She tossed her gear onto the metal table, blade, gas capsule launcher, a data chip. "She was stronger than we expected. And the boy… her son, I didn't know they knew how to fight."
Lu Wan Ruyi and Lu Zi Zhen always kept a low profile but when it came to fighting! They were elites.
He stood slowly on his feet. "You were told to neutralize the target. No complications. No excuses. It was as easy as that!"
She met his gaze evenly, even as her knees threatened to buckle. "There was a black ops Hawk unit. Not estate security. Not police, very tactical, and precise. Fast. We couldn't outmatch them!"
"Lu Zi Zhen's private force."
She nodded once. "He's more dangerous than you thought. He didn't hesitate. He looked at me like... like he was already planning how I would die. I couldn't risk it."
The man exhaled, disappointed. "Wan Ruyi was supposed to be an easy target and a message to Lu Zhi Hao. Now she's alive. They will fortify and soon they will retaliate."
Another figure emerged from the corner, a younger operative, fingers twitching at his side. "Sir… what if we go after the child directly?"
"I don't think it was just us who attacked them! So, we would have to lay low first and not make any move." The girl responded as another medic guy came over and began addressing her wounds.
The man in the shadows didn't answer right away. He walked toward a control panel and pressed his palm to a biometric scanner. A hidden wall slid open, revealing a room lined with surveillance screens, Lu family properties, personnel, and patterns.
A digital map flickered to life.
He traced a finger toward a blinking red dot. The screen zoomed in bringing in their images! He needed something from them and the one person who could offer was Lu Wan Ruyi or Lu Zi Zhen.
"We would have to lay low! Call our men and reassign them." Yes, with the kind of security activated, they couldn't succeed in doing anything.
— — — — — —
Elsewhere in the city, beneath an abandoned train station, deep underground.
The air was dense with smoke and murmurs. Neon lights buzzed weakly above rows of war tables cluttered with weapons, comms units, and coded maps.
Five mercenary groups sat separated in tight circles, tension like barbed wire between them. Each bore different colors, dialects, scars, freelancers, rogue PMCs, and exiled government operatives now for hire.
At the head of the chamber, a woman in a tattered military coat stood before a projector, her mechanical arm whirring softly as she changed slides.
"Each of you was hired for a piece of the Lu operation," she said, eyes scanning the room. "But let's be clear, someone moved earlier than us."
The air shifted. A broad-shouldered man in tactical black leaned forward, jaw clenched. "Not us. My team was on standby. Our window was the gala next week."
A masked sniper from the Vulture's Syndicate clicked her tongue. "Someone made noise near the hotel. Spooked the asset. Now security's been tripled. Not our problem, unless we were all compromised."
A hollow laugh came from a shadowed corner. Crimson Jackals, led by a lean, scarred twin duo, rose from their seats.
"Whoever went in early," one twin said, "they stirred the beast. Lu Zi Zhen was out there in person. That doesn't happen unless someone threatens his mother's safety."
"Which means we either back off or double down," the other added. "And I don't like running but at the moment, we have to lay low before attacking."
The woman at the projector switched the slide. Each group's communicator chimed in with incoming data, revised routes, target shifts, and new assignments.