Chapter 228: Their Plan B
We rounded up all the captured guys and brought them back inside the room after we made sure they had no other weapons on them.
The hall that had been used as a place for the summit delegates to mingle around had to be turned into a triage area as the unfortunate ones that had been hurt by the attack were now receiving medical care.
Siti had the power to heal so she was busy healing them but there were unfortunately a few casualties and her power doesn’t include bringing the dead back to life.
We had also pulled off their helmets to reveal their identities but... Well... We don’t recognise any of them of course.
"I’m surprised you kept them alive," Diana pointed out, looking at her side of the room where all of the terrorists that had come through her hole earlier were now just a pile of corpses.
I shrugged, "I thought we might want them alive to question them."
"Mmm... Too troublesome for me to think about."
"Who are they supposed to be?" I asked, not really expecting an answer.
Unexpectedly, one of Siti’s Guardians answered me, "League of Mortals... They’re a global terrorist organisation who believe that there should not be any Mortal Gods in our world and aim to wipe them out..."
I frowned, "What? Why the heck would they even want to do that? Don’t they know that Mortal Gods are the ones that allow us to close the portals in the first place?"
This time it was Diana’s Guardian who answered me, "They believe that the only reason why there were even portals appearing is because of the existence of Mortal Gods. They think that if the Mortal Gods were to disappear, the portals would also disappear as well."
I made a face, "That doesn’t make any sense? The portals started appearing before the first Mortal God was awakened, right? How could that even be remotely true in that case?"
Sergei made a noise beside me that could have been a snort, "They are just idiots, Mortal God. They were brainwashed by people who only seek out things that benefit themselves."
I’m not sure how this venture would ever benefit them considering the fact that if they were to succeed, this world would be overrun by Anomalies and whatever wealth and power they accumulated from doing this would not matter in the slightest.
"I’m more surprised that there’s people who actually follow this..." I muttered.
Siti appeared beside me while shaking her head, apparently already done with healing the survivors, "It is not surprising... Especially when there was that time a Mortal God had transformed into an Anomaly and came back to our world to sow chaos. The fight between that Anomaly and the Mortal Gods that were dispatched to deal with it... Scars of that battle are still around even today."
Well... The fight wasn’t even that long ago either so it’s not surprising I guess... People who were affected by the fight might have blamed their suffering on the Mortal Gods even if it might have been unreasonable to do so.
It is easier to just have someone to blame for your suffering after all.
And then some people come along and express the same exact sentiment that you might have and you might just decide to join their group and suddenly... You’re a terrorist now.
Well... At least that’s what I think happened with these people anyway...
"So what do we do with them?" I asked, bringing the topic back to the captured terrorists.
Several people dressed in suits suddenly flooded into the room, all of them wearing shades and carrying pistols.
"Room is clear!" One of them shouted, prompting another group of people also dressed in suits to enter as well.
The person standing at the front, whom I assumed was the leader of this group, stood at attention in front of us.
"My apologies, Divine Ones... Allow us to take over their custody. We will be sure to wring out any secrets they might have and make sure this doesn’t happen again."
Diana made a scoffing sound which was probably her way of showing that she absolutely believed that it would happen again but chose not to comment.
The guys in suits started rounding them up and taking them away, shoving those guys along roughly until one of those guys dropped something that was like a small digital tablet on the ground.
The terrorist who dropped it seemed panicked at that and tried to wrench free from the guy holding him to run towards the tablet.
The rest wasn’t having it of course as more of the suit guys tackled him to the ground.
Valletta flicked her hand towards it and the device flew off the floor to float in front of us, showing that there was a screen on it which showed a rather chilling sight.
On the screen were the words ’Bomb Armed’ and a timer counting down from thirty minutes.
Fuck.
"There’s a bomb," Valletta announced casually, like she was reporting the weather.
A ripple of panic spread throughout the room and the guy leading the suit people immediately turned back to grab the terrorist that dropped the tablet.
"Where is it?! How do we stop it?!"
The terrorist guy simply smirked and spat at the guy, "Fuck you. Die in hell, dog!"
The terrorist got pistol whipped in the face for that before the guy started shouting at the two men holding him.
"Do whatever it takes to get the information out of him! Out of all of them! Evacuate everyone out of this hotel and form a safety perimeter around the building! Now!"
The men in suits moved immediately, as though this wasn’t the first time they had received orders like that and began moving the terrorists towards another part of the hall while guiding everyone else outside.
He then quickly turned towards us, "Divine Ones, please leave the premises as well, leave this to us."
I frown, "Are you sure? We can help find the bomb."
The guy stared at me as though I just told him I could give him the sun.
Olivia was quick to voice her disapproval, "My Lord, I have to strongly object against this. We cannot put you in danger anymore than you already are."
I frowned, "And risk a bomb going off in the city centre here? There’s thirty minutes to the bomb going off, we will spend twenty minutes searching for it. If we can’t find it within that time, we will leave, how about it?"
Olivia seemed like she wanted to reject the plan but I guess she couldn’t bring herself to go against me completely and relented, "Fifteen minutes, my Lord. After that, we will evacuate from here no matter what."
I nodded in agreement.
Siti and Diana were both giving me an odd look before they looked at each other, sharing some kind of secret conversation between themselves before they turned back to me.
"Are you seriously staying here to look for the bomb? No offense but... Do you have anything that could help search for it?" Diana asked, concern in her voice.
I thought about it for a moment before turning to look at the terrorist that was in the process of getting punched in the face to get him to spill where the bomb was.
Despite that, he was still smirking up at the suit guys, his face bloodied and his nose broken.
Hmm... There’s one thing I could try I guess... An ability that I wasn’t really sure if there was any use of...
I went up to the terrorist and the suit guys stopped themselves, turning to give me a quizzical look.
"Let me..." I told them, stepping up to the terrorist.
They did not protest and stepped aside, allowing me to place my hands against his head.
The terrorist first shot me a look of contempt until I activated the ability that I received from that Anomaly that could absorb other Anomalies.
My hand sank into his head and the guy’s eyes widened before he opened his mouth into a silent scream.
Hmm... Seems like this guy’s awakened ability was the ability to turn off pain... No wonder he could just take all the hits and still smirk like that... They could have beaten him to death and he would not have felt a thing so he could just die without revealing anything he might know.
I focused on his mind and I found that I could somewhat read his surface thoughts like this.
"Where is the bomb?" I asked.
Even though he tried to hide it, the image of what looked like a water pump room flashed into my head for a moment before the guy forced himself to think about something else, replacing that image with a hotel room instead.
Too bad for him I already saw it though.
I pulled back from him and nodded at them, "The water pump room, we should head there."
We still have time right?