Father and son

As a dump truck weighing dozens of tons barreled down a New York street at over sixty kilometers an hour, Bullseye, a man in his thirties, sat inside the van it was smashing into.

He stared in terror, seeing nothing but the prospect of being flattened into a sheet of paper.

This was no longer a collision. It was a crushing.

The little van crumpled beneath the dump truck, and the cargo bed came crashing down, sending him straight into the second dimension.

There was another reason the consequences were so devastating-this dump truck belonged to the United Construction Company, and to its driver, time was money.

Kingpin did not pay them much. Driving slowly meant earning less, arriving late meant deductions, and they did not even dare make a trip without overloading their trucks. Otherwise, the fuel costs would leave them in the red.

By controlling the traffic lights, Lier had separated this dump truck from the vehicles ahead of it, putting it at the head of the traffic and giving it green lights at the previous five intersections.

By the time it reached this intersection, it was already well over the speed limit. Stopping was impossible.

The van's driver's seat had luckily escaped being flattened into two dimensions. That small section had broken off on its own, with a few other components still attached to the chassis.

Of course, even that little section was twisted out of shape.

As the vehicle drew closer, Lier heard the van driver's faint voice drifting through the quiet air.

"Help me... please... help me..."

But he was beyond saving. At a glance, Lier could see that the driver's lower body had fused with the wreckage in a mangled mess of flesh and blood.

Lier shook his head. "You earned this, though you really did get unlucky. This half hour will definitely be the longest half hour of your life."

"Help... me..." Clearly, the driver had not heard anything, or even if he had, he could no longer think.

All he saw was someone standing before him-anyone would do. Please, save him.

"Please help me... I... the boss... has another plan... I heard..."

The driver instinctively poured out a stream of words, and Lier frowned-

Kingpin wasn't just targeting me?

But the surveillance hadn't issued any alerts-there shouldn't have been any strangers.

"What do you mean? There's nothing unusual on the surveillance."

Lying on the seat, Matt gritted his teeth and pulled the last steel spike out of his body.

Fortunately, most of the injuries Bullseye had inflicted on him were superficial.

Suddenly, he said, "I remember your surveillance mainly uses facial recognition and registered resident information. Mr. Rigordo has a son."

Lier's expression changed-

The surveillance logs did indeed show a visit from Elikon Rigordo!

The kid had strolled into the apartment building ten minutes ago!

"Damn it, I have to..."

Before Lier could finish, his body suddenly went rigid, and he toppled straight over to one side!

"Lier?"

He had not yet lost consciousness. The pain had not knocked him out immediately, and he heard Matt calling his name, but he could not say a word!

The layout of Rigordo's apartment flashed through his mind. Thinking fast, Lier immediately located an electrical circuit-

It ran beneath the heating system. There might be an electrical appliance there-if it shorted out, it could cause an explosive flare!

He had to interrupt whatever was happening!

With the last of his strength, Lier said to Matt, "Mr. Rigordo-home-get home, now..."

At the very last moment, Lier sent another message to the members of the Homeowners Association-

He hoped someone would step forward.

Elikon Rigordo.

Coming home again, he felt that something about the apartment building had changed.

This was where he had grown up, but he did not like it here.

Immigrants were filthy, stinking, and poor. Every day, they trudged to work and back like walking corpses, yet once they got home, they smiled like idiots.

Immigrants had no passion for life, nor any brains-that was what he thought.

Now, an important man had given him a chance-to quietly "persuade" his father.

Of course, the key was the land.

No matter how enticing that important man's promises were, they could not conceal his inner agitation. Sweat beaded on his forehead-he was both excited and afraid.

Although he had not been home in a very, very long time, he was afraid someone would recognize him, so he had entered through a hole in the side of the apartment building.

That hole had been there since he was little. Rigordo had merely patched it with sheet metal, then piled some discarded bricks outside to conceal it.

As a child, he had often sneaked out through it.

The haphazardly strung electrical wires were gone, leaving him surprised and inexplicably irritated.

Still, he could hardly mistake where his home was-he just did not know whether the old man had changed the lock.

Nervously, he slid his key into the keyhole.

Click.

The door opened.

The apartment was quiet-perhaps the old man was out?

Elikon glanced around his home. It was still the same; little had changed about where things were kept.

It was a little messy-but honestly, after spending so long in a gang, he suddenly felt that home was not actually all that messy.

He slowly walked over to the dining room wall-this was where the three of them used to sit and eat together.

Until...

Elikon shifted his gaze to the wall beside him. A revolver hung there-Rigordo had once used it to kill someone.

That was also what had sent him to prison, and Elikon had joined a gang while his father was locked up.

Tap-footsteps sounded behind him. Suddenly, Elikon felt at a loss-it was his father!

Rigordo stared in shock. "You little... get out!"

His shock lasted only a moment before turning into fury.

That command made Elikon's temper flare too. "You old bastard, if I hadn't come back, were you going to hand my house over to someone else?!"

"Your house?" Rigordo's eyes seemed ready to spit fire. "I'm not dead yet!"

"You will be soon!" Elikon summoned his courage. "What did that brain-dead kid feed you? All you have to do is give the land to the United Construction Company, take the money, and find a new place! Going against them is asking to die!"

"You... you..." Furious, Rigordo looked around for something long to hit him with. Finding nothing, he unbuckled the brass-buckled leather belt at his waist.

Elikon panicked too.

He had imagined a mysterious, badass entrance: walking in like a professional hitman, speaking, negotiating terms, and delivering cool threats.

So why did this feel like he was back in his childhood?

Right-he was a professional hitman now!

His earlier plan suddenly flashed through Elikon's mind. He turned and reached for the revolver-first, he would get the only gun in the house, and then...

Click.

The cocking sound was not loud, but Rigordo stopped instantly. The anger vanished from his face, replaced by a deathly stillness.

"You... are pointing a gun at me?"

"I-I came, I came to help you! Do you understand?!" Elikon felt both panicked and calm.

It never occurred to him that those two words were complete opposites-calm was the state he wanted to achieve, but in reality, his mind was a mess.

On one hand, he had to follow orders from the gang's higher-ups. On the other... why did he feel he ought to reason with this old man?

"Immigrants are trash! Counting on them to help you is worse than counting on sewer rats being edible!

Sell the house! That way..."

"That way, you can please your new daddy-your new master?" Rigordo was furious, but his voice was cold. "Is that what I taught you? Is that what your mother taught you? To be an outsider's dog and point a gun at your family?"

"Shut up!" Elikon was practically screaming. "You have the nerve to mention my mother! If you hadn't insisted on fighting the gangs, how would she have died?! How would she have died?!

You know how to use a gun. You're such a tough guy. Why didn't you take the gun behind me and protect her?! You're just a coward who knows how to shoot!"

Rigordo froze, then sat down in a chair.

After a moment of silence, he gave his son a cold look-indifferent and disappointed.

It cut Elikon deeply-even though, in his hotheaded state, he believed he had done nothing wrong.

"Yes, I failed to protect your mother. If you have the guts, shoot me. But I will never give you the house.

You're right. I'll give it to that kid. I will never, ever give it to you."

Elikon stared for a moment, then suddenly turned vicious. "So that gentleman was right. You want to give my house to someone else. You're going to give my house to someone else!

Do you know how much it's worth?! You're giving it to an outsider!

But it doesn't matter. If I kill you now, they'll pull the right strings for me, and the house will still be mine..."

"Then do it! What are you waiting for?!"

"I will. I will-"

"Then do it!"

Bang!

The gunshot was loud, but it did not drown out the explosion-

Almost at the exact instant Elikon pulled the trigger, the table lamp beside him suddenly burst apart!