Good Price
Lin Ruoxi followed Cai Yan"s words and had a chill run down her spine. She was frail and tackless. Tailing an international human trafficking organization was no small feat considering the kind of experience and weapons they might own!
But the thought of that defenseless little blue-dressed girl in the van fueled her with adrenaline as she stomped on the accelerator pedal and sped off after the van.
The driver of the bakery van was a dark-skinned man, scruffy and st.u.r.dy, wearing a white singlet and a silver necklace.
A glance at the rear-mirror prompted the st.u.r.dy man, with heavily accented English, to declare, "Spider, somebody"s following us."
"Spider" was the yellow-haired, stone-faced woman who was currently watching Lanlan suck on the lollipop by her side. She reactively bobbed herself up from the seat to take a good look behind them, which she then whistled. "Wow. A Bentley. Must be someone of importance. I"m guessing it"s a woman seeing as it"s painted a rosy red."
"Should we take her too?" The st.u.r.dy man grinned, exposing his yellowing teeth in the process. "A little extra goes a long way."
Spider chuckled as she said, "Who would have thought that a little sheep would give herself to us on our way back? This has to be the best return trip we"ve had. Isn"t that right, Black Panther?"
"It"s a pity that we have to depart from Zhonghai tomorrow. Interpol are on to us and we cannot afford to loiter any longer," Black Panther replied with slight pity.
"Boss is such a p.u.s.s.y sometimes. If it had been just the Chinese police, I reckon we could shoot them up and end it fast. Even Interpol can"t catch us. If not, they would have done so at Hormuz Strait!" Spider was defiant.
"There"s a reason Python is our boss. I trust that he has a good reason for our early departure." Black Panther giggled. "But today"s catch is a pretty way to end our operations!"
He then took a sharp turn and steered the van down the nearest junction!
Lanlan heard them speak in English. Curious, her bubbly eyes yearning for answers, she took to ask, "Auntie, what are they talking about?"
Spider grinned as she replied, "It"s the dialect from my hometown, Lanlan wouldn"t know."
"Oh." Lanlan added, "Does Mommy speak it too?"
"Of course she does, Mommy knows everything."
Closely by their tail was Lin Ruoxi, who took a sharp turn to follow in suit. She was deeply anxious about the situation that was about to unfold.
Cai Yan clearly a.s.sumed that they were going to stick to the highway and did not think to set up hiding posts anywhere else.
Lin Ruoxi was done contemplating as she quickly followed suit, simultaneously updating Cai Yan through the phone call regarding her current location.
Cai Yan, on the other end, got the news about their sudden detour as she anxiously warned, "Ruoxi take care to not let them notice you. I"m afraid something might happen to you. I"m not sure how I"m supposed to put this but I also wouldn"t want to lose the precious lead. Oh my G.o.d!"
Lin Ruoxi at that moment was contrastingly level headed as she rea.s.sured, "Yanyan, just try to arrange everything as soon as possible. I"ll constantly update you with their most recent whereabouts. Right now I can roughly identify two adults in the van. I can still drive off if they do notice me though."
Cai Yan was stuck at the moment. She hastily commanded the convergence of the police deployments based on Lin Ruoxi"s phone connection, making sure her forces made it to Lin Ruoxi as soon as possible.
The van steered straight for the next ten minutes or so, before their eventual arrival at the outskirts of East Zhonghai. The area was mainly populated with old factories and polluted walkways.
When they ventured into a narrow cement strip with factory buildings on both sides, Lin Ruoxi noticed that there was something ominous in their route.
She figured that she had made a grave miscalculation. She had been led into an abandoned side of the city!
Recallibrating her state of mind, Lin Ruoxi"s soul froze, as cold sweat trickled down her forehead.
Before she could decipher her next move, the van before her stopped before a factory building!
Lin Ruoxi had her mind preoccupied on leading the little girl to safety, but now she instead led herself right into a trap!
In the split second of thought, she opted to first leave the district and come back with Cai Yan and her force as a back up.
The Bentley came to a halt as Lin Ruoxi slammed onto the breaks.
But while she was making her way out, the yellow-haired Spider and the st.u.r.dy Black Panther hopped off the van and smirked at her direction.
Standing more than ten meters away, Black Panther withdrew a silenced pistol from his back and aimed at the Bentley.
BANG BANG!
Before Lin Ruoxi could make steer her car out of the way, the bullets from the gun had pierced through a front and a rear tire!
"Ahh!"
Lin Ruoxi reactively screamed from fright. She paled at the thought of what was about to happen. She did not antic.i.p.ate that the opposing side would fire at her car to deter her escape. I"ve made a mistake. Why wouldn"t international human traffickers bring guns with them?! she thought.
At that moment, Lanlan hurled herself out the van and gazed at the red Bentley, then turned to Black Panther with the pistol. "Why"d you shoot at that auntie that looks just like my mommy?!"
Spider and Black Panther stared in surprise at Lanlan who was by their side against their will. They wouldn"t expect a child her age to be so unfazed by the gunshots.
Nonetheless, the two ignored the child as her presence was one that they were not concerned with right now. Products were just products after all.
"Go get the woman," Black Panther demanded.
Spider sneered at him before she nodded and went towards the Bentley.
Lin Ruoxi noticed the warning signals activate as an aftermath of her punctured tires. To make matters worse, there was no signal in the area, making it impossible to call for help!
"Come out, I won"t hurt you so don"t worry. I wouldn"t want to make you a damaged good after all." Spider had a sinister grin as she forced the doors open.
Lin Ruoxi bit on her lower lip, her eyes filled with determination. Every second she spent breathing was another second stalled until help arrived.
Comforting herself from within, she abidingly followed Spider"s requests and made her way out of the car.
The factory gates were opened before several fierce-looking men and women emerged from within.
The leader was a brawny man with curly hair, slightly darker skin. He stuck his head out to observe the situation before he demanded, "Black Panther, I specifically remember asking you to retrieve some equipment. Might I inquire why these two women are here?"
Black Panther cleared the air. "Python, don"t you think we can get a good price for the girl? I think the lady in the Bentley would fetch a pretty amount as well."
"Hmph, the scheduled interception is already in place by the port, you"re lucky we didn"t have to delay any further." Python then directed the two subordinates by his side. "Grab the little one and the woman and toss them both into the cage."
Two towering men took to obey his orders, one walking towards Lanlan and the other towards Lin Ruoxi standing right behind Spider.
Right at that moment, a dull voice resonated from the beams of the ceiling.
"It"s best if you leave her be. This is not a fight which you would want to pick."
"Who is it?" Python and Black Panther along with the other crewmates quickly turned their heads upwards.
A suave Caucasian man with brown curly hair did a backflip mid-air before descending effortlessly from six, seven meters above.
"The Red Triangle from Northern Africa. Seen in South East Asia, the Middle East, and Africa trafficking about five years ago. The first person to take up the mantle of leader was the Black Widow, who was sentenced to death by the Pentagon about two years ago. Since then, the organization was headed by the second in command, Python.
"Current core members include Black Panther, Nile Crocodile, the Mummy, Spider, and Jackal. Tell me, is my information precise?" the Caucasian man proudly taunted.
Everyone in attendance was terrified. As a top-secret international crime organization, their worst fear was to have an outsider pinpoint their details down the microscopic. Who exactly was the intruder?!
Lanlan was intrigued as her pupils widened, but on her omnipresent pouting lips were twitches of dispiritment, seemingly aware that she was misled.
Lin Ruoxi was overjoyed as she instantly recognized the familiar face from Gao Guoxiong"s mercenary crisis when Molin captained the Sea Eagles to help!
She quickly a.s.sociated his presence to Yang Chen"s prior a.s.signment of the Sea Eagles as her private bodyguards. She felt a surge of comfort knowing that he had not left her to fend for herself.
Python winced as he rebuked, "Who are you? If you"re in the same field, you should know the rules."
"My name"s Molin Klaus. Unfortunately for you, we do not share the same sentiments." Molin smirked, before retrieving a gold plated emblem from his breast pocket. On the emblem was a lively stamp of a blue eagle taking flight.
Upon noticing the badge, Python and Black Panther alongside their entire squad were left horrified.
"Sea Eagles…?!"
Anyone living in the shady side of the world was familiar with the name and the emblem. To know them was to fear them, to see them was to know death!
Excluding the group Sand Storm who had recently risen in the Middle East, practically no mercenary on the planet could leech in on any benefits from the Sea Eagles! As the publicly renowned ace for the past decade, they were now well known to pledge loyalty to one person and one person only!
"So what if you"re among the Sea Eagles! You are greatly outnumbered by two dozens to one! I"ll make sure to wipe your existence from the face of the Earth!" Spider taunted.
Lynic"s notes:
Chapter 7/7
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