Silver Wing Building, rooftop terrace.
The piercing night wind howled past, making the yellow warning tape at the edge of the rooftop flutter loudly.
The massive tal logo stood like a wall across the south side of the terrace.
The cold white LED lights, of high brightness, were tightly embedded in the stainless steel letter casing.
Without any diffusing covers, the light cast a ghastly white glow across the entire concrete ground.
Under this blinding curtain of light, a dozen or so mbers of the Flying Crane Gang, wearing floral shirts, huddled with automatic rifles in their arms.
They were spread out at the rooftop entrance and around the periter fence, vigilantly eyeing the activity below.
By the lightning rod base in the center of the terrace, there were four large rusty iron cages lined up side by side, seemingly holding so kind of prey.
On closer inspection, there were several young n and won inside, in tattered clothes, and even a child who looked to be only about ten years old.
They curled up in the corners, trembling, bodies covered in bruises, clearly having endured inhumane mistreatnt.
In the cage at the far edge, an elderly man with graying hair was imprisoned, none other than the East City Association Chairman Shen Wei.
At this mont, his face was ashen, his breath weak, and his left leg twisted at a grotesque angle, obviously broken.
"Eat! Eat, damn it!"
A scrawny man with dark skin tossed a few pieces of bread and bottled water into the cage over the bars.
He kept shouting, his actions as crude as if he were feeding wild animals.
"Don’t die of hunger on before the handover, or you won’t even be worth a di to the corpse collectors!"
The two young n and won were already so starving that they saw stars; seeing the food, they rushed at it like mad, devouring the dusty bread in gulps, choking but not daring to stop.
The child shivered in the corner, stuffing his mouth desperately while staring in terror at the demons outside the cage, tears carving two streaks down his dirty face.
Only Shen Wei still hung his head low, ignoring everything, like a lifeless statue.
Seeing Shen’s half-dead state, the dark-skinned man couldn’t help but rage, throwing an unopened bottle of water hard at Shen Wei’s face:
"You old bastard, don’t know what’s good for you!"
Shen Wei turned his head from the hit, blood instantly seeping from his temple, yet he kept his mouth shut, not uttering a word.
"Damn it!"
The dark-skinned man kicked the cage in frustration, causing a loud clanging noise, scaring the "goods" inside into screams.
"Damn it, if I’d known this old geezer was this tough, I would’ve left more alive last night."
"It’s all because I was too carried away with the killing back then, forgot about this, and slaughtered all those useless ones. Now there’s no one to show us the way."
As he spoke, his gaze swept callously over the others in the cage, then he turned and glared viciously at the giant feasting beside him.
The giant, a behemoth over two ters tall, was sitting cross-legged, tearing into a bloody leg of so animal.
Hearing the complaints, the giant rely lifted his head, revealing a blood-sared and vacant-eyed face.
It seed he didn’t understand what his companion was saying, only grunted twice and continued gnawing at his at.
"Enough, Black Mamba."
A red-haired man jumped down from the water tank.
He had a typical Eastern European face, with deep-set eyes and even his pupils appeared an eerie red.
His codena was Fire Dragon, the gunman of the Bloodthorn rcenary Corps.
He lit a cigar, took a deep drag, and spoke with a thick, awkward accent:
"According to the intel from our mole in the East City Association, they store life supplies in a transit warehouse and send people from the orphanage to fetch it."
"Without this old guy sending out a signal, they’re very cautious and won’t show up at all. Keeping those people alive would have been a waste of food."
"Hmph, it’s all because that old guy was too vigilant."
The man called Black Mamba spat on the ground, glared again at the unresponsive Shen Wei:
"He actually discovered our tracks early, forcing us to act prematurely and kill. If we could have snuck up quietly, none of these issues would’ve happened."
Listening to his companion’s incessant complaints, Fire Dragon exhaled a puff of smoke, glanced at his watch, and grew a bit anxious:
"Why hasn’t the pickup arrived yet? Didn’t we agree on 11:30?"
"What’s the rush? Those helicopter guys will even charge overti if they’re late by a minute, probably circling in the air now."
Black Mamba shrugged dismissively.
"I’m worried if this drags on, the Special Search Team will notice sothing’s off and track us here."
Fire Dragon frowned, pointing at Shen Wei in the cage:
"Besides, although the intel shows this old guy was kicked out by the Shen Family decades ago, he’s still of Shen blood."
"If he really dies at our hands, the Shen Family won’t let it slide for the sake of face, and it’ll be a hassle if they co after us."
"What are you afraid of?"
Black Mamba sneered coldly, eyes fierce:
"Even if they co looking, what’s the big deal? We can just leave East Capital, escape from Xia Country. How far can the Shen Family reach outside the country?"
"You say it so easily!"
Fire Dragon flicked the ash off his cigar, dissatisfied:
"Are we really going to give up the foundation we’ve worked so hard for two years? Just throw away the channels we painstakingly built?"
"Tch, we’re rcenaries, outlaws, doesn’t matter where we roam."
User Comments
0 comments from readers