Ultimate Firepower
Chapter 228 - 216 Dismissal

Chapter 228: Chapter 216 Dismissal

Europe’s situation is rather complex.

To describe the European Union with "turning swords into ploughshares" would be to overestimate them; even "horses released to the south mountain, arms stored away for peace" seems insufficient.

Arandy doesn’t understand those idioms. In his view and in his own words, there is only one word that can describe Europe.

Rotten.

Rotten to the core.

The European Union had been nurtured into uselessness, to the extent that now even the CIA couldn’t utilize the power of European countries.

As the Director of the Middle East, Arandy now believed Middle Eastern intelligence agencies were superior to Europe’s.

Spain—how could they fail to catch even a few individuals, surrounded as they were? How could they let them escape?

But it was also good; the embarrassment of his European colleagues made the Middle East division look less incompetent.

"I’ve said it before, these people are very capable, after all, Captain Naaoi—"

Arandy couldn’t help himself but stopped mid-sentence, swallowing the rest of his words. After all, this had become a taboo topic, and to mention it further was to be tactless.

Unfortunately, it was too late.

Everyone in the CIA knew that Captain Naaoi had died in a car accident. What was the meaning behind Arandy’s half-spoken words?

Several eyes turned towards him on the screen.

Luckily, it was a virtual meeting. Had it been face-to-face in a conference room, it would have been troublesome.

Arandy decisively decided to lay low for the next while, even if Sky Garden slaughtered all his European colleagues, he would not speak again.

A bunch of idiots, they deserved it—deserved to die, deserved to fail.

Arandy wanted to say he had warned them earlier, but those European colleagues, confident for reasons unknown, firmly believed a CIA agent supervising the operation would ensure Spain’s cooperation.

Now, the agents sent had died, four hostages had been captured in Spain, and they had been forced to diplomatically expel the people from Sky Garden.

Things would now be difficult in France, as the French, though spineless, cared about their dignity and autonomy and would absolutely refuse CIA’s assistance.

Was this how a major, cross-regional, unauthorized CIA operation was going to fail?

Arandy felt quite pessimistic.

The director was just furious.

"Who can tell me what the situation is now? I just took a call from the White House, warning me not to entangle further with the Saudi side, and to stop seeking revenge. Prince Shaman himself spoke to the White House, hoping to put an end to this matter."

The director’s words were calm, but everyone knew how angry he truly was.

As expected, the director slammed his fist on the table and then roared, "All I want now is to catch those damned people from Sky Garden. Before the operation began, you assured me we could capture Sky Garden smoothly, claiming we could solve all problems at once. So, what happened now? Can someone explain what exactly is going on?"

"Sir, here’s what happened."

The person in charge of the Europe District, a highly skilled technical officer who had risen from intelligence analyst to his current role, his brain working as efficiently and meticulously as a computer, never making mistakes.

But now, this usually error-free expert made a huge mistake. Although he was only responsible for coordinating and commanding from the center, his subordinates had botched the operation, and he couldn’t shirk the responsibility, so if he wouldn’t explain, who would?

Arandy secretly rejoiced.

"We received a tip-off from our partners that a contact from Sky Garden had appeared in London. Our partners quickly pinpointed his location and informed us. After receiving the tip-off from headquarters, I began designing the overall plan to capture him."

The Director of Europe began from the beginning.

A little trick, to quell the anger of a superior—explain the matter in a complicated way, and the tactic is to start from the beginning. No need to fear reprimands for verbosity, as this would give a superior who was unaware of the details an opportunity to make their own judgment.

"Firstly, about this contact, codename Albatross. According to the information provided by our partners, Albatross was an insignificant middleman who, before joining Sky Garden, was a con man recruiting newbies; he had no value himself, but keeping an eye on Albatross would surely lead to the mastermind in Sky Garden, codenamed Truck Driver."

Since Naaoi’s death was caused by a car accident, the person who killed Naaoi could only be the Truck Driver—a very logical and intuitive codename.

The director, impatient to hear these details, said gruffly, "Get to the point, and don’t talk about partners or codenames."

"This is the key point, sir," the liaison said. "Our partner is the Dark Web, specifically coordinated and supported by the Andic Group, per our request. The Andic Group had people monitoring Albatross. However, Albatross suddenly fled under the protection of the Saudi National Intelligence Agency and left London. By the time the Andic Group relocated him, he was already in Toledo, Spain."

"Go on."

"The Andic Group sent three local assassins to keep an eye on Albatross. We quickly contacted the Spanish authorities, hoping to rely on Spanish support to completely eradicate Sky Garden. The plan was going very well, and indeed the truck driver showed up..."

The Director of Europe paused, then continued, "But somehow, something went wrong. I personally think it’s because the people from the Andic Group were too incompetent. The truck driver figured them out and then... the agents from the National Intelligence Bureau quickly pulled out, and the truck driver suddenly acted, killing one of the Andic Group’s men on the spot and capturing two."

"Ha, too incompetent..."

The Director of Europe continued calmly, "According to the information we’ve obtained, the core members of Sky Garden are two Asians. They killed Fesari and rescued Harold, and they also held Shaman hostage, Mr. Director, please note, this is the first extremely abnormal point."

"What’s the anomaly?"

"The two Asians from Sky Garden alternately held Shaman hostage, but Shaman not only did not focus on killing them, he instead began to provide shelter for Sky Garden. Based on my judgment, they must have learned some fatal secret of Prince Shaman."

"Go on, any other abnormalities?"

"There’s also..."

The Director of Europe hesitated, then said earnestly, "I suspect we have a mole."

A stir rippled through the room.

There weren’t many people participating in this video conference, which was also a live broadcast of field operations, but they were all high-ranking officials. Now, the Director of Europe was suggesting a mole in the CIA?

With this statement, the consequences could be severe.

The director’s face grew grim, and he commanded, "Explain clearly."

"Upon discovering the trail of Sky Garden, I immediately made clear plans as the overall commander. I deduced that after Sky Garden members shot and killed the individuals from the Andic Group on the street, if they did not kill Albatross to silence him, there were only two possibilities: they would leave Spain immediately, or they would take immediate refuge in the Saudi Embassy. However, the National Intelligence Bureau’s agents left the hotel alone, abandoning Albatross, who also left the hotel alone, while Sky Garden altogether avoided the route to the embassy and also completely evaded our ambush."

The director fell silent, struggling to process the information as he wasn’t from a field-agent background.

After a moment of reflection, the director couldn’t help but say, "Isn’t that normal?"

"It’s not normal. We can now confirm that Sky Garden is just another alias for Garden, which is an assassin organization. I have reviewed the files; Garden’s operations are known for their extreme meticulousness."

"What?"

"That means the people from Garden wouldn’t make such a mistake. Albatross should have either been escorted away under the protection of the National Intelligence Bureau or taken over by Garden, either to kill him or to continue protecting him, but just dumping Albatross and avoiding our first ambush circle is too abnormal, irrational!"

An expert and technical bureaucrat, the Director of Europe was famous for accurately predicting the opponent’s next moves.

Now that he said there was a problem, there indeed was a problem.

The director took a deep breath and said, "Go on."

"Then they entered a safe house that had never been used before; yes, once again they evaded our surveillance. We had all three of Madrid’s National Intelligence Bureau safe houses under surveillance, but they didn’t go to any of those. Instead, they used a place that wasn’t even a safe house. Mr. Director, at this point, I couldn’t help but suspect that someone had leaked information."

The director’s face turned ashen. He said sternly, "Continue."

"Our manpower was severely insufficient; Sky Garden precisely exploited every loophole we had because most of our manpower had been reassigned. We lacked enough operational staff. When we discovered Sky Garden hiding in a vineyard, we could only urgently dispatch air-mobility forces, which had been on standby, to respond. The only accompanying person was a civilian employee stationed in Spain, and then! Another highly abnormal point, Sky Garden didn’t engage in any dialogue, didn’t issue any warning, they just shot our liaison dead instantly. Mr. Director, a normal person wouldn’t choose to kill our intelligence personnel directly; no one would dare do this."

The director took a deep breath and said, "Good, you mean there surely has been information leak?"

"I can’t guarantee there has been a leak, but I can say if there hasn’t been, then our opponent is a super master who acts unpredictably, a genius beyond ambush, a master beyond my comprehension."

Having spoken calmly, the Director of Europe said coldly, "Now Sky Garden has already entered France, and we cannot demand France to arrest them directly. We’ve caught up with Sky Garden—they rented two cars, but their next destination is unknown. Whether there has been a leak or the opponent is just a genius, I can no longer predict their actions, so, I am going to take assertive action."

"What assertive action?"

"We won’t surveil them in secret anymore; I’ve ordered the trackers to strike decisively, whether we can kill them, but at least to slow them down."

"Our people?"

"Not our people, Andic Group’s people. It doesn’t matter how many of them die, and once they engage in a shootout, France will be drawn into this matter. I’ve also ordered our French division to assemble quickly, ready to act at any moment. After the French police capture them, we will snatch them from France’s hands, not through diplomatic means, but directly!"

The Director of Europe was resolute; he was preparing the CIA to snatch people from the French.

The director pondered for a moment, then said in a deep voice, "Two questions, first, can the French really capture them? Second, if the French opt to kill them instead of capturing them alive, and oh, a third point, if Sky Garden leaves no survivors, how will we know who the mole connected to them is? Solve these three issues for me. That’s all, let me know when you have results, meeting adjourned."