Chapter 970: Whoever Thinks They Can, Go Right Ahead. We Won’t
While Luke was leisurely cooking and researching, Charon was reporting to Winston. “…Two smiling men appeared last night. According to the survivor, the first one was just bait, while the second one was the target.”
Winston didn’t say anything. He just took a sip of his coffee.
“According to the survivor, the bait and the target were on the legendary level. Also…” Charon paused before continuing, “Also, the target might be superhuman.”
Winston’s eyes flickered as he slowly put down his coffee cup.
Seeing that, Charon continued, “The target’s abilities are unknown, but his two revolvers fired at least sixty bullets without him needing to reload.”
Winston finally turned his head. “Is there any specific a.n.a.lysis of this superpower?”
Charon shook his head. “Not at the moment. Apart from that, he didn’t expose anything else that was too weird. His speed, marksmans.h.i.+p and strength didn’t surpa.s.s our warning levels.”
Winston sighed. “Anything else?”
He wasn’t interested in listening anymore.
Although the news wasn’t bad, it didn’t mean that the situation wasn’t serious.
If they were really unlucky, most people could be paralyzed by the opponent and lose before they could react.
Thus, this lack of news didn’t represent good news.
Charon thought for a moment, then said, “We found a statue in Swamp Park. It was probably left behind by the smiling man.”
Winston frowned.
Charon said, “We’ve already sent it back to the lab. We did a lot of tests overnight, but we haven’t found anything strange.”
Winston finally said, “Are you sure he was the one who placed it there?”
Charon said, “We did a careful check. There weren’t any black marble statues in the clearing next to the lake last night. According to the survivor, they were wiped out there…”
Winston looked up at him.
Charon said, “Also, the statue looks like a smiling man. There’s something that looks like a signature on it.”
Winston: “…Where is it?”
Charon said, “In the truck in the parking lot; it hasn’t been unloaded yet.”
Winston said, “Send it to the bas.e.m.e.nt. I’ll check it out later.”
Charon: “Yes, sir.”
Ten minutes later, in the s.p.a.cious bas.e.m.e.nt hall, Winston slowly walked around the black statue. He had been staring at it at first, but now, he was deep in thought.
Charon stood silently on the side.
After a long while, Winston looked at the words at the base and murmured, “It’s not just flesh and blood under the mask. It’s belief, and belief is invulnerable?”
After a brief silence, he shook his head with a slight smile and left. Charon followed him.
At the bas.e.m.e.nt door, Winston stopped and suddenly said, “Change this smiling man’s name.”
Charon: “What do you mean?”
Winston said, “Didn’t he leave his name and tell us how many people he killed?”
Charon: “V?”
Winston turned around and looked at the statue again. He smiled. “That’s it. Send the name to the High Table; let it be their problem.”
As they returned to Winston’s room, Charon continued with his report. “D’Amico’s wife is dead. When our investigators dropped by, she had been dead for less than two hours.”
Winston sneered, but didn’t say anything. He simply leaned back comfortably on the couch.
Charon knew this meant that Winston was prepared to listen slowly, and he continued, “But from the bodyguards around her, we’re sure that she only raised the bounty after she received a call. Also, there’s this.”
He pulled a photo out of the case file in his hand and placed it on the coffee table next to Winston. “While she was on the phone, she copied down these names.”
Winston wasn’t surprised at all when he saw the three names: Smiley Face, Black Cat, and Black Mask. “Who was the caller?”
Charon shook his head. “This man is very clean. Apart from the fact that he called D’Amico’s wife, we don’t know anything.”
Winston wasn’t too surprised.
Charon said, “But we found something at Swamp Park.”
Winston said, “Tell me.”
Charon put another photo on the coffee table. “We’ve checked. The crime scene was cleaned up very well. If it wasn’t for the survivor, it would’ve been hard for us to detect that a fierce battle had happened there.”
Winston knew that it wasn’t easy to clean up the traces of a battle between more than a hundred people, especially when there were more than a hundred bodies, which couldn’t have disappeared into thin air.
Charon said, “Then, we found that this truck was suspicious. From the surveillance cameras, there was one less vehicle in the park in the afternoon; this car was only driven to the parking lot at Swamp Park yesterday morning.”
Winston looked at the person in the photo and took a sip of black tea. “Is this the driver?”
Charon nodded. “Yes.”
“Did you find him?” Winston asked.
Charon shook his head. “According to our investigation, this person disappeared a week ago. We don’t know where he’s hiding. He only showed up yesterday to rent a car and drive to Swamp Park. According to our intelligence, this person should be a secret henchman of Kingpin’s. Even the boss of his gang doesn’t know about this.”
Winston narrowed his eyes and the hand holding the teacup paused.
He was quite familiar with the name Kingpin.
Although they had been at peace for a long time, Winston still remembered the earlier conflict.
It was very difficult for Kingpin and the Continental Hotel to become friends. In the end, only one side would rise, and the other would fall.
The fact that Kingpin was involved in this rare hitman wipeout instantly rang alarm bells for Winston.
Frowning, Winston listened as Charon briefed him on the driver and mentioned that the truck hadn’t been detected by the surveillance cameras around it, and had simply disappeared.
Winston thought for a moment before he sneered. “Kingpin and the masked men have had a lot of conflict recently. D’Amico was his ally to begin with. Hehe, what a rotten plan.”
Charon asked, “What should we do?”
Winston raised his cup again. “Block all information related to the battle with V. In any case, everyone’s dead. As for the survivor… let her stay in the hotel for now.”
Charon asked, “Will that work?” He felt that Winston knew what to do, but dumb allies and the opponents might not cooperate.
Winston took a sip of his black tea and said, “Whoever thinks they are capable can go right ahead. In any case, we’re not stepping forward. Right, word of the time and location of V’s appearance was from some bar, right?”
Charon said, “Yes. The survivor also has details of the informant’s bank account.”
Winston said, “Have the survivor spread the word that the mastermind behind the 10 million bounty on the masked men is Kingpin.”
Charon understood. “Yes.”