Sitting in the passenger seat, Qin Wei kept glancing at the rearview mirror.
He was a little nervous.
Right now, he might as well have planted his ass in a pile of fireworks. If the Joker Gang really went off the deep end and decided to take everyone down with them in a spectacular fireworks show, the truckload of flammable explosives would be more than enough to send him sky-high.
At that moment, Qin Wei missed Oswald terribly. The man wasn't particularly bright, but having an old friend to talk to would at least ease some of the tension.
Royce, however, wouldn't do. Qin Wei had to keep up his persona to earn the man's trust.
If the leader of a group acted jumpy and burst into tears, what would prospective recruits think?
What he didn't know was that Royce, sitting beside him, had plenty on his mind too.
With the window open, Royce kept one hand on the steering wheel. He smoked half of each cigarette while the wind smoked the other half, lighting one after another without a break.
He was nervous as hell too, but a sidelong glance showed Qin Wei resting his chin on one hand, his eyes half closed as though he hadn't quite woken up.
That stirred up his damned competitive streak.
The boss is so calm. If I look too nervous, will he look down on me? Will he kick me off the boat? Getting back at Maroni, avenging Jenny... God, this might be my last chance...
Each man kept his worries to himself without calling the other out, and they rode on in silence, stubbornly putting on a brave face.
Hah. Men!
The truck entered a tunnel. They were halfway there, and Qin Wei figured things might not be ready at the other end yet, so he told Royce to slow down.
That, however, displeased the car behind them.
Ever since they entered the tunnel, the Beetle behind them had been honking nonstop. The noise made Royce pound the steering wheel several times. If not for the truckload of hazardous cargo, he would have loved to slam on the brakes and give them a little surprise.
"Why are young people these days so damn impatient behind the wheel? It's not like there's no lane beside us..." Royce grumbled.
Before he could finish, though, the car behind pulled up on their right.
With no oncoming traffic, the little Beetle drove alongside them.
Its window rolled down, and a silver-haired redneck granny pulled out a cane and jabbed it at their door, leaving Qin Wei dumbfounded.
What the hell is this? Highway Granny?
Gotham City, where the locals were so friendly. That saying really hadn't come from nowhere.
After a few jabs and a stream of curses, the granny realized Royce wouldn't even look at her. Furious, she ducked back inside and pulled out a pistol. "Kiss my ass! Bastard!"
Holding the gun in both hands, she fired, punching several scorched holes in their door.
Royce's expression darkened. He hadn't wanted to stoop to the old hag's level, but she was pushing him too far.
Just as he was about to lower his head and look for a gun, Qin Wei handed him the Mossberg 500.
"I think you need this!"
"You know me so well!"
Royce whistled, his grin stretching practically to the sky.
When the shotgun's black muzzle emerged from the window, the old hag dropped her gun in fright and shakily ducked inside to slap at her husband.
"Slow down! Hurry, slow down!"
But wasn't it a little late to repent?
"Shut your goddamn mouth! Go fuck yourself, bitch!" Royce stuck his head out the window, hurled swaggering abuse at the Beetle, and blasted its front tire.
Boom!
A dense spray of steel pellets tore into the tire. The Beetle's rear end fishtailed out of control before it slammed nose-first into the tunnel wall.
"Woo-hoo!"
Royce rose from his seat, excitedly hanging half his body out the window and firing several shots into the tunnel ceiling. Ever since leaving prison, he'd bottled up far too much frustration with nowhere to vent it.
This incident had given him an outlet.
"That felt fucking amazing!"
The exhilarated Royce stood in stark contrast to the grim-faced Qin Wei in the passenger seat.
Why was Qin Wei frowning?
A row of headlights had appeared in the rearview mirror-three pickup trucks were charging toward them side by side through the tunnel.
What was coming had finally come.
Qin Wei didn't panic. Though this was the worst possible outcome, everything remained under his control.
He hauled the still-crazed Royce back inside.
"Sorry to spoil your fun, but we need to speed up!"
The pickup trucks had plenty of horsepower and soon caught up with the truck, despite its accelerator being floored. Still, the tunnel only had one lane in their direction, and the occasional oncoming vehicles prevented the pickups from overtaking and cutting them off for the moment.
In the rearview mirror, Qin Wei could even make out the driver's exaggerated clown makeup in the vehicle behind.
Apparently, these guys still wanted their cargo back. Rather than recklessly opening fire, their accomplices hiding in the pickup beds threw iron hooks that caught the truck's crash guard.
Once the hooks were secure, the lead pickup slammed on its brakes, sharply cutting the speed of Qin Wei's truck.
But that wasn't all. Qin Wei saw more hooked cables flying toward them in the rearview mirror.
Royce glanced at the rapidly dropping speedometer, then turned and gave Qin Wei a look. Qin Wei understood at once.
"Boss, it's up to you!"
"Don't worry about a thing!"
His right hand was still too weak to use, but the strength packed into this body was nothing to scoff at. Qin Wei grabbed the window frame with one hand and hauled himself out of the cab using that arm alone.
With a push of his feet, Qin Wei jumped onto the cab roof.
Once up there, he regretted not bringing the shotgun. The Joker Gang didn't dare shoot, but that didn't mean he couldn't. On second thought, though, it was just as well he'd left it behind. Better to leave them a way out than burn every bridge. If he pushed these lunatics too far and they set off the fireworks, it would all be over.
As soon as he stood on the roof, the truck slowed again. Qin Wei staggered, steadied himself, and slowly moved toward the rear.
Looking down from the cargo roof, he saw hooks hanging from every possible groove-a good twenty or thirty of them packed together. No wonder the truck could only manage forty or fifty even with the accelerator practically smoking.
These hooks were harder to deal with than Qin Wei had imagined. The lines were all steel cable, making the little dagger he'd brought completely useless. It looked like he'd have to jump onto the pickups to unfasten them.
But the Joker Gang was clever too. They couldn't shoot the cargo, but why couldn't they shoot the man standing on top of it? Whenever Qin Wei showed his head, a hail of bullets greeted him.
At that moment, Qin Wei felt as though he were behind the wooden doors in mid on Counter-Strike Dust 2, with a hundred Miao Renfengs aiming sniper rifles and waiting for him to peek.
"Fuck... these guys are a real pain! Good thing I'm clever!"
Qin Wei lifted his stinking clothes, revealing the treasure he'd picked up earlier at the Harbor Black Market.
Late that night, Maroni sat at his desk, writing furiously.
Neat stacks of invitations stood beside the ink bottle.
"...I hope Mr. Falcone will do me the honor of attending my cocktail party. Signed: Sal Maroni."
After finishing the last handwritten invitation, Maroni shook out his aching wrist, a barely perceptible sneer crossing his face.
"Benny! Deliver these invitations for me. Especially Mr. Falcone's-you absolutely, positively must put it into his hands yourself." At his call toward the doorway, an enormous dark figure pushed the door open and entered.
This fellow named Benny was astonishingly tall, roughly seven feet, or about 210 centimeters. With his enormous belly sticking out, he filled the entire doorway like a perfectly fitted puzzle piece.
"Falcone? Forgive my presumption, boss, but he might not attend."
"No! This party concerns renewing the lease on the harbor docks. All I need to do is express an interest in buying them at a higher price, and he won't be able to sit still. Then..."
Maroni spread his hands beside his lips.
"Boom!"
Before you continue