"Hello, this is the ergency line for the Commissioner of Police, please state your crisis." An automated female voice responded, used to filter out unimportant calls from the truly important ones.
"Password: Falconer!" Franco stated quickly.
The line imdiately switched, and a calm, stoic male voice replied. "Tell your crisis imdiately."
"I'm at Summit Hill University, and we are currently under attack by terrorist forces ard with military-grade weaponry!" Franco inford while glancing at Raul, who was peeking through the corner of the door to check the hallway they ca from.
"Do not panic. Where are you right now?" the Police Commissioner asked gravely.
"We are within the Sophomore Dormitories near the eastern end of the campus," Franco replied, pausing for a split second and speaking in a slower tone.
"Good. Do not panic or make any rash moves. Remain where you are so my people can find you. Most importantly, do not make any more calls after this as they can give away your position. Do you hear ?"
"Yes, sir," Franco replied calmly.
Franco hung up the call and glanced at a puzzled Raul, who was looking at him with inquiry, and Rina, who was looking at him as if he were an idiot.
"Why did you lie to the Police Commissioner that we are at the dorms? We are clearly in the Business Departnt!" Rina questioned, but was inwardly wary since she realized that sothing was wrong from the mont Kaizer disappeared.
To say she trusted these two bodyguards who only ca yesterday was far-fetched. They hadn't even been on the job for 12 hours, and her cousin had experienced another strange event while the entire campus was under attack.
So Franco's sudden weirdness made her alert, ready to react if anything went wrong.
Franco himself displayed a helpless expression. "The Police Commissioner isn't trustworthy. He is likely in with those who are launching this attack."
Raul and Rina's eyes widened with shock.
"What?! How can you prove that?" Rina questioned sharply, her green eyes narrowing.
Franco glanced at the satellite phone with a slightly downcast gaze. "Your uncle told that the procedure for calling was to first state the password and then the na of who is calling, as well as their affiliation to the number."
"This is not a line ant for reporting crises; that is what 911 is for. This is a line for those with political and financial power to make requests from the Police Commissioner. It is more of a casual line, which is why the password is necessary, so that the state is not aware of the corruption." Franco explained as he motioned to Raul to keep checking.
"I called him and not 911 because a force like this existing in Alpha City is impossible to have without backing. Reporting to 911 might see delays or be downright suppressed by other powers, so I directly called the one with the highest power to ensure your safety."
Franco took out his pistol and checked the mag as he beckoned to Rina to follow, knowing they would have to move from this spot sooner rather than later. "However, his responses showed three things. Firstly, he knew about this crisis and did not display shock or panic. You have to know that his job is greatly tied to the security of the city, and with even one school shooting on his watch, he would suffer a lot of penalties under the United Federation's policies."
"To hear that literal ard terrorists had appeared in a school for the rich second-generation elite of our city and were wantonly massacring, even a man with a strong will would lose a bit of composure rather than react completely nonchalantly."
The trio began to move past a set of classrooms, where they saw that so students who stayed behind were watching the massacre through the windows while panicking. Rina saw them and did not say anything, her eyes flickering with conflict. She naturally wanted to help but understood that if her dreams for the future were to co true, she needed to survive first.
"Secondly, he asked for our location. This might seem harmless, but look at the initial ssage I gave him. I told him everything he needed to know, and from that mont, he should have either cut the call to give orders or asked for details about the enemy loadouts to counter them efficiently."
"Instead, he asked for our specific location within the campus, as if he wanted to feed it to soone else. Finally, he told us not to make any more calls after this, which is nonsense because I'm using a military-grade satellite phone."
Franco's face darkened as he spoke, quickly leading the group to a hallway where a set of windows monitored the east side of the campus. "If it were a normal cellular phone, fine. But even then, tracing is not easy. With a satellite phone of this model, I can even ignore so weaker EMP blasts."
Franco then slowed to a stop, his expression cooling as he glanced outward. "But I could be wrong, so I brought us here to see for ourselves."
Rina and Raul both looked in the direction Franco indicated, and their breaths caught. Raul's face paled while Rina covered her mouth with shock, seeing that nearly twenty of the ard n who broke into the campus had converged on the sophomore dormitories, using a mixture of grenades and search parties to clear the floors as they sought out their target.
anwhile, the bodies outside had piled as high as a small heap, filled with both males and females who were in the pri of their life, whose thoughts were about what to eat and who to hook up with. Given the looks of despair and fear on their faces as they died, it was clear that not a single one thought they would be shot or burned to death.
The group was even forced to watch as one girl in a loose top and soft fabric booty shorts — casual wear for females in a relaxed space — tried to save her life by removing her top and offering her body for survival with tears in her eyes.
She was clearly terrified but completely unwilling to die, especially after what she had seen so far. However, the two operatives who dragged her out were unmoved, tossing her near the corpse pile and shooting her in the head before she could even turn to make her offer once more.
After that, they didn't give her a second glance and walked back into the partially burning buildings, ready to complete their task.
Rina, Raul, and Franco could only remain silent, a cold feeling in their hearts. The sight before them was not too shocking for the two ex-servicen who had seen all kinds of horrors during their deploynt, but for Rina, this was the first ti witnessing raw brutality that one only heard of on the news, in war-torn countries far away.
However, their shared apprehension ca from the fact that if Franco had made one wrong move and been any less perceptive or experienced, they would be the ones in the corpse pile right now.
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