Chapter 232 - Chapter 27, Episode 7: For Whom The Bell Tolls
Chapter 232 – Chapter 27, Episode 7: For Whom The Bell Tolls
The tip of the Peskett CCW’s tooth scratched the victims’ neck. There wasn’t a need to cut deeper. 100 grams of that poison could wipe out the entire population on earth. Its effects were guaranteed as long as some of it penetrated their veins.
The ominous tooth-like knife flashed, leaving behind afterimages.
Woosh—
The wind that shook the tent moved onto the next camp. It barely took five seconds for Black Mamba to cut 20 terrorist wannabes and leave.
By the time he entered the next camp, he’d ended the lives of 20 Horazan. Blood flowed proportionately to the squared diameter of a vein. The blood flowed from the carotid artery to the brain at 500 millimeters per second. The botulinum toxin had turned their brains into mush in just one and a half seconds.
The victims’ reactions were extreme. They opened their eyes and grabbed their necks while coughing. They died in that state. It was the potency of the botulinum toxin F that Zaitun had trusted and never doubted. Black Mamba was amazed by its devil-like power.
30 seconds later, camp one of suicide special forces, Horazan, was quietly erased from the world without any traces of their existence. The hands of death that had spread across the Sahel were now stomping out the evil in Kaparja Valley. Asura’s cruel hands had saved countless lives, but the world didn’t know.
Woosh—
The black shadow ran across the valley at a terrifying speed. The scenery changed as he climbed 300 meters. The canopy that connected both sides of the valley seemed as though it would collapse. It was the place that Jamal had told him about.
There wasn’t a need to search for the ammunition storage room, either. The place where the guards guarded with blazing eyes was the ammunition storage room. Two guards were hidden in the crevices of the cliff, 15 meters above the cave, while two others stood in front of the cave’s entrance.
It was well-hidden but impossible to fool Black Mamba’s senses.
Whisk—
The darts crossed the space between them. The darts traveled directly across and pierced the hidden guards’ necks by the entrance.
“Uh—”
A gasp that was unlike a shout could be heard. It was a state when the lungs released air. The dart, which pierced their necks, dug upwards diagonally and shattered their medullas. The guards lost their lives without a single scream.
By the time the guards’ heads fell, two more darts flew through the air and descended in a gentle curve. It was the convolution technique that he’d learned recently. The darts, which fell from the sky, dug deep into the hidden guards’ heads. In the receivers’ position, it was like lightning on a clear day.
“Kugh!”
The victims’ limbs trembled before their heads rolled forward. At least, they were able to make a sound before they died.
There was no time to check whether a siren had been set up.
Crash—
With the complete impact, the thick ammunition storage room door fell apart.
Crack—
With a front kick, he sent the door flying and ran inside. Fortunately, there wasn’t any siren.
Black Mamba’s eyes widened. The cave was far too big. He felt as though he’d stepped into the prayer hall of a cathedral. The rows of black and khaki boxes blocked his sight.
He found an overhead crane while looking for a place to attach the explosives. His sight followed the crane’s rail, and soon, his eyes wavered.
“Mi…missile!” he groaned unconsciously.
An S-25 Berkut surface-to-air missile hung. It had a slim, black body with propelling boosters at 12 meters long. There were 20 missiles lined as though in formation. It was a fearful sight. Only then did he understand why the ammunition room was so big. That wasn’t an ammunition storage room but a missile storage room.
The S-25 Berkut was an older missile modeled for the Dvina’s development. The Soviet Union’s true surface-to-air missile was the S-75 Dvina. It was a missile that had overtaken the United State’s reconnaissance aircraft U-2. Black Mamba would have feared it.
The Berkut was old, but the specs were progressive. The medium-range missile had an altitude reach of eight kilometers and a range of 32 kilometers. Its flight speed was faster compared to the Dvina. It was developed in 1928, and nearly 10,000 units had been produced.
The Berkut and Dvina missiles were stationed all across the Middle East. The country with the tightest missile defense line was Syria.
Assad’s true enemy wasn’t Israel but Turkey. He had moved a portion of the mid-southern air defense line against Israel to Aleppo’s northern regions, by Turkey’s borders. Syria had set up large-scale missiles in Rajo mountain and Kaparja Valley for extreme situations. That was also part of Assad’s intentions to seize France’s ownership of oil fields.
It was the result of the CIA’s tight-knitted mission and the reason why the missiles had been moved to Kaparja Valley, which the DGSE had failed to notice. The two large air missiles that the French intelligence department had failed to notice were revealed after Black Mamba’s infiltration. France had blown their nose without touching it. That was the power of the special call name, Black Mamba.
“Putain, what’s wrong!”
Something was wrong. He’d overheard from the two Yankees’ conversation that they were planning something there. Considering the situation so far, Syria and the ANO weren’t simply allies. As Zaitun had said, there was something more to Assad’s secret special forces.
It was strange since he had initially heard that two water generators had been installed. There were too many suspicions. Even the unapproachable cave that Jamal had talked about was bothering him.
Ah!
Black Mamba clicked his tongue. He hadn’t considered visiting the unapproachable cave and water generators in his lap time. There were barely five minutes left. He’d missed the important places. It was impossible to replace the explosives on a new target in under five minutes.
“I should head back in.”
Black Mamba wasn’t the type of person to hesitate. Now was the time to act, not think. He attached one rice cake to the Berkut’s body and searched for another explosive to create a chain explosion.
“I knew it.”
Long wooden crates stacked into twos, which were above the palette, caught his attention.
Bang—
The 30 millimeters wood, which received his punch, tore away like styrofoam.
“Bingo!”
There was no reason for the MANPADS to be absent when the Berkut was around. Four 1.2 meters of silver bodies rolled out of the box. It was the Strela-2’s warheads called the MANPADS. There were 40 boxes of MANPADS. That meant there were 160 in total.
He stuck a rice cake on the MANPADS box, which was worth 2,000 grams. The Berkut’s warhead weighed 200 kilograms. 20 units meant 4,000 kilograms. Each MANPADS warhead was 1.8 kilograms. 160 of them meant 288 kilograms. It was hard to imagine the impact of the 4,288 kilograms high-explosive warheads.
Its effects would be limited if the natural cave that was surrounded by 120 meters of bedrock absorbed its impact. On the other hand, the entire valley might collapse if Kaparja Valley’s rock structures were weak. No one could tell the results.
His sense of smell, which was much more sensitive than a dog’s nose, easily found the smell of oily metal. The cave, which was barely 50 meters away from the ammunition storage room, was the weapons storage room.
Crack—
Crack—
The guards, who had their heads punched in, died without pain.
Bang—
The door latch broke with a single kick. There wasn’t even time to check the weapons. He attached two rice cakes, grabbed a bag, and turned without looking back. The bag was for the gold that he was about to steal.
There were eight rice cakes left. His backpack became slimmer after removing 50 kilograms of explosives. When his fearless steps were activated to its utmost, a black line appeared straight down the side of the cliff. At a speed of 60 kilometers per second, he had run 100 meters in six seconds. His aim was the ANO headquarters with its tempting gold.
Black Mamba lifted the entire chicken coop away and ran underground. Several chickens flapped, but he didn’t care. There was barely 120 seconds left until the first explosion. He could turn into a crisp with a single misstep.
Bang—
The thick basement door went flying with a kick. He got rougher as time was running out.
“What the hell?”
The three people who’d been drinking stood up. There was no reason to answer them as he lacked the benevolence to spare humans who acted like animals. He snatched the Gorgon’s handle.
Flick—
The Gorgon flew across the air. Three heads floated in the sky without a single scream heard. The results were no different from Ocelot’s rampage in the Sahel.
Pools of blood oozed out from the headless necks. It was a horrible sight that one shouldn’t ever witness, but Black Mamba didn’t even blink. He would have interrogated them to gather information if he had the time, but he didn’t.
“Yes, you are the b*stards who I don’t have a problem killing.”
They were b*stards who were carrying out a horrible plan. Whether it was the U.S. or the Soviets, they wouldn’t be able to say anything. They would just be classified as missing. That was the fate of those who worked overseas.
Time passed terrifyingly fast. 10 seconds had passed instantly. He swept the victims’ objects on the table into his bag and kicked the bookshelf away.
Bang—
The thick bookshelf made of oakwood flew across the room and crashed on the headless corpses.
Thankfully, the b*stards hadn’t touched the safe. He’d been relieved of the trouble to unlock the safe again. Otherwise, he would have had to give it up considering the time.
Ruman was about to become a huge fireball. He swept the documents, videos, wads of cash, and the gold bars into his bag. 40 seconds remained.
Black Mamba stood before the victims and prayed once he finished his work. At least by title, he was a monk’s apprentice. He would feel uncomfortable disappearing without reciting a single line of prayer.
“I don’t know who you are, but I took your revenge. Be well in the afterlife. May your flesh be unharmed, Namu Amita Bul!”
Black Mamba, who was about to step out of the entrance, returned. He placed two rice cakes in the big room where all the electronic devices were. That was an important place, similar to the radar control station and other major facility buildings. He had 30 seconds left.
Black Mamba flew upwards and attached two more rice cakes to the outer wall of the building before running towards the outer fence. A watchman blocked his path.
“Tenta mushinoon!”[1]
A bullet replied to the watchman’s scream.
Papat—
An MP5 spewed fire.
“Agh!”
With a hole in his forehead, the watchman snapped his head back as though it was about to break. Black Mamba ran without turning back. There were 10 seconds left.
“Agh!” The second watchman he met returned to greet Allah. The searchlight turned inwards as though it had noticed something suspicious. Black Mamba ran without any concern.
“Dellatoon!”[2]
Bang bang bang—
Bullets poured out of the guard posts alongside a shout. The sniper’s eyesight couldn’t catch up with his sprint. Dust, which was raised from the ground as a result of the bullets, followed the sprinting Black Mamba. Seven seconds before the explosion, Black Mamba leaped over the metal fence and disappeared into the darkness. It had been 28 minutes since his invasion.
Ruman woke up.
Whoosh—
The outdoor light came on. Shouts echoed, and members armed with guns poured out of the headquarters. It was an extremely quick reaction.
Beep—
At a laptime of 1,040 seconds, Black Mamba’s watch stopped.
Boom—
A thick explosion rang. A red flare flashed. Following that, explosions could be heard in intervals of a half-second to one and a half seconds. The interval that Black Mamba wanted was 0.3 seconds.
The combined explosives that the DGSE had given him were stronger than he had thought. Humans and various kinds of rubbles flew into the air. Ruman’s night sky lit up brightly. It was the best kind of fireworks display.
“This isn’t what I imagined.”
150 meters away, Black Mamba tilted his head as he stared at the burning Ruman. The explosions were weaker than he had expected. His resonance-induced explosions had failed. Explosions weren’t his specialty as he’d expected.
The problem was the missile storage room. The surface-to-air missile warhead was weaker than the surface-to-surface or surface-to-ship missiles’, but there were over 160 of them. If all 4,288 kilograms of the warheads exploded at once, it’d take out the entire area of three kilometers in diameter. The valley had to be shaken even if it meant suppressing the cave’s explosion.
Just then, the ground shook.
Boom—
Kaparja Valley lit up after a large explosion. The C-4’s that he’d placed in the ammunition storage room had exploded a little late.
Sound traveled slower than seismic waves. A dark red light and smoke in the shape of mushrooms rose to the sky.
Boom—
The ground rang again. It was the second wave.
Woosh—
The ground shook violently.
“Woah!”
Black Mamba rushed to cover his eyes.
Flash—
A red dragon flew upwards. A pillar of fire that was 10 meters in diameter crossed the valley and pierced the opposite side of the cliffs. Unmeasurable air suppression and rubbles caused by the explosion used the cave as its springboard to escape. It was an unprecedented bombardment of four tons of TNT.
Boom—
The cliff, which had been in its direct line of fire, shook. The flares brightened up Kaparja Valley.
Brrr—
Sounds followed. Dark clouds in the shape of tall mushrooms filled Ruman’s skies.
Voom—
A storm comparable to a hurricane rushed towards the inner depths of the valley. It was the second wave that filled the empty air with particles left behind from the explosions. Dust and specks of rocks filled the sky.
“Huh, it’s collapsing.”
The cliff slowly tilted.
Baaang—
The cliff that was 120 meters high collapsed down into the valley. The debris and dust clouded the moon. It was a destructive scene that not even Hollywood’s blockbusters could imitate.
“Oooh, amazing. B*stards, you should be on this scale to play with explosives. Hehehe.”
That was an astronomical scale of playing with fire. Black Mamba fell in love with his first creation.
“What?”
Surprised by the explosion, Abu Bansiri leaped up. No, he tried to get up but fell on his bed instead.
“Agh!”
Boom—
The entire building shook once. The floor slab collapsed. Bansiri rolled to the first floor without help. He rolled on the ground and jumped to his feet. His body, which had rolled around the battlefields for 20 years, saved him from the shock.
Crumble—
The building vibrated. Bansiri ran out without a second thought.
“Oh, Allah!”
Allah’s name unknowingly escaped from his mouth. His mind went blank white.
Slap—
He slapped his cheek as hard as he could. In a sea of fire, Aloadin didn’t change. There wasn’t a single building untouched, including the storage rooms and camps.
[1] “F****** crazy b*stard!”
[2] “Enemy!”