The sound of gunfire fills a special shooting range designed to be soundproof.
A pair of blue eyes focused forward, staring intently at a target in the form of a black and white paper illustration resembling a human with dots and numbers to measure the placement of the target with both hands holding a SIG P226 SCT pistol.
"One more time!" Gregory ordered Noel beside him wearing silencers attached to both ears.
After a few shots were fired, Noel placed the gun on the table not far from him. The perforated paper approached. Gregory immediately picked it up and looked at the results.
There were five small holes that could be pierced by a finger, the holes were in different areas, namely in the head and left chest of the illustration.
Gregory smiled. "Your skills are improving quite a bit," he complimented. "What did Nate teach you during those three days without me in Hong Kong?"
"He trained me with a lot of force."
Gregory chuckled. "I knew it, he would force you."
Noel snorted. "He even threatened to kill Yuri if I didn't do whatever he wanted."
"Yuri, who?" Gregory frowned, forming little frown lines on his forehead.
"My best friend. But now ... our status is different."
"Different? Is he a Detective or a Sheriff?" guessed Gregory playfully.
Since Gregory's first guess was correct, Noel simply nodded with his eyes downcast, hiding the gloomy expression on his face whenever he remembered his best friend.
"You met him?"
Noel nodded again.
"When?" Gregory's expression changed drastically.
"Last Sunday he came to the apartment with his partner, but ... Nate was handling them."
"What did they ask about?"
"About the car that was lifted from the river with the body inside. Not only that, but they also talked about the attack on the apartment you live in in Manhattan and the shooting at the club that Nate suspects was a premeditated murder."
"So they've figured it out ...," Gregory murmured softly, and could still be heard by Noel.
"Ja-so it's true? Nate ... Nate did it all? Noel was wide-eyed. "But when?"
"You think?" Gregory told Noel to find the answer himself.
"Don't tell me it was after I met Walther and fell asleep waiting for you."
"Exactly."
Noel fell silent. All the negative emotions filled his chest.
"The FBI is involved now, and we can't avoid it." Gregory picked up some bullets and loaded them into the gun Noel had been using. "I believe this time the case is not about the dead man in the car or the shooting in the bar. It's also about what happened sixteen years ago. They will definitely investigate it. Investigate it thoroughly. They already know Nate was involved in that mess that year. As you can see, they've charged him with murder. And Nate had expected this." Gregory took Noel's hand and asked Noel to hold it. As he continued, "Nate can't clean up the government dogs, but he can clean up the people responsible for the incident."
*
The bar exudes a sense of elegant luxury. The lighting was dim, the glittering red, golden yellow perfectly matched the interior. Located in Hong Kong, Tsim Sha Tsui, Mody Rd, ＆號, Mody House, Noel followed Gregory in occasionally glancing around with a look of admiration. While Gregory focused on finding a quiet spot amongst the crowds of people. As soon as he found it, Gregory immediately pulled the hem of the black jacket Noel was wearing for him to follow.
"Nate, is that you?"
A feminine voice called out to Nate accompanied by a pat on Noel's shoulder from behind. Turning around, Noel found a woman smiling at him. Knowing his guess to the man was not wrong, the woman hugged him tightly.
"It's really you, I didn't expect to see you here again," the woman said happily.
Noel who was in the woman's arms immediately looked at Gregory meaningfully for an explanation.
She's Nate's ex-girlfriend. Gregory replied in sign language.
Noel was instantly stunned after getting an answer from the brown-haired man. How could he not be shocked, the note Gregory had given him didn't say that Nate had ever had a girlfriend.
So Nate was straight? Didn't Walther know? In hindsight it was impossible since they had been together for so long in the past.
"Nathaniel!" the woman called out in silence.
"Uh huh?" Noel gasped as the woman looked at him in confusion. Snapping Noel out of his reverie about Nate. Noel looked nervous as the woman responded to his surprised expression with a crisp chuckle. "I'm sorry, I was daydreaming because I ..., I didn't expect to see you here either." Lying Noel tried not to be nervous.
Whether it was the effect of the bar's red LED light or Noel's feelings alone, he saw the woman's face blush slightly.
"I now work here, and quit my previous job."
The woman was quite pretty after the dark red bartender with the white shirt and black knee-length skirt she wore, the light make-up that adorned her Asian-American face seemed to make her look naturally beautiful, matching her dark brown hair.
"Are you alone?"
"No, I'm with someone," Noel replied. He pointed at Gregory who had been watching them. The woman also turned to the person Noel was pointing at.
"Long time no see, Rebecca," Gregory greeted her kindly.
"Don't call me formal like that." Rebecca Wang tapped Gregory lightly on the shoulder. "Yes, it's been a long time, six years or so. So how's your sister?"
Gregory deliberately called the woman by her full name to let Noel know. After Noel understood, Gregory replied, "As usual, she's always busy with her work at the hospital."
Rebecca just nodded a few times. "Well, since you two have already visited this bar, then I'll treat you." Rebecca positioned herself between Gregory and Noel and embraced the two men who were her old friends, more precisely old friends as hitmen.
Keep in mind, before becoming a bartender, the woman had worked under Nate as a hitman several times. However, deep behind it all, Rebecca harbors feelings for Nate even though the woman dare not express them.
Young Nate is not a stupid young man, who is insensitive to the girl who harbors feelings of love for him. And at the same time, a teenager also harbors feelings for him, feelings that are more than just brothers, ending in Nate ignoring them and choosing Rebecca. At the beginning of 1989 they started a relationship as lovers when both were in their early twenties and ended that year because Nate chose to end their relationship on the grounds that he did not want to endanger Rebecca's life. After the breakup, Nate told her to stop being a killer and start living a normal life.
"This is the best wine here, you two don't have to pay," Rebecca said as she placed two small glasses filled with medium-strength alcoholic beverages in front of the two men who had seated themselves at a bar table further away from the crowd.
Noel threw him a smile. "Thank you."
Rebecca nodded, a blush on her cheeks. "You have a nice smile too," she complimented, now looking at Noel's face.
The woman's compliment certainly surprised Noel a little, as Rebecca had never seen Nate smile. But come to think of it, Nate rarely smiled. No wonder so many people complimented his smile.
"I just wanted to show it to you once in a while," Noel added, further adding to the blush on Rebecca's cheeks. In fact, she hasn't been able to completely move on from Nate. And it's a wonder the naive Noel doesn't realize that.
"Been waiting long?" Someone appeared between Noel and Gregory, and successfully made Gregory jump out of his chair.
"Forst, you are ..." Gregory growled as he stared at the man. "You're fifteen minutes late."
Igor Forst pulled out the chair to Gregory's right, and sat down. "That's because I accidentally ran into an old acquaintance.
Old acquaintance, huh?
"Becca, give me a regular drink," Igor pleaded with the bartender, who seemed to be enjoying looking at Noel's face.
Although she didn't like her intimate conversation with Noel being interrupted, Rebecca still brought a bottle of wine and a glass cup to drink from.
"So who's the person you accidentally met?" asked Noel, glancing over his shoulder at someone who walked over.
"Mr. Zwick," Igor replied.
Soon the person he had mentioned was standing behind him. Noel wasn't too surprised to end up meeting Walther here as well, as it seemed like the man was always around wherever Noel was.
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