Cleanup and Confirmation

The air was thick with a complex, nauseating smell. There was the acrid smell of burning wood, the pungent stench of melting plastic and synthetic fibers, the lingering smell of gunpowder, and something else... a thick, sticky, rusty, sweet-smelling odor, the very smell of death itself. These odors mingled together, rising and spreading slowly in the deepening twilight along with the heat and lingering smoke.

The villa, or rather, its ruins, lay before them. The main structure remained, but it was unrecognizable. The once exquisite wooden exterior walls now looked as if they had been repeatedly torn apart by the claws of a raging beast, riddled with holes of all sizes, their edges marked with charred burn marks and sharp splinters. Most of the windows, frame and all, had vanished, revealing the dark, smoky interior spaces behind them. Part of the second-floor roof had collapsed, broken beams protruding and pointing towards the dim sky. A few embers still burned stubbornly, licking at the remaining wood, crackling and popping. The entire building was shrouded in wisps of bluish-black smoke, like the corpse of a massive black monster that had just breathed its last.

The "Little Bird 2" helicopter descended and hovered over the relatively open area in front of the villa, which was scattered with rubble, broken glass, and burning debris. The strong downwash stirred up the lighter ash and soot from the ground again, creating small whirlpools.

"Prepare to rappel!" Vice-Captain Rex's voice rang out in the assault team's headsets, drowning out the roar of the rotors. He checked the safety on his HK416A7 assault rifle, making sure the flashbangs, fragmentation grenades, and a silenced Glock 19 pistol attached to his tactical vest were all in convenient positions. He pushed his night vision goggles above his helmet; visibility wasn't necessary at this point.

The side door of the cabin was fully opened, and the rappelling rope with hook was thrown down. The rappelling rope was specially made, a static rope with abrasion-resistant sleeve, which gleamed with a dull black luster in the twilight.

"Team A, go first, establish a perimeter. Team B, follow. Team C (air) provide cover. Move out!" Rex gave the order, grabbing the rope first, pushing off with his legs, his body nimbly sliding out of the cabin, descending quickly and steadily to the ground. His boots made a slight "click" as they touched the debris-strewn ground. He rolled over, kneeling on one knee, his gun quickly pointing towards the villa's main entrance—though the ornate carved wooden door was now only half there, hanging askew, its panels riddled with bullet holes.

Immediately afterwards, the other seven assault team members—four from Team A and three from Team B—rappelled down swiftly in turn. Their movements were clean, efficient, and well-trained. Upon landing, the four members of Team A immediately spread out in a fan shape, forming pairs, back to back, with their guns pointed towards the main villa, the woods to the left, the garage to the right, and the path leading to the forest behind them, establishing a temporary, 360-degree defensive perimeter. The three members of Team B quickly regrouped behind Rex.

The entire process took less than thirty seconds. Eight fully armed commandos, dressed in dark combat uniforms and with camouflage paint on their faces, had silently taken over the villa's front yard like Ghost emerging from a crack in hell.

After the last team member landed, "Little Bird 2" immediately climbed up and joined "Little Bird 1," which was still circling and keeping watch over the villa, forming a three-dimensional surveillance network in the air. The roar of the engines faded slightly, but the invisible pressure still hung over the ruins.

Rex gave the signal. Two Team A members remained on the perimeter, while he, another Team A member, and three Team B members formed a five-man assault team and began advancing into the villa.

The route forward was determined after repeated study of the building's structural plans before the battle. Entering through the main entrance (which was half-destroyed), passing through the foyer, to the right was the area leading to the living room and dining room (which had been heavily guarded by "Vulcan"), and to the left was a shorter corridor leading to the study, master bedroom, and several secondary rooms. According to intelligence, Xie Yunchuan was most likely in the master bedroom or study on the second floor. However, the first floor also had to be cleared to prevent any remaining armed personnel.

Rex led the way, his steps light yet remarkably steady. The muzzle of his HK416A7 was slightly lowered, but ready to be raised and fired at any moment. Behind him, his men maintained a standard CQB (Close Quarters Battle) formation, providing alternating cover and vigilantly observing every corner and every shadow.

The foyer was a mess. The shattered crystal chandelier lay scattered on the floor like a pool of sparkling diamonds. The expensive Persian carpet was torn to shreds by bullets and covered with fallen decorations and ashes. The walls were riddled with bullet holes and splattered dark red blood. A body dressed in a security guard uniform lay nearby, its upper body almost completely mangled, and a large pool of blood beneath it had turned a dark reddish-black.

Without pausing, Rex gestured for the two B team members to check the living room on the right, while he led the remaining two towards the shorter corridor on the left.

The scene in the corridor was even more gruesome. Decorative picture frames on the walls were twisted and fallen, and exquisite wallpaper was torn off, revealing the wooden boards and plasterboard behind them. Scattered on the floor were sawdust, plaster blocks, books, and... even more bloodstains and fragments of human tissue. The air was thick with the stench of blood and gunpowder. One room's door was half smashed and hung askew, revealing a dark interior with flickering flames.

"Clear (safe)." The team member checking the living room quickly reported in a low voice over the headset, "Two bodies were found in the living room area, showing no signs of life. The fire was small, but the structure was unstable."

"Roger that. Remain on alert." Rex responded, his gaze fixed on the heaviest, most damaged, and dented door at the end of the corridor—according to the floor plan, that was the study. Next to it, a slightly smaller door led to the master bedroom; the door had been blown open by the shockwave of the explosion or gunfire and was leaning against the frame.

He signaled to the team members behind him to guard both ends of the corridor and the room whose door had been blown open, while he and another team member carefully approached the door of the study.

The study door was jammed, leaving only a crack. Rex gently nudged it with the muzzle of his gun, and the door creaked open slightly, releasing more dust and debris. It was pitch black inside, with only the last glimmer of light from the distant sky outside the window barely outlining the silhouettes of some overturned furniture. Thick smoke billowed out, carrying an even stronger smell of burning and...blood.

Rex took a miniature high-powered flashlight from his waist, secured it to the gun rail, and turned it on. A blinding white beam of light shot into the darkness, instantly illuminating the study.

hell.

This was the first word that popped into Rex's mind. The huge solid wood desk lay overturned on the floor, its expensive laptop and ornaments shattered. The tall bookshelves tilted forward, smashing countless hardcover books to the ground, where they were buried by the fallen plaster ceiling and broken decorative wooden beams. The floor was littered with shards of paper, glass, twisted metal, and large splatters of blackened blood. The walls were riddled with bullet holes, especially the side near the huge French windows, which were almost completely destroyed. The evening light from outside, mixed with the flames from the burning parts of the villa, shone through the holes, creating eerie shadows.

The beam of the flashlight moved slowly, sweeping across the ruins.

Behind the overturned desk, near the corner of the wall, the flashlight beam stopped.

There, the wreckage of a heavy oak desk and a thick wooden beam, decorated with broken plaster, that had fallen from the ceiling, lay intertwined, pressing down on the lower half of a man. The man wore a dark silk robe, now stained beyond recognition by blood, dust, and filth. His upper body leaned against the edge of the overturned desk, his head tilted limply to one side, his gray hair disheveled, his face smeared with blood and ash. Only the barely visible rise and fall of his chest and the extremely faint, bellows-like "hoarse... hoarse..." sounds emanating from his throat proved that he had only one breath left.

It was Xie Yunchuan. Although his face was covered in blood, his facial features, especially his sinister expression that conveyed a twisted and unwilling look even as he was on the verge of death, were highly similar to the person in the photo.

Rex didn't approach immediately. He knelt on one knee, his gun still pointed in that direction, and with his other hand, he pulled a palm-sized, ruggedized military tablet with a touchscreen from the pocket of his tactical vest. He quickly unlocked it and brought up the high-resolution photo K had provided of Xie Yunchuan standing on the terrace in his pajamas.

He compared the features: face shape, brow bone, the curve of the nose, the line of the chin... even with bloodstains, they matched. Especially a small, barely noticeable mole on the left eyebrow—it was in the photo, and this person on the ground also had it, in the same location.

Target confirmed.

Rex brought the tablet to his mouth, spoke into the built-in Mike, and reported in a calm, almost cold voice. "Command, this is the assault team. The primary target has been located at designated coordinates A3 (the study). The target is buried under heavy objects, critically injured and near death, but still shows faint vital signs. Final confirmation and disposal are underway."

Locke's brief reply came through the earpiece, "Roger. Execute final disposition procedures. Be sure to collect necessary evidence."

"Clear."

Rex put the tablet back in his vest pocket. He stood up, nodded to the teammate on guard beside him, then, gun in hand, stepped over the obstacle on the ground and walked towards the "thing" still emitting faint breathing sounds in the corner.

Xie Yunchuan seemed to sense someone approaching. He moved his eyes with difficulty and extreme slowness. His bloodshot eyes struggled to focus through the blood and dust, finally seeing Rex standing before him, fully armed, looking down at him. Those eyes, once filled with calculation, ruthlessness, and arrogance, now held only the murky darkness of impending death, endless pain, and a faint, incredulous light mixed with fear and resentment. His lips moved as if he wanted to say something, but only blood and foam gushed from the corners of his mouth, making a soft "gurgling" sound.

Rex stared at him expressionlessly, as if he were inspecting a defective piece of merchandise that needed to be dealt with. He raised his right hand and gestured behind him.

A member of Team B immediately stepped forward, holding the MP7A1 submachine gun equipped with a silencer. The gun was compact and had a matte black finish in the dim light.

Rex stepped back half a step, giving up his shooting angle, while his flashlight beam remained steadily shining on Xie Yunchuan's face, especially his eyes, which were beginning to glaze over but were still fixed on him.

The team member stepped forward, gun barrel lowered, aimed at Xie Yunchuan's head. The distance was less than a meter.

There were no warnings, no interrogations, not even the slightest hesitation.

"Puff puff puff puff puff--!"

A short, muffled, but extremely coherent burst of fire. Five 4.6×30mm bullets, suppressed by the silencer, emitted a dull thud like forcefully slapping a wet quilt, precisely piercing Xie Yunchuan's forehead, temple, and throat. The immense stopping force of the bullets caused Xie Yunchuan's head to slam backward violently before drooping limply. The last glimmer of light in his eyes was completely extinguished, and the unsettling "hoarse" sound in his throat abruptly ceased. His body twitched one last time before falling into utter silence.

The only difference was the addition of a slightly sweet, metallic scent of fresh blood to the air.

Rex waited two seconds to confirm that the target showed no signs of life. He stepped forward again, crouched down, and didn't seem to care about the bloodstains on the ground. He stretched out his gloved left hand and roughly brushed aside the hair stuck to Xie Yunchuan's face with blood, revealing his entire face. With his right hand, he took out a specially made high-definition shockproof camera, about the size of a cigarette box, from his leg pocket.

He took a close-up photo of Xie Yunchuan's lifeless face, frozen in its final moments, an expression a mixture of pain, fear, and resentment. The flash illuminated the dimly lit study with a blinding white light, clearly capturing the lifeless face and the surrounding ruins.

Next, he pried open one of Xie Yunchuan's eyes (the pupil was already dilated) and used the camera's built-in macro function to take a high-resolution photo of the pupil. This is one of the features that is difficult to forge in biometric identification.

Then, he stepped back a few paces, adjusted the focus, and took a medium-range photo that included Xie Yunchuan's body, prominent environmental features (an overturned desk, broken wooden beams, and distinctive bullet holes in the wall), and the Back View some of the assault team members (their faces not visible). He ensured the photo clearly identified the location and environment of the death.

After taking the photos, he carefully put the camera away. Then he reported into the Mike: "Command team, assault team reporting. The main target has been confirmed and cleared. Necessary biological and environmental evidence has been collected. Requesting further instructions."

"Roger that. Clean up the scene and collect valuables (intelligence documents, electronic devices, etc.) as planned. Begin evacuation in three minutes. Team C (Shadow), report to the perimeter." Locke's voice came through.

"The perimeter is clear, no abnormalities." The Shadow voice remained concise.

Rex stood up and glanced around the study, which was filled with an aura of death and destruction. The core of the mission was complete.

"Cleanup team, move in. Quickly," he ordered into the communicator.

The remaining assault team members immediately began a rapid search of the study and the adjacent master bedroom. Avoiding obvious bodies and bloodstains, they focused on the safe (which had been blown open and was empty), any hidden compartments, and any computers, hard drives, USB drives, or paper documents that were not completely damaged. The few items they found were quickly packed into shielded bags and stuffed into their backpacks.

The entire process was efficient, quiet, and professional. No one showed any extra emotion towards the corpses and blood on the ground; it was as if they were just carrying out a routine item recycling operation.

Three minutes later.

"Cleanup complete. No further findings. Prepare to evacuate," Rex reported.

"Roger that. Return to the rendezvous point along the pre-arranged route. Team A (in the air) will provide cover," Locke ordered.

The assault team quickly regrouped, maintaining their defensive formation, and swiftly retreated from the ruins of the villa. They crossed the front yard and moved rapidly towards their designated extraction point—a relatively flat clearing in the woods beside the villa.

The two "Little Bird" helicopters descended and began to approach the rendezvous point.

Behind them, the flames of the villa burned lonely in the deepening night, illuminating this land that had just been thoroughly cleansed by death and violence.

The Ghost that brought death, carrying the evidence of their completion, are silently retreating, preparing to collect their hefty reward before vanishing completely from this night.