In the evening, a villa near South Cronthal Park was surrounded by the LAPD.
Because the criminals they were dealing with were a violent gang equipped with military-grade weapons, all officers were heavily armed, carrying various rifles, and wearing ceramic-plated bulletproof vests.
Hondo's SWAT team brought out two armored vehicles equipped with battering rams. To search for potential explosives afterward, five K9 officers also arrived with their dogs.
Jack's M16 was specially outfitted with a red dot sight today, along with four 30-round magazines. During the strategy discussion, he had subtly hinted to the higher-ups that killing the foolish Cole was more valuable than capturing him alive.
In fact, everyone present was smart enough to understand that only by eliminating King Midas's only son could they sever his prison outreach completely.
As for Inspector Gray's promise, since it was SWAT handling the assault, it had little to do with him as a mere district commander. The tacit understanding only went so far; given the cooperation of multiple departments, trust was limited. If that fool Cole had any sense and surrendered, no one would forcibly kill him.
Anyway, with the FBI handling the capture of the three key leaders, as long as one agreed to a deal, it would be enough to send Cole to prison to join his dear father for life.
At the Wilshire Division, the two most senior and experienced officers, Tim and Angela, each led a team to set up roadblocks on the roads leading to the villa.
Angela had just over two months before her official transfer to the detective unit. Since Hannah left, Jack temporarily became her partner. They arranged four police cars in two rows, head-to-head, blocking the entire road.
After setting up spike strips in the middle of the road, Jack crouched at the front of his police car, setting up his M16. Tim and Lucy were similarly positioned on the other side, waiting for SWAT to act.
On either side of the villa, armored vehicles began to move slowly. Hondo's SWAT team, ten members in total, divided into two groups and advanced behind the armored vehicles.
The gang members inside the villa, realizing they were surrounded, started shouting and shooting wildly from several windows. Using a dozen police cars as cover, Inspector Gray led the remaining Wilshire officers in firing at the villa's front. A water tower about a hundred meters diagonally from the villa served as a vantage point for a SWAT sniper, quickly suppressing the gang's return fire.
Listening to the lively gunfire, Jack felt itchy, rarely getting the chance to use a rifle. Spending system points to upgrade it seemed a waste, and now, being assigned to block duty, he had no opportunity to shoot.
Seeing SWAT's armored vehicles approach the villa, the oversized battering rams made short work of the walls, creating large holes on both sides of the villa. Then, several flashbangs were thrown in.
Jack, observing from afar with his new binoculars, sighed. It seemed he wouldn't get any action today.
As he was about to turn away and chat with Angela to pass the time, his heightened senses alerted him to something amiss. He felt a vague sense of being watched from the right, directly facing the villa.
It was a small hill about seven or eight hundred meters away, with sparse trees. Jack, puzzled, scanned the area with his binoculars.
"What are you looking for?" Angela, noticing him peering around, asked, confused.
"Nothing, just feels weird, like someone's watching us."
Though it was a small hill, finding anything from this distance was like searching for a needle in a haystack. After a while, Jack saw nothing and put down the binoculars, but the feeling grew stronger.
Unlike the pinprick warning he felt during the parking lot ambush with John, this was more like being watched without overt malice, yet still uncomfortable.
The gunfire from the villa gradually dwindled, suggesting SWAT's assault was going well. Just as Jack pondered what to cook for dinner, a loud bang erupted. The villa's garage door was smashed open, and a military Humvee burst out.
Jack's eyes widened in disbelief. This was no civilian model, despite the haphazard iron plating. The faint desert camo of the U.S. Army was visible, and atop the Humvee, a semi-enclosed machine gun shield housed a .50 caliber M2 heavy machine gun, already spraying bullets wildly.
Under Inspector Gray's command, the officers providing SWAT with front cover were caught off guard and scattered. Even old "Ma Deuce" .50 caliber bullets turned two police cars into swiss cheese in moments.
Fortunately, the SWAT sniper on the water tower succeeded. The CS-5Q sniper rifle took out the gunner in a single shot, silencing the machine gun after only three seconds of fire.
But a new problem arose. The officers' AR-15s and M16s, with their 5.56mm rounds, couldn't penetrate even standard military Humvee armor, let alone this one with added steel plates.
Amidst a shower of sparks and clanging noises, the Humvee rammed the shot-up police cars, speeding toward the road Jack's team was blocking.
Jack and Angela quickly ordered everyone into their cars to clear a path.
This wasn't about being cowardly or letting the criminals escape. The four blocking police cars, each weighing around 3 tons, couldn't withstand a Humvee's charge. If all four were wrecked, what would they chase the Humvee with?
The Humvee, now on the road and less than 200 meters away, faced renewed rifle fire from Jack, Angela, and six other officers.
Turning the corner and still gaining speed, Jack held the trigger, emptying 30 rounds into the Humvee's windshield, only to find it futile.
The military Humvee's windows were original bulletproof glass, with 5.56mm rounds merely pockmarking the surface.
With his current rifle skills, Jack couldn't concentrate bullets on a small area of the moving target to shatter the glass, helpless against the Humvee's narrow front windows.
The Humvee, now at 60 mph, rolled over the spike strips and roared past, its tires visibly deflated but still moving.
Frustrated, Jack threw his reloaded M16 into his police car, ready to give chase.
While they couldn't pierce its armor, the Humvee wasn't a tank. With deflated tires, how far could it go?
Military vehicles were tough, with central tire inflation systems, but even they couldn't escape on flat tires indefinitely.
As Jack was about to close his door, a strange whistling sound reached his ears. Simultaneously, the Humvee, now about 300 meters away, seemed to be struck by an invisible force. It jumped, and the engine exploded, spewing black smoke.
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