Richard raised his gun instinctively as his eyes travelled from the tied up soldiers to the hovering chopper that was about to take away the intruders. He wanted to retaliate. He wanted to fight back and stop this but he gave up in the end.
They still had Priscilla and she wasn't comfortable at all. Seeing the Colonel raise his gun slightly, K1 tightened his grip around Priscilla's neck and gripped his gun harder, pressing it against her temple. He smiled broadly at Richard.
"Get to the chopper!"
The others grabbed the heavy bags which contained the parts of the military exoskeleton suit and threw them up to K6 and K4 who took the bags and set them down. The others then climbed into the chopper.
K1 walked backwards still holding tightly onto Priscilla who kept wincing with his every move. He reached the exit and paused as if pondering his next move.
Richard made eye contact with the other soldiers who had come back to help out and nodded, subtly passing over the grenade launcher. Richard made ready. He wanted to blow the damned chopper to bits the moment they let go of Priscilla.
K1 suddenly pushed Priscilla to the side and dashed towards the chopper which was hovering. The moment Priscilla fell to the side; bullets flew through the whole area aimed at the chopper. K1 struggled in and the chopper started to ascend.
However, as Richard aimed the grenade launcher, the exit door had started to close till there was not enough space to fire the grenade at the chopper. He sighed and put down the launcher.
Priscilla groaned. 'Pushing me so hard wasn't in the plan!' she thought. However, the move had given her time to use the fall to push the exit lever up thereby closer the door before Richard had the chance to do what he had planned.
The soldiers stood there with a defeated look. They seemed to be wondering how only a few people could've outsmarted them all.
Richard rushed to Priscilla and helped her up. She coughed dryly to and hung onto his body. She seemed to be shaking. Richard patted her back and hugged her closer. 'This could be the first time she was in such a threatening situation.'
After a while, he nodded to Pauline. "Take her along; I need to look around this building a bit more."
Pauline nodded and led Priscilla away from the exit.
After they left, Richard followed the soldiers back to the underground facility and also took a look around. Bodies were scattered along the corridor. Most of which were dismembered. Obviously done by an explosive.
He stepped over the dead soldiers and moved towards the lab that the intruders had come in through. He looked around and took note of everything in the room. Most of the engineers and scientists had followed back in after the commotion died down.
Richard turned to them and asked, "What was here? What did they take?"
The men exchanged looks but remained quiet. Richard nodded indiscernibly and raised his gun at them. He shot randomly at them but he didn't aim at anyone so the bullets only flew past their heads.
This seemed to serve as a warning to them. One of the scientists—shaking in his boots—began to explain. "…they took the exoskeleton suit!"
Richard frowned. "What's so special about this exoskeleton suit that it had to be built in secret?"
The man quaked slightly before replying. "Well, it's not a conventional military weapon. This one runs on nuclear reactor power core and it was meant to serve more like a…"
"Military war head!" Richard completed the sentence with a snort. Why would the country commission a nuclear war head in the form of an exoskeleton suit?
"Not just as a war head," the man shook his head grimly. "It's also meant to be more versatile and has more weapons and advanced targeting system. It was meant to be invincible due to its infinite amount of energy."
Richard didn't listen anymore. He walked out of the underground lab with a twisted face. 'Whatever the suit can do it's not simple. If that suit were to step foot into Cruderian soil and trigger a conflict then it would use the opportunity to go nuclear…' he considered.
Whoever those people were, he had to seek a way to find them before they used the exoskeleton suit for purposes of war.
….
He returned back to the truck that they had come in. More soldiers from the HQ had arrived so he decided to leave. He glanced at Priscilla who was still a bit shaken by what had happened.
His eyes travelled along her neck to her cheek. Her neck was bruised and her cheek was reddened. Five finger prints were left on her cheek. He shrugged off his jacket and handed it to her.
Priscilla took the jacket slowly and draped it over her shoulder. Richard then patted her arm and squeezed it. She sat there silently with glazed eyes.
"General Gordon demands that we report to the HQ immediately." Pauline informed.
Richard nodded. "Let's drop Dr Harris home first."
The truck drove out of the base and went down the road. No one spoke. Everyone seemed to be deep in thought as they tried to decipher what had just happened in the base. Such an attack couldn't have been done on a whim. It had to have been carefully planned and executed to get the effects. Despite being caught, Richard thought, they still managed to find a way to make it work to the end.
He then thought about all the signs that he must have missed during the day that could have pointed out the intruders but he couldn't come up with anything.
He sighed and rested his head on the backrest. This development was sure to leave a stain on his reputation. He threw all the thoughts to the back of his mind and looked out the window as the truck drove along.