Hawk, Thinking of Robbery, Gets Robbed

Buzzzzz!

2:30 PM.

The flight from New York landed smoothly at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport in Washington D.C.

Thirty minutes later.

Hawk, traveling light, emerged from the airport and walked up to a taxi. He opened the rear door, got in, and told the young Black man in the driver's seat, who had turned to look at him, the address of a motel in Quantico.

The young Black driver nodded, started the meter, and then hit the gas, driving away from the airport.

While the Marine Corps base and the FBI academy were both in Quantico, it didn't mean ordinary people couldn't go there.

Ordinary people just couldn't freely enter the militarily controlled areas.

But the town of Quantico itself, the area surrounding the base, was open.

Anyone with self-discipline possessed extraordinary drive, let alone a man like Hawk who had persisted in practicing martial arts ten thousand times every single day for a thousand consecutive days.

Hawk's drive was truly unprecedented.

He had left the Osborn Bio-Industry building just this morning, and by noon, he had already appeared at the airport to buy the fastest flight to Washington.

Hawk hadn't even gone home to grab a change of clothes.

Fortunately, he had spent the entire night studying satellite maps of Quantico, and had a rough plan for how to retrieve his Gamaneon if he went there.

Otherwise, Hawk, fresh off the plane, would probably have been running around like a headless chicken, not knowing where to go.

"Plan A."

"If I can sneak in, I'll sneak in."

"But if I'm discovered, I'll switch to Plan B."

"Quick and decisive!"

Sitting in the back of the taxi, Hawk thought to himself again, then withdrew his focus, turning to look at the scenery outside the car window.

Then...

Hawk casually glanced at the young Black man driving in front, pulling out his phone from his pocket, which he had forgotten to restart after turning it off on the plane.

The phone quickly booted up.

As soon as it was on, the ding-dong, ding-dong of incoming text messages flooded in.

Hawk raised an eyebrow, about to unlock it to see what spam the carrier had sent this time, when a deep voice echoed in the car, accompanied by a dark muzzle being shoved towards him from the front seat.

"Don't move. Give me the phone."

"..."

Hawk fell silent.

Who am I?

Where am I?

What am I doing?

No.

I'm supposed to be robbing a place in Quantico, but I've just landed and I'm getting robbed before I even get there.

Damn it!

This is supposed to be D.C., is the crime rate worse than New York City?

In an instant.

Hawk's impression of Washington D.C. plummeted to freezing point.

The young Black man driving glanced in the rearview mirror at Hawk, who seemed stunned in the back seat, and said in a low voice, waving the dark muzzle. "Don't move. Give me the phone."

Hawk snapped back to reality.

"Do you want me to not move, or do you want me to give you the phone?"

"..."

The Black man paused for a moment upon hearing this.

The next second.

He seemed to lose it.

"Motherf***er, stop with the bullshit, just give me the phone..."

"Ring ring!"

Just as the Black man started to lose his temper, a ringtone sounded from Hawk's phone.

It was Gwen.

Hawk blinked, looking at the only number saved in his phone's contacts.

It was the only number saved on this phone.

As he'd said before, he didn't need to pull out his phone because he didn't need to call anyone, and no one would call him either.

Ugh...

Except for Gwen.

Hawk saw Gwen's call come in, answered it directly, and put it to his ear.

"Hello..."

"..."

The young man, Little Black, was triggered.

He looked through the rearview mirror at Hawk, who had completely ignored his "all beings are equal" device, answered the call without a second thought, without even acting, and just openly picked up the phone. Little Black was completely triggered.

The next second.

Little Black slammed on the brakes, stopping abruptly, then flung his body back in his seat, reaching backward.

"Motherfucker, I'm..."

"Thump!"

"Ah!"

"..."

On the other end of the line, Gwen, who had just been about to speak, blinked as she suddenly heard what sounded like a scream coming from Hawk's end.

"Is someone screaming, Hawk?"

"...Yeah, some guy passing by was watching a movie, probably some violent action flick."

"I bet. That scream sounds exactly like the one you'd make if your ribs were broken."

"Uh..."

Hawk bent over, covering Little Black's mouth with one hand, pressing it against the dashboard, while looking at the spot on Little Black's ribs he'd just hit. "You can tell where someone's injured just from their scream?"

Gwen's voice on the other end of the line let out a laugh.

"Of course. My dad's the sheriff. I'll let you in on a secret, the new recruits might not even be as professional as I am."

"...I can see that."

Hawk was speechless.

What else could he say? He could only admit that a scholar is a scholar; they learn everything faster and better than others.

Just then.

Gwen's laughter this time became clear and hearty.

"I'm kidding, how could that be possible."

"...Okay, I believed you."

"By the way, why was your phone turned off? I called you several times, but couldn't get through."

"What's up?"

Hawk maintained his bent-over posture, one hand covering Little Black's mouth to prevent him from screaming, while the other hand held the phone, talking to Gwen.

"Come downstairs."

"What?"

"Dr. Connors knows you were fired and that you took the fall. He feels bad and prepared a gift for you, but your phone was off, so I figured I'd just come over. Aren't you home?"

Gwen, who was already driving her yellow Corolla to Hawk's new apartment building, pressed an envelope on the passenger seat with her hand while leaning out the window to look up at Hawk's new apartment building.

Upon hearing that Gwen was already downstairs at his apartment building, Hawk fell silent for a second or two before reacting.

"Yeah, I'm not home. Why don't you take it back with you and give it to me when school starts?"

"I've already gotten out of the car."

Gwen said as she walked towards Hawk's new apartment building, closing the car door. "Your apartment is on the top floor near the road, right? Your window isn't closed, I'll just go in through the fire escape and put it in your apartment."

Hawk was dumbfounded.

It wasn't strange that Gwen knew where he lived; after all, Gwen was there when he filled out the paperwork for his new job, and she might have seen it.

But...

"How did you know?"

"I saw your shorts hanging out the window."

"Uh..."

"You've been wearing those shorts for three years, and if I remember correctly, they weren't shorts before, were they? I think you turned them into shorts in tenth grade."

"Alright, that's settled. I'll just put it in your apartment for you. I'm in a hurry to get back too."

"..."