At three o'clock in the morning, a man with a bushy beard hurried into the brightly lit Shamrock Hotel carrying a suitcase.
After checking in, he took the elevator up to the forty-seventh floor. When he stepped out of the lift, he met a boy who quietly escorted him to the door of room 409. The boy swiped his key card and left.
The bearded man was Alex, and he was at the hotel under Art's instructions.
He walked into the entrance of the hotel suite and instantly heard a faint cry and howl coming from inside the bedroom.
Without any effort, Alex opened the door and went inside where he found a half-dressed man pinning two women to the bed.
When they saw Alex walk in, the women screamed and quickly hid themselves under the covers. The man looked up and said, "Who let you in? Get out of here."
Alex didn't reply. Instead, he pulled the fake beard from his face to reveal his true identity.
"It's really you?" the man gasped in surprise. It was Luther Duncan. He quickly took out a pistol out from under his pillow and roared, "Leave now. You can find your own way out. I won't bother getting up."
Alex stretched out his hand and pulled a chair toward him. He sat down with his legs up on the coffee table and said calmly, "Do you think you can kill me? If it's so easy to kill me, you can relax. Do it in your own time, I'll wait for you."
Luther snarled, "Alex, you're too cocky. Even I don't bother killing you today, one day you'll pay for your arrogance with your life."
As he spoke, he secretly squeezed the sensor in his hand. It was a very sophisticated transmitter that alerted all the other Blood Brothers gang members who were relaxing in their rooms on the forty-seventh floor of the hotel. Within seconds, dozens of gangsters had rushed into the room and had their machine guns aimed at Alex.
"Now do you think you can escape?" Luther laughed as he jumped out of the bed wearing only his underpants. His muscles betrayed his immense strength, but it was also clear to the onlookers that there was something wrong with his left arm.
Alex glanced at the machine guns pointing at him and smiled. He said, "Wow. You must be really scared of me to need so much protection."
"You're still cocky. Only a madman wouldn't be scared with thirty machine guns aimed at him."
Luther felt very much in control of the situation. He didn't mind chatting with Alex a little longer.
The next instant, he felt his head being pushed by something hard, and then felt another hard object being pushed against his back. "Don't move," he heard the two women yelling at him.
He said, "Well this is unexpected. I've never been beaten by two beautiful women before."
"Put your hands up and tell your men to lower their guns," yelled one of the girls as she pointed her gun in his face. The pair were not the entertainment Luther had thought he was hiring for himself. They were in fact hired killers themselves.
Luther raised his hands and indicated that he would cooperate. His expression was very calm as he raised his head and said quietly, "You heard the lady. Put down the guns."
Thirty AK47s clattered to the ground and the gangsters stood watching and waiting to be told what to do next.
"It's a pity that fate has brought you to me. Otherwise, you could have had a few more days in this world." Alex picked up one of the AK47s and started fiddling with it.
"Thank you. But if you kill me, you will be placing yourself in the firing line of one of the most powerful gangs in America. Even if you're the best fighter in the world you'll be dead within a week," Luther said.
"No, I won't. I'll take care of any gang member who comes near me. If your leader comes for me himself, I'll take care of him too," Alex replied as he continued to fidget with the gun.
" Mr. Ambrose, I know all about you. You're a security guard at a university who thinks he's a martial arts master. You're cocky but you really have no idea who you're up against." Luther laughed heartily as he looked at Alex. He really thought that he must be deluded.
"Well, I'm not a security guard anymore. As the lord of the Moon Palace, I declare war on the Blood Brothers. Tell your leader that if he decides to fight with me, it will be the stupidest decision of his life. Then again, he has been mixing with stupid people for such a long time, perhaps he is that foolish," Alex said, and then he threw the AK47 to the ground.
The Blood Brothers members were incensed by what Alex said. No one dared to speak out against their leader, Tyson Slade. The last time that a leader of another gang had disrespected Tyson, the bodies of all of the man's family members had been thrown into the Atlantic.
"Are you willing to take responsibility for what you're saying?" Luther asked. His eyes were glistening with a mix of fear and rage and his voice was strident.
Alex replied confidently, "Of course I am. Now please call your leader and tell him that I am challenging him to a battle. A fight between the lord of the Moon Palace and the leader of the Blood Brothers. Tell him if he doesn't accept my challenge, he's a coward."
"Are you really the lord of the Moon Palace?" Luther asked curiously as he examined Alex carefully.
He had heard from the leader of his sect that the new lord of the Moon Palace was from an unknown martial art sect in New York. He remembered because the leader had spoken of the new lord with such awe.
"Well, this is the jade seal that I carry with me to prove that I am the new lord. It has been handed down from generation to generation for two thousand years. I'll let you look at it more closely." Alex took a piece of green jade out of his pocket. He knew that it was unique and priceless.
Luther's eyes widened when he saw it. He studied it carefully and guessed that it was worth at least a billion dollars. However, he also knew that although it was incredibly valuable, it was also in many ways worthless. No one would ever dare to buy anything that came from the Moon Palace.
Luther became even more curious about Alex. He looked at the security guard through fresh eyes.
He has spent of lot of time studying the many gangs and martial arts sects of the US, so he knew what he was looking at. He admitted, "Well, it is the jade seal of a lord. And it has the red moon, which is the unique symbol of the Moon Palace."
The Blood Brothers had been forced out of Baltimore by attacks from other gangs and in recent years, every gang member regarded the east coast gangs as their biggest enemies. They had gathered a lot of information about the various cults operating on the east coast and knew about the Moon Palace.
Suddenly, the girl who was standing behind him pointed her gun at Luther's head and shouted, "Talk to him!"
She had a phone in her hand. It was clear to Luther that he would not be allowed to leave or fight or do anything until he helped Alex make arrangements to face the Blood Brothers.