In the bar, the controlled tourists were now scared out of their wits.
A perfectly healthy person had just reached the door when their head rolled onto the ground, utterly unthinkable!
The leader, his face pale with fear, instinctively stepped back and shouted, “Quick! There’s an enemy!”
The few remaining armed men instantly became tense, raising their guns and warily staring at the door, fearing an army might rush in.
The leader was thoroughly panicked. He had left three teams outside and sent a few from the fourth to deal with things. If they had all met with disaster, he was likely doomed today…
With this thought, he aimed his gun at Tawana and barked, “Who is it?! Come out now! Or I’ll shoot her!”
Then he told his men, “Don’t aim at the door, point your guns at the hostages! When I give the order to shoot, kill them all!”
The hostages, hearing this, screamed in terror.
The leader in black was about to shout again when he noticed the hostages around him seemed to lose consciousness all at once, collapsing on the spot.
He and his men were momentarily dazed and confused. They initially thought the hostages had planned to play dead, but then realised, under their watch, how could they have coordinated such a thing?
Could it be that the moment they heard the guns would be turned on them, they all fainted from fear?
But their actions were too uniform, weren’t they?!
The leader in black was bewildered, then noticed not all the hostages had fainted. Three were still awake: Tawana, Hamid, and the wealthy Bernard Arnault.
Perplexed, the leader looked at them and asked, “Why aren’t you three unconscious?!”
Tawana, unsure why her parents and others had instantly lost consciousness, could only say honestly, “I… I don’t know…”
The leader turned to Hamid, grinding his teeth, “Hamid, you’re not out either. Tell me truthfully, does this have anything to do with you?!”
Hamid, also puzzled but relatively calm, feigned surprise and asked, “Who are you? How do you know my real name?”
The man in black snapped, “No point hiding now! Our target was to take you out! You could’ve stayed your Middle Eastern kingpin, but you came here on holiday, dragging us into this mess. I really want to put a bullet in you!”
One of his men quickly said, “Boss, why hesitate? Let’s take out that bastard Hamid. That’s half our mission done!”
The man in black retorted coldly, “I don’t need you telling me what to do! There’s an unknown enemy out there. We need these hostages to have a shot at getting out alive!”
For the leader, today’s mission was about money, not sacrifice.
Blackwater might be vast with countless mercenaries, but loyalty was never part of the deal.
Everyone who joined Blackwater, risking their lives, did so for cash, not to become a “martyr” for the company.
So now, he didn’t care about completing the mission, only about getting out alive.
