Chapter 30: The Missing Gunmen, Night Shift, and Cigarette Butt
historical
Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations
Chris’s group transferred a few more agents to the operation. After all, the Carlos Family might be sending over 20 people this time.
The Carlos Family was no ordinary organized crime group. They were in fact a drug smuggling organization, and if they wanted to, they could even equip themselves with things like AKs and grenades.
Robert had also opened the armory to the other officers of their department. As of late, everyone had two additional heavy firearms in their cars.
Otherwise, if they relied on pistols alone, they would be completely helpless against enemies with AKs.
Meanwhile, Luke had already finished allocating his stat points. Since he had found the right method to do so, he didn’t suffer as much.
His dexterity had increased to 17, and the discomfort he experienced during the increase didn’t even affect his daily life.
Moreover, the benefit of allocating stat points this way was that he didn’t have to eat a massive meal before the allocation. He only needed to eat double his usual portion at meal times, and that was enough.
But of course, the allocation of stat points to dexterity required less energy compared with strength anyway.
A week later, the FBI received more specific information.
The people from the Carlos Family were coming.
They would arrive here from Mexico in less than three days, but what they would do was still unknown.
Robert had already made preparations beforehand with Catherine.
The moment the Carlos Family was within 100 kilometers of the town, Catherine would hide out with Claire and Joseph at her father’s ranch outside town, which wasn’t easy to find.
As for Selina, she couldn’t do anything in advance. Her family was too huge; there were over 20 of them, including her parents, cousins, uncles, aunts, and so on. Thus, the only thing she could do was have some officers posted close by at all times.
If required, they could move her family to a safe house temporarily.
On the second day, they received bad news.
Chris’s group lost sight of the members of the Carlos Family from Mexico.
The gunmen all vanished roughly 500 kilometers from town. The FBI couldn’t find any trace of them either.
That caused Chris’s head to ache.
The Carlos Family had been able to grow in power in Mexico because they were truly capable criminals. At the very least, they were capable enough to completely vanish from the FBI’s radar.
Nevertheless, that didn’t change the fact that their final destination was still the town.
The only thing Chris could do was get the FBI to keep searching for those gunmen. At the same time, he also placed the roads coming into town under heavier surveillance.
The Carlos Family might send up to 20 people here this time. A large group like that wouldn’t be able to completely evade surveillance.
As for Robert, he had already brought Catherine, Claire, and Joseph to his father-in-law’s ranch outside town. He no longer allowed them to remain in town.
On the third day, there still wasn’t any trace of the gunmen. The police force and FBI agents in town were all on high alert.
It was rather troublesome that they couldn’t ask for any help. To ask for reinforcements last minute, they had to know exactly when the attack would happen. After all, the other agencies and departments all had their own jobs to do and couldn’t wait around blindly like them.
On the fourth day, nothing happened.
On the fifth day, nothing happened as well. Today was also Luke and Selina’s off-day.
The FBI still couldn’t find any trace of the gunmen.
Robert had even called Chris to his office to question him about the situation.
Waiting like this was too torturous.
Everyone felt extremely jittery, as if they were dolls that had been turned on but weren’t allowed to move.
Robert almost got into a fight with Chris.
Staying on the defense forever always resulted in defeat. This was a concept Americans knew as well.
No defense lasted forever. Their enemy was free to attack any time they were fully rested and prepared.
On the other hand, the police force and the FBI had to stay on guard, waiting day and night in exhaustion.
If this lasted a few more days, their combat effectiveness would probably go down by about 30 percent.
The sixth day was still Luke and Selina’s off-day.
Chris finally found something as well. Their agents had discovered traces of the gunmen at a town a few hundred kilometers away. They would probably be able to locate the gunmen before long.
On the seventh day, Luke and Selina worked the night shift.
Since the town’s police department wasn’t large, officers normally took the night shift in teams of two, and only needed to go on patrol once every few hours.
Luke and Selina kept to their usual routine of going on a patrol every two hours.
At about two in the morning, Luke woke Selina up. She was sleeping on a makeshift bed she had assembled with two chairs. The two washed their faces and checked their equipment before leaving the department.
In truth, the best thing for them to do in their current situation was to stay holed up in the police department.
But Chris once told them that although the people from the Carlos Family were savages, they were also crafty and sly.
If Luke and Selina strayed too much from their usual behavior, the family might change their plan as a result.
At that time, Selina had asked, “What’s the new plan then?”
Chris sank into a short silence before saying, “Timed bombs, long-distance sniping, and so on. Based on the information we have, a few of the Carlos Family members are retired members of the Mexican special forces.”
That caused both Luke and Selina to sink into silence.
In Mexico, it wasn’t too rare for members of the law enforcement agencies to turn into members of organized crime groups instead.
In order to lure the gunmen out, Luke and Selina could only stay on full alert while they still went about their daily routine.
They still had their bulletproof vests on, and Luke even had an additional bulletproof panel on him. It was quite heavy, but that was better than being killed by bullets.
At Luke’s suggestion, Selina also put on a few bulletproof panels as well. But since she wasn’t strong enough physically, she could only put on enough to protect her vitals such as her heart.
Naturally, the bulletproof panels wouldn’t guarantee their safety, but at least it made them feel better.
Since it was night, the two heavy firearms that usually rested in the trunk were now placed between the two front seats for easy access.
As usual, Selina was the driver. The car slowly moved down the town’s main road.
In about ten minutes, they reached the northern border of the town before they turned around and headed south.
When they were nearly there, Luke caught sight of a red dot out of the corner of his eye.
He now had 18 points of strength and 17 points of dexterity.
Not only had the strength stat enhanced his physical strength, his eyesight, hearing, and sense of smell had all improved as well.
As for dexterity, not only had his speed increased, his reaction time, dynamic vision, and so on had also improved.
And after two months as a police officer, his observation skills and sense of vigilance had only increased.
Thus, he only needed a split second to determine what the slow-moving red dot in the darkness was: a cigarette butt.
It was this late at night, yet someone was out here smoking on a street corner instead of sleeping at home?
There might be people like that in China, where drunkards staggering around in the middle of the night in summer was a common occurrence.
But this was America, or a small town in Texas, to be precise.
Only criminals or those in special situations would be out here in the middle of the night.
Luke immediately focused on his right, but the red dot was already gone.
Then, as the police car slowly moved ahead, he saw a vague outline of something massive on the street further back from where he had seen the red dot.