Feeling the violent vibration of the main gate, Gorry quickly pushed some of the surrounding furniture to block the door from behind.
He didn’t use his own body to block it, because he wasn’t sure if the people outside would open fire.
The sound of him moving things alerted the people outside the room, and the rhythm and force of their ramming became stronger.
He couldn’t help but turn his head to look at the sniper. “How much longer?”
The sniper didn’t answer his question. He was waiting, waiting for the company’s main gate to be pulled open again.
His index finger, which had been trembling slightly, suddenly became steady and slowly pressed on the trigger.
The sound of the door being rammed alerted the other two young men. The four of them joined in ramming the door.
Although there were things blocking the door from behind, and there were security locks and the like, under the combined force of the four people, the door frame finally cracked.
Although the door did not open, each impact would cause the door to open a small crack.
Discovering this, the four immediately changed from ramming to pushing and squeezing, pushing inwards. The door looked like it was about to be opened bit by bit. Gorry tried his best to block it.
Perhaps his luck was good. After a lot of furniture was stacked together, the door could only be opened a small crack, at most enough to stick an arm in.
At this moment, the main gate of the new company was pulled open again. Several of Lance’s bodyguards walked out from inside. They dispersed on both sides of the convoy, vigilantly watching the pedestrians on the road.
Those pedestrians were also very cooperative and did not have the idea of “I’m fucking going to pass through here right now.” Many of them knew Lance, recognized Lance, and had no ill feelings towards Lance.
You can dislike someone who is not good to you, but it’s hard to hate someone who is good to you.
After Lance came here, everything in the Empire District was undergoing a huge change. Even if some old-fashioned people didn’t like Lance that much, they wouldn’t hate him.
They stood on the side of the sidewalk waiting, or just went around from the side of the road. It was nothing.
For the people of the Federation, the powerful and influential are themselves members of the privileged class. The exercise of some insignificant privileges by them is not a problem at all!
The sniper could already see those bodyguards starting to gather. He had already realized that Lance was probably only a few steps away from the main gate.
He slowly took a deep breath, held his breath, and his whole person entered a state of “emptiness.”
His world was only the scope.
The moment a foot appeared from inside the door, time seemed to slow down in his perception.
He pressed his shoulder firmly against the stock of the gun, had already locked the firing position, and all that was left was to wait for Lance to proactively “bump” into his crosshairs, and then pull the trigger at that moment!
At this moment, he completely ignored the people outside the room.
The few young men were still unable to push the door open, but they heard a sound from inside. This was diagonally opposite the company. If anything happened, they would have to bear a huge responsibility.
One of the young men directly pulled out his handgun and pulled the trigger at the apartment’s main door.
The moment the firing pin hit the primer hard, the gunpowder inside the bullet began to burn.
The pressure generated by the energy released by the burning flame pushed the bullet out with a loud sound!
Clang, clang, clang clang.
He pulled the trigger randomly, out of rhythm. The bullet pierced the door panel and entered the room. And the sound it made also came out of the window.
Almost at the same time, perhaps a little later, after a very short period of time that was difficult for a person to perceive, the distinctive sound of a rifle came from inside the room…
BANG!
It seemed that the door that had been forced open by the room even vibrated slightly due to this gunshot. The four people outside the room had a brief “pause,” but they soon began to forcefully dismantle the wooden door along the bullet holes.
The moment Lance had just walked out of the company, he vaguely heard a gunshot in his ear, followed by another gunshot.
By the time he reacted, he had already been tackled to the ground by Mador!
Mador was panting, protecting Lance and his own head. The people around them only reacted at this time.
“Someone’s shooting,” Mador said.
Lance nodded. “I heard it.”
As they spoke, the other bodyguards also reacted. They helped up Mador and Lance and escorted them into the company.
The people on the street suddenly began to scream. The continuous sound of gunshots seemed to be a sign of something. The people of the Federation seemed to have a natural sensitivity to gunfights. In an instant, there were no pedestrians to be seen on the street.
The continuous gunshots helped them find the general location of the shooting. A large number of Lance’s men rushed towards that apartment building with weapons in their hands. They wanted to see who had such great courage to assassinate Lance in the Empire District!
Lance returned to the main hall. He walked towards the room with a calm and composed demeanor, and at the same time, he lit a cigarette for himself.
Besides his grim face, there was no expression of gloom or fear on his face.
In the past two years or so, he had been assassinated more than once. Sometimes the muzzles of those people’s guns were only ten meters away from him, and he still survived.
He believed that this time, next time, the time after next, and even any time in the future, he would survive, as a victor.
He returned to his office, sat behind the desk, then raised his wrist and glanced at his watch, and then slowly waited.
The smoke from the cigarette curled up, its traces unpredictable. No one could guess what he was thinking now.
At this moment, behind a window more than a hundred meters away, the sniper glanced at the large number of people carrying handguns, submachine guns, and even rifles on the street opposite, gathering towards this side. He turned around and drew the handgun from his coat.
At this moment, he had a premonition that today might be the last day of his life.
He had never thought of really selling his life to Gorry, although Gorry had indeed given him enough money to buy his life.
He and Gorry looked at each other for a while, and then the two of them simultaneously opened fire at the door.
Gorry also moved some furniture aside to give them some space to retreat.
The fierce sound of gunfire made the people downstairs move even faster. They didn’t know if their own people were exchanging fire with the gunmen. They could only speed up.
If anyone at this time was not afraid of death and looked out the window from upstairs, they would be able to see the people on the street holding their weapons in their hands and approaching that apartment building, from all directions, it was full of people!
The two of them finally rushed out of the room. When they saw the constantly ascending elevator and the noisy footsteps coming from the stairwell, the two of them could only bite the bullet and continue upwards.
Hiding in the room was meaningless. It would only lead to a more unsightly death. Perhaps after going up to the rooftop, there would still be a sliver of a chance to live.
But when they really rushed up to the rooftop, they found that there was still no way to live.
This was a ten-story apartment building. There were no other buildings of the same height or lower on either side of the apartment. They were either much lower or much higher.
There was indeed a fire escape at the back of the apartment, but in the alley below the fire escape, someone was already trying to climb it.
They were trapped, trapped on the roof of this apartment.
They were clearly on the ground, but it gave them the feeling of living on an isolated island.
The sniper, who had always been very calm, couldn’t help but curse a few times at this time.
He looked at Gorry with some resentment. Gorry suddenly laughed twice. He took out a cigarette case from his pocket, took one for himself, and then threw it to the sniper.
The sniper hesitated for a moment, then also lit one.
Before Gorry took a puff, he exhaled the smoke from his mouth and nose in a sigh-like manner. “Sorry.”
The sniper shook his head. “You gave me so much money. This is a risk I have to bear myself.”
“I can only say that this time was rather unlucky.”
At this time, a group of people also rushed out of the stairwell. When they saw Gorry and the sniper, they stood not far from them.
The two sides were in a standoff. Gorry held a cigarette in one hand and a handgun in the other.
The wind on the roof was a bit strong, making his clothes rustle, and his hair was also a bit messy from the wind.
He knew that if he put down his handgun and told them who he was, there was a high probability that he could survive.
But what would he face after he survived?
Facing Lance’s interrogation.
In fact, there was one thing he hadn’t told Bandy, and that was that he believed in Stone.
Stone was a “good kid.” Although he hadn’t experienced any truly big scenes, nor had he experienced the thrill and firefight of a near-death experience, he was ultimately the most outstanding one among the younger generation.
His betrayal of Lance must have been for a special reason. It must have been after he had been tortured to the extreme that he bowed his head.
He remembered something that had happened. Maybe Fleming, Bandy, they couldn’t remember it clearly.
At that time, they were only twelve, thirteen, or fourteen years old. The two guys were playing together. When they were playing in the yard, Fleming wanted to climb the gardener’s ladder.
At that time, it was the height of summer. The gardener had to trim those horticultural works every once in a while to ensure that they could grow decently and become the face of the family, not a laughingstock for people.
He had been temporarily sent away by other things. The two half-grown boys were full of interest in those beautiful horticultural works. They wanted to go up and see how it became like this.
But they didn’t know that sometimes those horticultural landscapes that looked beautiful and harmless were not safe.
In order to make them look more sculptural and not become scattered because of the shape, the gardeners sometimes used some extra means.
Like iron wire, iron rods, were relatively normal props. After all, who the fuck would be so bored as to want to know what was inside a beautiful horticultural work?
On that guy’s ladder, there were these tools, and also a knife used to trim branches.
Fleming knocked over the ladder, and the things on it fell down. Stone immediately protected Fleming and got himself covered in injuries.
Bandy and he ran over from a distance because of Fleming’s shouts. They saw Stone, who was constantly bleeding.
There was a wound about seven or eight centimeters long on his arm.
A child’s skin is tight. The wound was turned inside out, revealing the flesh inside.
They were terrified and immediately found the family doctor. At that time, there was no special anesthetic, and Stone thought he could do it.
So without any anesthesia, the doctor cleaned his wound with hydrogen peroxide, and even… used a sterilized gauze to gently stick out some of the dirt that couldn’t be washed out from inside.
Stone was a very gutsy person. He would not give in to simple pain and injury.
He must have been subjected to unimaginable fear to make him betray the family.
To be honest, from a father’s perspective, Gorry might not be able to do this.
He didn’t think he could withstand the torture that even Stone couldn’t withstand.
He would most likely also compromise, would also surrender. But he didn’t want to compromise, and he didn’t want to surrender.
He didn’t know what shocking inside story he would confess if he compromised with himself and surrendered to Lance, but it must be devastating.
He didn’t want the Kodak family to be completely destroyed because of him, so he couldn’t fall into Lance’s hands.
He took another puff of his cigarette. The feeling of his lungs being filled with smoke made him feel an unprecedented comfort. He turned his head and glanced at the sniper, and said softly, “I’m sorry.”
The sniper was stunned for a moment. He didn’t react. “You’ve already apologized.”
Gorry showed a final smile, and then he suddenly raised his handgun at the people who had surrounded them, under the disbelieving and shocked eyes of the sniper!
The fierce gunshots instantly rang out. He didn’t even have time to pull the trigger before he and the sniper with a complex expression next to him were riddled with bullets…
Seven or eight minutes later, a slightly panting Elvin ran back. “It’s Gorry.”
Lance nodded slightly. “Where are the people?”
Elvin pursed his lips and recounted what had happened on the rooftop. “We’ve already put the bodies away. The other person should be a gunman. He has a military tattoo on his body. I don’t quite understand what unit he came from.”
Lance thought for a moment. “Take a picture of him. See if you can find out any information about him.”
“Keep Gorry’s body for now. It might be useful.”
“Did any of our people get hurt?”
Elvin nodded. “Four young men went to check the rooms according to the usual practice. One was shot twice. The situation is not good. He has been sent to the hospital.”
“Another one was shot once, but not seriously.”
Lance shook his head slightly. “That’s really bad news.”
He paused for a moment, picked up the phone, and after thinking for a moment, dialed the number of the villa on Stone’s side.
The call was quickly answered. “Let Stone take the call.”
Soon, the sound of footsteps came from the receiver, from far to near. It was picked up. “This is Stone.”
“Gorry is dead,” Lance said.
He could feel that the person on the other side had instantly… frozen!
This state lasted for more than twenty seconds. His emotions seemed to be on the verge of collapse. Lance could hear his voice trembling. “How… did he die?”
Lance recounted what had happened here. “I didn’t intend to kill him. He took the initiative to seek death.”
“I’ve already put his body away. If you need it, I can arrange it for you.”
Stone was silent for a moment. “Help me bury him.”
“If it weren’t for me… there’s no point in saying these things now, is there?”
“Thank you for the news. Contact me if there’s anything else. I need to be alone for a while now.”
Lance had someone watch him, then hung up the phone.
Gorry’s death could make Stone and the Kodak family even more divided.
Another person who was a little depressed after Gorry’s death was Bandy. In fact, he really hadn’t intended to do anything with this matter. He just felt that… letting Gorry be in charge of the most crucial matter, he could feel at ease.
But he had never thought of letting Gorry die, nor had he thought that Gorry would use this method to proactively seek death.
After losing Stone and Gorry, although there were still many people in the family, these people might not be of any use at this critical moment.
He didn’t know what to say. He didn’t even have the desire to express his thoughts now. He just sat quietly alone after rubbing his cheeks for a while.
He was also reminiscing about the little things between him and Gorry when they were children, reminiscing about them following their fathers and emerging from one battle after another.
He had thought that his and Gorry’s lives would become a legendary story of Golden Port City. He had never thought that this day would come so suddenly.
For some reason, he thought of many people.
Paul, Rick, and even those famous gangster figures from earlier. Each of them had once been a living legend, but in the end, not many of them could live out a legendary life.
Maybe… a living person is not worthy of being called a legend?
But if a person is dead, on what basis can they become a legend?
He didn’t understand.
After Fleming learned of this, he also hurried back from outside. He had brewed many words on the way to say to Bandy.
But the moment he saw Bandy’s haggard face, he suddenly… didn’t know what to say.
The father and son just sat face to face, sitting there dryly. No one spoke, no one comforted the other, just sitting there.
After an unknown amount of time, Bandy recovered a little from his deep sorrow. “How is the asset transfer going? What about the children?”
Fleming quickly nodded and said, “The money and the bearer bonds, stocks, have all been sent away. The children have also been transferred.”
Bandy nodded. “You should go too.”
This sentence made Fleming’s eyes widen. He even stood up. “Why?”
Bandy shook his head and didn’t explain.
A complete crushing.
These past few days, he had actually been thinking, but as he thought, he thought of themselves over these years.
Were they also like this, after having all the “power,” they could easily crush everyone?
Then he also thought of the demise of the three major families. Did their demise also mean that they were actually not destroyed by the newly born Five Families, but by the fact that they were abandoned by the higher-level forces?
Perhaps at the last moment of the three major families back then, they were also as desperate as he was now.
He slowly turned his head to look at Fleming. “Because we have been served on the dinner table.”
(End of a Chapter)