Spy-x-War Showdown
Chapter 703 - 709 Expanding Business

Chapter 703: Chapter 709 Expanding Business

Feeling terrible because his relationships with both Kate and Xiao Ran had been exposed, it would be a wonder if Yang Yi’s mood could be lifted.

He had no one to blame but himself for his predicament, so for the past few days, Yang Yi barely dared to leave the house for fear of running into Kate or Xiao Ran.

After staying alone in the room for a while, Yang Yi grew increasingly restless. Thoughts of Kate and Xiao Ran tumbled through his mind; having both was impossible, but if he had to choose one, whom should he pursue? It was a real headache.

The only solution to his troubles was work.

Unfortunately, Yang Yi had nothing to do at the moment.

Bored after a while, Yang Yi simply picked up the phone and called Justin.

It had been a while since he last contacted Justin, who recently seemed busy with unknown affairs, not asking for intelligence, nor had he called. The main issue was that he had borrowed Mike McDonald, and after so many days, not only had the matter not been resolved, Yang Yi needed to check on Mike McDonald’s situation.

Waiting for Justin to pick up the phone, Yang Yi spoke in a low voice, "Buddy, you said you were borrowing my guy, but you didn’t mention it would be for this long."

Justin’s voice sounded tired as he replied, "Give me another two days, these past few days haven’t been right for making a move."

"I know I shouldn’t ask, but what are you up to that’s taking so long to finish? If it’s inconvenient for you, just forget it, I’m not dead set on getting an answer. But I need Mike McDonald here for a job, you can’t make me wait indefinitely."

Justin chuckled dryly and said, "It’ll be soon, just these couple of days, uh... I just thought of a possibility."

"What?"

Justin became serious, then he said solemnly, "What do you know about the Ukrainian Defense Intelligence Agency Director, Mark Schappo?"

Yang Yi was taken aback and said, "I don’t know him at all, what’s up?"

"The current Director of the Defense Intelligence Agency and I have a bit of a history, I need to get rid of him, but he’s extremely cautious and highly capable. I’ve sent two groups of people, both have failed, no matter what, I must take him out!"

Justin was grinding his teeth as he spoke, but Yang Yi chuckled and said, "I can’t be of much help there. However, I’m curious, why do you need Mike McDonald to do it? Bombing is not very efficient for this kind of job."

Justin sighed without reply, and after Yang Yi had thought for a moment, he ventured, "Are you trying to frame someone else? Using an explosion, an untraceable method to kill someone, because you’re worried leaving a body or some evidence that might be traced back to you?"

"I think maybe you could do it, you still have the capability, and you’ve been in Ukraine all along."

"Uh, the person you want to eliminate is the Director of the Ukrainian Defense Intelligence Agency. I don’t want to get involved in this, the risk is too high, plus I don’t have time for this lately."

"I’m not asking you to do it quickly, I can give you some leeway on the timeline, and I’ll pay you two million US dollars."

"Two million, haha, that amount to assassinate an intelligence agency’s director, who are you trying to insult."

"Three million, can’t go any higher. This price already exceeds the market rate, and I’m giving you two months to complete it. What do you say?"

Although Yang Yi was curious, he certainly couldn’t ask for more details. The more one knew, the harder it was to stay out of the affair, so he immediately said, "No need to go on, I don’t want to take this mission. We are spies, not assassins. Assassination jobs aren’t suitable for us."

"Come on! You have the best assassination capability! Can’t you expand your services? How much money you make is secondary; what’s important is influence."

"Sorry... I don’t have the time."

"Do me a favor, I owe you a favor, and right now in Ukraine, I really don’t have the proper manpower to carry out this task, nor can I find anyone suitable. If you handle this for me, aside from the money, I owe you a favor, deal?"

"Well, okay, make it five million."

"Five million! You’re ruthless!"

"You said yourself you can’t find more suitable manpower, and the target of the assassination is an intelligence bureau chief. Plus, I really don’t want to do this kind of job, you understand."

"Five million, to take out Mark Schappo. The requirement is that it must imitate the KGB’s methods. A bomb would be a good choice, or you could leave other obvious evidence pointing to the Russians."

"So, you do want to frame the Russians."

"No shit! With the current relations between Russia and Ukraine, who else would take the blame if not the Russians?"

Yang Yi started worrying because he did not want to get involved with the KGB. Having already been targeted by the CIA and MI5, did he now have to be watched by the KGB as well?

"Buddy, now there’s KGB involvement. I just want to know when McDonald will be back, I really don’t want..."

"It’s not what you think; this has nothing to do with the KGB. We just need to make them the scapegoat. Let me explain. Here’s the situation: we urgently need various intelligence from eastern Ukraine. I sent an intelligence group there, but the people I dispatched were wiped out, all taken care of by Mark Schappo without any interrogation. This was directed at me, so I have to retaliate."

Yang Yi began to feel that this was rather normal, but the more he heard, the more wrong it seemed. Now the focus of Ukraine’s defense intelligence agency was eastern Ukraine because everyone knew that a civil war was essentially inevitable. But the fact that everyone Justin sent was wiped out wholesale was abnormal.

There were only two possibilities for this kind of situation: either the people Justin sent were idiots, gathering in one place and exposing their identities, thus being eliminated all at once, which seemed unlikely for Justin’s people to commit such a basic mistake. Therefore, the other possibility was that there was a mole among Justin’s people. Considering that everyone died, the mole wouldn’t be among those Justin dispatched, which meant the most likely case was that Justin faced an internal struggle as well—the internal strife of the Cicero Family.

Getting involved in the internal strife of the Cicero Family, Yang Yi didn’t really feel much pressure because he had already been betrayed by the Cicero Family once; now, it was unlikely for anyone from the Cicero Family, except for Justin, to cooperate with him.

As Yang Yi pondered, Justin said with a heavy voice, "Mark Schappo has colluded with my rivals. I need to get rid of him. Do me a favor, please."

Yang Yi exhaled and said, "Send me Mark’s information. If there is a suitable opportunity, I can do this favor for you. But I won’t be able to specifically handle this task for you in the near future; I really don’t have the time. So, you’d better prepare on both fronts and not rely entirely on me."

Justin said urgently, "McDonald will bring the information back with him. As long as you take out Mark Schappo, I will pay you, regardless of the duration, but please try to do it quickly."