Chapter 261 Battle for the Cowl (3)

Sweat streamed down Clapton’s forehead, the tension and surprise in his voice were hard to hide. “What do you want?”

“I’m trying to help you make this clear, sergeant.” Slowly, Feng Bujue replied, “As far as I know, there is a serious shortage of police strength in Gotham. At the moment, we are so well prepared that it’s impossible to enter the building without disturbing us. So, if you insist on using the direct attack strategy, it is bound to pay a painful price.

By the way, I should note that this bank vault is an import. Once the power is down, the ventilation system will be completely cut off, and the electronic lock on the door will give a random number when the power is cut off. At that time, our passwords would also be invalidated, and the room could only be reopened by contacting the European company that produced the gates, obtaining a special decryption program through a series of complex identification procedures to decode the random number.

Unfortunately, the people inside can’t wait that long. As long as you cut off the power supply, even if the power is restored immediately, the air will not return into the room. In about two minutes they will suffocate, in five minutes the lack of oxygen will cause irreversible brain damage, and in ten minutes you will be thinking about how to explain their death to the media and their families.

Of course, you can pray for a situation like… Your men, or some superhero, are strong enough to break into this place and subdue us without cutting the power while we’re on our guard.

Although I doubt this personally, even if it does happen, I regret to tell you that the condition will not change.

The hostage’s life and death are in our hands, in 30 minutes… I’m sorry, but it’s not possible to force the security room open in 25 minutes. Without the code we provided, you would have been left to watch the hostages suffocate.

“Yes, yes!” Clapton turned to his companions and shouted, “Tell the team to stop and stand by!” He sighed, then turned to the phone and said, “Okay, did you hear that? Are you satisfied?”

“Yes, I can hear you very well.” Feng Bujue smiled, “That was a very wise choice, Officer Clapton.” He paused for a second and then said, “So… Please call me back in ten minutes and I’ll let you know what we’re looking for.” Then he hung up.

……

The lobby of the bank was still bright. Although the row of glass doors at the main entrance had been blocked, the light from the ceiling was still on during the day, making no difference.

Standing by the counter, Feng Bujue finished talking to Clapton and put the phone down.

The submachine gun bandit had been holding his gun beside Feng Bujue, he certainly will not trust this so easy puzzling stranger, as long as Feng Bujue says any code-like words in the phone, he will be killed immediately.

The other two men were farther away, on either side of the lobby, holding guns as they watched dozens of hostages gathered in the center of the lobby.

“Am I right? All you need is bu**shi* to stop the onslaught.” Said Feng Bujue with a casual shrug.

“Well, you got minutes to be safe, so what? You still haven’t told me how we’re going to get out?” Asked the submachine gun bandit, with a relative detente from his ferocious tone.

“In a hostage situation, the first and most basic task of the kidnappers is to count the number of hostages.” Before the bandit could reply, Feng Bujue added, “From what I have observed, you three have not yet done it; but I have counted for you, and there are altogether twenty-nine here, besides you three and me.” He held out a hand, and indicated with his palm: “Could you please remove the muzzle from my face?”

For a few seconds, the bandit stared into Feng Bujue’s eyes, as if demonstrating, before slowly removing his gun.

Feng Bujue ambled over to the bank manager, a balding middle-aged man in glasses, and poked him in the back with a finger. “Are you the manager here?”

“Yes… Yes.” The manager’s answer is a little shaky. A few seconds before, he had held his head on the ground. He became nervous when he heard the sound of footsteps approaching. When Feng Bujue’s fingers touched him, he was scared to death.

“Take it easy, man.” Feng Bujue tapped his shoulder: “I just want to ask where are the cash bag and the plastic lock used to seal it?”

“Oh… Through the door behind the counter, there’s a lot of them…” Replied the manager.

“Give me the key and the security card.” Feng Bujue said.

The bald manager stunned for two seconds, then nodded and complied.

While Feng Bujue was talking bu**shi* to Clapton on the phone, he had looked at everyone in the hall and inferred a great deal of information from the details of the people. So, he knew who the bank manager was, and he knew the keys and the door cards that were necessary to get in and out of the staff area, which is in this guy’s pocket.

“What are you doing?” Asked the money bandit.

“Certainly getting better control of the situation.” Feng Bujue replied, “Would you mind taking them out?” As he spoke, he handed the key and the card to the money bandit.

“When will it be your turn to…” The money bandit was not happy to receive an order from a stranger.

The submachine gun bandit interrupted, “All right, do as he says.” He added, “Even if he goes to get them, you’d have to follow him, wouldn’t you?”

Money bandit was helpless since his boss said that, he stared at Feng Bujue, took over the key and turned over a counter to go toward the storehouse.

As the bandit left, the submachine gun bandit spoke again: “No, what?”

Feng Bujue smiles, a gold light was shown in his hand and a piece of glittering poker then flew to the bandit that few meters away.

At this distance, death poker’s accuracy is flawless. The flash of lightning cut the target’s throat.

The submachine gun bandit didn’t realize until he died that the unarmed man in front of him, without making any movement of throwing, would suddenly throw out a deadly weapon.

“You!” The pistol bandit saw this scene. His reaction is not slow and fired towards Feng Bujue.

…Shots rang out. But Feng Bujue didn’t hide or flash but stand in place. He did not even use [Shield ‘Card’] but raised his arms to cover his face.

The development of the matter is the same as Feng Bujue thought, the marksmanship of the bandit is really bad as expected. Under panic, he shot all the bullet in the pistol, but only 2 hit the target. The two bullets were blocked by the sonic wall of [Echo Armor], leaving two holes in Feng Bujue’s abdomen and his thigh, but the wounds were not serious, and the loss of survival value was only 24%.

Feng Bujue counted with a shot in his heart silently, after he considered the bandit’s bullet is running out, he put his arms down and took his submachine guns [Miss. Moxxi’s Bad Temper] from his bags. He ignored the guy who has run out of bullets but aimed the door money bandit left before. He listened to the sound of footsteps of that guy rushing back, and pulled the trigger timely.

“What the f…?” This sentence was interrupted by ‘clicking’ sounds of Feng Bujue’s gun, the money bandit just stepped out of the door was shot in the face, and he was killed on the spot.

“Put the gun down.” Feng Bujue had killed two men in a row, but his expression was still calm and undisturbed.

“Stop dreaming! You bastard!” Roared the pistol bandit, as he retreated to the western wall of the lobby, where he began reloading his pistol in an ATM compartment.

He didn’t know where the weapon came from, and he didn’t know what had killed his boss. He only knew that this murderous guy would not care about the lives of the hostages, so the gun in his hand was the last bargaining chip. Wouldn’t it be a state of being slaughtered if he put it down?

“On the count of ten, if you don’t come out and surrender, there will be no chance.” Feng Bujue shouted at him.

The pistol bandit’s hands were shaking, which affected the efficiency of reloading, and he was afraid of Feng Bujue rushes to him right now. Now Feng Bujue told him a count time, he instead calmed down a little and thought he earned himself some time.

“One, two, three, four…” Feng Bujue’s counting was very accurate, between the seven seconds when he counted to seven, he did the following things: Put the submachine gun back, took out [Endless Grenade Box and took out a [Mark II Grenade (products) away, put [Endless Grenade Box] back, pulled the grenade fuze and aimed at the small compartment without cap six or seven meters away…

“Eight…” When Feng Bujue counted to eight, he had already thrown the grenade out.

The pistol bandit was now loaded. He breathed heavily and saying to himself: “Calm down, I can do it. That guy is already hurt.”

Whirring, swishing…

This is the sound of a grenade being thrown from above the compartment, bouncing twice before landing.

Pistol bandit looked at the grenade beside his feet, which has been pulled out of the fuse. After stunning for a second, he said the last word of his life, which can be summed up easily: “Fuck.”

……

Bang!

Even it happened after the closed iron gate, the explosion could not be covered.

“What’s going on inside? First the shots, now something explodes. Is this a terrorist attack?” Clapton couldn’t wait any longer. He had four minutes to go, but he picked up the phone and gestured to his colleagues in the surveillance car.

Beep. Beep. Beep.

“The hostages are fine.” Feng Bujue picked up the phone and claimed, “but it’s not the time yet, officer. I hate people who have no sense of time, so you have to wait ten more minutes to start from right now.” He left no space for the officer. “If you call in a few minutes early, I’ll kill some hostages.” He finished and hung up the phone roughly.

……

Inside bank lobby, hostages still didn’t get up from the ground, because after Feng Bujue killed 3 bandits, he took guns from bandits conveniently, and continued the hijack…

“Ladies and gentlemen.” As Feng Bujue spoke, he walked lamely behind the counter and put away the robber’s gun. “I’m in charge here from now on. As long as you cooperate with me, no one will get hurt.

If all goes well, in a few hours you will be sitting at the table, having dinner with your family. With any luck, the married men present will be able to reunite with your sex life again tonight.” His tone seemed like joking to a bunch of friends, no one can even hear threats from his words. “But if anyone refuses to cooperate with me, or even tries to hinder me…” He pushed a wheeled office chair to the outside of the counter and sat down, gun in hand. “I’ll fire immediately to all the living things in my sight until there’s no bullet left.” He paused for a few seconds, scanned the faces of the hostages, then said, “Get it?”

The hostages did not expect when the three stupid bandits dead, an antihuman madman jumped out. No one dared meet Feng Bujue’s eyes or answer his questions. Some hostages had already started to cry and pray.

“OK, now, the lady in the beige coat. Yes, you.” Feng Bujue said: “Please raise your head?”

She was a blonde of about thirty of an average appearance. Her face was covered in tears and her clothes were stained with vomit. When she heard this, she looked up at Feng Bujue and said with fear written all over her face, “Please… Please don’t hurt me… “

“Don’t worry, madam. I don’t want to hurt anyone.” Feng Bujue said, “On the floor to your left, I noticed a brown handbag. I suppose that’s yours?”

The woman turned to look at the bag and replied, “Yes… Yes… You can have anything you want… Just… Just don’t hurt me.

“May I ask, madam, do you have your makeup bag with you today?”

“What?” The woman stunned instinctively, but again she’s afraid of answering to slow to provoke Feng Bujue, so she immediately answered: “Right… I have it.”

“Do you have tweezers for eyebrow trimming in your makeup bag?”

“Yes…… I have.”

“Now, you shall go over there, open that bag, find your toiletry, take the tweezers out, and give them to me.” After a pause, Feng Bujue added, “Don’t worry. No one is pushing you, I don’t want you to make things upset in your hurry.”

The woman quickly took the tweezers and gave them to Feng Bujue, trembling.

After Feng Bujue took the thing over, he smiled: “Thanks, please return to the original place, let me see your hands.”

When she got down, Feng Bujue found the bald manager again and said, “Mr. Manager, please come here too.”

The bank manager looked around, but no one responded. It seemed to be him, so he can only get up and walk over.

“Thirty cash bags and sixty plastic lockers, please go and get them for me.” Feng Bujue pointed to money bandit’s corpse, “He got the key and the door card on him. I don’t think he’ll mind if you take them back.” He made a “please” sign and cocked his head, “Go ahead.”

The body of the bandit carrying the money lay prostrated under the doorframe behind the counter. The bank manager nerved himself, picked up the key and the door card from the beehive head and went to the storeroom.

“Oh, yes.” Feng Bujue shouted loudly, “Don’t let me wait too long, or… You know.”

“Yes… I get it.” The manager responded and ran to get things.

“Hey, that gentleman in the suit, yes, that’s you, please give me your lighter, thank you.” He said to the other hostage. From the fingernails on his right hand, he could tell that the man is a smoker. In fact, through observation, he had got all kinds of information from these 29 people, such as occupation, marital status, life habits, hobbies and so on…

Feng Bujue put the gun to a reachable position, used lighter to roast tweezers a little, and started to pick bullet from his wounds without any expression… And took the shrapnel and some meat out together…

The hostages who raised their eyes to glimpse him were all stunned. They did not know that the player’s pain was weakened, almost all of them thought: This guy is really MAN…

The [bleeding] effect in the status bar stopped automatically when two bullets were quickly removed without being bandaged. Feng Bujue checked his survival value, which is 68 percent. There’s no need for him to use supply right now.

The bank manager came back with a bunch of cash bags and plastic locks. “Is there anything else, sir?” he asked, placing them on the floor in front of him.

“With a lock, tie their hands behind their backs, tie their feet together, and put a cash bag over their heads.”

……

Another ten minutes passed, this time it’s a full ten minutes. When all the police technicians were ready, Clapton picked up the phone and dialled the number in the bank lobby.

After several seconds, Feng Bujue picked it up. He said, “You’re on time this time, sergeant.”

“What happened to the hostages in the vault? Are they still alive?” Clapton asked. “What do you want? You can’t get away with this, okay? Listen… I know it wasn’t you who killed the hostages, man. You are a wise person. If you can surrender with your companions right now… I can plead for you on the court.” In the second part of his sentence, he kept his voice deliberately low, as if the deal were real.

“Ha-ha… Sounds like a pretty tempting offer, but… Between imprisonment and impunity, I find the latter is obviously more tempting. Anyway, I have the password to the room, and after the hostages are rescued… Or… All dead… You couldn’t have shot me before I died, could you? Ha-ha…” He smirked. The momentary lie was a good talisman indeed.

At the same time, the closed door of the bank was opened again. The scene before the police is…