault Sophia got angry. My overblown selfishness and not thinking about the consequences had cause me more misfortune. Again.
"Hey. You paying attention? I asked you a question." Lutz said smacking me on the arm.
I needed a moment to myself when I was done talking to him.
"Sorry what is it?"
"I was saying that the little lady has been on her computer with Dr. Miami non stop since this started. You think this is part of her 'Theory'?"
I remembered from months prior during one of our card games, and when R was alive, I told them that she and her best friend were working on some sort of theory. Naturally, she never budged on what the hell it was. Even though this place was somewhat small she still found a spot she needed to be by herself. The door was open but she was still in the same spot for the last hour or so. Just typing away and talking to Amada in Africa.
"She won't tell me. That's the one stone I can't move out of the way."
I then grabbed my trench coat and decided to put some cold air in my lungs.
"Where you going?"
"Just outside. I need some fresh air."
I stepped outside a couple of yards from the building, I just wanted to feel the snow fall on me. I didn't really care that the temperature dropped to even lower than what it was yesterday. Classic gray overcast for when a blizzard rolls around. Our room was on the second floor of the four story building. So I had to walk out to where the cars were parked. Despite being in a type of suburban area it was also somewhat isolated. Nice pick for if you wanted to have a safehouse. Being away from everything but also give you extra space for if you wanted to make an escape. Plus it was quiet, no urban noise or even birds, just wind in the distance. It also looked like I was the only person outside, nobody on the streets or driving by. Obviously because no one would wanna be outside at a time like this. You'd have to be crazy, which I pretty much already am.
"Thought you said you hated the cold."
Once again I got lost in my thoughts. Which were still going a million miles an hour cause I didn't even notice Lutz walking up next to me.
"Still do. But this long ass search is driving me up the wall. I wish Koko would just tell me what the hell she's doing." I took a deep breathe but I shuddered when I exhaled. "I want her back."
Lutz knew I wasn't cold. He knew I was stressed and he wanted to help. He also knew that no matter what I would do to him he wasn't gonna leave me alone so I let him do what he needed to do.
"It's why we need you back inside man. You can't isolate yourself on something like this, we're a team remember?"
"Yeah yeah. Don't bother with the cheesy crap."
"We'll actually we need you inside cause you've been out here for awhile now man. Do you not see the amount of snow that's on you?"
There was actually a bit of build up on my shoulders and my head was feeling a little heavy. Upon shaking my head and running my fingers through my long hair I flicked out quite a bit of snow. Then after checking my watch I saw that I'd been out here for over an hour. But even after all of that I still wasn't level headed yet.
"Does it have to be now? Koko's the one really doing all the work."
He then smirked. "Being her personal plush toy will only get you so far."
I don't know why but I found some sort of self-pride in that. I made sure that he saw it in my somewhat overconfident grin looking down at him. While I was kinda forcing myself to stay focused, busting HIS balls out of everyone else's never got old.
"Ugh. Why did I have a feeling you'd take that as a complement?" He said disgusted.
"You know being a sniper means you have to have the best senses out of all of us. Sight especially." I said pointing two fingers to my eyes. "How have you not seen that you have to watch what you say around me yet?"
His frown then turned neutral and he then looked ahead as if he was remembering something nostalgic.
"Did you know I almost lost my sight permanently?"
My proud look then turned to shock. I never really thought much of it when I first noticed it when we first met other than it being a bit deep. Karl and I shared a few funny life stories this past year but nothing as tragic as almost losing the ability to see. It was weird seeing that despite being involved in some of the shady things Koko had done he had lived what one would call the most "normal" life out of all of us.
"How the hell did that happen?"
"See this scratch on my left eye?" He said pointing at it while I nodded. "It's WAY older than it looks."
"Wait if you almost lost your sight, why does your other one look normal?" I said with an eyebrow raised.
"I'm getting to that! Have a little patience!" He then cleared his throat and began. "I was five years old when my Opa started to take me on his hunting trips. Naturally I wanted to do what he did cause it looked like hunting was fun. Of course grown ups always tell children that you have to wait until you're older. And in the process children don't always listen and there's always a consequence. Since we always got up early I figure that was the right time to try and impress him by practicing what he did or I should rather say I tried to imitate what he was doing. I took his hunting rifle and a few bullets out of his closet without waking him up and went outside with a few empty bottles and cans to practice on. Opa was left handed so I thought that's how you used a rifle. Since I was kinda winging it on how to use it I had a problem trying to line up my shot on a bottle through the scope so I put my eye up to it to see better. While also tucking the stock under my arm and not my shoulder because I could barely hold the thing."
This was something that wasn't supposed to be funny but I had a little difficulty controlling my laughter and doing my best not to smile. I knew what was gonna happen next. Sort of like those kinds of "Fail" videos you see on the internet all the time. I held my tongue though on asking him what happened after the gun recoiled back into his face. It wouldn't have been appropriate anyway because he did almost go blind.
"So after the damn thing blasted back into my left eye the recoil knocked me off balance and as I fell to the ground I landed on my face but my right eye landed directly on a rock. I was screaming and crying on the ground for God knows how long until I heard my Opa's voice. After screaming at me on what the hell I was thinking he wrapped his shirt over my eyes, carried me to his truck and sped towards the nearest hospital. I woke up the next day with a massive headache and my eyes felt like were dug out of my skull with rusty plyers. Since I didn't know that they were covered in bandages naturally I started freaking out that I was now blind until I heard my parent's voices. At first they said they were glad I was alright, but when I heard my father's calm tone and my mother's silence that was normally when they were beyond furious. "
"I take it that this was probably gonna be the first stage of your punishment until your sight came back?" I asked not in a condescending way but a way that I felt sorry for him.
He then let out a deep exhale through his nose. The cold air freezing it as it drifted away.
"Well let's just say that in due time my hands were a lot more calloused than other boys my age and my clothes were never dry at the end of a the day."
"Harsh. How long were your eyes wrapped up?"
He then looked up to the sky guessing the number. "Neither one of them were ruptured but the lens's suffered some bad trauma. It was two weeks, give or take a day. The scope did more damage surrounding my left eye because it pulled back a piece of skin. The doctor's said that I was lucky that one didn't get cut open."
A shout then came from a New York Italian accent behind us, cutting off the story.
"Hey! You two gonna be out there all day!? Get the hell up here, Koko's got something!"
We both looked at each other and silently agreed that the rest of the story would have to wait. We then hustled back up to the room. While being careful not to slip on the ice under the snow. No sense in falling down some stairs and breaking our necks just cause we had a beacon of hope.
As we entered the room though everyone was gearing up for a fight. Once again Karl and I looked at each other and let instinct kick in but my first destination was not to my rifle but to Koko. She was packing up all of her things, meaning we weren't coming back here.
"Where is she?" The only question I needed an answer to.
"Minami and I have been monitoring the comm lines we came across and intercepted a communique. Two PLA helicopters took off from the base in Nanjing, so far they haven't changed their route. But they got a little careless in what they were transmitting."
"Keep talking." I said as I went towards my own gear and started loading up.
"They were a little too proud in their success, and also a little rude. They said that a cycloptic, angry, super lesbian is making them very irritated. No exaggeration."
She found her. I had no idea how in the absolute fuck she did it but she found her. Just when I thought Koko couldn't pull off any more miracles she brings out another. As I made sure all of my magazines were fully loaded and my optics had fresh batteries I couldn't help but smile. Cause now the MSS was about to have a very agitated Green Beret tear through them like Sherman through Georgia.
"Well it now appears that their irritation is about to get even worse cause they decided to make a very poor decision to take what was not theirs."
As I was getting ready I was slightly dipping into my well of hate. But I stopped myself before I went any further. I had to keep myself under control because if I made a mistake on this one it would cost Sophia her life. I knew this had to be a test, whether it was divine or not, that was I worthy enough to forgive myself and redeem my sins.
I remember once from when I got my first tattoo on my back. It was a long, painful, and also expensive processes. But I understood why I got it. It was a time when I actually had some kind of faith before my life went to shit.
My grandfather on my mothers side was a Reverend. Robert Laverty was a man that was a bit too conservative in his thinking and didn't like the idea of new things or how an individual would express their opinions. His wife and my grandmother, Tiffany, shared some of the same traits. He was a truly kind soul that almost never swore, drank, or smoked. But he was also a bit of an idiot. Because he thought rock 'n' roll was Satan's music, skirts that went above the knees signified a woman as a whore, and a woman's naked body was evil while in school history textbooks it was ok to see a police chief execute a man in the street during the Vietnam War. So it was kind of self-explanatory why my mom ran away from them when she was sixteen and drifted around parts of Florida and into Georgia doing odd jobs until she met my dad when he came to eat and the restaurant she was waiting tables at. Growing up she avoided talking about her parents altogether, I never thought they were that controlling over their own daughter. I actually didn't even formally meet them until I was nine and needless to say it was a bit awkward for her and dad. But the reason for that though was because that was when my mother first found out that she had cancer and what type it was. Knowing her time was short, and having realized that when you get older you learn a bit, she wanted to make peace with her parents.
It was slow at first but after seeing their own child become more and more frail it dawned on my grandpa Robert that he let himself be taken over by ignorance and prejudice. Something that is greatly frowned upon if you claim to be a servant of God. But what led him and my mother to forgiving each other and him to open his mind to other things was when I glanced at the Bible he always carried with him. I asked him that isn't all paths of wisdom peaceful? He knew what I was quoting and saw what point I was trying to make and he looked right at my mother with a great sense of pride.
"You're a better parent than I ever was."
After she passed away my life soon drifted back into being average boy and teenager. With the exception of his father being a Green Beret and his son becoming a man standing above other men. It was just on the cusp of me being ready to head off to West Point and I wanted to get something special from a few inspirations Grandpa Robert told me on strength and courage. So after I scrounged together enough money and found a few times when dad was gonna be home late, I took a trip out to Manassas and found a good tattoo artist. At the time it helped inspire me to become great. But I didn't realize it was leading me in being great in terrible things. And during my travels throughout the world as a mercenary I saw time and time again how fruitless faith can be when compared to man's desire to destroy others and itself in order to gain more. Not to mention that I forgot that some of the most bloodiest wars in history were religious ones.
I'm not faithless but I know that God's not gonna come down at tell me everything's going to be alright and solve my problems. And he's not going to come save Sophia. I'm going to fix myself my own way and I'm getting her back. I will have to live with what I've done. I will live it with my new friends and family. I pray that I'll do good and kick the shit out of the bastards that took the woman I owe my life to.
My combat gear was fully loaded up and the rest of the team had finished packing as we headed out to the cars and then made a hasty dash in where I assumed we were heading north. Further into the blizzard that was coming down. Since it was almost evening it was starting to get dark rather fast because of the overcast. I was in the first car with Tojo, Wiley, and Lutz while the rest followed.
"Ok Koko freeway's coming up. Where we heading?" Tojo asked on his radio.
"Xishan District. I traced the origin of the message to an old coal delivery yard for a power plant. But those Army helicopters are getting there quicker than I thought. Punch it Tojo!"
"Ha! Ha! You heard the little lady! Let's run some red lights!" Ugo said rather enthusiastically.
Tojo did exactly what she said and started going faster while weaving around the car's ahead of us. The freeway had already been salted and plowed but he was still taking extra care not to fishtail. While speed was priority it wouldn't mean a damn if we crashed before we could get to our objective. That wasn't the only thing we had to keep an eye out for.
"Koko. Just want to ask, what happens if I see blue lights in the rear view mirror?"
There was a slight pause before she answered.
"I'll leave it to your discretion Damien."
"Then we'll have to take them out all at once before they can call for back up." I said looking directly ahead at my objective and nothing else.
No one was gonna get in my way from her and live. It also wasn't the first time I killed police officers.
"Hey Damien, you ok man?"
I looked at Lutz in the rear view mirror is face was that of concern. To be fair he did have the right to be. But I was about to take my anger out on the same assholes who shot me, split Koko's head open, kidnapped Sophia, and damn near took Mao away from his family. So no I was not ok.
"Since we have a bit of time. What happened after your eyes fully healed?"
I addressed the question in a calmer manner and he at least he believed I was focused so that was enough for him.
"I wasn't actually allowed to go back to see him for a couple of years." He then stared out the window as a passing car blared it's horn. "My mother was furious at him that he actually still had a gun of any kind in his house. She even went so far as to call him a hypocrite after telling her no matter what happens that she should lead the most peaceful life she could. And I'm not gonna insult your intelligence as to why he told her that."
As he looked at me, he knew what I was thinking about. Whether it was West or East, everyone in Germany suffered after it's crushing defeat after the Second World War. The exposure of the war crimes committed by the Nazi's was just the first of many tragedies that fell upon the German people. Over seven million people were killed during the war and another two million had died in the years following the expulsion of German citizens from the countries they occupied. Most of its cities were in ruins and millions more were homeless. The brutality that the Nazi's inflicted on their occupied territories were returned with equal measure. The Soviets were exceptional in this with the widespread amount of rapes their troops committed on German women and not to mention that East Germany was just turned into another of their satellite states instead of being rebuilt. The cherry on top, the East and West's systematic intellectual brain drain of the country to advance their Cold War weapons stockpiles. If anything Lutz was lucky in the time he was born. His country had finally begun to unify itself.
"So when'd you go back to see him again?"
"Other than his visits when my parents allowed him, it was about eight years later. When I was at least big enough to properly use a rifle. I asked him straight up if he could teach me how to properly hunt. And when he asked why, my answer changed. So I could perfect my patience and not be afraid of the accident that happened to me. On the first deer hunting trip we took, it was like all the things we used to talk about just felt to me like instinct. Come to think of it, it was snowing pretty bad like it is right now. He didn't even see the deer I was aiming at in the white out." He then looked down to his go-to rifle, a while ago he corrected me that his R93 was made by Blaser and not Sig. "After he cursed me out for shooting it without warning him I ran to it and called him over. Judging from the size of the damn thing it had to be an alpha of a heard. Oh God! If you saw the look on his face it was like someone took a major piss in his coffee!"
The car then let out a combination of bursts and restrained laughs. The Tojo and Wiley did their best to ignore the sentimental conversation between me and him but that last part was kinda funny.
As we got closer to our destination the snow fall had become more moderate but it was also getting darker. It appeared that it was after sundown but it didn't matter with that heavy grey overcast. We were lucky that the police weren't following us after breaking about several dozen traffic laws. But what we were following appeared to be a set of railroad tracks next to the highway. Since Sophia's location was near a power plant, we were coming up on an industrial section of the city. We were getting close, so I took my band out of my jacket pocket and wrapped up my ponytail. The band was wrapped around Sophia's knife, she was gonna wanna use this when we broke her out.
"Guys."
While getting their attention I put my radio on the dashboard. I didn't want Koko to hear.
"I'm not leaving without Sophia. Y'all do know what that means right?"
The silence was expected, if we didn't execute this properly or if we took too long we'd be utterly boned. Going into direct conflict with the Chinese Military would mean they would throw everything they had at trying to find us or kill us. Raids are granted on the level of the element of surprise, the MSS and their PLA counterparts would have no idea that they were tracked down by us in that short amount of time. No one would be bold enough, or even stupid enough, to take on a major world power head on.
But I seriously doubt that who we were about to go up against had come across a man that confronted the Central Intelligence Agency head on, beat them, and lived. Not to mention that they took someone that was precious to me.
I had already realized on how much of a fool I was for thinking with my ego and not my head. In the last thirty six hours I've had more than enough time to determine the fact that I can no longer deny the feelings I truly have for Sophia. But I'm absolutely terrified of telling her what I need to tell her. The violence that has consumed my life is still burning strong and this was part of my unbelievably shitty luck. I get something great and just whenever I develop a bond with it, it gets taken away and that might happen tonight. If I fail at this, this is the end of the road.
It was a good twenty seconds before I felt a firm grip on my shoulder, Karl was squeezing it from the back seat.
"We ain't losing her man. This one's for you and the little lady."
I smirked back at him. He was also right, I had to stay positive and I don't intend on losing.
Hang on Sophia.
1904 Hours
Xishan District
Two Mi-17 transport choppers were ten minutes out from Kang's position. The snow storm had only minorly delayed their flight but they managed to make up for their lost time. They were transporting a detainment crew and security detail in both choppers, his own Z-9 was being prepped for take-off. He and half of his team would fly back ahead of the rest since their objective had been accomplished. Their prisoner, still with untreated injuries and exhausted from lack of rest, was awaiting to be carried off to her fate. The MSS team lead was over watching his team prepare for extraction in an old warehouse that was once used for processing coal shipped in from the country side. Regardless of the fact that they were still in their home country, there was a level of secrecy that had to be maintained. Intelligence agencies around the world have done this exact same thing. If you wanted to catch an internationally wanted criminal, terrorist, and the like, you don't advertise the fact that your looking for them or that you were even there.
"Wu, wo yao likai nile. Ni zhidao gai zuo shenme." Kang said checking his watch.
(Wu, I'm leaving you in charge. You know what to do.)
"Shì de xiānshēng. Dāng wǒmen de jiēsòng dàodá shí, wǒmen jiāng chāichú zhège tiězi bìng zhǔnbèi hǎole."
(Yes sir. We'll have the post dismantled and ready to go when our pick up arrives.)
Kang then put on his winter coat and made off to his chopper with the half of his team that was ready. Their rifles, kits, and surveillance gear put away in their carrying cases and tote bags. To them, their mission was accomplished. Even though it was night the amount of snow on the ground had illuminated the world in a sea of faded white. The storm was rather gentle, except for the choppers blades causing massive wind gusts and blowing snow everywhere. While Kang shielded his face from the wind he looked to his pilot and gave the signal to take off.
1911 Hours
Before they had split up Damien had loaned Lutz a hard case with a scope inside of it. A specialized thermal scope, ideal for snipers and perfect for night missions. Even better since the environment would give them away pretty easily. He said he would buy him one if he managed to score a head shot from that far out. But he was a little hesitant on Damien placing a bet that involved a man's life. He brushed it off hoping he'd wasn't being serious.
"Visual on multiple contacts exiting the two story warehouse. Looks like they're about to depart." Lutz said to his earpiece.
Lutz, Mao, and Koko were hunkered down on the roof of a coal breaking building 900 meters away. Mao was acting as Lutz's spotter this time around. Even with his injuries he still wanted to help. Koko was acting as the tactician from under a thermal blanket so that the light from her laptop wouldn't give away their position. One of HCLI's down looking satellites were finally in orbit above them. Giving her a clear view of the battlefield.
"I still got multiple heat sources from inside, along with one signature that hasn't moved in the last few minutes. That has to be her. Lehm, are you tracking?" She said.
"I hear ya boss. We're already double timing it." He said slightly short of breath.
"They still have two sentries posted outside the perimeter. Watch yourselves."
"Copy that."
Lutz could hear the chopper's engine from afar but Damien, Ugo, Tojo, Wiley, and Lehm were closer to notice a difference.
"Lutz I hear that chopper cranking up the horsepower! They ain't leaving are they!?" Damien said in a worry.
"It is but they're not taking Valmet with them. Looks like some decided to bug out early. They still have a few car's parked nearby. Maybe by road?"
"Ugh. Don't really matter I suppose. We just gotta grab her and go."
"Damien! Not all of us are Bo Jackson! Slow down!" Ugo whisper yelled through the line.
Mao then focused his spotters scope on the team on the ground moving along the railroad tracks bounding along old train cars. But the point man was continuously moving forward, just barely stopping to take cover behind the cars. Honestly, he couldn't really tell him to wait for everyone else. He didn't have the right because if his own family was in that position, he'd be the first one into the fire without hesitation.
1915 Hours
Faster! Faster! FASTER! Come on you dumb son of a bitch she's right there!
I was fully outfitted for this one. Only thing that was different from my original kit and loadout was that I didn't have my 416 with me and I was using my ACR. Each one of us, minus Ugo and his Mk46, had our suppressors screwed on.
The snow had piled up quite a bit on these old train tracks, so sprinting there was getting to be rather difficult. Couple the fact that my thigh was screaming in pain but as long as the wound didn't open back up I could give a fuck. As we approached the outside of the warehouse I saw through the green world of my NVG's the chopper begin its ascent and then it took off into the night. During that instance I took a brief moment to analyze the layout of the warehouse while waiting for the chopper to put a decent distance between it and ourselves. The two spots that were guarded were completely open with no cover and the sliding doors to the train tracks were boarded up tight. But the over hanging roof that led out to the tracks had a set of windows that were on the second floor. We could hit them from two spots and escape quicker. Using our silent hand gestures I motioned that I would take the high ground and I would signal when the rest would hit the sentries outside. But Lehm stopped me before I could go, motioning to not enter the building by myself. I didn't have time for this shit so I broke noise discipline out of spite.
"I got this just make sure I don't get hit in the ass." I whisper yelled.
Lehm tried to get me to stop but I didn't care. I bolted to the train car that was nearest to the building and began my ascent being extra careful not to cause noise on the old metal roof leading to the windows, gun up and at the ready. The old windows were pretty flimsy so I managed to open one without using too much force or noise but due to my large size it was a tight squeeze. It was dim enough that no one would notice me though, since we saw from a distance before we began our approach that only certain parts of the place were lit. The room I entered was totally bare so I didn't know where I was in accordance to the building layout. But I had an eye in the sky that could point me to where I needed to go. I hunkered next to the only door in or out and put my finger to my earpiece.
"Koko, I'm in on the second floor. Where do I need to go?"
"I count seven heat signatures inside not including you. Most of them seem to be in the northwest corner of the warehouse but there's two on the south east. That's where she's at."
"Got it. Lehm wait for my signal and then take out the sentries and breach. I'll hold position until you give the all clear."
"Got it kid." He said in his bored annoyed tone.
I saw that there was slight light coming from behind the door so I flipped up my NVG's on my helmet and went through the fatal funnel with less hesitation than I realized. After slowly opening the door I saw that I was back out in a hallway that wrapped around the inside of the building, it also gave me a layout of the bottom floor. It looked like they finished packing up and it was pretty open except for a few old empty crates. They'd have good interlocking fields of fire, plus they still didn't know we were here.
"Guys you got five hostiles on the ground floor level. I can see that three still have their rifles on them but I can tell that rest are armed as well. Make sure-"
It was pretty quiet out tonight, so much so that I could here the traffic of the city miles away. But what did cut through the air was the sound of rotors and I knew which ones they were. I then saw one of them down below get on their radio.
"Oh damnit." I then shuffled forward a bit faster while getting back on my own radio. "Koko, tell me you hear that?"
"I already got visual Damien." It was Mao. "Two PLA transport choppers are inbound ETA…uhh…sixty seconds at least!"
"Shit! Am I still heading in the right direction? It's only one way."
"Keep going Damien. You'll come up right to them." Koko said guiding me with her computer.
It was time to make another gamble. We were out of time.
"Lehm! Hit 'em!"
I then sprinted around the corner to the lone door at the other end of the hallway. I don't if he heard me or if the first shots were fired but making sure that she was safe was what mattered. Going full steam I put my boot against the door at the last second flinging it open. It wasn't really the most tactful way or hell even the proper way but as I was doing it there were shouts of Chinese on the floor below me. That didn't concern me now as the moment I bursted through the door I ran into a body, Sophia's lone guard. It didn't look like he was armed but he was so close to me I couldn't raise my weapon and I had no time to go for my knife. So after I shoved him off I got behind him and put him in a choke with my dominant hand on his throat and began to squeeze with all my strength.
This is what they deserved for taking Sophia from me. They made something I was trying to fix worse. They were gonna try and take away one of the few good things that had finally happened to me ever since I started down on this dark path. I will slaughter anyone that tries this to me or my family.
This is what Koko meant by using that anger I have to take it out on those that truly deserved it. Gritting my teeth I was actually lifting the man off the ground in my choke, he was desperately trying to claw at me or find some way to break my grip. At the same time below I then heard gunshots, Lehm and the guys had started their breach. The guard then started to let out some very painful gurgles and for a peculiar reason the tension on where I was grabbing him was loosening. That's when I knew I could finish him off and I ripped the flesh from off of his neck and dropped his body on the floor with a metallic thud. Blood pooled from him as he succumbed to the shock of massive blood loss. As I stood dominantly breathing hard over my defeated foe, I remembered I was still holding a bloody piece of him in my gloved hand and dropped it. I then heard a weak and somewhat incoherent voice.
"Damien?" She said with a rasp.
Snapping me back to reality I saw Sophia in a corner on a chair cuffed up to a pipe. Her face covered in cuts and bruises and her clothes torn. She looked like she was running on fumes as well as she looked like she could barely keep her eye open. I rushed to her and got face to face with my hands on her bloody cheeks.
"It's okay. It's okay. I'm right here. This ain't no bad dream. I'm taking you home."
Her gold eye finally realizing it was me instantly changed from exhausted defeat to overjoyed determination.
"Don't start with the sappy reunion shit." She said short of breath. "Get me out of these things."
I then went back to the now pale dead guard and searched his pockets. I found the cuff key and then undid her restraints. We had already run out of time, but now this was the point where we had to wing it. I heard what was fast approaching the old coal processing plant. Even if we ran now, they would find the bodies, they would radio in even more reinforcements, and they'd have control over the air. We'd been lucky so far but if we didn't make a stand now we'd never even make it out of the city, much less the country.
And all of this just because of a single fucking computer program.
"Damien. Were clear down here." Wiley said on the radio.
"Yeah I hear ya. Comin out now." I then reached into my cargo pocket. "I believe this belongs to you?"
She then stood up in a bit of a painful way but she took it with a smile and fastened it to her belt. But as she tried to walk, her legs looked like they gave out on her and I caught her. It appeared she felt worse than she looked.
I then let Sophia's weight fall on my shoulder and I helped her out the room and down the metal staircase to where the rest of the team was at. She could walk but she was exhausted and her legs were numb from being in the same spot for God knows how long. As we got to the ground floor Ugo and Wiley were covering the doors while Lehm and Tojo looked like they were waiting for us.
"Glad to see your still in one piece." He then got on his radio. "Koko, she's alright."
I just realized I DID just find her and I didn't call it in. I felt like an idiot.
"Thank God. But you guys aren't out of the woods yet."
"We know they're right on top of us but I don't think they know what's happened yet."
The PLA choppers had touched down and there was a Chinese voice on one of the radios. It was coming from one man that apparently was shot in his left eye through his glasses. Probably asking where the hell their delivery boys were. Tojo, being only one at the time that spoke the language, got on a dead MSS agents radio to let them know the prisoner was on her way out and they were going to get her. We needed to act fast.
"So? What now kid?" Lehm asked in a rare frustrated tone telling me that we were trapped.
We had no choice, we had to take them all out at once and catch them off guard as well. Looking around and doing my best to remain calm while figuring out how to do that I saw that one of the dead agents was a woman. She was no where near Sophia's size but I had to take the chance that the prisoner they were going to extract was a woman and that they didn't know what she looked like.
"Ok here's the plan. Sophia, get undressed."
I probably shouldn't have said that part of the plan first as everyone looked at me with a raised eyebrow. No doubt Lutz, Mao, and Koko were wondering what the hell I was leading into.
"Uhh…can you repeat that Damien?" Sophia said baffled on what she thought I had in mind.
I continued explaining despite the wrong way I started off saying what my plan was.
"All we need to do is just hand them a woman so we can catch them off balance. Tojo, Wiley, I'm sorry but I'm gonna have to use you guys as decoys, it WILL be danger close. Take off your kits and put on the gear of one of these guys that's got the least amount of blood on it, take their weapons too. Wiley put on a ski mask to hide your face. I'll fire off the first shot with my grenade launcher and ground one of the birds then the rest of you light up anyone standing. Lutz, I'll reload fast but if the other bird starts to take off, aim for the cock pit."
Out of lack of anyone else having a plan we got to work.
And gave Sophia as much privacy as we could. But I had to help her since it looked she was in a little more pain than she normally took. When she took off her torn sweater the further abuse she suffered gave me even more of an excuse to turn these fuckers into mulch.
"Just one question Damien. Why do I gotta go out with Tojo? I don't speak, much less even look, Chinese!"
"Hey! I'm coming up with this shit on the fly! Plus not to make you look inadequate but you're the smallest out of all of us. Unless you know of any other Asian people that's damn near over six feet and change?"
"You're lucky my height is the only thing that concerns you."
After working as fast as we could the PLA troop commander outside was getting impatient. Tojo got back on the radio and told him they were coming out now. Good thing though was that the MSS agents wore almost the same type of casual garb we did but all we needed them to do was be distracted for a moment. Both choppers were on the ground side by side, so I aimed my grenade launcher at the one on the right since Lutz would have no shot. As much as Sophia wanted to jump right back into the fight, she was in no condition to do such thing as I took away Wiley's rifle as Ugo, Lehm and Me lined up our shots.
"This ones on me." I said wiping her face with the sleeve of my windbreaker jacket. Her gold eye looking at me with sincerity.
"Damien…"
"No." I stopped her. "Not now, tell me when we're far away from here."
As I looked back outside from inside the warehouse, everything looked smooth so far. They didn't notice we were aiming at them through the large open doorway. And Wiley and Tojo had dragged the dead woman's body to the PLA officer there. The noise of the helicopter rotors drowning out all the surrounding noise so we only had visual on what was happening.
Come on. Take the bait.
The PLA retrieval team had then taken the "unconscious" woman to their chopper and turned their backs to us. Tojo and Wiley fell to the snow, that was the signal.
THWUMP! BOOM!
"FIRE!"
As the cockpit of the first Mi-17 blew apart and began to burn Tojo and Wiley concentrated their fire on the cockpit of the other chopper with their stolen Chinese assault rifles while the rest of us kept them covered from the warehouse. As I managed to reload my second grenade I took aim to ground the other bird. But I saw one of them toss something in the direction of the Chinese Hip, three seconds later…
BOOM!
The blast was much larger than my grenade, but then I remembered who the hell was out there. Only he would be crazy enough to put himself that close to a demo charge and let heavy and sharp debris rain down around him. I slightly felt bad for Tojo being out there. I hoped there wasn't yellow or brown snow out there. As the engine from the other chopper began to fizzle out since all of its fuel was burning, Tojo and Wiley stood up and made our rallying gesture to make sure we were clear. I motioned to Lehm for us to move up while Ugo stayed with Sophia.
"Mao, Lutz, there anything that survived those blasts?" I asked on my radio while advancing.
"Hold up one second Damien."
After a brief pause there were two shots in the distance followed by a single sharp scream.
"Your clear."
The four of us made our way to the back of the burning birds. The shrapnel from Wiley's C4 charge mangled the inside of his chopper while there were several body's at the rear ramp of mine. But then we heard a voice coming from one of the dead agents radios, it was coming from a man with half of his skull gone. Looks like I had to buy Lutz that thermal scope I promised.
"Yǒurén huídá wǒ!" It said with urgency as I tore it off of his kit.
(Somebody answer me!)
"You listening you stupid fuck?" I said in an angry growl.
"Who are you?" He said in English and me not caring.
"You will not come for us ever again. You will not come for HER ever again. Death will be merciful if you do."
I threw the radio in the snow as it still wanted to try and figure out what was happening. I then got on my own.
"Koko, were clear. Let's get the fuck out of here. They managed to get one message out."
"We're on our way Damien. Sit tight and don't worry about it. And give the radio to Valmet please."
I saw Ugo walking towards us with the extra weapons and Valmet on his side. I met him half way and gave Sophia my earpiece while he gave Wiley and Tojo their weapons back giving us a bit of privacy.
"Hey Koko. I'm sorry they-"
"Don't you dare apologize." She said cutting her off. "This has been twice now that you've scared the living daylights out of me. Cut it out, you're so mean!"
Busting her chops seemed to let her know that she was glad she was alright. We both couldn't help but smirk.
"I'm sorry anyway. Are we going home now?"
"We'll talk later. Our transport is waiting for us. We're leaving China, NOW! And I'll make sure that no one follows us."
I raised my eyebrow. I knew that was part of the plan but not that soon.
1957 Hours
Skies Over Shanghai
Absolutely flabbergasted on what had just transpired, Kang was in a bit of a panic on trying to reorganize a method to find whoever was responsible for leaving a portion of Shanghai like the aftermath of a warzone. As well as appalled that someone had the audacity to tell him that they could do whatever they wanted and saw him as inferior. Sitting in the co-pilots seat he was in a visual rage as his pilot kept going in the direction of the city after turning around hearing the panicked chatter on the radio earlier.
But what was weird was that except for some short burst on the local channels they couldn't send out any info on their encrypted network. It was like they weren't there. They would at least be able to filter out where the origin of a signal jammer was but it appeared that it was within their own system and the signal wasn't getting any weaker or stronger. It was only maintaining the ability to mute them.
"Nǐ yǒu méiyǒu shèfǎ liánxì rènhé rén!?" He shouted to the back of the cabin to anyone in particular.
(Have you managed to contact anyone!?)
"Chúle jǐ gè dāngdì de jǐngchá píndào, wǒ shènzhì wúfǎ chóují zǒngbù." One of the remaining agents said.
(Other than a few local police channels, I can't even raise headquarters.)
He then turned back to see the city coming up. He went back to his phone to try and radio whatever local assets he could reach.
Wǒmen de xìnhào shì rúhé bèi kǎ zhù de?
(How is our signal being jammed?)
"Zhè shì kāngshǎowén de tègōng. Guójiā ānquán bù jiàndìng èr hào sìbāyī líng jiǔ. Nǐ zhǎodàole fúhé wǒmen mǒu xiē táofàn miáoshù de rén ma?"
(This is Special Agent Kang Shaowen. MSS ID number 248109. Have you located anyone that has matched our description of certain fugitives?)
His mission still relied on secrecy, he couldn't just put out that a group of dangerous terrorists was taking on the MSS and beating them. The same repetitive static began again on the other end but there was another officer on the line. It was a different one almost every time. So it was becoming annoying that he had repeated the same introduction five times already.
"Zhè shì wǔ gè xúnluó duì. Wǒmen shèfǎ dédàole liǎng liàng chē dí quèrèn, zhè liǎng liàng chē bèi chēng wèi xǐyuè chēshǒu. Tāmen shì xiānshēng ma?"
(This is patrol unit five five. We managed to get a confirmation on two vehicles that were called in for what appeared to be joy riders. Is that them sir?)
Knowing that they would have had to have made a quick escape, because their blatant assault would not go unnoticed, that had to be them. Who they possible were all together though couldn't have pulled this embarrassment to him off.
"Tāmen zài nǎlǐ?"
(Where are they heading?)
"Mǎtóu."
(The docks.)
Kang then cursed under his breath. With so many ships coming in and out of Shanghai, he would have to declare martial law in order to even start looking for them. What appeared to be a simple snatch and grab to add another success to his career turned out to be an utter disaster and it wouldn't go unpunished when this had all ended. At best he would never work again as a defender of the Party and the people. At worst he'd be sent to a work camp for the rest of his life. He couldn't figure out why one bad thing after another had kept happening. He then turned to his pilot.
"Cháo nàlǐ zǒu qù. Rúguǒ wǒmen xìngyùn dehuà, wǒmen huì bǎ tāmen qiè diào." He then turned to his remaining agents. "Zhǔnbèi quánmiàn zhàndòu!"
(Head towards there. If we're lucky we'll cut them off. Prepare for full combat!)
The chopper then made full throttle towards the cold winter night to the shipyards of Shanghai. This was going to end with a bang no matter what happened as rifles were loaded up and edginess was on the faces of Kang's team. Each one wondering what had they gotten into.
After a few minutes they had reached the shipyard and having a clear overview of what was an armada of tug boats, tankers, trawlers, and the like. With the numerous stacks of shipping containers that were sporadically placed around the snow covered docks it looked like that there was some type of shanty town next to the docks. Kang had his binoculars in hand and began searching for the two vehicles that Sophia Velmer's employer, Koko Hekmatyar had used during their trip to his city. But he was so focused on the docks that he wasn't looking out to sea where his pilot had a visual on a rather unique looking ship design that was obviously not a regular shipping tanker. As a matter of fact it looked like a cross between a cargo ship and a military naval destroyer.
What was weirder still was that there was a flash coming from the deck and unless he was seeing things it was a tail fire going through the night sky. He then reached over to his team lead who while cursing him out saw the flare as well. The pilot tried to veer the bird away but it was approaching too fast and they had no countermeasures. It wasn't possible on what had just happened in the last few hours. It looked like a war that had not played by any sort of rules had just overwhelmed him. In his final moments, Kang Shaowen had concluded he had gone mad.
The assumed surface to air missile put an end to his madness, his career, and his life for not heeding the threat from the demonic growl he heard an hour earlier. The threat of a man who he didn't know that he made true horror into reality.
2012 Hours
Aboard the Crimson Sparrow, Kasper Hekmatyar's personal ship
Kasper Hekmatyar did not need any excuse to come and help his little sister Koko when she called him in the middle of the night yesterday. This one was all on him and he wouldn't mind doing his best to help make sure that her official stay in Shanghai was on the level. But he was rather frustrated that he was pulled from a nice tropical outing in Borneo all the way the freezing waters of the coast of China. He wasn't really fooling Koko or Chiquita on the deck of his ship trying to act in his normal charismatic self while shivering even in a heavy winter coat and ski cap.
"Excellent shot. It's good to know that when we go to sell these Stingers we can let our buyer know that they've been field tested." He said as the burning chopper splashed into the bay.
Koko just looked at him with deadpanned stare of annoyance. Even with him helping her out he still found a way to act like their father by placing business ahead of personal needs. Chiquita, with an empty FIM 92 Stinger Anti-Air Missile Launcher on her shoulder, just stood there indifferently as usual with her fixated smile. But this one had a hint of satisfaction behind it.
"They hurt my little mishka. That's all the excuse I need." She said as she tossed the empty tube on the deck.
"Careful! That thing's rather expensive!"
"Shut up you idiot. Just get us out of China." The younger sibling said to the older one.
It was how the two got along together, even when they were children. He knew she was thanking him for coming when he did as fast as he could. But as much power as the both of them wielded this seemed to work into Koko's favor almost too well. He didn't care if his sister had a secret or two, it just wasn't his business. But coincidences could only go so far. As the three of them began to make their ways below deck where it was warmer he motioned to Chiquita to hang back to give them some privacy.
"Those MSS guys seemed to go exactly where you wanted them to go. Granted whoever their boss was, was an arrogant moron but you could have lost them easily. Is there something I need to know?"
The two of them knew everything about each other. It was easy to do when the only other company they had growing up were their bodyguards. So when Koko gave him her iconic grin he knew she wasn't telling him a damn thing. More often than not, he didn't want to know what she was thinking.
"Well…make yourselves at home for now. I doubt any of you want to have another stressful situation in the near future."
"I'll take you up on your wonderful offer Kasper. But for now just point me in the direction of the sick bay, I could never figure a way around this Merrimack you call a ship."