area51novel Chapter 40 Lee En and Frank
Chapter 40 Lee En and Frank
As Li En walked down the stairs, the soles of his shoes echoed clearly on the cement steps.
Tap, tap, tap.
The sound could be heard throughout the entire building's stairwell.
If Brock heard this, he would probably take the cigarette out of his mouth and stare at Li En for a few seconds.
In his mind, Li En walked almost without making a sound.
This is the case in the police station corridor, and it's also the case among the containers at the port.
The building was very quiet.
From the accidental discharge of a sniper rifle from the seventh-floor window of the building next door, to Li En sniping the purple-haired man and eliminating the sniper.
They then shot the heads off all twenty gangsters in front of the amusement park in less than two minutes.
But everyone in the apartment building hid as soon as they heard the first gunshot.
The corridor was quiet, all the doors were closed, and occasionally a moving shadow would flash through the peephole.
Although Central Park and Hell's Kitchen are both in Manhattan, they are not particularly far apart as the crow flies.
But the people in these two places reacted to the gunshots in completely different ways.
When the residents of Hell's Kitchen heard the gunshot, their first reaction was to go to the window to take a look, make sure it wasn't aimed at them, and then continue with what they were doing.
When the residents heard the gunshot, their first reaction was to lock the doors, turn off the lights, lie down, and call the police.
Li En pushed open the stairwell door and walked into the corridor.
The fluorescent tubes overhead emitted a cold white light, illuminating the entire corridor in a white glow.
There seemed to be a black mass dissipating in front of me.
It might have been a shadow, or something else; it had already disappeared when the light shone on it.
He pulled his hand out of his pocket, turned his neck, and his cervical spine made a slight cracking sound.
I can't quite describe the feeling, but I felt a huge sense of relief.
Li En walked to the door of the building's monitoring room.
The door wasn't locked, and when I pushed it open, there was no one inside.
The rows of screens are still working normally, displaying real-time images of the corridors on each floor.
The security guard probably ran away the instant the gunshot rang out; a jacket was still draped over the back of his chair.
He took a gasoline can from the space storage, unscrewed the cap, and poured the gasoline onto the cooling vents of the server and host.
The pungent smell immediately filled the entire monitoring room.
He struck the lighter, the flame flickering on his fingertip and illuminating half of his face.
He casually tossed the lighter onto the server, turned and walked out of the room, heading down the corridor toward the stairwell.
Behind me came the sound of flames licking plastic and circuit boards, and smoke seeped out from the crack in the monitoring room door.
The sidewalk on 65th Street was filled with high school students who had just been chanting slogans.
Some people are crying, some are hugging their knees in a daze, and some are holding their phones with trembling hands.
The teacher was squatting in front of a girl sitting on the ground, whispering something to her.
Li En crossed the street, took out his police badge from his pocket, and held it high above his head.
"NYPD! Everyone stay quiet and where you are!"
After he finished shouting, he glanced at both ends of the street.
The sirens were still blaring several blocks away, but judging from the distance, they wouldn't be there anytime soon.
Today is the weekend, and it's also the midday rush hour.
With the continuous gunfire just now, the traffic on Fifth Avenue is probably already backed up in a long line.
The police car was stuck in the middle of traffic, and no matter how loudly the siren went, it couldn't get through.
He walked over to Jessica.
She was still squatting on the ground, her hands supporting her knees, the hood of her sweatshirt completely down, her hair loose over her shoulders.
In front of her was a puddle of vomit, mixed with dark red liquid, which had already partially solidified on the cement floor.
Li En took a step forward, her shadow falling on her and obscuring the vomit and surrounding bloodstains. He
He reached out and gently patted Jessica's shoulder.
"Everything will be alright."
The sound was very soft.
Jessica's shoulders trembled.
She slowly raised her head, her lips moved a few times, and a very soft sound came out of her throat, without forming a complete word.
Dark police uniform, mixed-race face, brow bone and jawline clearly defined by the midday sun.
She suddenly felt her eyes welling up with tears, leaned forward slightly, pressed her forehead against Li En's chest, and gripped the front of his police uniform with both hands.
"Whoa!!"
The students, who were initially in a panic, quieted down when they heard Jessica's loud sobs.
They hadn't known Jessica for very long; she had only transferred to Forest Hills High School at the beginning of this semester.
But from day one, she was a very special person.
She was the only girl who could get full marks in all the events during physical education class.
When someone was being bullied at lunchtime, she walked directly to the other person's table, stood there without saying a word, and waited until the person left in a huff.
Her classmates privately called her Queen.
Even Thompson's bullying of Peter Parker was partly an attempt to get her attention.
Now the queen is crying like a child, and her cries actually suppress everyone's fear.
Several girls stood up first, walked over to Jessica, squatted down next to her, and put their hands on her back. Then, more people stopped crying.
Lee took a towel out of his pocket, unfolded it, and wiped the bloodstains and tears off Jessica's face.
He moved slowly, wiping from her forehead to her chin, then turning the towel over to wipe her fingers.
Then he lowered his head and lowered his voice.
"This guy is no good; he's the culprit in the West Street murder case."
Jessica stopped crying, slowly loosened her hands from Lee's clothes, took a half step back, and looked at him with wide eyes and tears in her eyes.
Li Enchao gave her a smile.
He straightened up, raised his badge high again, and shouted loudly to the crowd:
"Support has arrived! Everyone, don't worry, please don't run around to avoid causing a stampede!"
In the distance, the first police car finally turned from Fifth Avenue onto 65th Street, its blue and red lights on the roof spinning in the sunlight.
Li En turned around and walked towards the children's playground.
Jessica stood there, staring at his back, her mind still replaying his words.
That guy is no good; he's the murderer in the West Street case.
Why are you here next to me?
Could it be that... they originally intended to attack me?
Jessica stood there, her mind racing with countless thoughts.
Peter Parker also stared at the figure's back. From the first second that Li En appeared in the crowd, the hairs on his body stood on end.
The spider-sense exploded from the back of my neck all the way down to my lumbar spine, stronger than any threat I had ever felt before.
This person is very powerful, but also very dangerous.
He remained half-squatting, his legs brimming with power, ready to spring up at any moment.
But the man simply knelt down, wiped Jessica's face, smiled at her, and then stood up and left.
Parker thought for a moment, then withdrew from his fighting stance and reverted to being the shy high school student.
The view in front of the amusement park entrance was more direct than what I had seen through the magnifying glass from the apartment building rooftop.
People were lying haphazardly on the ground.
Some of them were gangsters who were shot in the head by him, with a bullet hole between their eyebrows and the back of their heads blown off by the bullet.
Some of the tourists were hit by stray bullets, their limbs outstretched, their faces turned towards the sky.
The carousel was still spinning, but the music had stopped sometime ago, leaving only the turntable spinning silently in the air.
There was a small pool of blood on the back of a white wooden horse, flowing down the saddle.
Li En stepped over several corpses and walked towards the man next to the fountain.
Short black hair, muscular build, wearing a dark gray short jacket.
He lay down next to an overturned bench, with a bullet hole three centimeters above his left ear. The bullet had entered through the temporal bone but had not penetrated, instead becoming lodged inside the skull.
Blood seeped from the bullet hole and had already formed a small puddle at his temple, but the bleeding was not heavy.
He is still alive.
Li En was able to tell from the slight rise and fall of the other person's chest.
He was shot in the head by a sniper rifle, his skull was shattered, and the bullet was lodged in his brain, but he was still breathing.
Less than three meters from Frank, a woman was kneeling on the ground, her arms wrapped around something.
She remained kneeling, her back slightly arched, her posture suggesting she was using her body to block out something unseen.
Li En walked over and gently pulled her back a little with one hand.
The woman fell backward, her arms still wrapped around herself, her fingers curled in mid-air.
A boy was curled up on the ground, his body covered in red liquid.
The woman shielded him with her body, and the blood was flowing from her.
"Mom!" The boy scrambled to his feet, rushed to the woman's side, and grabbed her arms tightly, shaking her violently.
He shook her a dozen times, but the woman didn't react at all, and the boy's lips began to tremble.
He let go of her hand, looked around, and saw Frank lying on the ground not far away.
"Dad!" He ran to Frank's side, saw the bullet hole in his father's head that was still bleeding, and then ran back to his mother's side.
His feet didn't know which way to go.
Li En squatted down, his throat tightening slightly, and asked softly:
"What's your name?"
"Mom... Dad..." The boy was still running back and forth.
"Hey." Li En took the police badge out of his pocket and held it up in front of the boy so that he could see the badge clearly.
"I've already called an ambulance. I'm a police officer named Li En. What about you?"
The boy looked up at the police badge; it was a pair of light blue eyes, brimming with tears.
"I...I am Frank David Castle."
"David, do you have any brothers or sisters?"
Li En scanned his surroundings.
The sirens of ambulances were already coming from the direction of Fifth Avenue, getting closer and closer, and several ambulances were parked on the side of the road.
Medical personnel jumped out of the back of the vehicle and began triage the wounded.
"Sister... Sister!?" David turned his head to look at the rocking horse.
A hand covered his eyes.
Li En silently looked at the girl who had fallen to the ground; she must be David's sister.
David grabbed Lee's hands and pulled them down.
Li En moved his hand away.
David's eyes widened as he stared intently at the small body in the white dress, now stained crimson with blood.
Li En squatted on the ground, looking at the boy who had just lost his family within minutes, without saying a word.
Paramedics arrived at the scene, quickly assessed the situation, and lifted the still-breathing Frank onto a stretcher.
David then turned around and tried to run after the stretcher, but Li En gently pulled him back.
"Your parents were murdered."
David turned to look at him.
"You can't go to the hospital. Go to the Manhattan Police Department; officers will protect you there."
"No!" David had just opened his mouth when Li En placed his hand on his head and gently pressed it down.
"Don't worry, I'm going to the hospital."
David looked into Lee's eyes, paused for a moment, and then nodded.
Li En couldn't help but sigh that he was such a sensible child.
He stood up and greeted Brock, who had already arrived.
"Brock, take David back to the precinct."
Brock walked over, glanced down at David, and frowned.
He never thought Li En was cold-blooded, but he also didn't think Li En was the kind of person who was overly righteous.
This case was at the level where the entire New York Police Department was called in.
There must be a reason why Li En asked him to personally bring a child back to the branch office.
"This gang gathering is suspicious; David is in danger."
Li En lowered his head and reached out to pat David's hair.
"Go with Brock to the Manhattan precinct; he'll protect you."
"Let's go, kid." Brock didn't ask any more questions.
He took off his hat and put it on David's head, pulling the brim down to cover the boy's face, then took his hand and walked towards the police car.
Li En turned and jumped into the back of Frank's ambulance, closing the door before the paramedics could react.
The ambulance started up, sirens blaring, and squeezed its way through the congested traffic.
He sat by the door, leaning against the carriage wall, and began to sort out everything that had happened that day.
Dealing with the purple man is not difficult at all.
His enhanced body, the weapons from the Continental Hotel, and his prediction of the Purple Man's abilities—all conditions were in his favor.
Especially after Purple Man came to the police station looking for Jessica, Lee En had confirmed that the other party's ability was to control others through some kind of scent.
Once the information gap was completely in Li En's favor, he was no longer the prey, but the hunter.
The moment he saw the purple man through the sniper scope, he considered whether the students around him might be accidentally injured.
Then the sniper next door fired.
The bullet struck Frank Castle in the head before he did, and chaos ensued at the scene.
This forced him to pull the trigger immediately, risking the possibility of killing Jessica.
It was because of the sniper's bullet that Lee En realized this gang gathering wasn't about negotiation at all.
The four gangs appeared simultaneously in front of the amusement park, looking tense from the very beginning.
Everyone was constantly scanning their surroundings, their hands always under their coats.
Real gang negotiations are not like this.
Negotiation involves sitting at the same table, discussing terms, and if an agreement cannot be reached, then flipping the table.
Those people in front of the amusement park were ready to draw their guns the moment they stepped into the park.
They were led there; someone wanted to kill Frank and wanted to cover it up with a gang shootout.
I don't know who set this up.
Even if Li En didn't make a move today, at most only a few of the gang members who came here would survive.
The operating room lights stayed on for nearly two hours.
Li En sat on a bench in the corridor, leaning against the wall with her hands in her pockets.
The corridor was quiet, with only the occasional sound of a nurse pushing a trolley over the floor tiles.
The lights went out.
The operating room door was pushed open, and Frank was wheeled out.
His head was wrapped in thick bandages, and he wore an oxygen mask on his face, revealing grayish-white skin.
The surgeon walked out of the operating room, took off his mask, and there was a red mark on his forehead from the edge of the surgical cap.
He took out a cigarette pack from his pocket, walked a few steps to the end of the corridor, and then remembered that he was in a hospital, so he put the cigarette pack back in his pocket.
"This guy is incredibly tough. I've never seen anyone survive a gunshot wound to the head with a shattered skull."
"Really? Maybe there's something he can't bear to part with."
Li En stood up and followed the medical staff to transfer Frank to the ward.
The nurse reconnected the monitor's wires, adjusted the infusion pump's flow rate, and then pushed the door open and left.
Li En stood by the window of the ward, with her back to the window, looking towards the corridor.
Two tall men turned the corner at the end of the corridor, their steps steady, their suits tailored to fit perfectly.
The one on the left is a bald black man with high cheekbones and a neck thicker than his head.
The one on the right is white, with short hair and a very shallow old scar on his chin.
The two walked to the door of the ward and stood in front of Li En.
Their gazes first fell on the police badge on Li En's chest, and then moved to his face.
"We are Frank's comrades," the bald black man said.
"Really? Then you can go in and see him."
Li En reached out his right hand and pushed open the ward door, his left hand already gripping Glock.
With the muzzle pointing downwards, the index finger rests on the outside of the trigger guard.
He smiled at the two of them.
"However, I will shoot if there is any action that is detrimental to the patient."
The two exchanged a glance, said nothing more, and walked into the ward together.
They stood beside Frank's bed, looking down at the man whose head was wrapped in bandages and covered in tubes.
The monitor continued to beep, while the heart rate monitor remained steady.
The two looked at each other for about a minute, then turned and walked out of the ward.
As the white man passed by Lee, he paused and spoke softly.
"Officer, you should go back to the police station tonight."
Li En watched the two figures disappear at the end of the corridor.
Observe the walking posture, the shift of the center of gravity, and the ratio of shoulder width to hip width.
These two combined are probably worth several Bretts.
He turned his head to look at the hospital bed.
"Why would they want to kill you, Frank?"
……