Chapter 31: Night Raid on the Residence

  The room was sealed off from the outside world, with the windows closed and the curtains drawn. The sounds from outside couldn't penetrate inside, and even light had trouble passing through the thick curtains. Now, the room was dark and gloomy, but the door was open, allowing the residual light from the elevator hallway to spill in, illuminating the vague outlines of the living room's fruit cabinet, sofa, and coffee table. Raimu listened intently for a while, but there was no sound. The doors leading to each room were just as he had left them: the dining room door was open, while the office, bedroom, and bathroom doors were all closed.

  Is Imani in that room?

  Call the guards up? But he quickly denied it. The opponent can cross the isolation wall of several meters high and enter the green zone of the heavily guarded fortress, and will not put those guards in his eyes. The room space is limited, and firepower cannot be deployed. Calling more guards to come up may only send a few more "lives". He briefly cleared his mind and decided to use stillness to control movement.

  Waiting, now there's nothing but waiting, whoever makes the first move will be fatal.

  He stood still behind the door, not moving. One minute, three minutes, ten minutes... half an hour passed, and there was still no movement, the entire room was as silent as death. Imani was really good at holding his breath, competing with him in patience. After more than ten minutes, the air seemed to solidify, if it weren't for the open door, one would almost think they were in a tomb. Laim was frustrated. Imani was forcing him to make the first move.

  In that case, I won't be polite anymore.

  Laim wanted to make a decision, his right elbow suddenly slammed into the door frame, and the door creaked shut. The entire living room was plunged into darkness, and he couldn't see his fingers in front of him. He leaped high into the air like a large bird, flying sideways towards the office. Suddenly, there was a faint "pop" sound, which was the sound of a silencer-equipped pistol. As he jumped, a bullet grazed his pant leg, and he judged that the silent shot came from the bedroom.

  With a silencer-equipped handgun, Lime couldn't help but look down on Imani, who was hiding in the room, attempting to get the drop on her through assassination. She didn't dare make a big noise, or else she'd be 'taken care of' and scared to death.

  He stuck to the office door, touched the fruit cabinet next to it, pulled it over, blocked it in front of him, twisted open the office door, and threw a stool inside. There was no reaction from inside the office, no one was hiding. This made him breathe a sigh of relief. He walked in, felt his way through the darkness to close the office door, took out his phone, and used the screen's faint light to sit down on the sofa. He pressed a button, and the wall on the left side slowly moved, revealing a dark blue metal door. He put his hand on the sensor area above the door. The metal door slowly retracted into the wall, revealing a special elevator room leading to the intelligence base. He walked in, opened the military cabinet attached to the wall, took out a bulletproof vest and wore it, put on a bulletproof helmet with night vision goggles, changed into a full set of single-soldier combat equipment, picked up an MP5 micro-submachine gun, and returned to the office fully armed.

  There was a commotion in the living room.

  Rhyme quietly opened the office door a crack, looked through night vision goggles and saw that the living room was in disarray. A long sofa stood upright against the wall, and he suspected Imani was hiding behind it. He picked up a file folder from the desk and threw it towards the back of the sofa. In the darkness, the other party couldn't tell what had been thrown over, and instinctively dodged to the side of the sofa. Rhyme saw that the man was wearing an American military cap, not Imani, but the US military guard at the embassy.

  This is too unexpected.

  Wasn't it Immanuel who kidnapped Allen and deliberately attacked him? But Rhyme immediately ruled out this idea. The hair saved in the keyhole, intentionally leaving Allen's fragrance, only Immanuel could do it. This US military guard was absolutely a fake, an accomplice of Immanuel. So, this attack on him wasn't Immanuel acting alone, but rather she had spent a lot of money and had several accomplices? Who else was hiding in his room?

  Whatever, god kills god, Buddha kills Buddha. As soon as the name "US military guard" was exposed for a moment, Laim's submachine gun burst out, "Bang bang bang..." A string of bullets smashed the edge of the sofa into a mess, and the person hiding behind the sofa let out a miserable cry, hands grasping the sofa and falling down. "Slagyi, what's wrong?" Suddenly, someone from behind the other sofa in the living room shouted in Arabic, and with the shout, several silent pistol bullets shot towards Laim. The power of the pistol was no match for the submachine gun, and it was quickly suppressed by Laim's firepower.

  At this time, the "US military guard" who was knocked down pushed away the sofa and got up with a sway, shouting "Hey", holding a hand grenade and rushing towards Laim. He didn't run a few steps before being knocked down by Laim's submachine gun. The hand grenade fell to the ground and exploded with a loud bang, the corpse of the "US military guard" was blown into pieces, flying flesh and blood everywhere, a severed arm flew in front of Laim, who dodged it sideways.

  The explosion also exposed Lem's position, and in that instant, a small dagger the size of a willow leaf flew accurately towards him. He ducked his head, and the dagger hit his helmet with a clang, falling to the ground, making him break out in cold sweat. Who the hell was this? And how did they have such a deadly skill? In the darkness, a cold and eerie voice floated over: "General Lem, you're lucky to be alive. But I'll keep haunting you until you die."

  I'm hungry!

  The sound came from the direction of the bedroom. Lime raised his submachine gun and fired a burst at the bedroom door.

  "Zakaria, retreat!" Imani shouted to another accomplice.

  "Leave? You can't just leave." Laim laughed, "Imani, you've finally arrived, and now you want to leave? You have to ask me, the master of this house, if it's okay. This room is on the sixth floor, with only one exit through the big 'gate'. Unless you're not afraid of getting shot, there's nowhere else for you to go."

  "Imani, you go, I'll hold it here," another accomplice named Zachariah said with some sense of justice, and as he spoke, he fired at Lem again.

  "Grandpa's gonna take you down first." Lime fired another burst at Zachariah, riddling the couch with holes, but the guy was crawling on the floor, and now a glass-steel coffee table got in the way. The bullets hit the glass steel, producing a pleasant piano sound, but couldn't hurt him.

  Gunfire and explosions in the apartment building alerted the US military guards. Alarms sounded outside, and footsteps echoed faintly in the corridors.

  "Imani, hurry up! We're running out of time, we won't make it if we don't go now!" Zacharia yelled.

  "Alright, Zachariah, take care of yourself. I'll go first." Immanuel said in the bedroom, "General Laim, I hope you don't hurt my friend, your ambassador's miss is still in my hands, if you hurt my friend, Miss Allen will get the same hurt."

  All I heard was a loud creaking sound from the window in the bedroom. Did someone jump off? But this is the sixth floor!

  In an instant, Lyme understood that this 'female' demon was not simple at all. She must have prepared a grappling hook and hung it on the windowsill, then slid down to the ground along the rope. He wanted to chase after her, but Zacharia was in the way, hindering his movements. Without Immanuel's flying knife threat, dealing with a terrorist who had lost cover was a piece of cake. A flash of inspiration struck Lyme, and he grabbed a chair from the office, smashing it towards Zacharia's position. Taking advantage of the opponent's dodge, he swiftly pounced on Zacharia like a leopard. In the darkness, Zacharia's eyesight was no match for Lyme's night vision goggles. Before he could even figure out where to aim his gun, it was snatched away from him in an instant. Then, with a heavy blow to the head, he fell into a daze, losing consciousness.

  Laim turned on the light.

  Under the dazzling light, a large pit was blown out of the cement board on the ground, just short of blasting through the floorboard. Dazed Zacharia also wore a US military guard uniform and lay on the ground like a dead dog.

  Downstairs, there was a commotion, the rumble of armored vehicles and bursts of gunfire could be heard. Soon, the doorbell rang. Raim opened the door, Jackson and Bertelon appeared at the door with the embassy security team: "What's going on?"

  "Imani and two accomplices were lurking in my room. Imani escaped."

  "Is she the one the guards are chasing?" Berthol asked.

  "You can't catch up with her."

  "Yes. The guard found someone slipping down from your window, hastily assembled a team to chase, but the person's movements were extremely fast, and with a few ups and downs, they jumped from one coconut tree to another, disappearing quickly. I don't know how they snuck in."

  "Kidnap Allen and two guards, steal the pass, disguise as a guard, and you can enter the apartment building. And using grappling hooks to climb over the isolation wall is just a piece of cake."

  "Are you okay?" Jackson asked with concern.

  "No big deal. We even made a profit." Rhyme pointed at Zacharia on the ground and said, "Imani wants us to use this guy as 'bait' for Allen."

  Just then, a guard rushed in: "General Lyme, I am the rotating sentry at the Green Zone's main gate. Just now, a child delivered a letter saying it was from a woman and that I had to hand it over to you personally."

  Lyme's eyebrows moved slightly as he took the letter. On it, Immanuel had written in English: "Please release Zachariah immediately, tomorrow morning you will see Allen, otherwise, you will see Allen's corpse."