“What happened?!” someone shouted over the alarm.
Someone else cried, “Was there a foreign invasion?!”
“Are you serious? We are the Secret Service of the imperial capital! If foreign enemies have already infiltrated the Secret Services, we are all doomed!” someone yelled back.
Everyone complained, but they still picked their weapons up per protocol, went to their assigned posts, and prepared to deal with the crisis.
The crisis action team formed in advance put on bulletproof vests, armed themselves with guns, and ran downstairs toward the execution room floor where the alarm had sounded.
Assistant Minister Feng led his people toward the front.
His eyelids had been twitching all morning, and his intuition told him that something would happen today. Something really had happened.
He murmured about it to himself, then quickly led his people toward the execution room floor located down in the third basement.
“Stop right there! Who is it?” a voice called.
Assistant Minister Feng rushed out of the elevator and looked up only to see Hong Kangquan running over with his gun drawn and aimed toward them.
“Old Hong, what happened?” Assistant Minister Feng asked anxiously. He thought that Hong Kangquan had located the target.
Hong Kangquan pointed behind him and shouted, “There!” Then he rushed into the elevator alone.
Assistant Minister Feng was speechless.
The people he brought along with him glanced at each other in bewilderment.
In the hallway, the alarm was still blaring. The door of one of the execution rooms was still open, and Assistant Minister Feng thought that Hong Kangquan might have been pointing at the door just then.
Assistant Minister Feng made a gesture telling his team to cover him.
He stealthily moved toward the execution room step by step, holding his gun at his waist.
He was just halfway there when a man suddenly rushed through the door and lunged at Assistant Minister Feng. Clenching the Assistant Minister Feng’s neck in one hand and grabbing his gun with the other, the man warned him, “Order them to put down their gun! If any one of you dares to make another move, I’ll snap his neck!”
The man’s hands were covered in blood. Assistant Minister Feng was disgusted and terrified by the metallic smell of blood, but since he was the Assistant Minister of the Secret Service and a high ranking figure of authority, he pulled himself together and barked, “Kill me if you have the nerve! But don’t you dare try putting words in my mouth! You don’t speak for me.”
The man froze and was seemingly caught off guard, but then let out a taunting fit of laughter. “Well, well. Who do we have here? Assistant Minister Feng? So, you and that despicable Hong Kangquan are the ones that tricked my brothers and me into entering the Secret Service’s torture chamber? Did you two really think that we have been training all of these years for nothing?! ”
Assistant Minister Feng was speechless and asked meekly, “What are you talking about?!”
What torture chamber?!!
Was the Secret Service doing this to their own people?!!
Assistant Minister Feng had simply thought that Hong Kangquan asked him to bring these 27 people here to assist in the investigation!
“Who are you? Are you really a member of the Special Operations Forces that came with me today?” Assistant Minister Feng regained his composure and began to reason with the man. “You must restrain yourself. Don’t make things even worse than they already are.”
“I’d much rather keep on making mistakes than to be killed by you and then have to trouble Huo Shao with avenging my death!” The man pulled out his gun and held it to Assistant Minister Feng’s head. “I will give you until the count of three to order your people to put their guns down. Those who don’t, well, they won’t be able to hold a gun ever again. Whichever hand is holding the gun will be shot!”
The crisis action team brought by Assistant Minister Feng only consisted of a total of ten people. Although his men were heavily armed, it didn’t necessarily mean that they would fire. Even if they did fire, they weren’t competent enough to kill the man in one shot. They were no match against Huo Shaoheng’s rigorously H*ll-style trained forces.
Seeing the man hold a gun and point it at the back of Assistant Minister Feng’s head with murderous intent had already intimidated most of the Secret Servicemen. The few who held their own were experienced war veterans, and they refused to let their guards down, even for a second.
When Assistant Minister Feng heard that man’s words, he couldn’t help but burst out laughing. It was no wonder that Huo Shaoheng had been able to rise up to such a high-ranking position at a young age. They really were not even on the same level.
Being in such a high position required one to not only be highly competent themselves but, more importantly, they had to be able to train a group of similarly capable and loyal subordinates. Otherwise, they would not be able to carry out what they needed to do.
A one-man army made a great hero, but a lone wolf could never become an outstanding leader.
Only with a team of competent subordinates, loyal enough to become the trusted right hand, would a leader gain esteem.
Dozens of thoughts raced through Assistant Minister Feng’s mind, and he finally managed to say, “All of you, put down your guns.”
He was speaking to his own people.
“Assistant Minister Feng!”
Several veterans in the Secret Service’s crisis action team cried out indignantly and refused to drop their weapons.
The other members had thrown away the guns in their hands after the first warning.
“One, two…” The man hadn’t even counted to three before several of the veterans finally threw away the guns in their hands.
It was not out of cowardice, but because the murderous vibe the man gave off was simply too menacing. He pointed his gun at the back of Assistant Minister Feng’s head with a look that showed he was willing to pull the trigger at any second!
The man from the Special Operations Forces saw that they had all thrown their guns away and did not bother them any further. However, his gun was still pointed at the back of Assistant Minister Feng’s head. “Go and open the gates of the torture chambers and let out my 26 brothers!” he directed the others.
Assistant Minister Feng himself also wanted to know if this man’s words were true, so he ordered, “Go open the doors!”
The members of the Secret Service’s crisis action team silently opened the doors of the execution rooms’ torture chambers.
The entire floor was made up of execution rooms. There were hundreds of square huts, each approximately three square meters in size.
No one had been held here for a long time. Yet today, more than 20 torture chambers had been filled with people.
After the chamber doors had been open, everyone was taken aback by what they saw.
In each of the 20 plus execution rooms, there was a bloody man with a badly beaten swollen face, and a man sitting in a chair wearing an uncanny smile.
They realized that the men sitting in the chairs wearing the bizarre smiles were all their fellow Secret Service colleagues.
So those covered in blood must have been the people from the Special Operations Forces.
As soon as the people from the Special Operations Forces saw that the door was finally opened, one by one, they stood up from the ground and walked out of their rooms in silence.
They were all tall, burly, and robust, and they all had the same intimidating, piercing look in their eyes.
None of them bothered to hide their murderous vibes.
As soon as they saw guns on the ground, they all rushed to pick them up. Working as a team, they quickly captured all the Secret Servicemen that had opened the doors for them.
During the entire process, no one had uttered a word. Everything was done in a tacit and seamless fashion.
To Assistant Minister Feng, the sight before him was like holding a red rag in front of a bull. He managed to stammer, “Huo Shaoheng… Huo Shaoheng… you d*mn b*stard! Next time, I will send my people to you for special training! If you dare hide talent like this again, I will report you to General Ji!”
When everyone heard Assistant Minister Feng mention Huo Shaoheng, they merely glanced at each other. They still did not let their guards down.
“Assistant Minister Feng, sorry for the offense. But what went down today isn’t over yet.” A member of the Special Operation Forces pointed a gun at them. “We will report to our chief and request him to brief us on what crimes we have committed to deserve such treatment from the Secret Service!”
“Torturing your own comrades so ruthlessly! Assistant Minister Feng, you and Director Hong really must be heroes to the Americans!” another member said.
“And you, Assistant Minister Feng, tricking us into coming here to the Secret Service. We won’t let you off the hook that easily!”
Although the 27 Special Operations Forces members in front of them mainly worked in data analysis and surveillance and were all computer experts, under Huo Shaoheng’s rigorous training that he applied to both field agents and intelligence analysts alike, they were all highly trained in combat.
How could Hong Kangquan’s confidants be worthy opponents when up against them?
After the lamps went out, Hong Kangquan’s team had tried to beat the Special Operations Forces agents up in the dark, but instead were overpowered by them. In a shocking turn of events, the Secret Servicemen themselves were beaten and had their own weapons used against them.
However, the people from the Special Operations Forces were wise enough not to make it too obvious that they had the upper hand. They beat themselves up a little so they would have some visible wounds, but made it so that the injuries they left on Hong Kangquan’s followers were inconspicuous.
…
An hour later, both Prime Minister Tan and General Ji had gotten word that 27 Special Operations Forces members had been tricked into being tortured at the hands of the Secret Service. Those tortured members had no choice but to start a mutiny and were holding the Secret Service agents and several Assistant Ministers hostage. They were demanding a redress of grievances from the Cabinet.
