Chapter 443: Save Them

Chapter 443: Chapter 443: Save Them

Gunshot wounds, knife cuts, whip marks.

Every type of wound Zoe Sawyer could imagine could be found on these men.

Some of their wounds were already festering and oozing pus. Others were flushed red, long since unconscious from a raging fever.

"Their condition is critical. They need immediate medical attention, or they won’t even make it to tomorrow. They’ll be dead by tonight!" Barry Quinn’s eyes were fixed on a man huddled protectively beneath the others.

His condition was the worst of the five. His face was ghastly pale and his lips were bloodless, yet cold sweat continuously beaded on his temples.

Although most of his body was obscured, Barry Quinn’s sharp eyes spotted a vicious gash on the man’s exposed neck. The flesh was peeled back, looking exceptionally gruesome.

And judging by its length and trajectory, it was easy to imagine just how severe the injury must have been.

"How do we rescue them? The four guards are sitting face-to-face. If one goes down, the other three will notice immediately," Heath Hale asked as he took the phone Barry Quinn handed him and took a picture of the men.

Only after confirming he had captured all five of their faces did he nod in satisfaction.

Barry Quinn took the phone back from Heath Hale and checked the photo. Once he was sure nothing was missed, he sent it to his former leader via a secure email, adding a brief explanation of the situation.

Of course, he didn’t leave out the Bureau Chief.

After sending the photo, Barry Quinn finally put down his phone. He and the group gathered in the office began discussing how to silently take out the four bodyguards in the room.

"We don’t know if there are any surveillance cameras in that room, nor do we know if they have any kind of emergency communication devices on them."

"If we want to get the men out without alerting anyone outside, our top priority is to figure out those two things," Sean Hughes pointed out, identifying the two most critical issues.

The others understood as well, and they began proposing their own ideas, only for them to be shot down the next moment.

Zoe Sawyer didn’t join their discussion. Instead, she was controlling the door, using it to scan the entire room.

’From the outside, this room doesn’t have a door. So how do they get in and out?’

’The ceiling? The floor? Or that window?’

Zoe Sawyer manipulated the door, examining every suspicious spot from top to bottom.

Finally, in a hidden corner of the window frame, she discovered a red button.

To be cautious, Zoe Sawyer didn’t touch the button. Instead, she looked at the situation outside the window.

The moment she did, Zoe Sawyer noticed something was wrong.

Although the ocean was right outside the window, there was a recessed mark on the ship’s exterior that looked like a staircase.

’Could it be? Is that red button for controlling the staircase? Do these bodyguards use this window and staircase to get in and out of the room?’

Following the trace of the staircase downward, Zoe Sawyer saw another window identical to the one in the room above. After guiding the door inside, the situation within immediately came into view.

It had the same layout as the room above, but this one had a normal door for entry and exit.

Aside from a table, two computers, and two men each staring at a screen, the room was bare of any other furnishings.

The feeds on the computer screens were very familiar to Zoe Sawyer. One showed the room upstairs, and the other showed the room with the five girls.

"Staring at this screen all day is killing me. I heard everyone else is still out relaxing because the clients haven’t all arrived yet. Just our luck, we’re stuck here staring at this all day and night." One of them, a tall, skinny man with glasses, rubbed his eyes, his tone full of complaint.

The heavyset man next to him took a slow sip of his soda. Hearing his partner’s complaint, he spoke up. "We’re a little tired now, but it’ll be fine in a couple of days. The people in these two rooms have been booked by major clients—big shots even the boss wants to work with."

"Once the big clients take them away, we can relax. Don’t worry about those guys having fun outside now. When all the clients arrive, it’ll be their turn to be exhausted."

"That may be true, but this is seriously tiring."

"Never mind the other one. Just look at the room above us. Every single one of them is severely injured and can’t move, and they’ve got four bodyguards watching them."

"Besides the window, there’s no other way out. There’s no need for us to be watching them at all." The skinny man covered his face in frustration.

Surveillance was boring enough as it was, but it was even more tiring when the scene never changed.

The skinny man just felt the boss was being overly paranoid.

Even if those guys could move, they were in the middle of the open sea. Where could they possibly escape to?

The heavyset man shrugged indifferently. "Don’t worry about it. We just need to do our job."

Having gotten the information she needed, Zoe Sawyer turned back to the others, who were deep in heated discussion. "I’ve figured out the situation," she said. "There’s an exit through the window, and there’s surveillance."

"But I still don’t know if they have a way to communicate, so I didn’t dare make a move."

Heath Hale and the others, who had already come up with a few plans, stopped their discussion and looked at Zoe Sawyer, a flicker of surprise in their eyes.

Just as Barry Quinn was about to say something, his work phone suddenly rang in his pocket.

He took it out and saw it was his former leader.

Barry Quinn didn’t dare to delay. After signaling for everyone to be quiet, he answered the call.

Before he could speak, his former leader’s voice came through. "Barry Quinn, how are those five men? Are their lives in danger? Do you need support from our end?"

"Their vitals are stable for now, but they need immediate medical treatment. Otherwise, they won’t last much longer."

"The situation on this cruise ship is grim. As for support, that’s a decision for you and the Bureau Chief. I can’t give you a definite answer on that," Barry Quinn replied. He then fell silent for a few seconds before asking, "These men... are they also...?"

Hearing Barry Quinn’s question, his former leader answered without hesitation. "They’re ours. We sent them out, but the mission is classified, so I can’t disclose the details to you."

"They went missing after their last risky mission to send back a major piece of intelligence. No one could contact them. We thought they had been exposed and killed in the line of duty. We never expected them to still be alive."

"Barry Quinn, please tell Sawyer to do everything she can to bring them back. They’re heroes! If you need assistance, just say the word. I’m on standby," his former leader said, his tone heavy.

Originally, after losing contact with the five men, his plan was to approach Zoe Sawyer in a few days and ask her to look into their situation.

He never expected that before he could even ask, an email would arrive from Barry Quinn, and the men in the photo were the very five who had gone missing during their mission.

To think he’d searched high and low, only for them to turn up so unexpectedly!

"Don’t worry," Barry said. "Since they’re our comrades, we won’t give up on them."