Ultimate Firepower
Chapter 216 - 204 Shortage of Manpower

Chapter 216: Chapter 204 Shortage of Manpower

In the past, it was always Gao Yi who lurked in the shadows, while the enemy was exposed. This time, the tables had finally turned; the enemy was hidden, while Gao Yi was out in the open.

Well, not quite. Gao Yi wasn’t completely in the open, he had only aroused the enemy’s suspicion.

How to handle this situation, where both sides lurked in the dark, was a bit tricky.

After some thought, Gao Yi picked up his cell phone and sent a message to Grins.

"There are two people behind me. They’ve noticed me but haven’t confirmed my identity. What should I do now?"

After sending the message, Gao Yi placed the cell phone on the table, then calmly said to Lucy, "They aren’t really my friends, just travel companions. If you think they’re being rude to you, it’s fine. We don’t have to hang out with them for the rest of the trip."

Lucy nodded, still looking quite angry.

The phone rang, Gao Yi picked it up, Grins had replied.

"This is hard to handle. You don’t have a clear target, I mean in terms of how to approach them. First, you need to think about what kind of outcome you want."

Grins hadn’t come prepared with a complete action plan. This was always meant to be about improvisation, dealing with things as they came, so his response to Gao Yi couldn’t be very precise.

Essentially, even with guidance from the sidelines, it still involved coming up with strategies on the fly.

Gao Yi gave it some thought, then sent another message.

"I want to find all of them and take them out, ideally solving all the problems."

"Impossible."

Grins replied quickly this time, shutting down Gao Yi’s wishful thinking with a single word of impossibility.

"The enemy’s scale is immense. How could you possibly resolve all problems? The best outcome you can hope for now is to eliminate the current crisis, and even when it comes to this immediate crisis, you cannot truly solve it but only attempt to escape."

Gao Yi felt frustrated and helpless inside.

"Then how should I safely solve this?"

"Have an absolutely sufficient team, act simultaneously, capture or kill all the operatives involved in this operation. Finding one cockroach in your bedroom means your house is already full of them. Therefore, my advice is to try to escape quietly. Engaging them won’t solve the issue and could even create bigger problems."

Grins’ advice was not to make a move. That would be more troublesome.

Against an adversary the size and scale of the CIA, it was hardly possible for Gao Yi and his team to handle the trouble completely. Given the current situation, managing to escape safely would be good enough. Any form of retaliation might provoke an even fiercer reprisal from the CIA.

"I understand. Do you have any suggestions about the action itself?"

"Either don’t engage at all, or if you do, don’t let any get away. Therefore, if you can capture a live one to figure out their scale and intent for this operation, but then there’s an issue. Even if you can capture someone alive, do you have time to interrogate? Do you know how?"

It really was a tough situation.

"I’ll try."

Gao Yi replied with a message and ended the remote guidance. Grins on the other end couldn’t provide very detailed and effective methods, so asking more would be of no use.

Getting involved with a behemoth like the CIA was utterly despairing.

No matter how you attacked, you wouldn’t even scratch them, let alone completely eliminate the opponent. Gao Yi wouldn’t even dare to dream such daydreams.

His mood inevitably a bit heavy, Gao Yi let out a soft sigh, shook his head slightly at Lucy, and said, "Our friend, uh, hasn’t got any good suggestions."

Lucy pouted, saying, "As expected."

According to the thinking of a professional agent, the situation was unsolvable.

If that was the case, better to proceed with one’s own methods.

As for Gao Yi’s approach, other than going all in, there were no other options.

Gao Yi sent a message to Luca.

"Tell them to leave in batches."

Let the agents of the National Intelligence Bureau draw the enemy’s attention, to see if anyone reveals something. Since it’s fishing, let the National Intelligence Bureau’s people serve as the bait.

Two Middle Eastern-looking men walked out of the hotel. They glanced around shiftily at the hotel entrance, looking guilty like thieves, as conspicuous as beacons, attracting the attention of others.

The overacting was too exaggerated, even for bait; it was too obvious.

Gao Yi could hardly bear to watch, his embarrassment second-hand; he was ashamed for his own boss.

How could he tolerate such incompetent underlings?

As for the men Abdulla currently trusted, their loyalty wasn’t in question, but in terms of ability, there was no way they could have improved substantially in just two or three months.

Abdulla still relied on those old hands he used to employ, after all, during the massive purges, loyalty was more critical than capability. Therefore, it was only natural for the National Intelligence Bureau to experience a decline in strength amidst the purging.

Yet nobody knew where Luca’s newly recruited rookies were, or what they were doing.

With his back to the suspected target, Gao Yi couldn’t see the movements of the two people behind him, but Lucy could. Since Lucy made no move, it meant the two decoys they had released hadn’t had any effect.

Gao Yi sent another message.

"Continue to deploy people."

The two who had been standing at the hotel entrance left; they got into a car and drove away from the hotel.

They left in batches until Luca came out, and if the previous decoys weren’t effective, then Luca himself would have to lure the enemy.

You can’t catch the wolf without risking the sheep. Now it all depended on how well the enemy knew Luca. If they were acutely aware of his appearance, then he was pretty much done for; he’d never again live in the sunlight.

Likewise, Gao Yi and the others would have to live in hiding; exposing one meant exposing them all.

A second group emerged from the hotel.

Abdulla was quite generous, assigning eight bodyguards for Luca. The first pair left without eliciting any reactions; now it was time to see if this second batch of four could make a difference.

The four walked out of the hotel, and this time their behavior was entirely normal.

They looked like ordinary tourists, without any particular Middle-Eastern appearance and dressed casually, not in the typical bodyguard attire of suits and neckties that screamed ’I’m a bodyguard.’ They wore T-shirts and shirts, looking like four unrelated individuals who just happened to leave the hotel in two separate groups.

Two stood chatting by the hotel entrance while the other two took a few steps forward and casually walked a few paces outside the hotel porch.

First, the four came out, pretending to casually observe, ensuring that it looked safe outside, then two of them suddenly headed towards the car park and drove two very ordinary sedans up to the hotel entrance.

At that moment, two more people came out of the hotel.

One wore a T-shirt, and the other a white shirt. Both wore hats and sunglasses, looking secretive yet conspicuous; then the two individuals who seemed totally unrelated by the hotel entrance quickly walked over and simultaneously open the doors of the two sedans.

All six were agents from the National Intelligence Bureau, employing a feint within a feint.

It seemed as if they split into two groups, one decoy target and one real target, getting into their vehicles and driving off in different directions.

This time it looked genuine, from their movements, expressions, response times, and especially the two impersonating Luca getting into the cars, and the swift departure splitting at the hotel entrance into two different directions—all the fake actions appeared very real.

Lucy gave Gao Yi a knowing glance.

Gao Yi knew that the two people behind him were on the move, so he slightly turned his head, only to see one of them pick up a phone while the other stood up and quickly left the café’s outdoor seating area.

A car sped past right before Gao Yi and his group.

Another car parked across from the hotel suddenly started up and quickly drove toward them.

The enemy’s car was moving; it was really moving.

Gao Yi was astonished to see the person behind him heading toward the curb, and the car that had pulled away from a nearby space seemed to be slowing down, as if to pick him up.

How could this be?

If it were really the CIA, if they had indeed cast a wide net to capture Luca alive, then how could they be so short-handed?

The ones watching and the ones ready to act were the same group? If the target ran, those monitoring would have to follow quickly; there were no replacements to continue the tail, no one dedicated to the capture?

Gathering intelligence was one thing, but action was another, and tracking, surveillance, and potential capture all fell within the realm of action.

Gao Yi didn’t understand how the CIA operated, but he knew they couldn’t possibly be so petty. Either they had completely lost track of Luca or, if they hadn’t, they wouldn’t be dismantling the east wall to patch the west when it was time to act.

There was only one driver in the car, and among the two watchers behind, one had to get in the car, and so far, only that one car was seen; they couldn’t follow two cars at once.

This was not how Grins had described it. Grins had said for the CIA to conduct a secret capture operation in a country like Spain, they would have to deploy at least a team of ten.

A series of thoughts flashed through Gao Yi’s mind, and in the blink of an eye, seeing the bait suddenly taken, the kind you had to bite, Gao Yi knew the matter couldn’t be delayed.

So, he quite naturally stood up and, with a quick leap, vaulted over a table. As the person behind him stood by the roadside reaching for the car door, Gao Yi reached for the parked car’s door too.

Except Gao Yi was reaching for the driver’s door.

Lucy was stunned. She watched in shock as Gao Yi, without any sign, suddenly got up, opened the car door, and knocked out the driver with a punch, leaving him unconscious in the seat.

The man on the passenger side, shocked, suddenly reached towards his waist.

The other person sitting behind Gao Yi also looked surprised, pulling a gun out of his cloak.

Although Lucy was surprised, her hand was quick; as soon as she saw the target drawing a gun, hers was already drawn.

And then chaos erupted.