"So…what do I tell to the other teams?" Jin asked awkwardly after he followed Moria in the elevator cage with everyone else. When they reached the bottom of the cage, they entered a large circular corridor.

 

"Tell them that the mission is to destroy this place," Moria replied and looked around. "We'll separate in two groups from here. This place seems to be quiet. Look out for cameras and see if you can find a path to the underground levels," he commanded and took half of the squad with him in one direction.

 

Jin looked at his comrades and sighed, he really wondered sometimes if he wasn’t working a bit too much. He took his laptop and sent a message to everyone.

 

|| Objective updated: Destroy the facility. Locate and destroy the aerial defenses. ||

 

"Done," Jin closed his computer and slowly advanced with everyone else. They would stumble on some doors along the way and would always check what lied behind.

 

It was quite easy for them to move although they had to be quite far from each other to be able to exploit the cameras’ dead angles. But they were aware that it was far too easy. It was safe to assume that the lower floors would most likely have at least a miniature camera each centimeter hidden in the walls.

 

For now, they could only find storages for food or ammunition behind the doors and they were not even Eion charged. It was evidently not an important section of the facility.

 

But each time the squad entered one of those rooms, Lomen, the artificer, would take a sort of briefcase and press a button on it that would drop a circular object on the ground. The disc would make a beeping sound for a second before turning silent. They did that for each room until they finally arrived at a part of the corridor leading toward the actual entrance of the building.

 

There was also an enormous steel gate right in front of it. When they arrived there, Arima spotted another group of soldiers emitting the same radio frequency as them. It was one of the allied squads.

 

"Code: Walker," Arima was the one to interact with them since he had the highest grade in the absence of Erin and Moria. The soldiers from the other team briefly pointed their weapons before lowering them.

 

"Code: Azer," one of the soldiers replied and both him and Arima nodded to each other. The two squads then assembled in one of the camera-free rooms nearby.

 

"Let's be quick. I'm Haze," the leader of the Azer squad introduced himself.

 

"Arimane. You were before us; did you check what was behind those reinforced doors?"

 

Haze nodded and glanced at one of his men. The man in question stepped forward and projected a synthesized image of what they saw behind the door thanks to an optical fiber.

 

It was a huge circular hall, filled with armored vehicles, weapons, and sentinels. There were some workers in there too, moving materials from a place to another and particularly to a hoist load in the middle of the room.

 

Arima scowled. "We can't go in, huh?" He muttered and Haze nodded.

 

"Also, that place seems to be filled with cameras capable of recognizing the people working there thanks to an electronic chip they carry with them," the technician of the Azer squad added and Jin concurred as he analyzed at the data they were sharing. "The good news is that there are no cameras capable of transmitting images."

 

"We have a way then," Arima said. "If we can get one of those chips and copy the signal, we can work more freely," he declared and looked at Jin. "Can you set up a 'live' map displaying the position of the cameras and their field of view?"

 

Jin mused and placed his computer on a table. "I can. Give me a minute."

 

"I will be the one to go," Tieria smiled at Arima. It wasn't a request but a statement.

 

Arima faintly smiled and nodded. "You'll infiltrate then and take a chip from one of them to copy the signature. There should be a ventilation of somewhere; you’ll use it," he said and interacted with the map. He found one ventilation leading to the roof of the hall.

 

“We came across the opening of that ventilation while coming here. Follow us," Haze remarked and led Arima's squad. It was quite interesting to mention that not once did Haze even talk about Arima's age or question his aptitude based on that.

 

At the same time, Jin reported to Moria and he responded that they would arrive soon and that they also had met another team on the way.

 

When Arima's group arrived at the vent, one of the members used a laser to cut the metal bars barring the fan behind. Before going in, Tiria used a small device that beeped three times and expanded she pressed on it. She threw it inside the vent and waited. Everyone in the room crouched and covered their electronic devices with a special material.

 

The object Tieria had thrown was a powerful EMP with a limited range. When the pulse was sent, they even felt dizzy for a second.

 

"Here I go," Tieria went inside after that. Now that the detectors inside were shut down, she could go inside without worry. She swiftly went inside and reached the first wall before looking up. She turned on a flashlight and put it in her mouth as she climbed the vent.

 

She continued to move until she reached the vent just above the targeted room. There was a big fan just in front of her and she had to take it out. She grabbed a thin cotton thread and let it roll up around the fan before pulling it and with the other hand, she used a small laser to cut the fixations of the fan.

 

She pulled the thread and, therefore, the fan without making any noise and waited until it stopped spinning before putting it aside. She then removed the bars while looking at the live map Jin had provided.

 

When she finally had an unobstructed view of the entire hall from the roof, she used a basic hologram device to give the illusion that nothing had been removed. If you were to look closely, you would be able to see through the trick but it was near impossible from the floor of the room.

 

Tieria looked around and spotted the closest person. It was a challenge of patience now, she attached herself with a zip-line and waited for the timing where the cameras would be moving and the target she chose was in a good position.

 

Arima and Haze watched everything unfold through the small camera Tieria carried.

 

"By the way, 'Walker'. Your squad was the one that sent the objective update, right? What happened?" Haze asked.

 

Arima borrowed Jin's tablet and showed Haze the images they saw earlier. Haze firmly held the table and closed his mouth with all of his strength as if he was trying to not shout.

 

"…I understand," he whispered and handed the tablet back.

 

"We've already set G-Mines on the way here. After we destroy the lower levels and get access to the commands of the defense system, the plan is to call an airstrike to erase every trace of our squads’ presence on this island," Arima explained and Haze nodded.

 

Almost ten minutes later, Tieria finally jumped out from the vent and fell on the poor guy. She knocked him out in a second and triggered the zip-line. She swiftly ascended again with the unconscious worker in tow.

 

She went back inside the vent without anyone seeing her and literally dropped the guy. Arima and Haze heard a loud thud, followed by multiple others until a beat-up guy crashed in front of them.

 

Haze smirked and glanced at Arima. "She's good."

 

Arima lightly laughed. "Yes, she is," he said and picked up the guy with a smile. He was still alive so he planned to interrogate him. From his appearance alone, he couldn't determine his nationality and couldn't deduce what country or power was behind all of this.

 

He searched his clothes and found a chip attached to his nametag, which he gave to Jin right away. He then pressed his thumb and index on the man's throat before pinching him as is. The worker promptly woke up with a loud air intake and almost screamed. But Arima calmly covered his mouth before he could do it.

 

"Good technique," Haze praised.

 

"Thank you," Arima casually responded and pushed the worker against the wall. "Talk," he said and released his throat just after hitting it at a certain place. When the man tried to shout, he realized he couldn't and coughed violently.

 

"Talk slowly and quietly," Arima grinned and pressed the muzzle of his gun against the man’s chin.

 

The captive trembled and looked up. "Кто… ты? (Who… are you?)"

 

Haze furrowed his eyebrows. "Russian?"

 

“Hmm,” Arima mused before looking right into the man's eyes.

 

"Хороший вопрос. Я сделаю тебя лучше. Кто ты? (Good question. I’ll do you one better. Who are you?)" Arima pronounced each word carefully.

 

Haze’s eyes widened. He was surprised and he wasn’t the only one. Even Arima’s own squad and Tieria who had just come back stared incredulously at their temporary leader.

 

"I don’t know what to say…" Jin groaned. He already knew that Arima could talk five different languages including English. And now he had just added one to the list. His learning ability was staggering.

 

The Russian man gritted his teeth and fell silent.

 

"Alright then, you brought this upon yourself," Arima said and told the medic to give him a truth serum. He injected it into their captive and waited for a bit before asking again. This time, he didn’t even try to hide anything.

 

The more Arima listened, the darker his expression became. When the guy finished, he immediately knocked him out and sighed.

 

"What did he say?" Haze asked.

 

"Aah…" Arima sighed strongly. "This guy said that he didn't know much about this whole affair, but he knew one thing. This plan wasn't Russia's initiative. To be exact, this whole installation is a product of a conjoint operation between China and Russia. These two powers allied together for a reason only the devil knows and made this place."

 

"What?" Jin exclaimed before everyone else could. "Are you serious?"

 

"Yes," Arima shrugged and crouched to tie the unconscious guy and searched him a bit more before finding an ID card. He flipped it before throwing it away.

 

Haze clicked his tongue and rubbed his temples. "All of this screams ‘trouble’. Today’s mission could possibly lead to a world war and it all depends on what we do…"

 

At his words, everyone in the room felt as if the weight of the world had been put on their shoulders. They all wondered if they just should inform the higher commands and then raid this place with more people.

 

"Bad idea," Arima countered everyone's thoughts. "We're already in. At this point, there’s no way that they won’t notice we have been here. Whether it is after or before we leave. The only viable choice right now is to avoid a crisis by finishing this damn job," he declared and looked at Jin.

 

"Send everything to Moria and copy the signal produced by the chips on our intercoms. The moment the cameras cease to be a problem, we rush in," he said and left the room.

 

Jin blinked several times and looked at Tieria. "…What just happened? Did Arima just act like an actual superior?"

 

Tieria chuckled and shrugged before following Arima.

 

Jin's stared at her back with blank eyes then scratched his hair. "Seriously… you're the closest to him, say something at least," he grumbled and began to work. Haze smiled and also encouraged his own team to follow Arima.

 

"Done," Jin said and closed the laptop. "Signal reproduced.”

 

The four groups from the different squads grouped up in front of the huge gate. Moria returned with the entirety of the third participating squad and they now had a total force of sixty men.

 

"I heard everything. We don't have time to lose. Do it," Moria said and Arima lifted his rifle. He aimed at the gate's lock and shot at point-blank.