Chapter 408 - 404: Problem

The teams entered the bindings and came out after an hour. There was a look of disappointment on their faces. 

"This entire building is empty. How can this be," Ray muttered as he sighed.

"Maybe the information you received was wrong?" A team member asked as he frowned. 

"It can't be wrong. I'm sure that my source was correct," Ray replied as he shook his head. 

"Who was your source? Maybe you should talk to him. If he gave false information, we need to know. We Have used a lot of resources to make this happen. Going back empty-handed will definitely not be right."

Ray was also frowning as he heard the words of his team. It was true that if the information were wrong, not only him but his source would be a focus of scrutiny as well. 

"Let me check the other places," Ray muttered as he pulled out his phone. He called a number.

"Hey, Eyu, what's the situation there?" Ray asked.

"Ah, yeah. I was about to call you as well. Are you sure that you gave us the right location? This whole place is empty. I don't think even ghosts would be living here," the person on the other side of the call said jokingly.

"Alright. I'll call you right back. Just give me a few seconds," Ray replied before he disconnected the call. 

He dialed another number.

"What's the situation there? Did you find the enemies?" he asked as soon as the call was picked up.

"No. Unless the rats that are inside the building are supposed to be the ones we're here to arrest. There's no one here," the other person answered.

Ray kept calling the other teams, wondering if it was the same there as well.

Unfortunately, it was. Almost every team reported that the places they were supposed to raid were empty.

"Ahh, this is such a headache. The higher-ups will eat me alive. I was the one that told them not to go any reconnaissance beforehand since I didn't want the enemies to be alert, but I didn't know this would happen," Ray muttered as his frown depended.

He walked farther from the others and called Ryder's number to tell him of the problems that had occurred.

Ryder was in the middle of the movie when his phone started ringing.

"Sigh, is it working again? Can't You silence your phone and ignore it?" Alice asked Ryder.

Ryder was looking at the name of the caller on his phone. Noticing the call was from Ray, he stood up.

"It's important. I'm really sorry. I'll be right back," Ryder told Alice before he left. 

He walked out the hall and picked up the call.

"Hey."

Hearing Ryder's nonchalant tone, Ray couldn't help but smile wryly.

"Don't hey me. I'm in trouble," he replied. 

"What trouble? Can I help?" Ryder asked, wondering what could have happened.

"The problem is not something you can help me with. What happened was that we were supposed to raid all the locations you had given me. In fact, I'm standing in one of those locations," Ray explained. 

"And?" Ryder asked suspiciously.

"All the locations are empty! There is no one there! Every single location!" Ray exclaimed.

Ryder was stunned to hear his words. He replied, "That shouldn't be. Why would such high ranking Members stay in empty places like those if it wasn't their bases? I even saw some people going in and out of those buildings through the satellite images."

"This is what happened, though. I see from my own eyes." Ray sighed as he kicked the tires of his vehicle.

After a few seconds of silence, Ryder implied, "I think someone leaked the information about the raid. They vacated the locations before you could reach there."

"Who else knew about the location of the raid?" he asked.

" No one knew about these locations except our head. Even the agents were only told when we were en-route," Ray answered.

"Then you know my answer. The person who helped them isn't someone low in position. Your Chief might be the main suspect," Ryder said.

"No, that's impossible. Our chief was the one who took the mission. He was also the one who assigned us to go to DC. He found most of the leads that helped us get closer," Ray replied, shaking his head.

"Didn't the enemies in DC know about your plan? Weren't they ready for you? He sent you there, and they knew about you..." Ryder muttered.

"I know what you're implying. It was a ploy to have us killed to create problems? But you already know. Riya was the spy of Dark Uprising. She was the one leaking the information," Ray answered as he shook his head.

" That doesn't mean he wasn't responsible. That plan was too coordinated for it to be the work of Riya alone. Anyway, since those guys already vacated the location, I can't help you. The tracer shows that the people are on that island, but you can't go there anyway. This was all I could help with," Ryder muttered as he sighed.

"Also, I know what this means. You would get the blame even if someone else leaked the information. They will ask for your source and start interrogating me if you answer. I'm sure you know better than to name me, don't you? Because I won't be happy if I'm involved, and you know how things can go wrong when I'm not happy," he threatened Ray subtly.

"Hah, you don't have to threaten me like that. I promised at the start that I wouldn't involve you in my stuff. I will keep my promise. It might be tough, but I'll handle it. And I can push the angle about the information being leaked," Ray answered, shaking his head. He had already decided that he would take most of the blame on his head without letting Ryder be affected.

" I wish I could help you, but it's out of my hands," Ryder muttered. "I truly wanted Uprising to lose its strength, but this was a failure. Their reach is already too high. Much higher than I expected."

" What are you going to do about them?" Ray asked, wondering how Ryder was going to handle them. In his eyes, Ryder was a warrior of justice who had been fighting with this organization since the start.

" I'll just ignore them. I'm not going to their base to die before I'm strong enough," Ryder answered straight away. He was already wary of them after last time. 

"Ray, the Chief is on call. He says your number is busy."