Once all five oil trucks were filled, Paul dared not delay and immediately ordered his men to close the gates and prepare to drive away.
The convoy headed north, not south to the Night Wanderer camp, because going south would pass by the military technology monitoring stations, which would be troublesome if discovered.
The sight of five large oil tankers along with twenty modified vehicles racing on the wilderness road was spectacular, with occasionally surprised looks from oncoming private cars.
Paul didn’t insist on gathering all the vehicles together for withdrawal, rather he lacked enough manpower to escort them individually, so he had to run them all together.
In fact, even separating the vehicles wouldn’t matter; for Lin Miao and Adcardo, it’s the same. They’ve sent people to watch every route, no matter where they go or how many vehicles there are, they’re determined to snatch those vehicles, even Jesus couldn’t stop them.
Night Wanderer convoy, 3 kilometers forward on the highway
Panam crouched behind the rocks, already getting impatient.
"Mitch, how much longer?"
The Mediterranean uncle removed the drone control chip and said, "Their convoy is moving fast, but heading along the planned route. At most two minutes and they’ll be here, front twelve back eight. You need to be patient, Panam."
Hackers truly are the most unreasonable profession in this world. In this era of highly developed networks, nobody and nothing can claim privacy. As travelers of cyberspace, once they find a network interface to infiltrate a LAN, they can browse almost everything.
The premise is that their brains aren’t fried by hostile hackers, ICE, or rogue AI.
Although Night Wanderer is a second-rate gang wandering outside the city and has hackers, their technical prowess isn’t strong. At least for now, it’s no match for Lucy and Qiwei.
After all, who with true skills would be catching the wind in Evil Land? Isn’t the life in the city nicer?
In no time, the team’s trace appeared on the horizon. Adcardo’s crew quickly held their breath and concealed themselves. It’s not easy to find a spot in Evil Land Plain where the convoy can hide, Panam and her crew hid their vehicles in the hollows behind.
The Night Wanderers were highly vigilant, not only were there armed guards standing on the oil trucks, but even the modified vehicles had vehicle-mounted machine guns with people manning them. As soon as there was any disturbance by the roadside, the .50 machine guns would start firing.
Paul sat in the armored vehicle at the center of the convoy, his prosthetic eye constantly scanning every corner along the road where an enemy might emerge, but the vast Evil Land seemed all so normal.
Maybe the Night Wanderers aren’t good at fighting, but in Evil Land, few can say they’re more familiar with it than them.
He picked up the radio.
"Ahead is a break, connected to the riverbed, keep alert, be careful."
Due to severe pollution, garbage blockage, flood season and a series of issues, California’s rivers often change course, leaving behind various sizes of riverbeds, which are winding waterways suitable for hiding people for ambush.
But maybe he was just too nervous, as nothing happened even after the leading convoy passed through the break, everything seemed fine.
Just as he thought that, the unexpected happened.
From the slopes on both sides of the highway, four or five trucks suddenly charged out, crashing brutally into the modified vehicles trailing the last oil truck, like a sharp knife splitting the long snake tail into two.
The screeching sound of metal twisting and deforming after impact, the breaking sound of glass reaching stress limits, the friction of rubber tires on the ground due to emergency braking, and the dense sounds of gunfire...
Various sounds erupted all at once, nearly stunning the Night Wanderers.
Until the bullets clattered against the vehicle’s thickened steel plates did many come to their senses, immediately grabbing their weapons and getting out to fight back, some even screamed,
"Under attack! Under attack!"
"It’s that bastard Adcardo’s group!"
Sitting in the vehicle, Paul had already drawn his submachine gun, roaring at the driver,
"Ignore them, keep driving."
Who knows how many Adcardo brought, tangling with them now isn’t a wise move.
He looked in the rearview mirror at the two sides, seeing dozens of Wanderers rushing out fully armed, with immense firepower.
No matter how angry you are, you must restrain... We’ll settle this with those bastards when we get back...
As for how Adcardo found out, Paul wasn’t very surprised.
It wasn’t an overnight affair for both sides, mixed in Evil Land, probably just found out the movement from somewhere.
With the eight modified vehicles blocked, apart from the leading vehicle being wrecked and scrapped along with its occupants, the remaining Night Wanderers quickly got out and used the reinforced vehicle bodies as cover, engaging in a crazy firefight with Adcardo, in every sense of the word.
Bullets flew everywhere, along with all sorts of curses.
A Night Wanderer jumped onto the roof, pulling down the machine gunner whose head was blown apart by bullets, ready to take over, suppressing the enemy with strong firepower, then his head exploded alongside.
"Thank you for the compliment, Mitch." Panam replied while lying on a boulder nearby, sniping those Night Wanderers preparing to seize the firepower spots with her ’Overwatch.’ "But do you think those guys can stop the vehicles? I have my doubts."
"I don’t know." Mitch said while crouching behind a stone pier, the Night Wanderers’ bullets kept his head down, "But once we’re on the battlefield, we must trust our allies."
Panam said, "I’m just afraid that guy is trying to eat the big head himself, taking on heavy work and messing things up, if he does, Sol will eat us alive."
Despite the intense battle here, there wouldn’t be much casualties at all, if these Night Wanderers find themselves overwhelmed, they would immediately drive away.
However, at the second and third checkpoints, they might have to face Paul and his men who are prepared to fight to the death.
"So we better quickly settle things here and go support him."