by A Sick Frog
Xu Tian Xian’s voice sounded. “Okay, I know. You’ve completed your mission very well…” Following which was silence.
Qin Ke Xuan asked: “What is it?”
“… Le Le, Mei Li got caught by the enemies.”
Chapter 50 - Beautiful Death
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Qin Ke Xuan too was completely unable to hear anything from Xu Mei Li’s side. Seemed like her intercom was broken by their enemies.
“What’s the current situation?”
“They’ve seized Mei Li and are demanding that we let them go.”
“What are we going to do?”
“We’re not going to let them go, of course! Even if we did, they won’t release Mei Li.”
“Then we’re sacrificing Mei Li?”
“We’re going to save her! I’ve already arranged Xu Wu as the sniper. You and Xu Qiang will go in and do the rescue.” There were cameras hidden in every corner of the room, so Xu Tian Xian was able to see each and every movement in the room, hence he was sitting in the control room and delegating everyone their missions.
Qin Ke Xuan opened the empty magazine in her gun and switched in a fully filled one. “What’s the probability of successfully rescuing her?”
“Less… less than fifty percent. Do your best, and listen to my commands. Don’t push too hard if you can’t.” He didn’t want to lose another in the event they weren’t able to rescue Mei Li.
“Le Le, Xu Qiang speaking. I’ll be the primary attacker later on, cover for me.
“Enh.”
As she scaled up to the window railings of the second floor, she listened to Xu Tian Xian’s analysis: “There are eight enemies and they have a hostage, so we’re currently in is a deadlock. They are holding Mei Li hostage on the second floor at the moment, be careful. Le Le, Xu Qiang is in your 11 o’clock direction. There are two enemies guarding Mei Li in your 2 o’clock direction. There are two, one, one and two enemies in your 10, 11, 12 and 1 o’clock direction respectively.”
Having the enemies’ positions printed in his head, Xu Tian Xuan immediately started knocking out the rescue mission plan. Qin Ke Xuan would round them and would be responsible for guarding Xu Mei Li from the back. When they start their attack and the enemies’ attention diverted from the front, Qin Ke Xuan would rush over, and knock out the two by Xu Mei Li’s side.
“Will it be a little too hard for you to handle the two people in such a short amount of time?” Xu Qiang voiced his concern.
“Le Le, are you certain you can do it?”
“Yes.” Qin Ke Xuan replied lowly.
“Alright, prepare to start!”
Qin Ke Xuan lowered herself and snuck silently over to where Xu Mei Li was.
“Le Le, be careful! There’s an enemy walking in your direction from 12 o’clock! Quickly avoid him!” Xu Tian Xian’s voice, tinged with anxiety, sounded from the intercom.
The window was opened slightly, and the slender nozzle of an assault rifle proceeded to stick itself through the window opening. After checking there were no abnormalities, the nozzle retracted and the window closed.
Meanwhile, the Qin Ke Xuan hanging on the eaves of the window slowly lowered, dropping herself down on the railing of the window, before nearing her destination silently. “Reached.”
“Ok! Our negotiator will divert their attention. When the enemies’ guards are lowered, Xu Qiang you begin the attack, and Le Le, you will run in when you hear Xu Qiang’s first gunshot sound, and finish the two of them. Any questions? Else, we’ll be starting.”
“No!” Qin Ke Xuan as Xu Qiang replied simultaneously.
And so, the negotiator started convincing the separatists to give up the hostage outside the building with the circle of them. The separatists did not agree to retreat, neither were they willing to surrender. They had even threatened the military that if they were to fail to prepare a vehicle for them to leave, then they would bring the hostage down with them if they die. The negotiator and the enemies started chaffering the terms, where the negotiator started talking about things like they would have no future kidnapping and holding people hostage, and that they were going down a crooked path, and that had the separatist among them in charge of exchanging terms so enraged he smashed the phone.
“Begin!”
At his command, Xu Qiang smashed the door and barged it. Throwing in a flash bomb, everyone’s eyes were blinded by the strong and white light. At that, they raised their guns and swept their bullets at the entrance. Xu Qiang flashed aside to evade, and quickly finished the two nearest to him. At the same time, Qin Ke Xuan too pulled open the window with a whoosh and leapt in. Kicking away the gun pressed against Xu Mei Li’s head, she raised her hand and shot the person in the head with her gun. Both hands tied behind her back, Xu Mei Li had her eyes covered and a cloth tied around her mouth. Upon hearing the gun sound, she immediately knew it was her people that had come to rescue her. And so, she hammered the abdomen of another separatist beside her with her head, trying to help fight for more time for her comrades.
A turn, Qin Ke Xuan’s arm swept out. The handle of the gun knocked on the separatist’s temples and the person fainted, collapsing on the ground. Their higher-ups had instructed them to leave a few alive, and so, Qin Ke Xuan turned, carried Xu Mei Li by her waist and the two of them headed for the side where there was cover for them to hide behind. Qin Ke Xuan quickly and roughly tugged away the material around Xu Mei Li’s eyes, then undid the restraints around her wrist and mouth.
“Le Le, do you have any more guns?” Xu Mei Li asked as she massaged the hand that was numb from the restraints.
“No. Hide here and don’t let them find you.” Qin Ke Xuan told her, then stood and flipped out, joining the crossfire.
To Qin Ke Xuan, the separatists that were temporarily blinded by the strong light were essentially waiting for her to slice them up, and it’d be beyond easy for her to do so as well. There would only be a few of them who’d want to escape even in the face of death by dodging behind a wall the moment the piercing light exploded to recover from their momentary blindness.
All they would accomplishing by doing that, however, is prolonging their hour of doom. With the coordination of their ranged sniper Xu Wu, they finished off the rest of them very quickly as well.
“Mei Li, come on out and help collect the corpses!” Xu Qiang shouted in the direction Mei Li was hidden at. “We overtime-d work just for you! And without being paid!”
Xu Mei Li cheerily emerged from her hiding place and walked over, punching a fist on Xu Qiang’s chest. “Qiang ge, don’t be so stingy. Supper tonight, my treat! Le Le, you join us too!”
Qin Ke Xuan replied in acknowledgement, kept her handgun and went over to the separatist she had knocked out to ribbon him up and submit him in.
She picked up rope she’d cut from Xu Mei Li and tied it around the separatist as she listened to Xu Mei Li and Xu Qiang bickering by the side.
“How many times have I told you, don’t to call me Qiang ge!”
“What’s wrong with that name, you’re only missing a ‘wen’ to the name Xu Wen Qiang*. Isn’t Qiang ge a very handsome name?”
* 许文强 = Xu Wen Qiang, a fictional character from the movie “The Bund” or “Shanghai Bund”; the movie and has lots of versions/remakes.
“…”
Their mission this time would have concluded nicely if it wasn’t for that little accident. However, ‘if’s don’t happen in this world, so that accident still happened.
Xu Qiang was reporting the battle outcome to Xu Tian Xian and requested for people to quickly come down to clean the scene. Meanwhile, Xu Mei Li was checking the corpse. As she was checking, she looked up and asked Qin Ke Xuan where she wanted to go for supper. Just as she did so however, she saw a “corpse” that hadn’t completely died raising a hand and pointing a gun at Qin Ke Xuan from behind.
“Le Le be careful!” Xu Mei Li’s screamed in terror.
“Bang!”
On reflex, Qin K
e Xuan flipped on her side and laid flat on the ground. At seeing Xu Mei Li’s body falling down limply, she quickly drew her handgun and shot the separatist who still hadn’t lowered his gun right in the centre of his forehead.
“Mei Li!” Xu Qiang rushed over to press her heavily bleeding wound, his eyes reddening. “Medic! Hurry get the medic!”
Qin Ke Xuan squatted down and waved aside Xu Qiang’s hand.
“What are you doing?!” Xu Qiang glared at Qin Ke Xuan. However, Qin Ke Xuan swiftly pressed down on four points around her wound, and the blood flow was as though it had miraculously halted; it no longer poured out in terrifyingly tremendous amounts.
“I… I won’t… be able to… treat… you guys to… supper now…” Xu Mei Li said weakly as she laid against Xu Qiang’s chest, a trickle of blood streaming down the side of her lips.
Xu Qiang wiped the blood off her, choking: “Don’t say that, if we can’t eat it tonight, we’ll eat it another night. Don’t you dare think of skipping this meal.”
“Qiang ge… I’m scared… I want… to see my mom and dad… I… don’t want to… die…” Xu Mei Li said, her words intermitting, tears spilling from her eyes.
“You won’t die. The doctor’s almost here. After we’ve completed this mission, let’s ask for a period of leave to rest. You can live with your mom and dad during that period of time…” Xu Qiang hugged her, babbling.
“I’m… so sleepy… so tired…”
“Don’t fall asleep! Listen to me talk! The doctor’s almost here, just hold out for a bit more, you can sleep after just a bit more, so just hold out for a little bit more, okay?”
No matter how many times he told Xu Li Mei not to sleep though, her hand still drooped to the ground from the side. No longer able to control his tears, the tall and grown-up man hugged Xu Mei Li, his body trembling with his sobs. “No! Where’s the doctor?! Why aren’t they here yet!”
Qin Ke Xuan heard Xu Tian Xian and the medic’s anxious questions through the intercom as he brought them over. Her hand stretched to close the pair of eyes previously vibrant with life now dull as ash, she said lightly: “She’s dead.” It’s not that she hadn’t thought of saving Xu Mei Li, but with the bullet piercing straight through her heart, no matter how more skilful she was, she won’t be able to save her; she wasn’t a god…
Xu Qiang raised his head to look at Qin Ke Xuan as he cried. What greeted his sight was her face that was as expressionless as usual. Her eyes didn’t even mist, much less tear up. Clenching his teeth, he said: “She died to save you.”
Qin Ke Xuan met his bloodshot eyes, replying calmly. “I know. She shouldn’t have dashed out to seek death.”
“What?!” Xu Qiang was enraged, and swung a slap across Qin Ke Xuan’s face. “How can you say that about her, she sacrificed to save you?! Bxtch!”
Qin Ke Xuan’s head turned to the spit the blood from her mouth, a deep flush of the slap colouring the side of her fair face red. “If your shot pierced his head, this wouldn’t have happened.”
Xu Qiang deflated. She was right. That person did not die because his shot did not make him die. It was all his fault! He was the one who caused Xu Mei Li’s death.
By the time Xu Tian Xian had rushed over, he saw Xu Qiang pointing his gun, shooting non-stop at the people on the ground. His actions were a mere channel for him to vent his anger as the people on the ground were long dead. Xu Tian Xian gestured at Xu Wu to go up and stop him.
He himself on the other hand walked over to the Xu Mei Li that was lying on the ground, kneeling down. Beside him, QIn Ke Xuan said softly: “Sorry.” No one knew who she was saying that to. Was it to Xu Tian Xian, or Xu Mei Li, or perhaps, to the both of them.
Chapter 51 - Mole
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A man lied on the hospital bed with his hands and legs tightly fastened to the four posts of the hospital bed. Even though chains weren’t used, he was still unable to move. The few places where his bones fractured had been dressed. However, after being injected some medicine, he couldn’t even bite his tongue to suicide, much less move any part of his body.
Their mission to assassinate Zhuo Commander-In-Chief had failed and he was the only separatist that they had managed to hold captive. After being knocked out by the enemies during the mission, he was later knocked awake again by them. Probably because all his comrades had died, they beat him up to vent their emotions. In the end, he was beaten up so badly they had to send him to the military hospital to patch him up because, after all, they still needed to interrogate him. He stared at the ceiling in a daze, already able to expect what will come after.
Suddenly, the door to his hospital room was pushed open. A nurse came in to change the medicine. He slanted his eyes—the only part of him that was mobile—but saw in surprise that the person that followed the nurse in raising a hand to knock the nurse out. Following which, the person pulled the fainted nurse to a corner and even pulled off his blankets to cover her.
After which, that nurse produced a syringe and a small bottle of medicine. After filling the syringe, she poked the needle into his arm with a jab and injected the medicine into his blood. Heh, how violent!
Qin Ke Xuan looked coldly at the man whose lips slowly tilted into a smile and took a key from her pocket and unlocked the cuffs locking his hands and legs.
“The organisation sent you to rescue me?” The man moved his hands and legs, sitting up on the bed.
“Enh, enough talking. You won’t have enough time if you don’t go now.” Qin Ke Xuan’s voice lowered voice sounded from behind the mask.
“Okay okay, there are people guarding outside though?”
Qin Ke Xuan opened the door to let the two people in charge of guarding the room to enter. When they did, the two, unguarded, were immediately knocked out by this false nurse. Qin Ke Xuan pulled them to the corner as she’d done before to hide them.
“Solved.” QIn Ke Xuan dusted her hands. Pushing a wheelchair over to the bedside, she threw the man who hadn’t properly recovered his mobility onto the wheelchair and draped a thick jacket all over him before pushing him out the hospital room.
Hidden in the jacket, the man sat anxiously in the wheelchair that was being pushed by Qin Ke Xuan. Not a lot of people knew who the man was, hence the doctors and nurses walking about in the hospital only smiled at Qin Ke Xuan. Qin Ke Xuan with a large half of her face submerged behind her mask nodded in return to their greeting.
Their trip to the parking lot was safe. Qin Ke Xuan opened the door to a small vehicle, plucked the man from the wheelchair and threw him into the car seat. She, on the other hand, sat on the driver’s seat, picked up a jacket to wear it on outside her nurse uniform then took off her nurse cap and mask before starting the car out of the hospital. Pity the man had not seen Qin Ke Xuan’s face when he was knocked out by her during his mission to assassinate Zhuo Commander-In-Chief, else he’ll definitely regret escaping with Qin Ke Xuan so much.
The man rubbed his knocked elbow, complaining: “Oi! Say, can’t you be more careful?!”
Qin Ke Xuan ignored him. In a poor temper, the man leaned toward the driver’s seat, shouting: “Oi! Are you listening to me?!”
“Shut up if you don’t want to die!” Qin Ke Xuan held the steering wheel with a hand and a gun in the other, with its nozzle pointed right at the man’s forehead.
The man immediately became quiet. There were quite a few people with strange tempers in the organisation, and quite a few of them were the kind that would kill people upon disagreement. Touching his nose, he awkwardly leant back to sit properly.
Keeping her gun, Qin Ke Xuan swept a look at the rearview mirror with the corner of her eyes. That man was carefully looking at her via the rearview mirror. Reaching out, she pulled off the rearview mirror, opened the car window and threw it out. Her actions had the man behind shrinking on reflex, not daring to make a single sound.
At the other side of the city, a bunch of people donned in black looked at the gravestone in front of them
in grieve with solemn expressions on their faces. After saluting and firing a shot ceremonial of the funeral, they left the public cemetery. As they did so, Xu Tian Xian received a notice; the separatist in the hospital was taken away.
The military hospital was not a place anyone could enter. Only MI6 and a few high-ranking officers knew exactly what kind of person was in that hospital room. Not only so, you had to show your identification to enter that room; all these pointed to the fact that it was the mole that rescued that person!
Exactly who was it? Xu Tian Xian looked at the people that’d attended Xu Mei Li’s funeral, then his gaze sank. Xu Le Le! She had asked him yesterday which kind of medicine could undo the effects of the medicine on the separatist. She’d even asked him who would be guarding him. He’d still been wondering why she wanted to know them. But, why did she do that? Was she also a member of the separatist’s organisation? Impossible! They’d checked her background before. If there had been any problems with her background, she wouldn’t be able to join the MI6.
Walking over to Xu Chu, he said with a lowered voice: “Xu Chu, I know who brought the person away. It’s Xu Le Le.”
Xu Chu frowned. “You sure?”
“According to the hospital witness’ description, and her strange actions recently, I believe it’s her.”
“She can’t possibly be a mole. You guys go look for her and bring that person back. I cannot let Mei Li sacrifice herself for nothing. As for Xu Le Le, go find out what’s the situation with her. If she’s unwilling to surrender even after you guys convincing, I give you permission to see her as a part of the separatist… and shoot her there and then!”
“Yes!”
Qin Ke Xuan stopped the car by the road and took out the wig and makeup she’d long prepared. After disguising herself and him properly, she had the man, whose medicated effects had faded and was able to move around, to alight. The two of them changed to take a taxi to go to the train station. Qin Ke Xuan gave him a few hundred dollar notes. “You, go get tickets.”