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Thinking about this, Shawn Young felt a surge of excitement. He turned to rush downstairs toward the Eastpeace River Bridge, but Max quickly blocked his way and shouted, "Boss—Boss, you mustn’t go over the bridge right now! It’s too dangerous—"
"Huh? Of course I know it’s dangerous, but the people I have to save are right there in the valley across. I have to rescue them! Move aside, don’t stop me—" Shawn Young shouted at Max, frustrated.
"Oh—listen to me, Boss, I’m not stopping you from saving them. I just want to tell you, those armed thugs have set traps on the other side! They’ve rigged high explosives with remote detonators on the bridge piers, and even strapped bombs to the hostages. There are guards at the bridgehead controlling everything. If you just rush over, not only won’t you save anyone, you’ll get them all killed!" Max said urgently, almost panicking.
"Uh—really? Let me take a closer look—" Shawn Young was shocked by Max’s words, hurried to the window, grabbed his binoculars, and started to observe carefully.
Sure enough, just as Max said, several hundred hostages were tied up in rows on the bridge. Every four or five people had a black object with a fuse strapped to their waists—that was a blasting cap for TNT. And on several piers of the bridge, there were football-sized black suction-cup metal devices—high explosives that could be detonated remotely!
At the other end of the bridge, two armed thugs with submachine guns and controllers were hiding in sturdy makeshift bunkers at the corners of the bridgehead. If anyone tried to cross or rescue the hostages, they’d blow up the bridge and kill everyone on it. Clearly, this was all a premeditated plan by these armed criminals!
"Damn it, these bastards really are cunning! What now?" Shawn Young’s scalp tingled. He was glad he hadn’t impulsively led his team onto the bridge, or the consequences would have been disastrous.
"Boss, this is a real headache. These bastards are doing this for profit. Besides stopping us from chasing them, they might also use the hostages to demand ransom from the Chinese government!" Max said after thinking it over. As a former counterterrorism elite, he’d seen these tricks before.
"Oh! So you’re saying their ultimate goal is money? Any other reasons?" Shawn Young asked, frowning.
"Uh—there could be other reasons, too. Maybe they hate Chinese people for some reason. All those bodies downstairs were murdered Chinese, so these guys are probably driven by ethnic hatred. That makes them terrorists, way scarier than thugs who just want money. If that’s the case, we have to wipe them out—leave none behind, or we’ll have endless trouble!" Max said, drawing on his experience.
"Hmph—whether it’s for money or ethnic hatred, using such cruel methods against us Chinese means not a single one should be spared! Now, we need a way to take them out! Max, do you have any good action plans?" Shawn Young asked coldly.
"Oh, the key is how to cross the Eastpeace River Bridge. The two guards at the bridgehead are crucial. If we use snipers to secretly take them out and stop them from triggering the explosives, that’s not too hard. The tricky part is, if they die and the thugs in the valley realize they’ve lost contact, they might kill the dozen hostages they took away. Those hostages seem to be high-ranking people from Chinese companies and projects—way more valuable than the ones on the bridge! So we can’t act rashly—" Max said carefully.
"Uh—I know we can’t act rashly, but they’re about to head into the valley’s jungle. Once they’re in, it’ll be hard to find them, and if those bastards go wild—the hostages will be in real danger! So Max, based on your experience, come up with a solid rescue plan!" Shawn Young said, voicing his biggest worry. After all, Vivian Fang and Yvonne Hu were the ones he most wanted to save, and with those two so beautiful, it was hard to guarantee those violent thugs wouldn’t get ideas. If anything happened, Shawn Young would never forgive himself!
"Oh—Boss, the key is not to alert the two guards at the bridgehead. We need to distract them, then secretly send someone around the bridge to infiltrate the valley. Once inside, strike hard to control the thugs there, and at the same time take out the two guards so they can’t trigger the bombs. The whole plan depends on speed and teamwork—everything has to be seamless for the rescue to succeed! But whoever sneaks across needs serious skills, especially the one infiltrating the other side. If they mess up, it’s all over!" Max said after thinking it through.
"Yeah—let me go alone to the other side and take care of the enemies in the valley first. Max, you find a good sniper to handle the two guards at the bridgehead! As soon as you see my signal, take them out!" Shawn Young nodded, agreeing to Max’s plan.
"Huh? Boss, you—you’re going to sneak across to the valley and save people all by yourself?! Those guys aren’t exactly saints, and they’re tough! How can you take on so many at once? Isn’t that a bit much? Shouldn’t you bring a few more skilled brothers with you?" Max was shocked that Shawn Young wanted to carry out such a difficult rescue solo.
"No need, I can handle it alone. That way we won’t alert the enemy. Just cooperate and wait for my signal flare to move!" Shawn Young said, patting Max on the shoulder. He grabbed a signal pistol, tucked it at his waist, turned, and quickly went downstairs, sprinting toward the hydropower station’s outer bend by the river. He planned to sneak across the Eastpeace River from there.
"Oh—my God, I can’t imagine it. Is my boss going to sprout wings and just fly across?" Max was stunned, unable to figure out how Shawn Young would cross the raging Eastpeace River. But he didn’t forget Shawn’s orders. He quickly found a skilled mercenary and, together, climbed to the hydropower station’s rooftop, set up two sniper rifles aimed at the bridgehead guards, and ordered some fighters to make a show of crossing the bridge. This successfully drew the guards’ attention, giving Shawn Young the chance to sneak across!