Awakening - Chapter 208
Chapter 208 Vacuum
The Pentagon, Virginia, USA, has been hailed as the world’s most secured military command center. At this point, at the ground floor of the building, a middle-aged man in uniform said to a slightly younger Lieutenant Colonel: “Have you found the whereabouts of those people?”
“I am very sorry, it seems like they have found that we use the signal transmitters to find their location. Therefore, until now, we still cannot find their whereabouts. At the same time, because this is a secret, we do not dare to carry out a blanket search, so their whereabouts could not be found.” The Lieutenant Colonel said, streaming with sweat.
The Colonel coldly said: “This is not the time to offer excuses. If they escape from the USA, then that gentleman will fly into a rage.”
“I, I understand. I will add additional manpower to trace them, please give us some time.”
“I hope you won’t disappoint me this time. ”
“Please rest assured, I will not.”
“If you find their whereabouts, remember to immediately notify me.”
“Yes, sir.”
The Colonel dryly looked at him, turned around, and walked out.
Shortly after he just went out, the adjutant of the Lieutenant Colonel suddenly took off his earphone and said to the Lieutenant Colonel: “Report, I just received some information about the Black Dragon. Many of their members, without knowing why, suddenly left their location and went to other places that were unknown to us.”
The Lieutenant Colonel eyebrows jumped, he seemed to sense a hint of an unusual movement. He said to the adjutant: “Continue to trace them. Moreover, I want you to contact our insiders and tell them to look for the reason of this.”
“Okay.” The adjutant immediately began directing the other subordinates.
However, on the third morning, the Lieutenant Colonel was called into the office.
After he went in, he was surprised to see the Intelligence Officer in charge of the North American was also in it. This usually insufferably arrogant officer was sweating profusely as he looked down at the ground. The Colonel, dressed in his uniform, was sitting away from him, looking at the TV on the wall.
If this was usual, seeing his embarrassed arch rival, the Lieutenant Colonel, after going home, would certainly open a bottle of Champagne to celebrate. However, after seeing the news video clips on the television, his face sank.
“Last night, there were a series of gang-related violence in the Latin American community in Washington D.C. At least five people were killed in the shootout in Washington D.C. central zone, three kilometers away from the White House. The Latin American gangster activity have become more active, they use violence to control the nearby Latin American community. People can see some gangsters draw their gang marks on the wall, on the pedestrian crossing street, and even some of the street signs, defining their sphere of influence, indicating their loyalties to some of the gangs.”
“At Montgomery County in northern suburbs of Washington D.C. there were 5 shootings that continuously happened in 16 hours straight, 5 people were killed. These 5 people include one white male, one African-American, one Latin-American man, one white woman, and one Latin-American woman. According to witnesses, the suspected shooter is a gang member so the local police suspect that this is a turf war between several gangs.”
“This morning in southern California, San Jose suffered their worst serial bombings in 10 years. Many areas suffered unknown explosions. The resulting fire destroyed more than 10 houses. In which, 10 people were killed and more than 100 people were injured and hospitalized. Right now, the local police have imposed martial law in the area to prevent similar incidents from happening again.”
“This morning in Queens, New York, there was a fatal shooting in one of the fast food restaurant that left 5 people dead and 2 injured. It is reported that at 11:00 PM burst into the restaurant, forcing the 7 employees who were preparing to leave to enter the basement. After tying them up, these gunmen opened fire at them. According to local police, 4 people died on the spot and 1 people died at the hospital. 2 were injured and one of them is in critical condition. The criminals fled after committing the crime. The police are now investigating the case.”
“The Washington Post reported that, last night….”
“Click.” The Colonel turned the TV off with the remote.
The Lieutenant Colonel and the Intelligence Officer were silent. There was a deadly silent in the room.
Slowly turning his head, the Colonel coldly looked at the two of them, “It is almost a week since this kind of news starting to appear in various states, don’t the two of you have anything to say about this?”
The hearts of the Lieutenant Colonel and the Intelligence Officer grew cold. Both did not dare to make a noise.
“Now I ask the two of you, do you have anything to explain this? Answer me!” The Colonel pounded the table with his fist and thundered.
The two of them shook in fear. After a while, the Intelligence Officer slowly said: “Report, this is because those gangsters in the area are competing for territories, resulting in turf wars. I have deployed….”
“I am asking you why this is happening, I don’t want to listen to your cr*p. Lieutenant Colonel, answer my question.”
The Lieutenant Colonel was surprised and immediately said: “That, that’s because the Black Dragon suddenly withdrew from those areas, which create power vacuums in those areas. Other gangs want to seize these areas from the nearby gang, which triggered the turf wars.”
The Colonel’s face slightly changed and then continued to ask: “Did you find out why they did this?”
“According to the information that I have, the power of the Black Dragon that are distributed in Northern and Southern part of the USA is showing the sign of collapse. Moreover, besides some not so easy to sell assets like property, other assets like shares, deposits, futures, etc., the vast majority of these assets have been transferred abroad. And just a few days ago, they all suddenly left their locations. This triggered the turf wars between gangs. So I judge that they really planned to evacuate from the USA to overseas.”
The Colonel said with a sinking sound: “Although this is the case, don’t you think that their actions are too sudden? All of these happened in just a few days.”
The Lieutenant Colonel was temporarily speechless. After a moment he said: “Probably because they already know that their leader is being pursued by us. Therefore, this is their reaction to that.”
Chapter 208 Vacuum Part 2
“Do you know where are the missing Black Dragon members now?”
“From our undercover agent’s report, in addition to selling off all of their industries, they appear to order a batch of tickets to go abroad. They seem indifferent to other gangs robbing their turfs. They may want to sell the several important industries belong to the Black Dragon first and then leave the United States.”
“Those people are dangerous. No matter what they want to do, I want you to keep monitor them very closely. Don’t make any mistakes. The recent continuous occurrence of street shootings and bombings have made the gentleman very angry.”
“I understand, Sir.”
Turning around to look at the ugly complexion of the Intelligence Officer, the Colonel dryly said: “Officer, do you know how many gangs, as well as their members in the United States?”
The Intelligence Officer replied: “Report, Sir. In the entire United States, there are around twenty thousand gangs and around seven hundred thirty thousand gang members.”
“These are worrying figures. Now these gangs have harmed the United States more than the terrorist organizations. If similar gang wars and bombings continue, you should be very clear about the severity of the consequences. I hope you can stop the development of this situation as soon as possible, which is also what the gentlemen want.”
“I, I understand.” The Intelligence Officer immediately responded.
As the two men walked out of the Colonel’s office, looking at the self-satisfied smile of the Lieutenant Colonel, the Intelligence Officer coldly humphed and briskly left. Looking at his angry back, the Lieutenant Colonel’s face was incomparably smug.
—-
“Master, as per your plan, the Black Dragon members in the United States have been shrunk down.” After hanging up the phone, Rei Li said to Lei Yin who was reading the Newspaper.
“How many people can we directly command now?” Lei Yin asked without lifting his head.
“Because New York and Philadelphia are our main sites, there are still a lot of our people there. There are probably three thousand people. If we include the several people from other areas and even the cadres, we have a total of about four thousand people. A pity that some c*nts defected to other gangs. Otherwise, we can at least reach nine thousand people.”
Lei Yin flatly said: “When the tree falls, the foxes scatter; It is a normal phenomenon. There is no difference in operating a company and running a gang. If the company is going to fail, of course, the employees want to find another way out. For us to gather these many people is already exceed my expectation. What about the situations in the areas that we have abandoned?”
Rei Li proudly said: “Those sons of b*tches, they don’t need us to incite trouble. Hearing that the Black Dragon is withdrawing from the area, they were like a pack of hungry mad dogs, rushing to bite each other up; It saves us a lot of trouble.”
Lei Yin thought for a moment and then said: “That’s not enough, tell our brothers in those areas to provoke them. The more they fight each other the more it will help our plan.”
Rei Li picked up an Apple and took a bite, “No problem. We just need to send a few killers to kill some of them and they will bite each other even harder.”
“Where is Chang’an?”
“He said he is trying to think of a way to quietly bring those people here, they will probably arrive tomorrow night.”
“Very good, now we just need to wait for the opening ceremony.” Lei Yin laid down the newspaper, picked up the teacup, and slowly took a sip.
Rei Li’s eyes revealed a look of excitement.
—-
For several days, the police departments in Los Angeles, Pittsburg, Chicago, Washington D.C, Philadelphia, New York, and other big cities were bruised and battered.
Because in less than a week’s time, almost every day there were street shootings and bombings because of turf wars between gangs.
And these are turf wars between major gangs to compete for territory, all of which originally belong to the Black Dragon, who, in just several days, seemed to vanish into thin air.
Although most of the members were still stationed in the various branches of the companies that appear to be legally registered, none of them tried to control the outside gangs that were trying to rob them of their sites.
Without a strong repression force, more and more gangs joined the ranks of the competition. Because, all along, the sites that were occupied by the Black Dragons are the prime locations in major cities, it can be said that every inch of their land worth in gold, and that was why all the gangs wanted to carve up as many pieces as they can from this super fat area.
At this time, more and more people began to believe the local rumor that said the Black Dragon was about to withdraw from the United States.
Although the police have deployed some of their officers from calmer states to help quell the deterioration of events, with the mysterious killing of a few important people in the gangs, things began to lose control. From pure competition for interest, the gang wars have evolved into competition for interest plus hatred, which turned it into a battle royal.
Now every day one can read in the newspaper about these turf wars. And as time passed, the situation has become increasingly fierce, some states have even suffered several bomb explosions, and the number of casualties was increasing day by day. Almost on a daily basis, the Police Departments in those areas that were hit received phone calls from terrified citizens. More and more opinion piece in the newspapers condemned the Government and the efficiency of the relevant departments.
Relatives to other areas, Washington D.C., Philadelphia and New York were calmer.
Historically, the number of gangs in these areas were lower than the other. Moreover, because these are the few most important cities in the United States, the police forces here were sufficient.
Even so, street shootings between gangs still happen from time to time. But, compared to other cities, the size is slightly smaller.
Things have gone to this point, even ordinary citizens also felt the disturbing atmosphere that seemed to be floating in the air.
But this relative sense of calm was broken four days later at night.
