Chapter 302 - End of arc-2

"Alone?" One of them asked. "Where is the boy?"

"It's either me or nothing. No one is getting the boy." She kept still, her attention on their rifles. 

"You were suppose to bring the boy. The collar should be on him, not you."

"Should I go back now?" her sarcastic tongue came out again. "Can't help. My hands slipped, reached out for the collar, and did this to me. If you have a good doctor in your camp, maybe I will consider asking him the reason."

The four looked at each other. Their gaze flickered. 

"Suyin, please! Control your tongue," She heard Wang Shi's voice. "Once we rescue James and Zeng, and brings you out safely, you can use it as much as you want." She bit her tongue. He was correct. Fool and impulsive that she had been, it was a mistake.

She saw the men with grenade belt walking away and calling someone over the phone. His back facing her. A minute later he turned.

"Hand over the weapons on you." He must be the leader of the pack. "And everything that you shouldn't carry,"

Without taking her gaze off of them, she bend to reach for her boots. The three men tensed, almost shoving the nozzle into her.

She pulls out a dagger and a Swiss knife and threw at their feet. 

"What else?"

She shoved her hands in pocket and pulled the inside of cloth to show its empty. "Nothing."

The leader lifts an eyebrow. She could make out he was smiling beneath that covered face. "Wish you were not this ugly, I would have gladly taken out the one hidden between your boo*s,"

"But I don't mind," One of them extended his dirty hand. She slapped it away. Hissing.

Fighting against the impulse to kick between his legs, she takes out the last remaining knife. She was sure Alpha must have told him that. But how? How on earth that man knows such minute details about her? Even the location of her emergency weapon?

They tied her hands behind her and shoved her towards their own vehicle.

**********

Alpha's base doesn't look like anything she had expected. Being a technologically challenged person she mistook his small tech stunts as rocket science. It was not.  Xiu Mei was right when she judged Alpha as a cautious person who either doesn't know much about technology or he's wary and understands the cons.

Now she understood what Xiu Mei meant when she said her talent was directly proportional to the enemy's use of computer science and internet. That's why she could not get much information about Alpha and even had to use the satellite to get this location. Calling it a secret militia training camp would be apt. Hidden from prying eyes built in the mountain range.

Tents, houses made of roughly cut limestones, barbed wires, and training equipments. That's it! No surveillance cameras but only men monitoring and patrolling, communicating with walkie-talkie.

Though a nighttime, she saw thousands of militias running around with weapons, following the instructions of their leader, forming a group. This only means they were preparing for something. And they definitely outnumber them. She passed through the deadly stares and hurling insults. They knew it was her doing that Reis and many of their comrades were either dead or in jail. 

As the jeep passed by, her eyes squinted at a particular area where monkeys were squeezed inside a cage much smaller than their number. Everyone had a collar around their neck.

The wheels came to a halt after a drive of over two kilometres. The place was vast. 

She looked at the single floor structure built with limestone, occupying the area she couldn't see properly because of the night limiting her vision. 

[Single floor sprawled across an area of 5 hectares. It's a maze of corridors and doors from inside. Unless you are aware of the design, you will definitely keep roaming in circles and would eventually end up in the hands of armed guards. Has deadly traps all the way to prison, and where Alpha lives. And can withstand heavy attacks. For the information it has an underground bunker.] That's what Evan had told her about it before coming here. He had explained her emergency exits in case she need any.

The word traps didn't go down well with her. James and Zeng were in prison.

Her vision darkened when someone tied a cloth around her eyes, taking her by surprise. "What are you doing?"

"Silent." Another one inside her mouth. Two of them grabbed her by the elbow. She had no choice but to follow them. She calmly counted the number of steps and number of turns. It might come handy later.

She felt a rough hand around her wrist as someone undid the ropes. A push on her back and she fell down on the cold floor, hearing a clang of the door closing behind. She yanked the blindfold and undid the gag. Her pupils spreading maximum, but it was eerily dark. She rubbed her eyes, giving them time to adjust but lest she knew it was not her eyes but the room itself was dark.

"Hello, Suyin. Finally we met," A voice boomed and a light, much brighter, flicked over her head. She squinted at the sharpness. Another series of lights began to shine at her feet, illuminating a pathway, ending at a glass wall. She tried to look behind it, but it was eerily dark inside. 

"You didn't bring the boy. Looks like you don't love your brother and best friend."

"I'm not stupid to sacrifice another life when two are already in danger." she scoffed, "I know you'd never let go of them even if I had fulfilled your conditions." 

"And who is to blame for that? You came in my way," he snarled, "It was the perfect plan. My years of hard work. Who gave you the right to trample on it? I would have gladly let you and your family go after accomplishing my goal--"