Chen Rou knew the rough details of this kidnapping from the files she had read before her transmigration. However, since the files lacked specifics, she did not know what Ghost-head Chang wanted to extract from Nie Zhao. What she was certain of, however, was that Ghost-head Chang was currently interrogating Nie Zhao.
By now, he should know that she and Nie Han had escaped. The Toyota SUV they were driving had three more minutes of fuel, and even if it were intercepted, it would take the mercenaries a few minutes to search the area. That gave her about five or six minutes. Because Ghost-head Chang had received reports that they had fled in the opposite direction, he would inevitably give chase, temporarily leaving Nie Zhao behind. In his mind, it was hard enough for two women to escape; it was impossible for them to double back to save another person.
But saving Nie Zhao was exactly what Chen Rou intended to do. Luring the tiger away from the mountain and then doubling back for a surprise attack was her best plan.
...
Nie Han was sprinting, her head spinning with confusion. "Sister A-Rou, can we really find my uncle?"
Chen Rou stopped abruptly and pulled her into the shadows. "Hush!"
No sooner had she spoken than an open-top military command vehicle rounded the corner and roared past. In the back seat sat a middle-aged man in uniform, his temples graying and his eyes hidden behind sunglasses. Chen Rou had seen his photo in the files; it was none other than Ghost-head Chang, the notorious pirate of the eighties in Southeast Asia.
He was coming from the direction of the labor camp, which confirmed her deduction: Nie Zhao was indeed being held there.
She grabbed Nie Han and began to sprint again.
The labor camp was not large. Seven brick buildings sat by a pond, connected to the outside world by a single road. Beside the road stood seven or eight large oil drums and a signal tower, at the top of which a large searchlight rotated 360 degrees. An armored vehicle was parked on the far side of the pond.
Nie Zhao was likely in the sixth building, as there were seven guards in total, four of whom were standing right outside that room.
Chen Rou had an AK, three handguns, and plenty of magazines; she was well-stocked. She handed a Zippo lighter to Nie Han and assigned her a task. Just as she was about to leave, Nie Han pointed to the pond. "Ugh!"
At the edge of the pond was a butcher’s block made from a tree stump. As the searchlight swept across it, they could see human arms and legs laid out clearly on the board. Beside the board sat a dark, severed human head.
Chen Rou said immediately, "Don't worry, that isn't your uncle."
Ghost-head Chang was a pirate; his business was kidnapping, extortion, and human trafficking. If Chen Rou guessed correctly, the pond was filled with crocodiles. Dismembering disobedient hostages and feeding them to the crocs was an efficient way to dispose of bodies; many souls had likely met their end in that water. But Nie Zhao had only just been kidnapped—it hadn't reached the point of being fed to the crocodiles yet.
She crept toward the buildings and stooped to peek into the first room. Under the dim light, she saw it was a water dungeon. A dozen people, gaunt and covered in bruises, were shackled by their necks to iron chains submerged in the water. They were all sleeping with their heads resting on a single rope. These were likely forced laborers; when they worked themselves to death, they were chopped up and fed to the crocodiles, and a new batch would be brought in to take their place. This kind of black-market encampment was comparable to the future KK Park. In the future, she would have put a bullet in the head of every mercenary in a place like this.
Behind her, a *click* sounded, and someone asked in English, "Who are you? What are you doing?"
Chen Rou was 170cm tall, quite tall for a woman. She was wearing the pirates' uniform, and since South Asian men often wore their hair long, her long hair didn't stand out. She had looted the guards' weapons, along with cigarettes, a lighter, and a pager. Turning around immediately would have given her away, but, keeping her back to him, she pulled out the Zippo and *flicked* it open.
The guard behind her assumed she was one of his own, someone who had slipped out for a smoke. Just as he raised his gun, Chen Rou whirled around. She used her combat knife to strike with lethal precision, driving it into his throat before twisting it in a V-shape.
The guard let out a guttural sound. "Guh... help... guh, guh, help, help..."
Other guards immediately spotted her and opened fire. She dragged the dying guard in front of her as a shield and rested her AK on his shoulder to return fire. *Bang, bang!* Two guards fell, but the others were already closing in, forming a defensive line and calling for backup.
The dungeons erupted in chaos as the hostages began screaming in a mix of Malay, Thai, Mandarin with a Taiwan accent, Cantonese, and English—a veritable United Nations of distress.
A guard shouted into his radio, "Report, report! Trouble at the labor camp, request immediate backup!"
But another guard suddenly yelled, "Look, someone's over there!"
There were four guards left, standing back-to-back with their weapons pointed outward. One of them spotted a head moving near the butcher's block by the pond and shouted to his comrades, "Fire!"
The guards turned and opened fire on the bobbing head, obliterating it. But the head was actually balanced on the barrel of an AK.
Chen Rou lay on the ground with her AK upright. As the searchlight swept past, she took steady aim and pulled the trigger. Three shots, three headshots. As she blew them away, she shook the pulped head off her rifle, rolled, and aimed again.
Only the guard with the radio remained. As he ran, he screamed into the device, "We need support, sup—"
A ruthless bullet whistled through the air, shattering his skull and cutting his plea for help short. The radio hit the ground, and a cacophony erupted from the other end. Someone was shouting, "Attention, attention! Everyone move to the labor camp!"
Another voice roared, "Damn it! Any escaping hostages are to be shot on sight! No prisoners!"
The sounds of horns, sirens, and screeching tires flooded through the radio. It seemed the entire camp was mobilizing all its firepower toward them. It was a complete ambush—an absolute emergency!
...
Years of leading combat teams had taught Chen Rou to remain calm the more urgent the situation became. She gathered all the guards' weapons in the open and collected their keys, identifying them by the room numbers marked on each ring so she wouldn't have to waste time testing them.
She blasted the locks off the cells, threw the keys inside, and shouted in English, "Help each other and get those locks off! There are guns outside—if you want to live, grab a weapon and get out! Run toward the sea!"
The dungeons turned into a frenzy as hostages scrambled to help one another. For now, the best she could do was give them weapons and keys; Nie Zhao was what mattered most.
She could already hear the vehicles approaching, so she shouted in Mandarin, "Run, dammit! Run toward the sea!"
Running as she yelled, she reached the sixth cell. The door was unlocked, just pulled to, and faint light spilled from within. As Chen Rou’s hand touched the door, she caught a glimpse of a rough, dark-skinned foot in a sandal inside.
She squeezed the trigger, unloading a burst of fire.
She kicked the door open. A bloodied guard lay on the floor clutching a pistol, still trying to aim at her. She put a bullet through his head without hesitation, and there, she saw Nie Zhao.