There were two more hostiles, one of whom was holding a well-groomed middle-aged man at gunpoint and the other was interrogating him.
The middle-aged man looked dejected, but he answered their questions obediently.
Suddenly, Luke frowned at the night sky.
Two helicopters were headed this way from afar.
Luke had a bad feeling.
These two helicopters were making very little noise. Even with his keen hearing, he was only able to pick up faint, unusual sounds on the wind.
Furthermore, their strobe lights weren’t on, which meant that they definitely weren’t ordinary aircraft.
Regular aircraft were obligated to turn on their strobe lights during flights. This was a safety measure that absolutely couldn’t be omitted.
A moment later, Luke saw two spots on the surface of the ocean. Were those… speedboats?
Luke frowned even harder. Had some secret special force been deployed to rescue the hostages? That didn’t make sense.
Generally speaking, the authorities would first try to negotiate with the hostiles who were holding so many passengers hostage.
They had to at least figure out what equipment the hostiles had and what their objective was before deciding how to proceed; otherwise, it would be big news if anything happened to the thousand or so tourists.
The speedboats drew closer to the ship and then stopped.
Luke could only see two hazy black spots on the ocean in the dark, while the hostiles didn’t seem to have sensed anything at all, and didn’t react.
Ten minutes later, Luke raised his eyebrows as he looked at the twenty grappling hooks on the edge of the ship. They were taking action already? Unbelievable!
Thinking for a moment, he didn’t make a move.
It was only a matter of time before the hostiles on board were alerted.
Luke had already made up his mind: Once he confirmed something wasn’t right with the situation, he would escape with Robert and Catherine.
The twenty people who snuck aboard were definitely an elite special force. Their equipment and movements were very professional.
The hostiles didn’t lack skills, but they didn’t sense anything as the special force boarded the ship and occupied a few key locations.
Looking at the positions of the special force, Luke knew he had guessed right — this secret special force wasn’t here to rescue people.
They had taken up positions to attack the deck aftside; they weren’t here to rescue the tourists at all.
Twenty special force soldiers were going to fight almost two hundred hostiles; this was just asking for death.
Luke informed Robert of the situation in a low voice and told them not to worry about the upcoming battle since he would just watch on the side.
Speechless for a moment, Robert then passed on Luke’s words. Catherine looked at him suspiciously. “You sure he really isn’t going to take action?”
Robert pondered for a few seconds. “Honey, since he says he isn’t, we should believe him.”
The battle on the rear deck finally began.
Since the hostiles reported in at a fixed time, the special force was exposed less than five minutes after they snuck onto the boat.
The hostiles reacted pretty quickly. Once they realized that the situation wasn’t right, they covered for each other as they pressed forward to the positions of their accomplices whom they had lost contact with Realizing that their opponents weren’t an untrained mob, the special force immediately attacked first.
Intense gunfire rang out and the battle instantly heated up as both parties traded wild gunfire near the aft deck.
The special force had the upper hand and hid themselves very well.
The hostiles were no less capable, and only a handful of them were shot down.
Pondering for a moment, Luke ultimately remained silent.
After the tourists were gathered together, the hostiles hadn’t bothered with them except to limit their range of movements. Thus, the hostiles weren’t here for the tourists, but for the unknown substance in the milk cans.
The special force that had come later showed no concern for the safety of the tourists either. Who the hell knew where they were from.
Naturally, Luke wouldn’t help them, not when Robert and Catherine were tourists.
But the sound of the choppers grew louder as they drew close.
Since the special force had been exposed, there was no need for the choppers to hide anymore, and they came to back up their teammates.
In less than two minutes, two dark helicopters of an unknown make emerged aftside. There was an eye-catching burst of fire in the night sky as two six-barreled machine guns began to strafe the hostiles.
The hostiles suffered a huge blow.
Choppers versus foot soldiers was cheating to begin with, and machine guns versus rifles even more so.
Luke, however, sneered.
He had already seen two hostiles at one exit take out a Russian S18 air defense shoulder missile launcher.
The next moment, a streak of fire whooshed out.
One of the helicopters had just veered to the side, when it was hit.
BOOM!
The sky rained fire as a huge fireball fell from the sky into the ocean. Like a cat that had been stabbed in the butt, the other chopper veered away to instantly put some distance between itself and the ship.
The hostiles who had been suppressed by the machine guns on the helicopters immediately took back the upper hand and continued to put pressure on the special force again.
However, the leader of the hostiles paid no attention to the special force or the fleeing helicopters. He simply had his men continue moving the milk cans.
Sitting leisurely on the edge on the top floor, Luke observed the fight.
Neither the hostiles nor the special force, nor Luke who was watching the drama from above, noticed that one of the milk cans was hit by a piece of the chopper when it blew up, and the milk can dropped into the ocean.
A stream of ruby red fluid trickled into the ocean from the hole in the milk can.
A fish that was over twenty centimeters long was leisurely swimming by, when it flicked its tail and abruptly turned its head to dash in one direction.
A moment later, it rushed into an area of light red seawater and swallowed the water greedily.
But just a few seconds later, it was swallowed along with the water by a large fish that was half a meter long
Taking over from the small fish, the big fish continued to gulp down the red water.
But several seconds later, it was enveloped by a shadow. A giant manta ray hurled its flat body at the fish and knocked it unconscious.
Along with the battle on the cruise liner, an even bloodier and more brutal battle was taking place under the water.
Luke didn’t sense anything wrong.
His Sharp Nose wasn’t keen enough yet to penetrate water and detect traces of fish in the ocean.
He continued patiently acting as a spectator.
Looking at the situation, the special force would only be able to hold on for a few more minutes.
Without support from the choppers, and outnumbered as they were by the hostiles who weren’t amateurs at all, the special force was soon completely suppressed.
The hostiles didn’t plan to continue fighting either.
As the number of milk cans dwindled, the hostiles on the ship started to reassemble, obviously ready to evacuate.
To one side behind the ship, several boats that belonged to the hostiles were waiting.
Luke relaxed.
The hostiles didn’t have the smell of explosives on them. From the bits and pieces of conversation he had caught, they didn’t plan to destroy the ship either.
He just needed to wait for them to be done with their robbery, and the cruise ship would be safe.