"Bomb!"
Upon hearing Heine's discovery of the timed explosive, Yzak immediately panicked.
"Can we cut the fishing line on Dearka?"
Yzak desperately wanted to sever the fishing line connecting Dearka to the bomb.
But he feared the bomb would detonate instantly the moment it was cut.
Thus, constrained by this dilemma, he dared not make a move.
With no other choice, Yzak turned to Heine beside him for assistance.
"Don't panic! Stay calm!"
At least compared to Yzak, Heine managed to maintain his composure.
Staring at the suspected timed explosive left by Wang Hu, he noticed there seemed to be some time to spare.
"Wang Hu isn't in the basement."
As he spoke, Heine scanned the entire basement once more.
"Our people are guarding the outside, and we've all seen the architectural blueprints for this area."
"He couldn't have escaped through any sewer pipes or ventilation ducts."
His mind racing, Heine tried to deduce Wang Hu's current whereabouts through reasoning.
"Is he still in this house? Then what's the purpose of leaving the bomb?"
"And is this bomb real? Is there only one bomb?"
His brows furrowed deeply, Heine felt a faint headache coming on.
Everything had happened too suddenly today—it was all too rushed!
So, for the moment, he couldn't grasp any clues to resolve the current chaos.
"What are you thinking about?"
Especially with Yzak adding to the confusion beside him. Seeing Heine preoccupied with thoughts of Wang Hu instead of helping to rescue Dearka, the anxiety on his face became impossible to suppress.
"Forget it, I'll go get someone from outside to take a look."
Getting to his feet, Yzak stood up, ready to head out. Compared to the two of them, who were purely from ZAFT Forces' combat divisions, the Green Coats outside likely had professionals specialized in bomb disposal.
"Wait!"
A flash of insight struck Heine's mind—Yzak's words had given him a vague clue.
"Calling people in?"
He slapped his thigh in excitement and exclaimed.
"That's it! It's about calling people in, getting people inside!"
"What are you talking about?"
Yzak was nearly startled by Heine's shout and turned back to stare suspiciously at the excited Heine.
Watching him dance around like a madman, Yzak instinctively took a step back.
"Wang Hu is in the house, right under our noses."
Drawing his gun, Heine's eyes gleamed with confidence, and he appeared utterly self-assured.
"He wants us to run outside for help. He's trying to create an extremely urgent situation."
"That way, he can make our brains shut down and overlook his actual hiding place!"
"What are you talking about?"
Heine had almost spelled out the answer, but unfortunately, Yzak still hadn't grasped what he meant.
"Never mind, just follow me."
Rolling his eyes at Yzak, whose intelligence seemed severely lacking, Heine concluded that his genetic adjustments must have allocated all his intellect to muscle.
But it didn't matter. It was fine if Yzak had no brains—what mattered was that he himself had enough.
After double-checking the timer on the bomb, Heine turned to head back toward the entrance.
But at that moment—
A deafening explosion roared.
The roof of Durandal's mansion was blown off by the blast, and the violent shockwave reached the basement, causing Heine and the others to stagger unsteadily.
"Dearka!"
As Heine finally regained his balance, Yzak let out a grief-stricken cry beside him.
It turned out the earlier tremor had jolted the unconscious Dearka awake.
Upon waking, Dearka instinctively sat upright, tugging the fishing line that had been tied around him.
"Could it be?"
His eyes fixed on the fishing line now lying on the floor, Heine immediately looked toward the bomb that had previously shown ample time remaining.
The countdown numbers, which should have had plenty of time left, were now disappearing as if sprinting a hundred-meter dash.
"Bastard."
Heine cursed angrily—not just at the numbers, but because he could also hear the sound of numerous footsteps approaching from outside.
Even without looking, Heine knew what was happening.
It had to be the subordinates they had brought with them, who, upon seeing the explosion, were now rushing in out of concern for their safety.
They were storming into Durandal's house!
"Let's go! Get outside!"
Heine raised his gun. At this point, it all came down to whether they were fast enough!
Now it wasn't just a race against the bomb's timer—it was also a race against Wang Hu's escape speed.
"Got it! Dearka, hurry!"
Nodding, Yzak rushed over to Dearka, who was still bound by ropes. With the fishing line detached, there was no need to worry about the bomb anymore.
He hoisted his friend onto his shoulder and dashed out without looking back.
As for Durandal, still trapped in a corner of the basement?
Sorry, but neither Heine, Yzak, nor Dearka spared him a single glance!
"Heine Red Uniform, Yzak Red Uniform, and Dearka Red Uniform!"
The moment the three burst out of the basement door, a large group of Green Coats from the relevant department breathed a collective sigh of relief upon seeing them safe and sound.
The reason was simple enough—
Two of them had powerful, far-reaching backgrounds, after all!
"Block the main gate! No one gets out!"
Seeing the Green Coats, Heine urgently shouted.
"No one gets out?"
One of the Green Coats questioned the order.
"Idiot! Wang Hu disguised himself as a Green Coat! When we came in earlier, he was wearing a Green Coat uniform, lying among the pile of corpses!"
Shoving aside the Green Coats blocking his path, Heine sprinted frantically outside.
He needed to reach the entrance of Durandal's mansion as quickly as possible, hoping for a chance to intercept that bastard dressed in a Green Coat uniform—
Who was undoubtedly hiding among the subordinates he had brought with him.
But when he finally reached the entrance, Heine's face fell in despair.
Just as he arrived, because of the explosion that had torn through the mansion's roof,
The Green Coat subordinates, besides sending a team into the basement to rescue the three of them,
Had another group rushing in and out with fire extinguishers, trying to put out the flames on the roof.
In just a brief moment, Heine saw five or six people entering and exiting the house.
It was no use thinking anymore. Heine strained his eyes, scanning the hurried Green Coats inside and outside the mansion with a deathly focus.
"It's over, it's over. Wang Hu has escaped."
Forget about Wang Hu, even he himself—
Putting himself in their shoes, given such an opportunity, he would have fled far away long ago.
"Heine?"
Yzak, standing next to Heine while carrying the groggy Dearka on his shoulder, asked quietly.
"Wang Hu escaped?"
"Of course he escaped!"
Stomping his foot in frustration, Heine roared loudly.
"It's been so long, and so many Green Coats have rushed in."
"That Wang Hu seized the chance to slip out in the chaos, pretending to call for reinforcements to break out of our encirclement, and then just took off his Green Coat."
"By now, he's probably strolling leisurely in some neighborhood of the colony!"
"Uh..."
Hearing this, Yzak sheepishly rubbed his face and whispered another reminder.
"There's still a bomb in the basement—what should we do about it?"
"Bomb?"
His chest aching faintly, Heine didn't want to deal with anything at that moment.
With such a huge mess and even a Mobile Suit brought in, how was this going to end?
But the more he didn't want to handle things, the more problems came his way.
Standing at the entrance of Durandal's mansion, Heine was still panting heavily, trying to calm his emotions.
"Boom!"
Another explosion rang out.
"Did the basement explode?"
Startled by the blast, Yzak, who was already on edge, nearly dropped Dearka from his shoulder.
Before Yzak could regain his composure, a series of explosions followed one after another.
"It's not under our feet."
Heine's face turned pale as he stared into the far distance. Since the colony was shaped like a standard funnel, despite its large area, someone with good eyesight could still make out basic scenery very far away.
At the edge of Heine's vision, thick black smoke was rising from many parts of the colony.
"What's happening?"
Yzak also saw what Heine was looking at and gaped in shock.
"Could it be that more than just Wang Hu came from the East Asian Alliance?"
"Isn't that obvious!"
Heine finally snapped back to reality, rolling his eyes at Yzak. Forcing himself to focus, he ordered the Green Coats nearby.
First, he told them to temporarily ignore the fire on the roof and find a few bomb experts to check the basement, to determine the situation with the bomb Wang Hu had left behind.
At the same time, they were to bring out the repeatedly forgotten Durandal.
He also decided to treat it as a last resort, trying to see if they could find any traces of Wang Hu, who had undoubtedly vanished without a trace.
As for the distant explosions—
"Let whoever wants to deal with it handle it."
Learning from his mistakes, Heine declared that he didn't have the background to meddle in such matters and would no longer stick his nose where it didn't belong.
He hadn't gained anything but had ended up with nothing but trouble.
"Was C.C. turned?"
In the distance, where explosions kept occurring, Lelouch was retreating alongside East Asian Alliance underground operatives.
He had considered the possibility that Lacus might be playing tricks, which was why he had specifically sent C.C. to keep a close watch on that pink-haired diva.
He had thought that even if C.C. couldn't handle Lacus, she could at least sound an alarm!
Although C.C. wasn't exactly reliable or trustworthy, in this world, she was his fellow countrywoman!
"How? How did that Lacus win over C.C.?"
Unable to comprehend, Lelouch couldn't understand how Lacus had managed to persuade C.C., based on his understanding of her.
Fortunately, he had been cautious enough, knowing early on not to place too much trust in others, and had specifically instructed the East Asian Alliance underground operatives to prepare in advance.
Otherwise, they would have been completely surrounded by those Coordinators!
"Lelouch."
As misfortunes never come singly, Zhang Peng approached with his phone in hand.
"Mu says the helper sent by Lacus is that guy named Martin."
"What happened over there?"
Lelouch sharply turned his head, his eyes flickering.
"Martin and his men dumped Mu and the others on the main road, then drove off with the Clyne Faction members."
Seeing Lelouch's unpleasant expression, Zhang Peng quickly relayed the situation from Mu's side in one breath.
"Mu and the others lost the Clyne Faction?"
"How could they possibly lose them?"
Voicing his doubts repeatedly, Lelouch had to reassess that Lacus.
The personnel allocation on Mu's side had been arranged by Lelouch in a one-to-one ratio.
The fact that they managed to subdue the East Asian Alliance underground operatives, though through a surprise ambush, still proved the Clyne Faction was no ordinary group.
"No problem." At this moment, Lelouch still believed the situation was manageable.
--Enjoying the story? Want more chapters? Check out my Patreon and support me for 40+ advance chapters.
Just search for "LegendaryTL" on Patreon!"
Thanks!