Zhou Lin

Early in the morning, the darkest time.

Naples, Vittorio Bruno's mansion, in a reception room.

"So... you have the final say in Qian Ming now?" Vittorio said to his guest while sitting at a small table, eating supper.

"Yes." Olivia sat on a sofa chair a few meters away from the other party and responded in a neither humble nor condescending tone.

"Ha... I didn't expect that Gallo would fall into the hands of a little girl like you." Vittorio did not show any sadness after hearing the news of the death of his "care dog" , on the contrary, he smiled with interest and said, "If I have the chance, I would like to know how you did it."

"It doesn't matter how I did it," Olivia replied, "What matters is... I did it."

"Ah...ah...I understand, I understand." Vittorio chanted in a long voice, "Tell me, Ms. Qian Ming's leader, if you have any new conditions, you can make them as you like, as long as they are not too excessive. negotiable."

Although Vittorio always treats the Qian Ming organization like a dog in his heart, on the stage, he is still relatively polite to the leader of Qian Ming; after all, there are many federal high-level officials who need Qian Ming to do things, and as a middleman, he A lot of benefits can be gained from it; on the other hand, Qianming, which has most of its foundations in Europe, also needs a powerful protective umbrella like Vittorio Bruno.

In the past few years, under Gallo's operation, the two parties have formed a win-win model that is mutually beneficial; no one wants to see them break up over some face-related issues or petty profits.

"Please rest assured, Mr. Bruno, I am a person who understands propriety." Olivia continued, "The Bruno family is an example for me to learn from. I hope that the Duccio family can be like your family and take Qian Ming's job as an example." The foundation grows bigger and bigger...and lasts for a hundred years or even a thousand years."

Bang——

Just when she was about to start negotiating terms, suddenly, the door of the reception room was pushed open.

A tall bodyguard wearing a suit and headphones rushed in and said in a panic: "Mr. County Chief! There's something going on at the front door..."

"You can't even knock on the door?" When Vittorio heard the sound and turned his head, he showed obvious displeasure. He glared at the bodyguard and interrupted, "Didn't you see that I was talking to the guest? Really? Who allowed you to come in?"

"Yes... I'm sorry, Mr. County Commander." The bodyguard quickly lowered his head and apologized, "But this is an emergency situation right now. I hope you can evacuate with us as soon as possible."

When he said the word "we", two more bodyguards in suits hurried over from the corridor behind him and appeared at the door.

"Huh?" Vittorio is also someone who has seen big scenes. Although he was doubtful at this moment, he was not frightened by the situation. He just asked calmly, "What's going on? Are the people rioting? Or are there still people? Organized bomb attack?”

The two hypotheses he mentioned were already the most serious situations he could think of; and...even if it really was a situation of this level, he would not be afraid.

Because the Bruno family's mansion is the most heavily defended place in the entire Crown County; the area here is larger than the office area of ​​the local federal government, and Vittorio's private armed forces are stronger than the local garrison... regardless of the weapons. The equipment and the individual combat capabilities of the bodyguards are all outstanding, and the various defense facilities in this building complex are also impregnable.

"There's someone...he...he said he's going to come in and kill you..." The bodyguard said this, hesitated, and then looked at Olivia aside, "...and Miss Ducci."

"What...what?" When Vittorio heard this, he really wanted to stand up and slap the bodyguard, "Are you guys all idiots?" His anger suddenly rose, "Just because of this Such a thing, you just rushed into my reception room, interrupted my conversation with the guests, and even asked me to take shelter? Then next time a smelly beggar comes to my door to take shelter from the rain, you will have to report it to me. "What?" He pointed at the bodyguard, "You give the order right now to have the people standing guard at the front door kill the guy who is clamoring to kill me! Also, starting tomorrow, you will go see me a The gate of the moon!"

"Wait a minute." At this time, Olivia suddenly spoke, "Something's wrong."

"What's wrong?" Vittorio still wanted to listen to what leader Qian Ming said.

"It's not surprising that someone comes to your door and screams to kill you, but..." Olivia said, "Why would the other person know that I am here?"

Having said this, Vittorio immediately discovered this blind spot.

After all, the fact that the leader of Qian Ming secretly visited the head of Guanzhi County late at night... must be kept secret; the only people who knew about it were their respective subordinates; an ordinary, clamoring If you want to kill the people of the county head, how do you know that Olivia Duccio is visiting Bruno's house at this moment?

"What does the person you are talking about... look like? Where is he now?" Olivia had an ominous premonition in her heart, and she quickly asked the bodyguard.

…………

Forty minutes ago, White Pigeon Bar.

The bell at the door rang, and Jack came in.

When the bartender heard the sound, he glanced towards the door, and then... the glass in his hand fell to the ground and broke.

The White Pigeon Bar has been in business for so many years, and no one has ever seen the bartender break anything, but today... he did.

People's eyes soon moved to Jack and the bartender.

Everyone's conversations stopped and everyone's expressions froze. Except for the old-fashioned record player that was still playing music mixed with noise and distortion, there was no other sound in the whole bar.

"I want to talk to Charles alone." Jack said as he walked down the stairs.

After the words were spoken, within five seconds, the guests in the bar stood up and walked out; within thirty seconds, only Jack and the bartender were left in the entire bar, and even the waitress put down her tray and left. .

"Alas..." When the room was empty, the bartender sighed and said, "I have advised you... and more than once."

Jack looked at him without speaking.

"Are you going to kill me?" the bartender asked after a few seconds.

"Why do you think so?" Jack continued, "You just added a few years to Olivia's age. Just because of this...do you think you deserve to die?"

Indeed, most of what the bartender said to Jack was true, and the advice was sincere; the only lie was to cover for the real Olivia.

"Ha...yeah." The bartender laughed dryly after hearing this, "Why would I have such an idea?"

"I'll tell you why." Jack said, "Because in your heart, you feel guilty."

"Guilty feeling..." the bartender read, "I have been in this business for so many years, do I still have that kind of thing?"

"Of course there is," Jack said. "Everyone is guilty. Sooner or later... we will all be swallowed up by it."

"What about you?" the bartender asked.

Jack was silent again, and showed a shallow, slightly sad smile.

"Stop talking..." Jack said, "Tell me the whereabouts of Olivia and her men."

Normally, the bartender might first reply - "How can you be sure that I know their whereabouts?" or "What will happen if you find them?" or something like that.

But at this moment, looking at Jack Anderson, who even felt "strange" to him, he couldn't muster the courage to say those words.

The bartender just quietly took out a piece of paper, wrote down several strongholds used by Olivia's troops on it, and handed it to Jack.

…………

"Jack Anderson?"

The moment they heard the name, Vittorio and Olivia repeated it in surprised tones.

The bodyguard thought he hadn't made it clear, so he added: "Yes, he called himself Jack Anderson, and he said he was going to come in and kill you... and he said it to the monitor at the gate. After he said that, Just shoot and blow up the monitor.”

"No way." Olivia said firmly, "Jack Anderson is dead."

"What? He's dead?" Vittorio obviously knew Jack, but he didn't know what happened in the previous few days.

"Yes." Olivia said, "Just about twenty hours ago, I blew him up with my own hands."

"Are you sure?" Vittorio seemed to be very afraid of Jack, and his expression became very nervous after hearing that name. "Is it possible that it was just seriously injured by the explosion or something?"

"A liquid bomb capable of blowing up a factory exploded directly in his arms. How do you want me to be sure?" Olivia replied impatiently.

"Is that so..." Vittorio nodded, but still doubtful.

"County Chief, Miss Ducci... In any case, this man who calls himself Jack has sneaked into... no... 'entered' the mansion, and has destroyed nearly one-third of the surveillance equipment; in my case, When we came here, a large number of our personnel were out of touch..." The bodyguard continued, "For the sake of safety, I'd better invite two of you..."

"Okay! Stop talking!" Vittorio interrupted the bodyguard again, but this time, his line was, "Don't waste time, lead the way quickly, I want to enter the bunker!"

At first he was scolding people for being too nervous, but now he was complaining about people running too slow, and he was talking about Vittorio's behavior.

"You go to seek refuge first, Mr. Bruno." On the other side, Olivia looked solemn, because she still firmly believed that Jack was dead and that he was just an impostor. "I'm going to meet that guy." Intruder, let’s see who he is.”

"You..." Vittorio had already followed the bodyguard to the door. Hearing this, he turned back and glanced at Olivia, "...then be careful."

He has no need or time to ask the other party to follow him to escape. Anyway, it doesn't matter who will be the leader of Qian Ming. It doesn't matter to him if someone takes the initiative to take risks. What does it have to do with him?

So Olivia stayed in the mansion and cautiously moved towards the front door.

Vittorio, escorted by three bodyguards, jogged all the way into a safe secret passage and arrived at the entrance of the "bunker" underground in the mansion within two minutes.

Many senior federal officials will prepare emergency evacuation facilities like this; after all, this is the 23rd century. The more advanced technology is, the more ways there will be to cause the destruction of all mankind in a short period of time... No one can predict what will happen tomorrow. Will there be a super AI that takes over the world's nuclear warheads, or will there be a mutated virus with 100% mortality rate flowing out of a certain laboratory? Anyway, rich people have too much money to spend, so building a bunker that can survive the apocalypse for a while is a good way to be prepared. Even if human beings will eventually face inevitable demise, these people hiding in the bunker can at least choose a relatively decent way to die.

[All identifications have been passed and the safety door is opened. 】

After a series of scans such as fingerprints, voiceprints, pupils, and passwords, the door to the bunker was finally opened.

Vittorio also knew that it was unrealistic to let the three bodyguards stay outside at this time... Anyway, he was only going in to avoid the assassination, not to avoid the end of the world. He would only stay for a moment and a half at most, so he asked the bodyguards to stay outside. They also followed him in.

Watching the security door of the bunker gradually close, Vittorio's hanging mental calculation slowly dropped; as soon as the door in front of him closed, he would be absolutely safe, even if all the bodyguards and servants in the mansion died, or even The house was hit by missiles and he was able to escape unscathed here.

The three bodyguards who followed him also secretly breathed a sigh of relief. At least today, they no longer have to risk their lives to fight.

scold--

Accompanied by the sound of the air valve deflating, the door was completely closed.

Vittorio immediately let out a sigh of relief, turned around, and wanted to sit down on the sofa.

unexpectedly.

"Ah!" As soon as he turned around, he screamed because he saw someone already sitting on the sofa.

It was a man wearing an expensive black suit with a scar running diagonally across his face.

Hearing their master's cry, the three bodyguards turned around quickly. The three of them had already pulled out their guns from their holsters and were holding them in their hands, so they almost instinctively raised their guns and aimed at him.

However...

Bang bang bang——

One gun, three shots, almost at the same second.

A second later, three pulp flowers bloomed on the heads of the three bodyguards.

At this moment, the gun in Jack's hand was the weapon that Gallo had stored in the "coffin". It was a very sophisticated special product, and its rate of fire and power were not comparable to standard guns on the market.

"Do you know why I didn't come to kill you back then?" Looking at Vittorio who was sitting on the ground in shock, Jack slowly stood up and asked himself, "Because at that time, I was a very A cowardly and selfish person..." He paused and continued, "I can kill some politicians who are not that bad for money, so that scum like you can be re-elected as county chief; even if you think about it afterwards Silence me, I only killed the commandos who came to your door, and did not come to kill you... because I didn’t want to get into more trouble."

As Jack spoke, he pushed out the magazine and loaded three bullets into it one by one.

"I am also a scumbag, Mr. Bruno." Jack continued. "I have spent almost the first half of my life serving people like you. I told myself that this is just a job - a job that I don't like, but Very good at work.

"Over the years, I have allowed many people like you to gain power, and you have allowed countless people... to live in purgatory.

"But what am I doing all this for? Just so that I can live a comfortable and prosperous life for the rest of my life."

When he said this, Vittorio gradually recovered from the panic. After he calmed down a little, he quickly said: "Jack, listen to me... everything back then was all a misunderstanding. The news was not leaked to the police by me..."

boom--

The next second, a bullet hit Vittorio's knee. Judging from his howling like a pig, it was really painful...

"Why use meaningless lies to take up each other's time." Jack said, "You and I both know in our hearts that no matter what you say today, I will not let you walk out alive."

"Ah - cough... ah -" Vittorio covered his knees and kept screaming.

"I'm telling you this just to make your death clearer..." Jack approached the other person, "I just want you to know... that you will die today, not because of money or any personal grudge..." He paused for half a second and said, "You die because you deserve to die, that's all."

"Hmph..." Vittorio, who knew he was about to die soon, glared at Jack with a vicious look, suppressed the desire to scream, and squeezed out a sentence through his teeth, "Then who deserves to die... who deserves to live... Who should decide? God? Or you? Don’t you deserve to die!"

"I will find a decider, but that person is definitely not God." Jack responded in a very calm tone, "God can't save people, nor can he change the world, but people can." He looked at him with condescending eyes Vittorio raised his gun and aimed it at the latter's face, "As for me...I will naturally die, on the way to...killing people like you."

As soon as he finished speaking, Jack pulled the trigger.