Jason believed he could persuade Samir to surrender. He kept his voice steady, patiently guiding the conversation, each word chosen in a calculated manner to de-escalate the situation.
Sonny and Trent had worked alongside him for years. They didn’t need a signal to know his intent. Neither shifted their rifles away, but both avoided any action that might cause Samir to panic. The man’s thumb wasn’t on the detonator yet. That slim margin gave them room to maneuver.
Still, their barrels stayed fixed on his chest. If the negotiation collapsed, they would fire before Samir’s thumb could press that detonator. It was extremely risky, but it wasn’t anything they hadn’t done before.
The three men worked as one, their trust built over the course of countless missions. By their measure, there was a nine-in-ten chance they could do this quietly, without any further bloodshed.
But someone else had a different idea.
Clay had abandoned his post, ignoring Jason’s orders, sneaking through an alternate passage until he reached a side entrance behind Samir’s left shoulder.
All eyes were locked forward. Jason on Samir, Samir on Jason. No one noticed Clay sneaking into position.
Clay didn’t know that Jason wanted this resolved peacefully. Even if did know, he didn’t care. He only cared about himself, about proving he wasn’t dead weight.
Samir’s focus was fixed on Jason, and Clay saw an opening. Three meters away, no movement. The man’s head was in his sight.
Once he got the perfect shot, he didn’t hesitate.
Pop~
The suppressed shot punched clean through Samir’s head. His body jerked, then collapsed sideways.
Long Zhan burst in just in time to see it, the spray of blood, the limp figure tipping to the ground. For a second, he simply stood there, lips pressed in a grim line.
“So the script holds true,” he thought. “Even when the plan changes, the show plays out the same.”
A dead Samir wasn’t necessarily a problem. In fact, it might even make things easier. No testimony, no loose ends, and a corpse that was far easier to search for hidden valuables.
He moved without pause, kneeling beside the body, starting the SSE (Sensitive Site Exploitation) procedure, identifying the deceased, photographing the deceased, seizing all weapons and explosives, and collecting flash drives, computers, and documents.Jason, already updated by command, wasn’t surprised to see Long Zhan arrive. For a moment, satisfaction flickered across his eyes, the man was loyal, competent and efficient, a valuable addition to the team.
But that satisfaction lasted only for only a moment. His expression then hardened, fury igniting within him as his gaze snapped to Clay.
Not only had Clay fired recklessly, shattering Jason’s plan, but he wasn’t even supposed to be here in the first place. His assigned job was rear security. Instead, he left the team’s back completely exposed. A rookie mistake, and one that could have gotten them all killed.
Jason’s eyes said everything. If looks could kill, Clay would already be dead.
Clay, having killed Samir with a single shot, felt incredibly proud of what he had accomplished. He glanced at Jason with a certain smugness, expecting to get praised.
Instead, Jason looked at him with a murderous glare.
This left Clay completely confused and speechless. He didn't believe he had done anything wrong, so unable to make sense of it, he walked away in frustration.
Jason forced himself to let it go, for now at least. There was less than two minutes left on the clock, and they still had to extract, now wasn’t the time to discipline Clay.
“Get him up,” Jason ordered.
Sonny, Trent, and Brock lifted Samir’s corpse, holding it steady as Long Zhan worked. Jason snapped photos, transmitting them back to command. Confirmation came quickly, the dead man was indeed Samir.
The team moved in a practiced rhythm. Sonny disarmed the vest, hands steady as he worked the wires. Trent and Brock scoured the room for intel, drives, documents, anything. Jason meanwhile, coordinated the evacuation details with command.
Long Zhan handled the body. As a demolitions expert himself, he worked with Sonny to ensure nothing triggered while still searching Samir thoroughly. Alive, the man had been a problem. Dead, he was just a puzzle to be solved.
One by one, items emerged. A battered Nokia phone, a lighter and cigarettes, a small notebook filled with names and unfamiliar writing, a cracked pocket watch, a couple of cheap rings.
Long Zhan flipped quickly through the notebook and skimmed through the phone. There was nothing obvious. Just names, numbers, and text he couldn’t read. No map, no coordinates, nothing pointing to the stash he was interested in.
“It doesn’t make sense, Samir had wealth, and he had plenty of it. He couldn’t carry it all on him, and he wouldn’t trust anyone else to keep it for him. He would hide it, so there should be a clue, something here. Unless… he didn’t bring it tonight.”
He thought, keeping his face neutral, hiding his frustration.
Sonny finally finished defusing the vest, lifting it carefully away. For the first time, Samir’s chest was fully exposed.
And that’s when Long Zhan saw it.
A thin cord, tucked beneath layers of fabric. Hanging from it, pressed against the man’s chest, was a small metallic cylindrical pendant no larger than a thumb.
It had been concealed beneath the bomb harness, completely hidden until now.
Long Zhan’s breath stopped. Something told him that this was it, this was what he had been looking for.
This wasn’t jewelry, it was a container.
His fingers closed around it. The pendant was cold, heavy for its size, and sealed tight. With that weight came certainty, he had found what he was looking for.
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