119, Palm Street.

“Where should the meeting be?” Thompson voiced his question cautiously to the man opposite him. Till this moment, the general still had no idea who this biracial youth was.

Xia Lei offered no answer, seemingly deep in thought.

“Is this the place?” Thompson made his own assumption.

Xia Lei finally spared him some attention. “Are you well acquainted with her? What excuse would you use to invite her over?”

Two questions.

Thompson had to mull over it for a moment. “Since the launch of Project Shepherd, she has frequented Area 51 to check on the progress. I think I can consider myself an acquaintance of hers. But an excuse to invite her out would require some crafting.”

Xia Lei reminded, “She’s very cunning and exceptionally paranoid. If you don’t give her a believable excuse, she would suspect you of foul play. I seriously think you should consider your excuse carefully.”

Thompson nodded and began to ponder. His brows were knitted with concentration. Brain fixated on the mental image of Hattori Mei and the twenty million USD, the current Thompson was a different man from the pathetic one in the desert. Admittedly, he found something Xia Lei said earlier favourable. Sometimes, a little gambling spirit is needed. This was true for his current situation. As long as he completes this gig, his life would be vastly different! But the process to obtain that twenty million USD was bound to be a difficult one. Thompson had never once in his life thought that inviting a woman out for a meeting could be so hard.

At this moment, Sa’im walked over. He waved at Xia Lei, beckoning the man over for a word.

Xia Lei stood up and went towards him. He spoke in Arabic, “What’s the matter?”

Xia Lei had laid explicit instructions to the Chinese Zodiac Battle Team members to avoid conversing in Chinese with Thompson in their proximity. This was to avoid Thompson from drawing any linkage between them and China.

Sa’im had taken it well. He was behaving extra careful than usual. He directly went for Xia Lei’s ear and whispered in Arabic, “I’ve just received news that Hattori Mei’s mother had been caught.”

“Alive?”

Sa’im offered a curt nod.

A smile blossomed across Xia Lei’s face. He quickly tugged Sa’im over to the backyard. While Thompson did not speak a single lick of Arabic, an extra helping of caution did not hurt.

In the backyard, Tsukino Kyoko was submerged in the cool chlorinated waters of the pool. The way the female ninja utilized the facility was unorthodox. With one katana in her grip, she used the water’s resistance to train her speed and strength. Tsukino Kyoko was bound to face her master, Yagyu Yuichi, in due time. She only had a finite amount of time to prepare herself physically and mentally.

Xia Lei and Sa’im’s sudden appearance did not falter Tsukino Kyoko’s swing. She continued her training but strategically moved her body to a corner of the pool, where the tiled pool wall would shield her out of sight. After all, her body was clad in nothing more than a scanty bikini. If it was just Xia Lei, Tsukino Kyoko wouldn’t have bothered to move away. She was even more than eager to remove her swimwear. However, Sa’im had appeared alongside Xia Lei. Tsukino Kyoko was reluctant to even display a single bit of skin to him.

After the female ninja had moved away, the two men’s gaze had fallen on the pool.

Xia Lei asked, “Where is Hattori Wendy now?”

Sa’im answered, “She’s still in Japan at the moment. Her captor has plans to decapitate her and bring it to your four knights for their reward in a cooler box. Your reward for capturing her alive is one fold larger than having her dead. Forty million dollars is more than enough to have the assassins pull something crazy.”

“Who caught her?” Xia Lei threw a nonchalant question.

Sa’im replied, “Some guy nicknamed Mechanic. As for his real name, all assassins go by fake names. My people did not look into his background and there is no point doing so.”

Xia Lei hummed. “Your people did the right thing. Running a background check on an experienced assassin would raise suspicion. But shouldn’t Giovanna and the girls know about this? How did you find out earlier?”

Sa’im chuckled. “The Mechanic has not contacted them yet. As I said, the Relief Society is more suited for collecting low-level intel. They’re better at locating people but when it comes to high-level intel, they would face limitations.”

It was evident the Iraqi was trying to prove the value of his intelligence network.

That elicited a small laugh from Xia Lei. “You make sense but a combination of your strengths would produce a stronger intelligence force.”

Doot doot doot… Doot doot doot…

Xia Lei’s satellite phone rang as if on cue.

It only took one glance at the screen for him to answer the call.

“Boss, I bring you good news.” It was Giovanna.

Xia Lei raised a brow. “What is it?” While he already had an idea what Giovanna was about to reveal, he decided to ignore whatever Sa’im had told him earlier to avoid possible conflict. To Xia Lei, both intelligence networks provided by Sa’im and the female knights were equally important. One simple proof of that was how Sa’im and his network had failed to locate Zhu Xuanyue in one month’s time while Giovanna and her team had succeeded with a shorter time frame.

To no one’s surprise, Giovanna’s news was the same.

Xia Lei smiled. “That truly is good news.”

Giovanna went on, “The Mechanic has already sent me a video. I’ve already forwarded it to your mailbox. Go check it out. I’m sure you’ll love it.”

Xia Lei promised,” Okay, I will.”

“Oh, right. He also asked me if we’d prefer him doing a live execution or him bringing the decapitated head over to the US. I need your opinion on this. This is not my decision to make,” uttered Giovanna.

Xia Lei thought for a beat. “Tell him to bring her to America.”

“To America?”

“Yes, you heard that right.” Xia Lei continued, “The reward for capturing Hattori Wendy alive was forty million dollars. Ever wondered why it’s onefold larger? Tell him that you’ll pay him twenty million dollars first and when Wendy is on American soil, you’ll pay him the rest of the amount.”

Giovanna sounded a little concerned. “But the Japanese government has locked its borders. Bringing her over to America will be difficult.”

Xia Lei suggested, “Tell him to take her to the four northern islands controlled by Russia. With that, they can come over to America From Russia via Europe.”

“Wow, I did not think of that. In that case, I think there should be no further issue. I’ll go contact him right away,” said Giovanna.

“How is everything on your side?” asked Xia Lei.

Giovanna answered, “We’ve managed to recruit quite an amount of criminals and murderers. Other than that, we also started to reach out to armed organizations. Currently, we have more than two hundred involved and the team is still under expansion.”

“That’s good to know. Just wait for my call.” Xia Lei hung up and turned to Sa’im. “Continue to keep an eye on V Science Corp’s branch office. Remember to have your people on extreme alert, they must not be spotted.”

“Got it, boss. Rest assured that even if they were exposed, my men could not sell us out because they have no knowledge of this place.” And with that, Sa’im left the backyard.

Xia Lei swiftly brought out his laptop and plopped down onto a beach chair beside the pool. It did not take long for him to locate Giovanna’s mail and the attached video.

In the clip, a man with a black balaclava had his fist in a clump of a woman’s hair. The woman had a crown of blond hair and blue eyes. She was a standard Caucasian woman. Although her age was apparent, her body was evidently in shape. Plump where it needed to be and thin at other areas. It was not hard to imagine how attractive she must’ve been in her youth, or else it would’ve been a problem to charm a man like Hattori Masao. Her facial features were rather similar to Hattori Mei. Just by the first impression, Xia Lei was able to tell that this woman was indeed Hattori Wendy, the mother of his nemesis.

While a thin strand of blood was positively seeping out of the corner of her lips, her fiery glare was unwavering. It was unmistaken that Hattori Mei got it from her mother.

The man with the black balaclava began to speak in English. “Say your name to the camera!”

“Ptui!” Came Hattori Wendy’s feisty response.

Smack! The man mercilessly delivered a harsh slap across Hattori Wendy’s cheek. The latter’s head snapped over with force and a red palm mark bloomed across her beautiful face.

The Mechanic was absolutely merciless!

Smack! Smack! Smack!

Xia Lei had thought that a slap would be sufficient to get the job done but the Mechanic showed no signs of stopping. Without another word, he tugged on Wendy’s hair tighter and brought her face up to be slapped repeatedly. Each slap was delivered with unhindered force. As Hattori Wendy’s face was thrown side to side by the brutal impact, her angelic face was soon deformed.

Xia Lei couldn’t help but doubt himself. Was he doing the right thing? In the name of revenge and for the sake of dissolving the threats posed by the Hattori clan, he had resorted to using such a despicable approach. If this was a cheesy movie, Xia Lei would definitely be the antagonist that was bound to be taken out by Hattori Mei.

Xia Lei couldn’t help but laugh bitterly at the ridiculous mental image. It was hard not to have regret gnaw at his conscience as he watched the Mechanic torment Hattori Wendy. But this was just a fleeting feeling. This was a war between him and the whole of Japan’s samurai community. There was no real justice in war, the only thing that mattered was victories and defeats. History had always been written by the victors since the dawn of mankind.

“Fucking hell. Do I need to fuck you stupid for you to speak up?” The Mechanic reached down to unzip his trousers.

It was then that Hattori Wendy panicked. She quickly relented, “I… I’m Hattori Wendy.”

The Mechanic let go of her hair unceremoniously. “See, easy right? Bitch.” He turned around and faced the camera. “I’m the Mechanic and I have Hattori Wendy in my grasp. The reward is mine. How do you wish for her to die?” He gestured a sign before the screen stopped moving.

And that was all the clip had to offer.

Xia Lei folded his laptop up.

At this moment, Thompson appeared in the backyard. “Mister James, I’ve thought of a way to get Hattori Mei out.”

Xia Lei perked up at that. “What is it? Do tell.”

Thompson came closer and whispered into his ear. “My plan is…”