As the people inside the monitoring room were discussing Amelia and Shi Lang being useful, the couple was flying through the skies having a discussion of their own.
Shi Lang placed his elbows on his thighs and leaned forward and said in a serious tone, “Wazir, I will not be tolerating any mistakes or emotional hindrance during the task. Do you understand?”
He was clearing up things from the get-go. He did not want her to let the emotional side of their relation to becoming a liability. Amelia replied, “Do not worry, Ace. I understand all this. What I am more interested in, is the action plan. You said the primary objective is to hunt a Flame Leopard. Our system has negligible information about this beast. How do we complete the task.”
Shi Lang replied, “I was told that the flame leopard is fond of a blue fowl. Although I do not know what is the logic behind this or what reports have made the superiors come to this conclusion, the information is reliable.
To lure the beast out, we will capture the blue fowl. I have read the data, we have enough information regarding this bird.”
Amelia nodded and said, “Alright. The movement plan, you have already told me before boarding the flight, but don’t you think it is unsafe for us to avoid the shadows at the night? Also, tonight it will be a full moon. I am unsure.”
Shi Lang turned his masked face to look at the girl and said, “Orders are to be followed and not thought over. At the moment, you are my subordinate, and you will do as I say. If you proved to be a liability, then I will make sure that you can never put on the colors of the military again.”
Amelia was stunned, she was not a member of the secret division and did not have a mask to cover her face like Shi Lang in front of her, and the pain caused by the latter’s remark was visible in her eyes as clear as the day.
Shi Lang did not bother to explain anything to her and waited for them to enter the landing zone. Soon, the wait came to an end and the pilot’s voice rang through the speakers, “Sir, we are nearing the coordinates, do you need us to land on the ground or…”
The pilot was a low-ranking officer in front of the guy sitting inside the cabin of his vehicle, who could not be judged by the conventional ranking system. He could not just ask him to get him to jump off the chopper to descend on the ground, can he?
Shi Lang replied, “We will dive.”
The pilot heaved a sigh of relief and said, “Yes, Sir. We are in the dive zone. You can go any moment now.”
Shi Lang undid his safety belt and stood up from the chair. A somewhat dazed Amelia also followed him and stood up from the chair. The chopper had two doors and both were open, so the couple did not waste any more time and jumped down the chopper. Their suits were equipped with the state of the art flight suits. They would deploy instantly when the smart fabric sensed their movements and vital telemetry.
The two people communicated with hand signs and soon breached the tree canopy one after the other, with Shi Lang in lead. They landed on the ground and broke into a roll to unload the impact force from the landing. Shi Lang gave a signal to Amelia to hide inside the shadows of the tree.
The reason? The guy had been using his ability from the moment they dived out of the chopper. He could sense someone watching the open areas inside the woods. This sensation gave him an uncanny vibe. He did not wish to take any risks and followed John’s advice.
He used another hand signal to tell Amelia, “Use your ability and scout the place.”
Amelia gave him a thumbs up, meaning, “I got it.” the next moment, she turned invisible and left the place to scout.
Shi Lang then looked up at the sky and made some weird symbols using his hands. This was to inform the observant instructors back at the monitoring room.
…
Yuu gazed at the screen and then she said, “Lang turned in a silent report.”
John nodded and said, “About time he realized, that he can communicate with us via ‘Eye in the sky.'”
Carlos said, “Move the secondary scout and use the thermal screening to locate Amelia, she is out there in the western woods and our doll sent her to do the heavy tasks. I am worried that she might get tagged by those native savages. Their noses are too powerful.”
Yuu nodded and tapped the holographic panel on the table to get the secondary camera to aim at the girl. They were fed with the live thermal scans of the area, and they could tell that the girl was sticking to the instructions. They heaved a sigh of relief.
…
After waiting for twenty minutes, Shi Lang found Amelia appearing at the position she was in earlier. The girl gave him a lot of signals, informing him that there were a lot of things that she could not understand.
Number one, Amelia has never seen a place inside the wild woods that could be as silent as this one.
Number two, She moved half an inch of her finger out of the shade. The following thing almost made her scream from fright. She sensed a gaze so intense that her mind jolted back to reality. She was only trying to see if things were really as serious as Shi Lang had told her. The result did surprise her, as she did not expect it to be true.
The guy did not mention how stupid she was for breaking the rules. He sat down, with his back leaned against a tree. Amelia asked, “What now, Ace?”
Shi Lang replied, “Either it is some powerful beast that rules this area of the woods, or some native settlement nearby that can cause the place to be so silent. We better stick to the shadows till we reach our destination. We are still three clicks away from our designated zone.”
Amelia nodded and the people moved through the shadows.
…
Dalia came inside the monitoring room and asked for the status update. She was told how far the couple had gone with their task. She nodded to the people and after asking them all to be on stand-by, she left the place again.
Dalia made her way to her dedicated office and contacted Charlotte Knight. The call request was answered within five minutes, and the lady said, “Madam, is it really okay to have Amelia move outside in uncharted territories. We only have vague details of that place.”
Charlotte was anything but a softie, she loved her daughter, but she wanted her to be strong, emotionally and physically. Shi Lang was the best student she had taught and this was the only way to make Amelia learn from the boy.
She replied, “Dal, how many times do I have to tell you. Do not worry, Lang will be able to get her back safe. Have some faith, I am not blind.”
Dalia nodded and said, “Very well, Commander.” then she put in her report on the growth of the couple before the communication came to an end.
She could only sigh at the present situation.
…
Shi Lang and Amelia were moving through the shadows. Suddenly, they heard clanking sounds at some distance. The former moved like a specter and found that the sounds were originating from the battles.
The battle was being carried out between a group of twenty humanoids, and one beast. The beast was a leopard, as big as two humans standing on their legs. The tiger was covered with a flaming red pattern and according to the data, this beast was none other than the flaming leopard.
Shi Lang confirmed that the beast was something he needed to hunt, but then he changed his attention to the people fighting with the beasts. Upon squinting his eyes, the youngster found that the people looked similar to the natives he has faced before, they were wearing animal skin. Amelia appeared behind him and said in a low voice, “These are the natives. Ruling this part of the woods. What shall we do?”
Shi Lang replied, “We shall learn. Learn how to counter this beast. This thing is the primary objective. Ofcourse, we cannot let the others succeed so, if they are close enough to kill this guy, then disrupt them and let the cat run away. We will get it later as it heals with its wounds.”
Amelia was surprised by his cunning and said, “Yes, Sir.”
Shi Lang signaled her to climb the crown of a tree to monitor the situation before acting any further.