Chapter 385: things are about to get hot

“Master, Moana is safe”.

“Good, well done”.

Clark gave his student a thump up in his mind as he cruised through the streets of South Ville District in Neon City. This news from Albert enlivened his heart so much that he started ruminating about the name given to the city.

“Neon, that’s a beautiful name for a city”.

As he muttered to himself dreamily, he quickly steered his car into the familiar road of Orion Street. He went through all the high-rise mansions before arriving at his destination, Oliver mansion.

He already alerted Captain Drake of his coming back earlier, so as soon as he arrived the huge gate automatically opened for him.

He smoothly drove inside with familiarity, made a U-turn before steering in the direction of the garage. After parking the car, he finally came down and went directly inside the mansion.

Inside the spacious living room sat Captain Drake, Captain Daniella, and some assassins who have not returned to their secret bases yet.

“I didn’t expect you to come back so early, 10”.

“I want to speak with the both of you alone”. He looked at the 2 Captains to emphasize his point.

Seeing how serious his tone was, Captain Drake also became serious. He directed a glance at the other assassins, prompting them to leave before he finally turned back to face Clark.

Clark sat down on the nearby sofa. “A problem cropped up on my side”.

“Oh! Is it something that we can help on?”

Clark took a deep breath. “It’s not that, I want you to bring the plan for your attack against the Radan government forward. Precisely, if we can do it in a week, I’ll be glad”.

Captain Drake frowned. “You know that’s not feasible, there’s no way that we can organize ourselves enough in a week to deal a significant blow to the Presidential villa”.

Clark sighed. “I know this is abrupt, but I can help”.

“I am a joint owner of a mercenary organization, and it is already a force to be reconned with in the mercenary world. I will elicit their help for the attack, but you have to pay for their services”.

Captain Drake kept quiet for a moment. He already thought about hiring mercenary groups, but he knew that mercenaries were always reluctant about putting themselves into struggles involving a country’s government.

If Clark could really bring such a mercenary group, he was ready to pay for their services. But the question was, will a mercenary group be strong enough to tip the scales of the battle?

“How strong is the mercenary group”. He finally asked.

“They have a 3rd rank high-grade soldier, and another 3rd rank high-grade soldier is also temporarily with them, bringing the tally to 2”.

“Deal!”

Captain Drake agreed without hesitation. 3rd rank high-grade soldiers were not commodities that could be easily found in the market, the mention of that term alone shocked the shit out of him.

“But still, a week is too much of a stretch. I think 1 month is the most feasible for an attack of that scale”. He argued.

“Ok, I’ll compromise for 2 weeks”. Clark countered.

“…”

Captain Drake was left speechless. “Is this some kind of marketing?”

“Ok, 3 weeks minimum, please”.

Clark frowned but it did not last on his face. “Ok, deal. Do you have an exact date in mind to set it on?”

“No”.

“Then, leave it on the 25th then, Christmas day”.

Captain Drake was surprised. “Why do I feel like you’ve done something like this before on the same date?”

“Good intuition”. Clark thumbed him.

“I was once in a squad that assassinated the governor of a middle-grade country, and the date was on the 25th December also”.

Clark stood up to leave. “Just try to gather any allies that you have, we’ll need a sizeable military force to create a distraction before we strike”.

“For the main plan, leave that till my allies come”.

Knock! Knock!

Clark stopped as soon as he heard the knock, he turned his head back to the 2 Captains looking at him. “Where is Ares?”

“I’m here”. The soldier was just coming from his new room after he received the news that Clark came back.

Clark smiled at him. “Congratulations! Your daughter is rescued”.

“R…, Really?” The stunned man stuttered.

It was at this moment that Albert opened the door after not getting any response to his knock, and holding his hands was a small girl.

“Moana?!” Ares blurted out in shock and joy.

“Daddy!”

The girl quickly wriggled out of the grasp of the uncle before running towards her father. After getting close enough, she jumped for a hug and her father caught her accurately- just like the old days.

“Daddy, why didn’t you come to carry me?”

Ares wasn’t even hearing a sound again. As his daughter spoke, he just kept on looking at her moving lips in a daze.

Once again, he confirmed that he was holding his daughter in his arms physically, something he originally thought was a dream. Not able to control himself, he burst into tears.

Every eye in the living room twitched and turned away on seeing this.

“Daddy, why are you crying?”

“Nothing, nothing, Moana, nothing”. Ares repeated consecutively as he hugged his daughter to his chest tighter.

This was his daughter; this was his most valuable relative left in the world.

…

At a remote area in Southern Sparta, at one of the small towns.

A hooded man entered one of the small grey-painted buildings. After revealing his codename, he was finally allowed inside the restaurant to drink with the other drunkards.

As usual, he drank casually with the drunkards for 15 minutes. After confirming that nothing was wrong, he finally stood up and went inside the kitchen after putting on a mask.

Opening the refrigerator, the teleportation portal flickered to life. Without hesitation, he entered and immediately disappeared out of the restaurant.

Immediately after he arrived at the secret building, he did not say a word as he quickly navigated his way to the small room upstairs.

Knock! Knock!

“Come in”. A deep voice answered.

The hooded man entered without hesitation before kneeling down.

“Good evening, Mr. S”.

“Mr. A said that the time is ripe for communication”.

Without waiting for a reply from the Mr. S, he stood up, bowed respectfully before navigating his way out of the room.

Mr. S’s eyes flashed with an ominous gleam as soon as the message settled down to his brain. He immediately stood up, carefully opened his safe before bringing out a special communication device.

After sending the signal, he waited for 30 seconds before a holographic projection of a hooded man appeared before him.

“Mr. A”. The projected man introduced himself.

“Mr. S”. He introduced himself also.

“What is the important information that the headquarters should know?”

“It is about a Spartan soldier, Vatican City-born. His name is Lieutenant Colonel Clark Pendragon, one of my subordinates recently had a clash with him and suffered terribly”.

“What did he observe and what do you have to report?”

“I have everything compiled in this virtual document, go through it and explain it to the leader”.

“Take this matter seriously, I believe the evaluation of Mr. Black”.

“Ok, I will, but don’t expect an early response from the leader. You know that right now we have a lot in our hands, we have to prepare for the M.S plan”.

“Ok”. Mr. S answered simply.

After the conversation came to an end, the holographic projections flickered before disappearing. The communication device finally went dormant again.

Mr. S carefully picked up the device and stored it back in his safe. After doing this, he sat down. Despite his face being covered by the hood, it could not hide the excitement currently in his eyes.

“Things are about to get hot”.

[Hey, thanks for reading.]