pjbooks Chapter 232 The Most Ruthless Bandit of the Century and the Exorbitant Ransom
Chapter 232 The Most Ruthless Bandit of the Century and the Exorbitant Ransom
Chapter 232 The Most Ruthless Bandit of the Century and the Exorbitant Ransom
Oh no... it's over. Could it be claustrophobia?
This is the only reason Ma Jieke can think of. After all, it's impossible for an elevator to lack oxygen. Even if the ventilation system stops working, oxygen can still get through the door gaps.
But there's no use worrying about that now; let's get them out first.
He scanned the surrounding area with his eyes and soon spotted an emergency device above the elevator door with a prominent warning sign: Do not touch if you are not a professional.
Ma Jieke ignored the warning and, taking advantage of his height, tiptoed to open the transparent cover and took out a cross-shaped metal wrench.
Although it's cross-shaped, its official name is actually a multi-functional triangular key, mainly used for emergency unlocking.
Besides opening elevators, it can also be used for water meters, electrical boxes, fire hydrants, toilet doors on trains and airplanes, and most public facilities that can be seen in real life.
Ma Jieke had been trapped before, so he roughly knew how to proceed. After finding the triangular hole on the door frame, he carefully inserted the key into the hole from bottom to top.
"Max, move away from the elevator doors now. I need to confirm your location first."
"OK." Upon hearing the instruction, Max took two steps back and held Valentina tightly with his arms.
When rotated counterclockwise, you can hear the sound of the latch being turned, accompanied by a crisp "click," indicating that the lock has been opened.
Keeping the key in place, I took two deep breaths, gripped the double doors with my fingers, and slowly pushed them open a crack of about 10 centimeters.
This is also a crucial step, because the floor door is the outermost door of the elevator, with one fixed door on each floor, and it does not move with the elevator.
"Step back, Bruce!" MaJack shouted instinctively the moment the door opened, because beneath his feet lay a bottomless well; if he lost his footing and fell in, he would have to treat the entire village to a feast.
The elevator was stuck between the 19th and 20th floors, which is the most common outcome. The situation where the elevator car is level with the floor is a rare occurrence.
After a brief moment of thought, Ma Jieke decided to carry out the rescue on the spot. He ran to a nearby furniture store, used brute force to push out a long sofa, and placed it horizontally outside the elevator, with both ends wedged against the wall. This way, when jumping down from above, there was no risk of falling or getting injured.
Once everything is ready, continue pushing the door open by hand until it is fully open, then pull out the key and insert it into the gap of the car door to pry it open.
Seeing the elevator doors slowly open, Max finally breathed a sigh of relief and eagerly poked his head out.
"Oh Jack, it's you again. I almost thought I was going to die in this metal box. To be honest, I even wrote my will and designated you and Jimmy as Pudding's guardians."
"Don't say such unlucky things." Ma Jie stood on the sofa, looking at the unconscious Valentina. "Let's find a way to wake her up first."
"How do I wake you up? By pissing on your face? You'd better avoid that first."
"Pinch this spot." Ma Jieke pointed to the area between his upper lip and nose, which is called the philtrum in Chinese, but who knows what it's called in English.
Max did as instructed, and it actually worked. Valentina coughed violently twice and finally opened her eyes.
"Hey sweetheart, how are you feeling?" someone asked with great concern.
"Jack, I knew you would come to save me." Compared to her previous incoherent speech, she became much calmer after seeing Jack Ma in person.
"OK, now walk over slowly, start with your legs, yes, that's it."
Once she had half her body out, Ma Jie grabbed her and successfully rescued her from the elevator.
Max jumped onto the sofa herself, seemingly unfazed by being trapped for so long.
Looking out the window at the thick smoke that blotted out the sun, she asked with a puzzled expression, "What's going on now? Has the purple sweet potato spirit invaded Earth again?"
"I don't know, let's go out first." Ma Jieke had no intention of joking with her; every second he stayed in this kind of place would increase the danger.
Just as the three were following the fleeing crowd and moving quickly toward the stairwell, a large number of trapped people went in the opposite direction and rushed out of the stairwell in a swarm.
Da da da! Da da da!
Without any warning, a series of shots rang out, and at least a dozen people at the rear of the column were hit and fell like wheat being harvested.
Behind them was a group of heavily armed masked bandits, each armed with a fully automatic weapon, and equipped with bulletproof vests, helmets, tactical belts, and other gear.
Faced with the survivors surging in like zombies, MaJack and his group had no choice but to move along with the crowd.
After herding everyone into a corner of the mall, the leader raised his MP5 submachine gun and opened fire on the ceiling. A giant crystal chandelier was blown apart, and shards of glass shattered and scattered, mingling with the ear-piercing gunshot. The terrified men covered their heads with their hands and huddled together tightly.
After finishing the round of firing, he blew on the scorching muzzle, his fierce gaze sweeping over the crowd, his voice laced with obvious mockery: "I just said, whoever is at the back goes to meet God first. Look at these dead dogs on the ground, what right do they have to live? Survival of the fittest, winner takes all, that's the rule of the game."
As soon as he finished speaking, Ma Jieke felt a flash of red light before his eyes, and a scarlet skull marker appeared on the map, with the usual annotation next to it: "Indiscriminate killing of innocent people."
It seems the last target has finally appeared, but with the dragon charging right at our doorstep, how am I supposed to turn the tide?
A rough count revealed that the other side had at least 15 people, not including those who hadn't shown up yet.
My gaze fell on the marked man, who was about 175 cm tall, wearing a standard black combat uniform, and had a very obvious lightning bolt-shaped scar over his right eye.
Seemingly sensing that someone in the crowd was looking at him, the guy instinctively glanced over. Fortunately, Ma Jie reacted quickly and lowered his head to avoid eye contact.
Glancing at the corpses lying haphazardly on the ground, Valentina turned pale with fright, gripping Ma Jack's arm tightly, her body trembling uncontrollably.
Max wasn't in much better shape; he bit his slightly pale lips and kept trying to reassure himself.
Observing this detail, Ma Jie put his arm around her shoulder, gently stroking it while whispering in her ear, "Don't be a coward, Max. Someone will come to rescue us, and we can also find a way to save ourselves. Just think of it as an anti-terrorism drill. Those who were killed were just props."
"Who...who's a coward?" Hearing him comfort himself like that, Max shoved his hand away and said with unwavering determination, "I grew up in South Los Santos. I saw my neighbor get shot when I was five and witnessed a gang shootout when I was seven. These kinds of scenes are no different from movies to me. You should focus on your girlfriend. I don't need you to take care of me."
"Quiet, quiet, all of you shut the fuck up! Anyone who says another word will lose their head!"
Hearing the whispers in the crowd, a ruthless bandit approached with a gun, issuing a terrifying warning.
The leader smirked and said brazenly, "Let me introduce myself. My name is Simon Kukas. I used to be a soldier, serving in the Green Berets' Middle East theater. I made great contributions to this country. Three years ago, I was ordered to escort a convoy full of military supplies through Syria. We were ambushed by local extremists. Outnumbered, we had no chance of winning. That mission failed, and it caused me to fall from the peak of my life to the bottom. The military investigation concluded that the responsibility was due to my tactical misjudgment, and I was kicked out of the army as a result."
"You might ask, since I messed things up, what is there to complain about? The military is a place where only the fittest survive."
"At first, I thought so too, but about six months ago, I received an anonymous encrypted package containing a recording of a dying message and a series of altered military orders and financial documents."
"Want to know the truth? I'll tell you now. The convoy wasn't carrying military supplies, but a huge amount of unregistered gold that a general was colluding with a local warlord to smuggle. The failure of the operation was part of the plan."
"My comrades and I were manipulated like pawns, kept in the dark until the game ended. We either died without knowing why, or lived on with a bad reputation, while the real culprit had already risen to a high position and was about to line his own pocket again from a defense contract worth hundreds of millions of dollars!"
"This is fucking mold. A bag of metal liners costs $90,000, nine Italian goats cost $6 million, 130..."
Tens of thousands of active-duty soldiers are unable to receive their salaries on time, and their families are queuing up with homeless people to receive relief food!
By the end, Simon Kukas was practically screaming; his voice sounded like a sob, and he would definitely be a master speaker on stage.
The American people are already numb to the issue of corruption within the military; military spending has not been audited for seven consecutive years, and more than 60% of projects have accounting problems.
This is just the data that has been publicly reported; it's only what they want you to see.
As for deeper matters, don't guess randomly. If you guess right, even God would be silenced.
However, Ma Jieke despised this kind of person. He believed that every wrong had its perpetrator and every debt its debtor. If you had a grudge against your superior, why would you take out ordinary citizens to attack them?
If you're so capable, why don't you bomb the Capitol? Why don't you storm the Pentagon? If all else fails, why don't you emulate the guy who gave Kennedy that wild idea and become the best Graves in the US server?
Therefore, no matter how much injustice the other party suffered or what kind of deep-seated hatred they carried, Ma Jieke would never feel the slightest sympathy.
At this moment, the mall was completely surrounded, with hundreds of police cars blocking off all the surrounding streets, and at least ten helicopters flying around the building.
A female reporter opened the airplane door, allowing the photographer to aim at the building and report rapidly: "Good afternoon, viewers. I am currently located at the Warren Department Store on First Avenue in the city center. As you can see, a serious explosion has occurred here. Police and medical personnel are searching for survivors. As for what happened inside the building, we know nothing..."
Boom! Another explosion rang out, this time at the back of the building. The sound was much smaller than the last one, but it still collapsed the only staff access passage, burying two rescue workers alive on the spot.
"Oh my god, there's been another explosion at the scene, and the police are signaling us to evacuate immediately."
Inside the mall, a ruthless robber put away the bomb remote control and, by some unknown means, switched his walkie-talkie to the police channel.
"Boss, the entrances are all sealed off. We can start negotiating with them."
Simon Kukas took the walkie-talkie and said slowly, "Listen up, you cops, get your commander to speak to me. I'm taking responsibility for this bombing."
After a brief silence, a familiar voice came through the receiver: "Simon Kukas, is that right? I'm Steve, the FIB commissioner. I'm in charge here until the Department of Defense sends someone to take over."
"Hello, Commissioner Steve, I'm glad you called me by name. I thought someone as insignificant as me wouldn't be taken seriously at all."
"A nobody?" Steve's voice was laced with a sneer. "The crimes you committed in Chicago were no small matter. You murdered two SWAT officers guarding a warehouse, stole a large amount of military equipment, and took it to Los Angeles to use against unarmed civilians. For that crime alone, I can put you on the list of the top ten most wanted criminals."
"Haha, I'm truly flattered," Simon Kukas laughed heartily. "Now let's talk about terms. I have hundreds of lives in my hands. How much ransom do you think would be appropriate for all these hostages combined?"
Upon hearing that he had taken over a hundred hostages, Steve's hand holding the walkie-talkie visibly trembled. Such a big case should logically be handled by someone of a higher rank, but the FBI had sent him instead, and the military had been slow to take over, seemingly intentionally avoiding the case.
Seeing no response from the other side, Simon continued, "What's wrong, Mr. Steve? If you're bad at math, I can wait patiently, but my patience is limited. From now on, for every minute you delay, I will kill one hostage. Do you think that's fair?"
"Wait." Faced with this blatant threat of death, Steve had no choice but to respond directly: "Ten million. I'll give you ten million. You guarantee the safety of the hostages."
"Ten million?" Upon hearing this number, Simon laughed in anger: "Mr. Steve, have you lost your mind? Since you don't know how to set a price, then I'll teach you. Listen to me carefully: within one hour, prepare three hundred million US dollars and two Apache attack helicopters. Put all the money in the planes, land them on the roof of the shopping mall, and then have the pilots parachute away. I guarantee that there will be no casualties throughout the entire process."
Faced with this outrageous offer, not only was Steve dumbfounded, but the hostages at the scene were also stunned.
$3 million, weighing about 7000 pounds, or approximately 3.15 tons.
The export price of an Apache attack helicopter is at least 1.2 million.
All of this adds up to an astronomical ransom of over 5 million, a figure never seen before in the entire history of human crime.