Reborn: The Rookie Detective

Following Jack back next door, after hearing his plan, Hannah became excited. This Texas girl, who dared to kill two men before she was even an adult, had a violent streak in her bones.

Jack was also happy to see it happen. He had resigned from the LAPD a month early, intending to visit Margrave with Hannah before heading to Quantico for training.

The plot of *Reacher* had been slow to unfold, and he was worried that Hannah would secretly do something behind his back while he was away for training. He decided not to wait any longer and just go straight for the kill.

They were going for revenge, not to solve a case. They would identify the culprits, kill those who needed to be killed, and that would be it. Now they had the Wolff brothers; if all else failed, they could use them as backup.

This was a rehearsal, and also Jack and Hannah's first time teaming up again after nearly half a year apart.

At 2 a.m., in front of a secluded villa on the outskirts of Chicago, Jack, carrying an MP5A2 submachine gun and wearing a black ski mask, leaned against a thick cedar tree, observing the surrounding terrain and patiently waiting for his opportunity.

Chicago spring temperatures are low and windy, but they were lucky today; although the temperature was below 10 degrees Celsius in the early morning, there was virtually no wind.

This was rare in Chicago, known as the Windy City, making it ideal for snipers.

The villa faced a small lake to the south and was backed by a large cedar forest. Jack and his three companions split into two groups, preparing to attack from the northeast and northwest.

Interestingly, the Wolff brothers seemed to have a strong preference for Barrett sniper rifles. Although Jack rejected Chris's Barrett M82A1M, Braxton surprisingly offered a brand-new Barrett MRAD, which Hannah then snatched.

This left Chris, carrying an AWM, quite frustrated, but what could he do when his M82A1M couldn't change barrels as easily as the MRAD?

"Number 1, in position," Hannah's voice came through the headset.

Then Chris's, "Number 2, in position."

Braxton and Jack responded in hushed tones.

The plan was simple: Chris and Hannah would first take out the two snipers on the roof from a distance, then Hannah would continue to provide cover with her Barrett MRAD, Chris would discard his AWM and join Braxton, the brothers would take the lead and draw attention inside the building, Jack would try to get onto the roof, and finally, together they would eliminate the remaining enemies.

As for the cameras, they didn't plan to bother with them; the mission was to eliminate all targets and then simply take the surveillance hard drives. With Ray King's official support, they had ample time.

"3, 2, 1," Hannah counted down, and the two snipers hidden under camouflage cloaks on the roof simultaneously burst into a cloud of blood mist and fell silent.

At a distance of less than a kilometer, both sniper rifles fired bullets exceeding the speed of sound. After Braxton betrayed their positions, the fate of the two observation posts on the roof was already sealed.

When the gunshots rang out in the distance, before the two mercenaries acting as lookouts outside could react, one of them was knocked down by Hannah's sniper rifle. Under the light from inside the villa, it was clear that he had been shot in two at the waist, with blood and organs forming a long, radiating trail behind him.

Another mercenary reacted quickly, ducking behind a shrub, but in the next second, a third bullet pierced the not-so-thick trunk and went straight into his head.

Using a heavy sniper rifle was truly unfair; in less than a minute, a third of the twelve mercenaries were gone. The young woman, now had three more lives on her hands.

Hannah's Barrett continued firing, but now it was one-sided suppressive fire. Almost every window she could see had been hit at least once. The remaining mercenaries in the villa finally reacted, starting to turn off the lights that would expose them.

However, perhaps due to design considerations, some corridor and wall light switches were on the outside. After another mercenary lost another life, no one dared to risk peeking out to turn off the lights.

Finally, Jack received the signal to move. Chris had rejoined his brother, and the three left their hiding place simultaneously. Chris and Braxton took turns firing cover, trying to draw the enemy's attention.

Jack sprinted along the blind spot marked by Braxton's cameras, figuring that with gunfire erupting all around, no one would pay attention to the sensor alarms.

The mercenaries in the villa seemed to have finally realized that holding their ground was pointless. After throwing several smoke grenades through the broken windows, a four-man team rushed out from the side of the villa, using the parked cars as cover, and began exchanging fire with the Wolff brothers.

Hannah lost her firing angle and stopped firing after changing her third magazine. Jack sensed she was nearing her limit; although the recoil of her Barrett MRAD, which used .416 ammunition, had been greatly reduced, her shoulder was definitely sore after firing almost non-stop for 30 rounds.

Taking advantage of the mercenaries' attention being focused on the Wolff brothers attacking from the northwest, Jack successfully approached the side of the villa from the northeast corner.

After a careful observation, and sensing that no one seemed to have noticed him yet, he took a short breath.

The heavy Interceptor body armor he was wearing, with its groin and neck protectors, weighed nearly 10 kilograms, not even counting the weight of other equipment. He'd run almost sprinting speed for about 300 meters, and it was a miracle he wasn't exhausted.

Peeking out again to survey his surroundings, Jack nimbly scaled a low decorative wall that resembled a flowerbed, and quickly climbed up the villa's side wall to the rooftop.

He deliberately moved quietly, cautiously approaching the northwest corner where the Wolff brothers were engaged in a fierce battle with four mercenaries who had rushed out of the villa. Well, he peeked out and saw that only two remained.

The remaining three mercenaries inside seemed to be planning to reinforce, throwing out several more smoke grenades. Jack grinned and pulled out two MK3A2 offensive grenades.

Although offensive grenades with fewer fragmentations were more suitable for use indoors, he had no choice now. He pulled the pins and tossed the two grenades into the rising smoke below.

Before the grenades could explode, Jack's MP5A2 went off. The two mercenaries, who were still occasionally peeking out and firing at the Wolff brothers, were caught completely off guard by the rooftop behind them.

Almost simultaneously with their fall, two grenades thrown into the smoke went off in quick succession, blasting the two mercenaries who had just rushed out into the air.

Chris and Braxton rushed forward one after the other, finishing off the remaining mercenaries on the ground. Now only one mercenary and Lamar Blackburn himself remained.