5

"Gotcha!" Jane exclaimed as she hit the ENTER button.

Instantly, the binary codes on the screen disappeared and were replaced by names and pictures. Jane scanned the contents of the chip like the expert she is. "This is a list," she said.

"List of what?" Revy asked.

"I am not sure, but Kao Zhaulong of the 24K gang is on top."

"It's a drug list," Benny said. "Must be the list of illegal drug transactions of the CIA and the 24K."

"I think you were right, Benny," Jane remarked. "This is a powder keg. I am sure the 24K and the CIA are looking for this chip right now."

"Let's just destroy it," Benny suggested.

"Hell no!" Revy stormed. "This chip costs millions of dollars. We can us this to get a lot of money."

"But Revy," Benny protested. "The CIA and 24K would go after our asses for sure."

Revy shrugged. "So what's new?"

"Uhh…guys," Jane said, pointing at a monitor. "I think they are already here."

They quickly saw dozens of armed men on the CCTV monitor, climbing the staircase and searching room to room. Revy drew her Beretta and grabbed the chip. She thought about something, then she gave the chip to Benny. "Get out of here! Take Jane and get this Dutch," she said.

"What about you?" Benny asked.

"I'll be fine," Revy smiled confidently as she exited the door.

Benny nodded. She is right, she'll be fine. She is Revy Two Hands, the feared Black Lagoon warrior.

Benny opened the fire exit window. He ran back to Jane and grabbed her arm. "Let's go!"

"Wait!" Jane typed a few codes on her computer. "I'll leave a surprise for those bastards."

Ping was cautious; he sent his men on a single file and had them open each apartment door they come across with. The occupants tried to protest but the sight of men with guns quickly silenced them.

They reached the sixth floor. The gangsters fanned out, guns ready but they are not expecting any trouble. As they reach the first door, one of them opened the doorknob and peeked inside. The man presented himself as a small target, but it is enough for Revy.

Revy fired from inside the room, her Beretta spitting two hollowpoint rounds that smacked on the head of the gangster. Blood and brain matter exploded from the hideous exit wound and showered on his comrade behind. Revy was already moving, sliding on the floor, and firing her pistol. Two men screamed in pain and then suddenly silenced as 9mm slugs savaged their bodies.

Revy cartwheeled outside as the gangsters opened fire, stitching bullets on the walls and doors. A gangster with an AK-47 appeared on the corner. Revy ducked as the AK opened fire, and then she returned fire, catching the gangster with a double tap. As more bullets slammed around her, she took cover behind a pillar and reloaded her pistol. Revy peeked on the staircase and saw dozens more men climbing up. She knew she was greatly outnumbered and fighting alone against a superior force is suicidal.

As the gangsters rounded the corner, Revy saw her chance. She fired one shot, hitting the fire extinguisher on the corridor. The tank exploded white chemicals on the men. They shouted in surprise and pain. Revy came out, Berettas on both hands and firing like a deranged cowboy. Several gangsters flopped on the floor, bodies pierced by 9mm rounds.

Revy ran towards the window at the end of the corridor. Glass crunched as her body slammed on the window at full speed. Only the steel grill of the fire exit prevented her from falling six stories to the road below. As she shook the glass fragments from her head, Revy climbed the fire exit towards the roof of the building.

Meanwhile, Ping's men reached unit 604-C. They kicked the door opened and found it was empty. The window to the fire exit is open. They opened another door and stumbled inside a room full of computers…

A kilo of C-4 plastic explosive detonated, blowing Jane's apartment into oblivion and everything inside it.

Mikasa heard the massive explosion from the ground level. She looked up, saw fire, and smoke erupting from the sixth floor of an apartment building. "Shit," she cursed. She ran towards the building, just in time to a figure climbing the fire escape towards the rooftop.

She immediately identified her. "Mina!" Mikasa called on her radio. "Revy Two Hands is on the rooftop!"

"I see her, boss; she is leaping from rooftop to rooftop. Should I take her out?"

"No! I want her alive! Drop me a lift line!

Revy heard and saw the small helicopter circling above. She ignored it and ran on the flat roof. Good thing the buildings in the Indian quarter are clustered so close together that she can just jump from one building to another.

Then she heard the chopper getting closer to her back. As she glanced, she was surprised to see someone is hanging on a cable below the chopper. The crazy bastard is chasing her!

Revy had no choice but to run, her pistols are no match for the firepower of that helicopter and the range is too great. She climbed another fire escape, and then jumped to another rooftop as the person hanging on the cable chased her, jumping from one building to another.

On the ground, Ping's men are searching building to building. Two of them went into a crowded alleyway. They did not notice the figure hanging on a fire escape above them.

Benny dropped between the two men. As one of the gangster spun, Benny's fist hammered upward, catching the thug in the jaw with vicious uppercut. As he fell, Benny pulled the Glock pistol from the thug's waist and pulled the trigger twice, shooting the gangster in the abdomen at very close range.

The second thug brought up his Uzi but he was a millisecond slower. Benny fired his confiscated Glock twice, burying two 9mm hollowpoints at the gangster's torso. He then fired another shot at the head of the mortally wounded thug.

"Come on!" Benny shouted at Jane. The hacker jumped from the fire escape and landed hard on the pavement. Benny quickly grabbed her arm they both ran towards another alleyway. As they rounded a corner, a gangster suddenly appeared from behind a door. Benny grabbed the arm of the thug as he pulled the trigger of his MP5K. Bullets stitched on the wall near Jane as she hit the ground. The Lagoon hacker pressed the muzzle of his Glock at the head of the man and pulled the trigger. Blood and brains splashed on Benny's face as the gangster falls.

"Benny!" Jane shrieked.

Benny caught the dead thug's MP5K just as he saw two more gangsters appearing around the corner. He held the trigger of the German submachine gun, spraying the two with 9mm rounds. They danced like marionettes as bullets pierced their bodies before falling on heaps in the ground.

Jane stood up. "I didn't know you can fight like that," she rasped.

"Me neither," Benny replied, wiping the gore off his face. "Must be the adrenalin."

Then he saw a pickup truck full of gun-toting thugs pulling up on the end of the street. The men quickly dismounted and opened fire with their automatic weapons. Hundreds of bullets chewed everything around Benny and Jane as they took cover behind a concrete wall. A dozen men pushed forward like Red Coats in the Revolutionary War, firing in full auto as they walk.

Suddenly, Nac, Thomas and Samuel appeared on the rooftop of a 2-story building and opened fire on the gangsters below. 5.56mm and 7.62mm slugs from the Titan team eviscerated the gangsters, pitifully vulnerable as they were caught in the open from an elevated position. Most of them fell in bloody heaps before even realizing what had happened. The gangsters' pickup truck lurched forward, struggling to avoid the carnage.

It did not get far. A gray Ford Expedition appeared from another street. The roof of the SUV opened and a Dillon M134 Minigun turret popped out like a Jack in the Box. Mylius held the trigger of the Gatling gun, firing a hundred 7.62mm rounds at the pickup truck in seconds. The pickup truck exploded on the ball of fire.

The alley fell silent as the team ceased firing. Dead thugs littered the street. In a matter of a few seconds, the Titan team wiped out half of Ping's men.