Inside the shopping mall.
After sneaking past the refuge wall, Jason split the group in two. Sam was in charge of dealing with the people along the wall with support from the snipers, while Jason handled infiltrating the mall quietly and locating Teddy.
Jason's objective was clear: try to find the submarine key more easily before the helicopters arrived and launched a full-scale attack on the location. Since their advance had not yet been discovered, Jason continued leading a squad of six deeper into the shopping mall.
The interior area of the mall was much larger than expected and required a lot of manpower and effort just to keep it running. But this also meant that the personnel who had been alerted by Jason's message were more scattered around the outer defenses than inside.
By the time they were discovered, everyone would assume the breach came from the wall guards—and by then, the main assault would already be underway.
This time, Jason targeted the only tall structure beside the mall, guarded by two annoyed sentries who had a clear line of sight—an important watchpoint. Eliminating them would save them a lot of trouble and provide a strong firing position for one of their men.
If they wanted to continue sneaking and eliminating enemies within the refinery, they had to clear the surroundings of the watchtowers and eliminate internal guard posts within the mall as soon as possible.
The helicopters were still some distance away—"five minutes" was more of a joke considering the heavy and important load they carried.
Thinking of this, Jason grabbed the radio and climbed the stairs toward the top of the watchtower, whispering,
"Sam, we need to eliminate and take over the watchtowers that will block our attack. Get rid of them all."
"Zz… Understood."
But the sound of bones breaking came first over the comms, followed by Sam's voice.
Jason raised an eyebrow but didn't care. While communicating with Sam, he unknowingly reached the corridor just below the top floor.
Tap... tap... tap...
Hearing footsteps from above, Jason silently calculated that the two guards upstairs crossed paths and switched positions every ten seconds—clearly unlike the outer guards. These two had to be professionals, and the window for an attack was extremely limited.
More importantly, once he moved first, if anything went wrong, he could easily be spotted by guards in the other two towers.
Fortunately, due to the tower's location on the edge of the populated zone, the far half of one of the towers wasn't clearly visible. So his main concern was only the guards in the adjacent tower.
"Go!"
Looking at the opening above his head, Jason signaled, and two soldiers behind him pulled ropes from their backs, adjusted their positions, and waited for the right moment to climb.
Ta... ta... ta...
Ten seconds passed instantly, and as the two guards above passed each other with their backs turned, Jason quickly climbed the stairs, and one of the soldiers followed by scaling upward.
The two guards suddenly heard footsteps behind them and assumed it was a fellow soldier approaching. They didn't react intensely—just turned their heads reflexively.
But at the exact moment they turned, two shadowy figures emerged from behind. Two beings with long arms grabbed their necks and pulled hard.
Crack! Crack!
The necks of both guards were snapped easily, not giving them enough time to react.
Just a second after the two guards were killed, the rope in the soldiers' hands was secured to the stair railing to provide a quick escape route.
After eliminating the guards, Jason signaled for one of the soldiers to take position with his rifle and provide support for Sam's team from a different angle.
Leaving two soldiers in that key sniping spot, Jason continued walking through the shopping mall, which was nearly empty. There was almost no one around. Just as he was about to take out another guard, one suddenly appeared from a watchtower outside, heading directly toward him. Jason halted and waited.
Maybe it was the long distance, or maybe they were more nervous about an outside attack. The guards in the opposite watchtower didn't notice anything unusual, as they were on edge about a possible incoming assault.
"Whew... I almost pissed myself," one of the soldiers muttered with a wry smile.
Bang!
At that moment, Jason, focused on the guard in front of him, opened fire with his silenced weapon as soon as the tower guard looked away. Right after, a door suddenly opened in front of them and two more people walked out talking—but before they could say anything, two soldiers behind Jason lunged forward and took them out silently with knives.
"This corridor is clear. Now we have to find the main area of this mall before they find us. We have minutes left," Jason said, not ordering his men to worry about whether these fallen ones would turn later.
Meanwhile, at another tower outside the shopping mall—where Jason had neutralized some key firing points—
With some effort and exposure to danger, Sam strangled another cult member and laid him on the ground. He then watched as other guards were drawn by the noise and signaled his team to spread out.
Remaining in the shadows of the tower, he slit a guard's throat with a knife while the other soldiers did the same.
Hoo... hoo...
After finishing, Sam wiped sweat from his forehead and murmured, "Is it because I'm getting old... or because this is just too risky?"
He looked up at the tall watchtower above his head, sighed again, got up, and jogged up the long staircase.
Unlike the sniping points where Jason had been, the guards here were stationed on a platform at the top floor, with a wide range of view—making them easier to kill.
But the drawbacks were obvious too: it was too open, and easily visible from the other two towers.
"Sam, are you in position?"
Just as Sam was surveying the two outer guards through the door, taking a short break and thinking about how to handle them, Jason's voice came through the radio.
Pressing his body quickly against the wall, Sam picked up the radio and replied,
"I'm outside a watchtower. This position is too open—I can't do it right now."
"Don't worry. The helicopters are on their way, and we've already taken out the firing points that covered those towers."
On the other end, Jason updated him and added,
"We'll go all in in just a few minutes. By then, our people will be hitting this place hard."
"Alright, got it."
Putting away the radio, Sam looked again at the two guards outside the door and raised his hand to check his watch.
He had previously told his squad to hold position—if anything went wrong, they needed to be ready to withdraw immediately.
At that moment, the two guards atop the watchtower were face-to-face after crossing paths, and neither noticed the figure running out from behind the door.
Sam lowered his profile as much as possible and silently approached the nearest guard, choking him almost instinctively.
But something went slightly wrong in that familiar move today. The guard being strangled and pinned to the ground grabbed a handful of loose sand and threw it toward the people behind him.
The fine sand and gravel hit Sam in the face—but luckily, he had seen it coming and closed his eyes just in time. His hand moved more aggressively and snapped the guard's neck quickly.
But the abnormal movement still caught the attention of the remaining guard, who turned and looked back.
Before he could see clearly what was happening, a knife flew through the air and struck him square in the forehead.
"Damn it!"
His vision darkened suddenly. His weapon fell from his hand, and he instinctively clutched his face, stumbling back two steps while cursing in pain,
"You bastard...!"
But before he could finish the sentence, Sam kicked him, then raised his foot and stomped on the man's head, ending him for good.
Hoo... hoo...
After dealing with both guards, Sam heard the sound of wind tearing through the air—a bullet flew through the open space beside the tower, and another guard fell dead outside.
Now, they had been discovered by enemy lookouts.
"Zz... Sir, one minute to drop the package."
"Alright, gentlemen, the time has come."