Taxes are only within machine gun range!

Chapter 325 Slander, Understanding, Becoming a Hellish Tax Collector
Boom boom boom...

5 points in the early hours.

On the highway to San Pedro Sula, an SUV was heading towards the city. Nerva, in the very faint sunlight, could already see some of the city's buildings.

San Pedro Sula has arrived.

After eliminating all members of the "Skull Gang" as easily as crushing ants and taking their identities, the team that carried out the decapitation operation broke up into smaller groups, got into different cars, and entered the city via different roads.

As the team leader, Nerva was responsible for the most dangerous cover mission.

It wasn't that attacking Ramirez's location was simpler, but rather that Nerva, who was responsible for providing cover, wasn't like the assault team and couldn't be equipped with various tactical gear immediately.

The only useful protective gear right now is the soft bulletproof vest hidden under the coat.

“Upon arrival at our destination, a ‘guide’ will meet us. He is Reina’s informant, and Mr. ‘Godfather’ has confirmed that his identity is legitimate… But we must remain vigilant to prevent any unforeseen events from occurring, understand?”

"Yes!"

The SUV easily drove into the city without encountering any obstacles. Nerva did not need to use much of the bribe money he had prepared, and he met the contact person quite smoothly.

The two parties quickly and silently checked their documents in the car and confirmed that the other was indeed the person in question.

The contact person relaxed a little and introduced himself with a smile: "Hello everyone... I'm Bed, and I'm in charge of your trip to San Pedro Sula. Have a great time, although I don't know what you were thinking or why you came to this godforsaken place, hahaha!"

"Just to confirm, we've changed our hotel to the Royal InterContinental Hotel. It's closer to the city center, making it convenient to go anywhere, and the accommodations are also very luxurious."

The contact person sitting in the passenger seat was very enthusiastic, chatting idly about various things.

"Are you hungry? Once we get to the hotel, after you've unpacked, I can take you to some local restaurants that have great reputations."

"Hey... there's been fighting in the south lately, so it might not be very safe around here at night. You guys better not go out."

"Fortunately, you don't look like foreigners, so you probably won't be questioned by the police."

"When it comes to tourism, safety is the most important thing... otherwise it might affect my reputation as a tour guide in the future."

"..."

Nerva listened to the contact's incessant chatter and felt a little strange—why did this man really seem like a tour guide? Why did it feel like they were on a tour?
At this moment, Nerva even had a doubt... that this informant might not actually be just there to make contact, and that he didn't really know what this group was up to.

Was he really just a guide?
The guide, Bed, seemed oblivious to the silence of the passengers on the bus. He continued to act like a tour guide trying to please his clients, as if he wanted to exaggerate the value of even the roadside weeds as if they were cultural heritage.

Occasionally, he would complain to the people in the car, saying that the war had severely damaged the tourism industry, causing his income to plummet, and that it was really difficult to get tourists now.

The more Nerva listened, the more he felt that the guide might really be a third-party contact who knew nothing but had some connections.

How could they arrange for someone like that to make contact? Aren't they afraid of causing problems?
Nerva was initially puzzled, but he quickly calmed down and gestured to his teammates while looking out the window.

That was a warning gesture—not a high level of alert, but enough to tell the teammates not to say anything in front of the guide.

Using the process of elimination, there are only three possibilities. Either the contact person is indeed a third party; or they are not a third party but have their own reasons; or the guide has betrayed them and wants to divert attention.

In either case, Nerva was confident he could handle it—his right hand was already on his pistol, and if anything went wrong, the co-pilot would be riddled with bullets.

However, after careful analysis, Nerva still felt that the first scenario was the most likely, while the third scenario was extremely unlikely.

"..."

More than ten minutes later, amidst Bedell's incessant chatter, the SUV arrived at the InterContinental Hotel.

Everything went as expected...

But after checking in and closing the room door, Bed's expression suddenly became very serious.

His previous obsequious demeanor vanished, replaced by composure and calmness. As he conducted a quick, professional search of the hotel room, he began, "I am Bed, codename 'Fly,' working for the Honduran police intelligence system. Mr. 'Hell Tax Collector' should have already informed you of our situation here."

Professional, composed, and straightforward...

Was that all an act?!
Nerva paused for only a moment before asking, "Is this really necessary?"

“I’m very sorry… but there’s nothing I can do, the situation has changed.” Bed drew the curtains, stuffed the hotel towels under the door, and then sighed, “The situation in Honduras has been very tense lately. The military and some external forces are making a lot of moves, and we are under a lot of pressure.”

"I'm still wondering what if you don't cooperate with me."

Nerva suddenly realized, and then asked, "So, what happened during this time?"

“Just yesterday, we lost three more comrades, including one of your men.” Bed said in a deep voice as he sat in his chair. “They were arrested at the hotel. I don’t know what caused their deaths. I can’t rule out the hotel’s fault, so we had to change hotels temporarily.”

"...Sigh, even when the civil service government and the military were at odds, they didn't go to such extremes."

"To be honest, the fact that things have escalated to this point is partly due to you guys."

Nerva asked curiously, "Why?"

A hint of amazement flashed in Bed's eyes as he explained, "From southern Mexico to Central America, especially in your country, the CIA has suffered unprecedented damage. The SAD's casualty rate is so high that I've heard that if the CIA's superiors want to make things difficult for someone, they'll transfer them to Guatemala."

"Let alone CIA's official employees, even outsourced cannon fodder like GRS, who are specifically affiliated with the CIA, mostly refuse to carry out missions to Guatemala—they would rather resign and join PMC or even become mercenaries, where the mortality rate is not as high."

"Subordinates either resign or die... This has caused a huge uproar, and it's said that Republican lawmakers are once again holding relevant officials accountable." "Now, the CIA is eager to achieve a resounding victory on this new battlefield, eager to find a way to suppress your new government, eager to rebuild the Central American intelligence system, or even to plan a successful subversion operation."

"Now it seems that this city is one of the key locations in their strategic layout."

"At the same time, we must strengthen our control over Central America, achieve results in foreign affairs, and prepare for the 1996 general election."

"Therefore... you must be careful in your actions. The enemies here may be more powerful and troublesome than you imagine."

Nerva nodded and said, "I understand. What did you mean when you said one of our people was killed?"

“Literal,” Bed said. “Didn’t the military intervene in your civil war before? The Raven Group sent an intelligence agent over and had some communication with us… But just last night, this intelligence agent, disguised as a municipal worker, was killed when an out-of-control truck crashed into the coffee shop while he was queuing to buy coffee.”

While waiting in line, I rushed into the coffee shop...

Compared to needing to find the right moment, bumping into people while they are walking, or bumping into them when they are in a queue and have stopped, does have a much higher success rate.

But... won't the impact be too great?
But considering the CIA and the way Americans operate, everything seems so reasonable.

Nerva's gaze darkened slightly: "You don't think this was a simple car accident?"

“A veteran truck driver who had worked for over ten years, whose wife worked as a waitress in a restaurant and whose child was in school, that road was one of his usual routes… It seemed like an accident, but there was a suspicious point.”

Nerva pressed further, "What's suspicious?"

“Insurance,” Bedard said, narrowing his eyes. “First, the officers who came to inspect said the truck had a mechanical failure and the driver was not criminally liable. Second, the driver’s insurance coverage was unusually high; he actually paid out the coffee shop and the victims. According to our investigation, he also got a new truck.”

"Logically speaking, given his freight class and income, he shouldn't be able to afford or need this level of insurance."

"Although it's just a suspicion, without any evidence... we've already drawn a conclusion based on this suspicion alone."

“But we can’t do anything about them. I’m telling you this just to warn you to be very careful. I don’t know how many ‘truck drivers’ like them are in the city, or what arrangements they’ve made—they might even be doing radio monitoring.”

"That's the reminder. Now, let's continue with your tasks..."

"Here's the information we've compiled. Take a look. This is the club Ramirez and other high-ranking officers like to frequent in the evenings. If you're going to target this place, we suggest operating after 10 PM. This is an important warehouse. This is the home of a major general; his children attend this school and are picked up by a butler after school. If you want to kidnap them, we suggest the time to act is..."

"Bank location...TV station location...internal building structure diagram..."

"..."

In short, these are all important locations where attacks would inevitably lead to the dispersal of local police and even military forces.

The gangsters' identities could be a good motive for the crime—most ordinary people don't actually know that Ramirez lives in the city. If a group of armed thugs came and carried out something like robbing a bank, they could disrupt the city as much as possible without alerting Ramirez, and disperse the forces that could quickly rescue him.

He truly deserves to be recognized as an intelligence agent by the "Hell Tax Collector," he truly deserves to be able to cooperate with the "Raven Group," and he truly deserves to be President Reina's lifeline in the face of life and death.

This level of reliability is extremely high!
They were given too many choices.

The other team members' eyes lit up as well, clearly thinking that these targets were indeed quite good.

Just as Nerva was about to take the document and discuss with his teammates which target to choose, his long-term, in-depth study of Milton's behavior and his intuition suddenly made him realize that he had overlooked something.

Nerva immediately put himself in Milton's shoes and began to think about a question—if the "Hell Tax Collector" were leading this combat team here, what choices would he make?
In the past, Nerva certainly wouldn't have thought so much about it, because he could have directly contacted the "Hell Tax Collector" and asked the question directly... But in an area where even military frequency-hopping radios might not be safe, he could only think about the question on his own.

What would a "hellish tax collector" do?
He is definitely not someone who will be led by the nose by the enemy, nor is he someone who will swallow his anger...

Suddenly, Nerva had a flash of inspiration. He raised his hand, pushed the document back, and asked, "These targets are all very good, but I have an even bolder idea. I wonder if you have any leads on this?"

"what idea?"

Nerva stared intently at the document: "Do you know where the CIA's safe house is in the area?"

If the "Hell Tax Collector" were here, if he knew that his people had been involved in an accident orchestrated by the Americans, he would definitely find a way to make the perpetrators pay a bloody price!
Bed was completely dumbfounded by the question: "What are you guys doing? Damn it, calm down... those are Americans, those are the CIA, those are SAD, not ordinary people..."

Halfway through his sentence, Bedard slowly stopped talking.

His subconscious fear and apprehension of the CIA almost made him forget that in the countries of those people on the other side, the bodies of CIA agents were piled up into small mountains—this was not a figure of speech, but they were indeed piled up into small mountains and even turned into museum exhibits.

“The military is corrupt. I do know of two CIA safe houses… but we only went to check them out before; no one dared to attack them.” Bed took a deep breath. “I’ll give you the map.”

"The first location, near the downtown area on Rue de la Carte, is a liquor store. The second location, on Boulevard de la Brava, is a jewelry store, which is also where they made their illicit money and stored some of their cash."

The moment Nerva saw the "jewelry store," everything became clear to him.

That's it, everything's right! If the "Hell Tax Collector" were here, he would definitely deliver a devastating blow to the enemy!

"This is it! Our first target is the jewelry store!"

"It's only natural that a jewelry store would be targeted by the Skull Gang. At first, the CIA will only be highly suspicious and won't immediately assume it's a targeted attack. They might discover the problem soon, but that 'soon' is enough for another team to launch an operation."

"Come on... devise a plan, confront the US special forces head-on, and let them wake up and know that there are many forces in the world that can rival them!"

"Let the CIA understand one thing: whenever they encounter us, the casualties will be heavy."

"Location: Jewelry store. Target: Burn it all, loot it all... kill it all."

(End of this chapter)