Chapter 322: the counterattack begins

Deep inside the forest bordering Vatican City, inside a big underground military base, an abnormally serious and tense atmosphere was inside the regional convergence headquarters of the Persian tigers organization.

Silence reigned inside the underground terrorist base headquarters, all the terrorists either sat still or stood still like statues no matter where they were in the base.

As mere subordinates in this terrorist base, they were not informed of the plans of the higher-ups. They didn’t know what was happening but none of them could stay calm, their gut feeling told them that something was wrong.

At some intervals, terrorist soldiers who were already promoted to the executioner rank could be seen running up and down, going in and out of the corridor that led to the chamber of the main Commanders.

At this moment, the normal grandeur and confident demeanor exhibited by executioners could not be detected from them at all. Their movements seemed flustered.

The expression that was on their faces did not help matters either, it only made the subordinates that secretly looked on tenser.

“What…??!”

The sound was like that of exploding dominos.

All the subordinate terrorists almost tripped on their steps on hearing it, feeling goosebumps as one as they reflexively turned their heads to the direction of the higher ups’ domain where the sound came from.

“Please, not again!”

“Please!” Even though their mouths remained shut, their minds were saying the same thing. They all plead this in their minds while stealing glances stealthily.

“What…??”

“HOW DARE HE???”

It came again. This time, they directly fell down.

Scrambling back up and not knowing what to do, they decided to start doing random things to curb their anxiety. Some took hold of their weapons and started caressing them immediately, while others started playing imaginary card games.

This new level of anger that was even being expressed by shouting out in rage started today. But the anger of the 2 regional main Commanders started a few days ago.

About a week ago, the main terrorist base still had 3 main Commanders but this number was shockingly reduced to 2 by a mysterious assassin.

It was an unreal scenario. It was an event that shook the very foundations of the main terrorist base, making both subordinates and superiors alike live their lives like they were standing on pins and needles.

When it happened, it was just a normal day in the underground terrorist base and the 3 main Commanders were in their office as usual.

One of the Commanders suddenly decided to take a relaxed stroll around the base, which was not a rare sight. But this time, no one knew that it would be different, not even the Commander himself knew.

As he strolled around the base, basking in the attention being showered at him by his subordinates, it was barely audible but a sound like that of a hard object moving through the air suddenly reverberated.

No one noticed it till the thudding sound of something dropping to the floor reverberated. All eyes turned in that direction, and what they saw scared the shit out of them.

The Commander who was originally strolling around the base leisurely was now lying in a pool of his own blood, with a hole punched through his head.

Alarmed, the terrorists who were at the scene made a ruckus immediately. The underground base was directly locked down, and the highest-grade alarm was sounded as every single terrorist in the base became alert.

While the doctors attended to the dying Commander, an all-around sweeping search for the assassin began that was led by the highest-ranked main Commander of the base himself, Commander Titus.

In such a tight situation that warranted such serious search, even if the assassin was a rat, he/she could not escape.

As the sweep continued, the news of the Commander’s death came. It was shocking and unbelievable, but this was not able to stop the sweeping search, it only made them more determined to find the culprit.

After searching for over an hour futilely, the search was finally called off but all the terrorists were still alert.

They were too spooked to let down their guard, the incident was done so openly that it could not be hidden from even the civilian terrorists who worked in the base.

This was not some random soldier; this was one of the main Commanders who took the helm of all their operations across the whole Vatican City.

To the lower-ranked terrorists, their main Commanders were their idols. They were their backbones. Being 3rd rank high-grade soldiers, to the subordinates, their leaders were impervious to damage.

This only made the news of what happened more shocking and impactful, every single terrorist in the base started having a rethink of their life.

This was the atmosphere among the subordinates though, the higher-ups felt it the most. Angered and frustrated, the highest-ranked Commander finally demanded the autopsy and a report on how the attack came about.

To his surprise, according to the evidence that was found, the assassin did the deed from outside the terrorist base. That alone was enough to make him widen his eyes in disbelief.

The high-caliber bullet that destroyed the brain cells of the unfortunate Commander was the only evidence that was found. No other traces were found, not in the corpse’s body nor the terrorist base.

After a lot of calculations, it was deduced that the bullet came from over a thousand miles away.

It was shocking, but that was even mild compared to the process. From the report, the only thing that aided the assassin was a camera.

After using a very advanced hacking device to crack their virtual defenses, through careful monitoring he was able to keep track of all the Commanders’ movements.

As soon as one of them came out of their bulwark defense chamber, he struck. And when he struck, it was final, ruthless, and vicious.

He only needed to strike once, the angle of the bullet, quality of the bullet, and a lot of other lethal factors made sure that the Commander died despite the quick intervention of the medical experts.

His brain was practically fried by the lethal loads filled in the bullet; it was a killer shot that only by a miracle would the Commander have survived.

The attack broke the laws of physics! High-grade soldier's existence already broke the laws of physics, but this was completely different. In a more correct sentence, it was an impossible feat.

After reading the report of the analysts, Commander Titus did not know how exactly he should react. He felt overwhelmed, he felt shocked, and most especially he felt spooked. This was just too scary.

Since that day which was approximately a week ago, the defenses of the base were strengthened and maintained at the maximum level 24/7. Recalling what happened to someone they thought was invincible, no terrorist dared slack.

It took a lot of effort before all the unrest brought by the Commander’s death was curbed, but it was curbed mostly because all the terrorists in this base were the better-trained ones.

Just a few days after this happened, the 2 Commanders who lord over this main base started receiving reports of tension in the city, but they paid little attention to it due to fear for this mysterious and terrifying assassin.

Their reason for ignoring such trivial news was good and well justified, but now, it seemed that this negligence was already biting them viciously in the backside.

The report that was just sent to the desk of the 2 main Commanders a few minutes ago made them shocked, they could barely wrap their heads around it.

Commander Pizza was dead, unbelievable!

"Was this report verified to be true?" A deep voice sounded in the chamber of the main Commanders. "Is this real?"

"Yes, Commander". The blonde-haired female executioner replied with trepidation dripping from her tone. "Commander Pizza sent it himself through the special communication device a few minutes ago before it happened".

Silence descended into the chamber as the 2 Commanders slipped into deep thought, prompting a suppressive atmosphere to invade the chamber that left the executioner breathless.

"Ok, leave us". The female Commander finally broke the silence.

"Yes Commanders". The executioner inwardly heaved a sigh of relief and scurried away immediately.

As soon as the executioner left the state-of-the-art chamber that was specially made for them, both Commanders looked into each other’s eyes, a deep emotion revolving inside.

They stayed like this in eerie silence like they were mind readers that were exchanging information through their mind, it was goosebump-inducing but none of the 2 Commanders flinched. 10 minutes later, they finally broke the silence.

“Pizza is dead!” Commander Titus sighed. “Who would have thought? He actually died on the same week that Commander Coman died”.

Commander Keidi weighed her words properly before saying them out. “I don’t think that’s our concern for now”.

Seeing him raise an eyebrow on hearing her, she quickly clarified. “I’m not saying that their lives were worthless, all I’m saying is that we have to move on and focus on more important pending matters”.

“Matters like who killed him, and a lot of others”.

Commander Titus sighed again. “I just feel that they’re unlucky souls, but you’re right, we have other pending matters”.

He waved his hand and the virtual letter that was just printed started hovering in the air. A holographic projection appeared, and the contents of the letter started being shown.

“Password!” A robotic voice asked

“Your ass is mine, Zeus!” Commander Titus did not let out a flinch.

“Password confirmed!” A green light shone on the screen before the letter flipped over, the real contents were finally revealed.

“Commander Titus, if you’re reading this, I want to tell you that we are in desperate times. Vatican City attacked, and not on a small scale but a large scale with the clear intention of wiping us off”.

“We were too complacent; we didn’t detect it on time”.

“I’m confident that all Vatican troops were mobilized. If no intervention comes on time, all our bases inside Vatican City would become relics before morning”.

“You’ll find a detailed report in the encrypted file, for now, I want to tell you another guess that I made”.

“The soldier who is leading the attack against my base is Captain Clark. Yes, you got it right, not Major but Captain Clark. If I’m not wrong, I think I know who assassinated Coman”.

“I still regret it. We underestimated him; the kid is a beast!”

“I’ll be going out to fight him in a moment”.

“Another reminder: If I don’t make it, then I still underestimated the young Captain. If I die, I want you to take Clark as a Grade 5 target and assassinate him now before he matures. I want you to mobilize all our forces to kill Clark”.

“Yours faithfully; Commander Pizza”.

After watching the recorded video, both Commanders did not stop as they quickly proceeded to devour the contents of the encrypted message after cracking the security on it.

A few minutes later, they both sat still with solemn expressions on their faces. Commander Titus turned to face his female counterpart. “What do you think?”

Commander Keidi wiped her face. “I think I believe Pizza’s deduction”.

As Titus wanted to continue, a knock suddenly sounded from the door. “Yes?”

The female executioner entered the chamber again, fidgeting nervously. “Sir, another information just came back”.

“What is it?”

“We just lost all of our bases in Vatican City”. She lowered her head.

Commander Titus did not explode in rage as she expected, instead, he looked at the ceiling while deep in thought. A moment later, he stood up.

“Mobilize the boys!”

“What?” The executioner blurted out reflexively before covering her mouth with a terrified expression on her face.

The Commander paid her little attention. “We are counter-attacking!”

[Guys, I'm really sorry for the inconsistent release. I promise to make up for it, it's just a matter of time.]