59: Chapter 59 The Gardener!

Li Li lay pressed tightly beneath the stout man.

His ears were ringing.

The twenty-thousand LV black suit on his back had been torn open in several places by the shockwave, the lining curling outward.

The fatty had taken the brunt of the blast for him, but the fatty himself hadn't survived it.

His body twitched twice and then went completely still.

The sensation of shattered internal organs could be felt even through the clothes.

Thick smoke filled the entire corridor.

Dust choked his trachea.

Li Li closed his eyes.

He slowed his breathing, suppressing his heart rate.

Playing dead was a technical skill; back when he worked at the construction site and was caught slacking off by his supervisor, this was the secret technique he relied on.

---

Thirty seconds later.

The ringing in his ears subsided.

An extremely faint scraping sound came from the end of the corridor.

Rubber soles grinding over broken glass.

Tactical boots.

Li Li didn't open his eyes; the [Close Quarters Combat Mastery] and [Firearm Mastery] in his brain automatically began constructing a three-dimensional acoustic model.

Three people.

Alternating steps, standard indoor CQB triangle assault formation.

Quite professional.

"Clear." A gravelly male voice. Hebrew.

"Confirmed four Royal Guard killed." Another male voice replied, with a heavy nasal tone.

Click.

Metal clashing. They were scavenging ammunition from the security guards' corpses.

Li Li didn't move. His right hand, shielded by the fatty's body, inched toward the inner pocket of his suit.

His fingertips touched the anti-slip texture of the glock 17.

His heart rate steadied.

---

Footsteps approached.

They stopped beside Li Li and the fatty.

"Scavenger 07." The gravelly male voice kicked the fatty. "Mission accomplished."

A female voice rang out. Cold, hard, without any superfluous emotion.

"His family will be properly taken care of."

Li Li's nerves twitched.

The nasal man chuckled.

"Taken care of? Taken care of in hell?"

He stepped over the fatty's legs and squatted down.

"Two hours before the operation, the Scavenger team sent his whole family down there."

He paused for a beat.

"Dead men keep secrets best."

Li Li rolled his eyes internally.

The HR methods of Israel were hardcore enough; they physically eliminated contract workers to lay them off, saving even the N+1 severance pay.

Capitalists would have to take notes all night if they saw this.

---

"Don't talk nonsense. Check the blast door." The female voice issued an order.

The nasal man was just about to stand up when his flashlight swept downward.

"Wait."

The bright light suddenly hit Li Li's face.

Li Li's eyes were tightly shut. His breathing was shallow. His face was caked white with dust.

"There's another one pressed under the fatty."

A hand grabbed Li Li's collar and flipped him over directly.

Li Li lay limp on the carpet, his right hand clutching his abdomen tightly—just enough to block the inner pocket of his suit.

The beam of light flickered across his face twice.

"Gardener, look at who this is."

Li Li's already slow heart rate skipped a beat. Gardener!

This was the Gardener responsible for taking him out!

The woman, or rather the Gardener, took two steps closer.

Her tactical boots stopped less than half a meter from Li Li's face.

"Target list, second priority, that internet celebrity from the East who discovered the submarine."

"Ha!" The nasal man laughed aloud, poking Li Li's shoulder with his gun butt. "Buy one, get one free. Two grenades didn't kill him; this kid has a tough life."

The gravelly man glanced over. "Just a lucky ordinary person. Bring him back alive, the Mossad bonus will double."

"He's not awake. Probably a concussion." The nasal man took out a nylon zip tie. "I'll tie him up first."

"Do the real business first." The Gardener interrupted. "The blast door hasn't opened yet. We don't know what the situation is inside."

---

The three turned and walked toward the silver-gray blast door at the end of the corridor.

Li Li lifted his eyelids a crack.

Three backs.

Black tactical gear, bulletproof vests, wearing four-eyed night vision goggles.

All of them holding Micro Uzi submachine guns.

The gravelly man was on the left, on guard. The nasal man on the right.

The Gardener stood in the center, facing the keypad.

Distance, five meters.

Li Li's right thumb silently clicked off the safety.

His index finger rested on the trigger.

---

"The door hasn't opened." The gravelly man held his gun at the ready. "Has the mole inside been taken care of?"

The Gardener lifted her left wrist and scanned the tactical computer.

"According to the plan. Enter the backup verification code."

"If the door opens—it means the mole failed, empty the magazines, assault."

"If the door doesn't open—it means the mole has already secured the safe room. Once they see us enter the verification code for the second time, they will open the door from the inside."

The nasal man snorted coldly. "Fahd thinks he's safe hiding in a turtle shell. The code for this door was cracked by us long ago."

The Gardener extended her right index finger.

She pressed toward the keypad.

Beep.

The first digit was pressed.

---

Li Li moved.

No wind-up.

His left hand pushed against the ground. His body sprang up.

His right hand drew the glock 17.

The muzzle lifted. His line of sight aligned with the iron sights.

Bang! Bang!

Two shots. One after the other.

The gravelly man's head jerked violently backward. The four-eyed night vision goggles were shattered. A thumb-sized blood hole exploded in the center of his forehead.

His body fell straight down. His finger on the gun didn't even have time to complete its final nerve reflex.

---

The nasal man reacted extremely quickly.

At the same time the gun fired, he threw himself to the right, turning the muzzle of his Uzi—too slow.

With the support of [Firearm Mastery], the movement speed of Li Li's muzzle was faster than his nerve conduction.

Bang! Bang!

The first shot broke his right collarbone. The Uzi flew out of his hand, smashing onto the carpet.

The second shot hit his carotid artery.

Blood sprayed onto the silver-gray blast door.

He clutched his neck, his throat making "cluck-cluck" leaking sounds, his knees went soft, and he collapsed to his knees.

Two seconds.

His body fell forward.

He stopped moving.

---

The entire process took less than two seconds.

Two special agents from Israel.

They were taken out instantly.

They didn't even get a chance to counterattack.

---

The Gardener's finger was still resting on the second digit of the keypad.

Her body was frozen.

She didn't turn around. She didn't draw her gun either.

Because a cold metal tube was already pressed tightly against the back of her head.

In the corridor, only the intermittent twitching sounds and the burnt smell of gunpowder remained.

The green light of the emergency indicator light shone on the two of them.

Li Li held the gun with one hand. He stood straight.

That LV black suit with several holes in it, worn on him, actually looked ten times more menacing than when it was intact.

He tilted his head. He looked at the Gardener's profile.

"If the password is entered incorrectly, the door will lock, right?"

Hebrew. The accent was so authentic it didn't sound like a foreigner.

The tone was as flat as if he were asking whether the Hotpot tonight was spicy or not.

---

The Gardener turned her head slowly.

The movement was extremely stiff.

That face became clear bit by bit under the green emergency light.

It wasn't Princess Delia!

Li Li breathed a sigh of relief; it would be troublesome if it were the princess.

He had an impression of this person.

In the banquet hall's floral area, the assistant who had been following behind Princess Delia, head lowered, silent and reserved; among the hundreds of people in the venue, not a single person had glanced at her twice.

Including Fahd's security.

At this moment, this face that no one had ever noticed was full of shock.

She glanced at the two corpses on the ground.

Then she looked at Li Li.

She looked at the glock 17 still steaming in his hand.

"...You are not an ordinary person."

Li Li did not move his muzzle.

"Whether I'm ordinary or not is not important."

Li Li rotated his left wrist slightly.

"What's important is—you are the Gardener who wants to take me out?"