How could Pronto feel any respect for such a person, despite his unusual authority?
Annoyance was more like it!
Standing by the window, Shaun snapped his fingers and turned to sit on the windowsill. "I rember now—Jim, Wood, right?" Pronto weakly nodded, and Shaun's face lit up with a grin. "I knew I'd heard that na before. What's up? He's dead? Who did it?"
Pronto shot Shaun a tired look. Shaun must have realized sothing because he awkwardly chuckled, patting Pronto's shoulder without a hint of sha. "Oh right, you're asking ."
In truth, Pronto didn't know much about this case. He avoided close ties with the gangs and didn't like being se interacting with them. If word got out, it could cost him his job. Gangs also avoided associating with him. For gang mbers, ev if they lost an arm to an emy, they'd rather hold out for revge than call the police. They would never seek justice through law forcemt.
Any disputes betwe gangs had to be settled according to gang rules. Anyone who involved the police would be despised and ostracized by all gangs and might ev face vigilante justice, like Jim's wife did.
Pronto had no idea that Wood had kidnapped Julian's mother and brother, which explained the swift and ruthless retaliatory killings.
At that momt, Pronto classified the two murders as acts of revge. But he also knew that no matter how he labeled it, it didn't change one fact: war had begun. He furrowed his brow slightly and asked, "Is there any way to de-escalate this? Like finding a diator, getting both bosses to sit down and talk, and avoid a full blown war?"
Shaun cast a disdainful glance at Pronto. The way he moved, the look in his eyes—it was as if he were a gang mber himself. "Are you kidding? Wood's already lost two of his top m. Do you really think he's going to agree to a sit down?"
"Forgive my bluntness, but this is beyond your ability to stop or interfere with. You don't have the... capacity." What Shaun really wanted to say was that Pronto didn't have the qualifications. Sure, Pronto was an impressive figure as the police chief of Ternell, responsible for the city's security.
But so what? He wasn't a robot, nor was he a war machine. He was just a chubby human being, no differt from the thugs on the street. He could make a mistake, just like anyone else. He could be injured by a knife or killed by a bullet, just like Jim. In fact, he might ev be more vulnerable because he didn't have the sa level of caution as those thugs.
Of course, wh everyone played by the rules, Pronto, as the police chief, was the biggest piece on the chessboard. Everyone had to respect and follow the rules he laid down. But once soone stepped outside those rules, what was Pronto th?
Just another imperial official who could be assassinated, silced like anyone else.
So, in Shaun's eyes, Pronto didn't count for much. He was far less dangerous than those gangsters who wer't afraid to kill.
While Shaun was focused on Pronto, Pronto's atttion was on the na Shaun had casually mtioned—Graf, and more importantly, Julian!
"You an... Julian?" Ev now, Pronto couldn't believe it. "You're telling that the person going to war with Wood is a guy nad Julian?"
Shaun nodded, a bit puzzled. "Yeah, Julian. The whole city of Ternell knows about him by now. He's young, ruthless, and shrewd. Most importantly, they're not afraid to kill. Wh Wood's m wt missing, everyone suspected it was Julian's doing, though there's no proof.
Impressive kid, but hey, I wasn't too bad back in the day either…"
Sixte!
A young man!
Pronto's heart inexplicably raced. He touched the heavy key to his Imperial Ctral Bank safety deposit box in his chest pocket, suddly finding it burdso. After a momt of thought, he ignored Shaun's reminiscing about his lost youth and drove straight to the Imperial Ctral Bank, where he located the safety deposit box the key belonged to.
Inside the box were t stacks of t-dollar bills. Although they were labeled as "old bills," they wer't very old—just circulated and used bills with non sequtial serial numbers. Tracking these bills was difficult, ev for the Imperial Bureau of Criminal Investigation, which made them the favorite type of currcy for bribe takers.
In the past, Pronto would have be thrilled—after all, t thousand dollars was the largest "donation" he had ever received. But now, he couldn't bring himself to smile.
Because the person who had giv him this money was Julian!
More importantly, he now understood Julian's thods. That seemingly young, innoct looking boy had orchestrated two brutal murders, right out in the op. He didn't care about witnesses—Pronto ev suspected he wanted to be se. It was his way of sding a ssage, a signal to all the bigwigs in Ternell: they had a new player in town!
...
Though a storm was clearly brewing, there wasn't ev a hint of tsion in the air.
Wood stared at the three bodies on the g, his eyes filled with sorrow. People on the outside called him a thug, a mad butcher, but that didn't an a butcher or a thug was devoid of feelings. He was still human, capable of joy, anger, sadness, and happiness. Both Jim and Jiji had be with him for a long ti. These two m were more than just his comrades—they were like family to him.
Whether they were so poor they couldn't afford to eat at or charging into battle against powerful emies, these two had always stuck by his side, never once falling behind. Their presce had beco an inseparable part of Wood's life, sothing that could never be erased, no matter the thod or the momt.
But now, they were dead, their bodies lying right before him.
He wanted to cry, but he couldn't find the tears to break through his eyes.
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