Chapter 317: Can’t Leave Even if You Want to

With the help of two soldiers, Akado struggled to get up from the ground. Only then did he discover that Heydrich was also wounded. Lying on his back on the ground, there was a bloody gash on his arm. Depp looked to be seriously injured. His face was covered in blood, and he was now lying unconscious on the ground.

Anna was also injured. She was lying on the ground, with at least three wounds on her back. The deepest wound, on her shoulder, was a shocking sight. Akado’s heart was filled with an uncontrollable anger as he watched the medics put Anna, Depp, and Heydrich on stretchers. Do these bastards think I’m a sick cat?

“Call Rein Truman! Impose martial law on Berlin! Search every single room for me! If anyone finds an unknown person, arrest them immediately for confirmation!” Akado ordered the SS officer beside him. “Lock down these two streets at once! No one from the Führer’s Residence is to leave!”

“Report! We have already imposed martial law on the entire Führer’s Residence. The special forces of the 0th Division are now conducting a room-by-room search for suspicious individuals. All the soldiers on duty have been brought under control. General Gascoigne from the Wehrmacht intelligence department is on his way.”

“After you catch them, keep them alive for me! I want to torture them bit by bit until they regret ever coming into this world!” Akado said through gritted teeth as two medics cleaned his minor wounds.

As he spoke, he raised an eyebrow and loudly called over another SS officer who had temporarily come to take orders. “You! Come over here! Send men at once and check the underground garage for me! That should be the primary scene where the bomb was planted! Investigate the three guards on duty, and then carefully search every corner!”

“Yes, my Führer!” the officer saluted at attention and then rushed into the garage with the soldiers from outside. Following him were at least twenty fully armed special forces soldiers from the 0th SS Division. These troops were wearing tactical vests, but they were uniformly made of black cloth, not the grey used by the Wehrmacht.

If one were to select the most valuable explosion of this Second World War, this assassination attempt would definitely rank in the top three. This explosion had hit four main figures: the Führer’s driver, the Führer’s secretary, the commander of the SS, and the German Führer himself. As a single bomb, it was enough to be remembered by history.

Of course, the premature explosion of the bomb had also screwed over another group of people, namely Ghost and the others, who had just been about to leave but were now trapped in the underground garage by the troops imposing martial law. The explosion they had set was for twenty minutes later, but now, only fourteen minutes had passed, and the bomb had already gone off. And from the sound of it, the bomb had exploded nearby, which meant that the Führer’s car had not driven very far.

So the assassination was a success? Ghost looked at Paul on the side. Paul nodded and said, “It should be a success. The bomb exploded early. It’s impossible for him to have gotten out of the car halfway. He’s dead for sure this time!”

“Not necessarily! What if he wasn’t in the car?” the Six of Hearts asked with a frown.

“How is that possible? The car drove out almost ten minutes ago. Even if he had to crawl, he should have crawled into the car by now,” Paul said confidently.

“Now, whether Akado is dead or not, the problem we have to think about is how to get out of here ourselves. If we can leave safely this time, we will be the heroes of the British people!” Ghost said with a smile. “But I didn’t expect the German security forces to react so quickly. Are they coming from the sky?”

Gascoigne stood beside Akado, his face filled with a fierce aura. With his hands behind his back, he waited for Akado, who was sitting on the steps, to issue an order. And around him, the special forces of the German 0th SS Division stood in dense ranks, like walls of men.

These troops had indeed come from the sky. After the problem had occurred, the several squads deployed nearby had rushed out from the barracks right next to the Führer’s Residence and had immediately sealed off the surrounding streets. And these special forces that had arrived later had come in Crusader helicopters. These special forces had become the world’s first truly rapid-reaction force.

The Crusader helicopters allocated to this unit were all personnel transport models. A 7.92mm machine gun had been mounted outside the door on one side. Although the helicopter was not suitable for large-scale equipment on the main front due to its weak survivability, over a city like Berlin, it had clearly become an absolute aerial suppression weapon.

“My Führer, we sealed off the Führer’s Residence within twenty minutes. Now our ten special operations teams are conducting a room-by-room search inside,” an officer in charge of commanding the special forces reported to Akado. “We have just found the detonation device of the explosive in the underground garage of the Führer’s Residence. Other information is being further compiled and sorted.”

“Report, my Führer! The latest news just came in. The internal search of the Führer’s Residence is complete. No suspicious persons were found. No exchange of fire occurred during the search process,” another officer came over and reported at attention.

Akado’s eyebrows twitched, because the officer’s foot was stepping on van Gogh’s famous painting, The Starry Night, which had been reduced to waste paper. Because of the explosion just now, this painting had been completely destroyed. It was covered in bloodstains, as well as holes and tears from being pierced by small fragments. It was already completely beyond repair.

Even if it could be repaired, no one cared about such a not-so-valuable painting now. So this painting had been thrown on the ground, and until now, no one had even given it a second glance.

This criminal act of attacking the head of state had aroused the anger of the Germans. They were using all their efforts to find the real culprit. They had already gathered their strength, preparing to teach the culprit a big lesson.

“Führer, we have found the original design drawings of the Führer’s Residence and have discovered a detail—in fact, the Führer’s Residence’s independent car garage was originally connected to the guards’ garage, but it was sealed off for security reasons, leaving only a ventilation hole…” Gascoigne said, bowing his head. “Considering that the Führer’s guard detail has been the same for a long time and has not been changed, I mainly suspect that there is a problem with the garage manager.”

“Then go and investigate! I escaped this time. Am I supposed to pay for your negligence with my life next time?” Akado was truly afraid this time. Death had been so close to him for the first time since 1919. In the past, even if the danger was great, he had never faced the threat of death so directly as he had today. So this time, Akado was furious. He even had the urge to kill someone.

“We can’t wait any longer! If we don’t rush out now, those people will confirm our position,” Ghost finally said, looking at the Six of Hearts and Paul with a sigh. “We still underestimated the wisdom of the Junker aristocrats. That damned officer actually ran away. This also creates a problem for our plan to kill him and frame the Junkers.”

He pointed to a car beside him. “Paul, get this car started. We’ll have to rely on it to escape in a bit.”

He then glanced at the Six of Hearts. “We can’t all escape. We must leave one person behind to provide cover. I have decided to have you stay. Any problems?”

The Six of Hearts grinned. “To be able to return to Berlin with you all and assassinate that bastard Akado, I was already prepared to die. No problem. I’ll stay behind and cover your escape.”

So he very calmly took out the two pistols from his coat, weighed them in his hands, and then got into the back seat of the car with a smile. And at this time, Paul had also already started the car and had gotten into the driver’s seat.

He turned his head, looked at the Six of Hearts, and forced a smile. “Twice now, you’ve covered me. I’m sorry.”

“It’s nothing! Your target is small, so it’s easy for you to escape. I have too many distinct features and am easily recognized, so it’s right for me to stay behind,” the Six of Hearts said with a smile. And in his front row, that is, the passenger seat, Ghost opened the car door and got in.

“Let’s go! When Germany is destroyed, all who died in battle will be remembered! Long live the British Empire!” Ghost shouted loudly. And at the entrance of the car garage, a group of SS special forces with guns at the ready were already tiptoeing in, covering each other.

He stomped on the gas, and Paul drove the Mercedes-Benz, charging toward the main gate at the fastest possible speed. And the German special forces there, hearing the sound, also saw the charging car.

“Rat-tat! Rat-tat!” Without any politeness, the German MP-44 assault rifles opened fire. The bullets rained down on the body of the Mercedes-Benz like a storm. Although this Mercedes was an ordinary car for guard use, a steel plate had still been added to the inside of the door for bulletproof purposes—but it was clear that this kind of steel plate could not withstand the bullets of an assault rifle at close range.

The bullets hit the car’s body, kicking up a shower of sparks, but relying on the quality of the Mercedes and the thickened steel plate, this car still managed to break through the special forces’ encirclement and drove out of the garage onto a nearby street.

Through the car window, Ghost saw a scene he least wanted to see. The Junker aristocrat officer who had cooperated with them was at this very moment kneeling on the ground, his hands on his head, being guarded by several German special forces soldiers. He looked very pathetic.

“Click.” The rear door of the car was pushed open by the Six of Hearts. His tall body leaped out of the car, rolled a few times on the ground, and then came to a stop, leaning against the wall of a building. He held two pistols and fired repeatedly at the pursuing German special forces, forcing the pursuers to lie flat and take cover.

On a high tower not far from him, a German sniper’s mouth curled up slightly. He centered his crosshairs on the man’s head and sneered, “Do you think this is London? You can just come and go as you please?”