"What the hell do you mean by 'we're the ones who should carry out the mission'? Maybe you and Xiao have had some kind of training, but the rest of us are just normal people." Jonathan said, shooting a sideways glance at Ivan before looking back at William. "Well, at least most of us are normal… mentally speaking."

And while Ivan seemed confused by Jonathan's look — with Alex and Yusuke patting his shoulder — William, smiling, nodded at him.

"You have a point. I did have special training as I grew up, plus I was part of MI6 in my past life. And just like you, I can say Xiao isn't a normal person either. But what made me say that isn't the fact that the two of us are trained and could carry you. I said it for the simple reason that it's the most logical option."

"Don't forget, Jonathan: we're being hunted, and more importantly, our time is limited. It's better to try to deal with this with our own hands than sit around waiting for Maia's help. Don't you think?" William asked, gesturing toward him.

"What you're saying has a point." Jonathan crossed his arms, agreeing with him. "But just like you said yourself, you can't carry us. This isn't a game. Or do you really expect completely unprepared people to invade a base full of trained agents with advanced technology? You'd have to be insane to think we'd get in and out of there without being fully detected."

"No. Definitely not." William replied, still smiling faintly and shaking his head — something that made Jonathan just stare at him in silence, knowing he had something else to add. And indeed, William continued, raising a finger.

"We won't get in there and get out without being discovered. That's impossible even for a professional. However, I trust our capabilities, and especially the equipment each of us took."

"Are you being serious? Trusting luck? That's your big plan?" Jonathan questioned him, raising his eyebrows.

William shrugged slightly. "Come on, don't be so pessimistic. You've got to believe in yourself. And you can't deny my logic. Even if it's risky, it's better to try to handle this ourselves."

William extended his hand to him, waiting for a handshake — but Jonathan simply ignored him, shaking his head.

"This is pure stupidity. We should—"

But he was interrupted by Vanessa before finishing.

"William is right." She said, arms crossed and brow furrowed, catching his attention.

Jonathan looked at her in disbelief, unable to believe what he heard. "What?"

"What William said is actually valid. Is it stupid? Definitely very stupid. But I don't want to spend an entire year worrying about getting shot in the back with a laser gun out of nowhere. The sooner we take care of this, the better."

Blinking slowly after hearing her, Jonathan rubbed his forehead while letting out a sigh. "We have a year, not a week, there's no need to rush this much."

"You might not be in a hurry, but I am. Anyway, I think we should vote to see if we're going or not. So, raise your hand if you agree with William." Vanessa said, raising her arm at the end.

William obviously followed her — raising his arm while smiling at Jonathan. But to his surprise, besides Xiao and Ivan, everyone else raised their hands too.

"Seriously?" He asked, speechless, looking at Yusuke, Naline, Alex, Nina and Emilia — with the latter being the first to answer.

"I agree with Vanessa. I'm not in the mood to spend the rest of the year constantly watching my back. The sooner we deal with this, the better." She said, shrugging slightly.

"I agree with that too. I think it's better if we try to handle this ourselves as soon as possible." Nina said, smiling faintly.

Jonathan's gaze then shifted to Yusuke, who rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly.

"Honestly… I know it's stupid, but for some reason I feel like we can do it. I don't know." He shrugged at the end.

Jonathan then looked at Naline.

"Yeah… I think we could at least try." She said, with a slight smile.

He then silently turned to Alex, who crossed his arms and nodded at him with a grin.

"We got this, man. It'll be fine."

Receiving that answer, he looked at the others, staring at each one and seeing how certain they were of their decision. In the end, Jonathan lowered his head, letting out a deep sigh and closing his eyes as he rubbed his face.

"I'm surrounded by idiots…" he muttered, the veins popping on his forehead and neck.

Hearing his mutter, Naline and Alex laughed.

William kept smiling, while Vanessa huffed lightly; Yusuke gave another awkward smile; Emilia, Nina and Xiao didn't show much reaction; and Ivan murmured a confused: "Why am I an idiot?"

Letting out one last sigh, Jonathan finally lowered his hand, looking back at them.

"Fine. Whatever. Since you're all so determined, there's nothing I can do. Let's go."

"Let's go! Woohoo!" Alex, Ivan, Naline and Yusuke shouted in celebration.

However, interrupting the little celebration, Jonathan continued — raising a finger and pointing at William.

"This is going to be entirely your responsibility. If anything goes wrong, it'll be your fault. You understand, right?"

"I understand. Don't worry. I'll take full responsibility." William said, nodding.

Jonathan nodded as well. Then his expression turned serious, a cold gleam rising in his eyes.

"And one last warning for you: if any of these idiots die, I'll rip your head off and shove it back up your ass. Got it?"

His body language made it clear he was serious. Well… not that serious, since he definitely wouldn't rip William's head off — but he would certainly beat him up.

Cutting the tense mood with a light laugh, William nodded. "Ok. Don't worry. I'll do my best to make sure that doesn't happen."

Jonathan stared at him in silence for another moment, letting the atmosphere sink. Only then did he look away, contacting Maya.

"Since that's the case, I'll talk to Maya." He said, crossing his arms.

[Yes?] came the message along with her hologram.

Jonathan sent a message explaining what had happened, making her go contemplative.

With her arms crossed and brow slightly furrowed, Maya tapped her finger on her arm, pondering.

After a full minute of silence, she met his eyes and sent her response:

[I understand. But be as careful as possible. If it looks like you can't do it, just fall back. Don't take unnecessary risks.]

[Understood.] He replied, expression unchanged — though internally he found it suspicious. He really didn't expect her to agree… but then he remembered one fact: only one of them was needed to activate the Correction Disk.

While reflecting, Maya sent him the base's blueprints, projected in several holograms through the implant.

Quickly sharing everything with the others, he sent one last message:

[Thank you. We'll be as careful as possible. Don't worry.]

In the hologram, she nodded silently, serious.

[Don't forget: support is still on the way.]

Giving a final nod of acknowledgement, her hologram dissolved and he ended the communication.

Then, turning his eyes to the others, he asked:

"What's the plan?"

Diverting his eyes from the projected plans shown by his own implant, William smiled at him.

"Here's what we'll do…"

…

Among the many mountains in the Swiss Alps, the weather was bitterly cold.

To anyone unaware, it was just another mountain — high peak, freezing air that felt like it could turn lungs to ice, and a snow-covered base.

But to those who knew, that was one of many secret bases left behind by a mad scientist scattered around the world.

At the base of the mountain was a huge steel gate that shouldn't exist there — guarded by women wearing black combat suits that seemed to protect nothing from the cold, holding weapons that looked like they came straight out of a sci-fi movie.

"So this is the base? Honestly, I wonder why they leave the entrance so visible. I mean, that kind of defeats the whole purpose of being a secret base…" Jonathan commented, chin between his fingers. Along with the others, inside William's barrier, he watched the massive gate.

"It's probably a distraction. Or maybe this place is so isolated that hardly anyone would ever come by, even by accident." William replied, eyes narrowed as he focused on the distance.

"Yeah, maybe. So, ready?" Jonathan said, turning to the others — focusing last on Nalini and Alex.

The first nodded, rubbing her hands, looking anxious, while the latter just gave him a thumbs up with a smile.

"Great, then let's go." Saying that, Jonathan, along with the others, started running toward a completely different corner of the mountain base, completely ignoring the huge entrance gate.

As he ran, Jonathan looked around and up, suspicious, waiting for the moment when that barrier that seemed to completely hide their existence would finally lose its usefulness.

But, to his surprise and growing suspicion, they managed to approach a part of the mountain completely hidden.

Arriving in front of the large stone wall on the mountainside, William stepped closer, looking at the wall from various angles as he lightly felt around it. "It's here." he said, then turned to Alex and Nalini. "Now it's up to you two."

The two nodded and then approached the wall, with Nalini pulling something out of the pouch on her leg. "I didn't think I'd have to use this so soon." she murmured, grabbing a disc-like object and pressing a few buttons.

On the small screen on the disc, the word armed appeared, and she then placed it against the wall, fastening it there.

She pressed another button, making the word activated appear. After that, she stepped back while, on the screen of the small disc, a loading bar filled up quickly until the word complete appeared.

After that, electricity began to burst from the disc, spreading in an omnidirectional wave, sparks of electrical energy crackling through the snow-covered wall and melting the ice.

The effect spread rapidly before stopping.

Then, on the disc's screen, the word done appeared and, with that, Nalini pulled it off the wall. "All set. You've got ten minutes." she said, speaking to Alex as she stored the disc back in the pouch on her leg.

That small disc she used was different from William's camouflage rod, because while the rod camouflaged them, the disc created interference, opening a gap in barrier-type protection systems. It didn't block the signal; instead, it created a breach in just one part, like an invisible hole.

Meaning, that hole itself wouldn't even be noticed, with the rest of the surveillance system not detecting the alteration.

And, obviously, that was only possible because of the time limitation — since the longer it lasted, the greater the chance the effect would be discovered.

Of course, this also depended on the level of the surveillance system. Better and more advanced systems would notice faster, while on some others the interference disc wouldn't work at all. And the reason she decided to grab that disc was because she figured she might get stuck at some point.

And that wasn't the only one. She had grabbed several things meant for breaking through defenses just in case.

"Ten minutes? I only need three." Alex said with an excited grin, getting closer to the wall with a weapon-like object already in hand.

Raising the weapon and bringing it close to the stones, he pressed a button on the side before pulling the trigger.

From the tip, a red laser projected immediately, piercing through. Then, moving his arm in a straight line, Alex began to draw a square with the laser beam — the weapon, as obviously demonstrated, had been created for drilling purposes, to penetrate objects or other resistant and dense materials.

Alex had grabbed it because he thought it looked cool and also because he believed it could be used as a weapon if the situation required.

Finishing the square, while whistling carefreely, he stepped back as the huge chunk of stone fell on its own. At the same time, he turned to the others and gave a thumbs-up. "Done." he said, smiling.

However, the others only looked at the wall before silently turning back to him.

Finding that strange, he looked back at the wall, seeing there was still metal underneath, blocking the entrance, with the laser markings showing it hadn't pierced all the way through. "Shit!"

Seeing that, Alex quickly stepped forward to continue. Soon finishing the laser cut over the metal wall, he pushed it, making the piece fall inward.

Without delay, they all went through the hole, crouching, leaving behind the cold wind and the snow, finding themselves in a dim corridor with only two paths laid out to the left and right.

Taking out the interference disc again, Nalini quickly activated it and placed it on the wall beside the hole they'd entered through. Pressing the buttons, she activated the disc, with it once again releasing electricity, and the words lock activated appearing on its screen.

With that, she turned to the rest. "It's done. We only have thirty minutes until the signal block ends… of course, that's if no one finds us first." she finished with a tense smile.

"As you already know, the chance of someone coming here is minimal. But you're right, we need to be quick. You already know what to do, so good luck." William said, his gaze focused entirely on the girls.

"Good luck." Nodding calmly, Xiao was the first to respond before turning and walking in the opposite direction.

"Good luck."

"Good luck."

Following Nina and Emilia saying their piece, with the first smiling, followed by Vanessa, who nodded silently, wishing the same with a serious look on her face.

And Nalini last, who raised her thumb at them with a weak smile. "Good luck, guys. You've got this… probably." she shrugged at the end before quickly following the other girls.

"Right… now it's our cue, isn't it?" Yusuke said, blowing into his hands, clapping them together and rubbing them in a clear sign of nervousness.

"You already know the plan. Let's go." William said, with them nodding in understanding. Then they moved in the opposite direction of the girls.

...

Inside, the interior of the secret base was exactly what one would expect of something like that. The stone walls within the mountain surrounded every corner.

The lighting was made by large lamps attached to the rock on the ceiling, while on the floor, several people — mostly women — moved nonstop from one side to the other, entering and exiting through different hallways or rooms.

In a specific area where the floor was lower, it was dotted with several computers being used by multiple people seated in front of them.

"Yeah, looks like our base, doesn't it?" On the ceiling, inside an air duct large enough for people to walk through, Alex commented, looking through a crack along with the others.

"This is one of the command centers of this base. Come on, this isn't our destination." William said, moving away and calling the others, continuing to walk with quick and silent steps.

The others followed at the same pace, with Jonathan moving beside him, his face tightened.

Noticing his expression, William shot him a sideways glance before looking forward again and asking, "What's wrong? You've had that face for a while now."

The answer: Jonathan shook his head. "It's nothing, it's just that I think—no, you know what? Forget it. Better not say it so I don't jinx anything. Hopefully I'm just being paranoid."

"I see." William replied, nodding lightly, easily understanding what Jonathan meant. Then, smiling, he continued. "Although I agree with you, I also believe it could be the opposite, after all, fortune favors the bold."

Jonathan shot him a sideways look. "Maybe that works for you, Mr. Shopee James Bond. Not for me."

"Maybe." William replied, laughing softly.

They continued moving through the air duct, fast and silent, without being discovered, until finally reaching their destination.

"Damn, I really didn't think we'd make it all the way here." Yusuke commented, looking through the gap toward the floor, ahead of a room with glass walls and doors.

There was the objective of their mission. "This air duct is the main one, it runs through the whole base… besides air, it's also used to carry other things." William said, his gaze focused on the front of that room. "Alright, let's go over our plan." he said, drawing the attention of Alex, Yusuke, and Jonathan, who were close to him.

"We have to—" But before he could finish, a sharp metallic sound rang out, making him and the other three quickly look toward the source, finding Ivan farther back holding a piece of pipe from the ones attached to the ceiling.

As they stared silently at him with expressionless faces, Ivan, awkwardly, pointed with his other hand to the piece of pipe he held. "It was kind of loose… and… I just..." In the end, he couldn't say anything, not even give an excuse, because he knew he'd done something very stupid.

Looking embarrassed, the weight of their stares only made him even more mortified. He quickly tried to put the pipe back, but right after releasing it, it fell to the floor, clinking softly.

Then, in a tense and awkward silence, they all just stared at each other while Ivan scratched the back of his neck sheepishly.

Jonathan's face twitched hard at the sight and, just as he opened his mouth to speak, a loud, sharp, shrill sound echoed as a red light flashed brightly from below.

And the meaning of that was obvious to all of them.

They had been discovered.

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.