War: A Business

Chapter 48: Operation Inner Hell

     We have infiltrated the building. We walked silently on the corridor. We wore our balaclava's to mask ourselves.

  As we turned left at a corridor, we saw a butler looking down on the balcony of the buildings atrium. We shot him using a tranquilizer round from our silenced subsonic pistols. The only noise the gun makes is a fast whisper in the air.

  We looked down on the atrium. A diamond chandelier is hanging below. A long table full of officers of the Papal Military Police and chiefs of the Nordic Vikings sat together, feasting on the table. They laughed, they drank, like there is no tomorrow.

   But there is no tomorrow for them, because, we will bomb this place.

   We checked every room at the fifth floor to make sure that no one is there.

   We sneaked down to the stairs of the ground floor. We neutralized some of the staff in the area while going down.

   We arrived at the ground floor. The officers at both sides of the table are drunk. Neither of them are sober. We saw a small orchestra at the opposite end of the table, behind the buffet table. We hid the bomb under the table. I ordered Q to go up at the third floor and open fire when I gave the command.

   I snuck to the stage where the orchestra is stationed. When I arrived. I lay silently prone behind them.

   I shot three of the officers with it. The people on the table panicked, and readied their weapons with each other while drunk.

"We are being attacked!" somebody shouted.

Guards scrambled out of the corridors.I ran up to the stairs, using the commotion as cover.

"Fire!" I shouted.

  Q opened the "Pandora's Box," and rained lead down to the guards. I ran, activating my legs. In no time I reached Q's position.

  Guards arrived at either side. We grabbed our umbrellas from our duffel bags.

   We opened our bulletproof umbrellas. They shielded us from the hail of bullets.

"Go! Go! Go!" I shouted. They jumped out of the window, sliding on the ropes of the grappling hooks. Then I ran as fast as I can and jumped out of the window.

   My artificial legs absorbed the impact from jumping off the building. Q pressed the button on the bomb's detonator.

  We ran away to the streets. The building exploded. The inside burned like an inferno.

"Objective complete." Q contacted Madame in his Holo.

"Good, exfilrate the area ASAP." I heard Madame in Q's Holo.

  A dropship hovered in front of us. We carried our equipment and threw it inside.We got on the dropship. I almost closed the doors when,

  I heard a loud bang,like the sound of a gunshot.

  Q was coughing blood. He lay down on the dropship's floor and writhed with pain. I saw a bullet wound on his back.

  I panicked. I searched for medical supplies in the dropship. I cant find any, not even a bandage or a medkit.

"I cant make it." He whispered." It was a good run." he whispered, coughing blood.

"No! You can make it!" I cried. I know that he cannot make it. Why does this dropship lack medical supplies anyway?

"Give this to my two sons and my wife." he gave me a letter splattered with his own blood.

"Maybe we will have a drink next time." he whispered. "Put that cig in my mouth for one last smoke."

I grabbed his cigar from his pocket and I put it in his mouth.

"420." he whispered, his eyes slowly closing.

  The colors disappeared from his body. Lifeless and pale. He is an honorable and a venerable man. He is right, we have no cause or country, that doesn't stop us from fighting. We fight because we want to. We fight for glory and for our families. We are not just a militia or a private army, we are a superpower for hire.

   I saw the Papal Military Police soldiers at the distance,now armed with lethal weapons.

  My vision turned red.

   I pressed the button beside the to activate the mounted heavy coolant-cooled laser gun on the side of the dropship. The foldable mount of the heavy coolant-cooled laser gun beside the cockpit of the pilot begin to unfold to the doors of the dropship. I sat on the edge of the door and I hold the grips of the gun gingerly.

The enemy fired us.

"We are being engaged! Permission to open fire!" I told the pilot.

"This is Peacock 1. Permission to fire granted." the pilot replied.

   I hold the button to fire.I'm firing successive bursts of invisible beams of pure heat,melting the metal,pierces through their armor, and burned them alive .

   Some of them took cover.After firing many successive beams, the coolant container smoked and sizzled. I fired my weapon at the remaining enemies.Their flesh, with their armor, burned and melted.

No one is left. My anger subsided.

  The weapon returned back to its original position.I closed the doors shut.

  My Holo rang.

"We captured the taxi driver who shot you in the back. As we suspected, he's with RavenClaw." Boss announced."

"He tried to assassinate you. The weird thing is, after a series of truth serums, he doesn't know why he was ordered to kill you. But he revealed the where their money was flowing.

   Its not only Lotus who are receiving the funds from RavenClaw, there are a number of major terrorist groups and other private armies, or either whole countries and paying our personnel to spy or leave our company. They also conducted illegal activities, selling drugs, human trafficking, selling WMDs to terrorists, sex trade and many more." he added.

"The man also said that they are looking for a way to mass-produced WMDs and other weapons systems only the CEO of RavenClaw controlled. He said that they have a total of a estimated 500 bases all over the world.Are they trying to take over the world? And why did he said their company's secret plans quickly? We will find out, sooner or later." Then, the signal died out.

   I looked at Q's corpse. The cigar is still smoking. In his honor, I smoke my cigar with him. I pressed the button on the cigar to light it.

  Time seemingly sped up. It feels like Q is still here, smoking with me inside.In no time, the sky is bright.

  Then, we landed on an unknown place.