48 Hours a Day - Chapter 436
Chapter 436: Reaper’s Scythe
The blue Renault finally stopped outside an old manor on the outskirts of the city.
According to the intel, the estate’s former owner was a wholesale seed merchant. After going bankrupt, his wife left him, and the bank repossessed the land. In the end, having no place to go, he committed suicide in the living room. As a result, the bank failed to sell the property, and it had been left abandoned ever since.
There was no one to take care of it, and the once beautiful courtyard was now overgrown with weeds. Strangely, the sweet iris planted by the merchant when he was still alive was thriving well.
Mr. Coffee got out of the car and looked up at the sky. It was gloomy, and low, dark clouds foretold that heavy rain was around the corner. Closing the car door, he took a look around. “Is it here? It’s a good place to send him to his maker,” he said.
Picking a bulletproof vest from the back seat, Mr. Coffee put it on, then collected his Remington M870 shotgun from the trunk, along with three grenades.
“Let’s give our friends a heartfelt welcome.”
The assault team dragged two heavy machine guns from the bed of the truck and set them up on the grass outside the manor.
Once the weapons were hot, they began firing at whatever that came into their sight. Bullets poured out from the barrel, shattering glass, wooden doors. Everything unfortunate enough to be in the path of the flying shells were shredded mercilessly. The mindless shooting lasted for a full five minutes, stopping only after they had depleted their bullets.
Mr. Coffee threw two grenades at the manor before taking off this earplugs.
“Now, it looks better! Get ready to go in.”
The assault team behind him immediately picked up their assault rifles, crouched through the broken door, and charged into the house.
It was a monumental, disheveled mess inside. Whatever valuable furniture had been moved a long time ago, leaving whatever that was left to be utterly decimated by the rain of lead. The blackened blotches on the once white walls were in no thanks to the grenades.
The assault team searched room by room, but they found nothing.
“It makes no sense. Our drone saw him get into this building, and he didn’t leave after that!” said the captain while frowning.
Mr. Coffee carried the shotgun and walked to the end of the hallway. “That can only mean that there are rooms we haven’t searched yet.”
When the captain heard that, his mood lightened slightly, and his face relaxed. The team had searched every corner of the manor above ground, and it was almost impossible for anybody to make a move without being noticed. Hence, the only place they hadn’t searched was underground.
Immediately, Mr. Coffee spread the team out, sweeping the place again from the start. True enough, after a more comprehensive search, they managed to find an entrance to a hidden tunnel behind the fireplace. However, an unfortunate event occured whilst the secret door was bieng opened. It was a booby-trap, where an arrow launched from a crossbow, and penetrating the chest of an unlucky one.
The very untimely death of a Black Nest personnel instantly made the rest of the team very skittish. The team leader quickly sent in a second person to replace the dead man. With the help of a glow stick, he managed to take a look around. It was a small wine cellar, built by the merchant before his business went bust. It stored countless bottles of wine from all corners of the world.
The team member reported his findings to the captain, and unbeknownst to him, a dark figure suddenly emerged from behind the wine rack and fired several shots. Consequently, another Black Nest elite was killed.
At the exact moment, the other Black Nest agents poured in and began firing back at the 01 Guerillas with everything they had. After emptying their magazines, they ceased fire and walked up to the wine rack in anticipation.
Lo and behold, there was no one there.
Mr. Coffee made a gesture, and two of his men entered the tunnel from the front. A small gunfight ensued as the those in the tunnel retaliated. Then, once again, yet another Black Nest member was killed and the other severely wounded.
In just a short period, Black Nest’s elite assault squad was reduced to a mere four members. Yet, despite paying such a hefty price, they hadn’t even seen the opponent’s shadow. This sorely irked Mr. Coffee, but nonetheless, he remained indifferent, appearing unaffected by the massive casualties his team suffered. “Has the drone picked up on anything?” he asked as he tossed a glow stick into the tunnel.
“No.”
“Then, take a look around and see if there are other buildings around the manor.”
“There is a warehouse. The tunnel leads in that direction,” answered the captain once he got confirmation.
“Leave two men to guard the entrance. The rest will come with me to the warehouse,” Mr. Coffee replied.
Vincent had trained the Black Nest team well. Upon hearing Mr.Coffee’s command, he effeciently divided the assault team into two teams. Mr. Coffee took the four people behind him, left the manor, and walked towards the warehouse in the northwest direction. Before they could make any headway, though, they came under attack again.
Instead of feeling surprised, Mr.Coffee lit up, since it meant they had been on the right track all along. And this time it was the enemies’ last stand. He could feel it from the way they were attacking.
The enemy fire felt extraordinarily aggressive, as if it was their last hurrah, and they had nothing to lose.
Overwhelmed by the zealous 01, Mr. Coffee had no choice but to look for cover with his four men following closely behind.
On the other side, the lone Abu walked through a small forest. He had arrived before Mr. Coffee and got to witness the battle that had just taken place, even hearing in the entire time on the communications channel. However, he chose to remain silent.
Mr. Coffee judgment on him was correct. Abu preferred to move unrestricted as compared to face-to-face combat, finding his own secluded nest to settle in. Besides, he wasn’t a defensive sniper, constantly electing to go full offense, especially if he could land a one-shot kill.
His prey often didn’t know where the bullet came from until the very last moment of their lives.
This was also the principle that Abu adhered to—the true reaper would come when one expects it the least. No one would ever see the reaper’s face or hear his footsteps.
Abu took a look at the warehouse, mapping out several suitable sniping points in his mind. When the two men began clashing, he ran to the warehouse, nesting up in one of those spots. After setting up his weapon, the warehouse’s south window with the target beneath it came into his sights.
The weather wasn’t looking too good today.
Due to the thick clouds hovering in the sky, it was darker than usual, and way more humid. For an elite sniper like him, this wasn’t too much of a problem. 1.7 kilometers was no different than staring at his target in front of his eyes.
The only troublesome thing was the incoming heavy downpour.
Fortunately, raindrops falling from the sky were far slower than bullets flying through the air. Abu adjusted the scope, and now, there was nothing to stop the reaper from swinging his sickle.
“It’s not your day today,” Abu murmured, gently pulling the trigger.
As the loud gunshot echoed in the air, the target in the warehouse unsurprisingly fell to the ground.
Abu let out a sigh, all the frustration in his chest of Mr. Coffee finally lifted. What happened three days ago was like a nightmare. It had been haunting him, never expecting such a horrifying demon to exist in the world.
“Anyway, there’s no way for you to defeat that demon. I will do you a favor and send you to your maker.”
Abu kept away his gun and enabled the call function on his cellphone.
“It’s done.”
Mr. Coffee and the others walked out of the bunker after getting confirmation that the target was eliminated. “What? I thought he was a powerful and ruthless character. Did he just die like that?” asked Mr. Coffee cynically.
Suddenly, another gunshot thundered from inside the warehouse, catching Black Nest’s team off guard. At least three members were shot, with Mr. Coffee taking one in the leg as well. He fell to the ground with a groan as bullet penetrated flesh with a sickening spatter.
Abu was shocked to see the situation, quickly looking into the scope again. It was then that he witnessed something incredible. The “corpse” that lay on the ground had been resurrected, and now, he was shooting like a madman.