The Ultimate Firepower

Chapter 2: Emergency Distress Call

Ethan returned to the operating room. He crouched down with difficulty and picked up the phone the boss had dropped.

The phone was still on and had not gone dark. When Ethan picked it up, the screen showed that it was recording.

Ethan only wanted to call for help as quickly as possible. Without hesitation, he exited the recording function. But after leaving recording mode, an English-language app page appeared on the screen.

Below the option for submitting the video was a submission box labeled “OK.”

He only wanted to make a phone call. He swiped upward with his finger, and when the back button appeared, he immediately exited the page.

He could not call the police directly, nor could he call emergency medical services. Given the situation, he felt that seeking help from the embassy would be a better option.

But Ethan soon discovered that he could not make a call.

After dialing the number, there was no response at all. No sound came from the phone, and no matter what he pressed, the phone’s basic calling function simply did not respond.

The number was definitely correct. He had memorized the embassy’s 24-hour emergency assistance number.

The owner of the phone had just made a call, so there should have been nothing wrong with the phone itself.

He switched to the police emergency number and dialed again, but the result was the same.

The call could not be made.

Could there be something wrong with the SIM card? Or perhaps this phone simply was not meant for making calls.

After trying twice, Ethan knew he had no more time to waste. He placed the phone on the ground and crawled around the room, trying to find another phone.

But there were four corpses in the room, and only the boss had a phone.

There were two more corpses outside, but by now, Ethan’s vision was filled with stars. He knew he had reached his limit.

He could pass out again at any moment.

Or he could simply die.

He had no choice but to retrieve the unusable phone once more.

This time, he did not waste time trying another call. Instead, he brought up the interface he had just sent to the background.

The boss had just been making a call. If he had not been using a telephone, then he must have been using some kind of communication software.

There was no calling function on the page, but after Ethan went back one page, several more options appeared.

The page was exceptionally simple. Although everything was in English, he could roughly understand it.

There were four options in total: Complete, Failed, Help, and another labeled SOS.

The option at the bottom was written in red letters: SOS.

It meant an emergency distress call.

Emergency distress call?

This phone belonged to the boss of a criminal organization that sold human organs. He had just been using it to communicate with someone else.

So who was this emergency distress call meant to save?

No matter what, it could not possibly be him, the victim, right?

But Ethan still pressed it without hesitation.

He was going to die anyway.

What harm could there be in giving it a try?

If this was a platform, then the person Ethan was asking for help from had nothing to do with the boss he had just killed. That meant there was a chance he could be rescued.

If the person who responded to the emergency distress call was one of the boss’s accomplices, Ethan genuinely did not mind killing two more if he still had the opportunity.

The phone call could not be made, but after he pressed the emergency distress call option, only a few seconds passed before a faint voice came from the phone’s receiver.

“What can I do for you?”

When Ethan heard the voice, he saw a glimmer of hope.

But he was not very good at speaking English right now. It was not that he could not speak it at all. He was simply having difficulty communicating.

“Help me... Save me...”

He instinctively spoke in his native language, but after a moment, the person on the other end immediately responded in somewhat halting speech.

“You... uh... need... help, or rescue?”

The speech was broken and halting, but every word was pronounced very accurately.

“Yes, I’ve been shot... Save me...”

“All right, I’ll locate your position. How much are you willing to offer... the amount? Oh, no. How much is the bounty?”

Ethan was stunned for a moment.

After thinking about it, he said hesitantly, “I... have no money.”

“Good luck.”

“Wait. I don’t have any money right now... After you save me, I’ll have money. I’ll pay... one hundred thousand?”

Ethan did not really know what these words meant, nor did he know how much money was needed to save his life, so he simply tried giving a number.

“All right, one hundred thousand US dollars. Please wait. I’ll look for someone willing to help you and go rescue you. Will you be moving locations?”

One hundred thousand US dollars?

Actually, the amount Ethan had quoted was not in US dollars, but now did not seem like the right time to correct that.

Ethan whispered, “I can’t move. Hurry... I’m... dying...”

“Understood. The bounty has been posted. So that you can receive assistance more effectively, can you describe where you were shot?”

“Chest. Lung. Lung...”

“All right. Good luck again. Goodbye.”

The customer service representative spoke more and more fluently, but he showed no intention of saying anything else.

The call was simply disconnected, and the conversation ended.

Ethan did not know who he had requested help from, but he now felt that they probably were not the boss’s accomplices.

It felt more like a transaction platform.

And that gave him a little hope.

He did not throw away the phone because it could most quickly prove his identity as the person requesting help.

He placed the handgun on the ground and hid it beneath the doctor’s white coat, where he could easily reach it.

After finishing everything, Ethan sat down against the operating table.

He closed his eyes and remained completely still.

Ethan looked as though he had already died.

But not only was he alive, but he was also still conscious.

If the person who came was his savior, that would be the best possible outcome.

If the person who came was one of the boss’s accomplices, then Ethan wanted to take two more people down with him.

About half an hour later, faint footsteps could once again be heard.

Someone hurried to the doorway, but nobody entered.

After observing for a while, someone finally walked into the blood-soaked operating room.

Ethan watched him from the corner of his eye.

The person who entered was a white man.

After entering the operating room, the white man first looked around. He saw several corpses on the ground, then finally looked toward Ethan, who was sitting against the side of the operating table.

Ethan was completely naked.

The bullet hole in the left side of his chest was extremely obvious, as was the phone in his hand.

He had been shot where the heart should have been.

By all rights, he should already have been dead, and he certainly looked dead.

But dead people did not ask for help.

The white man was filled with confusion, but he did not hesitate.

He walked straight toward Ethan, first reaching out and pulling the phone from Ethan’s hand, then immediately pressing his right hand against Ethan’s neck.

As he lowered his head to examine Ethan’s gunshot wound, the white man suddenly kicked.

The handgun Ethan had hidden beneath the edge of the white coat was knocked out into the open.

“He hid a gun and was actually planning to make a move... Huh?”

After letting out a surprised sound, the white man suddenly shouted, “He’s still alive. Come in.”

The two Southeast Asians who had been guarding the doorway immediately slipped inside.

One of them looked at him and frowned.

“Is this the person we’re supposed to rescue? But he’s already dead.”

“No, he’s not dead yet.”

“How could someone shot in the heart not die?”

“Then he wasn’t shot in the heart.”

The Southeast Asian also reached out and pressed Ethan’s neck for a while before saying in surprise, “He really isn’t dead.”

After confirming that Ethan was still alive, the Southeast Asian nevertheless said in a low voice, “He’s not dead yet, but the chances of him surviving aren’t great. And dead people can’t receive money. Give up. We won’t get the bounty for this mission.”

Hearing this, Ethan was certain.

That website was a transaction platform, and these people had really come to rescue him.

Ethan slowly opened his eyes and spoke in an extremely weak voice.

“Save me. I’ll pay...”

Both men took a step backward.

They were clearly startled. The Southeast Asian muttered a curse in Thai, while the white man said in extreme astonishment, “He can still talk!”

Ethan struggled to raise his eyelids and once again said with difficulty, “Save me... I’ll pay...”

The white man was both surprised and delighted.

He immediately said, “You killed all these people? You killed them after being shot?”

Given the situation before him, what would be the point of denying it?

Ethan answered weakly, “Yes.”

The white man seemed to have made up his mind.

He hurriedly said, “I can save you, but your medical expenses are separate. They are not included in the bounty!”

Ethan was already too weak to nod.

He could only whisper, “Okay.”

“Deal!”

The word “deal” meant that the agreement had been made.

When Ethan heard that word, the breath he had been holding finally relaxed.

He could no longer hold on.

His head tilted to one side, and he finally passed out.

The white man anxiously reached out and lifted Ethan’s eyelids, then felt the pulse in his neck.

He had to make sure whether Ethan had merely fainted or had actually died.

After confirming that he still had a faint pulse, the white man immediately said, “Save him. I’ll pay the medical expenses in advance. I’ll also advance you twenty thousand dollars. If he dies, you can still take the twenty thousand dollars. If he survives, I’ll pay you the full forty thousand dollars. Whether he lives or dies, you won’t lose.”

The man holding the gun replied without hesitation, “Okay. The only problem is, do you have the money?”

The white man exhaled. He instinctively rubbed his nose with his hand and said firmly, “I do!”

The Southeast Asian nodded and shouted, “Come here! Carry him to the car. Emergency treatment! Take him to the hospital!”

Two more Southeast Asians entered the room.

They slung the guns in their hands behind their backs, lifted Ethan, and quickly carried him out.

The white man did not leave immediately.

Instead, he began carefully examining the several corpses.

With every corpse he examined and every manner of death he saw, he became increasingly excited.

The white man was extremely excited, while the Southeast Asian looked worried.

He said quietly from the side, “Hurry up and leave. Don’t cause trouble.”

The white man said confidently, “Don’t worry. This place is very remote. No one will come here for a while. Do you want to make some extra money?”

The Southeast Asian looked at the white man warily.

“Extra money?”

“This is a waste-disposal site. All the dead are cleaners. The dark web is willing to pay to have this scene destroyed. Are you willing to make that money? If you are, I’ll contact the client.”

“If it’s just destroying the scene, of course.”

The white man immediately picked up his phone.

He opened a page almost identical to the one Ethan had seen, except that it had several additional options.

After tapping the phone twice and opening a page, he called the online customer service through a voice call.

Soon, the white man said quietly, “I’m reporting a waste-disposal site that may have suffered an information leak. All the cleaners are dead. I can take responsibility for cleaning up the traces now. How much bounty is the dark web willing to offer?”

“Twenty thousand dollars. Payment will be made after the results are evaluated.”

“All right. Thank you.”

The white man hung up the phone and said to the Southeast Asian, “Four thousand each? No, two thousand each. We only need to bring gasoline and burn everything here. Isn’t this easy money?”