Chapter 88: Encirclement and Suppression (Please Subscribe)

In a city that was scarcely more prosperous than the downtown district of Du Ruo’s hometown, three magnate families held sway, each jealously guarding its own industries and territory. Even the choice of mayor was arranged in rotation among them. It was easy to imagine what sort of life the people here led.

Yet this also brought Du Ruo considerable convenience, at least enough for him to find somewhere to recover in his present situation.

The area where Du Ruo had just fought belonged to the Garcia family’s territory. At first, Du Ruo had assumed he was still hidden in the shadows and could act anywhere at will. But now that he had made his move, he could no longer walk about openly.

He arrived at a small hotel. Since Faka had said the roads would be congested in the afternoon, he had not driven the car out; the key Du Ruo had been holding was for Faka’s vehicle. Du Ruo drove far away, left Garcia territory, parked in a corner, then bought some clothes on foot, found a hotel, and checked in.

Language was not a problem. On the yacht, the guide had given Du Ruo a wallet, which besides an identity card contained quite a bit of cash. Over the past two days, Du Ruo had already gotten a fair sense of local prices. He would simply hand over a banknote, wait for the change, and say nothing at all.

The next morning, Du Ruo sat in a tall tree in a patch of woods outside the Garcia family compound. He had changed into local clothes and even worn a hat, which counted as a bit of disguise.

This place was about two to three hundred meters from the Garcia family’s luxurious villa, so there was no need to worry about being discovered. Moreover, with his enhanced senses, Du Ruo could clearly see the vehicles coming and going inside.

He had no choice. After killing Faka, he had lost his guide, and the places Faka had once mentioned as places where Renny Garcia might go were unreliable as well. So Du Ruo could only adopt this patient, waiting-the-rabbit-by-the-burrow method.

Fortunately, he knew this was a crucial stage of the election. Renny Garcia would go every day to a fixed location to discuss with the other families how to manipulate the vote. All Du Ruo needed to do was follow him and wait for a chance to strike.

He had shadowed them for three days. It was not that there had been no opportunity for assassination; rather, Du Ruo was alone, and there was simply no way to handle everything at once. On top of that, he did not speak the language, so there was much he could not inquire about and no way to lay an ambush in advance.

“The importance of learning a foreign language,” Du Ruo muttered ruefully. “Tonight I’ll probe the security around the compound. If there’s no opening, I’ll have to wait until they make a move and then slip in among the chaos. The sun’s about to set. I can’t follow any farther.”

Sitting in the car, Du Ruo sighed and prepared to turn back. This was the road leading to the Garcia family compound. He had been tailing the four cars ahead from a distance, separated by roughly a hundred meters.

In three days, Du Ruo had only glimpsed Renny Garcia a few times through the car window. The man would leave the compound by car, and once he reached his destination, he would not get out; instead, he would drive straight into the underground parking garage. Outsiders could not get in at all. Security was far too tight, and there was simply no chance to get close.

Then came the crackle of gunfire and a tremendous explosion.

Du Ruo immediately swerved the car to the roadside, got out, and darted into the woods by the road.

From a great distance, he saw a large boulder blocking the road ahead of the convoy, and two groups of people were exchanging gunfire there.

One side was, of course, the convoy. Three vehicles had Renny Garcia’s car trapped in the middle, and more than ten men were using the cars as cover while exchanging rifle fire with the men on the hill. Two bodies were already lying on the ground, and they looked beyond saving.

A few dozen meters away, only sporadic shots could be heard from the other side. They were being completely suppressed by the convoy’s overwhelming firepower and had little chance to fight back. But they had grenades; every now and then one would be thrown, preventing the convoy from encircling them.

The two sides were locked in a stalemate, while the sky began to darken.

Du Ruo was in no hurry. He circled slowly around the other side of the road, keeping his gaze firmly fixed on Renny Garcia.

Little by little, the gunfire became less frequent. Both sides seemed to be waiting.

Then, in the midst of the stalemate, several successive explosions came from the distance. Even from far away, both sides in the firefight could hear them.

“Move! We have only five minutes.”

About a kilometer from the convoy’s battlefield, around the Garcia family compound, a fully armed man with a rifle spoke into his earpiece after watching a large number of cars leave the villa.

A burst of dense gunfire erupted around the compound. In teams of three, they advanced quickly into the Garcia family grounds.

Meanwhile, at the rear of the compound, a figure moved like a nimble ape. Amid the distraction of the battle, he slipped toward one of the guard posts.

The guard post’s lights had already been extinguished. Four men crouched inside, firing rifles outward. Though there were only four of them, the reinforced post served as cover and was like a bunker, making it impossible for the mercenaries outside to advance.

The ape-like figure approached soundlessly. Stopping at the door of the guard post, he paused and listened carefully. When the sound of an empty magazine clicking in the post reached his ears, he suddenly sprang upward, both legs driving hard against the door.

With a massive force, the guard post door was kicked wide open.

A poor soul crouching just behind the door to reload was struck full in the body as the door flew open, instantly losing all ability to resist.

The remaining three inside were already highly tense, and the sudden noise startled them. Their bodies jerked, and they reflexively swung their guns around.

But they were still too slow. The moment the door was kicked open, the figure shot inside right after it, clenching both fists and hammering them down upon two of the men.

His fists crashed down like twin iron hammers. The left fist struck one man at the neck, while the right fist smashed into the head of a man half-crouched on the ground. A sharp cracking sound rang out, the sound of bones shattering: one neck broken, one skull caved in. Neither made so much as a groan before falling silent.

After the blows, the figure dropped into a crouch like a nimble ape, avoiding the third man’s spray of bullets. Then his two fists rose together in a savage upward hammering strike, one blow landing in the chest, the other on the ribs. Another cracking sound followed, and then the figure leaped once more, planting both feet on the neck of the man who had been stunned by the door.

Instantly, silence fell within the guard post. In practically the blink of an eye, the four men had only managed to turn their guns around before they were bludgeoned to death in a matter of moments.

With the guard post gone, the fully armed mercenaries outside broke through the rear of the villa at once and began entering the house, sweeping room by room.

Inside the convoy, Renny Garcia seemed to have received the message: the support convoy had been blocked, and the villa was under attack. Even a fool would understand this was a feint to draw them away. No longer waiting inside the bulletproof vehicle for reinforcements, he left two men behind to keep suppressing the few on the hill, while the others escorted Renny Garcia around the far side of the boulder blocking the road.

And Du Ruo, who had been crouching in the tree all this time, finally saw his chance.