Shadow Empire

Chapter 417 Fierce Battle

Everyone cherishes time, but time is also the most helpless thing.

It will not be more kind to you or walk slower around you just because you cherish it.

Whether you cherish it or ignore it, your time and other people's time are the same.

In other words, the process by which matter acts on your body is the same.

It is even possible that because you value time, you make your life more tiring.

But who can fully explain this kind of thing?
Two days passed in the blink of an eye.

After lunch, Sarifu went to the cemetery. They had a family cemetery where all their relatives were buried.

Several new tombstones were added here this year. They stand there quietly, showing no signs of decay or any dull sadness.

Inadvertently, he discovered a fallen yellow leaf in the grass on the ground. When he looked up at the trees above, he discovered that although it was still summer, there were already some yellowing leaves on the trees.

No matter how brightly the sun shines on the world, it cannot stop the arrival of autumn.

Those lives that once bloomed against the scorching sun in midsummer are finally meeting their end, just like the people lying here.

They may have all had their own glory, joys and sorrows, but when everything comes to an end, they are all the same, no matter whether you were excellent or mediocre before.

A sense of solemnity hidden in the wind, along with some spiritual and ideological touches, swept across the world.

He patted the tombstone closest to him, turned around and strode outside. Today, he wanted to put an end to the relatives who had died this year.

He will make Rick understand that the stupidest thing he has ever done is to attack himself!

He got in his car and headed towards the city center, and his men also got in their cars and began to act according to the established plan.

More than ten kilometers away on the other side, Rick was standing in front of the window smoking a fine cigar. In front of him, on the open space of the manor, there were more than a dozen cars parked, and a large group of gunmen who had just arrived were chatting in groups of three or five.

As long as Sarifu is killed, the Tita family will be like a cripple with a broken leg, unable to jump anymore.

And then after dealing with some other people, he and the Kodak family will become one of the two emperors of Jingang City!

A scene that he had not even been able to imagine for so many years actually had the possibility of coming true. He felt an indescribable joy in his heart.

He held a thick cigar and tasted the smell of burning money.

Every fine cigar is rolled with money, and each puff may cost a few cents, more than ten cents, or even more.

Gusts of wind blew, warm and gentle. He glanced at the time, made a gesture, and the gunmen all got into the car.

He looked down at the scene, like an emperor about to ascend the throne, reviewing his soldiers.

It's time to put this all to an end.

"Are you scared?"

At the Pasletto family estate, Alberto looked at Francisco, and the sixteen-year-old shook his head. “No, I’m not afraid.”

If his voice hadn't trembled, his expression would obviously be more convincing.

He was scared, and it was normal to be scared because this was not a game but a battle.

In a fight, people will die, either the enemy or our own people.

Every life is worthy of respect, no matter who it belongs to, and what fighting is about is taking away the most precious thing of others.

Alberto put his newly lit cigarette into his mouth, "You'll get used to it."

He opened the car door. They were not needed today, but they would go to the scene to watch Rick meet his end.

Francisco took a deep puff of the cigarette and felt a little itchy in his lungs. He exhaled the smoke and coughed twice. He was a little uncomfortable with the strong cigarette that Alberto gave him.

But he didn't throw it away. He got into the car with the cigarette. Behind them, people from seven or eight cars also got into their cars.

Sitting in the car, Francisco felt his blood starting to burn. He had a very special feeling that he didn't know how to describe. In short, he was very excited.

"Should we go straight there, or join Uncle Lance?"

"Sisko, everyone in this world can be unreliable one day, including me. In the end, the only one you can rely on and who can help you is yourself."

Alberto patted the driver's seat and the driver started the car.

Lance's nap was disturbed by the alarm and he rubbed his face.

It is especially easy to feel sleepy in the afternoons in the summer. He was still growing, and he began to feel sleepy in a daze, so he took a nap on the sofa.

After taking over Mr. Jobaf's bank, he will arrange a lounge in his office so that he can lie down for a while when he needs to rest.

"Is everyone ready?"

He reached out and took the glass of iced orange juice from Erwin and took a sip.

The sweet and sour taste coupled with the icy coolness made him sober up instantly.

No, it's not just cold, it also contains mint leaves and other things, so the air passing through the trachea feels cool when you breathe.

"The boys are ready."

Lance took two more sips and put them back on the table. He stood up with the help of his legs, twisted his neck and made a gurgling sound, "Then let's go!"

He added one more sentence in his heart, sounding the clarion call of destruction for the five major families!

At 2:50, Bandy was sitting at the open-air coffee table on the terrace on the third floor. His was the only table and he was the only person on the entire terrace.

He was smoking a cigarette and thinking about something.

As footsteps sounded, he looked towards the door and saw that it was Sarifu who came.

He stood up, took a final puff of his cigarette, threw the butt on the ground and stepped on it, then greeted the two with a smile, stretched out his hand and shook it with Sarifu, and then they hugged each other.

"Thank you for coming." Bandy invited him to sit down. "Rick should be here soon. I asked you to come again today to put an end to the terrible situation in Golden Harbor City as soon as possible."

"Salifu, you are a smart man. You must understand that our current situation is not good."

This is a very "kidnapping" statement. If you "don't understand", it means you are not a smart person. Most people are unwilling to admit that they are not smart, so they can only go along with what he says.

But it is clear that Sarifu is not going to accept this statement. "I don't want to know what the current situation is, and I don't want to care too much. I just want to know when I can complete revenge for my family."

Bandy frowned slightly. "You've already killed his son. We should be even."

"I repeat, it wasn't me!"

As he was talking, Rick also walked in from outside. He glanced at Sarifo and asked, "What wasn't done by you?"

Sarifu said directly, "I didn't kill your son!"

"Alberto and Lance were responsible for this, so we are not even."

Rick didn't even sit down, but slapped the table and leaned forward to look at him. The coffee on the table was shaken by the slapping action and splashed out. "Don't fucking make yourself look so innocent. You are all in the same group. I don't care who did it, you are all responsible."

Sarifu followed suit and started arguing, "My cousin is dead too, my cousin is dead too, my...why the hell don't you say these things?"

Seeing the two people quarreling again, Bandy frowned with a headache. He slapped the table and said loudly in a voice that suppressed the two people, "I didn't invite you here today to quarrel, but to solve the problem!"

"Everyone sit back down!"

The two glared at each other fiercely, but eventually sat back down.

Although everyone is one of the five major families, there are also differences in strength among the five major families.

The Kodak family, which has already started to launder the profits generated by the casino, is obviously ahead of other families. They are the ones who have truly achieved "full coverage", whether it is gang business or the federal government.

When he spoke, these two guys still had to be more or less cautious.

In fact, whether it was Rick, Sarifu, Fergal or Paul, they never thought about doing anything to the Kodak family because they were too strong.

The gangs of this era were indeed very powerful. In some areas, they could even formulate social rules on an equal footing with the federal government.

But the mafia is just a mafia after all, and it has a limit. Before a mafia of the same size as the country emerges, as long as things continue to escalate, the mafia will be the one that fails in the end.

Among the five major families in Jingang City, the Kodak family has the power to escalate problems and solve them.

Seeing the two of them sitting back down, he put on a reserved smile, "We can have a good talk..."

In fact, the talk didn't last long, because apart from cursing at each other and demanding impossible things, they never thought about working towards negotiation!
Their gunmen are outside, waiting for the moment when the enemy steps out of the hotel and is shot to pieces.

Maybe in ten minutes, maybe twenty minutes, the person opposite them will die, so why bother talking to them?

Bandy was too lazy to continue mediating. He simply announced that the negotiations had failed and left first.

He didn't want to get himself covered in blood; after all, they were old friends for many years.

Bandy, who was sitting in the car, closed the door and whispered, "Hurry up and leave this area as soon as possible."

"Yes, sir." The driver felt a noticeable push on his back as he started the car.

In fact, these gentlemen don’t like the feeling of being pushed on the back. When they don’t pursue speed, the feeling of being pushed on the back will only make them feel uncomfortable.

Like an elevator.

For some reason, Bandy kept looking at both sides of the street as the car left, and he found that the street today was a little strange.

The strange thing is that there are people sitting in the cars on both sides of the road, and these people basically remain quiet, neither talking nor moving, just sitting inside.

Some people even looked in his direction, and the coldness in their eyes made him shiver even in this hot summer.

Are these the gunmen Rick hired?

He could only think so. He would not have thought that Salifo had also arranged people, and he would not have thought that Alberto and Lance had also arranged people, just to completely get rid of Rick today.

"Want to follow?"

Erwin asked from the passenger seat.

If he wanted to catch up, he only needed to make a gesture and a car would follow. Lance shook his head, "He is not our target today."

Erwin's gaze finally left the car, and as he was staring at the car, Bandy seemed to feel his gaze as well.

He saw the young man sitting in the passenger seat of the car looking at him, and he also vaguely saw another person sitting in the back seat, whose appearance was not very clear.

There was no respect, fear, or other similar emotions in this person's eyes. Instead, there was a look in his eyes, as if he was looking at prey, which made him uncomfortable.

He began to doubt whether these people were Rick's gunmen, or... they were actually other people.

This thought startled him, and a chill crept up his spine along the groove between his buttocks. Every inch he climbed up, he got more goose bumps, and he shivered again!
He also turned his gaze away from those people. At this moment, he could have stopped and made a call in a roadside phone booth to tell Rick that the situation might have some unexpected changes.

But for some reason, he not only did not stop, but asked the driver to speed up, "Faster."

Only as he got farther away from that place did his uneasy feeling gradually disappear.

He kept looking back, always feeling that the street seemed to have turned into a monster's mouth, which would swallow everything here!
At this time, two angry guys also walked out of the hotel. They each came to the ramps on both sides of the hotel, where their cars were waiting for them.

Neither of them got into the car immediately, but stood by the door, looking at each other.

At a distance of about twenty meters, the two men's eyes met in the air, and they both saw something very familiar in each other's eyes, just like what they were showing at this moment.

Contempt, mockery, waiting to see the show...

Damn I'm sick!

Both of them turned around and got into the car. Salifu lit a cigarette, and Rick took out a half-smoked cigar from the cabinet in the car.

The car trembled slowly and began to move.

He held the lighter to the cigar for a while before taking a puff.

After today, the landscape of Jingang City will undergo tremendous changes!

A faint smile appeared on Rick's face. This damn guy, let him go to see God!

Just as he was fantasizing about ruling the entire city, a car suddenly drove parallel to him. He looked at the car with a frown.

He didn't like this situation. Being parallel to people, what else was worthy of being parallel to him?

But the next second, the other party pulled out a submachine gun and pulled the trigger at him.

He subconsciously hid for a while, but the sound of bullets hitting the glass brought him back to his senses. This car was bulletproof!

But the car in front and behind him were not so lucky. Bulletproof vehicles were not cheap, and he could not prepare one for each of his men.

The men escorting him were soon shot into a hornet's nest, and the car lost control and crashed into a house on the roadside.

The moment the gunshots rang out, the whole street was filled with screaming people, bullets were flying everywhere, and the glass cabinets on the roadside were constantly shot with bullet holes and shattered.

The shop owners called the police and prayed that the police would come quickly, or at least not wait until everything couldn't get any worse.

Sarifu stood up a little embarrassedly, his face flushed!

Partly out of anger and partly out of embarrassment, he forgot that his car was bulletproof, so he just fell to the ground in embarrassment. He hoped that the driver didn't see it, otherwise he would have to change drivers.

But at this moment he obviously didn't have enough energy to deal with this matter. The cars escorting him from front and back had disappeared. The only thing he could do now was to find support as soon as possible!

Bulletproof glass is indeed bulletproof, but it is not infinitely bulletproof. It also has its endurance limit!

Moreover, these gunmen were obviously veterans. They constantly used baseball bats or other things to hit the bulletproof glass that was full of cracks during the brief moments of impact.

Seeing that it was deeply dented and was beginning to drop broken glass, Rick shouted hastily, "Quick, drive back and chase Salifo, we have people over there!"

The driver also realized this and he turned the steering wheel sharply when passing the intersection.

At the same time, Sarifu also suffered the same attack, with bullets clanging at his car. Those gunmen from Alan were really not afraid of death.

They kept driving their cars into Salifo's car, trying to force him to stop, and the whole street was in chaos.

Salif's bodyguards also stopped their cars and exchanged fire with the gunmen. The whole street became chaotic in an instant!
When Lance saw this scene, he felt it was both unexpected and reasonable.

There was a gleam in his eyes, and it was obvious that he was planning something.

Without his order, no one on his side took any action.

Alberto saw that Lance's men did not move, so he did not order anyone to do anything either.

The streets are becoming increasingly chaotic and traffic order is completely ruined.

Even some passing drivers were hit, and their cars were scattered all over the street.

Both sides also discovered each other's "existence", and the scope of the exchange of fire became even larger!
"Get rid of Rick first. He's still too much of a danger to us."

After a while, Lance made a decision. Alvin stretched his arm out of the car window and waved towards where Rick was. The doors of more than ten cars on both sides of the road were opened in an instant, and a large number of gang members with weapons rushed out of the cars and chased Rick's car.

Alberto's men also began to act. With so many people, even if some of the gunmen had returned to support Rick, they might not be able to hold on for too long.

The whole street became bustling with activity, and the sound of gunfire echoed throughout the city center!

(End of this chapter)