Chapter 388: The Base on Samoa Island
"Hey! Be careful, she has to live!" The burly black man stopped his men who were about to fire. "She has our prototype virus inside her. What if I don't release them?"
"Then you'll only get a corpse carrying the virus," Hattie said firmly.
"Then you'll just have to stay here with us..."
The burly black man had only spoken halfway when the wall next to him exploded with a bang, sending bricks and dust flying. Hobbs and Deckard seized the opportunity, immediately tackling the soldiers beside them and grabbing the gun, simultaneously firing at the black man.
"Beep, beep, beep!" A red light flashed on the gun.
"Sorry, you can't use this gun. You need gloves with a chip," the burly black man said mockingly as he crawled out from under the bricks.
However, he didn't have time to laugh for long, because shortly after the wall collapsed, Ron's power armor burst out of the breach, widening the hole in the wall.
"OK, Marcus, I've spotted them," Ron yelled through the megaphone. "What are you three waiting for? Get out of here! Leave this to me!"
After Ron's shout, the three of them, as if waking from a dream, hurriedly scrambled into the large hole behind him.
Before the burly black man and his men could stop them, a barrage of bullets—or rather, shells—fired from the three barrels of a 20mm Gatling gun, turning every target into a bloody pulp.
Yes, a true bloody pulp; except for limbs not directly hit, which retained a semblance of human form, the bodies were unrecognizable as human. That was the sheer power of a large-caliber cannon.
At the same time, Hobbs and his two companions grabbed gloves from the Eteon soldiers and, using Hattie as a shield, unleashed a barrage of fire upon them.
"We don't need you here, you guys get out of here!" Ron frowned. Although they had the advantage thanks to the breached wall and Ron's own mech, more and more Eteon soldiers were surrounding them.
If this continued, they would definitely be captured.
"What about you?" Hobbs asked worriedly.
"Don't worry, I have a mech, they can't do anything to me." Ron had just finished speaking when an anti-tank rocket came flying. Ron quickly ducked, narrowly avoiding it, and added with lingering fear, "Most of the time."
"Good luck~" Hobbs shrank back from the blast and quickly jumped onto a truck to escape with them.
"Grab them!" The big black man immediately waved his gun, ordering his men to capture Hattie and the others, but his hand was just raised when it was cleaved in two by a large-caliber machine gun shell.
"Hey! Your opponent is me, and I haven't even congratulated you on getting another arm," Ron said irritably, using a volley of shells to suppress the Eteon soldiers again. He immediately called out to Marcus, "Marcus, now give the entire thermal power plant a full-scale firepower coverage!"
"Full-scale firepower coverage?! Are you crazy?!" Marcus could hardly believe his ears. "You're still inside!"
"Don't worry about it! Just do as I say!" Ron fought and retreated until he was behind the breach. Suddenly, he swung three disc-like objects from his waist, sending them flying to the other side of the breach.
"FUCK! Those are Claymore anti-personnel mines! Get down!" The burly black man's eyes widened in horror. After shouting, he quickly crawled back into the triangular area formed by the wall that Ron's Gatling gun had just knocked down. Little did he know that this action would inadvertently save his life.
Just after he crawled into the triangular safety zone formed by the fallen wall, countless rockets, with ear-piercing whistles, rained down on the old power plant.
The deafening roar of explosions echoed behind Ron, but he had long since forgotten about them, focusing solely on running.
Ron pushed his powered mech to its maximum speed, and finally, just before the last burst of flame engulfed him, he leaped out of the blast radius.
"Holy crap! What the hell was that?!" Hobbs felt completely disoriented. Last time it was in London, the time before that in Brazil—he felt as if another massive calamity was about to fall on him.
"If I'm not mistaken, it's probably a Russian military drone. Come on, smile, smile brightly!" Ron laughed, pointing to the drone hovering overhead.
"Click!"
The drone produced a fresh photograph of Hobbs standing in front of the ruins of the old power plant.
"Believe me, in less than an hour, this photo will be on the Russian Ministry of Defense and the Kremlin's desk." Only after the drone had left did Ron unlock his mech and jump out.
"You're making me take the blame again! My God! This will definitely cause a diplomatic conflict between the two countries!"
"No, let's get this straight, this was originally your job, I'm just here to help; as for a diplomatic conflict, you don't need to worry about it. Between the US and Russia, it's commonplace for spies to cause trouble in each other's countries. As long as we can finish this quickly and give the Russians a reasonable explanation, then everything will be fine."
Ron shrugged and turned to Deckard and his sister. "So? Did you get the virus extractor out?"
"Here it is, but the instrument is completely damaged." Deckard's face looked a little grim.
Hattie patted her brother's shoulder casually. "Looks like option two is out of the question, only option one remains. You'd better just shoot me in the head, that way I'll die faster and suffer less."
"Hattie!" Deckard Shaw's face flushed red. "There must be a way, we can fix it!"
"But we're being pursued from the front and wanted from the back, where are we going to fix it?!" Hattie finally couldn't maintain her feigned calm any longer. "Now the lives of everyone in the world are in our hands! Admit it! It's all over!"
"No, it's not over yet!" Deckard roared desperately, but this time he wasn't alone. Ron put a hand on his shoulder.
"Yes, I also think it's not over yet," Ron stepped forward. "Excuse me for interrupting your family affairs, but I do know someone who can fix this machine."
"Ron, if you're talking about that little guy from Caltech, I acknowledge his abilities. However, we might not be able to go back to the US now. Going back now would mean endless pursuit; there wouldn't be time to fix the machine and quietly remove the virus."
"You mean Howard? I'm not talking about him," Ron shook his head with a smile, looking at Hobbs. "I'm talking about someone you know, or rather, someone you're very familiar with."
"You can't be talking about… no, no, no, you couldn't possibly know him!" Hobbs shook his head in disbelief as he backed away.
"What kind of riddle are you guys playing?" Marcus asked curiously, looking at the group acting strangely.
"We're talking about someone's dark past. Yes, I'm talking about Jonah." Ron crossed his arms smugly. "Jonah Hobbs, Hobbs's younger brother. We have plenty of time on the road, so why don't we set off now and talk as we go?"
Before becoming an FBI agent, Luke Hobbs had a dark past, following his immigrant father around committing crimes. It has to be said that this criminal experience laid a solid foundation for his later success as an excellent agent.
Therefore, those criminals brought to justice by Hobbs didn't really lose out. There's a saying, isn't there? The more criminal you are, the more you understand the methods of other criminals. Their tricks were simply too naive compared to what Hobbs's father used.
But later, when Hobbs realized his father was going too far and that one wrong move could ruin the entire family, he indeed chose to turn against him and personally reported his father to the judicial authorities…
"…That's all for Hobbs's dark history. So, is there anything I've missed?"
On a highway on an island in Samoa, Ron, sitting in the back seat, asked Hobbs in the front. He had been recounting Hobbs's dark past the whole way.
"No, I'm just curious how you know all this? I've never mentioned it to you," Hobbs said, annoyed.
"Remember that operation where you almost died? As the official who registered your near-death status, I had an obligation to deliver your compensation to your real family. That's when I met Jonah."
Ron said casually. "Hey! If you really don't know how to talk to Jonah, I'll go talk to him. Over the years, our relationship might be closer than yours as brothers. We've always maintained a business partnership."
"No, I'll go myself." Hobbs took a deep breath, parked the car in front of a large wooden house, and went over to knock on the door.
"Fifty bucks says he gets punched in the face." Deckard Shaw whispered gleefully in Ron's ear.
"Come on, can you at least be a little more professional when you're trying to scam money?" Ron rolled his eyes. "In his condition, it wouldn't be surprising if he got beaten to death."
With a "whoosh," the door opened, and a slightly shorter, bearded Hobbs walked out. "Do you know what's going to happen next?"
"Of course." Hobbs nodded.
Jonah delivered a powerful punch, striking Hobbs squarely in the face, sending him sprawling to the ground.
"See? It's not just me, everyone wants to punch him," Deckard Shaw shrugged.
"You actually dared to come back?! Your face's been on the news! You're not welcome here, officer!" Jonah grumbled as he stormed out of the house. "Seriously... OMG, Ron, you actually came with him! Come in, have you eaten? I'll have someone prepare some food for you."
Upon seeing Ron, Jonah's demeanor instantly changed, his overly attentive manner clearly demonstrating the difference in treatment.
Although most people perceived Ron and Hobbs as elite agents from opposing camps, likely mortal enemies due to overlapping duties—a fact seemingly confirmed by their constant bickering—
no one knew that these two were once close brothers from the same training camp, confidants who could rely on each other. During Hobbs's disappearance, Ron had taken on the responsibility of caring for his hometown.
After Ron took over the IRS Special Operations Team and gained his own independent source of funding, he set his sights on Samoa, the Hobbs family's ancestral home in the central Pacific.
Due to Jonah's mechanical talent and the specific needs of some of Orlov's clients, Ron established a modification base there, primarily staffed by members of the Hobbs family.
Various modified vehicles based on Ford F-150 and Chevy Silverado chassis, such as those with machine guns, anti-aircraft guns, and even tank turrets mounted on truck chassis, were all born here!
The only downside was the requirement from the Hobbs family matriarch, who considered firearms unlucky. Therefore, despite the countless weapons available for modification on the island, there wasn't a single bullet or shell.
"There are such shameless scoundrels in the world, aren't there?" Ron glanced at Hobbs smugly. "To be honest, I know he's shameless, but I'm short-handed right now, so I had to bring this shameless fellow along. Let me introduce you. As you can see, I brought Hobbs, and besides him, there's my number one and number two."
Deckard Shaw was mocking Hobbs, saying, "I think Ron is more like his brother than you are," when he was suddenly given the title of number two, which immediately earned him a cold glare and a laugh from Hobbs.
"Sorry for bringing trouble to you, but I really need your help right now," Ron took the equipment from the trunk and handed it to Jonah. "Take a look at this. I need you to fix it as quickly as possible."
"This…" Jonah had just taken the machine when a slipper suddenly flew over and hit him on the head.
"I told you, no fighting here!" A plump old woman emerged from the house carrying a slipper; clearly, the slipper dart from earlier was her doing. But she froze the moment she saw Hobbs. "Isn't this my Luke? My darling is finally home!"
The old woman's eyes welled with tears. Ron whispered in Hobbs's ear, "Go and keep your mother company!"
Before Ron could finish, Hobbs jumped up and ran to hug her tightly. "Mom, I'm home."
Taking advantage of their tender moment, Ron pulled Jonah aside. "How's that Russian I had sent over a while ago?"
"I put him in the back factory, with another Russian you sent before. They seem to be getting along quite well."
"Okay, how's the stuff I had the Russian make? Is it working well?" Ron asked eagerly.
"It was made a week ago. I tested it once before, and it works perfectly!" Jonah praised the Russian that Ron had sent. "Once it's turned on, it will affect things even at sea a dozen kilometers from the island."
"That's great," Ron nodded in satisfaction. "It seems we can handle this crisis."
(End of Chapter)
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