Chapter 282 - Blow Up

While the rest of his family had gotten on in a single car to go to another airport, Qing Lok got in a separate vehicle with Clown. He already had a laptop open and was busily typing on it. They were still too far from the house for him to be able to access it but he liked to review his steps so he knew that he would take only the littlest time.

As soon as they got in the range of the house, he had hacked into the system and locked the armory. Overriding had been simple. The next he did was access the CCTV cameras to help his brothers inside.

However, as soon as he saw the plane that his family was riding, all the signals had been cut off—probably when Wuming landed on the roof. The alarm was not in the list in the system. Must be an old one with the jurassic sensors.

Qing Lok cursed under his breath. It would only make sense that they did not heavily relied on technology as they were in the middle of a dessert. Signals must have been really hard to come by. He squeezed and stretched his fingers and he heard his bones cracked.

Against the dark, he could see the silhouette of the mansion. There was the occasional blinking lights on the windows which he knew were from guns. He could not help but feel suffocated. The mask was tied to the back of his head and the nape of his neck.

"We're near, sir," said Clown and he stood up and hastily went to the back of the car. A machine gun was propped on the metal bar of the car. Qing Lok already had his earplugs in.

"Are you sure they would have missiles?"

"Yes, sir," said the Clown against the wind. It was almost inaudible.

Qing Lok's mind was honestly going into haywire as the seconds passed. What if they only had manual missiles? One wrong turn of the car and they would explode in dozens of pieces. But he could neither rule out the possibility of The Zookeeper owning a more advanced missile. The desert was a huge place. There was no way he wouldn't have something that would certainly hit his enemies if they ever came under attack.

He could hear his family talking via the microphone. His heart leaped every time he heard their voices. He didn't realize he was actually waiting for one of them to speak up so he'd know they were still alive.

Before they got close, they saw multiple jeepneys came out of the property. "Sir, it's best if you would lie down on the seat now," said Clown.

Qing Lok hated to be the one in hiding. But Qing Chen insisted that he had to be in one of these cars. He pushed the carseat all the way back and he fitted himself on the floor space—which was not really easy considering how huge he was.

He could not help but cover his head when he heard the first gunshots coming their way. The bullets ricocheted off the bulletproof vehicle and glasses. He didn't know if he imagined the people's screams as they died. He took a peek and he saw that Clown was really focused. He had on a special pair of goggles that was meant to help him see against the dark.

When Qing Lok looked up, all he saw was the sky. Starless and open.

His attention was taken when he heard Qing Chen on his ear. "Lok, can you hear me? Hello?"

"Chen, I am here," he answered, pressing against the device.

"I'm in one of the cars. Are you okay?"

"I'm fine. Just do your thing. I'll let you know when something comes up on my screen."

Qing Chen did not answer anymore and the bullets still rained the desert. He could not help but feel scared. One bullet could end his life. If they didn't win in this, if they were not dead by the time that were not caught, The Zookeeper would surely treat them like animals. 

Finally there was something that glowed on his screen. Someone was trying to access a missile. Qing Lok immediately grabbed the laptop and used countermeasures. But he needed that missle to launch before he could override.

"Chen," he called his brother. "We've got a missle. It's going to launch in a minute. Where are we going put this?"

"Which car is it aiming at?"

There was already a target on the screen but as they were continuously moving, he could not determine which one was it. "I can't see!"

"Start the override," Qing Chen answered and Qing Lok could here the sound of the gun as his brother squeezed the trigger.

As Qing Lok's screen was filled with black and green lines, he could hear his brother calling for Feng Xuan. Qing Lok's own blood went cold when he pulled up the communication devices list and found that his sister-in-law's was no longer connected.

"Chen! Something's happened to her," he screamed, just in case his brother would not be able to hear him amid all the noise.

There was a string of curses in Qing Chen's breath. "Pull up the scan of the house and find where is she and Wuming. You're going to have to blow up that house."

"ARE YOU CRAZY?!"

"Trust me, this is the only way this would work."

"You're nuts!" Qing Lok said but he was already doing what Qing Chen was asking of him. He could not even see his own fingers typing. Even for him, they looked like a blur on top of his keyboard.

He found that Feng Xuan was at at the west side of the house and Wuming was out of the radar—probably in the bas.e.m.e.nt. But he didn't know which part.

"Chen, where do you want it?" he asked, feeling nervous over the next keys.

"Hit the front of the house."