Chapter 172 - 168: Two Number 23?
The day passed away in silence, but Ryder knew that it was the silence before the storm for him.
He needed to go to the meeting of potential criminals who would most probably have weapons.
He had also carried two guns with him to this place, which were in his storage space.
He brought them out and made sure that they were full and ready to fire at a moment's notice.
"I should buy some heavy-duty weapons for the future as well. It's not feasible to have two guns only," Ryder muttered as he opened the system store and went to the weapons section.
He had some Origin Points left on him even after he paid the loan that he had taken from Janus.
"Should I spend them on a weapon?" he wondered as he looked at a gun in the store.
"Fuck it; I'm doing it. I can always earn more Origin Points," Ryder muttered as he bought the gun.
It was a machine gun that had a specialty of auto-reload. The Reload did take 5 seconds, though, but he didn't need to do anything.
"Alright. I only need to capture the boss for my questions. It doesn't matter if others die in the process. The boss is what matters," Ryder let out as he aimed the gun towards the wall, trying to practice the cool pose.
It was the afternoon of the next day—the day when the meeting was supposed to take place. The meeting was in the evening; thus, Ryder waited. He wanted to be the last person to get there since he didn't want anyone to escape.
****
"Something's happening. People are going behind the Flyover. So far, I have seen 25 people going there. That's it; we've hit the Bullseye. It's a meeting!" Jacob let out with a bright grin on his face as he saw many people assembling near the flyover and going behind it.
Ray brought out his phone to inform the Captain.
The captain also seemed excited at the news. He told Ray what to do next.
"Wait here. Let them all arrive. After that, we will surround that place. Also, I'm going undercover—Captain's orders. I'll send you a signal after the meeting begins. You can surround the place then," Ray told his team before he changed his dress to the one that was given him by the captain.
He also wore a peculiar mask to hide his face.
"What are you doing?" Jacob asked Ray.
"As I said, I am going undercover. These are the clothes that we recovered from Number 23. I'm going to pretend to be him to enter the place. I'll send you a signal after everyone is there. You guys can inform the captain about that and surround the place. We can't let anyone escape this time," Ray answered as he glanced back at Jacob.
"This is going to be dangerous. Are you sure? There should be better ways to go around this," Milana told Ray in concern.
"This is the most effective way. I already discussed this with the captain. After I leave, Riya will be the lead on this mission. Be careful, guys. We can't afford any mistakes. The Bureau is already under a lot of scrutinies for not being able to solve this case. This is the opportunity to change all that," Ray said as he clenched his fist.
He wore black gloves before he left the room.
He walked out of the building and walked over to the gathering of people.
"So that's where they were going," Ray muttered as he walked behind the Flyover. There was now an opening on the ground. Two men were standing around it. They were checking people before they went underground.
"Name?" The man asked Ray as he reached the entrance.
"Number 23," Ray answered in a heavy tone as he showed him a coin.
He was allowed inside.
As Ray entered the underground, he got a full view of the situation.
The underground was like a big hall where tons of people were standing. Some were wearing masks while some were not hiding their faces in the least.
He recognized one of the men standing in the front. He was wearing a gray robe.
Ray had seen the sketch of this man, which was shown to him by the captain. He was said to be one of the high members of this organization.
People kept arriving in that place. The meeting hasn't started yet.
It was 7 in the evening when Ryder arrived at this place. He was also wearing a mask.
He saw people wearing the mask going to the entrance.
The last person entered the underground hallway when he reached there. The entrance was also closed.
****
Ray was standing inside the underground hallway. They had announced the start of the meeting, which meant that everyone was there.
Ray pressed a button inside his clothes to notify his team.
Ray's team was still inside the room when they got the notification.
They instantly informed the captain and asked for backup.
The captain informed them that the cops and the special ops team were on standby. They will be there in two minutes.
"Let's roll out guys. Time to capture some bad guys," Jacob let out as he put the binoculars down. He was already wearing the bulletproof jacket, which had the FBI written on it in bold letters.
They moved out of the room and walked outside.
****
The guard asked Ryder for his name as Ryder reached there.
"Number 23," Ryder replied in a heavy tone.
The guard couldn't help but frown. He had seen another number 23 enter who even showed him the proof of identification. He was suspicious of Ryder.
"Can you show me the coin?" he asked as he pointed his gun towards Ryder.
"Sigh, I knew it wouldn't be this simple," Ryder let out with a wry smile as a gun appeared in his empty hand out of thin air.
Two shots were fired at the same time. One of them hit Ryder in the heart while the other shot hit the guard in the forehead.
The guard fell down to the ground with his eyes wide open.
Both of their guns had a silencer which controlled the noise of the shot that was fired.
Ryder, on the other hand, was holding his chest. He was sitting on his knees as he coughed out a mouthful of blood. His wound soon healed before he stood up.
"This would be so good if this ability also decreased my pain perception," Ryder muttered as he looked at his blood-covered clothes.
"Anyway, it looks like there is some more pain in my destiny tonight," he let out as he opened the underground entrance.
Ryder entered inside the underground hallway.