Long-term salvation

"He's just a kid. Even though I was already shooting at Nazis with a gun when I was his age—thank you, Rod. I didn't have much good food along the way," Perseus thanked him sincerely. "Although exchanging rubles for dollars isn't a problem, I didn't do any currency exchange after entering the United States to save trouble... Director Irons didn't give me any money either."

"It's okay, he didn't give me much money," Luo Dexu complained, "Just today, I gave out at least 7,000 US dollars. I'm sure my daughter will scold me tonight."

"So, this is why you want to carry out certain operations in this city without Irons' knowledge? Just because you are short of money?"

"The world is a dangerous place. I'm short of both money and people," Rhode sighed. "And 'some people' have traveled thousands of miles into a hostile country, yet they're unwilling to offer any assistance. They're just like that leader back home who loves to wear medals all over his chest."

Hearing Rhodes' words, Perseus burst into laughter and choked on the drink in his hand, so he had to let Rhodes pat him on the back.

After wiping the cocoa stains from the corner of his mouth with his thumb, Perseus smiled and said:

"I thought you would be very resistant to us, something about a dictatorship, a collectivist prison behind an iron curtain, and so on."

"If the Soviet Union is a prison, then what is the United States? I know your birth, development, and demise," Rhodes said, standing up and pouring some hot cocoa for Bai Zi and Abigail, then boiling another pot of water. "In a certain timeline, you even detonated a nuclear bomb buried by the United States in Europe, causing the entire Western world to fall apart."

"It does sound like something Perseus could do, but we are currently just a secret agent organization focused on the other world, and we don't have that much power."

Perseus shook his head after hearing this. He pondered for a moment, then decided to speak to Rhodes:

"We hope to become a trustee of the Kogito Foundation and gain support from it and even from Atlas Corporation... Perseus is already struggling in Europe and within Soviet territory. The KGB is wary of us, the CIA is hunting us, and there are other political factors to consider. That map-head will only further weaken our great motherland. If this continues, the Soviet Union will be unable to maintain its balance of power and may even lose the Cold War."

"Just losing?" Rhodes asked.

"We're not discussing the possibility of events that haven't occurred yet," Perseus quickly changed the subject. He sighed. "If I become a permanent member, Perseus is willing to obey Chairman Rhodes' orders and provide you with manpower and recruitment channels for your private army. The only requirement is that these soldiers must be from the Soviet Union or the Warsaw Pact to account for at least one-third of the total force, to ensure our voice."

Compared to vehicles and equipment, it was indeed difficult to find professionally trained, high-quality soldiers, and Rhodes did not want the United States soldiers to occupy the majority of his future troops. It was now 1990, and there were obviously many Soviet soldiers who were abandoned and retired after returning from Afghanistan. After the disintegration of the Soviet Union, this number would increase several times.

With the All-Seeing Eye, Rhodes wasn't afraid of spies from the KGB or CIA sneaking in from both sides... Thinking about it this way, Perseus was indeed quite sensible, or perhaps the dire situation forced them to compromise.

"I agree with your proposal in principle," Rhodes said, not saying anything final. He leaned back in his chair and watched the firefighters walk out in twos and threes after putting out the flames. "But the most important thing now is to make money. Hey, Mr. Andre, can you drive the truck in the back?"

"If you get familiar with it first."

"That's good," Rhodes said, looking at Perseus who was a little confused beside him, with a sly smile on his face.

"Let's rob a bank!"

Perseus: “???”

+ + + + + + + + + +

"Damn it! Don't let me find out who threw us into the middle of the Sahara Desert to look for traces of Perseus, or I'll chop off his hands and throw him into the fires of Hell!"

Russell Adler said angrily that the CIA agent had run away from the center of the desert with his team - in violation of orders. They had previously tracked Perseus and were planning to go to North America, but he was transferred away halfway with a transfer order.

As his old comrades and subordinates, Alex Mason and Frank Woods did not show much joy of returning to their motherland. They followed Perseus's trail all the way from New York to Chicago.

"Intelligence indicates he's looking for a Nazi officer," Mason said, adjusting his weapon. "This is our opportunity."

"Intelligence also indicates that Atlas provided cover for Perseus's operations," Woods said, frowning as if he couldn't understand what was happening. "But many CIA agents and intelligence personnel have denied this claim... Mr. Irons provided the agents with a lot of weapons and advanced equipment. He doesn't seem like someone who would do such a thing."

"Who knows?"

Adler said nonchalantly. He raised his sunglasses and looked carefully at the bustling metropolis of Chicago. Suddenly, he had a bad feeling in his heart:

"We will know all the answers after we capture Perseus."

Chapter 56: Stealing the Heat! (1/2)

The early morning in Chicago's South Side was no different from any other. A snowplow drove past the wide asphalt road, shoveling the dirty snow on the road under the vehicles on the roadside, causing several car owners who were in a hurry to get to work to angrily wave their fists at the snowplow.

At the corner of the block, a black RV was parked there. A blonde girl was sitting at the door, elegantly holding a box of donuts of different flavors and colors. She handed one to the old man sitting in the driver's seat, and picked up a donut with chocolate and some icing sugar and slowly ate it.

A black walkie-talkie was placed next to the girl, and the small green light on it was flickering.

A white box truck slowly stopped in front of the largest gang bank in the area, and several young men got out carrying long black bags.

A rope connected the gangster bank to the high-rise building next to it, and no one heard the sound of the pulley and the rope rubbing against each other.

Everything seemed normal until Rhodes walked into the bank wearing a black hood.

The moment he entered the bank, Rhodes twisted his body, swung his arms, and threw the baseball in his hand. The baseball spun through the bank employees who were still doing their work and the sparse crowd of ordinary people, and hit the back of the head of the guard who was filling out a form. The latter suddenly felt dizzy and fell to the ground unconscious.

Following closely behind, Bai Zi, wearing the blue number 2 headgear, also threw a baseball, hitting another guard in the head. He collapsed backwards, knocking over the coffee in the hands of a female employee, causing her to scream. Noah was the third to enter. Her method was more direct. With a casual palm strike, she knocked over the last guard at the gate who was about to draw his gun.

Marian, who was walking at the back, took out the lock rack and locked the bank's front door first, then ran to the back door of the bank, which she also needed to lock.

The lights in the bank hall dimmed, the power supply and alarm signals were cut off, and the backup generator on the second underground floor was also destroyed by the time bomb. If nothing unexpected happened, this would buy Rhodes at least half an hour.

"Don't move! Everyone, put your hands up and kneel!"

Rhodes shouted loudly, he raised his M16 rifle and fired several shots at the ceiling, scanning everyone vigilantly, while Noah and Baizi began to put plastic wristbands on the guards and unrelated personnel.

Beside a small desk, a middle-aged man frowned and looked at Rhodes and the others, then he quietly shrank under the desk.

"We don't want to hurt anyone! We're here to claim the bank's money, not yours! Your money is government-insured, and you won't lose a penny!"

After knocking over a bank clerk who was looking around with the butt of his gun, Rhodes jumped onto the table and continued shouting to everyone:

"Think of your families, don't risk your lives, don't try to be a hero!"

"Anyone feeling unwell or having a heart condition can lean against the wall, and women with children can take your children to that corner - who is the bank manager? Oh! It's you!"

With the blindfold hidden under his hood, Rhodes easily found the manager who was about to hide the key to the safe door. The system identification function of this all-seeing eye did not seem to be affected by obstructions, but functions such as night vision and thermal imaging were not so convenient.

After throwing the key to Yuka who had already come down from the top floor, Rod strolled in the bank lobby and pulled the curtains by the glass window.

After getting the key, Yuuka opened the outer door of the bank's vault. She went straight to the largest vault and carefully monitored whether the high-voltage electricity connected to a heavy alloy door was still on. Then she pressed the metal drill on the door, causing it to slowly rotate, destroying the blocking structure and lock.

Then, with the help of Noah who walked in, the two girls with shining halos on their heads pushed open the heavy round door of the vault!

After hearing the sound of the vault door opening, Rhode took out the intercom and asked on the communication channel:

"How are things on the streets, ladies?"

"I didn't see any police cars approaching on the street," said Little Red Riding Hood, who was on the rooftop, holding her heavy sniper rifle, Wolfsbane, while also guarding the helicopter landing pad for evacuation. "But passers-by have noticed the sudden situation in the bank. Many people are watching, and some may have called the police."

"Hmmmm, I didn't see any police cars coming around the corner," Abigail muttered. "Should we blow up that unmanned car?"

"Let's wait until the police car comes," Rod said. He saw Marian turn out from the back and stand in a corner of the hall, watching everyone's movements vigilantly. "Everyone, hurry up. It will probably take another ten minutes before we hear the sirens."

"Right away..."

The faint sound of a chair sliding on the ground startled Rhodes. He ducked down suddenly, but the possible gunshot did not ring out. Bai Zi's reaction speed was extremely fast. She took a run-up and twisted her body, kicking the middle-aged man who appeared from behind the table with a roundhouse kick. The latter hit the wall and groaned in pain.

The man whose shotgun was kicked away gasped and roared at Rhodes, who was squatting in front of him:

"Do you know whose money you stole? You guys are dead!"

Raising his hand to stop Marian from coming over, Rhodes approached the middle-aged man and whispered:

"Mobius says hello."

"What?!"

After knocking the man unconscious with one punch, Rhodes stood up and turned to look at the two girls who had come out of the vault, carrying several large bags.

After Yuuka mouthed the number 450 million, Rhode nodded, pulled out seven or eight smoke bombs from the backpack he brought with him when he entered, and shouted to the others who were anxious:

"Everyone! I'm going to throw a smoke bomb, and you guys can get down on the ground - does anyone have asthma or any respiratory issues? No? Great! Then have a great Friday everyone!"

Pulling the ring on the smoke bomb, Rhode and the girls quickly disappeared into the stairwell as the milky white smoke expanded in the hall. They climbed up the stairs and reached the top floor in just two or three minutes.

Rhode could already see the police cars roaring down the street in the distance. Without further delay, he immediately exchanged for a UH-60A Black Hawk helicopter. This item was considered logistics in WARNO, and the in-game exchange cost only 45 points, but here, it required 220 points. The prices of other vehicles, especially aircraft, had also increased.

Yuka and Noah threw the black backpack filled with US dollars into the cabin, and placed almost half of the US dollars on the catapult that had been prepared for a long time, and connected the catapult's control cables.

"The police arrived too quickly. They didn't seem to care that this was a gangster bank... I miscalculated, Commander." Little Red Riding Hood shouldered her weapon and smiled at Rhodes. "Do we need to blow out the tires of the first police car? I'm still confident at this distance."

"There's no need to expose our position. Everyone, get on the helicopter quickly."

Rod said, he took the controller handed to him by Marian and pressed it.

The trash cans on the entire street exploded immediately, and brilliant fireworks burst out, exploding between high-rise buildings and under the feet of pedestrians. The shrill screams mixed with the screams of the panicked crowd, covering up the sound of the helicopter propeller starting.

The next second, a catapult shaped like a catapult also launched the piled US dollars on it, and US dollars snowed heavily. The passers-by who found this happy event did not care about the flying fireworks. Most people began to lower their heads and scramble for the money, making the whole street even more chaotic.

At this time, more than ten police cars had to stop, and fully armed police and special police spread out along both sides of the road, calming and evacuating the crowd, suppressing rioters, and running towards the location of the bank.

While everyone was in a panic and anxiety, no one noticed that a Black Hawk helicopter was taking off amid the chaos and noise on the street and flying towards Grand Rapids on the other side of Lake Michigan.

Inside a Black Hawk helicopter.

Rhodes took out the walkie-talkie and said on the communication channel:

"Abigail, you and Mr. Andre can meet us in your car."

"Hmm... there's something wrong. Grandpa Andre told me that he seemed to have seen those CIA agents who had been chasing him."

Huh? CIA agent?

Adler and the others? This is way too fast!

Hearing this, Rhodes frowned slightly. He pondered for a moment and said to Abigail:

"Abby, see if you can get them into some trouble, throw the dirty water on Mobius, and then have Andre drive to meet us. The location will remain unchanged for now... Don't shoot them to death!"

"Okay meow."

Chapter 57 Adler: Am I a robber?! (2/2)

Twenty minutes ago.

Adler drove a black Jeep Cherokee (XJ), with Mason and Woods sitting in the passenger seat and the back seat respectively. Apart from them, there were no other CIA agents or operatives accompanying them. After all, even they had sneaked back from the mission site.

If you go to other countries, you can say that you are tracking the target, but what does it mean if you go back to the United States without permission?

"The Nazi officer's neighbor said that a tall man did come, but he was wearing a scarf and a wide-brimmed hat, so no one could see his face clearly. He also took some things with him."

Adler parked his car in the alley, with the car halfway out, offering a clear view of the nearby bank. After placing a no-passing sign behind the car, Adler returned to the car, lowered his seat slightly, and sighed wearily.

"Then someone saw him heading to a warehouse area in Chicago's South Side, where a fire broke out. Six warehouses and their contents were burned down. According to the manager, he was knocked unconscious by several young men before the fire broke out... It looked like the work of a group of drunken thugs."

"So, the clues stop here. We only know that Perseus was here recently." Woods stretched and leaned against the seat, staring at the bank entrance. "You inferred that he went to the bank to investigate the Nazi officer's account information, but I think that's unlikely. Too much time has passed."

"Many people like to store important documents in banks for a long time. I know the CIA has a 'Treadstone Project' where agents do exactly that, storing operational supplies in banks around the world."

Adler spoke slowly, pushing up his sunglasses and yawning. "The Nazi officer is dead now, and we don't know what he's involved in. All we can do is hold Perseus back and try to get some intelligence."

"Eat something first," Mason picked up the paper bag under his feet, took out two hot dogs wrapped in plastic bags and gave them to Adler and Woods. He also took out a can of warm coffee and drank it slowly. Suddenly, he burst into laughter.

"what happened?"

"No, it just reminds me of when I was in East Germany and I was shadowing a KGB agent. That idiot insisted on taking me for a walk around the streets. I didn't even have a sip of water that day... But after I punctured his tire that night, he knew it was time to eat the next day."

This joke amused Adler and Woods. The three men laughed in the car, and then they saw that all the curtains in the bank in front of them were suddenly drawn, and some passers-by were standing outside pointing and talking.

Adler, Woods, Mason: "..."

"It looks like something happened in the bank... I know the security situation in Chicago's South Side is terrible," Woods sighed. He glanced at the gun covered by a blanket in the back seat, "but they wouldn't rob a gangster bank in broad daylight, would they?"

"No one's that stupid. It's probably just someone inside who wants to draw the curtains. Just like our operations leaders, each one has his own habits and loves ordering his subordinates around. Fuck! I just want to know why they're not allowed to throw trash in the trash can?!"

"Even if it's a bank robbery, what does it have to do with us?" Adler shrugged, lowered his chair further, adjusted his posture, and lay down. "I'll take a nap for half an hour, then I'll take over the bank surveillance shift. If no targets like Perseus appear, then we'll prepare to investigate centered on that warehouse area. Damn it, we're CIA agents, not community police!"

Adler didn't sleep for half an hour before he was awakened by an explosion very close to him. He then saw red and green fireworks hitting the car window, and the dazzling flames made him lose his vision in an instant.

As sparks flew, Adler, believing he was under attack, quickly donned his bulletproof vest and took the FN FAL rifle with a folding stock from Woods in the back seat. He covered it with his clothes and placed it at his feet. He looked around, and after waiting for no further attack, he cautiously opened the car window to observe the chaotic neighborhood around him.

"What's happening?! Someone is really robbing a bank? Someone's already started fighting with the police?!"

"That's obvious, but how do we do it? Perseus could be taking advantage of the chaos in the bank to take what he wants—perhaps he even organized or participated in the robbery! Damn it, if he really pretends to be a victim, then he could both direct the robbery and fool the police!"

"Get your fake FBI ID ready. It's best not to get into a fight with the police. If you're discovered, activate Plan 12 and pretend to be the FBI tracking down an escaped criminal," Adler said quickly. "Be prepared to arm yourself. We might also come into a firefight with the robbers or Perseus."

"I'll get out first," Mason said, opening the car door. He was holding a Benelli M3 Super 90 shotgun and leaning against it to observe the situation at the bank. All he saw was a chaotic street scene and falling US dollars. "The robbers might take advantage of the chaos to break out. Besides, the police have spread out and set up roadblocks. They look like they're preparing to surround the bank... Now's probably not a good time to drive away."

He winked at Woods, who nodded, hung the MP5 submachine gun on his gun belt, held a Glock 17 pistol in his hand, and half-crouched at the rear of the car, alert to possible situations behind.

But when Adler got off the bus, he suddenly found a little blonde girl eating a donut standing in front of him.

How did she get close to here? How come Mason and Woods didn't even give us a warning?!

The girl looked at the somewhat confused Adler carefully and nodded, as if confirming her target.

"you……"