Swift and Black Dog

Chapter 8

The wind howled, the lightning flashed and the thunder rumbled. When the defense guards heard the movement, they immediately shouted and formed a team and shot at the crowded dark clouds.

The sparks on their muzzles were as weak as cheap fireworks, and they couldn't compete with the dazzling white lightning, which rushed towards Pete's fortress like a sharp sword, piercing the outer iron gate.

The storm was getting more and more fierce. Jack stood on the roof and watched, and saw some guards running out of the fort.The shadows and wind distorted the shape of the dark clouds, and the guards on the ground thought they saw Jack standing under the lightning.They emptied their bullets indiscriminately and kept yelling on the walkie-talkie, pleading for ammunition reinforcements.

Jack exhaled the last puff of smoke, his fingers evoked a gray-blue airflow, and extinguished the cigarette in his hand.

He jumped cautiously along the stone tiles on the eaves and landed on the gorgeous balcony.Two gargoyles stood guard at the entrance, glaring at him fiercely, looking scary, but the latch on the door was released after a few clicks.Jack entered the room and came to a spacious and dark bedroom. There were some paintings hanging on the wall of the bedroom, and the nudes of people in the paintings could be vaguely seen. Jack walked past the big bed in the bedroom and found that there was no one on the bed, silk On the bed sheet was the impression that someone had been lying there.Beside the bed is a full-length mirror, which reflects Jack's walking figure, and it lights up suddenly. Dozens of gold-rimmed vanity mirrors hang on the other side, reflecting Jack's fierce face in the night.

Jack took a few steps to the corridor.There are crystal lamps hanging on the ceiling of the corridor, illuminating the room brightly, and there are many silver mirrors on the walls, reflecting the dazzling light.

There was a guard ten meters away, but he didn't see Jack, he just listened intently to the loud orders coming from the room he was guarding.Suddenly, a voice overwhelmed the roar of the storm, and Jack immediately recognized the speaker.It's Pete, who's been chattering and directing his men over the walkie-talkie.The guard sighed, turned his heels, and turned to Jack's direction.

Jack saw it right away, and he could kill this man with just a wave of his hand.

But he didn't.

The guard was so young and looked scared.

Jack was stupid, he thought of Finch, and didn't do it right away.

The pale guard stared and fired.When the bullet entered his body, Jack felt that he had been hit hard by a sledgehammer.

Such is the price of poor enemies.

He hadn't started to feel pain yet, but the hot and humid fluid was already welling up from his ribs.The guard gripped his gun again, ready to go, but Jack didn't give him a second chance this time.

A wave of rapid electricity exploded in Jack's hand, and the guard was thrown out. His body passed through the door and landed on the hand-woven carpet, turning into a pool of hot, rotten flesh.All the lights in the lobby were extinguished, and traces of lightning crackled in the air.

"My God, Jack! You have to be so exaggerated every time you appear." Pete's leisurely voice came from behind the broken door, not panicking at all, and even amused by him.

The red warning light came on, blinding like a strobe light on a stage.Jack jumped lightly, passed his burnt door, and entered the room avoiding the charred body of the guard on the ground.The splashing electric light lit up the whole study room. Tall wooden bookcases, antique sculptures and heavy desks appeared and disappeared between the light and shadows. There were dozens of mirrors in the room, reflecting the flickering flames. .Several Pete's faces looked at him at the same time, with a mysterious smile on the angular face.

There was a two-way radio on Pete's desk, the machine's mahogany-colored case glowing with tiny green lights.Barely audible human voices sounded amidst the white noise. Pete sat upright on the leather office chair, holding the intercom in his left hand, and pointing a silver pistol at Jack with his right hand.

Pete stood up, and the shadow behind him bounced after him, creepy like a bouncing spider.

"It's okay here." Pete said to the man on the intercom, "Let's go."

The orange warning light dimmed for a moment, then came back on, and that's when Pete fired the first shot.The wooden cabinet next to Jack was hit, and a large piece was broken. He quickly hid behind the marble base, and above the base was an alabaster figure of Peter's custom-made height.

"What are you hiding, Jack!" Pete yelled at him. "I'm standing right here. Aren't you here to make a fuss?"

He fired again, and the bullets burst out over the thunder and gunfire outside the window.

Rubble from the bullet grazed Jack's ear.The more he inhaled, the more painful the wound on his left chest was. The blood had already soaked through his belt, and it felt as hot as urine, only thicker.

"Did you hide like a turtle when you killed the tyrant?" Pete asked forcefully, "I thought you were so powerful."

"Aren't you Pete? You're willing to stand there and let me burn you to ashes?" Jack asked.Another flash of light shone on the mirrors, and he peeked into them.Pete, who was slowly approaching, could not scare him, he was more worried about other things. "I thought you'd kill me right away!"

He really thought that the other party would attack directly.As soon as Jack stood up in the flames, he could immediately use the mirror to capture Jack's body and his psychic energy.

Even if Jack didn't become suspicious when he saw the ivory gun getting stronger, now that he saw so many mirrors, he finally understood.With the facts before his eyes, no matter how sad he was, he could only admit it.Rachel could help him and tell him the truth, but she was probably worried that Jack would not be willing to complete this task after listening to her, so she wanted him to see the evidence for himself, which was in the tin box in his coat pocket.

"It's a beautiful place where you live," said Jack, drawing a stinking ivory gun from his pocket, which now had nothing to hide, "and I'd be very sad if the floor tiles got scratched. "

Pete sneered.

"Don't tease me Jack." Another bullet hit the stone pillar. "I'm going to kill you."

"I want to ask." Jack continued to procrastinate, wanting to observe the room carefully when the light in the room was turned on again, "What did I do wrong that you hate me so much?"

As soon as he finished speaking, the police lights turned on again, and then stopped flashing randomly.Jack took a peek from behind the base and remembered the position of the mirror. What he was looking for was the human bone mask. The two masks were placed on the cabinet behind Pete's desk, like two exhibits.One of the masks was Bidol's sly face.Jack's face was reflected in the surrounding mirrors, the fragmented figure trying desperately to make a whole face, and the reflected light distorted the other mask.

"Actually, you didn't do anything wrong," Pete said leisurely.

"You did me a big favor by killing Rachel. I wish I was there to see her sizzling and sizzling. I like to imagine you sizzling her. Now, did she die like this at the time?"

"What do you mean?" Jack growled. "Rachel is our companion and a mage."

He heard Pete take another step forward, and all the muscles in his body tensed.Pete fired several shots in his direction, breaking a vase on a bookcase to Jack's right.Jack jumped out of hiding, the muzzle of the ivory musket whizzed across the stone wall as he moved, and then he traced an invisible line under the three mirrors.Then, another bullet passed by, this time it came very hard, the hot bullet scraped the flesh on his left arm, leaving a bloody and bloody shallow groove.

Jack fell behind a pile of bronze figurines.He was drenched in sweat, and the adrenaline from the pain made his hands tremble.

"You brought the ivory musket."

"Yes," Jack gritted his teeth and said in a calm and steady voice, "Rachel asked me to take it."

"It's really lingering!" As soon as the voice finished, the sound of the storm outside the door and the sound of machine guns seemed to stop at this moment, "So, you know everything?"

"Yes, Bidor. I know all about it," Jack replied.He didn't want to think about it before, but now, he can't lie to himself anymore. "But I don't understand, why would you do that?"

Bidor sneered dryly, and Jack sneaked a glance at him from under the brawny thighs of the naked bronze statue.

"Because someone betrayed us, Jack. At the end of the revolution, we were gods, and all men feared us and knelt at our feet. We could do whatever we wanted... whatever we wanted. The world was ours!" At this point, Pete's young face glowed with excitement, and then his expression slowly changed to the sinister and contemptuous expression that Jack had often seen on Bidor's face before.He looked down at the gun in his right hand, lost in thought.

"But Pete and Rachel lied to me and wanted me to support some stupid democracy. Am I the type to fill out a bunch of papers and give speeches everywhere? We should slaughter our enemies and make our own laws. But they are not happy, they have had enough fights, and want to calm down and argue with those bureaucrats.”

Bidor stared straight at Jack, showing a sneer, and fixed his eyes on him.Bidor fired another shot, and Jack quickly leaned over to the ground, the bullet embedded in the smooth body of the bronze statue, shaking the whole statue.

"Only you are a sensible person," Bidor continued to say in a nostalgic tone. "I should have hung out with you, Jack. I should have gone back to the lower terraces with you, back to Bone Spurs to live the good old days. But Pete kept coaxing me, saying nice things to me, saying We will have more power in the future and can build a new government." Bidor showed a disgusted expression. "In the end, he just licked his face with others and canvassed votes everywhere."

"If you hate him so much, you can just leave him." Jack muttered, not listening to what Bidor said seriously. Bidor has done so many things, it is impossible to talk to him for a day and he will change his ways.

"I took a better path," replied Bidor, "I killed him with my own hands and became a more competent minister than he was."

"You really hated yourself for not being born blond." Jack stretched his arms back, grinning in pain, and reaching his shoulders, causing the wound to bleed.

Gritting his teeth, he drew lines under Bidol's other two mirrors.

"Yes." Bidor's voice was getting closer and closer, with a little nostalgia.

"I was really touched by your performance at the funeral. You don't even know how beautiful you look when your heart is broken."

Hearing these words, Jack's stomach tightened as if he had been kicked.He did cry at the funeral, he was so sad that he was dying, but now Bidol not only survived, but also praised him artificially, as if Jack had won the jackpot and got a group jerk worth six dollars.

A hot anger surged in Jack's heart, but he still held back, he couldn't let Bidor succeed and expose his psychic power.

"Doesn't this go back to the question of why did you kill me?" Jack said sharply. "I'm the only one who is willing to cry for you when you die."

"Look at what you said, Jack." Bidor's voice didn't fluctuate much, but he could be heard getting closer and closer to Jack's left side.

"Well, you're right," Bidor went on. "I've always been unpopular. You're different, you don't have to do anything to be liked, they print posters of you and drool over every muscular star who plays you."

"What nonsense are you talking about?" Jack said as he moved to the huge wooden table, "You are already the Minister of Defense, you need to be more famous to be satisfied?"

"The minister is a fart!" Bidor yelled. "The minister not only has to deal with official duties, but also fights for that little sesame-sized power. Rachel is even more extreme, and she doesn't even want to leave me the chance to have fun."

Bidor fired again, and Jack jumped behind the desk. He took a closer look, only to realize that Bidor hadn't shot at him, but had pierced through the Ministry of Defense shield adorning the wall.

Seven rounds were fired.So, there should be five bullets in Bidor's magazine, and one round left in the breech.Bidol's guns usually held thirteen rounds.

“She always talks about civic responsibility and hopes that I will continue to actively promote reform.” Bidol said while shaking his head.

"She is too sad. She was so tough before, and she was called a shadow killer! After ten years, she turned into a soft-hearted old woman. She always said that she wanted to limit the use of force by my subordinates. Hurting the people, I feel sick when I hear it. A few of my subordinates are just killing a few bastards for fun, and the Shadow Killer complained."

Jack stared at Bidor, feeling something was wrong all of a sudden.He had thought that Bidor would use self-defense or even his grand ambitions as an excuse to kill, but he never thought that he killed Rachel because she abandoned the bloodthirsty heart of a rebellious teenager.

"So you stabbed her?" Jack asked.

"It's not forced by her. She wants to report me and sue me. Those who are unfaithful deserve to be stabbed to death." Bidor shrugged. "But I lost the chance to suck her dry. After all, I forgot how good you are at setting fire and killing people, Jack."

Jack wanted to refute, but felt that there was no point in saying it.Even if he said he didn't want to hurt Rachel at all at the time, Bidor wouldn't care.

"I really want to smell the scent of her being burnt." Bidor showed a regretful expression, "Just watching the video, I can't feel how hot the flame in your hand is. However, the scene where you burned the gossip woman to death It's really exciting, although the video is less than 1 minute, but it's better than those films made by the Ministry of Culture that make us stupid and hypocritical, right?"

Jack hid in the shadow of the big table, looked at Bidor's exaggerated smile when he praised him, and suddenly realized that he was wrong, Bidor did not betray their ideals when they were young, he was still him, standing in front of Jack Yes, it was the murderous Bidor when they first met.

"You killed Pete and Rachel just because they stopped being childish?" Jack asked.With difficulty, he dragged the muzzle of the ivory gun across the entire bookcase, but he needed to hold the gun with both hands to stabilize the muzzle. At this time, the stench of blood was already mixed with the rotten smell of the gun.

"You weren't there," replied Bidor, "you didn't see them turn their backs on our beliefs and achievements."

"People change, it's common sense." Jack swallowed hard the curse he wanted to blurt out, "People always grow up."

"I won't." Bidor explained seriously. "Jack, you're not qualified to teach me a lesson. Let me tell you, how long are you going to play this heartbroken and lonely drama?"

"Actually, I put it down a long time ago." Jack glanced at the last row of mirrors.

There was no place to hide over there except for two leather chairs and a wine table.

"That's good. If you haven't let go of me now, I don't even know what to say about you." After Bidor finished speaking, Jack laughed wearily.

The moments when they teased and teased each other years ago flashed through his mind.

"I didn't want to kill you before." Bidor's tone remained a trace of annoyance, "At that time I planned to send a guard, who was younger than us, named Finch or something, or the kind of upright guy you like A black-haired young man. He is the best candidate, and he doesn't know that he is also a mage. But Rachel actually transferred him away, she always spoils my good things."

When the other party mentioned Finch, the old feelings in his heart were extinguished, and the suppressed anger instantly boiled up.Moreover, when Jack thought that Rachel had protected the young man at that time, Bidol's behavior of betraying her made him even more angry.

He walked forward, and Bidor continued, "Before, you would go through fire and water for me."

Ha, I used to think having an oral job in a public restroom was fucking romantic.

"But you haven't done a few big things in your life..."

Enduring the piercing pain, Jack jumped out from behind the table, swung his gun, and drew lines on the bottom of the last four mirrors with the muzzle of the gun, completing the entire circle.He summoned a few strands of lightning and let out smoke that wrapped around his fingertips.Blue-gray smoke emerged from the line drawn by Jack, covering Bidor's mirror completely.

"No!"

Bidor chased Jack and fired wildly, smashing the gold ornaments on the wall to pieces.Jack hid behind a bookcase, splinters flying before his eyes.Before he could react, someone kicked him hard on the left shoulder, kicking him to the ground.

"Asshole, it took me months to fix that!" Bidor cursed loudly.

Blood poured out of Jack's left arm, his vision became more and more constricted, and he felt that he was slowly falling into a black tunnel.Jack grasped the ivory gun tightly and focused on the touch in his hand. The stench on the gun woke him up instantly, as if refreshing him. He staggered and forced himself to stand up, raised the ivory gun and aimed at the front .

Bidor immediately pointed his gun at him.

"I understand you, Jack." Bidor's voice was gentle, even a little pitiful, but his hand holding the gun remained motionless. "You won't kill me."

Yes, he was right.Even if he was going to die himself, Jack wouldn't give him a treat, just blowing his head off with a gun was too cheap for him.

Jack shot and smashed Bidor's mask on the cabinet, a golden light flashed, and the mask shattered into thousands of pieces.

Bidol's psychic energy released huge energy for self-defense, a golden light knocked Jack to the ground, and the ivory gun in his hand was also shattered.Then, the torrent of magic moved along the line Jack had drawn before, blasting the wooden board and Bidor's mirror, and Bidor's magic began to automatically attack the energy source that caused the destruction, slowly approaching the original ivory gun maker. strength.

Bidor suddenly realized, with a panicked expression.

"No! Jack! How could you...do this to me!" He lowered the gun and pointed it at Jack's face.

At this time, the golden light hit Bidor's chest and threw him onto the big wooden table. The reddish-brown communicator also fell to the ground. shot.

The light gradually dissipated, and Bidol lay on his back on the table, shaking non-stop.Jack saw liquid running down the edge of the table, brightly lit by police lights.He didn't know if he spilled the ink just now, or if Bidol peed his pants in fright.

Jack tried to stand up, but when his right hand was on the ground, he grinned in pain.He looked down and found that his hands and forearms were covered with bloodstains from the fragments of the ivory gun when it exploded, and a bullet casing rolled out on the ground next to his thigh.

Every time he took a breath, the right side of his body was in unbearable pain, and blood kept oozing from the wound on his left arm.He thought he was going to die of pain, but in fact, he felt exhausted over the pain.He may be dying, or he may be dead, so he feels nothing but tired.

Bidor, who was lying on the table, wailed, and stretched out his trembling hand to touch his head.Pete's skin snapped open and slid off his face.The skin on his arms peeled off one by one, and the blond hair on his head fell to the ground in strands, revealing the little panicked face of the young boy Bidol, who sealed himself behind the mirror for the first time many years ago In middle school, it looked like this.

He was destroyed to the point of raw psionic power.It looked like they had to get him out on a stretcher a few hours later when they came with a warrant for his arrest.But he can't die, he can live to stand trial.After that, Jack didn't bother to care.

He stared at the ceiling, his mind blank.Then he wondered if Finch had gotten up, the scene where he was getting dressed, how he was going to come and arrest Bidor.

He gritted his teeth, endured the pain in his waist, turned over and supported himself with the strength of his knees, and stood up.

He didn't want Finch to see him lying on the ground covered in blood like a butchered dog.He didn't want Finch to know how much he had paid to defeat Bidol, it was so boring.

Jack walked out of the office slowly, along the corridor to the balcony.The storm he had summoned was still raging, with strong winds and heavy rain.The guards were so exhausted that they could only drag their feet on the muddy ground, they lost their fighting spirit, but the wind and rain they fought were not hurt by the bullets and their anger at all.

Clouds came to catch Jack as he rolled off the balcony, and the snowy wind wrapped him around his body and threw him up into the clouds.

At the moment of falling, he felt the first ray of sunlight when the clouds parted on his face.

-TBC-