pertwk Chapter 49 The Difference Between the End and the Punisher
Chapter 49 The Difference Between the End and the Punisher
Manhattan Police Department precinct, morning.
Brock stood behind the iron railing of the second-floor observation deck, the newly issued bureau chief badge pinned to his chest.
It was gilded, reflecting a cold, hard light under the fluorescent lamp.
He gripped the horizontal bar of the iron railing with both hands, his belly pressing against the bottom edge of the railing.
"The Amick Group was destroyed, and the Irish gang was dealt a heavy blow."
He raised his voice, but his tone became more reassuring.
"The days ahead will be tough; everyone must wear the necessary equipment when they come to work."
"We must ensure that there are no unexpected incidents during the moment of silence in Central Park three days from now."
"Please bear with us during this period. After the work is completed, all overtime will be paid at double the hourly rate."
"Everyone, head to the warehouse and collect your new equipment!"
The hall became quiet.
Li En led the applause.
clap clap.
All the officers applauded, and someone whistled.
When the former director submitted his resignation yesterday, there were only two people in the office.
The man placed his resignation letter on the table, his fingers still trembling slightly, without looking up at Brock's eyes.
That afternoon, the appointment fax from the New York headquarters arrived.
When Brock took office as acting chief of the Manhattan precinct, no one in the precinct objected.
When the warehouse was last updated with that batch of equipment, everyone knew it was Brock who did it.
This veteran police officer, who had spent most of his life in Hell's Kitchen, re-equipped the police station in less than a week.
Brock smiled and pressed his hands down, indicating that the applause could stop.
"Lee En, Frank, come here for a second."
The director's office is different now than before.
The previous director's liquor cabinet was half emptied, and all the expensive whiskeys bought with public funds were put into the bottom of the cabinet by Block.
He took a bottle of fairly drinkable bourbon from the top shelf of the cabinet, then took out three glasses and placed them on the table, pouring half a finger's width of amber liquid into each glass.
"Brock, I don't drink."
"I know." Brock gave Li En a disgruntled look, then turned around and rummaged through the wine cabinet for a bottle of grape juice, which he had prepared specifically for Li En.
"They don't even give us face on such a joyous occasion."
He poured the grape juice into one of the glasses and pushed it towards Li En.
Lee En raised his glass of grape juice, and Frank raised his glass of whiskey; the two raised their glasses at the same time.
"Congratulations."
Ding.
The three cups gently tapped together.
Brock downed his whiskey in one gulp and poked the New York Gazette lying open on the table with his finger.
The front-page headline photo is of the interior wall of the Kina Bar.
The white skull on the wall was painted crookedly by a spray paint can.
Below, written in red liquid, is the word: Punisher.
"Don't do anything else these days. Hell's Kitchen is a powder keg right now."
He looked at Frank and sighed.
"Could you please not be so high-profile about your work at night?"
Frank stared blankly at the white skull on the newspaper.
"This is a flag, and also a symbol."
"The same principle applies to building mounds of corpses on the border in the past."
"Those scum need to know they're in danger at any moment."
After he finished speaking, his face finally showed a different expression.
He smirked and glanced sideways at Li En.
"And I only took down twenty or thirty, which isn't much at all."
"Why are you looking at me?" Li En said, holding a glass of grape juice and leaning steadily against the window.
"Those people's heads are all being blamed on you, but I did a perfect stealth."
Lee En killed several times more people than Frank did this time.
The entire Amick Group building was almost completely emptied.
Brock looked at Lee with even more helplessness.
Clear out everyone from the entire building, then remove all the hard drives from the monitoring room, smash them, and throw them into the Hudson River—that's called perfect stealth.
"It's absolutely perfect." Frank nodded earnestly, already mentally incorporating this approach into his future action plan.
"You!" Brock pointed at the two men, his finger trembling and his lips quivering.
boom.
The door was kicked open.
All three people turned their heads at the same time.
Barron was holding a stack of documents in his arms, his eyes red-rimmed from staying up all night.
He laid out the documents on Block's desk, pointing to one on-site photo after another with his finger, speaking rapidly.
"Chief Brock, Officer Lee, Officer Frank, look!"
"Based on my investigation and analysis, the person who wiped out the Amick Group last night was likely the End, not the Punisher!"
He placed photos of the Keener Bar and the Amick Building, the two crime scenes, side by side, moving his finger back and forth between the two photos.
"Although their fighting styles are similar, both relying on precise headshots, look here!"
"The ballistic trajectories of the Amick building were all from bottom to top, indicating that the firing angle changed continuously as the target moved, and crossfire blind spots were calculated in advance in every corridor."
"This requires extremely strong mental arithmetic and spatial memory."
Frank's brow twitched, and he looked somewhat displeased.
Barron was completely unaware.
"Of course, this doesn't mean the Punisher is weaker than the finish line."
"The Punisher's fighting style is more brutal, relying more on close-quarters combat and..." He turned a page of data, "...meat shield push."
"This is a warrior who excels at utilizing the battlefield environment to create close-quarters advantages, and the finish line..."
He looked up, the excitement in his eyes, typical of someone who does scientific research, still shining brightly.
"The finish line is like a sophisticated computer; every step it takes and every shot it fires is calculated in advance."
"The two have very different styles."
Frank picked up the half-finished whiskey on the table and took a sip.
Barron continued scrolling down, his finger landing on a hand-drawn map of attack routes.
This drawing is densely packed.
The layout of the corridors, elevator locations, security positions, and movement routes at the destination on each floor of the Amick Building were all marked with pens of different colors.
Blue indicates infiltration routes, red indicates retreat routes, and green indicates engagement points.
"The precise calculation of the finish line is simply..."
"Uh-huh, Barron," Brock cleared his throat and interrupted, "what exactly were those devices you requested from the department last time?"
"Analyzer, server, new computer..." Barron immediately put down the data, stood up straight as if by reflex, and brought his heels together.
He knew that these things together wouldn't be cheap; a complete set would cost several hundred thousand dollars, which was far beyond what the Manhattan Police Department could afford.
"A new computer will do!"
He swallowed hard and pushed up his glasses on the bridge of his nose with his finger.
"The computers in the bureau are antiques now. Chips are being updated so quickly, it takes me a long time to compile a single piece of data..."
Brock pulled the purchase request form out of the drawer, glanced at the amount on it, and his heart skipped a beat.
He looked in Li En's direction and gave him an inquiring look.
Li En nodded.
"You can buy all of these things, except for this last astronomical telescope."
"We don't know how to choose either, you'll have to contact the vendor and bring the items over yourself."
Brock turned to the last page of the form and signed in the approval section.
"Huh?" Baron stood there, stunned, his finger hovering in mid-air, still not quite ready to leave the conversation behind.
Lee stood up, walked over to Barron, and patted the forensic specialist, who had just graduated from university, on the shoulder.
"The police department needs your professional skills and values your learning talent even more, so hurry up and go make the purchase."
"Thank you, thank you! I will definitely do my best!" Baron tucked all the documents into his arms, bowed to each of the three people, and turned to run towards the door.
Brock turned back to look at Lee.
"He'll definitely apply for more equipment later. And you just gave it all to him like that?"
Li En picked up the grape juice, took a sip, and smiled as she pointed to the stack of analysis data that Barron had forgotten to take with him.
"Take a look at these. They're all analysis reports that Barron did all by himself on an old, nearly obsolete computer."
Frank picked up the movement trajectory map and studied it carefully for a few seconds.
The points of engagement, the locations of the bodies, and the angles of the bullet trajectories on each floor were all clearly marked.
There are even calculations of the target height and weight range.
Brock also picked up the Punisher's analysis report, and the more he read it, the stranger his expression became.
Every line in the report was written based on the man standing in front of him, holding a glass of whiskey.
Li En smiled and said, "Talent is the most important thing right now."
……