Ultimate Firepower
Chapter 201 - 189: The Advantage is Not Obvious

Chapter 201: Chapter 189: The Advantage is Not Obvious

The CIA had a significant presence in Baghdad, but the only team available at short notice that specialized in combat was the one led by Naaoi.

Gao Yi had just bludgeoned to death three members who were likely from Naaoi’s Special Action Team.

However, in terms of fighting ability, the Special Action Team was just so-so, and certainly no match for Gao Yi; disposing of three was a matter of a few swings for him.

But in this day and age, the main measure of combat effectiveness wasn’t hand-to-hand fighting; rather, it was one’s gun skills.

The Special Action Team had snatched Abdulla at the airport; while Gao Yi had been on the plane glancing down, the darkness had obscured his view, but now he had the chance for a good look.

Whether it was the continuous victories that filled Gao Yi with courage or the weakness of the opponents that made him underestimate the heroes of this world, he wasn’t afraid of the CIA’s Special Action Team’s imminent arrival.

"CIA is coming!"

Someone exclaimed in alarm.

But the National Intelligence Bureau agents were thrown into instant chaos, darting around like panicked hens the moment the gunfire started outside, as if their nest had been disturbed.

Their previous ferocity in killing and arson had vanished in an instant.

Li Jie and Lin Xianghua quickly ran to Gao Yi’s side.

Lin Xianghua tossed a helmet to Gao Yi and commanded fiercely, "Put it on! Find a bullet-proof vest to wear!"

There were bloodstains and brain matter at the back of the helmet – the aftermath of Lucy’s shooting. Gao Yi, feeling quite nauseated by the sight, hesitated; Lin Xianghua once again commanded sharply: "Put it on!"

Gao Yi put the helmet over his head.

Lucy attached the phone Li Jie passed to her to her head, and then, silently discarding the two handguns she held, began to pick up equipment from the bodies of the fallen bodyguards.

A notable trait of Sky Garden was that they never carried their weapons; they scavenged everything from guns to bullet-proof vests to hand grenades from corpses.

Lucy picked up a rifle, donned a bullet-proof vest, and was in the process of pulling out a handgun when the two men who had been escorting Abdulla outside rushed back in with him.

One of them fell at the entrance with a new bullet hole in his back right as they entered the villa.

There was a chaotic shouting in a foreign tongue.

The two men fired out the door, and soon after, a barrage of gunfire sounded, and someone who had been lying in wait behind the door suddenly toppled forward.

The shooting was incredibly accurate; with just a few gunshots, it seemed that someone from the National Intelligence Bureau side would fall.

Gao Yi felt a tinge of panic.

He had experienced large-scale operations before, but this was his first time in combat where the sound of gunfire meant someone was hit.

Lin Xianghua ran forward a few steps, knelt on one knee, and aimed his gun at the villa’s door. Li Jie moved slightly to Gao Yi’s side and whispered, "Don’t be afraid, I’ve seen this kind of situation many times."

"I’m not scared..."

"When the fight starts, it’s going to get chaotic. The key feature of these high-end operations is speed. They’ll either hold back or if they attack, it’ll be from multiple angles simultaneously. So, your only chance to escape is to take down the enemies from one direction and run straight for it!"

Gao Yi felt like Li Jie was treating him like a child.

Li Jie glanced at his watch and said, "The main entrance is the primary attack point, but there won’t be any reserve forces there. There could be a reserve team of one or two in the rear, so exiting that way would be dangerous. Most importantly, there’s a wind vane at the main entrance for support, so we’ll break out through the main door!"

"Uh..."

"Listen to my command, when I say run, you both run!"

"Wait a moment!"

Gao Yi interrupted Li Jie’s endless chatter, puzzled, "Why can’t we just take out all the enemies? I don’t think there are that many of them."

"Take out everyone? Haha, you think this is..."

Boom—a loud explosion punctuated by intense flash.

A shock bomb was thrown into the living room, but the explosion and flash were just the beginning. Gao Yi was blinded by a sudden bright light followed by a series of thunderous roars.

It deafened him, and he couldn’t see anything.

Li Jie and Lin Xianghua weren’t as affected though, thanks to their noise-canceling headphones and tactical goggles that drastically reduced the effects of the shock bomb.

The National Intelligence Bureau had many people, but it appeared now that their greatest contribution was to serve as bait and distract enemy fire.

Suddenly, the lights in the villa went out, and Gao Yi was plunged into darkness, unable to see anything.

And at that moment, the Special Action Team began their first assault wave.

Explosions sounded again, this time a little softer. They were offensive hand grenades thrown from windows and doors, many at once.

The National Intelligence Bureau agents were shouting loudly, but Lin Xianghua fired his weapon without a word.

Gunfire sounded in rapid succession twice, and Li Jie followed with his own shots. The three members of the Special Action Team who had entered through the door and shot two agents of the National Intelligence Bureau dead were hit by Lin Xianghua and Li Jie.

Hit, but not fatally; at most, the enemies were wounded.

Lin Xianghua opened fire hitting the target, and then Li Jie followed up with additional shots, concluding the first round of gunfire as soon as it had begun.

Lin Xianghua said in a low, surprised voice, "The enemy’s protection is inadequate!"

"Move positions!"

After firing once, they had to move and change positions, unable to stay in the same spot and wait for the enemies trailing behind to shoot.

The enemies weren’t wearing impenetrable bullet-proof vests; Lin Xianghua had aimed at the torso, and the fact that the enemies fell immediately upon being hit indicated that the bullets were effective.

Li Jie pulled Gao Yi to his feet, Lin Xianghua took a few steps backward, Gao Yi stood up pulling Lucy with him, and the two swiftly entered the most enclosed interrogation room behind Li Jie.

At this point, the agents of the National Intelligence Bureau seemed to gradually calm down.

After all, they had been trained for a long time. They might fall into panic at the beginning, but once they realized that battle was inevitable, even the most basic act of shooting at a person could be significantly effective.

Just then, the room suddenly shook with a loud blast; a powerful wave of force struck Gao Yi, making his chest feel tight, and he nearly spurted blood.

Something had exploded in the living room, with substantial force, but obviously not overwhelmingly so, since Gao Yi and the others were not killed.

After the enemy’s first wave of assault failed to breach, they were forced back and immediately fired rocket grenades. It must have been rocket grenades because no other weapon seemed more fitting.

Two more explosions roared; there were three rocket grenades in total. However, due to the angle, only the first rocket grenade had the most significant impact on Gao Yi and the others. The blast swept through the unlocked chamber, hitting the recently used interrogation room where Gao Yi and his group had taken cover, causing minor blast injuries, but fortunately, they were not severe.

Their ears buzzed increasingly.

Li Jie whispered, "Get out!"

Li Jie and Lin Xianghua, taking small steps, returned to the entrance of the chamber, still pointing their guns at the entrance of the villa.

Li Jie seemed well-adapted to indoor combat—small in scale but high in intensity, with rapid shifts between attack and defense.

The two just reached the chamber’s door when the Special Action Team launched another raid. Four men, in pairs, simultaneously entered from both sides of the villa’s main entrance.

Immediately upon entry, they began to fire, instantly killing two men who had been wounded by the rocket grenade. At that moment, Li Jie and Lin Xianghua opened fire simultaneously; three of the entering four were hit, one of them stumbled backward, while another who was unscathed immediately withdrew, but the front two fell to the ground and started to crawl to leave the villa.

Lin Xianghua and Li Jie fired again at the same time, killing the injured pair on the spot.

Gao Yi lacked night-vision equipment. He couldn’t see.

But Gao Yi knew Li Jie and Lin Xianghua had backed off again because Li Jie had pulled his arm once more.

"Change positions!"

Gao Yi didn’t hear what Li Jie said, but he was jerked to his feet, following Li Jie and Lucy again, rapidly running from the interrogation room they’d hidden in, stumbling into another room.

Li Jie was adept at this kind of back-and-forth indoor attack and defense battle.

It made sense, as he had spent such a long time in Mosul, fighting this sort of grim war—indoor battles that meant certain death whether for elite troops or cannon fodder.

Moreover, with frequent battles, even cannon fodder was tempered into veterans; whether it was ISIS members or Iraqi militia, anyone who survived a month on the battlefield could be considered a battle-hardened veteran elsewhere.

In the final stages of Mosul, there were more than ten battles a day. In such scenarios, unless the CIA’s Special Action Team leveled the villa with artillery, it wouldn’t matter who came.

In fact, when the coalition forces of Iraq finally captured Mosul, they did so by bombarding it into ruins—flattening houses with artillery and bombs before they could secure the city.

Li Jie didn’t concern himself with the agents of the National Intelligence Bureau; he was looking after Gao Yi and Lucy. His judgment was extremely accurate, and he precisely predicted the timing and method of enemy attacks. Most importantly, he was completely composed, not once thrown into disarray, rendering the elite Special Action Team seemingly ineffectual against him.

"Hand grenades!"

Li Jie said softly, and Lin Xianghua swiftly pulled a hand grenade from his pocket, pulling the pin, while Li Jie, too, hung his gun on his neck and prepared a hand grenade, not throwing it but holding it, waiting.

After a half-minute wait, a series of intense explosions rang out in the living room. After six concurrent hand grenade blasts, Li Jie suddenly tossed the grenade he was holding towards the living room’s French windows.

Lin Xianghua, on the other hand, threw his hand grenade low to the ground toward the living room’s entrance door, then quickly lifted his rifle again.

Neither Li Jie nor Lin Xianghua had likely received formal Special Forces training, but they had both faced the test of real combat for a long time.

The timing of their grenade throws was perfect, exploding just as the Special Action Team’s grenades had finished, and as they burst in from the main entrance and windows of the villa.

The blast shook the room. Although there were only two hand grenades, they hit at least three people.

A scream pierced the air, and as the grenades exploded, Li Jie and Lin Xianghua opened fire once more, repelling another four-man assault.

This was not a contest of equipment or a measure of gun skills and techniques; it was the most common battlefield scenario—elite troops versus seasoned veterans. If one had to claim an advantage, it would undoubtedly be the defending side.

Ordinarily, Americans would call for an airstrike to deal with such tough nuts to crack—a single bomb to solve the problem, or calling in artillery would suffice; even bombarding with dozens of low-caliber shells could work.

But now, they had none of that.

Gao Yi did.