John was dumbfounded.
Gao Guang took a bite of the taco, his words muffled, "Hmm, actually, this tastes really good, doesn't it."
"Why did you call the police?"
This question seemed absurd to Gao Guang, who didn't understand and said, "When you're in trouble, you seek out the police, when you encounter danger, you call them."
Gao Guang's reasoning was indisputable, but John still looked stunned as he said, "You, you, I, I, aren't we, hiss... um... something's not right, right?"
"Yeah, what's not right?"
John, puzzled, said, "But how could we with our identities call the police? Also, Mexican police shouldn't be this fast, and they were too decisive in shooting. What exactly did you tell them?"
"I told them we were robbed, that we lost fifty-six thousand US Dollars, all in one bag, in that car. Plus, on our way here we saw several police cars at an intersection, only a few minutes away from here. Didn't you notice?"
"What?"
"I also said there were only two robbers, I thought that would make the police arrive quicker, and make them more decisive when they shoot."
John sighed, then he nodded, "Hmm, it seems so."
"If I were you, I'd throw away this SIM card. Plus, you wouldn't have brought the phone number you always use for something this dangerous, would you? You can't be that stupid, right?"
"Of course not, I'd definitely use a phone card that can't be traced back to me. Wait, did you just say I'm stupid?"
Hiding behind some bushes, watching the drug dealers' cars flee one after another, Gao Guang squatted there eating a taco, while still having to explain things to John.
And John had to kneel on one knee looking at Gao Guang, as if he were kneeling before him. He had no choice; he couldn't squat down.
But now, as John looked at Gao Guang, he no longer seemed indignant. Trying to remove the SIM card from his phone, but lacking a piece of wire to do so, he said in frustration, "I can't get the SIM card out..."
"You know to use a burner card but didn't think to prepare something to remove it with. You're really something else."
"Just toss the phone, why bother removing the card. Now I think the middleman is as good as dead. We should leave now, take a detour, and sneak away from here."
Peeking out, John's movements froze, and then in a hollow voice, he said, "Hey, you better come take a look."
Gao Guang stood up, stepped past a clump of bushes, and looked down the street. Then he saw two policemen dragging a person from the trunk of a white Ford.
Dragging out a corpse wouldn't have mattered, but the person they dragged out stood up on the ground and could walk.
"The middleman was in the trunk? And he survived?"
The white Ford had taken dozens of machine-gun rounds, but the middleman, thrown into the trunk, hadn't died.
Gao Guang couldn't believe it; he felt that everything had gone wrong.
Just then, John's phone rang. After a glance, John answered the call, and then heard Frank's urgent voice on the line, "Damn it! Peter isn't dead!"
John sighed and said, "We saw. What do we do now?"
After speaking, John turned to look at Gao Guang, his face full of confusion, "What do we do now?"
Gao Guang had expected the police to arrive in time, which they did, but he hadn't expected them to open fire immediately, machine-gunning no less. However, that seemed like a good thing. When the police were machine-gunning, he truly thought it was all over.
But he had never anticipated the middleman surviving a machine-gun onslaught.
The situation had come full circle, where the middleman, though not dead, had not fallen into the hands of the Zeta Group either, which at least bought them time and breathing room.
"What do we do now? Hmm, ask the Captain."
Gao Guang kicked the ball back into the player's court because he dared to confront drug dealers but really wouldn't dare to challenge the police, a habit formed by his long history as a Huaxia person.
John then said into the phone, "Captain, what do we do now?"
"I'm close to Peter, I see him. I don't know what to do now either, but it's definitely easier to manage with Peter in police hands than if he had been caught by the Zeta Group. Wait for me to come pick you up."
With the call ended, John let out a sigh, smacked his lips a few times, then looked at Gao Guang and said, "How did things turn out like this, and you're still eating?"
Gao Guang put the last piece of the taco into his mouth, then calmly said, "I'm hungry."
Another irrefutable answer. If you're hungry, you eat; there was nothing more to say.
John exhaled deeply, then said with a look of resignation, "You're right, well said. But you didn't forget to grab something to eat even in that situation. I'm impressed... I should have taken the taco too."
The two of them silently returned behind the bushes to wait.
After around ten minutes, a car stopped near Gao Guang and his team, and after two people got in, the car set off again.
"Why would you call the police?"
The first thing Frank asked was the same as John, so Gao Guang could only repeat what he had already told John.
After listening to Gao Guang's explanation, everyone in the car fell silent. Then, Gao Guang added, "Given the situation, with so many drug dealers there, even if we had killed the middleman, we would still have had to fight the drug dealers. And, even if we'd beaten the drug dealers, we would still have been chased by Tijuana's police. Considering that, why not skip our involvement and let the police do their job?"
The most straightforward truths are often the hardest to dispute, so no one could argue with Gao Guang's reasoning.
"Well done," Frank from the passenger seat extended his thumb and continued, "At least the middleman didn't end up in the hands of Zeta Group. Plus, the middleman can definitely escape from the police station."
John, puzzled, asked, "Why?"
"If Peter can be a middleman in Tijuana, he must certainly have enough connections to do it. He's not only familiar with various drug traffickers and kidnapping groups, but also has to maintain a good relationship with Tijuana's police force."
John made a face, "I thought you'd say we screwed up."
George, with disdain, replied, "If that's what you think, it only shows that you aren't smart enough."
"Both of you shut up and listen to me. The police won't make things difficult for Peter, but Zeta Group will react quickly. They won't let Peter leave the police station alive easily, and neither would we. So it's best if Peter dies inside the police station, otherwise we'll have to take action ourselves, though that might be a bit difficult."
Rubber, anxiously interjected, "I get all that, but why does Zeta Group have to kill Peter?"
"I don't know. The only one who knows now is Peter. Perhaps we should rescue him first and ask what happened."
John took out his phone and said, "Cross the river; I have to ditch this phone."
Rubber turned onto the bridge, and as John threw his phone out the window into the water, it was evident they were all too familiar with such measures and clearly wouldn't be bothered by the loss of a phone.
However, Gao Guang felt a pang of regret because John's phone looked fairly new.
What comes next is to find a safe place and continue waiting.
Over two hours later, George, who had been silently browsing on his phone inside the car, suddenly said, "There's news. Local reports, the police stopped a kidnapping today. A United States tourist was kidnapped at a TACO Restaurant, but the police arrived in time, rescued the hostage, and shot dead three kidnappers on the scene. The hostage was unhurt, and no police officers were injured in the rescue operation. That's it."
Frank let out a long sigh and said, "Now that the news is out, the matter must be settled. Peter must have been released. I believe that Peter will call me soon. If things went even better, Peter would already be in a safe place under police escort."
Frank spoke accurately; as soon as his words ended, his phone rang.
"Hello, Peter, are you safe? No need to thank me, it's what we should do. Just don't forget to pay. You want to meet? Now? Alright."
After hanging up the phone following the brief conversation, Frank, puzzled, said, "Peter asked us to pick him up because he's been secretly moved by the police. But if he's already safe, why does he still want to meet with us?"
Gao Guang was even more clueless but had one thing to say.
"Weeds regrow when the spring breeze blows," he said tentatively in English, then continued, "My suggestion is to meet with Peter, ask him what exactly happened, and find out why Zeta Group is so determined to capture him. If we have the chance, we better clear things up."
"Makes sense; let's do that."
Frank addressed Rubber, "Go to the Tijuana headquarters; Peter's there."
This time there was no hassle, just outside Tijuana headquarters, Peter got into the car smoothly.
The atmosphere was somewhat strange when they met again, and the first thing Peter said after getting in the car was, "I know you must be thinking about killing me right now."
Frank spread his hands and replied, "Not at all."
"Alright, we both know what kind of people we are. You want to eliminate me, I want to drag you down, but you should realize since I dared to get into your car, I'm not afraid of being killed by you. Now, we're in the same boat, Captain!"
After finishing his calm statement, Peter's demeanor changed as he angrily spat out, "I just didn't expect you guys to actually call the police. Nicely done! But you probably didn't expect me to survive."
Frank had nothing to say. With things laid out so plainly, it was best to get to the point.
"Let's speak frankly, what exactly happened for Zeta Group to be so fixated on you?"
Peter sighed and spoke softly, "The new boss of Zeta Group, the one called z46, is named Juan Bent Rodriguez, and Sanchez's full name is Sanchez Bent Rodriguez. Anything come to mind? Sanchez is Juan's younger brother! Why didn't I know Sanchez was with Zeta Group; why was there such a huge mistake in my intelligence? Because that damn Juan hid this fact too well! Even people within Zeta Group didn't know about it!"
Frank was stunned for a moment before he exclaimed, "F*ck!"
Peter spoke quietly, "The only way to resolve this is to kill Juan. As long as he's alive, he will definitely seek revenge!"
Frank, surprised, asked, "What do you intend to do?"
Peter said through gritted teeth, "I want to join you guys in taking out Juan!"