Matt gave a bitter smile, "This family is done for, we've decided to join Jeff together."
With that, he placed his head into the steel cable loop and prepared to jump.
In that split second, the revolver in Jack's hand went off.
Three consecutive shots rang out, and the taut steel cable was severed. Jack lunged forward and caught the falling Matt.
He wasn't trying to play a game of thrills. Although the distance was close and the steel cable was about the thickness of a pinky finger, it was swaying left and right, making it quite challenging to sever it with a single shot.
Fortunately, luck was on his side. Before Matt's weight could tighten the cable enough to break his neck, Jack's first bullet hit its mark.
"Watch him. I know where Tony Craig is. Matt dumped him into the cement pool." Jack pressed lightly on Matt's carotid artery, rendering him unconscious, and handed him over to Angela.
There were many construction vehicles in the factory, but only one concrete mixer truck nearby was running and making a constant noise.
Jack ran over to the concrete mixer truck in a few strides, jumped into the pool filled with concrete, and soon found a human body inside.
Pulling an adult out of viscous concrete is more difficult than rescuing someone from a pool, but Jack's strength, now at a level of 22, surpassed that of most people.
Jack dragged Tony Craig to the edge of the pool and slapped him on the back, causing a mix of saliva and wet concrete to spew out.
It wasn't out of compassion but because this guy couldn't die now. If he did, Matt would face life imprisonment at least. His poor wife was still lying in the central hospital.
"Well done, kid. I didn't expect the idea of shooting to save someone."
Angela, handcuffing the revived Matt, was about to high-five Jack in celebration but stepped back in disgust. This guy was covered in wet cement, and her $160 would be down the drain again.
Jack handed Tony Craig over to the colleagues who came to reinforce, turned off the cement-covered law enforcement recorder, and whispered a few words in Matt's ear.
The middle-aged man, looking ashen, was stunned for a moment, then gazed at Jack with gratitude before being willingly led to the police car.
Angela, curious, whispered, "What did you say to him? He doesn't seem to want to die anymore."
Jack shrugged, "I just asked him, in this country, there's nothing money can't solve, so why insist on personal revenge?"
"Hey, you're a cop!"
"That's why I told him secretly. Besides, cops are people too." Jack said with a matter-of-fact expression.
---
"Bang!"
A heavy punch landed on Jack's raised arms, which were in a defensive stance, knocking him off balance.
This was in Hannah's training room. Christian Wolff had been living in Jack's original loft for half a month. Every day after work, Jack would come over to give him so-called "acupuncture" followed by desensitization therapy.
In the movie, this accountant would also desensitize himself by regularly taking anti-anxiety sertraline, then stimulating himself with loud music and flashing lights in a dark room, while pain from a stick pressing against his shin would divert his attention.
This was the reason why Christian, who also had Asperger's syndrome, could barely live and work like a normal person, while Justin could only hide in a research institute, communicating with people through synthetic speech.
As Jack had anticipated, even master-level healing techniques couldn't completely cure Asperger's syndrome. He could repair the abnormal neural development in Christian's brain, but the psychological issues caused by a lifelong physiological condition were beyond his healing capabilities.
Just as modern medicine can help people quit physiological drug addiction but not psychological dependence, the same applies to compulsive gamblers and drug addicts; they are beyond cure.
Luckily, Jack's psychology skills came into play. He tailored a new desensitization therapy for Christian.
In Hannah's training room, Jack would wear earplugs and engage in hand-to-hand combat with Christian amidst flashing lights and blaring music.
Initially, Christian was utterly defenseless. In less than three minutes, he would collapse in pain, unable to perform any defensive actions despite Jack's punches and kicks.
He was then dragged out of the training room like a dead dog. After a brief recovery, he was required to sit cross-legged and learn meditation.
Jack would light an incense stick and play some ambient sounds, such as the babbling of a brook, the rustling of leaves, and bird songs in a forest, to help him get into a meditative state.
Two weeks later, the accountant could now ignore the auditory and visual stimuli and engage in a back-and-forth fight with Jack.
"Bang!" Blocking another heavy roundhouse kick, Jack swiftly floored his opponent and made a feint at his eyes, signaling the end of the fight.
Today's bout lasted nearly 40 minutes, exhausting both of them. Besides, he had no interest in ground fighting with another man.
Turning off the lights and music, Jack helped the panting accountant to his feet.
"Christian, I think your issue is mostly resolved. With regular exercise, you should be able to maintain this state."
"Then can I have as many girlfriends as you do?"
Jack looked at him in surprise, "You've learned to make jokes already?"
"Just call me Chris. Was that joke a bit much?"
The accountant wore a goofy smile that didn't match his usual stern face.
Jack covered his face with a palm, looking pained, "If you can stop smiling like that, you might have even more girlfriends than I do."
It seemed the treatment was a bit overdone. The formerly stoic accountant now always wore a goofy grin and was eager to communicate with people, even making a joke today.
"Still, you need to manage your expressions. What's your plan for Justin?"
Jack couldn't stay away from LA for long. He had to save his vacation for Hannah. When she returned from Quantico, they would prepare to head to Margrave, Georgia.
"I'll talk directly to Professor Hubble and then bring Justin to you with my trailer."
Jack's eyelid twitched at the thought of the stuff in Chris's trailer. Besides various contraband weapons, it was filled with gold bars and multimillion-dollar paintings.
___________________
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