That night, Luke met Frank to trade information with him.
Luke probably knew everything Frank knew.
What Luke knew, Frank might not know.
A hypnotized District Attorney Reyes had confessed her plan, and Luke didn’t withhold anything from Frank.
Frank fell silent.
Luke didn’t say anything.
Was it revenge? How? How could it be considered revenge? There were countless ways to answer these questions.
There was no doubt that Reyes wasn’t a good person.
When she had planned to capture the three parties involved in the chaotic battle in the park, she hadn’t thought about how she might implicate civilians.
Things hadn’t gone the way she planned, which could hinder her attempt to enter politics; that was the last thing she wanted.
What a pity that because of her wild ambitions and greed, she jumped the gun.
She was worried that the three parties would be alerted and cancel the transaction, so she didn’t have the civilians evacuated before she took action.
Whether or not the three parties were alerted after that, if she had evacuated the civilians ahead of time, the tragedy with Frank’s family could have been avoided.
Looking at it this way, it seemed like she was the cause of the deaths of Frank’s family.
The truth was that this incident couldn’t be judged so simply.
It was a matter of course for the police to catch criminals.
Civilians getting caught up in the danger while the police were catching criminals was an unavoidable problem for the entire US police force; the difference was to what degree.
In a gunfight between the police and criminals, civilians could be accidentally injured at any time. Did that mean that the police didn’t deserve to carry guns?
That was obviously impossible.
Reyes had made a serious mistake in this matter, but not to the point that she deserved death.
If she did, then there were more felons who deserved death more than she did.
Frank’s expression went through several changes for a while, and he didn’t seem to settle on any one thought.
Luke knew, however, that he had already made up his mind.
When all was said and done, Frank didn’t have an innate criminal nature. He was a soldier who had once done many dirty things in the country’s interests, but he had always had a bottom line.
The fact that he took so long to make a decision meant that he wasn’t fixated on killing Reyes.
Luke’s rough guess was that Frank probably didn’t care that Reyes tried to kill him; it mainly had to do with the fact that she wasn’t directly responsible for the deaths of Frank’s family.
That was the real reason Frank hesitated.
In the end, Luke said, “I think we can put District Attorney Reyes aside. There’s another issue. If we can solve it, you might not need to worry about Reyes anymore.”
After a brief silence, Frank nodded. “Go ahead.”
“Blacksmith!” Luke named the key figure.
Frank’s attention snapped to him, and he looked up.
Luke said, “The real key here is this Blacksmith. He was the one to initiate the deal, which led to everything that happened.”
Frank: “You’re saying that you found him?”
But how was this connected to Reyes?
Luke nodded. “This Blacksmith supposedly has a huge supply of drugs, at least a ton at a time. How does he smuggle in such large quantities?”
Frank frowned. “If it’s smuggling, maybe it’s from Mexico? He’s quite close to the Mexican cartel.”
Luke shook his head. “No. The Mexican cartel does have a lot of goods, but they enter the United States in several batches, and very rarely in bulk. They prefer to split the goods and sell them to multiple gangs for even more profits; there’s no need for them to gather the drugs together again after they’ve already entered the country in batches. It wouldn’t do them any good.”
Frank nodded slightly.
The one thing that the Mexican cartel wasn’t short of was manpower.
There were countless ordinary people who were willing to be drug mules for money. They acted as mules for the Mexican cartel and brought the goods into the United States in small batches via various routes.
Doing so reduced the risks and wouldn’t implicate the higher-ups. At most, the police would only be able to catch some thugs and car escorts.
Pooling the goods together would only cause more accidents and losses.
Luke paused for a moment before he continued, “For the rest, you need to calm down. At least, until we catch Blacksmith and confirm that it’s him, you need to remain calm.”
“Say it,” said Frank.
…
Half an hour later, Luke helplessly took out his first-aid kit and started wrapping Frank’s bloody hands. “Didn’t I say we don’t know for sure yet? Don’t tell me you were going to run off and look for him on your own?”
Frank gasped, “He’s mine!”
Luke snapped, “Do you think I won’t knock him out and throw him down in front of you right now? You have five broken ribs and you’re not thinking straight. Are you sure you’re not going off to get yourself killed?”
Frank glared at him with bloodshot eyes. “Until he gives me answers, I’ll be very calm.”
Luke pursed his lips and said, “Let’s go. It looks like you can’t wait any longer. Let’s get to the bottom of this tonight.”
He and Frank were aware that it was very likely that their guess was right.
Unless the other party refused to speak, “Blacksmith” was sure to die tonight.
Naturally, the reason Luke was going with Frank was to use Basic Hypnosis and Mental Communication to squeeze out the last of Blacksmith’s worth.
Since Frank had saved Robert’s life three times, Luke would leave Blacksmith to him.
As for Blacksmith’s goods and networks, those were Luke’s.
They were all experience and credit points.
…
Ray Schoonover smiled and rubbed his son’s head, watching as his wife coaxed him to go shower and sleep.
He sat down on the couch and picked up the remote control as he switched from the TV show to several news channels.
After a while, he stopped and frowned. “No movement from Frank?”
There was nothing about the bloodbath he had expected on the news; he could only turn off the TV and ponder on the follow-up.
With the TV off, the room fell into silence.
Leaning back against the couch, Ray’s heart suddenly tightened. Something wasn’t right. Where was the sound of his wife coaxing his son to sleep?
This little fellow would pester his wife every night to tell him a story. He also liked to ask questions and would only fall asleep after about twenty minutes.
Ray had been watching the news on TV earlier, and hadn’t noticed anything because of the noise.
Now, the entire room was as quiet as a haunted house.
Apart from his own breathing and the faint sound of the wind outside, he couldn’t hear anything else.
Ray reached into the side of the couch where a pistol was hidden. He slowly scanned the room.
It was an unhurried sweep as he did his best to use his peripheral vision and look for any approaching danger.
Crack!
The door was unlocked.
The sound of clinking metal was similar to a key unlocking a door.
But Ray knew it wasn’t his family.
Only he and his wife had keys, and they were both at home.
He was about to pull out his gun, when he heard a low voice from the door. “Ray, long time no see.”
Ray paused, a surprised expression on his face. “Frank, is that you?”
He stood up and turned to the entrance of the living room, putting his right hand, which held the pistol, behind his back.
A burly figure walked in. “It’s me.”
