"Criminals? What criminals?" Leon Ling gaped at the military police platoon who had showed up. Colonel Carl Chan nodded at them and gestured, and they immediately marched into the compound, past the Ling family's guards.
Even though the men in suits were helpless in front of such a formidable force. Their sidearm and pistols were no match for the laser carbines that the military police were holding. They were forced to step aside in reflex when seeing the massive firepower arrayed before them, doing their best not to be intimidated and failing miserably.
"I'm sorry, Mr. Ling," Chan told the indignant owner of the estate, his voice unapologetic. "But one of our military assets came under threat, and we would like to apprehend the culprits who put him in danger."
"That…" Leon faltered, but he was unable to deny it. Instead, it was the guys' parents who rushed forward, dropping to their knees and pleading.
"No! Please! Don't take our sons away!"
"We promise we'll discipline them! We'll definitely punish them and make them reflect on their actions!"
"Please give them another chance!"
The guys, on the other hand, were too stunned to say anything. They gulped and exchanged glances, at a total loss. They could only stare at their parents pleadingly, hoping that their family wealth and statuses would pull them out of the fire.
The girls, as an aside, looked horrified. Linda and her female friends were so pale that they looked like they were about to faint. They obviously hadn't considered the consequences of their actions or thought that money and influence could cover up everything.
Unfortunately for them, they were dead wrong.
"Give them another chance? To attack one of our top engineers? The only one capable of building the shield generators?"
Chan scowled and shook his head. The parents looked like they were about to protest, but the colonel retrieved his smartphone from his uniform pocket and played it.
"That fucker! How dare he humiliate us?!"
"We'll definitely find a way to take revenge. Next time, we'll hit him in a place where our parents aren't around! There will be nobody to save him!"
"I'll hire the Red Tiger Gang. I have a few connections. They can take care of this for us in exchange for a few ten thousand yuan."
"Hah! If you do, make sure to tell them not to just kill him. Beat him up, break all the bones in his body. Ensure that he suffers as much pain as possible…only then, allow him to die."
"Great idea!"
The voices of both the guys floated out of the smartphone, while the girls giggled in the background, evidently approving of their boyfriends' plans.
"You…how…?!" One of the guys demanded, his face as white as a sheet.
"Did you bug us?!" Another guy shouted, enraged. He trembled and frothed at the mouth. "How dare you bug us!? This is an invasion of privacy! We will be reporting this to the government!"
"Sure, you can take this up to the government, after they hear what you said regarding your schemes of murder against one of our country's top military asset. I don't suppose they will be very forgiving."
Chan stared them down, his hands clasped behind his back. The guys cowered, unable to rebut anything.
"You…?!" The mother of one of the guys cried. "What were you doing, Vincent?! How could you?! We told you to stop it, and yet you still planned to scheme and plot against Mr. Shen?!"
"You…you are going to be the death of me!" the father of one of them spluttered, clutching his chest in anger. "I've brought you up to such an age, and you repay me with this…this nonsense! I have spoilt you too much!"
"In any event," Chan continued, not caring about the unfolding drama unfolding before him. "They will be taken into military police custody, so as to prevent them from threatening the safety of our asset."
Seriously? Stop calling me an asset. I hated that. It made me sound like some sort of object, and I felt uncomfortable. It was almost as if I was a tool and not a living thing. Then again, that was how the military viewed me, and I didn't blame them. From an objective point of view, I was certainly valuable to them because I singlehandedly revolutionized military technology with my shield generator. My loss would be devastating, particularly to a nation who stood to capitalize on this unprecedented invention to dominate the world militarily.
Of course, there was a danger that came with that, and sooner or later we would be forced to share the technology or risk nuclear annihilation (my shield generators weren't that strong – they wouldn't be able to withstand a nuclear explosion). But we would be dictating the terms of distribution and sales. That meant the profits would go to me…and I would be able to do something with all that money.
Unlike most people, I didn't want to get richer for the sake of it. I was going to reinvest all that cash into green technology, but that wasn't relevant here.
"Mr. Shen!" The mother of one of the guys threw herself at my feet, grabbing me and begging. "Please stop them! They'll listen to you!"
"That's right! Mr. Shen agreed not to press charges!" Another mother shouted, jabbing her finger at the grim-faced soldiers. "You can't do this! You can't just take them away! It's illegal!"
"Mr. Shen was so kind that he didn't even ask you for compensation even though your sons nearly murdered him," Chan replied, ignoring the outstretched finger. "And we do not answer to Mr. Shen. Our job is to ensure his safety. If what makes him safe contradicts his wishes, then too bad, he'll have to suck it up."
"You…you…!" The parents spluttered. I simply shook my head helplessly.
"Sorry. I can't do anything."
"Yeah, and you shouldn't. Leave your safety to the professionals." Chan placed a hand on my shoulder before stalking off.
I watched the military police manhandle the feisty guys and shoved them into the back of the trucks they came in. They handcuffed the indignant second generation rich kids and shoved them roughly, almost sending them sprawling onto the ground. Of course, the military police didn't let them fall. They grabbed the dudes and hauled them back before they could splat face first onto the ground.
"Please!" The guys' parents were begging. "You can't do this! You can't take them away!"
Chan offered them a cruel smile. "Don't worry, we'll just put them in detention. Since they are not military and they are not prisoners of war, we have no intention of placing them in military prison."
"Then where are you taking them?" One of the fathers demanded.
"Back to camp, where they will be…disciplined." Chan considered for a moment. "Perhaps they will be conscripted…"
"You can't do this!" One of the guys shouted. "We don't want to be in the military! You can't force us to join the army!"
"Then we won't," Chan assured him, much to the guys' surprise. They looked at each other, as if they weren't sure what they had just heard, and then Chan shoved them into the truck. "But we'll be confining you for now to ensure Mr. Shen's safety."
The guys bristled and glared at me. I didn't reply and turned away. Chan smirked, and then he disappeared into one of the land rovers. In a procession, the military transports drove off in a formation. Several of the guys' parents screamed and chased after them, to no avail.
"I'll talk to the higher-ups and get them to release your sons," I told them, even though I didn't know how much help that would be. They simply nodded.
"Please do," one of the fathers said, his eyes brimming with tears. I scratched my head sheepishly before nodding.
"Yeah."
To my surprise, Chan assured me that they would let the guys off that night. And he had instructions that bewildered me.
"You should come pick them up yourself."
"Huh?" I couldn't believe what I was hearing. "I have to pick them up?"
"That's the condition of letting them go. Besides, we left them stranded in the middle of nowhere, in the middle of the night. They have no transports, no cellphone reception, nothing. They are completely lost. You should do them a favor and drivee them home."
Something about this made no sense whatsoever. I frowned, but decided to just roll with it. It sounded as if Chan had some sort of plan, and I suspected I knew what it entailed. Taking a deep breath, I drove my Toyota toward the coordinates Chan gave me, relying on my smartphone. However, as I expected, the Global Positioning System lost its signal and I had to rely on the downloaded map.
It didn't take long before I spotted the guys all wandering about the road, looking rather lost. I pulled my car to a stop and got out, waving at them. The five or so guys were all battered and shaken, and they were also trembling from the cold. It was only natural – when the military police apprehended them, they were still only dressed in their swimming trunks. This time of the night, without the proper attire, they couldn't help but feel chilly.
Shaking my head sympathetically, I sighed.
"I'll send you guys home. Get in the car."
"This is your fault!"
"Get him! KILL him!"
Somehow, despite only wearing swimming trunks, the five second generation rich kids were somehow able to produce knives and metal pipes out of nowhere. Or maybe they found it on the ground, but how the hell did they randomly stumble upon such weapons in the middle of the road, I had no idea. I suddenly realized that the soldiers might have provided those weapons. That was the only rational explanation.
The five or so guys never reached me. Gunshots thundered through the air and they fell, cauterized craters in their heads and chests. Military police hurried out of bushes and from behind trees, keeping the barrels of their laser carbines trained upon the fallen corpses.
"You planned this didn't you?" I asked Chan, who was strolling out behind his soldiers, looking smug. The colonel grinned and shrugged innocently.
"Whatever are you talking about? They are the ones who tried to kill you. We simply protected you."
More like they used this as an excuse to eliminate the bastards.
I couldn't help but feel a chill when I realized just how ruthless the military was, to the extent that they were able to shoot a bunch of second generation rich kids in cold blood.