Kapitel 75: THE ART OF THE DEAL part 2

Xiao Tian, Sean, Frederica, Jay and Phineas are in the armory, loading up their equipment in preparation for the mission. Due to maintenance concerns, a maximum of 2 out of the 3 midget submarines can be deployed at any one time in a non-emergency setting. Each midget submarine has a crew and oxygen capacity for 5.

Xu Qing notified that their midget submarine is set, and they headed into the midget submarine. All of them are dressed in civilian clothes, wearing raincoats. Each of them has an unassuming black backpack worn on their shoulders.

"Comms check," said Xiao Tian into the radio.

"All good," replied Nanami and Xu Qing.

Xiao Tian started the Air-independent propulsion system of the midget submarine, the docking area is now filled with seawater as the ports opened, and the submarine soon left the platform, propelling itself out. Soon, in less than an hour, they have moved themselves out of the Mariana Trench, a prove of the advancements in Earth's material science.

The midget submarine gradually rose up as it propelled forward in the direction of the Philippines, though still remaining submerged, heading over to the Dragon Palace bazzar. Sean and Xiao Tian kept their eyes glued to the meters and sonars, checking their surroundings and the state of the midget submarine keenly.

In the meantime, Xu Qing and Louis are tapping into the communication systems of the JSDN, eavesdropping on their movements.

"There is a gap forming in their quarantine area to your east, head over there. Coordinates are being sent over," he said.

Soon the navigation AI received the directions, plotting the directions which will allow them to bypass the JSDN naval ships patrolling the area in enforcing the quarantine of the Dragon Palace bazzar on the Japanese side.

Xiao Tian steered the midget submarine, while enforcing radio silence to ensure that their communications will not be picked up by the JSDN and expose their positions. As he did that, he also gradually increased the depth to increase the difficulty of detection.

Sean held his breath, even though he and Xiao Tian had already ran the blockade twice, he could not help but to feel nervous. After all, if the JSDN ships are not in a mood to talk, all it takes is a couple of smart torpedoes or anti-submarine missiles to leave them in a watery grave at the bottom of the ocean.

Fortunately, they soon passed through the quarantine zone unscathed, which is extremely lucky, for just as they exited the area, a submarine belonging to smugglers is caught and detained by the JSDN.

Xiao Tian then slowed down the midget submarine, gradually floating up.

2 hours later, the midget submarine hit the surface, floating. The 5 of them looked out of the periscope, seeing a cluster of rusty oil rigs linked to each other with makeshift bridges beholding them, all covered in aquatic plants and barnacles from the disuse after they had been defunct for a century. Submarines are being hoisted up from the water into the docking areas on the oil rigs using giant elevators, while those leaving the rigs are being lowered back down into the ocean.

"Welcome to the Palace," said Sean at the other 3 who is their first time here.

Xiao Tian switched to the quantum encrypted channel in which the smuggler use to coordinate the docking procedures. He keyed the live-generated 6 digit password on a modem he "pulled off" from another smuggler.

"Proceed to docking area G9," said the AI voice on the other side. Xiao Tian followed the instructions, parking the submarine on a elevator.

A loud noise is made as the platform slowly rose up, stopping in the middle of the oil rig, where the docking area is located.

"Let's go," said Xiao Tian, shutting down the midget submarine. Jay opened the hatch, and the 5 climbed out, walking to the elevators to bring them to the surface.

They crammed in with several smugglers in a dark elevator that has it's dim light blinking. Just as they are almost reaching the surface, Frederica felt something touching her rear.

Alarmed, she immediately grabbed it, a man's arm, and twisted it. The man yelled in pain as Frederica quickly locked him, one move away from killing him with her bare hands, much to the shock of the other smugglers.

Xiao Tian shook his head slightly while glaring at the man that tried to molest Frederica. Understanding Xiao Tian's orders, she knocked the man out with a punch, kicking him into a corner of the elevator.

The elevator doors opened, and the operators stepped out, while the other smugglers walked past time, minding their businesses. Some stepped onto the man's body as if it was a mere doormat.

In a criminal haven like the Dragon Palace bazzar, civility and peace is none existent.

Walking across a drug and red light district in the area, Sean sighed looking at the occasional well dressed people laughing and roaming through the place, holding onto scantly dressed men or women.

He shook his head in disapproval. These people are evidently of higher social status from China, Japan or the Philippines, coming here for a thrill of fornicating and drugs.

"Why are you all here?" muttered Sean internally. "You all have good lives, why come to such a mess of a place?"

Reaching the "pharmacy" after a long walk, they walked around, with Sean and Xiao Tian leading the way, heading in the path they remembered the Mohawk guy walking on.

"He disappeared around this corner," muttered Sean, turning to the vendor they saw.

It's an unassuming building, with the sign on it that read "machine parts" in Tagalog and English.

Just as they turned over, the doors opened, and they immediately pulled back, staying in the blind spot.

The Mohawk guy stepped out, together with several other men, clearly high after doing drugs. They jumped up and down psychotically, laughing as they stumbled, moving off. All of them have blood on their faces and hands, clearly having just brutally murdered someone, and are now going out to have fun.

"They all have cybernetic enhancements," observed Phineas. "Be careful."

"Follow them, keep your distance," ordered Xiao Tian. The 5 operators waited for them to move off, and then followed in their direction. Jay threw a mini-drone the size of a butterfly into the air, the AI in the camera quickly generating a topographic map of the area.

Back in the safe house, Xu Qing used the drone as a beacon to disable the electronic systems on the rig, remotely shutting down the cameras to cover his comrades' movement. He radioed Xiao Tian once that's done.

The men laughed and played around in a narcotics induced exuberance, walking into another alley. Loud music is blaring on the speakers around the alley.

The operators followed after them, with Jay and Phineas taking a detour to the other end of the alley, planning to box them in from both sides.

Just then, a floorboard under Frederica suddenly gave way, causing her to step into the floor, trapping her left foot inside. This unexpected development complicated things, for the men heard the noise, all 10 of them turned around to see Xiao Tian, Sean and Frederica.

"New faces!" laughed one. Some wolf whistled at Frederica.

"Hey fish lady," one of them laughed, mocking Frederica, "you need a hand?"

"Nah, she need a foot!" said another man, and they all laughed, much to Sean's cringe.

They walked towards the operators, spring powered switch blades popping out of their cybernetic arms.

"Assailants high on drugs are the worst," thought Sean, as their blood lust, courage and aggressiveness are amplified, making them fearless. Their extremely energetic state also allowed them to still remain fighting despite receiving wounds that would have put them down under normal circumstances.

The Mohawk guy laughed crazily as he led the charge towards the 3 operators, just as Frederica finally freed her foot.

"Keep the girl alive!" he yelled.

Xiao Tian, Sean and Frederica remain unfazed, reaching to their backs and pulling a chord on their backpacks.

The front section of the backpack detached, moving around their bodies, flipping onto their chests, revealing a compact submachine gun or rifle fastened on it, on the internal side of the front section.

The 3 quickly buckled up, transforming the backpack into a set of body armour, grabbing their compact guns off their chests. extending or unfolding the stocks.

Sean parried off a blow from a switchblade using his FN SCAR-SC, diverting the blow away with the stock. He then kicked the man down with a kick to the stomach, before neutralizing him with a pull of the trigger, shooting him with rubber bullets, leaving him groaning in pain on the floor, feeling as if a million ants is eating away his body bit by bit. Such excruciating pain is enough to stun anyone out of a drug induced psychosis, possible thanks to a microscopic needle in the rubber bullet that releases electric signals mimicking pain into the nerves.

Xiao Tian and Frederica fought off their assailants in a similar fashion, raising their guns at the rest of them. They have came back to their sense hearing the suppressed shooting of the guns, all stopping.

The Mohawk guy looked down the dark barrel of Xiao Tian's suppressed QCQ-171, stopping in his tracks.

Frederica too has her suppressed SIG MCX raised at him.

"Bringing a knife to a gun fight?" joked Xiao Tian. The 3 operators moved forward, prompting the men to run off in panic, only to run headfirst into the barrel of Phineas' suppressed MP5A5 and Jay's suppressed MCX.

A few gunshots later, all of the men save for the Mohawk guy are on the floor groaning in pain, peppered with rubber bullets.

The suppressed gunshots are drowned out in the loud music, hence no one else heard them.

"Not quite the way I expected it to happen, but it worked in the end," commented Jay, reloading his SIG MCX.

"AHH!" roared the Mohawk guy, attacking them wildly in his drug induced psychosis.

Phineas sighed, bending down to dodge the blow, grabbing the extendable police baton on his body armour, deploying it.

He smashed it against his knee, crippling him. Seizing the chance, he then tased the Mohawk guy using the baton, and he promptly fell, spasming, his cybernetics disabled. Phineas then shot him point blank with another rubber bullet, inducing pain.

Sean and Frederica quickly restrained his hands, taping his mouth with duct tape. Xiao Tian, Jay and Phineas covered them, ensuring that the men on the floor remain there as they moved him to a secluded corner.

"We got him," radioed Xiao Tian.

"Understood," replied Nanami. "Make it quick."

"No lifeforms detected nearby" said Jay, looking at the feed from the drone on his smart watch.

Phineas tore off the duct tape.

"WHAT DO YOU ALL WANT? I WILL BURY YOU—" he stopped his rant upon seeing Jay pulling out his Glock 19 pistol, unloading the magazine, revealing live ammunition.

Xiao Tian smiled, showing him the picture of the test tubes, "recognise these?" he asked.

The Mohawk guy nodded. "You want one?" he laughed.

Xiao Tian shook his head. "I want to know who is buying them, "Sirena"."

"Sirena" 's eyes widened in shock upon hearing Xiao Tian saying his alias.

"Sorry, us in the trade keep our buyers and sellers confidential, its the deal," he sneered.

Xiao Tian chuckled. He looked at the Mohawk guy.

"Rules are dead, people are living," he said. "Let me offer you a deal, you give me a name of someone that bought this about 9 days ago, and you all get to leave in one piece. After all, a silent man is of no better use to us than a dead man."

"What deal?" retorted the Mohawk guy.

"Does Archangel or Vanguard ring a bell?" asked Sean, grabbing his pistol and pulling the slide.

His facial expressions of alarm upon hearing the names of the 2 organisations exposing the fact that he was the one that traded with them.

After all, from Sean's experience, people with extremely brash and volatile personalities also tend to be timid when they are in an actual life-threatening situation. Their violent acts are merely fronts.

The Mohawk guy looked at the 5 operators who all had their pistols drawn now. He bit his lips, reluctantly opening his mouth.

"Joseph Campbell," he said.

"Who's that?" asked Sean.

"Some snobbish a**hole from Archangel," he replied, spitting on the floor.