Chapter 297: All Pieces in Motion
Three hours had passed, and Rajesh and Howard had circled the mat countless times, exchanging at least ten thousand words of trash talk. Leonard had even nodded off standing up for a bit, yet miraculously, the two of them hadn't landed a single hit on each other!
What kind of fighting was this? Ron was dying inside. With this much time and enough ammo, he could've taken down an entire battalion!
Okay, that might be stretching it. Earlier, when Howard dodged one of Rajesh's feints with a roll, his shin grazed Rajesh's arm, but other than that, Ron could swear there hadn't been any other contact.
"My God, is there a worse way to spend a Friday night?" Ron threw his hands up.
"Don't forget, this was your idea," Leonard shot back, hitting the nail on the head.
"You know you can't win, right?"
"No, I know I definitely won't lose!"
"You're wrong! You'll fall into Rat-Man's trap sooner or later, you pathetic loser!" Rajesh yelled. Ron had heard similar trash talk countless times tonight; his ears were numb.
This guy was still obsessed with the "Rat-Man" title. Ron had even caught him sneaking around the sealed-off lab during his break. Ron guessed he probably wanted to catch that rat and let it bite him.
"If there's a trap, isn't that for catching Rat-Man?"
"Just because I'm wrong doesn't mean my logic is wrong! You non-stop clown, you narcissistic idiot!"
Seeing that another round of verbal warfare was about to kick off, Ron finally lost his patience. "I'm starving. You want to grab some food? Leonard?"
"Absolutely." Leonard readily agreed.
"Wait, Ron, Leonard!" Howard called out frantically. "If you two leave, who's going to declare a winner? Besides, you'll miss out on so many epic superhero moments, don't you think that's a shame?"
"No, we'll just feel relieved." Ron dropped that line and walked out of the gym with Leonard, leaving the two confused guys in wrestling singlets standing on the mat, staring at each other.
After a moment of awkward eye contact, they hesitated about whether to go eat together. Finally, Rajesh spoke first. "Hey, Howard, you hungry?"
"A little. You?"
"Me too. How about we call it a day?"
"Sure, but let's be clear—I won this match." Howard was determined to claim victory.
"Why did you win? You haven't landed a single hit on me."
"You haven't hit me either."
"Yeah, so it's a draw. But in the courage test earlier, I beat you. The score is 1 to 0, so I'm the superhero, and you're the sidekick." Rajesh grinned smugly. "As Rat-Man's sidekick, what are you going to call yourself? Rat-Boy or Pest-Boy?"
"You're dreaming! I'm not your sidekick, I'm a superhero..."
Behind Ron, the two started another round of bickering, but he was too tired to care about these clowns anymore.
Sometimes he really couldn't figure out whether people like Sheldon and Howard were brilliant or idiots.
On one hand, they could clearly understand incredibly complex formulas and theories. On the other hand, they worshipped purely fictional stories like they were the Holy Bible. Ron swore his mother's devotion to God wasn't even this intense.
Ironically, while Sheldon mocked Mary's religious faith, he wore Flash or Superman T-shirts every day and kept his comic books in a bank vault like they were the Dead Sea Scrolls.
Wasn't this just a new form of religion?
The next day, in New York, at the CIA's cold storage facility, Hobbs compiled a list of several of Cipher's operatives captured by surveillance cameras the day before.
"Let's look at the first photo," Hobbs said, pointing to a picture. "This guy is the one I encountered today when Deckard Shaw and I were chasing Toretto."
The photo showed a bearded white man with a menacing look, appearing to be in his thirties.
"Yes, that's him," Letty suddenly stood up, pointing at the photo with hatred. "I've seen this guy before. When I was working with Owen, he was in constant contact with this man."
"Okay," Hobbs made a note, then moved to the next photo. It showed a threatening-looking old black man, bald, but with completely white eyebrows and beard.
"This guy looks familiar, but I just can't place where I've seen him. Anyone remember?"
The genius hacker Ramsey raised her hand. "Me! The warlord in the Middle East who kidnapped me trying to get God's Eye from me—that's him. I don't know his name, but I'll never forget his face."
Hobbs, who was taking notes, looked up. "So Toretto has already sabotaged two of Cipher's operations? Not just once like we initially thought. No wonder she's using such brutal tactics this time. She's not just seeking revenge on Toretto, but on all of us."
"You're wrong. Not twice, but three times," the conference room door opened, and Ron walked in to everyone's surprised looks.
"Remember that drug lord you took down in Rio? A kingpin who controlled the entire Brazilian drug market and smuggled narcotics into the US, and he only had $100 million stashed away? Don't you think that's way too little?"
"I'd bet he pulls in way more than that annually. Even factoring in bribes to cops and politicians, he shouldn't have only that much left. I've traced his funds—they've been bounced through several shell accounts, finally consolidating into a secret Swiss bank account."
"Welcome back, Ron." Hobbs walked over and shook his hand, passing Ron his notes.
Ron unceremoniously took the notes and sat down at the head of the table. "So? Did you find the tracker signal that Toretto planted?"
"No, the signal's too weak. We've tried everything, but we still haven't been able to locate it." Ramsey and Tej shook their heads together.
"Alright, if you still haven't found it, try searching carefully in northwestern Russia."
"Northwest? Why there?"
"Don't you guys watch the news?" Ron switched the screen to a news feed. "Just eight hours ago, a group of Chechen militants seized an abandoned shipyard in northwestern Russia.
Of course, 'abandoned shipyard' is just the official Russian spin. Those Chechen terrorists are smart—they wouldn't waste their time on anything insignificant. So I suspect there must be something valuable there that attracted them."
"Something valuable?" Hobbs lowered his head and stayed silent for a moment, then his expression changed to sudden realization. "You mean..."
"Yes, exactly what I'm thinking. That shipyard must be a classified dock where the Russian military services nuclear submarines. There's at least one nuclear sub docked there right now, and I guarantee it's carrying missiles with live nuclear warheads."
(End of Chapter)
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