Chapter 351: Fierce Battle in the Laboratory
In northern Italy, a branch of the Alps, which stretches across multiple countries, also extends here, becoming a local skiing paradise due to its high altitude.
Of course, this place has other attractions besides ski resorts, such as the secret laboratory of the Golden Circle, where the antidote for the new blue virus is being manufactured. The traitorous Ace Agent Charlie is feeding his girlfriend the antidote for the blue virus.
After a vial of amber liquid is swallowed, the snake-like rash on the woman's face visibly disappears immediately.
"It's working, thank God, you're so good to me, Charlie!" The woman hugs Charlie with joy, but their conversation is being overheard by a bug hidden on the woman's body.
"Whiskey, the antidote is effective, confirmed to be genuine, you can proceed!" Whiskey, dressed in full cowboy attire like Ron, receives the intel from headquarters through his earpiece. He nods knowingly and looks at his three companions.
Old Galahad (Harry), New Galahad (Eggsy), and Ron stand in a row before him.
"The antidote is genuine, we can begin our operation." Whiskey began giving instructions: "Ron, Eggsy, you two come with me to the lab. Galahad, you stay here and keep watch, make sure the control room is secure."
"Why am I the one staying behind?" Harry had just reached the cable car door when he was stopped, asking somewhat irritably. In his mind, he should always be the point man.
"He's right. Your memories just came back, and your body hasn't fully adjusted yet. Staying behind makes sense. Don't worry, we'll handle things upstairs." Ron patted his shoulder and closed the hatch.
As soon as the cable car started moving, Ron impatiently asked Eggsy, "What did you mean when you called last time and said you 'inserted' a listening device? What other high-tech gear do you elite agents have?"
Ron's question only made Eggsy blush. Seeing this, Whiskey answered for him, "That's right, we developed a new tracker that can be inserted directly into the body and picks up sound through body vibrations. It's just that it looks a bit... distinctive and requires some kind of protection, you know~"
Whiskey winked, "I didn't expect this kid to be such a ladies' man. He's already..."
"Ahem, ahem!" Eggsy quickly interrupted Whiskey with a cough, changing the subject, "Ron, we're just infiltrating the lab to steal an antidote sample. Is it really necessary to go this overboard?"
Eggsy pointed to Ron's equipment. Unlike the two elite agents who only carried a gun or an umbrella, Ron's attire didn't look like he was going skiing at all.
He carried a Stinger missile launcher on one shoulder and a dusty M32 grenade launcher on the other, with a large backpack hanging in front and behind him, filled with M32 grenades and other assorted gadgets.
He had originally planned to bring Hank's LG-5 sniper grenade launcher, but unfortunately it was in the shop, so he had to make do with his old gear for now.
"Of course it's necessary. You're still green. You don't get it. There are many ways to go stealth, not just the one you learned from Harry. In fact, your method is already outdated."
Eggsy retorted, unconvinced. "Outdated? I didn't know spy craft could be outdated. Then tell me, what's the cutting-edge stealth method now?"
"Harry may have told you that, like suits, while classic styles are timeless, each year's designs incorporate subtle changes to keep the classics fresh." Ron said while checking the grenade launcher. "And with advancing technology, counter-stealth equipment is also improving, so stealth operations that don't raise any alarms are becoming increasingly inefficient."
"Then how do you think we can make it more efficient?" Whiskey looked thoughtful. He felt that what Ron said made some sense.
"Of course we'll fight our way in. As long as we eliminate everyone who sees us, no one will know we've infiltrated. From that perspective, it can be considered that we haven't alerted anyone, right?"
Eggsy opened his mouth, wanting to argue, but couldn't find a good counterpoint. He could only say, "But what if the other side has superior numbers?"
This was a fair point. Whiskey also looked at Ron, waiting for his answer, but Ron calmly took out a tablet from his bag and opened a map that the drone had just scouted: "Look, this is where their laboratory is located. Excluding the lab equipment and researchers, the facility can only accommodate a maximum of fifty armed personnel."
"Only?!" Eggsy's tone shifted to exasperation at Ron's apparent lack of common sense: "That's a full fifty people! And we only have four people, and one of them was left down there by you! That's like 3 vs. 50!"
"Yes, 3 vs. 50, the advantage is ours, any more questions?" Ron said matter-of-factly.
"No, nothing." Eggsy wanted to remind him that he hadn't brought the super-powered combat team from last time, only the three of them, but just then the cable car reached the top of the laboratory, and he swallowed his words.
Oh well, if they couldn't win, they could always bug out.
Following the corridor outside the laboratory, Eggsy used his watch to detect any possible hidden structures, and finally found one behind a wall.
"This is it!" Eggsy exclaimed in surprise, "I'll call Merlin right away to crack this door open."
"No need, why bother?" Ron impatiently pulled a small box from his backpack and casually tossed it at the doorway: "Gentlemen, please step back, I'm about to blow it."
"What are you doing! This is useless, laboratory doors at this level are usually made of high-strength alloy, blowing the door won't do any good!" Eggsy protested, but his body betrayed him as he ducked behind Ron.
"Who said I was going to blow the door?" Ron said as he triggered the device.
With a sharp "whoosh," the device detonated, ending before even a spark could rise high enough. The door remained completely intact. Just as Eggsy was about to mock Ron for his dud,
"Sizzle~" A puff of white smoke billowed from his glasses and earpiece, and a foul, acrid smell filled his nostrils. Eggsy quickly threw them to the ground, and Whiskey next to him did the same.
At the same moment, the hidden door that had previously stumped him opened by itself. Eggsy stared at Ron in disbelief.
"What are you staring at me for? It's just an EMP bomb. Don't act like you've never seen one. Sorry, I forgot to give you a heads-up," Ron said without a hint of embarrassment.
An EMP bomb, also known as an electromagnetic pulse bomb, has little destructive power itself, but it can be used to specifically fry command, control, and communication electronic equipment, as well as computer systems.
The bomb's radio wave emitter can discharge billions of watts of microwaves in a fraction of a nanosecond, equivalent to the electromagnetic pulse from a nuclear blast. It can penetrate underground fortifications and run along cable ducts and air conditioning vents, enough to paralyze all underground power grids, phone communications, television broadcasts, and computer systems, but it won't harm human lives.
In the event of a power outage, the door to this secret laboratory, with only one entrance, will automatically open to prevent the personnel inside from being trapped.
On the flip side, the EMP bomb also disables all electronic equipment, meaning that from now on, his only enemy is the approximately fifty armed men inside the laboratory, who will receive no outside help.
"Gentlemen, lock and load, we're preparing for a firefight." With that, Ron dropped his backpack on the ground, pulled out two tear gas canisters, pulled the pins, and tossed them into the laboratory.
Just as Eggsy thought Ron was about to rush in, he saw him grab two more tear gas canisters and throw them into the laboratory, then two more…
Ron threw in a total of eight tear gas canisters until he had used up all the canisters on his belt, then reluctantly stopped, picked up his M32 grenade launcher, and went prone on the ground near the doorway.
Eggsy was dumbfounded.
"Didn't your family teach you that in any enclosed environment, like a cave or any other tight space, if you see thick smoke billowing from inside, you'll instinctively run outside? That's Combat 101, kid. You still have a lot to learn."
"No, I'm just curious why you're lying on the ground?" By this time, Eggsy had completely abandoned his skepticism of Ron. He felt that this man was a tactical genius on par with his mentor, Harry.
However, this time, before Ron could even speak, the armed men in the lab gave him the answer.
"Rat-a-tat-tat..." A burst of bullets shot out from the smoke-filled door, flew over Ron's head, and embedded themselves in the wall behind him.
"See, that's the answer. These drug dealers aren't stupid. Of course they know what I'm doing, so they cleared a path with suppressing fire first. At this moment, whoever stands at the door is toast."
These were lessons Ron learned the hard way. The gunshot wound in his chest was from this kind of experience; if he hadn't been tough enough, he might've checked out for good.
"So what do we do now?" Eggsy asked, Whiskey also casting a questioning glance at Ron. Perhaps he himself didn't realize that subconsciously, they had begun to regard Ron as their squad leader.
"Of course, we wait, wait for the right moment… like now."
Ron calmly pressed his ear to the ground, listening to the footsteps inside. Once he felt the distance was right, he smiled slightly, aimed his M32 at the laboratory door, and gently squeezed the trigger.
"Thunk!" The launcher emitted a crisp sound, and the grenade arced into the corridor of the laboratory's only exit.
Boom!
The grenade exploded in the corridor. The confined space maximized the grenade's lethality. Judging from the screams, Eggsy could hear at least four different people screaming in the corridor!
As for the unlucky bastards who died before they could even make a sound, that was even harder to say.
Eggsy's eyes were full of admiration.
But that wasn't all. Besides reporting the results to Ron, the screams inside served an even more important purpose: to tell him that his aim was spot-on, and Ron slightly adjusted his angle.
The second, the third… the sixth grenade flew into the lab one after another, the explosions and screams mingling together like a funeral dirge, pounding on the hearts of the lab's gunmen.
Ron didn't forget to give his rookie a live tutorial: "See, suppressing fire sometimes doesn't require massive firepower. It just requires you to deliver the most effective firepower precisely to the battlefield at the most opportune moment. It's that simple."
Ron smiled smugly, even feeling a little proud.
The passage from the lab door to the interior was a downward slope. If they fired from below, as long as he stayed low enough, it would be impossible to hit him. His grenade launcher, however, could deliver fire in an arc right onto the militants' heads.
And the range of the grenade launcher meant the militants wouldn't have a chance to return fire with grenades. So, this round, Ron was guaranteed to win… if it weren't for that traitor Charlie.
Just as Ron was getting a little cocky, suddenly, a dark object whistled upward toward his face!
Ron immediately ducked, but the thing continued its trajectory, flying over his head until it embedded itself in the wall behind him. Only then did he realize it was a hand grenade!
"Get down!" Ron yelled, rolling to the side and shamelessly landing right behind Eggsy, using him as a human shield.
"Boom!"
The grenade blasted a small crater in the wall. Ron was unharmed except for a few bits of shrapnel and debris scattered on him.
"Ptooey!" Ron spat, exasperated. "What the hell? What kind of freak is that? He can throw a grenade that far and embed it in the wall! Is this guy juicing?!"
"That might be Charlie, remember him? Our traitor, he has a really powerful mechanical arm," Eggsy weakly reminded him.
Ron glared at him. "Right, I almost forgot, you guys have your own Winter Soldier."
"So what do we do now?" Eggsy asked anxiously, hearing the footsteps getting closer in the corridor.
"What else can we do?" Ron said, loading six fresh grenades into the magazine. "We haul ass, obviously! Are we just going to sit here and wait for him to blow us up?"
Ignoring Eggsy and Whiskey's shocked expressions, Ron grabbed his gear and bolted outside.
Eggsy and Whiskey were stunned, then quickly followed.
Just after they cleared the area, a swarm of tiny black dots appeared in the corridor, like a flock of blackbirds. Upon closer inspection, they were all grenades!
"Boom!" The grenades exploded behind them.
(End of Chapter)
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