Chapter 613 Retired? Dead? On a Trip?
âFlegg, come in alone. Luke, go to the room opposite. Catherineâs there.â The door quickly opened, and Robertâs voice came out.
Hearing that voice, Flegg was stunned, disbelief in his eyes. âYou...â
The two agents behind Flegg looked at their boss with puzzled expressions.
Doing his best to calm down, Flegg ordered, âThe two of you wait outside.â
The two agents notice Fleggâs hand signal and relaxed.
That gesture meant that the situation was safe and there were no abnormalities.
The door shut.
In the corridor, Luke shrugged. âDo what you like.â He then opened the door opposite. The two agents looked at each other with bitter smiles. This was the hard lot of working under someone else.
Inside, Robert and Flegg stood in the living room.
Flegg slowly tidied up his clothes, stood straight, and saluted. âGreetings, sir! Member of the B34 Squad, Rick Flegg, reporting for duty.â
After a brief silence, Robert also straightened and saluted him in return.
Done with etiquette, Flegg finally continued, âItâs so good to see you again. I always thought that you...â
Robert gestured for him to take a seat and said, âYouâre no fool; you know what our departmentâs usual practice is, right?â
Flegg smiled bitterly. How am I supposed to know if you really retired or the codename on paper died?
In their department, there were few who knew who was dead or still alive. As for those who were already dead, few knew how they died.
It was also the reason why he was so surprised to see Robert.
He had always thought that Robert had probably been killed by some bigshot at the prime of his life, or at worst had been sent on some suicide mission; there was no way he could have retired so early.
But Robert was actually alive and kicking, and was even on holiday on a cruise ship?
Flegg didnât know what to say about this low-key living
Robert had never been one to beat around the bush. Staring at Flegg, he said directly, âI want you to cover up Lukeâs role in this. Can you do that?â
After a brief silence, Flegg finally nodded. âNo problem. But you and him...â
Robert: âHeâs my son.â
Flegg smiled wryly. âThat explains a lot...â Looking at his face, Robert asked, âWhat else has he done?â
Flegg looked conflicted, and didnât say anything
Robert scoffed. âAlright, I know youâre always the most obedient, which is why youâre still alive. Go do your thing.â
Flegg stood up with a bitter smile. âThank you for your understanding, sir.â
Robert also stood up, a little impatient. âAlright, after you leave this room, donât say you know me. Iâm already retired.â
While Flegg stayed silent, he mumbled inwardly, Thatâs right, your redacted files are probably collecting dust in some supposedly non-existent R.E.D. archive.
After Flegg left, Luke and Catherine returned to the room.
Looking at Robert, Luke asked, âAn old colleague?â
Robert snorted. âWhat are you thinking? Iâve been retired for over ten years already. He was still drinking milk back then.â Luke: âNo matter how you look at it, Fleggâs only in his thirties, right?â
Robert: âHe looks older. Anything wrong with that?â
Luke shrugged. âFine, fine.â
He could see that Robert didnât want to talk about Flegg. He turned around and looked at Catherine. âThe FBI guys are here. Do you want to continue with your trip?â
Catherine thought for a moment and shook her head. âForget it. Once the ship docks, letâs just continue with our holiday on dry land.â
Robert: â...â
Luke: â...â
Suddenly, there was a knock on the door. Luke answered it, and an agent said to him in a low voice, âCaptain Flegg needs to talk to you about something.â
Luke turned around and looked at Robert. After getting a nod in reply, Luke walked out of the room. He quickly reached the aft deck. Seeing that he had arrived, Flegg simply greeted him before he asked, âI need to ask you what happened in detail, you understand?â Luke nodded.
Just now, he had been the one talking while Flegg listened. It was now time for Flegg to ask the questions and for Luke to answer.
That was how investigations were usually carried out.
However, Fleggâs questions were mostly focused on the hostiles, the middle-aged man kidnapped by the criminals, and the secret special force that arrived later.
Unfortunately, they were now all in that giant octopusâs stomach, which made it very hard for Flegg to confirm their identities. He could only speculate on their backgrounds based on Lukeâs descriptions.
On the aft deck, Fleggâs men were wearing protective suits as they cut up the giant tentacle and packed the parts into big boxes.
The tentacle was very big. Thirty of Fleggâs men bustled around while the other half stood guard. The tourists and crew on the ship were all told that there was something dangerous on the deck that needed to be processed. They were all asked to remain in the main hall.
Except for a few overly-curious guys who were stopped by several soldiers, everything was under control.
Of course, this also had to do with the reputation of the soldiers.
They werenât the peopleâs guardians, and instead were usually deployed to suppress a situation. For example, during a hurricane in Lukeâs previous life, the soldiers rode armored trucks into the disaster zones.
Their responsibility was to maintain order, not to rescue the victims.
By the same logic, they only needed to maintain order on the ship, and didnât have to be responsible for the safety of the tourists. Since the day they became soldiers, that had never been their obligation.
The men in protective suits were crouched on the deck as they carefully collected something.
Luke knew what they were looking for: the unknown red liquid.
This thing had drawn the hostiles into hijacking the ship and the special force in an all-out attack, and had even drawn a mutant giant octopus in the end; it was the key to the whole thing.
As a professional, Flegg had noticed this key point right away.
The men in protective suits were being very careful as they searched for the red liquid scattered over the deck. They divided the area into grids and slowly searched from the outside in, and didnât miss anything suspicious at all.
As a result, they couldnât move quickly.
Even after the giant tentacle had been cut up, packed and loaded onto the seaplane, they were still scouring the deck.
Suddenly, there was a voice from Fleggâs walkie-talkie. âCaptain, two planes are coming.â
Since the agents were letting Flegg know, that meant that the two planes were already low in the sky.
Luke could already hear the noise.
Two massive planes rumbled as they slowed down on their approach to the ship.
The rear sections were already down, and several shadows that werenât small in size were dropped.
Luke glanced at Flegg. âIt looks like youâre outnumbered.â
Flegg was silent.
Those were C5 Galaxy carriers, air behemoths that could carry three hundred soldiers at a time.