Book 5 Chapter 3 – Reunion
'Are you serious? National Security and they can't even get me a driver's license? What do you mean, 'we'll consider it?'' Li Yiming was still perplexed by their answer when he walked out of Tianshan Airport.
"We should go to the rendezvous point. They're waiting for us." Liu Ke could tell that Li Yiming was a little unsatisfied, and so he made sure to avoid getting on his bad side.
After heading out of the airport, the car roamed on the empty roads for while until it arrived at an ordinary-looking factory. Liu Ke whispered a few words into his transmitter, and the metal gates at the front entrance opened slowly.
'Finally, something worthy their reputation.' Li Yiming cleared his mind and stared at the entrance, eager to meet the people who were soon going to be his teammates.
"Captain? What the hell?" Li Yiming heard a familiar voice. He turned in its direction and froze in place.
It was Eyeglasses. But Li Yiming's reaction was caused by the girl who stood next to him.
She wore beige-colored sportswear, hiding the attractive curves of her lower body, while the zipper of the jacket was forced to a semi-open state by her voluptuous chest. Her long, black hair was tied up and hung from the back of her cap. A beautiful smile appeared on her face when she saw Li Yiming, and she stood there, silently staring at him.
Her eyes watered up as Li Yiming stared back into them, but her smile widened at the same time.
"Liu Meng!" Li Yiming finally snapped out of it. He leaped toward the person he had been wanting to see for so long.
It was a warm, soft embrace that Li Yiming had craved for a long time, and he wrapped his arms as firmly as he could around Liu Meng. He was afraid that all of this was just a dream, especially after all that had happened back in Hangzhou.
"You know each other?" Liu Ke seemed surprised.
"They're a couple." Eyeglasses smiled. He wore a suit that conferred to him a great change of temperament; it seemed like Eyeglasses had taken a liking for this kind of style after his transformation.
"You know him too?" Liu Ke went up to Eyeglasses and greeted him with a nod.
"Old friends. You guys are quite capable. These two are not easy to convince." Eyeglasses gave Liu Ke a friendly tap on the shoulder.
"You've just called him captain?"
"Yeah, it's an online game we're playing." Eyeglasses laughed and rubbed his hands together.
"Pfft! Last time I checked, this isn't a field trip." A hoarse voice was suddenly heard. A man who sat on the ground removed his straw hat and spat out.
Eyeglasses rolled his eyes and ignored the man. He was simply happy at witnessing Li Yiming and Liu Meng's reunion. He did not know about the details, but he could tell that the two had been through their fair share of troubles.
'Are you the one in charge? I'm trusting you with my life here. Please don't tell me that the squad is made of people like them!" The man stood up and accosted Liu Ke.
Li Yiming turned around and almost cast down a lightning bolt when he saw the face of the man who was complaining.
'Are you serious… This guy… The hair in his nose… I can see it so clearly. What's wrong with the military clothes? His pants are too long for him to wear… The small eyes, and big ears and… '
"Every member of the team has been picked carefully. You'll be informed on it later. Follow me." Liu Ke seemed to dislike the man who complained as well and ignored him completely as he walked toward the interior of the factory.
The hideous man puckered his lips and threw a glance full of contempt at Li Yiming. He dragged his travel bag, which was almost as tall as he was, and followed Liu Ke with unsteady steps.
"Why are you here?" Li Yiming asked Eyeglasses, his hands joining up with Liu Meng's.
"I'm an on-call agent for National Security. You've probably already been informed about the mission, so you know what they need someone who's an expert with electronics and since I'm on a break, I thought that it would be interesting to do. I didn't think that you would come here though, I thought that you two would be happily wandering off. I suppose that you thought of this as paid travel," Eyeglasses explained with a relaxed smile, completely disregarding the dangers of the mission, which was understandable since he was a veteran guardian.
"Wait, so you're actually an agent?" Li Yiming kneaded Liu Meng's fingers. He would have to wait to ask her questions.
"What? I don't look like one?" Eyeglasses tidied his suit and raised his chin proudly.
"And that guy… is he some kind mythical beast?' Li Yiming ignored Eyeglasses' bragging and turned his attention toward the short man in front of him.
"His name is Chen Quan. He used to be quite the famous tomb raider, but he was arrested for taking part in a big scheme involving highly-valued artifacts. They sentenced him for life, but since we need his knowledge, we bailed him out." as always, Eyeglasses, knew everything that happened around him down to the minute details.
"A tomb raider?" Liu Meng was surprised. The profession has gained quite a lot of fame owing to amazing stories from recently published novels.
"He's an ordinary person then?" Li Yiming wondered.
"Of course. You didn't think that he would be one of us, did you?" Eyeglasses was surprised.
"Right, let's talk about that later."
The ground entered a cargo elevator, which brought them to an underground facility after many squeaks and metallic bangs. The place looked like some kind of secret training base, being filled with training equipment that was placed in an orderly fashion, with even a row of targets for firearms training.
As soon as Li Yiming entered the room, his attention was drawn to the four people who were in the resting area. One of them was a middle-aged man who wore a traditional robe and looked like he was plunged into his own world, with his eyes shut in a meditative stance. The two other men were busy handling their guns and only threw a quick, cold glance at Li Yiming's group.
"Are you the new recruit?" The fourth person, the only woman of the group, stared at Li Yiming and asked a question that made her seem like a judge in front of a convict.
"The guy who's meditating there is a fortune-teller. Apparently, he had easily won a debate against a few doctorate graduates from a famous overseas university. He's pretty famous in the north. The other three are special ops people. That woman…" Eyeglasses began to whisper into Li Yiming's ear, but he was interrupted by Liu Ke.
"Now that we're all here, let's introduce ourselves" Liu Ke led the group to their seats at the resting area. The man who seemed like a Taoist priest still kept his eyes closed, whereas the two soldiers put their guns down.
"This is Mr. You Fang. He's a master of fortune." Liu Ke pointed at the middle-aged man. You Fang ignored him completely, and it seemed like Liu Ke was used to it.
"This is Shen Jianming, and he is Zhang Jianjun. They're both special ops agents." The two soldiers looked at the rest of the group with expressionless countenances.
"This is Chen Quan, a tomb raider." The latter put his fists together and saluted the rest of the team, mostly intimidated by the table full of guns.
"He… he's Eyeglasses, he's our expert in electronics." Liu Ke hesitated when it was Eyeglasses' turn, and Li Yiming's lips quirked when he remembered the "circumstances" around Eyeglasses' real name.
"Liu Meng…"
"Li Yiming. Combat expert." Li Yiming noticed that Liu Ke seemed rather hesitant when it was Liu Meng's turn; her joining the team was an order from the people above, and even he did not quite know what a young, beautiful girl like Liu Meng was doing there.
"She's Lin Lu. She's part of the special ops team, and also the commander for this operation. I'll let captain Lin handle the rest then. I'll go and prepare the equipment for your departure tomorrow." Liu Ke headed toward the exit after a brief introduction; it was as if he did not appreciate the company at all.
"I'm Lin Lu. You can call me captain Lin." Lin Lu tightened her shoulder-straps and put her hands down on her knees, making it seem like she was the head of a gang of bandits.
"Since you're all here, I assume you've all been informed about the situation. I'll skip the unnecessary stuff and head straight to the point. I only ask one thing of you: your complete obedience. I don't care what you were doing prior to joining this team, or what kind of skills your have. If you want to stay, you will listen to me." Lin Lu started with a domineering speech that completely surprised Li Yiming, who had only thought of her as a rather attractive young girl with a decisive temperament.
"Our mission is very dangerous and of utmost importance. I don't care about whether you have any regard for your own life, if you drag the team down with you, don't blame me for being ruthless." Lin Lu swept across the group with her severe countenance, and her eyes finally stopped on Li Yiming's face. For some reason, she found his bald head and his burned-out brows even more discomforting than Chen Quan's rather repulsing appearance.
"Alright. If you have no regrets, then go pick a gun and make yourselves familiar with it. We won't be able to protect you in the mountains." Lin Lu gave her first order and signaled Shen Jianming to help with selecting a weapon.
"Is this a sandbag?" Liu Meng stood up and walked toward a sandbag which was made for combat training. It was about two meters long and one meter wide and weighted at least one hundred kilograms.
Lin Lu frowned when she heard Liu Meng's question, which was more fitting for a child rather than someone who was going to risk her life for the country. However, the next moment, her eyes widened.
Liu Meng suddenly lifted her left leg and propelled herself into the air with her right one. While in the air, she spun around and delivered a kick at the sandbag with her right feet after a full rotation, hitting the training bag right in its middle.
Crack!
The metal chain from which the bag hung shattered and the object flew straight into the fence which surrounded the training area.
"Oops. I suppose that it wasn't robust enough. I'm not going to have to pay for this, am I?" Liu Meng landed gracefully and made a playful, but somewhat provocative grimace in Lin Lu's direction.
Flowers and confettis!