Mercenary's War

If we won’t die in a car crash, then what will kill us?

Mike rode his motorcycle fast, and Karl wasn’t slow either. It seemed like they truly started racing in this life-and-death moment.

The motorcycles were swift and more nimble compared to cars. The two bikes occasionally converged and scattered, weaving through traffic. Although they still couldn’t completely escape the searchlights, they managed to avoid being directly hit most of the time.

The police hadn’t closed the roads, but they had set up checkpoints and barricades at every intersection, causing traffic jams. However, cars were still present on the road.

Karl and Mike intentionally moved close to the cars on the road, using them as hostages to deter the helicopter from shooting at them or employing more powerful weapons.

Good times were always short-lived; barely five minutes into their ride, a long stream of tracer bullets struck the road from above.

Karl’s first thought was a warning shot, but he quickly realized the warning wasn’t meant for them but for the cars on the road.

Two police helicopters flew towards both ends of the road, their spotlights forced the cars to stop, leaving Karl and Mike without the cover of the vehicles.

Indeed, the cars came to a halt, quite a distance from them, and soon Karl and Mike were without the protection of the vehicles.

No longer able to travel on the highway, Karl accelerated in front of Mike and signaled a turn. Both motorcycles slowed down, one after the other, taking a small road into a residential area.

But the helicopters overhead finally started firing.

A series of bullets narrowly missed Karl’s head, landing in front of him. Another stream hit a spot much further to his right.

Fortunately, for various reasons, neither the police nor the military could use armed helicopters. Although the police helicopters were equipped with mounted machine guns, hitting fast-moving and nimble motorcycles wasn’t simple.

Up ahead were houses, and Karl saw a glimmer of hope.

With too many helicopters overhead forming a surrounding posture, there was a chance to form a no-dead-angle fire net. Just as Karl thought they could find brief respite by hiding in the houses, Mike was finally hit.

Mike played joyfully, swerving his motorcycle left and right like a kid who just received a motorcycle as a gift, but as he swayed, a stream of bullets finally caught him.

Mike’s motorcycle fell, skidding far across the ground with sparks, while Mike and Roy rolled on the ground and remained there.

Karl stopped his motorcycle; everything was over.

"It’s all over."

In an utterly resigned tone, Karl muttered, and behind him, Prince weakly added, "Yeah, it’s all over."

Karl stood the motorcycle upright by placing his foot on the ground. After a brief moment of silence without incoming bullets, he opened his eyes, lowered the bike’s stand to park it stably, and then dismounted before half-dragging and half-carrying Prince off the motorcycle.

Prince’s voice was very faint, full of curiosity, "Why aren’t they shooting? Are they going to capture us alive first?"

Half of Prince’s body was already soaked in blood, but Karl managed a smile, saying, "Sorry, I don’t know."

Without looking up at the hovering helicopters, Karl placed one of Prince’s arms over his shoulder, dragging him toward the fallen Mike and Roy.

"I told you, I won’t die in a car crash, ha, ha!"

Roy’s face was scraped, covered in blood because he wasn’t wearing a helmet.

A bullet hit Roy’s right hip, but it didn’t penetrate deeply; it merely grazed him. Had the bullet struck directly, he would have lost a leg, or his abdomen would have had a big hole.

Karl supported Prince, bending to grab Mike’s hand, but instead of pulling him up, he dragged him dead-weight to Roy’s side like a corpse.

"Roy, are you dead?"

"No, I’m holding on to see who among you dies first."

Mike quietly asked, only to receive Roy’s sarcastic reply, causing Mike to chuckle loudly, "Then let’s bet on who’ll die first. I think it will be you."

Roy was lying face-down on the ground. Karl slowly helped Prince sit down before rolling Roy over.

Roy was also bloodied. Karl reached out and wiped the blood off Roy’s eyes, prompting Roy to immediately say, "Great, Captain, you’re okay."

Karl chuckled tiredly, sitting down heavily before glancing at the sky and musing, "Very curious, why haven’t they fired yet."

Mike responded viciously, "Are they planning to capture us alive? Impossible. If we reveal anything, it would cause a lot of embarrassment for many people. They’ll definitely want to kill us; it’s more straightforward that way. Captain, why don’t you shoot at them? If you shoot, they’ll shoot back, and we can die quickly without calling it suicide, you know I can’t commit suicide."

At least seven or eight helicopters hovered above, all close to them, but for some reason, none opened fire. This was puzzling since capturing them alive held no value or necessity.

Then, all of a sudden, the helicopter lights went out, all nearby lights went dark from near to far, streetlights blinked out in sequence until far away, though this happened so quickly it appeared instantaneous.

There was no light, only sound; first, the whir of helicopters descending, then the crash of them hitting the ground. Meanwhile, the sky regained slight weak illumination as helicopter lights came back on.

All helicopters were making emergency landings, with two simply crashing to the ground. Karl stood up bewildered, while Prince quietly exclaimed, "What is this? Electromagnetic bomb! The ones we’ve used, we’ve used them before! Electromagnetic bomb! A small electromagnetic bomb!"

Karl’s mind was thoroughly muddled. He self-talked, "Electromagnetic bomb, yes, it’s an electromagnetic bomb. We researched its use before."

Just then, behind Karl someone spoke in an extremely calm voice, "Gentlemen, if there aren’t any issues, can we leave now?"

Karl suddenly turned around, knowing someone stood behind him, yet in total darkness without a light source, he couldn’t see the person.

He immediately asked in a low voice, "Who are you!"

"Catching up with you wasn’t easy, but thank goodness I did. I’m here to save you, that’s quite obvious, right? Gentlemen, if there aren’t any problems, can we leave now? Our time is very tight."