Neil is still working his way down, gathering information from as many floors as he can, and doing a good job up until...
["Hey!"]
While walking down a hallway, he encountered another terrorist. Dressed in a stinky suit, he silently moved past him to avoid suspicion, but the terrorist still manages to notice him.
["Why are you here?"]
The terrorist asked in unidentified language.
He also started to realize something after a short time of no response.
"So you're voluntary Americans, which unit do you belong to?"
Remaining completely silent, the person being questioned stays motionless, not even bothering to look back at him.
"I repeat, which unit do you belong to?!"
Neil recognizes that the situation has shifted from a mere question to a serious danger. If he rejects and disregards the terrorist's demands, violence will inevitably occur.
Despite having extraordinary combat capabilities, Neil has no desire to engage in any conflict at this moment, especially when the terrorist is armed and he still wants to stay low as long as possible.
So he decided to give in and turn around.
The terrorist was startled by Neil's slow movement, he gripped his rifle and readied himself.
Yet nothing happened, the two of them simply stared at one another until Neil begin to speak.
"I'm-"
"Attention! Attention all personnel! We have a spy in this building. They have killed and disguised themselves as one of us. If you discover any of them, capture them alive."
A man's voice emerged from a nearby speaker placed at the corners, blasting and filling the hall with its high-volume sound and echoing across the entire floor.
Once the voice is gone, the two men found themselves awkwardly looking at each other in the empty hallway as they finally unravel everything.
To the terrorist, the man in front of him is acting suspiciously as if he was the spy that the voice mentioned.
To Neil, this means that his team has been caught, and right before him is an armed terrorist that would immediately attack him the moment he found out Neil's true identity.
And now, both of them are waiting for the other one to make their first move.
"..."
The terrorist grabs and aims his rifle at Neil, in response, Neil instantly moved to the corner of a right turn near him-
BANG!!
The terrorist fired a shot, but Neil was able to run for cover just in time to avoid being hit. However, the shot's tearing sound resonated throughout the building's floors.
["Floor 80! Floor 80! I repeat a Spy is on Floor 80! I need assistance immediately!"]
The terrorist then takes the Walkie-Talkie and calls his commander to ask for help, but in a few seconds of doing so, he has lowered his gun just enough for Neil to jump out of the corner and seize it.
He grabs and pulls the rifle's handguard so that the barrel points away from him, and now they are both fighting each other with the terrorist unable to use his gun.
In this battle to the death, Neil cornered the terrorist and locked him by placing the terrorist's gun under his crotch and pushing the terrorist against the wall with his left hand.
Neil then reaches into his right pocket and pulls out a Glock G17 pistol with his free hand.
BANG! BANG!
And shot the terrorist twice in the head with it.
Neil stepped back and released the terrorist when he felt no more resistance from him; the terrorist then slid along the wall to the floor, leaving a trail of blood in his wake.
This has confirmed that the terrorist is dead. However, he could not relax right now
He may have eliminated one threat, but he also created a ton of new ones, sooner or later, more terrorists will flood in this area because of the loud gunshots and he needs to act fast and regroup with the others.
He quickly moved his body again and started ascending the steps to return to where he had left Chad and Saiko.
------A few minutes later------
Rushing back to the top floor as fast as he can, with an AR-15 assault rifle in his hand to fight off any terrorist he encounters, Neil was praying that his two students is still Okay.
During his sprint going up through the floors, he engaged with some more terrorists which he has been previously successful to avoid when going down.
His fear flooded his mind when he think of the forcefield machine being the first thing that the terrorist will check when they know that there are spies among them.
But he doesn't have time to think, he needs to get there ASAP!
So he refocused on killing the terrorists who are standing in his way, he slaughters them with no mercy and filled the dark and silent floors of the Empire State at night with gunfire sounds, and flashes.
Even if doing means that all the terrorists on the floors below will know where he is and will stream into the area, he doesn't care. He just doesn't want to repeat a mistake in his past.
It was during his service in Afghanistan, it was also during a secret infiltration mission like this, he thoughts things would be easy since he has talent, but because of his miscalculations and selfishness, his entire squad was dead.
And right now, the circumstance he's in serves as a reminder of that—no, it haunted him.
He fears that this plan to infiltrate the terrorist compound will go wrong and that what happens to Chad and others would be the same thing that happened to his dead comrades in Afghanistan.
That was the main reason Neil didn't want to do this in the first place; he was sick of witnessing his friends died for him. All he is doing right now is making sure that none of those will ever happen again.
"Mister Neil?!"
A voice rise from behind, and it was the voice that Neil is glad to hear.
"Mister Neil! You came back."
Just as Neil reached the top, Chad and Saiko were hiding in a corner, gripping their handguns.
"Are you OK? Any injury?"
"No we are fine, we just came down a few minutes ago when the speaker-"
"Yeah, I know that. Are you done with the research?!"
"Yes, I mean we did learn enough, although we couldn't study the machine entirely but we are sure that blowing it up won't cause any further damage because the machine works on itself and the electricity only used to kick start th-"
"Good! I only need to know that, let's go! We got no time to waste."
He's right. The longer they stay at this place, it will become more vulnerable and more dangerous. Neil only needs to know that the two of them are safe and that they have the information they need.
Now, from 80 levels above the ground, he started escorting them down, passing the dead bodies of terrorists.
"Once I get you two to Nick, he will make sure you guys are safe. Then, I will go find Ben and Roy and escort them out and take the timed bomb that they found- that is if they found one, then I'll go and blow up the machine by myself."
"But..."
"Don't worry about me, I can do this. I'm the guy who saved you all from the terrorists remember?"
"Okay. But how did they know about us anyway?"
"I don't know. They didn't catch me nor you guys, right?"
"Yeah, could it be that Ben and Roy have been exposed?!"
"It could be. If that is so, the mission is over, but I still have to get you two out first."
This leaves Chad somewhat disappointed because he still wants to blow the place up in order to revenge on the terrorists for the deaths of innocent people as well as his friend.
-"Nick, do you copy? Hello? Nick, do you COPY?!"
Neil tried to contact Nick with the Walkie-Talkie that he brought with him when they had descended around three floors.
He should be waiting outside and staying fully alert throughout the night to keep an eye on the terrorists, yet somehow, he isn't responding.
-"Fuck! NICK DO YOU HEAR ME?!"
"What's happening?"
"I don't know, I can't contact Nick, he should be creating a diversion to help us out of here! Is this fucking radio broken?!"
"Mister Neil, WATCH OUT!!"
"Huh? Shit!"
A group of terrorists suddenly appears from a left turn in a hallway, catching Neil off guard.
Despite their surprise attack, Neil quickly responds and engages them in combat position, he uses his AR-15 to take down three of the terrorists in just under 5 seconds.
But to his surprise, five more are arriving from the same location.
Neil understands that he is up against a whole squad of terrorists who are now aware of him, something that is impossible for him to do and is made even more difficult by the fact that he has to protect Chad and Saiko.
So, in an instantaneous decision, Neil turned to something he had nearly forgotten was there, something he had taken from a terrorist, something that had saved him back at the museum.
When the terrorists were about to fire their guns at him and the other two, Neil hit the button on that device and extended his hand toward them just before they did.
As soon as that happened, a forcefield shield with a spherical shape and curved hexagonal pattern emerged from Neil's metal armband to block all of the terrorists' bullets. The shield was so large that it also shielded Chad and Saiko who were standing behind Neil.
Yet, they are unable to remain in this straight hallway much longer because if the terrorist were to approach them from behind, where they are not shielded, they would be in a checkmate.
"Mister Neil, we need to get out of here!"
"I know! Give me a second!"
If they want to leave here safely, he needs to find a way to get rid of these terrorists, which is currently tricky with a barrier directly in front of him.
Although the shield covers them from the terrorists, it also prevents Neil from fighting back; neither they can't hit him, nor can he shoot them.
It's a double-edged sword.
The only option left is to go back and find another way to exit the building, but where?
He doesn't know where the other stairs are, who in this lofty asses skyscraper would want to use stairs to walk around? And he has no idea if terrorists are ready to ambush them in below levels.
And since life is not a video game, he does not have endless energy or ammunition to keep fending them off. Just getting himself out is nearly impossible, he has to escort two teenagers who don't even have combat skills.
He starts to regret his decision to go with this plan, and now they are stuck in a cobra's nest without any help from the outside.
He remembered telling Chad that they would cease the operation and escape as soon as things starts going sideways.
But now, even if they want to, they can't escape. Neil has finally, run out of ideas, yet he continues to find just a single sight of hope even when it's hopeless, until...
"Wait, no way, no fucking way..."
Out of the blue, a person emerges from the same location, dressed casually in office attire with a tie and some blood stains instead of protective suits like the other terrorists.
As the man with the bushy beard steps out, Neil immediately recognizes him, an "old friend" he never thought he would never wish to meet again.
"Look who it is, my old friend, Neil Phildom. You haven't changed! You even brought young teenagers to die with you like last time!"
"You too, Gabriel. You didn't change either. Still the same attitude, the same job, the same douchebag, and the same beard. You must be missing me so much that you don't even shave your beard!"
"Thanks for your compliment. You know what? I always expect to see you again when I came to America, but I didn't think it would be a coincidence like this. How about we sit down and have a chat like last time?"
Neil turns at his students, who are showing puzzled looks.
"Sorry to disappoint you, Gabriel! I didn't know how you found us, but I and my team will get out of here and we will destroy your plan."
"You said that I found you? You must be mistaken."
"What... do you mean?"
Neil is currently in extreme confusion, as nothing he knows appears to fit together, but Gabriel keeps going.
"We didn't find you, nor any of your team members. Actually, none of us even knows about your presence."
"What? Then how-"
"Saiko, what are you doing?!"
Neil turned back to see what happened, and what he saw also shocked the terrorists.
Saiko is pointing his pistol at Chad.
"We know that you are here, because of your 'teammates'." Gabriel finishes.
"Saiko, don't tell me... you are a traitor?!" Chad asked in bewilderment.
"Have I told you already Chad? You were too naive, you don't understand the real consequences of your choices and actions."
"What are you saying?"
"Neil might have stopped them for now but what happens when we get lower, more and more of them will come to meet us because they already knew where we are, and soon Neil will be overwhelmed, not to say about the ones on the streets with bigger guns and even rockets when we get out of the building."
"But that doesn't mean you have to do this!"
"Do you really think that everybody would have the same thought as you?! How stupid! You didn't know anything about us, about the people who you work with, and that's why the plan failed.
I'm not here for your 'saving New York' shits, I'm here to polish my name, if the plan succeeds, I will be remembered as one of the heroes who save New York and have a chance to make my life better.
But since you failed, all I'm doing is trying to save myself before you get us all killed."
Saiko takes a deep breath.
"The plan would have been successful if everyone were you. But they aren't. You put too much trust in others even on the ones who are your rivals, thinking that they would do what they were told and have responsibility for it.
You understand so much about the laws of nature, but too little about the laws of society."
"And you!"
He points the handgun at Neil.
"Drop your weapons, and turn off the shield."
"Saiko, please don't do this. We could stil-"
BANG!!
Saiko fired a warning shot into the ceiling.
"DROP YOUR FUCKING WEAPONS, AND TURN OFF THE SHIELD!!"
With no other option and unable to escape, Neil chose to surrender. He set aside his weapon, deactivated the shield, and raised his hands.
The terrorists also ceased fire and started marching toward them without concern for Neil retaliating.
Saiko then returns to Chad.
"Good luck."
And it was the last thing Chad heard before Saiko hit him unconscious with the pistol.
-----At the same time at the Weapons Basement-----
"Ben! I'm finished my job! Let's go before they come- Ben?"
Ben is nowhere to be seen. Roy had just acquired a C4 as Ben yelled at him to do so moments after the voice on the speaker emerged, but when Roy went back to find Ben, he was gone.
Roy was left on his own, experiencing a mixture of feelings of dread, confusion, and disbelief, but mainly fear.
["I saw one of them went here!"]
The basement door was wide open, allowing anyone outside to see directly inside, so Roy ducked into a dark spot as soon as he heard a man yell in an unknown language.
Roy understands that it was only a matter of time before he was caught when those terrorists arrived and he do nothing.
"Ben where are you?!"
He nonetheless made the decision to ask for help from his classmate. Someone who should have been there who should have watched over him, and who should have been in his rear.
"Stands up!"
But no matter how much hope Roy held, it all vanished when a squad of terrorists enters the basement and spots him. Four of them point their weapons in his direction and threaten to shoot if he disobeys.
"I SAID HANDS UP!!"
Leaving with other choices, he raises his hands and stands up slowly, while looking around in the hope of finding Ben.
Meanwhile, just a few meters behind the basement walls, Ben is lying, hiding, holding his breath, and agonizing in fear and guilt.