Chapter 39: Carnage (Part 1)

  The new head of MI6 is a spinster, let's call her M for now. She bears an uncanny resemblance to the female boss in the classic 007 films. With a resounding slap on the file folder in front of her, she says in an unusually impolite tone: "Gentlemen, I think you all know that we have just suffered a humiliating defeat. This time, it's comparable to when our neighbor France was defeated by Germany during World War II."

  David and the group of senior officials showed a disbelieving expression. M widened his grey eyes, saying coldly: "Yes, it's a shame. The department that claims to be the most elite in the British Empire had its own headquarters destroyed by a group of terrorists. Do you know how the global intelligence community views this incident? A Chinese diplomat discussed the Dunkirk evacuation with me for an entire night yesterday, praising it as one of the greatest events of the British people during World War II. I think everyone can understand what he meant."

  The low discussion started again, M slammed the conference table in dissatisfaction and said loudly: "Quiet, quiet, gentlemen, quiet. I don't want to say any more nonsense. For everyone's honor, for our former empire that never sets sun, I hope you all work hard... Each department is responsible for its own tasks, new personnel must be supplemented as soon as possible, I don't care what means you use, I need to supplement 500 new agents."

  She slowly stood up, with both hands on the table, and said in a solemn tone: "Whoever can catch that son of a bitch, I'll promote him to be my first assistant director... Got it? Gentlemen, I don't want to be ridiculed again in front of our peers."

  "Adjournment, gentlemen! I hope you will prove worthy of our country. Adjournment. Mr. David, please stay behind."

  A group of senior agents quickly left the venue, trying to leave a good impression on their new boss. This old woman from a military secret department didn't bring any assistants with her, which means anyone has a chance to be promoted, and they don't want to stay in their current position for long.

  David sat stiffly in his own chair, looking at M and saying hesitantly: "Oh, yes, boss, what's the problem?"

  M walked over and closed the conference room door, David only then reacted, hastily standing up. M shook his head, his short silver hair lightly shaking a few times, pointing to the chair saying: "Sit down, please sit, Mr. David, I heard you caught a chill last night?"

  David held out his hands, not daring to look M in the eye, stuttering: "You see, boss, sorry... yes, sorry, I have some things to take care of, so..."

  He smiled: "You have a very big guts, yes, no one dares to take the risk of offending the new boss by asking for leave, you gave me a very special impression, I hope you remember this."

  David smiled somewhat awkwardly: "Actually, it's nothing important..."

  M interrupted him: "Then it's even more impossible, Mr. David, your body is as strong as a bear, and a little cold won't kill you, but if you have dereliction of duty, then... I took a look at the remaining case files, you led people to capture several Russians, and then the attack happened?"

  David was amazed at the old woman's astuteness and didn't dare to deceive her, so he said honestly: "Yes, boss, those Russians have very professional hacking tools, we suspect they are related to the recent turmoil in the British financial market. But strangely, after we caught them, the attacks on our bank system still exist, we suspect that..." David slightly excused Yichen.

  M walked up to him and said seriously, "No, that's wrong, Mr. David. Do you think an organization capable of attacking the closed financial system of Britain would only have a few hackers? Think about it, we didn't even know our country was going to join that damned Eurozone before, and in fact, we just opened up a few related markets, and the sniping started right away. What do you think this represents?"

  Without waiting for David to respond, M muttered to himself: "These damn bastards, they're a group with deep backgrounds, even the government is backing them up. What do you think? Those Russians, did you dig up some background information on them? You were in charge of their case back then, weren't you?"

  Looking into M's inscrutable eyes, David felt a chill run from the top of his head to the soles of his feet, and stuttered: "Yes, one of them, a bastard named Chekhov, someone knows him, his boss is a gangster in London City, called Yi Chen, who runs a low-end nightclub called China Town."

  Before M could ask again, David spilled out all the information he had obtained through official channels: "Yi Chen is a weird guy. He doesn't usually cause trouble, we just focus on the big picture and don't pay much attention to people like him. Boss, that's all we can find out, maybe Scotland Yard knows more about him than we do."

  He straightened up, walked back and forth a few steps, and furrowed his brow tightly: "Chinese? Triad member? What's the extent of his gang's influence in London?"

  David shook his head and said, "I don't know, we're not very concerned about the division of power in London City on a daily basis." Of course, these are official materials, and MI6 doesn't need to pay attention to these thugs.

  M's right hand gently supported his own chin, as if muttering to himself, yet also like issuing an order, saying: "This Yi Chen, a triad leader, is unlikely to cause such a big disturbance. But why did Chekhov just happen to be his subordinate... Perhaps 24-hour surveillance of him would be a good choice. David, you continue to take charge of this case. I know the whereabouts of those Russians, except for one person - Chekhov. Find Chekhov for me."

  David stood up and asked her in surprise: "Boss, do you know where they are?"

  M's face showed a hint of despair for the first time: "They've become idiots, forgetting everything. It's truly a strange phenomenon. In the past decade, over 200 Russian computer elites have lost all their memories... But I haven't found any trace of Chekhov. If we find him, he must know something."

  David hurried towards the gate, turning his head as he walked and saying: "Alright, boss, I'll arrange for someone to keep an eye on that Chinese guy 24 hours a day... Ah, yes, find Chekhov."

  With a loud "thud", David's lower body collided with the protruding corner of the table. David let out a pained yelp, clutching his abdomen as he hastily walked away. M covered her head with one hand, looking like she couldn't bear to witness David's miserable state. Suddenly, a mischievous glint appeared on her wrinkled face, and she muttered to herself: "Am I really that scary? Poor David, his wife is going to be unhappy tonight... Hehehe."

  David opened the door of the conference room and walked out, closing the door behind him with his left hand, which was also rubbing his sore stomach. His several confidants quickly came over, a slightly bald little man asked repeatedly: "Boss, what's good? Why did the boss keep you? Have you been promoted?"

  "High rise? The boss is extremely dissatisfied with our efficiency, 24-hour surveillance of that Chinese guy Yi Chen, who's just a nightclub owner and a black gang leader. The boss has developed some kind of unhealthy interest in him... Find that scoundrel Chikov, scour the entire earth, you get me what I want... These are the boss's orders... How many men can you gather by tomorrow night? Huh? How many men? Harry, get me more men."

  "Harry, backing away, asked David: "Head, do we have enough manpower? God, we lost so many good men last time, and now there's still no one to replenish them. What are you going to do? Our team can only mobilize fifty people at most, no more."

  David slammed the folder into Harry's arms, his eyes gleaming with excitement as he said in a low voice: "Damn it, listen up, I've received a secret tip, there's a big deal, dear fellow, a big deal... I need a lot of manpower, plenty of hands, you get me at least 150 people, I don't care what methods you use, even if you have to seduce them, tomorrow night I want at least 150, no, 170 good hands in front of me. Got it? Or else you can go to Africa and eat sand, South Africa just happens to need a few liaison officers, I'll recommend you."

  David furrowed his brow and quickly walked away, rubbing his stomach. Harry stood still, clutching the folder with a worried expression, shrugged his shoulders and said: "Hey, bro, where can I find over a hundred good hands?"

  Another guy gave him advice: "Harry, baby, have you forgotten about the Special Duty Squad? Although they are a special forces unit, if we give them an emergency signal, they must assist us... Send them an emergency coordination letter in the regular security report and ask them to send two teams over, that's enough manpower."

  "Damn it, using fake intelligence to mobilize special forces, are you trying to get me killed? I don't want to go to Africa."

  The guy who was in charge also lowered his voice: "Who knows if it's false intelligence? Completely following the formal channels to send it over, anyway, the leader is so confident, there must be something fishy. As long as we can find out something, we'll have done a good job... If nothing comes of it, just find some scapegoat to take the blame, after all, other teams do it this way too."

  Harry glanced around quickly, nodded and said: "Alright, just like this, but you mustn't leak the wind, in case there's another scandal now, our Military Intelligence Section 6 will be closed."

  The other agents burst out laughing: "This is something for the new boss to worry about, who are we? It's not our turn anyway."

  Inside the conference room, M picked up the phone: "Hey, Vauxhall? Do you have any information on a Chinese man named Yichen at Scotland Yard? I want all his information, his background, when he arrived in the UK, his social connections, and all the intelligence on his organization... No, no, I'm not going to deal with him, but I've always had a strange interest in Chinese people. I just want to understand this lovely little guy... Yes, thank you, just send the information directly to my office... Oh, are you teasing me? Of course, you know we moved to a new office building... Haha, thank you."

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  He lightly picked up the small note, looked at the crab-like font on it, furrowed his brow and said: "One billion US dollars? Just to kill one person? God, are there so many rich people in this world? ... Hmm, an open-ended mission? That's great, I'll just drag it out for a year or so, and go whenever I feel like it... The head of the Yamaguchi-gumi, is he really that hard to deal with? Who is the client?"

  His thick lips spat out a few words: "Japanese."

  Yi Chen lightly applauded, and when his palms opened, the note had vanished into thin air. He laughed loudly and said: "Look, our Japanese friend is going to rebel against their own nest! What's wrong with them? Are they fighting for territory? Is the younger brother trying to seize the elder's position? Or did this Yamaguchi Tsuyoshi rape the client's woman? Hmph, never mind, old rules apply. Give Vis a tenth of the money and the task is accepted. Tell those people that as long as they respond within two years, it'll be fine."

  Cain stroked the muzzle of his gun: "Boss, although the maximum term for an unlimited task is three years, but if we complete a task in two years, won't it be good for our reputation?"

  Yi Chen said indifferently, "Anyway, our current ranking is the world's first, and losing some points doesn't matter. There will always be those idiots with spare money to send us gifts... I'm not in a hurry to kill Shan Kou, let's take it slow... Find me a good spot, I want to watch tomorrow night's show."

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  "Sir, we've already located the Vatican's envoy."

  "Hmm, okay. The matter of St. Paul's Cathedral has been covered up by them, hehehehe, although on the surface it seems that the Vatican people have acknowledged their defeat, but just like their God, the Vatican people are always hypocritical... They actually sent so many experts over in secret, do they want to launch a sneak attack on us?"

  "Hmph, they don't even know our exact location, what can they do?"

  "No, no, no, we can't say that for sure. Who's to guarantee we'll be in the dark? I never thought there was such a thing as absolute certainty in this world. What if they really did sneak up on us successfully? I'm not going to risk being scolded by the Speaker... Gather all the manpower, tomorrow night, on the night of the full moon, give them a surprise... Oh, right, that's a godforsaken place."

  "Ah, it's an abandoned warehouse district, sir. In the southern suburbs of London, a very large abandoned warehouse district. The Vatican has mobilized five hundred and seventy-three top agents, all inside."

  "A wonderful location, if we can avoid harming those lovely civilians, it's better to avoid it as much as possible... after all, they are food, and wasting food is a heavenly punishment. Go, gather all the good hands, tomorrow at noon, I want to see everyone."

  ×××××××××××××××

  The next day at noon, David pointed to the map on the table in front of four people wearing all-black special warfare suits: "Gentlemen, you are professionals, the most elite soldiers. This is where those rascals will deliver the goods, a abandoned warehouse district in the southern suburbs. The time is midnight twelve o'clock. I hope you can come up with a perfect plan, a foolproof plan."

  One of the men spoke up in discontent, "Mr. David, no need to make plans, we can annihilate them all. As per your request, we've dispatched four squads with two hundred men, plus your subordinates and those from Scotland Yard; if we still can't handle some gangsters, we might as well retire early."

  "Alright, alright," David said in a low voice. "As long as we can capture these weapons, I don't care what you do."

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  In a luxurious nightclub in the heart of London, seven or eight big bosses from London City sat closely together in one of the large rooms.

  "Gentlemen, everyone knows that those damned Japanese monkeys are coming to our turf to steal business. I think everyone's opinion is already unanimous - take them down and grab that batch of military supplies."

  "I agree, but afterwards we still need to teach that old guy Viggo a lesson, preferably..."

  After a moment of silence, one guy said: "Of course, it's better to just get rid of him. That old man is actually helping the Japanese."

  "So what about Chinese Yi? He also seems to be getting close with those Japanese people."

  Another silence.

  "One guy said helplessly, 'That guy is a madman, there's no need, we'd better not provoke him. If we leak the slightest bit of news, we might get beaten to death in our beds. Those Germans are not people we can handle.'"

  "Alright, alright, anyway the Chinese Yi and those Japanese aren't too close either... Let's discuss it, how many people can each of us send? The Japanese have recently brought over a lot of people from their country, we can't afford to be careless and suffer losses."

  In total, nearly 900 people were gathered by these London gangs and a rough plan of action was drawn up.

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  At night, a round moon appears and disappears in the clouds.

  Yi Chen brought love to watch the excitement, and his favorite was the bloody Jester. The two of them carefully lay on a small mound about 500 meters away from the warehouse district, where the tall weeds hid them well. Although it was nighttime, the moonlight was enough for the two to see anything that happened within a thousand meters.

  It was almost midnight when a dozen or so large container trucks came over, and more than 300 members of the Yamaguchi-gumi organization scattered in all directions, holding handguns or long knives, cautiously scanning their surroundings. They alone ignored their own rooftops. Because it was an abandoned warehouse, they hastily searched around but didn't find anyone, so they focused their attention on the outside.

  Twelve tall and stately men, draped in white robes, suddenly appeared on the rooftop of the tallest building. One of them furrowed his brow: "What are these damned guys doing? And that batch that came an hour ago... our luck isn't very good this time."

  Another man nodded slightly and said, "It seems we've encountered a typical police and gangster movie scene. The police are ambushing the gang's transaction... Tell everyone to hide well, these people don't pose a threat to us. Once they're done, we'll be quiet too."

  Twelve men vanished swiftly, and far away, Jest, crouching in the grass thicket, twitched all over his muscles.

  Yi Chen looked at Jester and asked in confusion: "What's wrong? Is there something wrong with those people? Although they do look a bit off."

  Jester muttered in a low voice: "I recognize three of them, if I'm not mistaken, they are the twelve holy knights of the Vatican... Dammit, what's going on here?"

  "Good heavens, good heavens, this is quite lively. Let me see, let me see... Ah, 573 divine officials... This is too interesting, too interesting. Hmm, let me take another look."

  Yi Chen's divine sense burst out, quickly covering a radius of two kilometers. In an instant, the positions of 452 British guards, 323 mountain pass personnel, and 573 divine officials were all revealed.

  Yi Chen said in a low voice, "Let's watch the excitement. When did these Vatican people come? Really, can Vatican people also sneak across? They're here to deal with the Dark Council, how wonderful..."

  At midnight, a row of ten container trucks came swaying over, followed by more than a dozen vans. A group of men holding heavy weapons got off the vehicles cautiously and exchanged signals with the Yamaguchi-gumi members before proceeding to stand guard vigilantly.

  David slammed his fist on the ground and muttered in a low voice, "Damn it, what do these bastards think Britain is? A paradise for illegal arms deals?"

  Yi Chen watched with great interest as the Yamaguchi-gumi members inspected the goods and made transactions, while quietly warning Jester in a low voice: "Don't make any sudden moves, 573 Shinto priests, one punch per person, can turn us into trash... got it?"

  Jester nodded, his eyes slowly turned red, and his two hands fiercely grasped into the ground.

  A crazy whistling sound suddenly rose, countless modified small trucks, off-road jeeps, and even street flying party motorcycles rushed over from a distance, more than 900 members of the London gang shouted loudly, with various weapons in their hands spitting fire tongues and charging into the warehouse area.

  The extremely vigilant Yamaguchi-gumi and the arms dealers reacted in no time, taking advantage of their location in the chaotic building complex, quickly launched a counterattack. Box after box of military supplies were unloaded from the container truck, opened on the spot, and then distributed to the Yamaguchi-gumi members holding long knives. Countless flames spewed out.

  One by one, cars and motorcycles exploded into flames. The London gangsters occupied a multi-story building, while the Yamaguchi-gumi faction took over a nearby building with a strong firepower advantage. Both sides continued to exchange gunfire, with people screaming and falling down.

  Several officers at the Scotland Yard could not help but want to take people and rush up, David held their heads with one hand and roared in a low voice: "Are you crazy? Thousands of people are crossing fire, what do you mean by rushing up now?"

  A few people asked in low voices: "So, Mr. David, what you mean is..."

  David revealed a sinister smile: "Let them fight, they are all social garbage, let them burn themselves out, when they are almost dead, we will go out and clean up the mess."

  The Yamaguchi-gumi side used shotgun shells, and the crossfire became even more intense.

  On this side of London, people were not to be outdone, several heavy machine guns mounted on jeeps gathered together and wildly swept the warehouse district.

  The sudden exchange of blows between the two sides also caught off guard the clergy hiding in those abandoned buildings, and the scattered bullets and shrapnel made more than a dozen unlucky devils fall to the ground.

  Twelve holy knights were on the verge of exploding, muttering and roaring in their mouths: "God, what's going on? Are these damn bastards waging a war?"

  These clergymen, who had always believed in the power of God, felt for the first time that human weapons could also pose such a great threat to them. Without being filled with holy energy, even these twelve noble sacred knights couldn't withstand the power of a single grenade.

  An officer of the special task force shook his head, nodded at David, and ordered into the earpiece: "Snipers, fire at will, try to minimize their numbers... Fire at will, take them all out."

  In the distance, two snipers heard the command and stealthily poked their heads out of cover, quietly setting up their trusty companions, just as they did with their scopes and other comrades. As they took aim at the crazed shooters' heads, a massive axe came swooping down, chopping off their heads.

  Blood splattered everywhere, the giant axe flew back into the hands of a burly man covered in fur, who let out a loud howl at the moon above. Suddenly, a swarm of strange black shadows appeared out of nowhere and rapidly pounced forward.

  A streak of cyan light shot down from the sky, enveloping the black shadows, and a strong dark aura surrounded the surroundings.

  The clergy who were dodging the bullets in the warehouse suddenly shook all over, and white light burst forth from their bodies. The intense holy light broke through the dilapidated buildings, and they also flew into the sky amidst the white light. Countless crosses of holy light pierced the air, colliding head-on with those black inverted crosses...