Ultimate Firepower
Chapter 87 - 77 Not a Bee

Chapter 87: Chapter 77 Not a Bee

London’s house numbering system is so comprehensive that one can indeed rely on it to accurately locate each and every house.

Gao Yi found the safe house listed in his contacts.

Located in the affluent area of Kensington, London, a Victorian-era terrace villa stood with its red brick walls and a ring of iron fences serving as garden walls, but the gate wasn’t locked. Passing through the brief front yard, there was a black entry door.

The entry door was equipped with a password fingerprint lock. After pressing his fingerprint, the sound of unlocking could be heard, and Gao Yi turned the doorknob and pushed the door open to enter.

The living room wasn’t too big, but the furnishings and decorations had a distinctly British flair.

So this is the safe house—it looks pretty good.

Property prices in London are too high, as are rents. If this safe house was purchased by the Garden, then this house must be worth at least two million pounds.

Gao Yi started walking up the wooden staircase. Terrace villas built in the Victorian Era typically had similar layouts, with bedrooms all concentrated on the second floor.

There was a master bedroom on the second floor; Gao Yi took a look, and it seemed normal enough. He pushed open the only closed door beside it to find a rather large vanity mirror, with two cabinets placed beside it.

This is the place.

Gao Yi walked over and pulled open one of the cabinet doors, taking out a makeup box from inside. He opened it to see an array of makeup products, all brand new and untouched.

Pulling open the door of the tallest wardrobe, he opened it to find the left half was filled with four rifles—two AKs, one M700 with a scope attached, and one MP5—the ammunition was stored in compartments at the bottom of the cabinet, boxed up and plentiful.

Firearms are banned in the UK, so collecting these guns wasn’t an easy feat.

The right half of the wardrobe stored handguns—six in total, of varying calibers. Among them, three were small handguns rarely seen in the United States: a classic Walter PPK, a Soviet-made Makarov PM pistol, and an exceedingly rare Makarov PB silent pistol, complete with a silencer on the side.

The three larger handguns were quite common: an HKP9, a Glock 19, and a SIG P226.

There was nothing particularly special about these weapons. The fact that the Garden managed to acquire them was quite impressive in itself. Although an assassin didn’t really need guns to carry out jobs, they might be needed by assistants for cover or support.

Besides a cosmetics cabinet and a weapons cabinet, documents were needed as well.

He opened a drawer that was packed with dozens of passports. Opening one, the photo space was blank, but next to it was a small machine capable of printing out photos after taking one.

Most countries no longer emboss photos on passports, so just printing the photo was enough. Of course, these were only basic fake IDs that couldn’t pass scrutiny, such as chip scans.

Next to it was something resembling a printer.

Lifting the lid, there was a glass panel inside akin to those found in laser printers, but this rather large machine, similar in size to a microwave, had 3D printing capabilities.

With an input fingerprint model, it could print a silicone fingerprint sticker. The many fingerprint stickers Sean used were all self-made this way.

It was unclear where such a device came from; surely unavailable to the public. If anyone had developed it, it must be an intelligence agency of some country.

Surely the Garden couldn’t produce such an advanced machine.

Seeing the machine that could print fingerprint stickers, Gao Yi took a quiet breath.

This was what he was looking for.

Gao Yi carefully placed the fingerprint sticker taken from Sean’s finger onto the printer, closed the lid, selected the number to print, and then waited for the laser scanning to complete. The 3D printer began transforming molten material into the shape of a fingerprint sticker.

It wasn’t very fast, but Gao Yi was deeply shaken as he watched the printer turn silicone into thin stickers.

In ten minutes, the fingerprint stickers were printed. Gao Yi took out the newly printed stickers and carefully stored them in a special case.

These fingerprint stickers were important, but not overly so.

Gao Yi wanted to copy everything from Sean’s phone onto another one. Hence, Sean’s old phone would be later discarded. But before changing phones, he needed to back up this fingerprint sticker, so he took the opportunity to test this specialized printer for making both fingerprint stickers and silicone masks.

Of course, the safe house would be equipped with indispensable electronics like phones.

He took out a phone, another Samsung but of a different model, turned it on, and it was already set up with a SIM card—a safe number from London. Five such prepared phones were available.

Using the old fingerprint sticker to unlock Sean’s phone, he took photos of all the numbers in the contact list. Then he removed the SIM card from the phone.

This step had to be done with extreme caution, as pulling out the SIM card carelessly could trigger the phone’s self-destruct mechanism.

He had to validate the fingerprint while simultaneously pulling out the card, gently inserting the pin, and carefully removing the card. Only then did Gao Yi breathe a sigh of relief.

With the SIM card changed and the contacts transferred over to the new phone, the old one was rendered almost useless.

Gao Yi was curious about the self-destruct feature of the phone, but considering there might still be secrets within it yet to be discovered, he decided to keep it after a moment of hesitation.

This phone was the only thing left by Sean. However, thinking about it, it seemed that everything in the safe house was Sean’s legacy. But since the phone was obtained directly from Sean, it was worth keeping the sentiment.

There wasn’t much left to do.

Oh, right, he needed to change fingerprints.

Currently, his fingerprints were left at too many crime scenes...

Gao Yi went to the bathroom, filled the sink with hot water, and soaked his hands after adjusting it to a tolerable temperature.

Silicone finger sleeves could be removed by peeling, but it was tedious. Soaking them in hot water for a while made it easier, the hotter the better.

After a few minutes, he took his hands out, rubbed them vigorously, and once the fingerprint stickers began to fall into the water, Gao Yi splashed the water on his face, washing away the facial disguise with hot water repeatedly. Then, he drained the sink, letting the deformed fingerprint stickers flow down the drain.

Careful not to touch anything with his hands, Gao Yi examined his own fingerprints for a long time, noticing no changes to the skin of his palms.

Applying the fingerprint stickers required glue—several kinds. Some had extremely strong adhesion, impossible to peel off without soaking in a special solution. Such adhesives were rarely used, reserved only for highly secure situations.

Others had less adhesion, just sturdy enough for daily activities and easy to peel off, yet preserving the integrity of the fingerprint stickers. Sean had used these because he needed to change his stickers frequently.

Any type of glue would certainly damage the skin, problematic for long-term use. But this was not a major concern since assassins often didn’t live very long.

Some assassins even destroyed their own fingerprints, relying solely on fake ones for daily life.

Gao Yi wasn’t that resolute; he was quite fond of his somewhat handsome face.

He had removed his makeup, but now he had to pick a set of ten fingerprints from the makeup box. The ones here were either from ordinary people or computer-generated fakes—untraceable around the world, so free to use.

He applied a less sticky glue to his fingers, carefully replacing them with fake fingerprints, then covering his entire palm with special glue.

It was like wearing a pair of gloves. Although thin, the touch was different. And with both hands disguised, no sweat could escape. Sweat couldn’t evaporate, which wasn’t an issue for the fingertips since they sweat less, but the palms could get quite uncomfortable.

The only solution: try to prevent the palms from sweating.

For the best disguise, one must endure this continuous yet minor discomfort.

Then Gao Yi sat in front of the vanity mirror, applying light makeup to himself, adding some wrinkles, donning non-prescription glasses, and using a wig to lengthen his hair slightly. Only then did he consider his post-entry tasks to the safe house complete.

A safe house is not a home; one cannot relax, especially since safety was far from guaranteed.

Now he could start considering what to do next.

Seek vengeance?

Sorry, but that’s presently unattainable.

Gao Yi could fulfill Sean’s greatest wish, but avenging himself against the behemoth that was the Andic Group was currently impossible—at least not now.

The Andic Group stretched from the United States to Europe, down to Southeast Asia. It was a colossal adversary, plus the Dark Web was there—how could one possibly fight?

Gao Yi didn’t trust the Dark Web, all because Sean’s death was too suspicious.

The Garden would always be the Garden, even if it was downgraded on the Dark Web platform or unlisted outright. It would still be the Garden—merely a failed one that receded from the Dark Web battleground.

Like a brand that abandons online channels to toil in brick-and-mortar stores.

Although it’s the age of the internet, industries with physical products still manage to make a living.

Vengeance was unnecessary to think about for now. To fulfill Sean’s wish, long-term planning was required.

Gao Yi thought about strengthening his abilities.

Though he had relied on his fighting ability to make his way so far, today’s events clearly highlighted an issue—lacking gun skills was a definite weakness. Assassins may not rely on guns to complete tasks, but they must use guns to protect themselves.

Believing oneself to be invincible with martial arts alone was a fool’s confidence, something Gao Yi couldn’t afford.

So he still needed to find Chen Guangxin to improve his skills.

With a preliminary goal in mind, what should he do next?

He needed a partner; it was too hard to work alone. But who could that be?

It would be strange if Gao Yi couldn’t think of Luca at this point.

Luca originally came from the Garden, so he knew of its existence and could get in touch with Sean.

Despite Luca being stingy, he was principled, and now, he was the only person Gao Yi could trust the most.

Most importantly, Luca had recommended Gao Yi to the Garden. And now, with the Garden ruined, Gao Yi was reluctantly involved and would face the threat of the Andic Group. Was Luca expecting to stay uninvolved? He sure wished!

Gao Yi took out a phone. He initially wanted to contact Luca through the Dark Web, but after a brief thought, he decided to stay off it.

Using Sean’s phone, he called up Tulip’s information and dialed Green Leaf’s number from the attached list. The phone was answered after a few rings.

"Bee?"

Luca’s voice trembled, obviously surprised.

Gao Yi thought for a second and said, "Not the Bee, come to London, and quick. Call me when you arrive."

Luca’s voice was filled with even greater surprise, as he tremulously asked, "Falke! Busan?"

Gao Yi’s identity had been recognized, so he spoke plainly, "It’s me. Hurry to London. There’s a lot to handle, and I can’t do it alone. There are also things that need to be sold off. Are you coming?"

Luca was silent for a long time, before finally sighing and saying, "How did it come to this? Alright, I’ll come..."