Chapter 136: Chapter 137: Timed Bomb
From breaching the door to solving Gao Sen, everything happened in a flash, with an extremely short time interval.
If the first one in hadn’t been Chang Ning, Gao Sen’s scheme would definitely have succeeded; the others’ nerve reaction speed wasn’t as fast as Chang Ning’s.
Lao Pao, following behind Chang Ning, saw him rushing toward Gao Sen, so he ran toward the positions of Bandit 2 and Bandit 3.
The bandits’ positions had been reconnoitered clearly before the operation and marked on the fast food restaurant’s floor plan; everyone had firmly memorized this information in their minds before the operation.
Bandit 2 and Bandit 3 had never seen special forces before; prior to this, they had only undergone three months of military training in some deep mountains and old forests, and they hadn’t even killed anyone.
Seeing Lao Pao and Geng Jihui masked, wearing black bulletproof vests, and charging toward them with murderous intent, they were already scared stiff with sweat pouring down; much less able to hold guns and counterattack.
Of course, the bandits had no opportunity to counterattack; from the moment they saw Lao Pao and Geng Jihui, their lives no longer belonged to them.
After a few gunshots, the bandits lay motionless on the ground, their eyes dull without their former brightness; only the three pools of blood not yet coagulated on the ground and the faint smell of gunpowder in the air let everyone know this wasn’t training.
“So we’re just here to watch the show, huh.”
Qiang Zi glanced at the three fresh corpses lying in various states on the ground, full of disappointment in his eyes; several in the team had gotten their first kill this time, but he hadn’t gotten anything again.
Xiao Zhuang, holding the frightened hostage still sobbing in his arms, softly comforted her; hearing Qiang Zi’s words, he chimed in: “Who says it isn’t.”
The three who had gotten the easy picks this time didn’t speak; as for Qiang Zi and Xiao Zhuang’s sour remarks, they pretended not to hear.
“Ahem, let me interject.”
Ostrich’s slightly resentful voice sounded from the entrance; everyone looked in the direction of the voice, and Ostrich and the medic had come up at some point.
As he spoke, he walked into the lobby and circled the bandits’ corpses a few times, constantly making “tut-tut” sounds with his mouth.
His comrades’ work was clean and neat; he couldn’t pick any faults, so his idea of finding fault with Chang Ning fell through.
Thus, the emotions in Ostrich’s gaze toward Chang Ning made Chang Ning himself feel his scalp tingle; that look was just like a resentful wife in the inner chambers.
Just as Chang Ning was about to explode from enduring it, Ostrich turned his gaze to Xiao Zhuang and Qiang Zi: “You two at least threw a stun grenade inside and had some sense of participation; what about us?
We lay in the sniper position watching everyone’s performance the whole time, with zero sense of participation—we became mere spectators, and our nerves had to stay tense, afraid something unexpected would happen that we couldn’t handle in time.”
Ostrich vented bitterly to everyone; even the medic, who usually liked to tear others down, nodded frequently beside him, clearly very much agreeing with Ostrich’s words.
“Well, I’ll take the child down first.”
Xiao Zhuang usually liked watching this kind of spectacle, but no one likes being the one eaten in the melon; plus, he was still holding the hostage now, so it was better not to let the child see the corpses and blood.
So Xiao Zhuang took the opportunity to greet everyone, carefully stepped over the bandits’ blood-drenched corpses while holding the child, preparing to hand the little girl over to her parents outside.
As he left, he carefully covered the child’s eyes with his hand to prevent the child from seeing the corpses and splattered blood at the scene, which could affect the child’s mental health.
Speaking of the hostage, Chang Ning always felt like he had overlooked something important, and this matter was related to the hostage.
‘What exactly is it?’
Chang Ning first looked around, paying special attention to the three bodies lying on the ground.
‘They’re all dead as doornails; impossible for them to cause trouble.’
The bandits’ chests showed no rise and fall; obviously impossible they were still alive. Besides, with that amount of blood loss, even if alive they’d be in shock, no different from dead—where would they get the strength to cause trouble.
Gently rubbing his chin, Chang Ning couldn’t figure out what he had missed for the moment.
“Tick-tock, tick-tock, tick-tock.”
Chang Ning asked: “Did any of you hear any sound?”
His body had been boosted by the system, making his hearing much more sensitive.
Everyone was caught off guard by Chang Ning’s out-of-the-blue question, their originally relaxed nerves tensing up again.
At this moment, in the fast food restaurant, except for the little girl sobbing, everyone else held their breath and listened carefully.
“Tick-tock~”
This time the sound was faint, but everyone barely heard it. Xiao Zhuang nearly dropped the child in his arms; he looked terrified at the position of the hostage’s stomach, where the “tick-tock” was very clear.
No wonder it felt off when picking her up earlier; turns out the bandit had tied a bomb to the hostage—very insidious.
‘Oh no!’
Hearing the “tick-tock” again, Chang Ning’s face changed drastically as he remembered what he had forgotten: in the original plot, the little girl had a timed bomb tied to her!
That sound was all too familiar to everyone; they had heard it constantly during bomb disposal training.
Now no one stayed calm; before others could react, a series of short orders rapidly came from Geng Jihui’s mouth: “Quick, drag the bandits’ corpses behind the counter. I’ll report the situation to Wild Wolf; Siberian Wolf, hand the hostage to Mountain Wolf.”
“Don’t drag, carry them.”
Ignoring the blood staining him, Chang Ning quickly hoisted Bandit 1’s corpse and didn’t forget to remind everyone.
Dragging corpses would leave large traces of blood on the floor; when defusing the bomb later, they couldn’t keep covering the little girl’s eyes the whole time— a child’s psychological endurance isn’t as high as an adult’s.
Hide the corpses well and cover the blood with the bandits’ clothes; after this, the entire fast food restaurant looked just dirty and messy, with no flaws visible.
Once all this was done, Xiao Zhuang handed the little girl to Lao Pao.
“Received, I’ll ask the police to cooperate with you.”
Through the earpiece, Gao Zhong Dui not only heard Geng Jihui’s description of the scene but also faintly heard Chang Ning’s supplement to Geng Jihui’s orders.
Not being at the scene, he wasn’t sure what type of bomb Group B had encountered; though he trusted Group B and Lao Pao’s expertise, this was actual combat concerning the hostage’s life safety, so Gao Zhong Dui still planned to have the police’s experienced engineers help handle it.
“Wild Wolf, no need to send anyone.”
Looking at the constantly ticking numbers, even masked Lao Pao cracked a bitter smile.
“Only one minute left; even if the police send someone now, it won’t be in time.”
Hearing this, Gao Zhong Dui’s heart, which had just calmed, suspended again.
This time he couldn’t provide any help to the team members in the fast food restaurant and could only watch from outside; honestly, this feeling was extremely tormenting—better if he went up himself.
But fledglings must eventually leave the nest; Chang Ning and Group B’s wolf cubs had reached the time to execute missions independently—he couldn’t always stand in for them.
“Standing outside just watching is really unbearable.”
Hui Lang muttered beside Gao Zhong Dui; time passed bit by bit, and besides heavy breathing, nothing could be heard in the earpiece—his heart was in his throat.
“We can only stand here now; we can’t rush up, right? You’re a mature special forces soldier, Hui Lang.”
Watching his old partner anxiously pacing in front of him, Gao Zhong Dui emotionally understood Hui Lang, so he didn’t say anything excessive.
“The situation is a bit complicated now; everyone else leave here immediately.”
Only thirty seconds left, and Lao Pao still hadn’t determined which wire was truly linked to the detonator.
Things had gone south; he had no confidence in successfully defusing the bomb on the hostage. If it really failed, he couldn’t implicate his comrades.
Whether out of genuine concern or following the captain’s regulations, Lao Pao really didn’t want his comrades here in the fast food restaurant at this moment—too dangerous.
To put it inauspiciously, if everyone withdrew from the fast food restaurant, even if he failed to defuse the bomb, Group B wouldn’t be completely wiped out.
