2:40 a.m., designated rendezvous point outside the villa district
At the darkest hour of the night, three figures swept in like ghosts from different directions, arriving at the edge of the designated grove.
Wang Qiang, Wildcat, and Rock Wall regrouped.
"Bomb placement status?" Wang Qiang asked in a low voice, his gaze sweeping over the two team members.
"The power grid and communications nodes in Area A, as well as the main intersections in Area B, are all in place. Remote-control signals are stable, and the yield has been adjusted to the preset level."
The teammates reported quickly, cold light gleaming in their eyes through the darkness.
"Hostage status?" Wang Qiang looked to the side.
"Zhouzhou in Building 13, Wang Xian in Building 15, and the targets in Building 22... all are awake and in acceptable condition.
"They have confirmed receipt of the notes and shown no unusual behavior.
"The guard distribution matches the previous intelligence. Two guards are on the first floor of each villa, with one outside.
"The three-man mobile team is at the security center. They just completed their scheduled 2:30 report. The next one is at 3:00 sharp."
Wang Qiang glanced at his luminous wristwatch. The hands pointed to 2:43.
"Good."
He turned his head and looked toward the distant villa district, dotted with sparse lights and seemingly peaceful. His eyes were sharp as an eagle's.
"Their internal reporting interval is once every thirty minutes.
"From the moment they last checked in with headquarters, we have an absolute safety window of no more than five minutes.
"Between 2:45 and 2:50, we must eliminate every guard.
"The actual clearing time must be compressed to four minutes, leaving one minute to handle contingencies."
His finger tapped a spot on the map.
"At 2:50, begin moving the hostages to