Chapter 377: Bombardment

Chapter 377: Chapter 377: Bombardment

A lightly injured team member walked over and gave Barry Quinn a gentle nudge. "Captain," he said with a smile, "we all know you’re just trying to get the mission done faster. Don’t worry about it.

"Once our wounds are treated, we’ll go back over there and take those bastards down all at once."

"Exactly! Don’t worry, Captain! This mission is way easier than the last one. We don’t have to worry about running out of ammo, and we can come back right away if we’re seriously injured. It’s so much better than before!

"I’ll take on three of them myself when the time comes!" another one chimed in.

He wasn’t wrong, either.

Knowing they could get resupplied with ammo at any time let them loosen up a bit.

Evan Keller.

’If Evan Keller’s forces could lay down suppressive fire, so could theirs!’

Barry Quinn chuckled and thumped the man’s uninjured shoulder. "I’ll hold you to that. If you don’t deliver, kid, I’ll have you put on extra training!"

The group laughed and joked as they bandaged their wounds. Not long after they had moved, a bomb landed right where Barry Quinn and his men had been standing.

The massive explosion sent fragments of nearby buildings flying in all directions. If Barry Quinn and his men hadn’t left, they would have been hit by the shrapnel, no matter how well-hidden they were.

They were already injured; if they had been wounded by that shrapnel, their situation would have become much more severe.

Immediately after, several more bombs dropped in the surrounding area.

Round after round, the bombardment continued for several volleys. The sound of explosions echoed all around. After the bombing stopped, a group of well-equipped mercenaries charged in.

Looking at the devastated scene, their leader waved his hand, signaling his men to spread out and search for any survivors.

Their own people had already surrounded the area. Combined with the bombing and the fact that the enemy was wounded...

’No matter how skilled this group is, there’s no way they could break out of this encirclement.’

The captain in the lead was convinced that this bombing run must have yielded results.

After a short while, the men who had fanned out to search returned. They all shook their heads at their captain, indicating they had found nothing.

"Captain, could they have already escaped? Maybe they’re not here?" the last team member to return couldn’t help but voice his speculation after reporting his findings.

"Impossible. They’re seriously injured; they couldn’t have gotten far. You must not have searched carefully enough!" the captain retorted without hesitation. He knew all too well how lazy his subordinates could be.

’They must have seen the bombed-out area, figured no one could have survived, and decided to just give it a half-assed search.’

"The client isn’t paying us for a half-assed search. If you don’t want to face punishment when we get back, you’d better search properly!" The captain’s cold gaze fixed on the men before him, his tone intentionally heavy when he mentioned "punishment."

Only after seeing them flinch did he retract his gaze, satisfied.

’Good. As long as they’re afraid.’

The threatened men were resentful. They *had* searched thoroughly, but there was simply nothing to find!

However, upon receiving their captain’s menacing glare, the team members turned around and chose to search again.

This time, they all tacitly slowed down, turning over every possible hiding spot.

But again, they came up empty-handed.

"Captain, there’s really nothing. We’ve searched everywhere. Not even a body part. Maybe they really did escape?"

"Yeah, I practically dug up the ground myself and didn’t find a single person!"

"Same here."

"Me too."

After the first man spoke up, the rest quickly chimed in.

The captain’s expression grew grim. He could chalk up the first failed search to laziness, but the second one was a different story.

’Could they have really escaped?’

"Notify the men on the perimeter to shrink the search area. Search it inch by inch! I refuse to believe we can’t find a single one of them!" the captain’s voice turned vicious.

’Even if they were blown to ash, I want someone to scoop some up and bring it back!’

The surrounding team members didn’t dare speak up. They just exchanged glances and muttered to each other behind his back before dispersing to continue the search.

They searched from day until night, practically tearing the area apart, but still couldn’t find a single trace.

They even found several hiding spots dug by locals, but they were all empty.

Aside from the captain standing in the middle of the group with an ugly expression, everyone else had long since grown impatient.

They didn’t say it out loud, but the looks in their eyes spoke volumes.

"Captain, after we drove them here, our men surrounded the area. It’s impossible for them to have escaped.

"Maybe they were killed by those bombs long ago?" Just as the captain was about to order another search, a team member standing in the middle of the crowd couldn’t help but speak up.

Once one person started, the others immediately jumped in, all echoing the sentiment.

"Search one more time. If there’s really nothing, we’ll go back and report the situation as it is." The captain wanted to push back, but after seeing the discontent in his men’s eyes, he relented and agreed to head back.

In contrast to the grumbling mercenaries, Barry Quinn’s team, after bandaging their wounds and taking a short rest to recover their strength, all turned to look at Zoe Sawyer, who was sitting by a door.

"Zoe Sawyer, open a door and check the situation. If it’s clear, we’ll head over now and continue the mission," Barry Quinn said, once he was sure everyone had more or less recovered.

Zoe Sawyer instinctively looked toward the leader standing by the door.

The leader nodded slightly, signaling his approval of Barry Quinn’s plan.

"Alright."

With permission, Zoe Sawyer didn’t hesitate. She grabbed the doorknob, picturing their previous location, and opened the door just a crack.

The moment she opened it, she saw that the open area, which had previously had a few buildings, was now a field of rubble. The ground was pitted with craters of various sizes.

A group of well-equipped men was walking over, scanning the area with some kind of devices.

Just as they got near the door’s location, one of the devices suddenly started beeping. Zoe Sawyer instinctively slammed the door shut.

"There are a lot of people outside, scanning the area with devices," Zoe Sawyer reported what she’d seen to Barry Quinn and the others.

Hearing Zoe Sawyer’s description, everyone’s expression changed. At the same time, they were incredibly relieved that they had all come back when they did.

Otherwise, given the situation over there, their squad would have likely been wiped out!

As they breathed a sigh of relief, the group all looked at Zoe Sawyer with immense gratitude. If not for riding the Captain’s coattails, they wouldn’t have even known what hit them!

Feeling a bit awkward under their grateful stares, Zoe Sawyer shifted her position, using Heath Hale’s body to block most of the gazes. Only then did she look at Barry Quinn and ask, "Barry Quinn, do you know the approximate location of your primary objective? Perhaps I can get us there?"

Rather than just waiting around, Zoe Sawyer decided to take the initiative and help the team complete their mission as quickly as possible.

"I do!"