Chapter 180: busting the thief

On the way back as Clark escorted his friends to their various destinations, he finally decided to tell them one of the less sensitive plans in his stashed blueprint of missions.

“Guys, before we part again, I want to inform you all that I’ll likely go to the exobeast training base of the Spartan army. I intend to go there, to see if I can find the right catalyst to induce my next breakthrough”.

“If any one of you intend to come with me, you can just indicate, I’ll generously pay for your registration and work it out”.

“I’m a nice friend, right?” He winked at his friends, who grew dazed after hearing what he just heard.

“What the f*ck? We are still stuck at the 1st rank, and you in the 2nd rank are still not satisfied, you still want to hit the next bottleneck. Training maniac, you’re a real freaking training bastard”.

Though they felt like punching their friend to reset his constant training thought process, the offer that was given to them held them back. The power of money and influence was on display.

Training in any exobeast reserve center was expensive, and especially that of the Spartan army was a privilege that cannot be easily gotten. To access it you needed influence, inside connection, and a buoyant pocket.

Their friend offering to give up such a mind-blowing opportunity to them for free was simply generosity on his part.

In the end, all 3 boys in the group agreed to go with him. They did not want to lose such an opportunity. Despite their current happiness, they still had the basic instinct of every soldier to improve.

Especially Leo, he originally graduated together with Clark, but his friend was now miles ahead of him both in strength, influence, and status.

It felt just like your classmate that you graduated with was now the President of your country, while you are still holed up in your village hideout as a menial laborer and thief.

Though this never affected their friendship, his thought process still strayed in that direction at times, which always left him in a bad mood.

Seeing this free opportunity of a lifetime that was offered by his best friend, he felt like a shark that just caught the sweet fragrance of fresh blood, arousing his hidden desire instincts.

Emily decided not to tag along, as she clearly recognized that she still had miles to cross before she would reach the basic threshold boundary to break through to the next rank.

While Kate and Rose, both being a doctor and personal assistant, anything doing with fighting exobeasts was none of their concern, so they kept quiet throughout the session.

10 minutes later after they concluded and bide farewell, they finally parted ways to their various destinations, as Clark finally had the luxury of traveling alone again.

Rose did not follow him back, as he had some orders for her to execute in his mansion on the Spartan army headquarters. He wanted her to settle some pending plans that he had for his workers there.

Feeling the feeling of youth and vitality flowing through his veins because of the whole day he spent exclusively with his friends, he leisurely picked his encrypted military communication device before placing it on his ears to listen while humming a merry tone.

Because of his overflowing joy, he no longer felt as irritated about the news that the thief's trail was found.

After asking the Vatican military officers and police detectives for directions and updates, they quickly informed him of the current status of their search.

From the information that he got, what surprised him was that this thief that was completely armed with high-grade equipment was mysteriously discovered by the city’s lesser grade detection and surveillance devices.

The operation was kept secret and stalled as their target was still patiently waiting for the right time to act. They also wanted him to be present specifically, as they were not confident in capturing the thief by themselves.

“Is this a glitch on his part? Hmm, I guess he became arrogant after so much success. Or…, is he using this to lure me out? Does he want to see and fight me personally?”

Though Clark did not know the main reason why this happened, he was still joyful regardless. This also quenched his anger that the thief decided to attack his city again for this round.

Zoom!! He quickly added more pressure to the accelerator on confirming that he could meet up, prompting his car to jerk smoothly before speeding up faster.

…

Wom!! Wom!! Wom!! Alarm sounds rang glaringly like wailing children, blasting from the sound amplifiers like intertwining psychic waves as the security personnel of the largest hotel in Vatican City quickly started mobilization in the hundreds.

15 minutes ago, the dreaded thief that was assaulting the city and across the South region rampantly struck again to the shock of the hotel’s billionaire owner.

The poor old man could only cry back in his mansion due to shock and despair on hearing the news, as he knew that it was easier for a camel to pass through a needle than it was for this thief to be captured by the city military officials.

The past 2 assaults by this thief who was already making a name for himself were perfect proof.

After getting the news, the already alert Dragon guards of the Dragon military division of Vatican City mobilized in their full splendor, sending batch after batch of soldier squads to the hotel like they already predicted the assault.

Despite already knowing earlier and preparing an encirclement, when the time came, this elusive thief disappeared from the range of their surveillance devices like the wind again.

This frustrated the various military officers to no end, as they repeatedly barked out orders to their subordinates angrily to vent their frustration.

Young soldiers that were looking to earn merit from their superiors ran around energetically, as they advanced to scour through every corner of the hotel. They were doing a thorough area sweep of the hotel.

As all these commotions went on around the extremely famous hotel, the originator of this mischief sat on a sports power bike at a conspicuous corner at the front of the hotel, with a smirk indicating mockery and slight contempt on his face.

Despite their target standing so close to them, none of the soldier’s surveillance equipment could capture his energy signatures.

“I came for the real deal today; these puny subordinates are not enough to quench my thirst. I hope he comes, I can’t wait”. His eyes flickered with slight anticipation hidden deep within.

Whoosh!! He did not even finish his word before a car quickly bolted into the midst of the ranks of soldier vehicles, before pulling to an abrupt automatic stop like something influenced by magic.

Seeing this, the young man’s eyes gleamed with excitement and satisfaction as he finally sat up straighter on his exotic bike. “Hehe, you finally came”.

As soon as who he wanted to see came the new batch of soldiers that streamed in shortly after made him curl his mouth upwards, as his originally calm face twitched slightly.

“What a grand line-up. It seems that you grade me really high, I’m honored”.

As soon as the exotic car came to a stop, Clark quickly came out of the car with a serious expression on his face like that of a soldier going to war. This time, he wanted no room for mistakes.

“Be quick, fill me in on the situation”.

A minute later, he quickly knew what he needed to know as he began shooting orders out of his mouth like a machine gun. His battle experience was buoyantly sufficient to enable him to do this.

“Sergeant Dave, take squads 3 to 6 and create an intercept formation around the vicinity of the hotel. Keep your eyes sharp and open for any sudden movements or shifts in the air”.

“Sergeant Maria, take squads 1 to 2 and begin an immediate evacuation of all the people who originally booked the hotel, and everyone else who is residing in this region. I want no civilian close by”.

“Sergeant Daniel, I need you to take over command of squads 7 to 10. Lead the policemen also and cover every strategic escape angle of the hotel, I don’t want to notice any holes that can be penetrated”.

“No random shots or melee engagement until you receive double authorization and confirmation from me, I want a clean mission. No one should try my generosity and patience today”.

“Corporal Cinnabar, lead all the remaining squads and follow me”. Saying this, he made his tone sound exaggeratedly deeper to emphasize his seriousness. He felt no shame in doing it, it was a military strategy.

“Yes Major”. The Corporal taking the helm as the leader of the Dragon military division acknowledged with a military salute immediately, as his subordinates quickly followed shortly after.

In less than 15 seconds, all of Clark’s orders were executed swiftly which brought him some much-needed relief. With this, he still had some hopes that the thief was around and could be busted.

After doing all these, he finally beckoned to the leader of his soldier followers from the Spartan army. He also mobilized them all for this mission.

As soon as the leader of the soldiers came to meet him, he did something that was not strategically wise for a soldier of his caliber and rank. He stretched out his hand conspicuously to give something to the soldier, who quickly accepted it.

Seeing this, every soldier’s attention was drawn, including the silent thief, as they predicted that this was probably a strategic battle device.

“This is…?”

Hearing this question, Clark took a deep breath to prepare himself while making himself calmer and pay more attention to his surroundings. This was the trump card that he prepared for today.

After so long of being played by the thief, he already predicted most, if not all his personality. He just hoped that his guess was right.

“Listen to me”. He held his soldier’s shoulders exaggeratedly for emphasis while speaking in a loud tone that was audible to every soldier around.

“This is a large scale all-purpose emp device that I bought specially for this mission. Take and activate it now”.

“Now?”

“Yes, now”.

Before the soldiers around could comprehend what was happening, the loyal follower of the great Major Clark wasted no time as he activated the emp device immediately, prompting a blue electric wave to erupt outwards.

Everyone was slow to react, as it seemed like the light bulb illuminating all the soldier’s lives was just switched off.

Every single device around the range of the emp device stopped working immediately, implants deactivated and lost power, weapons lost their energy enhancement circuit, as the powerful emp device wrath its power.

“Fu*ck!!”

Because this was an order from their Major, the soldiers could not complain, but before they could frown or curse inwardly at the discomfort, a stranger that no one expected beat them to it.

As soon as the sound came out, Clark’s focused penetrating gaze immediately did a 360 turn and stopped at the exact position that it originated from.

“Hehe, found you”.

[Thank you for reading this chapter, I really appreciate it. If you love this book, please leave your power stones behind to support it. Purchase privilege for The Conspiracy Of The Elites and read a varying amount of chapters ahead of regular readers.]