Chapter 1 The Assassin's Covenant
In April, the scars imprinted on the earth of "Iron Curtain Flame" have not healed, and its impact continues to ferment.
The big names in the federal government are busy with condolences and speeches to achieve corresponding political achievements; the opinions and leaders on the Internet are playing roles set by their respective characters, either mourning, sighing, questioning, or calm down...
The common people, under the influence of big names and opinion leaders, stood in different teams; they shouted some slogans that they might not be related to themselves, said some beautiful words that they might not understand, and sometimes they would argue with a group of people they didn't know about using keyboards to argue with some things they might not care about...
They all like to show the world a cheap sympathy in a way that they feel comfortable with.
Although... the world, including themselves, does not care much about the true thoughts in other people's hearts.
As for those who have experienced disasters, their voices are rarely heard; compared to the reality mentioned by these people, the chicken soup articles that can be made up by randomly posting a few pictures and then exaggerating the words on the Internet will undoubtedly attract more attention.
People who were truly hurt by the "Iron Curtain Flame" became a group of supporting roles; they could only say a few words "what people want to hear" in front of the camera when they were playing foils for those public figures who were performing shows, because in this way... everyone will be more comfortable.
…………
Late April, London.
In the early morning, the mist ripples.
In this humid air, there are still many people running, exercising, feeding pigeons, and walking their dogs.
Jack Anderson took steady steps and was like an ordinary passerby. He slowly came to a bench on the side of the road and sat down. He shook open a Times and watched silently.
Two minutes later, an old man came to him and asked him very politely, "Can I sit here?"
The old man's hair and beard are all white, wearing sunglasses, holding a blind guide stick in his hand, and holding a guide dog. He looks kind and harmless.
However, Jack's response to him was "No." He said these three words in a cold tone, and then added, "I hope to talk to a more professional person, not a second-rate guy like you, of course... If you are already the most professional person in your organization, then I can only give in."
The old man's expression changed slightly when he heard this. After a few seconds, he squeezed out a smile, "Ha... the god of killing is indeed quite arrogant, but just because you saw through my disguise, you say that I am a second-rate guy. This is too arbitrary."
Two seconds later, Jack exuded a twitch from his nose and continued in a slightly helpless tone, "First of all, as a blind man or an old man, your stride and body shape are wrong when you walk.
"Secondly, these days, people who have neither installed electronic prosthetic eyes nor performed optic nerve repair surgery after blindness are nothing more than two reasons: one is very... very poor; the other is that the optic nerve has been completely destroyed and has been necrotic for many years and cannot be repaired.
"And you, wearing expensive clothes, holding the latest model of electronic blind guide stick, with a complete eyeball in your eye socket, and a purebred dog that is enough to compete in Westminster competition...
"This is no longer a question of whether you are pretending enough, but you are exposing your intelligence, so..."
He didn't say all of his words, but shook the newspaper again and raised his legs, which meant "Brother, you'd better go, don't humiliate yourself."
"Hmph..." Unexpectedly, the other party still had no intention of leaving. Not only did he not leave, he also took off his sunglasses, contact lenses and wigs on his face, and looked at Jack directly and sneered, "Okay, I am indeed not good at pretending to be a blind person, so it's nothing to show off... But if you think you are smarter than me, I may not think it's possible."
"Oh? Where did your confidence come from?" Jack still didn't look at him, but just continued calmly, "Just rely on the dozens of third-rate guys around who are not even as good as you?"
His words made the fake blind man's sneer solidify on his face.
"Stop talking nonsense!" Finally, the other party became angry, "Even if you pretend to be calm, you can't hide the fact that you didn't see through us at the beginning!"
While he shouted this sentence loudly, everyone in the area with the eyesight that Jack was sitting on...whether they were morning jogging, ice cream sellers, pigeon feeders, walking, pushing strollers... they all stopped what they were doing and turned to look at Jack.
Obviously, none of these "passers" were real passers-by; they were all disguised by members of the same organization, and after getting the signal, they took out pre-hidden firearms from the trash cans, ice cream trucks, street light poles, strollers, etc.) from nearby places, and quickly surrounded Jack.
"If I had seen through the whole park with you at the beginning, I wouldn't have walked into this encirclement... That's how you understand, right?" Jack seemed to have nothing happened, and still talked to the other party in a calm tone.
"Isn't it?" the fake blind man asked confidently.
"Then have you ever thought of such a possibility..." In this second, Jack finally put down the newspaper in his hand, looked up at the other party and said, "I did know from the beginning that the entire park had been controlled by you. I also knew that at this moment, the top floors of several residential buildings near the park were aiming at me..."
When he told the sniper, the fake blind man was shocked again, but in order to prevent this from being a fraud, the expression on the latter's face was still firmly tightened.
"…but…” Jack's words continued, "I didn't treat you as a threat at all, so I was still alone and walked in without a weapon."
"Ha..." The fake blind man laughed again, "Are you lying to me or myself?"
"When your emotions fluctuate, you will smirk. I think it's best to change this habit, otherwise you may not live long." Jack did not respond to the other party's question, but continued, "In addition, I have never deceived you from beginning to end...
"According to previous communication, we agreed that today, I, the ‘representative of the Counter-Cross’, and you ‘representative of the Killer Alliance’, both sides ‘without weapons’, went to ‘public places’, ‘meet alone’…I abide by every one of this agreement, and you…have violated almost every one of them.
"It's obvious who is the liar.
"However, you have not yet broken through the limit of my tolerance, so I'll ask you two questions now. You'd better think about the answer clearly. If you can't answer, go find someone who can answer me.
"First, do you have the sincerity to talk to us about cooperation?
Chapter completed!