Bringing Justice to the City... My Ass

The man who had suggested approaching the Sixth Street Gang held a silenced pistol, wisps of white smoke curling from its muzzle.

He handed the gun to the next man.

The man beside him hesitated for a moment.

Then he took the gun and shot the person lying motionless on the floor.

And so the gun passed from hand to hand.

Everyone in the room now had blood on their hands.

"Good. Now we're all in the same boat. Leave contacting the Sixth Street Gang to me. Just sit back and wait for your cut."

Five days later.

When Fidel returned to the seedy hotel, he found more than just the people he had dealt with last time.

Several men in cowboy hats and clothes patterned with the Stars and Stripes had joined them in the room.

They were members of the Sixth Street Gang.

Fidel instinctively sensed trouble and turned to leave.

"Grab him!"

Hearing the Sixth Street Gang members roar behind him, he broke into a run without hesitation.

But just as he ran from the hallway to the stairs, a Sixth Street Gang member lying in wait beside the staircase slammed a rifle butt into his face.

Fidel fell backward, his back hitting the floor hard.

Blood poured uncontrollably from his nose.

A combat boot stomped down on Fidel's chest, and several Kinetic Rifles pointed at his head.

"Trying to run, kid? Still feel like running now?"

Fidel hurriedly raised both hands.

"No, no, I'm not running."

"That's more like it. Tell us everything, and you can save yourself a beating."

The owner of the boot lifted his foot and motioned for his men to haul Fidel off the floor and bring over a chair.

"Let me introduce myself. I'm Malmer. If you've spent any time in Santo Domingo, you should've heard my name. Now tell me everything you know."

Pinned down by two burly Sixth Street Gang members like a cat being forced into a bath, Fidel glanced at the men standing behind Malmer.

The men who had done business with Fidel several times either lowered their heads or looked away.

None dared meet his eyes.

"I don't know what you want me to say."

"Don't play dumb with me. I know what you're here for."

Malmer held a Kinetic Handgun.

He pressed its muzzle against Fidel's forehead.

Malmer grinned, exposing a mouthful of poorly maintained teeth.

"I suggest you think this through. You're in our hands now, and no one's coming to save you. Even if Padre's backing you, there's nothing he can do for you."

"Working with me is your only way out."

"I don't need to tell you how chaotic Heywood is, do I? Sure, things haven't gotten as bad as Pacifica, but nobody's going to ask questions about a few extra bodies in the roadside dumpsters."

Chapter 41: Bringing Justice to the City... My Ass

Inside the seedy hotel.

Fidel was tied to a chair.

One eye was swollen shut, his lip was split open, and his body was a bloody mess. There was no telling what torture he had endured.

"Padre will kill you."

"I don't think so. Fine, if you insist."

Malmer nodded at a man standing behind him. "I'm out of patience. Do it."

The Sixth Street Gang liked to claim they weren't an ordinary gang.

Their slogan was "Bringing justice to the city."

That was why Malmer had wanted Fidel to "leave the darkness and embrace the light."

Seeing that Fidel refused to come around, Malmer ran out of patience and decided to use force.

The man wore a formfitting black Netrunner bodysuit. He was clearly a hacker.

He walked over to Fidel and opened a case.

Inside was a small, high-tech machine.

The man switched it on, then pulled a personal link cable from his wrist and plugged it into the machine.

Next, he pulled a data cable from the machine and plugged it into Fidel's Neural Slots.

Naturally, Fidel refused to submit willingly.

But he was bound tightly to the chair.

He had no way to fight back.

A dangerous red light glowed in the hacker's eyes.

Almost everyone had ICE to prevent hacking.

Just as every house had doors and windows.

But an ordinary person's ICE wasn't sophisticated. Against a skilled hacker with the right equipment, it might as well have been paper.

The hacker easily cracked Fidel's ICE and began searching through his brain.

"Got it."

The hacker told Malmer that Padre had recently started working with a gunsmith.

Unfortunately, Padre was cautious.

Only a handful of people knew anything about that gunsmith.

And Fidel wasn't one of them.

He knew none of the important details, such as the gunsmith's name, sex, age, phone number, or address.

Still, they hadn't come away empty-handed. The information extracted from Fidel's brain

did mention the name Jack Wells.

This man named Jack had once been a member of the Valentino Gang. Not only did he know Padre well, he also seemed to be a friend of the gunsmith.

So Malmer had the hacker call Jack while impersonating Fidel.

He promised that the Sixth Street Gang would pay handsomely.

He claimed he had already worked everything out with the Sixth Street Gang. All Jack had to do was bring Su Xiao to the seedy hotel.

Then the Sixth Street Gang would give Jack and Su Xiao each a position in its leadership.

As soon as Jack ended the call, he went straight to Padre.

Padre also sensed that something was wrong.

Fidel was one of his most trusted men, which was why Padre had entrusted this job to him.

He didn't believe Fidel would betray him. The Sixth Street Gang had to be up to something.

Back in the present.

Inside Padre's base, more than a hundred of his men were checking their weapons.

The base was crowded, but no one spoke.

Everyone silently inspected their guns.

A grim, murderous atmosphere settled over the place.

Su Xiao arrived at Padre's base and found V and Jack with Padre in the second-floor office.

"Su, you're here."

Su Xiao greeted the three of them, then got straight to the point.

"What's the situation?"

"My men have confirmed it. Sixth Street Gang members have been coming and going from the hotel where the deals took place. They've also hidden reinforcements nearby. There are roughly fifty to eighty of them."

Jack's anger was written all over his face. "Those Sixth Street Gang bastards..."

Padre turned to Su Xiao.

"This is a dispute between me and the Sixth Street

Gang. I'm sorry you got dragged into it, my boy. But don't worry. I've already warned the Valentino Gang, and they've agreed to send more men to the block where your apartment is."

Su Xiao appreciated Padre's kindness.

But he wasn't going to sit around waiting for trouble.

A thief could wait a thousand days for an opportunity, but no one could stay on guard for a thousand days.

On the way there, Jack had already explained the situation to Su Xiao in detail.

Su Xiao knew this group from the Sixth Street Gang had set its sights on him.

For now, they didn't know his name, appearance, phone number, or address.

But if he wanted to feel truly safe,

the best solution was to wipe out the Sixth Street Gang members targeting him.

The city's gangs were loose collections of people, not unified organizations.

The Valentino Gang in Heywood, for example, was divided into many factions.

The Sixth Street Gang was no different.

Only one of its branches was targeting Su Xiao, not the entire gang.

"Let's set my safety aside for now. What are you planning to do about Fidel?"

Padre was a little surprised that Su Xiao had asked about Fidel. "My men work for me. I can't just stand by and do nothing. That would destroy their faith in me."

Padre knew that if they clashed with the Sixth Street Gang,

even if they managed to rescue Fidel,

the number of his men killed or wounded would certainly exceed one.

Looking at it purely in those terms, it might seem like a bad bargain.

But many things couldn't be measured with simple numbers.

Having already formed a plan, Su Xiao said to Padre,

"You said this is between you and the Sixth Street Gang, Padre, but it involves me too. I can't stay out of it. Actually, I have an idea that might keep your men's losses to a minimum."

Half a day later.

At the seedy hotel.

Several Sixth Street Gang members spotted a vehicle coming down the road nearby.

"Heads up. A vehicle's coming," one of them quickly said over the comms channel.

Then he raised his hand high, signaling for the vehicle to stop.

The SUV slowed, then eased to a halt.