“Monkey, tell the police we have two conditions.”
“One, within half an hour, the police and snipers must get out of my sight. Two, provide us with two cars, fully fueled, and no tracking devices.”
As Judith received orders from above to withdraw from the command center, Mathias watched the crowd outside and issued commands.
“Tell them they have half an hour to comply! For each minute late, I kill one person. For ten minutes late, twenty people die. Tell them there are over fifty people here-it won’t take long to kill them all.”
Hearing Mathias’ words, the hostages panicked again, feeling like they couldn’t make it out of here alive today.
Kendra twitched her mouth and suppressed her impulse to act. From Mathias’ demands, she could tell these men truly had no intention to kill.
Because his two conditions were extremely easy for the police to meet-withdrawing and providing vehicles posed no difficulty.
For the safety of fifty hostages, the police would certainly appear to agree to the robbers’ demands.
Since the problem could be resolved with minimal cost, even peacefully, Kendra abandoned any thought of unnecessary intervention that might provoke the robbers and cause unnecessary trouble for herself and the hostages.
Meanwhile, she glanced toward the corridor, wondering why Darnell hadn’t returned. What game was that idiot playing? She took out her phone to send a text but found there was no signal.
As her thoughts raced, the monkey-masked robber nodded. “Understood.”
He then grabbed a hostage and shouted to the police, “Listen up! Withdraw your forces immediately!”
“Everyone must retreat a hundred meters away, and prepare a fully-fueled SUV for us. You have twenty minutes to comply. If you refuse, I’ll…”
Before he could finish, the monkey-masked robber’s eyes widened, his words cut short as he saw over a dozen uniformed men approaching with rifles.
Completely disregarding the hostages’ safety, they crouched and aimed at the store’s doors and windows, clearly preparing to storm the building.
He pulled the hostage back and shouted, “Boss, they’re going to attack!”
Mathias’ expression changed slightly as he stepped forward to survey the scene. “Damn it! We have fifty hostages in our hands, and they still want to launch an assault. Are they insane?”
Soon, his question became certainty-they were indeed insane!
“Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!”
More than ten rifles fired smoke grenades, flash grenades, and tear gas canisters that arced toward the doors and windows. Five tear gas canisters knocked over the kneeling hostages and rolled into the main hall.
Mathias’ face changed dramatically as he yanked the monkey-masked robber aside and shouted, “Watch out! Everyone down!”
“Bang, bang, bang!”
A mixture of sounds exploded as the store instantly filled with blinding light, rising smoke, disorienting flashes, and acrid smells.
The six fallen hostages ignored their injuries, screaming and covering their mouths and noses, retching uncontrollably while fearfully scrambling toward corners, hoping for any chance of survival.
The other hostages also panicked, surprised by the police’s sudden attack without warning. Fortunately, they were more composed than initially.
Thanks to Mathias’ timely warning, nobody ran wildly. All of them covered their heads and lay flat on the floor, immediately closing their eyes to mitigate the damage from the flash grenades.
Kendra didn’t act recklessly either, pressing herself against the floor to observe.
“Stay alert!”
After the crackling sounds subsided, Mathias covered his mouth and nose, shouting to his companions, “Be careful!”
He clearly knew that the flash grenades and tear gas were just appetizers. Next, the police would likely make a bigger move, possibly a full assault.
Mathias felt puzzled-why were the police disregarding the hostages’ safety? This was completely lawless behavior.
“Bang!”
Before his thoughts finished, a loud noise came from the second floor as a skylight was smashed open. A grey figure flashed in like a phantom.
It was an old man in grey clothing.
The grey-clad elder landed just three meters from the dog-masked robber, swift and imposing. The robber tensed and turned around.
He saw the grey-clad elder flying toward him, left hand formed into a claw aimed directly at his throat, exuding tremendous pressure.
The dog-masked robber’s mouth twitched as he raised his gun and fired.
“Bam!”
The bullet fired but missed the grey-clad elder, who vanished like a phantom the instant the trigger was pulled.
As the dog-masked robber’s heart trembled, the grey-clad elder reappeared at his side, snorted heavily, and casually waved his left hand.
With a thud, the gun was slapped away.
After disarming the dog-masked robber, the grey-clad elder continued with thunderous momentum, delivering a punch that seemed both swift and light to the robber’s chest.
“Thump!”
A muffled sound rang out as the dog-masked robber flew into the air like a kite with cut strings, crashing heavily against the wall behind him.
Before he could cough up blood, the elder had already grabbed his neck with speed and ferocity and flung him sideways.
Another dull thud as the wolf-masked robber, who had raised his gun to attack, didn’t have time to pull the trigger before his comrade crashed into him like a cannonball.
There was no way to dodge.
Hit squarely by his comrade, the wolf-masked robber fell from the second floor with his gun, blood spurting two meters from his mouth, his body feeling completely shattered.
As he tried to get up, he saw the grey-clad elder standing before him. Then he was kicked away, crashing into the rabbit-masked robber who had rushed over to help.
They collapsed in a heap. Blood also flowed from the rabbit-masked robber’s mouth as his gun slipped from his grasp.
The grey-clad elder snorted coldly, “Worthless!”
The robbers twitched their mouths, filled with grief and indignation. After struggling twice, they shakily stood up, drawing knives from behind their backs…
“Bang, bang, bang!”
Without any suspense, all three were thrown down again by the grey-clad elder. One of them had his arm broken.
Kendra witnessed this scene, her beautiful face showing surprise-not at the elder’s prowess, but at his hidden identity.
“Omar Ridsdale?”
She recognized at a glance that the grey-clad elder was Omar Ridsdale, the old servant of the Peel family and previously a notorious grave robber.
Rumors had it that this man’s skills were unfathomable. No one knew how much blood his hands had shed. After submitting to the Peel family, he had become reclusive and rarely appeared in public.
Although Omar Ridsdale claimed allegiance to the Peel family, he was actually loyal to only two people-the patriarch of the Peel family and Edward Peel, Finn’s elder brother.
Beyond that, he would hardly give face to anyone. He was the most trusted person of the Peel family’s patriarch.
Kendra wondered, “Could Edward be here?”
Before her thought was completed, several gunshots rang out. A string of bullets tore through the iron door, striking the display cases in front of Kendra and the hostages, scattering several jewelry displays.
Kendra startled, quickly grabbing two staff members who were about to run, shouting sharply, “Everyone, hide behind the counters!”
She drove all fifty-plus people behind the display cases.
Running around wildly could result in being hit by stray bullets, especially since the smoke hadn’t completely cleared.
“Bam, bam, bam!”
Almost as soon as they’d taken shelter behind the display cases, another dozen bullets came flying in, hitting the floor, and sending tiles flying. Kendra muttered under her breath, “The Peels are worse than the bandits.”
Then she anxiously looked toward the corridor again. “Why hasn’t Darnell come out yet?”
For the first time, Kendra was worried about him.