“What? What the h*ll are you saying?! I’m old, so I’m having a hard time hearing what you just said! If you SOBs dare to utter the word ‘mutiny’ again, I will shoot you!” General Ji roared when he heard what Tan Dongbang had said on the phone.
Tan Dongbang was so startled that, with a shiver, he almost dropped the phone in his hand.
After a while, after calming himself down and carefully holding the phone about a foot away from himself, Tan Dongbang switched to hands-free mode and said into the microphone, “I am not making this up, General Ji. Huo Shaoheng’s 27 soldiers have occupied our Secret Service building! I have already ordered the police headquarters to mobilize all police forces to surround–”
“You’ll do so over my dead body!” General Ji’s voice interrupted suddenly. His voice deepened as he said, “If you dare send the police to besiege my soldiers, I will end you!”
“General Ji, you can’t do this. This is a law-abiding society, and none of us are above the law.” Tan Dongbang was growing impatient with General Ji’s blatant partiality. “The fact is, what your soldiers are doing is illegal. Not only are they refusing to cooperate with the investigation, but they have also laid siege to the Secret Service’s headquarters! They should be handed over to the Americans to teach them a lesson!”
“Hmph!” General Ji was not a particularly sharp-tongued person, and it was unlike him to fight with someone like Tan Dongbang. He obviously was not on the same level. He was so anxious that he blurted out, “Illegal? You guys are the ones extorting confessions through torture. Now, how can they act rationally and lawfully under such cruel interrogation methods?”
When Huo Shaoheng had been giving his Special Operations Forces members specialized training, he had taught them not to give up on their lives until the very last minute. So, they would do everything they could in order to survive.
One Special Operations Forces member was enough to open an underground tunnel in Eastern Europe.
Two Special Operations Forces members were enough to illicit conflict between two domestic political parties in a Western European country, and make them fight to the death amongst themselves.
Four Special Operations Forces members were already in control of the economic lifeline of a South American country.
Coincidentally, those 27 members of the Special Operations Forces happened to be the elite of Huo Shaoheng’s subordinates, both in terms of mental and physical prowess!
An unfortunate coincidence for the other party!
How could occupying a Secret Service building not be a piece of cake for them?
In other smaller nations, if 27 members of the Special Operations Forces joined forces to wreak havoc, then a nation itself might be put out of existence.
General Ji knew very well that with the combat skills and experience of the Special Operations Forces, occupying the Secret Service building was a piece of cake.
So, he wasn’t surprised when he received word of what had happened, and he didn’t want to hold them accountable for it.
He must protect them.
It was bad enough already that the Americans had gotten hold of their confidential data and put their people on the most wanted list.
Now, they even had to deal with the plots and plans of their own people. If he had been in their position, no doubt he would have also occupied the Secret Service building, and given those spoiled brats a hard lesson!
General Ji reprimanded Tan Dongbang as eloquently as he could. “Prime Minister Tan, don’t think just because you are the Prime Minister now that I wouldn’t dare do anything to you. If you touch a single hair on my soldiers’ heads, I… I will make the Legal Department sue you and place you in jail!”
Tan Dongbang sneered, “General Ji, as long as I am the Prime Minister of the Huaxia Empire, I will serve the people of Huaxia. Your soldiers are human, yet aren’t the Secret Servicemen human as well? General Ji, you are the head of this nation’s military. How can you say such a thing?”
“You know that I am the supreme leader of the military, so of course I will have to put in a word or two for my people. Is that a problem?” General Ji did not want to pay Tan Dongbang any more attention and said, “I will head toward the Secret Service at once, and you order your people to keep their guns away. I don’t want a single weapon in sight. Don’t say I didn’t warn you; don’t test the marksmanship of my soldiers! You will regret it!”
General Ji suppressed his anger and hung up on Tan Dongbang. He looked up to see Secretary Cao and asked, “What the h*ll is going on? Why were my people at the Secret Service in the first place? Didn’t Old Long and I already refuse to help with the shenanigans surrounding their US investigation?”
During the time General Ji and Tan Dongbang had been preoccupied bickering amongst themselves, General Ji’s private secretary, Secretary Cao, had found someone to look into the ins and outs of the matter.
Only when General Ji saw him come in did he hang up on Tan Dongbang.
Secretary Cao sighed and said, “They didn’t go there by their own accord. The Secret Service used Prime Minister Tan’s authorization form and asked them to go back to assist the investigation. Yet when they got there, Hong Kangquan took them to the execution room’s torture chamber.”
He sighed and shook his head ruefully.
Those 27 members were the backbone of the Special Operations Forces.
Although they had once had their confidential information publicized by the United States and were consequently condemned around the world, in the eyes of General Ji and Speaker Long, their skills and ethics spoke for themselves.
They had no intention of yielding to the unreasonable demands of the United States.
Besides, these 27 men weren’t field agents, but intelligence analysts that provided technical support within the Special Operations Forces. So even if the United States knew their identities, there wasn’t much harm in it.
They could continue on with their technical support as long as they didn’t go abroad.
“So, it does have something to do with that idiot Tan Dongbang after all!” General Ji slapped his desk. “He just pretended to have no idea when speaking to me! And what about Hong Kangquan?! Wasn’t he locked up by Speaker Long? Old Long is so unreliable!”
“It was also Prime Minister Tan who personally released him.” Secretary Cao shook his head. “You have to hurry over there. I am worried that Prime Minister Tan is really going to do the unthinkable.”
Worry flashed across General Ji’s face. He hurriedly picked up his military cap and put it on, saying, “Quickly, notify Huo Shaoheng, and tell him that his soldiers are about to demolish the Secret Services!”
“Should I really word it like that?” Secretary Cao laughed. “If Huo Shao thought that was the case, he would definitely come back to lead them in their demolition efforts!”
Huo Shaoheng was not a narrow-minded person. Even if he felt offended, he usually chose to let it go and rarely held people accountable for it.
But if anyone offended his soldiers or his women, he definitely wouldn’t let them off the hook so easily.
Regardless of whether it was reasonable or not, he would knock the wind out of them before getting to the bottom of it.
If they told Huo Shaoheng, he would definitely come and deal with those fools in the Secret Service and the Cabinet!
“He can take the lead in the dismantling process! I will help as well!” General Ji glared at Secretary Cao and said, “Hurry up!”
“I’ve called before, but Huo Shao didn’t pick up. Should I call again?” Secretary Cao asked hurriedly.
“Yes, hurry up. If you can’t get through, go directly to the Special Operations Forces…” General Ji suddenly paused and turned to look at Secretary Cao. “No. If Shaoheng was present in the Special Operations Forces building, then could those 27 people have been tricked out of there?! I won’t believe it for a second!”
Secretary Cao began to laugh bitterly. “Yes, Huo Shao is indeed not in the Special Operations Forces office.”
“Where is he? Hurry up and go find him!” General Ji hurried out of the office door with an anxious look on his face.
Secretary Cao struggled to keep up and whispered, “I heard Zhou Qiyuan say that Huo Shao and Director Song left for C City on a military plane to monitor the magnetic field early in the morning. That is why we lost communication with him for four hours in the middle. The plane itself had even disappeared from the radar, so we were worried that something might have gone wrong.”
General Ji stopped abruptly. He stopped too fast, and Secretary Cao nearly bumped into his back.
“What are you talking about?!!! Lost communication with him for four hours?” General Ji turned around suddenly and said, “Why didn’t anyone report this to me?!”
As soon as his voice fell, his cell phone rang.
He frowned and pulled it out. It was Huo Shaoheng calling him!
General Ji breathed a sigh of relief, then glared daggers at Secretary Cao while answering Huo Shaoheng’s call.
