Chapter 460: Austin
Chapter 460: Austin
“Alright, thanks for the hard work of our three BHB combative force officers. Leave it to us to handle the rest.”
With one robber dead and the remaining three apprehended, the bank robbery incident had come to a close. The three BHB officers in their all-black armor walked away from the recording cameras.
Meanwhile, the police sheriff stepped forward and shook the hands of each BHB officer. “You guys are the pride of Namibia.”
“You flatter us, Sheriff Elson, we’re just fulfilling our duties.”
Brooke, who was the leader among the trio, answered and smiled politely in response. The sheriff always felt a strange air around the handsome man that was built like a sculpture, like there was something ominous veiled underneath this gentle smile.
The sheriff could not resist a shudder when he stood in front of the non-humanoid officers. He proceeded to give them another affirmative nod before returning to his post.
It was around this point when the sound of helicopter blades beating against the air started approaching. The officers at the scene looked above them to see a large transport helicopter that could carry more than ten people that proceeded to land on a plotted land nearby.
Upon landing, a red-headed, smoking hot lady in an office suit stomped out of the helicopter in high heels.
“Oh... Looks like our lord princess isn’t in a good mood today...”
Seeing this, Blake immediately took a half step back and shrugged a little, playing the fool.
Hodge tried to feign innocence as well. He coughed and made a poor attempt of sliding to the side.
“Hodge, Blake! Both of you stop right there!”
Before the two could slip away, the lady barreled toward them in high heels, her presence commanding the two men to halt.
At last, the lady had come in front of the trio.
Even with high heels on, the lady was only hovering around 180 centimeters, nearly twenty centimeters shorter than the three of them who averaged around 195 centimeters tall. Despite that, her commanding presence seemed to tower over them.
As she stared down the three of them, Hodge and Blake both promptly lowered their heads to hide from the medusa’s gaze. Among the three, it was only Brooke who dared to stare blankly into her eyes.
“Austin, do you have any problems with today’s operation?”
After glaring at each other for several seconds, Brooke was the first one to break the silence.
“Do I have any problems with the operation?”
The lady immediately frowned and flung her hair to the side before unleashing on Brooke. “Brooke, what did we tell you during the training camp? The most simple rule of them all is to keep the suspects alive at all cost. Why did you kill the suspect?”
“Did you know that thanks to you guys killing two suspects during the operation two days ago, public opinions of the task force has been trending negatively already!”
“It’s not entirely the captain’s fault.”
Hodge quickly defended the captain, “Miss Austin, the suspects have already taken hostages at the time. If we don’t take one of them out immediately, the hostages are very likely to be harmed. This is why the captain decided that the most optimal approach is to take one of them out straight away. The reception will be even worse than what we have now if any of the hostages are harmed!”
“Couldn’t you come up with any other methods?”
The lady called Austin was inches away from losing her mind. “We at Blacklight Biotechnology have invested hundreds of millions of dollars in this task force. Do you have any idea how much the company loses when you kill suspects? Can you fathom how much public pressure I get as your agent and spokesperson?”
“Then that’s Blacklight Biotechnology’s problem, Miss Austin.”
Brooke knitted his brows together and remarked coldly, “We’re the Namibian police merely coordinating with Blacklight Biotechnology. Whatever losses Blacklight Biotechnology suffers don’t have anything to do with us.”
“Captain...”
Hodge hastily held Brooke back. “Captain, don’t be so harsh now, don’t forget Blacklight Biotechnology are the ones who saved our lives...”
“Hmmph!”
Brooke only scoffed and proceeded to step past the lady and headed for the helicopter.
“Brooke!”
The lady snapped at Brooke. She was so furious that her chest was puffing up and down repeatedly. Her anger appeared even more emphasized when coupled with her blazing red hair.
“Hey Austin, you’d better not argue with the captain. You of all people should know what he’s like.”
A mechanical arm squeezed her shoulder from behind in an attempt to appease her anger. It was promptly followed by Blake’s soft voice. “Austin, I like how you look when you’re angry...”
“Blake, you better move your filthy hands if you don’t want me to tweak your sexual functionalities presets for the next month!”
Blake immediately retracted his hand as if he was electrocuted while he cried out, “Ahh!!! I think I forgot something, see you in a bit!”
With that, he ran off toward the helicopter and acted as if he had received a great scare.
The only ones left were the red-haired lady and Hodge.
“Hodge, you’re the most honest one of the bunch so tell me, did you fire the armor-piercing round on your own accord or was it Brooke who gave the order?”
Austin turned to Hodge and asked pointedly.
“Of course...”
Hodge became slightly troubled and answered while scratching his head, “It was my decision, I’m sorry Miss Austin...”
“Really?”
Austin questioned again.
“You can take a look at our uploaded footage if you don’t believe me.”
Hodge said, “There’s no other way around it. This is all we can do to minimize the damage caused.”
“Alright, I’ll trust your judgment this one time.”
Austin nodded and said with a shrug of her shoulders, “Alright, let’s get back to the helicopter. Hopefully, after the footage is uploaded, people will give us the benefit of the doubt. If not, then I’ll have to say goodbye to this month’s bonus...”
“Miss Austin, be careful of the rubble...”
Hodge held back a relieved sigh and escorted the lady to the helicopter.
...
By the time the helicopter returned to Eco Science City, there was an assembly of reporters gathered below them who swarmed toward the aircraft before it could even land. They pushed against each other, throwing profanities at each other as they crowded around the helipad.
“Mr. Brooke, do you have anything to say about your killing of the two suspects last time? Do you feel guilty?”
“Mr. Blake, what are your opinions regarding the international debates revolving around you?”
“Mr. Hodge, Officer Hodge. Would you deem this operation as a success or a failure?”
Unsurprisingly, the three officers did not need the help of the security forces to pave through the crowd of reporters thanks to their superhuman strength.
Upon realizing that they were not going to get anything out of the three officers, the reporters deflected to Austin who remained inside the helicopter. “Miss Austin, as the agent of BHB, is there anything you can tell us about today’s operation?”
“Were there any casualties in today’s operation and will the footage be uploaded for the masses?”
“Miss Austin, do you think...”
The ramblings of the reporters echoed in her ears like buzzing flies. However, Austin’s expression was a sharp contrast from what she looked like when addressing the officers. She kept a vibrant smile on her face while doing her best to appease the mob. “Ladies and gentlemen, dear reporters! This operation was executed perfectly, I cannot reveal any details but if you’re interested, feel free to log on to the Blacklight Biotechnology official website or the BHB YouTube channel. We’ll upload the footage for today’s operation as soon as possible!”
This made the mob of reporters even more excited. Before they could follow up with more questions, a large crew of security pushed them to the side for Austin to exit the scene...
During all this ruckus outside, the three officers had arrived in the recording room. Following usual protocols, they watched the editor replaying the footage from the operation while the surrounding staff collected their opinions and thought process regarding their actions at the time by asking a range of questions.
This would also be edited into a question and answer segment included in the final sections of the video.
It took another three hours before the final post-production was concluded. The process ended amid Blake’s frustrated protests.
“The operations themselves aren’t the problem. The problem is that we always have to go through these mindless procedures after each operation. I feel like this is more work than the operation...”
Blake thumped his back and complained while the three of them were on their way to the canteen, “D*mn, my granite panther armor still needs some additional adjustments. The center of gravity of the armor seems to be slanted forward, feels like my kidneys are about to be crushed...”
Upon arriving at the canteen, Brooke ordered several slices of steak, looking stoic as usual before heading toward a corner by himself and proceeded to devour his meal.
This was the canteen of the biological research center. Although the three of them were police and were not technically employed under Blacklight Biotechnology, they still had to live here since the proper facilities and technology to repair their equipment was located here.
The trio would be shipped off with drones capable of flying beyond the speed of sound whenever large-scale criminal activities such as bank robbery occurred in the region of Namibia.
This drone model was controlled by a computer and could fly at low altitudes but could not take off or land vertically. Passengers who intended to exit the aircraft would have to jump off the drone on their own, which meant only the robocops of the BHB combative police force were fit for these aircraft to arrive at their destination in the shortest time possible.
A black girl who looked somewhere around seventeen or eighteen years old in a nurse uniform suddenly ran over. She produced a slip of paper and a pen and shyly handed it to Brooke. “Mr. Brooke, I, I’m your biggest fan, can you please sign this for me?”
Brooke slightly glanced at the paper. Without cameras nearby, he did not have to put on the front of the righteous officer preaching justice. He took the pen and paper and proceeded to tear the paper into pieces while the little fan was still looking at him enthusiastically.
The girl was stunned by this response. She stared at Brooke in a state of daze, her feet still planted to the ground.
“Hehehe!”
Blake quickly stepped forward and took the girl to the side while he comforted her softly, “That guy’s always been like this, don’t think too much of it. If you don’t mind, I can sign it for you, is that alright?”
“No, thank you...”
The girl pushed Blake’s hands away before running off in tears.
Hodge shook his head upon witnessing this scene. He set his tray beside Blake and sat down. “Blake, maybe you’ll have fans asking you for signatures if you’re anywhere near as handsome as the captain.”
“Nonsense, there’s a long queue of people wanting my signatures!”
Blake took his phone out and went to Twitter to show off hundreds of direct messages. “Look, there are so many people texting me, you think I have any shortages of fangirls? I even have a publicized username — Granite Panther! That’s my name!”
“Miss Austin won’t have it if she finds out about you publishing tweets like this.”
Hodge advised sincerely, “Besides, we have attracted international attention and just as Miss Austin says, we have become superheroes. I’m sure you’ve watched Spiderman before, remember the quote from his uncle — with great power...”
“Comes great opportunities for pretty chicks!”
Blake finished the quote triumphantly. “Of course I’ve seen it, I’ve watched all of the superhero films already. The best one of them all is Black Panther led by our fellow black man. His only shortcoming is that he doesn’t have a bunch of pretty chicks surrounding him. That’s what I don’t understand, why wouldn’t he...”
The fact was that apart from the official BHB YouTube channel, each one of them had their respective official Twitter account as well. They were instructed to routinely upload a large variety of short content that ranged from educational legal content to answering fan questions.
Hodge was at a loss for words upon hearing the remarks of his colleague. He decided it was not worth his time trying to advise this person and went back to eating his meal.
After finishing their meal, Austin appeared before them again and addressed the three of them icily, “Get ready, there will be a press conference later regarding today’s operation. I’ll send the speech outline to your computers.”
Blake started to complain again when he heard this. He started to cause a commotion and nag about how he was feeling uncomfortable and how his body needed further maintenance. Then he proceeded to lie down on the floor and refused to get up.
Upon hearing this, Brooke turned into a frown as well. He looked at the time and remarked coldly, “We’re off the clock now. Also, it’s been half a month since I last saw my wife and children. I promised them that I’m going to spend the weekend with them.”
Austin was not having any of it. She stomped in front of Brooke and commanded in an authoritative tone while jabbing a finger in Brooke’s face, “You’ll do as I say, fulfill your duties as BHB officers or else!”
It appeared as if something in Austin’s tone had set off something inside Brooke. His eyes twitched for a split second and he lost control of his senses. He thrust his arm forward and grabbed Austin by the neck, lifting her in the air!