55 'They'

A notification appeared on the Nett warrior screen as Jamie looked at the headlights of some kind of a huge vehicle became visible from a distance, racing towards the ambush point set up by his captain.

"What kind of speed is this? I have never seen an Armored off-road vehicle move faster than 200 km/hr speed (125 miles/hr)," Jamie muttered in shock when he saw the light coming closer every second.

The ambush point was a small valley, a stream cut across the valley dividing it into two. The ambush point was on the northern half of the valley but Jamie knew that the whole valley was closed off when he looked at the positions of his teammates on the screen.

Jamie himself was some 500 m from the ambush point, his position was also higher than everyone as he was on one of the hills surrounding the valley.

Jamie read the instruction sent by Ben and took the recording equipment given to him by Robert and crawled towards a small hill from which he could record the happenings easily. The equipment also had a night vision option and a telescopic sight, so with a little adjustment, Harry and Kevin were able to see clearly.

When the vehicle entered the valley, it did not slow down as it raced downwards with full speed. Jamie saw with mild excitement as he knew that the enemy did not notice anything wrong. He was once again impressed by his captain who was the one responsible for covering up.

A notification icon lit up in everyone's screen as they unleashed a barrage of armour piercing rounds and grenades at the vehicle which had reached the ambush point already.

The vehicle lit up in the dark like a celebrity in the limelight as all kind of ammunition hit the vehicle. But what caused Jamie to be gobsmacked was that the armour piercing rounds did not do their job at all as not a mark could be seen on the vehicle. Even the speed had not decreased.

Even an M2 Bradley (25-ton American infantry fighting vehicle) would have been affected a little with this barrage of ammo attack. The barrage continued for two full minutes before stopping. The only damage that Jamie could notice was the wheel where small scraps could be seen falling off but it did not affect the mobility of the vehicle. Cold sweat started forming on Jamie's forehead when he saw this.

One could take this vehicle and go straight to war. For what purpose were these people using this battle beast in this unknown part of the world?

Another icon lit up on the Nett warrior screen. Jamie knew that his captain usually always planned an alternate strategy. It was no surprise to Ben that these guys had higher military technology than the norm as can be seen from the 'gifting' of the radar technology previously. So he had formulated a sure fire way to get that vehicle to stop i.e. remove the ground from beneath their feet. Even the most advanced ground vehicle had to have soil under its wheels to move. What if he removed the land from beneath them? This was also the reason he chose this valley for their ambush.

BOOM! BOOM!! BOOM!!!

A series of blasts lit up the dark night as the ground under the enemy vehicle was blasted to dust. The explosive power generated from these explosives created an instant pit around the vehicle. Jamie gulped a mouthful of saliva as he tried to moisten his dry throat when he saw that the vehicle was still intact even after such a huge explosion.

The wheels of the vehicle started moving as if it was mocking them for their naive strategies. The loose black soil moved aside giving way to the vehicle as it started moving forward slowly but steadily. But then a splash sound was heard as the water from the stream came gushing out into this artificially created pit filling it up rapidly.

The faster the wheels rotated, the faster they became entrenched into the ground as the loose soil and the water started to form a kind of swamp with all the churning of the wheels. The vehicle was now mired down into the ground unable to move forward anymore. The water slowly covered the vehicle as bubbles started escaping from the vehicle.

"Awesome, Cap" Jamie muttered as he saw this scene from above.

The door of the vehicle opened as a group of ten people climbed out and swam out of the pit.

Another icon lit up the screen in Nett warrior as all the members simultaneously opened fire. All people were hit in multiple points on the spot without a chance to open their mouths as they were blasted away. When Jamie was thinking that the mission was accomplished, he saw a scene which he would not forget for the rest of his life. Three figures rose as if they had just been pushed to the ground. No wounds could be seen on them.

They were the only three among the others who were clad in complete black clothes and wore a helmet with a dark red mask. The only parts of their body visible were a pair of eyes under the red mask which looked sinister and gloomy.

The middle person who was the tallest and looked the strongest nodded his head once. The other two burst into high speed as they ran into the surrounding vegetation. No aim could catch them as they sprinted in an unpredictable pattern and disappeared into the dense foliage.

Jamie felt a chill in his heart as if something bad was about to happen. Just as he was about to ask for instructions, he saw that a red dot vanished on the screen. When he thought he must have been mistaken, another dot vanished. He knew what was happening when he saw another dot vanishing. They were a total of fifty members participating in this mission.

A formation icon lit up on the screen as it beeped and flickered. Jamie knew that Ben had come up with a counter-measure. Jamie noticed that the dots started coming close to each other instead of been spread out.

"Target their masks with full force, I want you to hit their eyes, Use the precision-guided firearms," Ben's voice was heard through the earpiece.

Five more people died before they could group together. Jamie gritted his teeth when he saw the casualties. These people had fought together with him on many missions. They were his brothers who shared life and death situations with him and here he was safe while his brothers were falling like a pack of cards. It was too simple and surreal to believe. His thinking was interrupted by a string of gunshots.

"Got them," Robert's deep voice was heard after a minute.

"I want blood samples and facial identification," Ben ordered.

"Roger"

Ben walked into the opening in front of the third guy who did not seem the least bit perturbed by the death of his companions.

"Why are you not attacking?" Ben stood some 20 m away from him as he asked when he looked at the only remaining survivor.

The third person removed his mask and helmet revealing a young handsome Caucasian face with blond hair and green eyes as his mouth curled with disdain. "Who do you think you are?"

"The people who have come to kill you," Ben said icily.

Pfft!

The green-eyed person smiled when he heard these words. He had an amused expression as he said, "Then what are you waiting for? Kill me."

Ben did not waste any time as he whipped out a Glock pistol and shot at his forehead. He did not want to spend time exchanging threats and taunts with this person.

The green-eyed guy face tilted back a little when the bullet hit his forehead. That's it, no other sign that he was hit by a bullet could be seen on him. He smiled with scorn when he saw the blank look on Ben, "it's your bad luck today that I was in this vehicle otherwise your mission might have been successful Mr Benjamin Miles, a renowned captain of Blood Water mercenaries. As for who I am, you are not eligible to know. Not only you, but any weak human should also lower their head when they are in front of me. We are going to be your masters in the near future, you better start practising subservience."

Ben and other people who were paying attention were shocked that despite all their camouflages, they were recognized. Moreover, it was pitch dark and this person was not using any night vision goggles like them but he was able to 'see' Ben.

Ben looked at the opposite person and said, "You are right, I am Benjamin Miles from Blood Water but there is one thing that you got wrong," Ben gave a small confident smile as he continued, "today is not my unlucky day but it is fortunate that I could get to meet you."

"Now,"

Thin dark wires whipped out from the muddy, wet ground from all direction as they surrounded the green-eyed person from all directions. Even his face changed when he saw that he had been standing right in the middle of a trap. He felt humiliated when he knew that he was tricked by these puny, weak people as he saw these ropes surrounding him and tying him up. He was confident that he would free himself easily. But reality shocked him as no matter how much strength he applied, he couldn't free himself and the ropes continued strengthening their grip on him.

Ben walked over towards the fallen, struggling figure and knocked his forehead which produced dull metal sounds as he said, "Kid, just because you got an injection and got implanted with some metal in your body, you are already not recognizing yourself as a human being. Always remember, power is not absolute. Actually, you should have studied that in your biological class. Humans were never the strongest among other species but we still managed to become the ruling species. An elephant or a tiger is more ferocious and robust than a human but look at them now."

"This wire is called purple plasma rope blended along with some Torag T1000G material, you can forget about freeing yourselves. I got them made especially for you." Ben said as he turned towards Robert and said gravely, "I want all the analyses, biopsies and diagnostics done right now on the spot. I have a feeling we caught a larger fish than we expected, I think 'they' will not allow us to take him away."

Ben took a communicative device and activated it to report the accomplishment of the mission and request support. His brows tightened after a while and then immediately spoke to Jamie, "Jamie, activate the emergency plan immediately, follow the instructions on the screen."

Jamie who had just relaxed that the mission was over and they would leave this place once and for all was shocked when he heard Ben's words. He only took a second to regain his composure and started following the instructions that started appearing on Nett Warrior. He connected a wire from Robert's recording equipment and connected it to the panels containing big LED bulbs along with some other gadgets. He then activated it which caused the LED lights glowing once and switched off immediately but the panel was working as other gadgets started working.

"What is this equipment, Captain?" Jamie asked but received no reply. When Jamie turned to look in the valley, his heart froze when he saw a thin 'person' clutching a beating heart as a gaping hole could be seen on the chest of Ben. Except that, this person was unlike a human. He had yellow fur with black spots growing on his body. His eyes contained pupils which were shaped like vertical slits which glowed green in the dark.

Jamie saw that all the others were also dead as they lay on the ground with their throats slit or crushed. He had completed the emergency setup in less than a minute and the world turned upside down in that small time gap. He saw that 'person' take out a pocket knife and cut the strongest wire like it was a thin cotton thread and freed the green-eyed person. He then turned to look at Jamie who was in perfect camouflage and hiding spot as if there is nothing that could hide from his vertical pupils, he licked his furry mouth with an abnormally long tongue. Jamie felt like he was stared at by a wild animal, maybe this person was really a wild animal.

He was puzzled as to why his Nett Warrior did not notify him about others dying or why the soldiers were not able to shoot even a bullet in their defence.

The green-eyed person took a small metal sphere from his pocket and threw it above. The sphere detonated in flash of blue light and the video cut off.

Harry's hands were covered in sweat as he continued to look at the blank screen for some time expecting to see more but the video had truly ended.

"The blue light at the end seemed like a..." Kevin broke the silence as he conjectured. his voice trembled a little which showed that Harry was not only one rattled by this video.

"EMP blast, a miniaturized one at that," Harry completed. Kevin nodded as he also asked, "Do you know what that emergency apparatus was?"

"I think it was a form of an optical communication device which uses both visible and invisible light like laser and LED light to send large amounts of information to a sensory satellite placed directly above them in space." Harry had heard about this from his friends in the Pentagon and thus could connect the dots.

Ben asking Jamie to activate this apparatus could only mean that all other forms of communication were cut off before they could realize that they had been trapped instead. It was already a huge accomplishment for Ben to realize this at the last moment and decisively activate the last option otherwise Harry was sure that the government would not have got this video.

Harry also knew that during a special operation like this, usually there is a central command module that stays connected to these forces at all times and also records their movements through cameras carried by every soldier. But Ben was not able to notice this till the last moment. This can only mean that the enemy had already created a fake command centre and played around with these mercenaries the whole time. So, in a way, this was not an ambush at all. It was more like a cat playing around with a mouse.

The person covered in fur holding the beating heart of Ben was branded in Harry's heart. Harry leaned back a little and closed his eyes as he said, "Kevin, could you leave me alone for a while?"