Chapter 543: Eagle Claw Operation

The sandstorm came fiercely and left just as quickly.

When everyone opened their eyes, they found the short white man already lying on the ground, his eyes wide open, blood gurgling from a hole in the center of his forehead.

Nina looked at He Yuzhu in disbelief: "Little He, the short one had already pulled the trigger. You, how could you possibly be faster than him?"

"How could I die so easily?" He Yuzhu laughed, "Let's clean up the battlefield first!"

"You're right, if other cars drive by, we'll have trouble," Nina said.

The four of them quickly searched the gas station and soon discovered two corpses.

"They should be Mexicans!" Nina said, looking at the two corpses.

He Yuzhu glanced into the room and found it was a small chamber filled with many toys; it must have been where a child lived. In the corner lay the corpse of a man in his thirties with dark skin, his clothes covered in oil stains and his hands injured, clearly having gone through a struggle; the most fatal wound was the knife cut on his throat.

A young boy had been stabbed in the lower abdomen with a knife, with no other injuries elsewhere.

"These three bandits were truly cruel; they watched the boy die from excessive blood loss," He Yuzhu said.

"These animals are too wicked, not even sparing a child over ten years old!" After seeing the situation here, Nina turned and left.

He Yuzhu had Vasili carry the three bandit corpses into the room with the father and son's bodies. He bent the three corpses into a kneeling posture, placed them in front of the two bodies, and then poured gasoline over them.

Vasili watched everything He Yuzhu did, feeling somewhat confused.

He Yuzhu looked at Vasili: "Do you have matches? Light, light the fire."

Vasili struck a match and threw it onto the ground.

Boom—!

Flames surged instantly, the entire repair garage began to burn, and black smoke rolled up into the clear sky of the Gobi.

Su Qing filled the Buick with gas and also filled the two large oil drums on the car.

The group set off on the road again.

In the Buick, Vasili began to dismantle his submachine gun again.

Nina took a bottle of cola, drank a couple of sips, and said: "Little He, thank you so much! If it weren't for you today, we would all have been done for here."

"Don't mention it!" He Yuzhu smiled, "Su Qing, did you see any other news in the newspapers?"

"I always feel like something is wrong; a lot of news hasn't been reported," Su Qing said.

He Yuzhu heard the subtext in Su Qing's words; she didn't want Nina and Vasili to know what they had done at the steel mill and the docks.

He stopped the car and said: "I'm a bit tired from driving, Vasili, help me drive for a while."

"Okay!" The four of them quickly swapped positions.

Vasili drove, and Nina sat in the passenger seat chatting with him to keep him from falling asleep.

He Yuzhu and Su Qing sat in the back row and began to flip through the various newspapers Su Qing had collected.

The emptying of the grain depot and the disappearance of materials from the steel mill were not reported by anyone, which meant that someone was deliberately controlling the public opinion of these newspapers, and the level was very high.

"Do you think someone has already started tracking us?" He Yuzhu asked.

Su Qing nodded.

He Yuzhu smiled; he already had an idea in his mind.

Seven days ago, after the Lehman Bank in Lower Manhattan was robbed, Detective Thomas Cole of the New York City Police Department began an investigation into the case, and he soon realized this was no ordinary bank robbery.

The hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash stolen from the business department were just a smoke grenade; the real goal of this group was to empty the bank's vault.

Two days later, by questioning eyewitnesses and comparing fingerprints and footprints, Cole finally locked onto the identity of one suspect—Nina Volkova.

"This isn't a robbery," Cole looked up at his colleagues at the New York City Police Department, "This is an economic war launched against us by the Soviet Union... We aren't facing ordinary criminals, but a group of professionally trained agents."

After some discussion, everyone quickly reported the conclusion to the government level.

Twenty-four hours later, a special operation codenamed "Eagle Claw Operation" officially kicked off.

Major General Richard Kane was assigned to coordinate with Cole to carry out the operation.

"Detective Cole, you must give me a more detailed action plan. I cannot take thousands of soldiers and follow you to search aimlessly across millions of square kilometers of land," Kane said after hearing Cole's thoughts.

"General Kane, I cannot give a precise destination yet; I still have to wait for their next move. Additionally, you must immediately notify your superiors to block the news completely, otherwise there will be a run on the banks and the economy will collapse... They are aiming to destroy our Bretton Woods System," Cole said anxiously.

Soon, news came from Philadelphia: the Federal Reserve Bank had been robbed.

Cole rushed to the scene, and the sight before him was even more baffling—the vault door was intact, the alarm system was also perfectly normal, yet the gold inside had vanished into thin air.

"Three hundred tons of gold, gone." Cole squatted in the underground vault, truly unable to believe this was something humanly possible.

Next, even more bizarre things happened one after another: two steel mills in Pittsburgh were almost emptied, and in the silos of two large grain merchants at the Port of Toledo, not a single grain remained.

A massive amount of materials disappeared into thin air in a very short time, leaving almost no human traces.

Cole was filled with doubts, but he never gave up; he was determined to ferret out this group of people.

He found Kane and said: "This group's speed of action is extremely fast. I suspect their next target is Detroit. That is the center of the automotive industry, has a branch of the Federal Reserve Bank, and is also a grain transport hub for the Great Lakes region. You must mobilize all your forces to this area."

Kane shook his head: "I think their core targets this time are bank vaults and grain. We must deploy controls wherever these things exist... Guarding the main highways is also very necessary!"

After hearing this, Cole also felt Kane's words made sense and said: "You send people to block Route 66; they must be taking this road to transport the materials."

Kane's judgment was soon confirmed; emergency reports from Route 66 came one after another: two remote gas stations in Arizona were burned, the staff were nowhere to be found; OldJohnGasStation in New Mexico was reduced to ashes in a suspicious fire, and five corpses were found inside.

Cole immediately dialed Major General Kane's phone: "General, I need you to block the entire line of Route 66; every exit and every branch road must not be missed."

There was silence on the other end of the phone for a moment before Kane's voice came through: "Cole, that is a highway spanning eight states and nearly four thousand kilometers. Do you know how many troops that requires?"

Cole's attitude was firm: "I know the difficulty is immense, but you must execute it with your best effort."

The two ends of the phone fell into silence.

After a long time, Kane finally said: "Fine, I will mobilize the troops immediately... I will also personally rush to the scene."

"Thank you, General, I will also be on standby at any time!" Cole said.

Meanwhile, He Yuzhu, Nina, Vasili, and Su Qing were hiding behind a small mound by Route 66, setting up a tent and roasting two rabbits.