Ultimate Firepower
Chapter 214 - 202 Gathering

Chapter 214: Chapter 202 Gathering

In 17 years, the major European arms exhibition included the Paris Air Show, but this event is too large for small-scale dealers like Li Jie to attend.

Li Jie could participate in the European Hunting and Fishing Equipment Exhibition, which was to be held in Austria, a country with a long hunting tradition and certainly a strong player in the manufacture of hunting shotguns.

The exhibition was a month away, but registration had been completed a year earlier, and now was the perfect time to finish preparing for the event.

Li Jie had long been traveling between Europe and the United States and had nothing to do with Gao Yi; he was already a legitimate and mature small arms trader.

This time, his attendance was just a legitimate excuse to transport some of Gao Yi’s most important items to Europe.

Gao Yi’s divine artifact pistol, along with about a dozen Golden Gourd Hammers, could all be mixed in with the exhibition pieces and parts to be shipped over.

Of course, firearms for the exhibition were strictly controlled, so Li Jie had to take risks in transporting these items; but if he couldn’t even manage to get a pistol out, then he might as well not be in the arms business.

As for the registration of a Mercenary Group, Gao Yi didn’t need Luca; he had done it himself.

A mobile number, a cell phone, and as long as the name wasn’t already taken, it was that easy to register a Mercenary Group.

Running a Mercenary Group account was much easier than running an assassin organization; once registered, the rest was combat because pay for Mercenaries was, in most cases, not based on the success or failure of a mission, but rather what the mission was, the location, what kind of battle was fought, for how long, and then payment was made according to the duration and intensity of the combat.

Many Mercenaries died before they could even see the end of a mission; if they had to wait for the mission to end before getting paid, at least eighty percent of them would quit, as the vast majority of mercenaries are just cannon fodder.

Getting paid by individual assignments is something that only strong groups dare to take on; as for the expendables, they simply don’t have the qualifications.

Then there’s the name Warhammer Mercenary Group, which is quite interesting because it was only when registering that Gao Yi discovered the name had already been used by another reasonably famous group that had been wiped out, with most of its members dead, then delisted from the Dark Web.

Most people would find such a name too ominous to use, but Gao Yi didn’t care; after all, it was a name that sounded right and suited his style, so why not use it?

But having just a group name wasn’t enough; there needed to be a name for the leader, someone who could be contacted if someone wanted to assign a mission to the Warhammer Mercenary Group or to commission them directly for something.

One must have several alternate identities when roaming the world.

At any rate, Gao Yi couldn’t continue using a nonsensical nickname like Busan; having chosen a decent group name, the leader’s moniker also had to be clear and catchy.

Gao Yi’s luck in picking names this time was off the charts; he first chose a Knight’s alias, which was unsurprisingly taken, then, without much hope, he tried for Hammer King, only to find it was available.

And Gao Yi promptly rejected this nickname.

Having used ’hammer’ too much, adopting the nickname Hammer King would be a bit too on the nose.

Eventually, Gao Yi casually tried the name Wind Knight, and found it to be still available.

Out of three names, two were available – if that’s not luck, what is? Gao Yi decisively chose Wind Knight as his nom de guerre.

It’s just a handle after all. Wind Knight, that’s Gao Yi’s codename in his Mercenary identity on the Dark Web. As for why he chose this name, one reason was because it sounded good, and the other was because Gao Yi used to play with this ID in games; there was no other particularly complex reason.

Starting from the lowest-level Mercenary Group and not in a hurry to take on missions, just having a title for later was enough.

Having completed the registration and acquired a new alias for traveling the world, Gao Yi took Lucy with him and flew straight to Germany.

There was no special reason for flying to Germany. It was simply because there was a suitable flight, and then from Germany, they flew to Spain.

Once in Spain, things were more particular.

With Luca uneasy, he certainly wouldn’t just stay in one place waiting for something to happen. Going directly to the United States was out of the question, but shifting to a safer environment was always possible.

The biggest advantage of Spain was the language environment there.

People fluent in many languages are very few and far between. Even if the CIA was on Luca’s trail, their agents would possibly only speak English. If Luca went to Spain, then the vast majority of people he’d encounter would speak Spanish.

Changing the linguistic environment would at least simplify the task of filtering suspicious targets from the background crowd.

So Gao Yi and Lucy first flew to Germany, then on to Spain. After arriving in Spain, they drove from Madrid straight to Luca’s chosen hideout near Toledo.

Luca had made a series of random moves without any particular plan and arrived in Toledo after two days, while Gao Yi and his team could only follow his erratic path and took three days to reach Toledo.

So far, no surprises, no twists.

Gao Yi and Lucy arrived first.

Gao Yi didn’t speak Spanish, but Lucy spoke a little—although limited, she had no problem with basic communication.

Men and women working together surely makes the work less tiring, but pairing Gao Yi with the exceedingly beautiful Lucy was prone to exposure.

As a one-time consumable, Lucy’s beauty was a very advantageous condition, her most powerful weapon, but as a common assassin, beauty was Lucy’s biggest flaw.

Being so strikingly beautiful that she attracted considerable attention, just for this reason alone, Lucy couldn’t be a normal assassin.

The only solution was to disguise herself, and Gao Yi was skilled at makeup, so now Lucy’s makeup skills weren’t bad either.

Padding her nose to make it look like a hooked nose, roughening her skin and adding a lot of wrinkles, then pulling down the corners of her mouth and lifting her cheeks slightly—after a few major changes, Lucy was transformed into someone whose appearance was okay but certainly not beautiful. Further disguising her figure a bit and dressing conservatively, she could walk down the street without attracting much notice.

Then, Gao Yi made himself look a bit older, and basically, he wouldn’t attract too much attention either.

"I’m here, just outside the hotel where you’re staying."

Gao Yi didn’t go to meet Luca directly; first, he sat down in an open-air café just opposite the hotel where Luca was staying. The café was quite busy, and he and Lucy found a table to drink coffee, everything looking perfectly normal.

Gao Yi didn’t make a phone call but sent Luca a message instead.

Now was the time to observe if there were any suspicious targets around Luca’s environment, so what was being tested were Gao Yi’s observational skills.

Direct observation wouldn’t reveal much; it required very meticulous scrutiny.

Gao Yi soon received a message from Luca.

"Received."

There was no discussion on how to proceed with their next move, as Gao Yi and Lucy couldn’t conduct more detailed counter-surveillance anyway.

Strictly speaking, Gao Yi hadn’t learned the techniques of counter-surveillance, and Lucy had only learned how to be a one-time assassin. She truly didn’t understand counter-tracking or counter-surveillance.

If they hadn’t systematically learned it, the simplest solution was to find someone to teach them, to seek external technical guidance.

There were plenty of people who could serve as teachers for them at the Grins, and Gao Yi would rather learn while practicing than hand over all the matters to the National Intelligence Bureau.

The operatives of the National Intelligence Bureau could serve as decoys. If there were no other options, they could even be used as human shields. At most, they could follow along, fire a few shots, and provide some firepower. As for entrusting them with counter-surveillance tasks, it might as well be assumed that no one was targeting Luca.

Gao Yi and Lucy sipped coffee seriously, trying not to engage in unnecessary conversation. They were looking for other non-Spanish speakers as potential suspects, which meant, conversely, they could also become targets of suspicion.

The skill being used now wasn’t something commonly needed by an assassin but was more a technique required by an operative.

It was about observing—watching and listening more, looking for any person out of the ordinary, and searching for any slight clues.

Observe first, then proceed to the next mission when more hands were available.

Lin Xianghua had also arrived in Spain, but he wasn’t in a rush to meet with Gao Yi and the others since his capability in this area wasn’t outstanding; even if he did join them, it wouldn’t be of much help.

Thus, Lin Xianghua’s task was to meet with the operatives from the National Intelligence Bureau first and receive the weapons needed by Gao Yi and his team.

That’s right, the National Intelligence Bureau was there to provide logistical support. Beyond that, there was no need for them.

Next was the waiting.

Once Feng Biao also arrived, they could attempt to have Luca cooperate and bait the trap.

Feng Biao, who was closest and had departed first, ended up being the last to arrive.

"Boss, I’ve arrived but haven’t gotten off the bus, nor have I received the equipment."

Gao Yi got a message from Feng Biao, and now Li Jie was the only one who hadn’t arrived.

Li Jie would bring Gao Yi’s handgun, and only then would the Warhammer Mercenary Group be completely assembled.

"Come over, let’s sit and chat for a bit; I can’t talk with Lucy."

Gao Yi replied to Feng Biao’s message, and a few minutes later, a taxi slowly stopped nearby. Feng Biao got out, looked around, and walked straight over to Gao Yi with a suitcase in tow.

Feng Biao greeted Lucy warmly and sat next to Gao Yi, ordering another cup of coffee.

Feng Biao didn’t look much different, just slightly fatigued. Gao Yi noticed that Feng Biao was walking normally again without any irregularities, but he still couldn’t help asking, "Is your leg okay?"

Having rested for over a month, he should have mostly recovered by then, and now another month had passed; Feng Biao’s leg should have healed.

"Completely healed,"

Feng Biao patted his leg, and then, with an imperceptible tone, he said, "I have a chill on my back, and with my years of experience, this indicates that we have also been targeted, and not with good intentions."