Captain’s face was hidden behind a mask, making his expression unreadable, but he stared straight at Raymond Brooks with eyes full of astonishment, holding a gun in his right hand and making a very crude gesture with his left.

Captain was silently cursing at Raymond Brooks, and someone on the phone also spoke in an extremely angry tone: “Bastard, what’s going on with you? Why is the alarm going off?”

Raymond Brooks replied in an equally astonished tone: “What? The alarm? No…”

There are many types of alarms and many ways they can be triggered, and Raymond Brooks had no idea how Sanchez had set off the alarm, nor did he know what kind of alert the people outside had received, so he could only be vague and leave his words unfinished.

At this moment, Raymond Brooks was desperate to find a reason for his sudden interruption of the call. He spotted the corpse at his feet, and in a flash of inspiration, he stepped forward and gave the bodyguard’s corpse a hard kick in the back, producing a dull thud.

Captain didn’t understand Spanish, so he had no idea what Raymond Brooks was saying, but just as Raymond Brooks kicked out, Captain suddenly let out a loud, miserable scream: “Ah! Ah…”

Captain screamed in agony, as if he had really been kicked.

The cooperation was perfect—Captain produced the necessary screams, but Raymond Brooks hadn’t expected him to make a sound at all, and was so startled he almost dropped his phone.

But soon, Raymond Brooks’s shock turned to delight. He nodded repeatedly at Captain, signaling that those screams were very well done.

Without hesitation, Raymond Brooks said in a respectful tone, “I’m terribly sorry, I was disciplining an unruly bastard, uh… You received an alarm? Sorry, I don’t know what happened, I’m very sorry, Mr. Carlos, there’s a car arriving here—are you outside?”

Raymond Brooks didn’t expect a few words to send the people outside away, but he hoped to trick them into coming in, because setting up an ambush and forcing a breakout were two completely different things.

Still being vague, but Raymond Brooks’s performance was clearly working—the man on the phone sounded much more relaxed as he said, “What the hell are you doing, you bastard…”

Just then, Raymond Brooks heard a weak voice say, “Let me go, let me leave here, you…”

Raymond Brooks and Captain turned their heads at the same time, both with looks of utter shock in their eyes, because they saw that the unconscious Art was now trying to sit up.

Striking someone on the back of the head with a gun butt can easily be fatal. Raymond Brooks had never done such a thing before, so he didn’t know how much force to use and hadn’t dared to hit Art too hard. As a result, the unconscious Art had woken up at this moment—and even started to speak.

For Captain, the most painful thing was that he couldn’t understand what Raymond Brooks was saying, nor what Art was saying, but he knew that if Art started babbling at this moment, it could be fatal.

Captain didn’t make a sound. He gestured and rushed toward Art, and since there was a bodyguard’s corpse between Raymond Brooks and Art, Raymond Brooks didn’t think at all—he instinctively kicked out at Art.

Raymond Brooks’s kick landed on Art’s stomach, and the poor Art let out another miserable scream, crying out rapidly in Spanish, “No…”

Raymond Brooks was truly helpless now. He kicked twice in a row, landing another heavy kick on Art’s chest.

Art suddenly clutched his chest. He didn’t pass out, but the blow to his chest left him unable to speak, and all he could do now was collapse back onto the ground, writhing in pain.

Captain had already reached him, sliding on his knees to land in front of Art. With one hand holding his gun and the other covering Art’s mouth, he used an extremely awkward position to stop Art from making any more noise.

But Art’s voice seemed to have worked as a good cover, because the man on the phone immediately said, “Alright, alright, I’ll come in and talk. Let’s hang up for now.”

The call ended. Captain, who couldn’t understand a word, had no idea what the outcome was, and his eyes looked almost crazed.

Raymond Brooks said in a trembling voice, “The call’s over. We passed.”

Captain’s eyes conveyed a lot—first confusion, then quickly turning to wild joy.

Raymond Brooks continued in a low, urgent voice, “We can talk now. They got the alarm and came to check, but I managed to fool them. Now they’re coming in!”

There was no time to explain further in the rush, but a few words were enough to make things clear. Captain suddenly shook his head and said urgently, “Everyone, attention! You heard that, right? The enemy is about to come in. Get ready to engage!”

Chapter Four: Choices

Captain struck Art hard on the neck, and the poor Art passed out again.

Then, Captain quickly got up, rushed to the outer room, and once again took up position by the door.

Raymond Brooks thought Captain must be terrified, because he could hear Captain’s rapid breathing, but there was no time to say anything more, as the drug dealers’ cars were already pulling into the yard.

“Wait until they’re all inside before opening fire. Don’t rush, stay steady, watch your firing position…”

Captain spoke in a low voice. As he was speaking, the first car had already entered the yard, and by the time he finished, the third car had also pulled in.