151 Piercing the Sky (Fourth Request for Subscriptions!)

(First bonus chapter! Please vote, recommend, and leave a tip!)

Crack!

The crisp snap of breaking bone made everyone’s scalp prickle. Tank’s kick had come so suddenly that the soldier had no chance to react, and the force behind it was terrifying. The Tunisian soldier had never expected the burly man sitting inside the vehicle to launch an attack without warning.

The earlier roar had also drawn both men’s attention away.

Just as Tank brought his foot down on the head of the soldier climbing into the vehicle, Killer and Keyboard lunged at the man on the ground beside them. Their combined momentum sent him rolling across the dirt, and the weapon in his hand bucked as he pulled the trigger.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

A burst of bullets skimmed past Keyboard’s stomach and thudded into the tree trunks by the roadside. After two heavy punches, Killer clamped his hands around the man’s throat. A moment later, the soldier fell silent.

The Russians’ side was equally swift in resolving the fight. When the man in the driver’s seat reached out to accept the cigarette offered by the Russian, the Russian seized him through the window, dragged him out, and used a shard of glass to cut his windpipe.

Inside the vehicle.

The sudden gunfire quickly shattered the silence. Tim stared nervously at the door as it was abruptly pulled open.

When the Russian’s face appeared, everyone cursed fiercely after him, and then their spirits soared.

“Hey, guys, get out quickly! We don’t have much time!”

“Boss! Are you all right?”

Li Changjiang nodded without speaking. He had regained consciousness, but his body was still extremely weak. Without Tank supporting him, he could barely move.

“Is everyone here?”

“William!”

“Bob, Tim, and Elisa!”

“On the other side, Angel, Killer, Tank, and Li Changjiang!”

“And the Russian, Doctor, and Keyboard standing over there!”

Shi Junqiang was extremely weak as well.

There were twelve people in all. It seemed the Tunisian operation had been carefully planned from the beginning. None of the British were here.

“What do we do now?”

“Boss?”

With one arm over Tank’s shoulder, Li Changjiang looked toward both sides. The dense forest was unfamiliar, making it impossible to determine their direction. Somewhere on the other side of the forest, however, he thought he could hear running water.

He pointed in that direction, and the Russian immediately understood.

“Quickly, find anything useful—guns, ammunition.”

They searched both vehicles at lightning speed and gathered everything that might be of use: five AK rifles, seventeen magazines, three M92 pistols made by the Italian company Beretta, eight fully loaded fifteen-round magazines, three lighters, and various other odds and ends.

“Fuck! Come and look at this!”

Keyboard’s voice suddenly reached their ears.

Everyone hurried to the second vehicle. With some effort, Keyboard pushed two boxes out of the driver’s compartment. When they opened them, the sight left them stunned.

Fuck!

Those damned Tunisians!

Gold!

The two boxes were neatly packed with gold bars.

The Russian was the first to rush forward. He seized one, shoved it into his mouth, and bit down.

“Fuck! It’s real.”

“Quick, see if there are any bags. Pack them up and take everything!”

Keyboard examined the contents carefully. The two cases held twenty-five gold bars, each weighing roughly two kilograms—not roughly, but exactly two kilograms, since each was stamped with “35.27 oz.” Together, the bars weighed around fifty kilograms.

They had struck it rich!

They had already obtained the enormous fortune of fifty million pounds from the British, but no one ever complained about having too much money. Especially not when it came in the form of shining gold. No one could hate that.

“Fuck, there are no bags!”

“Quickly. Everyone take two. I’ll take four—no, counting the boss’s share and Shi’s, I’ll take six!”

“Tank, you take one extra!”

Whenever there was money to be made, the Russian was always the quickest to act. He was quick-witted as well. After dividing up the gold bars, everyone immediately ran toward the rear of the road. But when they crossed the ridge, they could not help laughing bitterly.

This was no river at all.

It was a canyon.

Fuck!

What rotten luck!

But they had no choice. If they followed the road, they would certainly be discovered; it was only a matter of time. In fact, less than ten minutes after they left, two off-road vehicles had already returned from ahead.

“Damn it! They’ve escaped! Call Night Hawk, call Night Hawk! The prey has fled. Begin the search immediately.”

Soon, the rumble from overhead drew everyone’s attention.

“Quick, take cover!”

As they watched the helicopter fly over them, everyone immediately understood that their escape had begun in earnest. The Tunisians were not slow—in fact, they were moving even faster than expected.

“Damn it! We’ve been spotted. Tank, take these.”

The Russian shoved the gold bars and all the weapons in his hands into Tank’s arms, then bent down, hoisted Li Changjiang onto his back, and began sprinting northeast along the canyon.

“Damn it!”

They had not gone far when another helicopter appeared overhead, flying extremely low. The Russian did not dare take the risk. He set Li Changjiang down and immediately led him into a patch of forest.

Tunisia’s terrain was extraordinarily complicated, with mountains, deserts, and plains scattered across the land. Their current position seemed to be in the eastern hills. To the south lay vast deserts and barren gravel plains, while the enormous canyon was a river valley carved straight through the mountains.

The forest was dense, and there was no proper path at all. Yet that made it an ideal place to conceal themselves. Had they been on open ground, they would have had nowhere to hide. Two legs could never outrun a helicopter.

As the Russian led Li Changjiang and the others through the forest, fleeing northeast toward the coast, the British Embassy in the capital had erupted into chaos.

“Colonel, we just received word. That group of mercenaries escaped halfway there!”

“Fuck!”

“Bastard! Those stupid Tunisians! What about Clark?”

“Director Clark is already on his way back, but—”

“But what?”

“But the Tunisians say they lost six soldiers, and the gold has disappeared as well. They refuse to continue the pursuit. And—and there are Chinese nationals in that group. They don’t want to provoke the Chinese.”

“Damn it!”

“What’s wrong with the Chinese? The Chinese! Damn the Chinese!”

Tunisia had always maintained good relations with China. The British understood that perfectly well. Besides, paying Tunisia’s border special forces to carry out such an operation was already illegal. No one could make the matter public—as long as they had any sense.

“This is a call from Mr. Clark.”

The colonel took the phone. He spoke only a few words before hanging up, then immediately dialed another number.

“Director, I have it. The password is—”

He recited a string of numbers.

Soon afterward.

A Swiss bank.

After receiving a highly classified encrypted communication code, a senior bank manager immediately reported upward to verify its authenticity.

In less than three minutes, the fifty million pounds that had been lying in the Russian’s Swiss bank account vanished without a trace.

At the same time, a message traveled rapidly through the bank’s communications satellite and was transmitted directly to the signal receiver in Keyboard’s possession.

“Fuck! Those damned British!”

“Fuck! Fuck!”

“Our money is gone!”

“Bastards! I’m going to kill them!”

In an unnamed stretch of dense forest somewhere in Tunisia, a terrifying roar suddenly rang out.

The Russian was truly furious this time.

The fifty million pounds that had been safely within their grasp had disappeared without warning. It had to be those damned British tampering with the money.

Otherwise, given the secrecy of Swiss banking, no one could possibly have had the authority to do such a thing.

(To be continued.)