Ultimate Firepower
Chapter 221 - 209

Chapter 221: Chapter 209

An interrogation expert is certainly also an expert in body disposal.

Since a plastic tent was set up in advance to prevent blood splatter, it indicates that the interrogation expert knew what the outcome would be. Therefore, leaving a body for him to handle is right up his professional alley, quite fitting.

The tricky part is how to design this ambush.

Li Jie arrived first.

And Gao Yi still had to reintroduce Li Jie to Lucy and Lin Xianghua.

"Ladies and gentlemen, he’s called Xianyu. From now on, in situations that require confidentiality, he’ll be called Xianyu."

Lin Xianghua nodded and said to Li Jie, "Xianyu."

Li Jie looked at Lin Xianghua and said, "Old Ghost."

"It’s not Old Ghost, it’s Ah Gui."

"Oh, sorry. Where I’m from, we say Old Ghost, not Ah Gui. Ah Gui is what Southerners call it, but the meaning’s the same."

Lin Xianghua and Li Jie exchanged a couple of meaningless sentences, and at that moment, Li Jie was busy assembling a disassembled handgun for Gao Yi.

IPSC, this kind of shooting sport, exists all over the world, and it’s quite popular in Europe, of course, it can’t compare with the United States. But it’s quite normal to bring a bunch of professional competition gun parts for exhibition.

That’s why Li Jie had the opportunity to bring Gao Yi’s gun.

Completely disassembled, it took a bit of effort to put together, but it was only a matter of minutes. Li Jie repeatedly pulled the slide and squeezed the trigger, listening to the click-clack sound, making sure there were no problems before casually flipping the gun around to hand it to Gao Yi.

The gun was assembled. Gao Yi took his personal Divine Artifact, pondering whether he’d have a chance to use it this time.

At this point, Lucy suddenly said, "You all have code names, so what about me? Should I be called Number 55?"

"No, that won’t do."

"Definitely not."

Li Jie and Feng Biao quickly spoke up to stop her, while Gao Yi unhesitatingly said, "You have a code name, you’ll be called Berserker."

Lucy was stunned for a moment, "Berserker?"

Calling Lucy ’Berserker’ was Gao Yi’s idea, and then everyone started using it, but the code name had not earned Lucy’s approval.

Lucy’s nickname was the purest, coined by others and caught on by use.

There are wrongly given names, but no wrongly given nicknames—that’s the idea.

Gao Yi’s official code name was Busan, because his official nickname was "No more than three," a reputation hard-earned, but unfortunately, it didn’t carry the same weight here. As for Wind Knight, that was his gaming ID, purely for going through the motions.

Li Jie was called Xianyu; God knows why he had that nickname.

Lin Xianghua was called Ah Gui; whether it suited him was anyone’s guess, but the nickname sounded meaningless anyway.

Feng Biao was called Wind Vane, a punny nickname based on his pseudonym that quite suited his image. However, Feng Biao himself didn’t like it.

Luca’s nickname was Iron Rooster, a name given by a few Chinese people. Luca himself was in the dark about it, and for sure he wouldn’t accept it once he knew what Iron Rooster meant. But whether he accepted it or not was beyond his control.

Albatross as a code name—who would remember that? It’s meaningless.

Just like Busan, no one would know who that referred to, or Wind Knight for that matter, but mention Hammer King or the Restaurant Hammer Demon, and everyone would definitely know who that was.

It’s hard to shake off a nickname given by others; right now, Lucy was in that kind of situation.

Lucy pondered, then nodded, her face indifferent, "Alright then, I’ll be Berserker."

Gao Yi clapped his hands and said, "Ladies and gentlemen, right now, we have five people, and we don’t know how many enemies will come. At present, the most likely scenario is several assassins from the Andic Group, followed by a few people from the CIA. But the most dangerous situation would be if Spain directly deployed its GEO force; hence, our ambush could very well end up facing a force that we simply cannot handle."

Plan for defeat before considering victory; difficulties should be spoken of beforehand. That way, even if the situation turns out to be the worst case scenario, it’s better than being caught off guard when things go awry.

Indeed, this message was mainly intended for Li Jie, who had just arrived and was unaware of the specifics.

Li Jie indeed asked, "What’s the situation? How did it come to GEO being deployed? That’s a formidable team."

"No time for detailed explanations," said Gao Yi, "Basically...it’s the Dark Web, Andic Group, and the CIA. Currently, they can be seen as one entity. If the CIA takes over, the worst-case scenario would be prompting Spain to dispatch anti-terrorist forces to deal with us. That is the worst situation, but it’s not bound to happen."

Li Jie scratched his head, saying, "Murphy’s Law—if you think something bad can happen, then it will definitely happen."

Having said that, Li Jie glanced at his companions and suddenly added, "But we’ve taken out the CIA’s Special Action Team, there’s no reason to be afraid of GEO."

"It’s different. In Baghdad, we had artillery. What do we have here? In Baghdad, even if we blow a hole in the sky, someone will cover for us. Here...they won’t be able to withstand it."

The one who said this could only be Feng Biao, and what he said was real.

Li Jie let out a sigh, "True that."

Feng Biao immediately stepped forward, "My suggestion is to disperse quickly. The boss and Berserker are only capable of close combat; they’re not suitable for battle. Ah Gui and Xianyu, the two of you stick together, maintain a certain distance, stay behind me for protection, and I’ll be up front. It’s enough for one person to do the scouting. Then, if we can engage, I’ll fire first; if we can’t engage, it’s best if we let the enemy pass without a sound."

Normally, close combat units take the front, assault riflemen hold the middle, and snipers lag behind.

But this time we’re not in a regular battle, rather we’re observing first, deciding whether to attack later, hence the formation is reversed.

Assigning the sniper the role of observer is standard procedure, for a sniper’s observational skills are indeed a notch above an assault rifle’s, simply because snipers receive special training to develop their observational abilities, a necessity given their role.

"Alright, we’ll do as Wind Vane says."

Warfare is Feng Biao’s area of expertise; naturally, Gao Yi would not object.

Li Jie suddenly said, "Did you guys mention earlier that Andic Group might have located Iron Rooster through mobile phone tracking?"

"Yes."

"So, it’s very likely that these two assassins have already had their locations locked on, right?"

"Yes."

Li Jie quickly asked, "Then, have you thought about how the Dark Web does this? How does Andic Group accomplish it?"

"I don’t know, but isn’t that quite simple?"

Gao Yi felt that mobile phone tracking seemed easy; after all, in movies, it didn’t seem hard.

Li Jie shook his head, "Mobile phone tracking, while it sounds simple, can actually be quite complex. The most important thing to note is if logging onto the Dark Web means being tracked, it implies that logging on requires surrendering all permissions on the phone, like location data. So, when you accessed the Dark Web, did you download a specific Dark Web app?"

"No, we accessed it via a web browser."

"Accessing through a web browser should not automatically grant permissions. Could it be that the Dark Web has integrated some kind of Trojan program? It’s possible. That means, once you’ve logged onto the Dark Web, your phone is compromised. That’s why Iron Rooster, even after just one login, could still be tracked."

Li Jie heaved a sigh, continuing, "There isn’t another possibility. Today’s mobile phones are basically mini-computers, and if the Dark Web can find backdoors in the mobile operating system... wait, could there be another possibility!"

Li Jie had just denied the existence of a second possibility but then immediately found one.

Li Jie, with a worried expression, said, "I don’t think the Dark Web necessarily has the ability to find security vulnerabilities in all phone models. Let’s say you use Brand S, someone else uses Brand F, and under these brands, there are many models with different chips and hardware architecture. The Dark Web being able to pinpoint the backdoor of every phone model can only mean they’re doing it through the operating system."

Gao Yi and the others exchanged looks, confirming through each other’s eyes that none of them understood.

Li Jie went on, "There are thousands of phone models, but only two operating systems, Android and iOS. The Dark Web, as an underground platform, even if they’re powerful and have many hackers, cannot possibly identify the backdoors of two operating systems on their own and discreetly assume the highest control without the owners’ knowledge to monitor all phones. Even if it was possible for a short while, it would be noticed over time. Considering the Dark Web’s many years of operation using the backdoors of these two systems, do you know what this means?"

Gao Yi, still confused, finally asked, "What are you getting at?"

"The keys to the world’s internet backdoors are in the hands of the United States. The only entities eligible to possess these keys right now are the NSA, which is the National Security Agency under the Pentagon, a military organization, and the Department of Homeland Security."

Li Jie mentioned two major entities, then continued with seriousness, "Regardless of how the Dark Web got permission to use this backdoor, or even if the Dark Web is a covert operation of one of these departments, the implications are severe. Therefore, when we assess the situation, we might need to consider an additional layer to the background."

Gao Yi understood what Li Jie meant, but he really didn’t know what it meant to add a backer to the Dark Web.

"What would be the consequences of giving the Dark Web a backer?"

Li Jie exhaled, "The phones we’ve used before must be destroyed. Then, uh... a slightly safer option is to use basic phones, the kind without an operating system. The safest way would be not to use mobile phones at all."

Gao Yi, feeling powerless, waved his hand, "Damn it! Buy basic phones! From now on, everyone gets a basic phone."