2025-02-18 23:04:03Sara Gerald rarely saw her adopted brother so worked up, but she pushed behind the thought as she knew the situation called for it.
"Let's go confirm at the bank, we can't stay out here." Carl Gerald said firmly.
Even though Carl was determined to go, he wanted to go with Sara's permission.
"Ok, let's go then." Sara clung to Carl Gerald.
Vesta Bank was a well known bank, except it was quite far from the siblings' home. Carl and his sister were tattered from the recent ordeal.
As they walked along the street, judging glances were cast on them, some whispering and murmuring could be heard.
"Why do they look like that?"
"He's beaten up badly, isn't he?"
"He looks like he's kidnapping her."
"More like they escaped from kidnappers."
Carl Gerald and Sara Gerald paid no heed to the murmurs, each lost in their own thoughts.
Carl Gerald was thinking of how to get a place to stay if the card failed.
Sara was thinking of how not to be a burden to her already overbearing brother. Sara felt annoyed at herself that she had been helpless.
Seeing her brother fight earlier made her want to learn how to fight too.
"Don't listen to them." Carl told her.
"Huh? Oh..." Sara remembered that she was surrounded by judgmental people, some were even recording and snickering behind their phones.
"As long as I have you now, nothing matters." Sara Gerald smiled sadly.
Carl nodded his head, brushing past people on the busy street.
Soon they arrived at the Bank, its tall structure kissed the clouds, sleek tinted windows and an LED logo reading 'Vesta' lined its front.
"We're here." Carl Gerald told his sister.
As they entered the premises, all eyes turned at them. They were so tattered and injured that people began to think they were criminals.
The security were suspicious too but refrained from apprehending them immediately.
It'd just so happened before they'd stopped a young billionaire who'd looked injured and tattered, resulting in their captain being fired.
"We'll wait until they cause trouble before we arrest them." He told the others.
"Until then, watch them tightly." He ordered, his voice was laced with a mixture of authority and determination.
Carl Gerald had reached the queue at the front counter already, and a middle-aged lady stood with a ramrod straight posture.
"Stay here, I'll be back Ok?" He pointed Sara to a vacant seat near an air conditioner.
"Hm." Sara nodded understandingly. She sat quietly and watched the long queue shorten.
The lady, upon seeing Carl Gerald, frowned. "What do you want?" She asked rudely.
Carl Gerald looked at her badge, "Mrs. Ramona, I'd like to confirm the amount of money in the card."
He pulled out the black card and slid it forward.
Mrs. Ramona was shocked. 'Where did he steal the card from?'
"Are you sure it's yours?" She asked grudgingly. Carl Gerald nodded.
She grumbled before pulling out a card reader machine, "Enter your pin."
Even though he had amnesia from 5 years ago, he never forgot his birthday. It was the eleventh of August.
He entered the pin with his hand shaking, pressing the accept button, he saw the loading icon.
And it showed....error.
"W-what! Let me try again." Carl Gerald's heart sank at the message. He had no way of providing a place for his sister.
"No. You clearly stole this card!" Mrs. Ramona started to create a scene. Sara's attention was caught by the rising tension.
"I didn't steal it, someone gave it to me!" Carl tried to defend himself from the ever-growing attention.
"Tell that to the police. Security!! Security!!" Mrs. Ramona called the security immediately, anger and venom reeked all over her eyes and face.
Carl Gerald's face turned red from embarrassment. He shouldn't have trusted a stranger.
"Fine, I'm leaving!" Carl Gerald became frustrated at the lack of hospitality he received everywhere.
"Wait!"
Carl Gerald heard a lady's voice. She looked no less than 30, her formal wear made no effort to hide her voluptuous figure.
The lady glanced at the card. "Mrs. Ramona! How could you disrespect this man?! Why must you always be so negative to our customers?!"
She scolded the lady without caring about the presence of other customers and onlookers that looked at the scene.
"I'm sorry... but he stole a card and tried to claim ownership!" Mrs. Ramona tried to justify herself.
"How would he steal the card? He's the richest person in our bank. I had to come here as soon as I got the alert that he'd tried to log into his account."
Mrs. Ramona's hands began to shake, " G-G-G-G-General Carl!" She fell on her knees and groveled immediately. "Forgive me, I didn't know!"
"How will you know when you're so hot tempered?! Mrs. Ramona, you're suspended for 3 months and I'm cutting your salary for 6 months."
"Please have mercy!!" She begged.
"If you argue again you'll be fired, your punishment is effective immediately! Leave!" The lady pointed at the door.
Mrs. Ramona sulked as she got up from the floor. She grabbed a box of her stuff and trudged out sadly.
"General Carl, I'm sorry for the inconvenience." The lady bowed deeply. "Please follow me, I'll help you with your accounts."
With that, she trudged off, up a flight of stairs.
"Again with this General Carl..." Carl Gerald muttered to himself. "Oh, Sara." Carl called softly, trying not to garner too much attention than he already had.
Sara ran quickly to his side, the two of them climbed up after the lady.
They reached a small room, every item in the room looked expensive. "Please sit." She gestured towards them.
Her face was etched with remorse and regret.
“General Carl, we are so sorry for the embarrassment once again.”
She said as she gazed frighteningly into the eyes of Carl Gerald.
Carl Gerald held Sara tightly, sitting on a designer couch together with her. "Please help yourself to some tea."
She placed a tray with a golden set of teapots, teacups, coasters and spoons. She placed a dish of sugar cubes and a separate one of biscuits at the side too.
Sara looked delighted at the sight of food. "Uhm, Carl..." She nudged her brother.
Carl Gerald nodded, Sara immediately attacked the food ferociously. Carl smiled at how childish his sister was.
"General Carl, it seems you still haven't given up the habit of coming straight after missions." The lady laughed, trying hard to ease the tension building up in her body.
She knew General Carl was a man of war and a man that no man dared to mess around with, even world presidents crumble at the sound of his name.
Carl Gerald sighed, "I really don't know what you're talking about, someone just gave me the card stating it was mine."
The lady's expression turned solemn, "It seems like the reports are true..."
'What reports?' Wondered Carl.
"It seems I'm due for a reintroduction," The lady dipped her head, "My name is Juliet Marcus, Miss Juliet Marcus.”
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Chapter 590: The arrival of the doomer:
Officers began moving toward the equipment area where tactical gear had been laid out for distribution, but General Carl Gerald held up his hand to stop them for one more moment."One more thing," he said, his voice quieter but somehow more intense. "I want each of you to take sixty seconds right now and think about why you chose this profession.”“Think about what motivates you to put on the uniform and take these risks. Think about the people you're protecting and why their lives matter enough to you that you're willing to put your own life on the line to defend them."The officers stood silently, some closing their eyes, all of them visibly engaging with the question General Carl Gerald had posed."Hold onto that motivation tomorrow morning," General Carl Gerald continued. "When the fighting gets intense and the situation becomes chaotic and you're tempted to panic or make decisions based on fear rather than training, remember why you're there.”“Remember that the patients in tha
Chapter 589: The game plan:
General Carl Gerald appreciated Phineas's attention to these details. Managing the information environment…controlling what hospital staff knew and didn't know, maintaining cover stories that prevented panic while still allowing necessary preparations, was just as important as the tactical positioning and equipment allocation."What about Doctor Anderson?" General Carl Gerald asked. "He needs to know what's coming so he can prepare medically, but he also needs to continue treating Sara and managing the secure ward without behaving so obviously differently that staff notice and start asking questions.""I briefed Anderson personally about an hour ago," Phineas reported. "He's aware of the threat and the timeline.”“He's quietly preparing emergency medical equipment and supplies in Sara's room so he can continue providing care even if normal hospital services are disrupted by the attack. And he's coordinating with senior nursing staff to ensure they're positioned to handle mass casual
Chapter 588: The Price of progress is pain:
General Carl Gerald let that sink in, seeing the growing tension in the officers' expressions as they contemplated these realities."And you're going to have to live with the outcomes of those decisions," General Carl Gerald said quietly. "If you shoot an attacker and the round passes through and hits a patient in the room behind your target, you'll have to live with that.”“If you hesitate to shoot because you're worried about collateral damage and that hesitation allows an attacker to kill a nurse or doctor who was just trying to do their job, you'll have to live with that too. There are no clean choices in this operation.”“There are only varying degrees of terrible outcomes and the hope that we can minimize harm while accomplishing our mission."The room was absolutely silent now, every officer confronting the moral complexity of what they were being asked to do."I'm telling you this not to demoralize you or make you second-guess yourselves," General Carl Gerald continued. "I'm
Chapter 587: DefCon mode:
"Five officers will be positioned directly around Sara's room with the mission of keeping her alive regardless of what happens elsewhere in the building.”“This team will include myself, Lieutenant Chen, Sergeant Rivera, and two tactical officers with hostage rescue experience.” General Carl Gerald immediately continued.“We'll have prepared evacuation routes and secure fallback positions. If the attackers breach the fourth floor and threaten to overrun Sara's position, we extract her to a secure location and hold until reinforcements arrive from the mobile reserve force."Lieutenant Chen studied the schematic carefully. "Sir, the fourth floor has multiple stairwells and elevator access points. If the attackers coordinate their approach, they could hit us from several directions simultaneously. How do we prevent being surrounded?""We don't prevent it," General Carl Gerald said.“We accept that possibility and plan for it. The close protection team will have defensible positions estab
Chapter 586: Intelligence wasted:
"Limited intelligence on specific individuals," General Carl Gerald admitted. "But based on the professionalism demonstrated in other operations The Architect has coordinated…the funeral attack, the imposter infiltrations, the sophisticated tactical planning…we should assume we're facing operators with military-grade training and equipment.”“Think former special forces or private military contractors rather than street-level criminals. These will be people who know what they're doing and who won't hesitate to kill anyone who gets in their way."Sergeant Marcus Rivera spoke up, his voice carrying the gravelly tone of someone who'd spent years shouting orders on training ranges and in combat zones. "General Carl Gerald, with all respect, ten against fifteen seems like reasonable odds for us. We outnumber them and we'll have defensive advantage. What makes this operation particularly challenging beyond just the civilian environment?"It was a fair question from someone whose military
Chapter 585: The Midnight Dancer:
The two hours that followed the emergency briefing passed with the kind of controlled urgency that characterized high-stakes military operations in their preparation phases. The Elite Division headquarters building…normally a place of methodical routine and bureaucratic process…had transformed into something that more closely resembled a combat forward operating base. Every floor hummed with purposeful activity as officers gathered equipment, reviewed tactical plans, coordinated with their assigned teams, and mentally prepared themselves for the violence that would erupt when the sun rose in approximately thirteen hours.General Carl Gerald stood in one of the secure conference rooms on the seventh floor, surrounded by maps, facility schematics, equipment manifests, and the organized chaos of operational planning. The hospital defense team had assembled as requested…fifteen officers whose files and service records suggested they were the best possible choices for the unique challen
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