Chapter 1135: Resolution, Plan, and Discussion

At a time like this, in a place like this, why don't these people care whether these accounts are real or fake after they've obtained them?

This is a core issue that some people cannot fathom, such as the vast majority of those people.

Even now, they are still staring at Hiram and the others with hateful eyes, as if they want to deeply etch the appearances of these people into their hearts.

They have grown accustomed to this style of conduct while acting as gangsters; a momentary setback will not make them learn their lesson. They will remember those people's faces and then look for an opportunity to take revenge.

That is how gangsters are; large-scale shootouts are ultimately rare, and staring at certain people to strike from the shadows is the more normal approach.

It is just that they do not know that they have no future.

Perhaps the few who do know can be counted on one hand. Fran can no longer maintain his reserved expression; he reveals a sorrowful plea and even takes the initiative to clasp his hands together in front of his chest, "I beg you..."

Hiram glances at him and shakes his head, "The reason I don't like people smarter than me is just this: they make you feel that your own brain isn't very smart, even if, just a second ago, I still felt I was quite smart."

He does not look at Fran, but instead looks at the people behind him, "Have the items been moved?"

The combat captain behind him nods, "Everything has been moved."

In fact, it wasn't just the items these people were carrying; even the things on their persons were thoroughly searched.

These people who boarded the ship were like the low-skill robbers and bandits in movies, holding a few cloth bags and demanding that everyone put their wallets and any valuable items on their persons into them.

It can be said that now, apart from the ship itself being worth a little money, there is nothing of value left on this vessel.

Hiram says this and stands up. He looks at Major Bruny's men, "I'll handle this; wait for me a moment."

At this moment, Fran stands up directly, enduring the pain that feels like his body is about to split apart, and he makes his voice reach a level that Hiram can hear as much as possible—

"I still have a few accounts with tens of millions in them; I only want my family!"

Hiram's subordinate repeats it loudly in his ear. Hiram has a playful expression on his face, "First, you've said it too late."

"Second, we don't need it!"

After he finishes speaking, he no longer looks at Fran's desperate face and turns to look at Major Bruny's men, "You go back and wait for me for a while first..."

The other party nods; the scene that follows might be a bit... cruel, and he is not used to this kind of scene.

"See you later." Regardless of whether Hiram can hear him, he leaves this place along the rope ladder after speaking.

Hiram has just turned around, ready to start working, when Fran, whose terror has reached its peak, suddenly rushes over, attempting to snatch the pistol from the holster on his chest.

As long as he can snatch the pistol and take Hiram hostage, he and his family still have a chance to live; otherwise, it is a dead end.

He knows very well that these people never intended to let them go; the so-called "hand over the accounts and you can live" is all fake!

But he is, after all, an old man; he no longer has the agility of his younger self. Before he even touches Hiram, he is knocked to the ground by a punch from Hiram.

People elsewhere on the deck look over toward this side. Some, out of anger or hatred, although they do not stand out, loudly rebuke Hiram among the crowd.

Since they have already obtained what they wanted, they shouldn't continue to humiliate Fran; he is just an old man!

Fine.

Gangsters are also people, and they can also be old men. It seems the people speaking have forgotten how many bad things this old man has done, how many people he has directly or indirectly killed. They have forgotten all of this at this moment, remembering only that he is an old man in need of help.

Hiram ignores his words entirely. He walks to Fran, who is lying face down on the ground, and his cold, condescending gaze makes Fran look away after just a second of eye contact.

What kind of eyes were those?

He does not know how to describe them, but he has a feeling that the moment he was stared at by Hiram, he felt like a small animal in a slaughterhouse. In the eyes of humans looking at them, there is simply no respect for life!

He is going to kill him!

Under such intense, almost tangible murderous intent, Fran can only look away. He is now, indeed, just an ordinary old man.

Hiram lifts his pointed leather shoe and steps on the back of Fran's hand, grinding it with force. He looks at the crowd, where more people are speaking out to tell him not to continue humiliating Fran and where the crowd is beginning to stir slightly, and the corners of his eyes twitch slightly.

He takes out a pack of cigarettes, lights one for himself, takes a deep drag, and exhales slowly toward the sky, "Do it."

Those gunmen standing in high places begin to shoot toward the crowd on the deck one after another. The Ministry of Defense official who has already returned to the gunboat curls his lip upon hearing the gunfire, but his gaze and attention are quickly drawn away by those neatly displayed works of art.

"Damn it, don't you know that sea breeze is corrosive?"

"Quick, send this painting to my bedroom!"

He busily has these absolute confidants help him handle this wealth. As for the slaughter not far away?

Who the hell cares about that?

Fran cries out a painful "No," but it cannot change any result. Hiram squints slightly and opens his arms, as if he is embracing this moment filled with slaughter.

When the last person standing falls, the gunfire stops. Hiram keeps the cigarette in his mouth, then takes out a dagger, grabs Fran by the hair, and drags him to the very center of the deck.

The blood is a bit sticky; when stepping on it, there is a process of evacuation that can be felt. It might only be a very brief moment, just like... the feeling of stepping on a thin layer of poop; it is very brief, but there is indeed a feeling.

At the same time, lifting it up, there is also some feeling. It is not like water; there is almost no adhesion. Blood has adhesion, and there is a bit of slight resistance.

"Lanse asked me to tell you: if you don't die, the souls of the brothers who died in the battle against you will never find peace."

"Bob, and the others, will soon go to keep you company!"

He says this while biting the cigarette butt, bends down, and under the bright sun, uses the dagger to cut Fran's neck, severs his head, and then tosses it onto the pile of corpses.

After doing all this, he wipes the dagger in his hand on the expensive clothes of the headless corpse, and then puts it back into the leather sheath.

Subsequently, he takes a deep breath and turns around with long strides to walk back, "Work's done, brothers!"

As for whether there are still people hiding on the ship, the answer is certain. Although this is not a very large cruise ship, it is, after all, a big guy. If someone deliberately hides, they cannot be found in a short time.

Hiram does not intend to look for these people, regardless of what they are doing now, whether they are thanking God for letting them escape a disaster, or if they have other thoughts.

Because next, these problems will be thoroughly resolved.

After everyone withdraws to the gunboat, Major Bruny's confidant has a smile on his face.

He doesn't know how those big shots will divide that money, those jewelry and art pieces, but anyway, he and his men have already divided some first.

The items are not many; the painting he collected is worth about 100,000 yuan.

And the others have more or less divided some jewelry and gold ornaments, at least two or three thousand yuan each, and perhaps even more.

These are "accidental gains"; after they go back, they can divide them again.

Although doing dirty work is indeed quite tiring and has certain risks, who makes dirty work have high returns?

"Is it all over?", he asks.

The person beside Hiram conveys it for him, and Hiram nods, "It's all over."

In fact, Hiram's voice is very loud; because of his hearing impairment, he cannot hear the volume of his own voice.

At the same time, because he cannot hear himself, his body instinctively thinks his voice is very small, so he always increases his volume unconsciously.

This is just like when a person wearing earmuffs communicates with others; bystanders will find that the person wearing earmuffs speaks much louder than normal.

This official, who is also from the Ministry of Defense, says a few words to the people behind him, and subsequently, the two main gun barrels on the gunboat begin to rotate, aiming at the cruise ship not far away.

At this time, a portion of the people hiding on the cruise ship have already come out from their hiding places; they want to know what to do next.

Just when they haven't figured out how to retract the anchor, the ship suddenly shakes violently, and immediately after, the sound of artillery firing reaches their ears!

The cruise ship, which was not meant to participate in war anyway, soon begins to smoke, and huge cracks appear on the hull, and it begins to break apart.

In the second shot, it is hit into two halves, and after splitting, they begin to sink separately.

Hiram, standing on the gunboat, is a bit envious of those artillery pieces; he decides that after his ears recover, he also wants to fire a few shots.

But now, it's not possible.

Being very far away, he felt uncomfortable in his ears when the artillery fired; if he were closer, it would be even more uncomfortable!

But he likes this power; this is the stuff a real man should play with.

At this time, he glances at his watch; it's a little past ten.

Three hours, and the Perez family has thoroughly become a thing of the past.

Everyone paying attention to this "encirclement war" has fallen into silence; this was clearly an operation that caught everyone off guard.

Clark (the head of the McCauley family) is sitting with three other family heads at this time; they are drinking morning tea.

Of course, that's what it's called in name, but in reality, they are paying attention to the battle happening in the old city, as well as discussing it.

"I think... they need a long time." Clark's mood seems to have a slight problem, and most of the others are the same: depressed, unable to get their spirits up.

Previously, it wasn't that the Federation didn't have cases targeting gangsters; most required several months to several years to thoroughly end a gang, and here I refer to those big gangs.

But this time, it exceeded everyone's expectations; they didn't follow the federal judicial process at all.

"I heard... they plan to board the car first and buy the ticket later."

"Control all these people first, arrest those who should be arrested, kill those who should be killed."

"Those willing to cooperate with them stay; those unwilling to cooperate are directly finished off. What evidence could they possibly want that they don't have?"

"Even if there is no actual evidence, they can unite these survivors to directly fabricate some evidence."

"This is not a good thing."

The head of another family nods, "Yes, this is terrible. If they treat us like this in the future, do you think we can resist them?"

"Using violence to suppress without any reason at all, their behavior is more gangster than gangsters. The only difference between them and us is that they have a license, and we don't!"

Everyone is very angry and also feels some fear. Once the law enforcement department takes this operation of eradicating the Perez family as a "precedent," it will deal a devastating blow to all gangs in the Federation.

The oldest guy among them is already eighty-something, but he is still unwilling to give up the power in his hands.

This little old man is dressed in very appropriate clothes and doesn't appear sleazy. He crosses his legs, and his physical condition looks quite good, "We must find a way to leak this matter to the media, let some media and public opinion put pressure on them."

"This can only be an exception, not a conventional means."

"In addition, we need to keep an eye on Lanse White, as well as this Federal Bureau of Investigation. I can see that in the future, they will be our true enemies!"

The police in the cities where these five major families are located are not even considered opponents by them. In this era where corrupt police are rampant, some corrupt police are even more like gangsters than they are, and they collude with each other. Not only are they not enemies, they might even be friends, brothers.

But the Federal Bureau of Investigation is different. Anyone with a discerning eye can see that this operation was ostensibly led by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and they are directly subordinate to the federal government.

The mayor, the governor, and the local legislature have no right to inquire about the work and arrangements of the Federal Bureau of Investigation branch. In other words, this is a vertical department. It is not easy for them to infiltrate or corrupt it.

Added to the news that Director Roland hates gangsters and is the main initiator of de-gangsterization, all gangs have begun to be wary of this law enforcement agency that has begun to frequently emerge.

The youngest family head among the five major families is only thirty-two this year; he just took over from his father. He looks at these uncles and grandfather-generation people and says softly, "How about we find some gunmen together and just finish off this Roland."

The expressions of the others looking at him carry a bit of scrutiny and mockery. Clark coughs, "Have you considered one issue? This guy Roland is a subordinate of Mr. Potter. Once we finish off Roland, Mr. Potter will think we have lost his face."

"What a president who feels he has been humiliated can do, I cannot imagine at all!"

The young family head immediately asks back, "Then what do you say we should do?"

Clark is silent for a while, "Next month is the time for the Gang Council to convene. This time we will set the location in New Jincheng. We will go and talk to Lanse White."

"With him?", the young family head is stunned for a moment, "Isn't he just like Roland, a running dog of the federal government?"

"Look at what he is doing now, it just makes me lose my appetite. I don't even know if he is a gangster at all!"

Clark shakes his head. This young guy's father, because of a cerebral infarction, although he didn't die, lost his ability to work.

Saying it like this isn't entirely correct; he was rescued, it can only be said that he lost a part of his ability, so he directly let his son inherit this position, and he remote-controls from behind the scenes.

A young man who has been eating, drinking, and playing for a long time and was suddenly lifted up is still a bit unaccustomed to the work of a gang leader. He is clearly not very competent.

However, everyone didn't say anything; everyone has such a process.

First, one must awaken, then expect, and finally become an excellent leader.

That oldest guy agrees with Clark's idea, "Talking to Lanse face-to-face is a good idea. He may not necessarily be a person on the federal government's side."

"Senator Cleveland is a Social Party member, Mr. Potter is a Freedom Party person, and there is a most direct conflict of interest between them."

"Once Mr. Potter wins the election, the seats in Congress will have to be readjusted. I heard the Labor Party also got two seats, which means the power structure composition of the entire Congress will be disrupted and redone."

"Those people in the Freedom Party have long found the Social Party people unpleasant; it's just that the Social Party has always been the majority party in Congress, and they have been suppressed to the point where they can only reserve their opinions."

"Soon, the voices of the Freedom Party in Congress will become loud. Those who don't get along with Senator Cleveland will definitely want to wrestle with him."

"Lanse is on Senator Cleveland's side, so it is impossible for him to be in the same group as Mr. Potter and this Federal Bureau of Investigation."

"Didn't your father tell you these things?"

The young man... actually, he isn't young; in the Federation, being thirty-something is considered middle-aged, but he still looks very young; his physical state and psychological state are both like that, so he is still a young man.

He shakes his head a bit awkwardly, "He has difficulty even speaking now."

Thinking of his old man lying on the bed and finding it difficult to even move, he can only sigh. He lacks too many key things. When he goes back, he still has to ask that old guy to let him hand over everything that should be handed over.

He doesn't even know which senator his family has a good relationship with; this is too terrible!

A person who had been silent suddenly speaks, "I don't know how Fran is doing."

"I heard he ran away."

"He ran quite fast, but I don't know if he can get away."

"Who knows?"

The topic they were chatting about quickly changed from heavy and serious content to being relaxed, such as whether developing in Slader is a good choice.

If possible, they might be able to try to send people over to gain a foothold before any problems occur.

In the event that the domestic situation deteriorates to the point of no return, they can also quickly transfer out and preserve their strength.

A live show of "police catching thieves" attracted not only the attention of gangsters but also that of the federal government.

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 1136 =====