Chương 77: BUBBLY FUN
(Concurrently at the Siene)
A motorboat cruised on the river. On it are several guards dressed in tactical equipment and body armour, wielding L85A3 rifles, keeping guard. On their sleeves are patches that has a green horse with wings drawn on a low visibility camouflaged background: the symbol of Pegasus.
A well dressed man is sitting on the deck, admiring the beauty of the Siene. He fancifully cut himself a piece of beef Wellington, eating it.
"Sir Campbell, we will arrive at the conference 10 minutes later," he said.
"Alright," he said in a thick Scottish accent, finishing up his meal.
Just then, he heard several distant explosions and gunfire. Alarmed, he immediately sat up, alertly looking at the direction of the shooting.
"What is going on?" he asked his men.
"We are figuring out," a Pegasus contractor replied, his hands and eyes glued to the phone.
After a while, he put down the phone with a faint smile.
"The UNSSD motorcade carrying Director Kovac has been attacked. UNSSD has vanquished the attackers, zero casualties sustained. The ceremony is called off."
Sir Campbell's expression turned to alarm.
A few snickers came from the managers and secretaries under him. After all, it's public knowledge that UNSSD and Archangel have shaky relationships that were made worse by the events of London. It's all too natural that the staff of Archangel will indulge in some sadistic pleasure at Director Kovac getting into trouble.
"This is preposterous!" slammed Sir Campbell angrily. "Are these scums out of their mind?! If anything happens to Director Kovac it will be nothing short of a disaster!"
His atitude surprised his staff, they did not expect their boss to be so concerned about the wellbeing of the leader of an opposing organisation.
(On another motorboat parked by the river bank)
"Oh you can't be serious…" muttered Sean, hearing the news of the attack on Director Kovac and that the ceremony has been canceled.
"Water team," he radioed, notifying them of the situation. "Plan goes on as planned, but you all need to hurry up. The French police may soon show up."
"Copy," said Nanami into her waterproof headset. She, Frederica and Louis are hiding in the bottom of the Siene, waiting to strike.
Sir Campbell's motorboat approached in Phineas' binoculars, about to pass under the bridge.
"Target acquired. Strike," reported Phineas, standing on the bridge with Ariel.
Louis immediately pressed a button.
The device that Sean threw into the river that had attached itself onto a few rocks near the surface level activated, generating a huge volume of giant bubbles.
The bubbles arrived underneath the motorboat. The huge amount of bubbles then reduced the buoyancy of the water.
Soon, the motorboat could no longer keep itself afloat, and started sinking rapidly.
"Abandon ship!" yelled Sir Campbell. But he was too slow, and is soon consumed by the waves. To make things worse, his leg is caught by the rope of the motorboat, snagging him and preventing him from swimming upwards to free himself.
"Mmph!" he gurgled, trying to free himself, but to no avail. He can already feel his consciousness slipping as his strength left him.
Just as he is on the verge of death, 2 Lita women that he would describe as simply gorgeous swam up to him, one of them moving to cut him free, while the other quickly offered him a scuba tank. Desperate, he grabbed the regulator and shoved it into his face, breathing in the sweet air greedily.
But he soon had a bag thrown over his head by someone from behind, and is then sedated with anesthetics.
Louis finished binding his hands and legs up with zip ties, alerting Xiao Tian and Sean, they then swam off, carrying Sir Campbell with them.
Xiao Tian and Sean started the engine of their motorboat, sailing forward to meet up with Nanami's group.
Phineas and Ariel then left on hoverbikes.
In a van in a corner, Xu Qing is listening in on the communications of the French police.
He tapped Santos on the shoulder, who started the car, driving off.
"The French police have yet to lock down the area, be quick," he said.
Xiao Tian and Sean's motorboat soon arrived at the rendezvous point. Nanami and Frederica hoisted Sir Campbell up. Xiao Tian and Sean dragged him inside, doing a quick search on him for tracking and communication devices he may still have on himself.
Finding none of that, they threw him underneath a pile of cloth, then helping the 3 Litas up, who quickly removed their swimsuits and changed into civilian clothes.
The motorboat sped off. As they sailed through the river into the canals, they sailed past several French police boats.
Nanami waved at them playfully as they sped past them, with the police officers giving waves in return. No police would stop to check them, after all, it's highly unlikely that a suspect would behave so warmly around the police.
After some time, the motorboat sped under another set of bridges, stopping.
The 5 of them brought out Sir Campbell, climbing up the stairs into the a garage.
Finding their SUV, they loaded Sir Campbell into the trunk after removing the bag and blindfolding him instead to ensure that he does not suffocate.
Frederica and Sean went to open the garage doors while the rest of them got into the car. Just as the doors opened, an awkward run in ensued.
Standing right in front of them are Artemis 11 "Maia" and Artemis 12 "Electra". The 2 are there after Team Ion's patrol stopped due to the lead armoured touring vehicle in the convoy breaking down, and they are wrapping up repairs.
Seeing their comrades, Maia and Electra are stunned, with Maia dropping her wrench onto the floor.
Sean and Frederica looked awkwardly at the 2, stopping their actions midway.
"Hi," waved Xiao Tian with a forced grin on his face.
Both Maia and Electra immediately raised their guns that were suspended on their body armours by slings, pointing it at them. Electra radioed for backup.
"SHUT OFF THE CAR AND GET OUT! PUT YOUR HANDS AT WHERE I CAN SEE THEM!" yelled Maia, tears in her eyes.
Soon, the rest of Team Ion rushed over, led by Richard and Artemis 8 "Ethan".
"Lieutenant Colonel, order your men to step out of the car with hands raised!" yelled Richard, aiming his L119A2 rifle at Xiao Tian.
Ethan pointed his HK-416 rifle at Sean's face, warning him to stay put.
(At a checkpoint near the Effiel Tower)
"Oh sh*t..." muttered Santos, pulling up to the back of the vehicle line. The checkpoint was not what scares them, but rather who is manning the checkpoint.
Artemis 6 "Liu Zhong" is manning his QJY-201 machine gun, eyeing the vehicles passing through, ready to fire at the first sign of trouble.
Team Raptor is not an ordinary unit, rather, its special because of the fact that the second in command of Task Force Prime, Colonel Bryan Soong leads this unit personally.
Bryan had led Team Raptor here to cover up gaps in the French Police deployments, which he hated as it was a waste of their expertise as Tier 1 units.
To the 4 members of Team Zero in the van, this means that their fake passports would not work now, as their comrades in Team Raptor could recognise them immediately. Owing to how all Task Force Prime members are overqualified for stationary sentry work, they did not account for the possibility of running into them at a checkpoint.
Santos gulped. Being familiar with them, he knows that Artemis 4 "Meari" and Artemis 5 "Cameron" are definitely hiding in a tall building around them, their sniper rifles locked on the road.
Xu Qing quickly listened in to the deployments of the French Police.
"Go back to the intersection," he instructed. "And turn Eastwards and then northwards again at the 3rd intersection, there is another way there that we can go to the safe house."
Just then, a series of French yelling from the radio stunned Jay who is in the back with Xu Qing.
"Xiao Tian's group is busted!" he exclaimed. "UNSSD operators have pinned them down in the garage."
"We don't have time to worry about them, we need to fall back now," said Xu Qing.
With that, Santos reversed from the road, turning rightwards onto the road that goes in the opposite direction. This irregular movement caught the attention of Meari, who is looking through her monocular.
"Sir, there is a vehicle leaving the checkpoint, its headed in reverse," she reported, while Cameron zoomed in her scope.
"Alright," said Bryan, walking over with 2 other operators, turning off the safety on his QBZ-192 rifle.
Herbert moved up to fill the gap, one hand on his R5 rifle.
"The white BYD van at the back, please stop for inspection," he said into a loudspeaker in both French and English.
Santos' feet left the accelerator.
He sighed, giving a nod at James, who has grabbed his MP7A2 loaded with rubber bullets.
"I am so sorry about this..." muttered Santos, cocking his custom 1911 pistol.
Just as the 3 operators entered range, Santos and James opened fire, hitting them in their body armours, while Santos stepped down on the accelerators as fast as he can, at the same time Xu Qing pulling a string to generate smoke, shielding them from sniper fire.
"Damn it," cursed Cameron, switching to thermal optic. But this moment was enough for the van to speed off, her bullet narrowly missing Santos.
"After them!" yelled Bryan, firing his QBZ-192.
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