Chapter 313: grade5 lockdown

Clark was happy.

Though the result of his actions was still left hanging in the air, he was confident that his efforts warranted a positive result. And besides, like he warned the Commander, he was serious about it.

He was not gullible enough to just rely on intimidation tactics to deter such a veteran terrorist. He secretly installed an Omni-operational monitor on the Commander’s neck when he grabbed him.

Of course, he left a note to tell the Commander about it in the case that the thought of acting heroic reared its head.

The note read:

[I left a package on your neck. Like I said, if you love your life, make the right decision. Even if you want to make the wrong decision, before you make it, remember that my sniper rifle is currently aiming at your head.]

[One wrong move, and Poof! You’re dead.]

[I believe that you’ll make the right decision, Commander.]

[From your best subordinate graduate, Captain Clark Pendragon!]

Thinking of the most probable ashen expression that would be on the Commander’s face on seeing the note, he threw his head back, pounding his hands on his steering wheel from laughter.

His last action that sealed his intimidation tactics, which was the shot from his sniper rifle. It was an almost impossible feat that he was extremely proud of, but he made a lot of preparations before aiming for the feat.

He was lucky that everything went well according to plan, or if he had missed that shot, it would have been hellishly awkward.

He could practically see his blushing face in such a scenario.

Well, everything was good as long as the shot connected and it did. He made sure to prepare a lot of advantages for himself, such as configuring the gun in a way that enabled him to discharge all its energy in one shot after overloading it.

That way, all the energy compressed into the rifle’s frame was all concentrated on that one shot, enhancing it to the very maximum.

And before he made the shot, he practically became a mathematics student. He had to make lots of calculations about the angle of the shot, the distance, the height that he needed to get to before shooting, the calculations were numerous.

He spent a lot of time, effort, and pages before he finally derived the correct statistics that he needed to follow to get the perfect shot.

And before choosing the day, he checked the weather condition to confirm that the weather was not too gloomy.

In stormy weather, a bullet had the tendency of deviating from its intended course by an extremely wide margin if it was impacted by even the slightest wind. Luck played an important role in his successful shot.

In the end, nobody cared about all the efforts that he put in, all they cared about was that he achieved a mind-blowing feat.

Killing a same-ranked soldier from hundreds of kilometers away was enough to set his legend as a super-soldier of the Spartan republic already. He was slowly establishing himself among the Spartan greats.

After he got back to his mansion, he told his feat to Rose who was once again shocked by his continuously stacking feat of outrageous acts.

Enjoying the beautiful sight of her long hair swaying with her mouth wide open in a geometrical circle shape, he laughed and went into his room. Plopping down on his bed, he closed his eyes and fell asleep.

Another priority was off his agenda, making his plan more complete.

From tomorrow, he would no longer train again for the time being till the clash began. They were already planning for 3 weeks, this last week was the time for implementation.

He could not wait to smash the terrorists hard, and he also hoped for a positive reply from the terrorist Commander.

…

Trump could feel it, something was brewing in the dark. For the past 3 days, the city was constantly in a state of slight tension though none of the citizens knew what was causing it.

Some of them blamed it on the attack months ago, that it was the trauma from then that was acting up again but he thought otherwise.

Since Major Clark became the leader of Vatican City, a lot of positive changes constantly emerged every day that left the city’s citizens feeling content and happy.

Such rapid development also had its downsides, which were in the envy of the other rival cities neighboring them and how they were neglected when the terrorists attacked in an unbridled manner.

From the relatively boring and down-to-earth manner that the city developed at before, now it was probably the city with the most activities and big events throughout the whole Spartan republic.

Like most of the middle-aged people that dwelt in the city, he was born and bred in Vatican City. The city was his root, his being, his present, and his future.

Vatican City was everything to him, which was why he was so happy when the news came that a child of the city was now a 2nd rank high-grade soldier.

What did that mean? To normal citizens like them, normal soldiers were bigshots already. Then talking of high-grade soldiers and even those of the 2nd rank, they practically saw Clark as a god.

That was why they never blamed Clark despite the attacks from the hands of the terrorists, instead, they were more comfortable hauling all the blame at the 5 commissioners.

As a middle-aged man with a beautiful wife, and 2 cute kids, one a boy and the other a girl, he was content in spending the remaining days of his life in his home city.

He was an engineer.

Most of his friends already left for the big cities to pursue better careers long ago, but he was content with Vatican City. Now that the city started developing at an upward trend, he did not want this to stop at all.

His 2 kids were yet to enter their learning years so they didn’t have an implant yet, but he was not content with letting them waste so much time at home.

They were currently undergoing personal lectures with his colleague who was also an engineer. Despite their young ages, the boy 7 and the girl 5, they were both showing prospects in the profession.

As a father, this of course brought him inexplainable joy.

This brought him back to the tension that was currently engulfing the whole city. As an old hand here, he knew Vatican citizens more than the city officials even knew them.

He was sure that something was wrong, he could feel it, which made him only more worried.

A few weeks ago, rumors emerged that their leader was back from where he went to but since then not a single conference was held for the leader to address them which was weird.

He was worried, he hoped that a repeat of the terrorist attack was not about to happen. He was lucky to survive with his family the last time, he may not be that lucky this time.

“Honey, are you alright? You’ve been standing there since about an hour ago?” Mrs. Trump called out from inside the house.

Hearing this familiar voice startled him, but it also brought a smile to his face. “Don’t worry honey, I’m just trying to sort out some things in my head”.

“Have you forgotten? The doctor advised you to think less”.

“I know”. He sighed. “It’s just impossible to stop thinking entirely”.

As he sighed and looked into the distance, a brighter smile suddenly lit his face on seeing 2 cute figures bobbling excitedly and running in his direction.

His children were back from their lectures.

He bent down and opened his arms wide, allowing both kids to jump on him and rest their chubby bodies on his masculine frame.

“Dad, we learned virtual engineering today!” The girl chipped excitedly.

The boy was not as excited. “Dad, I don’t like virtual engineering. It’s boring, I prefer the mechanical engineering that we were thought last week. It was much more exciting compared to virtual engineering”.

The man just smiled at them gently, after they went quiet, he finally asked. “Have you greeted daddy?”

“Oh! Sorry, good evening dad”. The boy corrected himself first.

“Good evening daddy!” The girl cheered, bringing a broader smile to her father’s face.

“Sweetie, you guys are back. You all should come in before the food gets cold, I already prepared your best dishes. Who wants grilled fish, mashed rice, yellow oil, and a spread of seasoned nutrient packs?”

“Me! Me! I want some!” The girl cheered again.

The boy hesitated this time, looked at his dad before replying. “Good evening mom, I want some too”.

“Good boy!” The father rubbed his head fondly.

“Dad, I’m good too!” The girl protested.

“Yes, you are, but you need to greet your mom”.

“Ok, good evening mom”. The sound of the mother’s laughter reverberated from inside the house.

“Good girl!” The father smiled and rubbed her head too. Picking the both of them up, he finally led them inside to eat.

During the dinner session, though both kids were sorely tempted to start babbling on about the sub-topics that they were taught by their uncle Ben, they suppressed the urge on remembering their mother’s reprimands on table manners.

“I hate table manners”. They both grumbled in their hearts.

Despite the interruption of the hateful table manners and that they could not express their joy to their parents now, they were not sad yet.

After eating, mommy always said that then they’re free to say anything that they want. They couldn’t wait to finish eating, they wanted to rush their food but they stopped themselves because mom and dad were around.

A few minutes later, when they were already getting excited that the food would soon finish from their plates, a knock sounded on their door.

Their dad stood up to open the door.

“Is this Mr. Trump Joe?” The stone-faced soldier asked while looking at a picture on his hand.

“Is anything the matter?” As the man asked, he stole glances at his neighbors’ houses and discovered that soldiers were on each of their doors also. His heart sank.

“What’s wrong?” He asked again before the soldier could reply, this time in an agitated tone.

“I’m sorry sir, I cannot disclose much. All I want is your cooperation”.

“Our leader, Major Clark, made a huge decision that would determine the direction of the city in the next coming years. To safeguard all the civilians, the city is currently in a grade 5 lockdown”.

“This means that no civilian is allowed to move in the whole city, and you all shall be taken to the underground military shelter bunkers”.

“I’m sorry for the inconvenience sir, but you have to follow me with your family”. The soldier was surprised to see that the man did not protest nor did he argue.

After listening to the soldier, Trump confirmed his conjecture. He knew the way that soldiers operated, asking would not force them to reveal anything to him.

He had experienced enough to know that the best thing to do was follow them, and that’s what he did. At least this was not the worst-case scenario where terrorists swarmed into the city without resistance.

Apologizing to his 2 kids, Dandelion and Prince, he carried them with his wife, and they all followed the soldier away.

In all parts of Vatican City, such scenarios filled everywhere when the day started getting dark but not every family was so easygoing.

Some tried to protest and react violently, for those, the soldiers had to resort to force to take them away to safety.

Tomorrow was the D-day of the great purge, the civilians had to be protected by all means. That was the captain’s order.