Hollywood Zenith

Chapter 583 Deception-2

" I am fine..I just need to....Argh. See? It's a though and though." He put some disinfected right on top of the gushing gnash breathing heavily to endure the sting. Within second, he regained his composure as one of his men started bandaging him.

" Just just get away from this place. I heard them talk on their radio too bad I didn't understand shit!"

" Alright, everyone. Move the hostages and carry the wounded. Me and Cho will watch your back. Drac do you copy?"

" Yes, is everything done?"

" You seem awfully calm about it." Steve asked.

" That's because I trust you guys."

" Don't make this awkward. It sounds like we are a married couple." James piggybacked on the frequency.

" Of course and the scream that everyone heard is the sound you make when I go-"

" Alright, alright. Let's not fight right now. Move out!" Steve stopped Drac from making any inappropriate remark. James stayed behind to support with the hostages and when he looked at them with their masks off, he was surprised.

" They are a bunch of kids? Where did they even get such guns?" He rummaged through their inventory. Unlike who they had been fighting everything looked old, at least a decade older than current firearms, but they did have reliable stuffs like AKs and Glock which could deal some damage.

He picked up the rifle and immediately recognized the design.

"Ruger 10/22 Carbine Semi-Auto Rimfire Rifle with Viridian Scope, they are running with a classic. It's probably the thing that hit me." he knew if it were a large caliber rifle, it would have taken his whole shoulder off but a .22 ammos were smaller, making a clean sweep across him and his men.

" hahaha, a bunch of kids pinned you guys down with a hunting rifle? Isn't that a great story to tell while we are drinking with our buddies?" Steve teased him.

" I didn't have any choice. They were hiding right across us, like they were waiting for us to hit them. What are we even going to do with them?" James wasn't a cool headed person so when he asked Steve this question, he knew that disposing a bunch of kids even if they shot at them was something too heavy on his consciousness.

Even looking at their rag like gear, it was questionable if they really knew what was going on the base they were supporting. They had seen enough orphans putting up arms just because some outsider came and bombed their city for their 'objective.'

War was not as black and white when they first joined the forces, it's not like they didn't make any mistake on their mission but chalking it up as a unforeseen sacrifice was well and good when they worked for the country but as a private contractor, they didn't want those kind of blood on their hands.

" I know what you are thinking but we have to at least put the fear of god by questioning them about potential bases. Either way, with Drac I don't think they would ever put up arms again when he is done with them."

Drac was different, he was someone always outside the notion of a soldier. Even when he was in Steve's team most of the dirty work would fall on him just because he wasn't one of the 'guys'. As an outsider, Drac had to endure a lot of prejudice but over time, he found peace with the shit he had to do.

" Let's get out of here."

They left and soon joined up with Drac and the children. Soon, everyone was airlifted out of the area and headed to their own bunker hundred miles south of where they were. It was a temporary base that they set up right at the outskirt of Tuzia with the help one of Drac's contact.

It was a basic, Unicef branch that mostly dealt with humanitarian effort after the Bosnian war but with a little bit of power of money could be lent to the interested party to house as impromptu base for couple of weeks.

They landed around, sunset due to the heli being so large it did attract some attention but seeing the UN logo on it, they knew they must be bringing more supplies for hospital or something.

Drac went outside first and explained everything to his contact first, she was surprised to learn that they were carrying victims of human trafficking with them but more baffled when he told her that they had prisoners.

" You know for a dinner this sounds too extreme. I can't have this mess in my hands right now." She vehemently denied the idea.

" Come on, Syiara, it will be fine. It's bunch of kids trying to mess with us. They even shot few of my people, I have to at least discipline them right?"

" I seen what your 'discipline' is all about. Don't forget the job in Montenegro."

" I know, I know. It was a little messy but we got the information right? They don't seem like trained soldiers so they would probably fold within couple of hours. You can give me that right?"

She hesitated for a second before nodding. She was few of the people that actually knew what Drac had as his profession, it didn't faze her but same couldn't be said if for the base commander. He would lose his shit knowing that he allowed torture to occur on his company ground.

They first evacuated the hostages, several people came in to see how they were doing. Different medical personals were shocked to see them battered and bruised, they couldn't even get close to them without spooking them shitless!

She told Drac to follow the children as he was the only one they listened to for some reason. Probably because he jumped in front of them when the rocket launcher hit the base. Even when he was hit in the shoulder with debris, he kept on attending to them taking them to the basement for safety upon Steve's command.

Finally, Steve and his men embarked next. The injured were taken in first as they needed medical attention, James followed his men to the hospital tent while Steve rallied up the prisoner who were covered up nicely just so no one sees them in the mix.

Syiara stuck around to see the so called 'prisoners' and when she laid eyes on the young man that was retrained to the core, she was shocked.

" Wait! Wait!" She immediately started shouting. Steve didn't know why she was making a scene when she was the one that told them to make it look natural but seeing her worrisome eyes, he knew there was something wrong.

" Do you know this guy?" He asked.

" I think we are in big trouble!" She wouldn't say just mumbled to herself looking scared to death! Just what sort of background did he have to make her so afraid?