Chapter 20: The Answer

John was dumbfounded.

Arthur took a bite of the taco, and mumbled with his mouth full, "Mm, actually, it tastes pretty good, doesn't it?"

"Why did you call the police?"

This question was simply incomprehensible. Arthur was puzzled. "When you have trouble, you find the police. When you're in danger, you call the police."

Arthur's reasoning was irrefutable, but John was utterly bewildered. "You, you, I, I, why... uh... what's wrong?"

"Yeah, what's wrong?"

John was puzzled. "But how can we call the police with our identities? And the Mexican police shouldn't have arrived so quickly, and they were too quick to shoot. What did you say?"

"I said I was robbed of $560,000, all in one bag, in that car. And on our way here, several police cars were parked at an intersection, just a few minutes away from here. Didn't you notice?"

"What?"

"I also said there were only two robbers. I thought this would make the police come faster. And I thought this would make them more decisive when they started shooting."

John sighed, then nodded. "Um, it seems so."

"If I were you, I'd throw away this SIM card. And, didn't you prepare something to pull the card out? You're something."

"Just throw away the phone, why pull out the card? Now I think the middleman is doomed. Let's leave now, take a detour, and quietly leave."

Peeking out and taking a look, John's movements froze. He then said, bewildered, "Hey, you better come see this."

Arthur stood up, walked past a clump of trees, stood by the roadside, and looked around, then he saw two police officers dragging a person out of the trunk of the white Ford.

It would have been fine if they had pulled out a corpse, but the person they pulled out was standing on the ground and could still move.

"The middleman was in the trunk? And he's still alive?"

That white Ford had been hit by dozens of machine gun bullets, but the middleman left in the trunk had survived.

Arthur couldn't believe it. He felt that things had gone wrong.

Just then, John's phone rang. He glanced at it, answered the call, and then heard Frank's urgent voice on the other end, "Damn it! Peter's not dead!"

John sighed and said, "We saw it. What do we do now?"

After saying that, John looked at Arthur again, puzzled. "What do we do now?"

Arthur thought the police would arrive in time, which he had predicted, but he didn't expect the police to start shooting as soon as they arrived and with machine guns. However, this was a good thing. When the police started shooting with machine guns, he thought it was all over.

But he never expected that the middleman would survive the machine gun barrage.

The situation had come full circle. Although the middleman hadn't died, he hadn't fallen into the hands of the Seta Group either. This meant there was at least time, and some room to maneuver.

"What do we do now? Um, let's ask Captain."

Arthur passed the buck because he dared to fight the drug dealers, but he didn't dare to confront the police. This was a habit he had developed as a Huaxia person for a long time.

John spoke into the phone again, "Captain, what do we do now?"

"I'm very close to Peter, I see him now. I don't know what to do either, but Peter should fall into the hands of the police rather than into the hands of the Seta Group. Wait for me to come get you."

The call ended. John sighed, smacked his lips a few times, then looked at Arthur. "How did things end up like this? Are you still eating?"

Arthur put the last bit of taco into his mouth, then said calmly, "I'm hungry."

Another indisputable response: when you're hungry, you eat. There's not much else to say.

John sighed, then said helplessly, "You're right, well said. But you even remembered to bring food in that situation. I'm impressed... I should have brought some tacos too."

The two of them silently returned to their hiding spot behind the trees, waiting.

After about fifteen minutes, a car stopped near Arthur and John. After the two got in, the car started again.

"Why did you call the police?"

Frank's first question was the same as John's, so Arthur had to repeat what he had said to John.

After listening to Arthur's explanation, everyone in the car remained silent. At this moment, Arthur added, "At that time, there were so many drug dealers. Even if we killed the middleman, we would still have to fight with the drug dealers. Even if we won, we would be chased by Tijuana police. Since that's the case, why not skip our involvement and let the police do their job?"

The simplest reasoning is often the hardest to refute, so no one could argue against Arthur's reasoning.

"Well done," Frank in the passenger seat raised his thumb and continued, "At least the middleman didn't fall into the hands of the Seta Group. And, the middleman will be able to escape from the police station."

John asked puzzled, "Why?"

"Peter can be a middleman in Tijuana, so he must have enough connections. He not only knows various drug dealers and kidnapping groups but also has good relations with the Tijuana police."

John shrugged, "I thought you would say we messed up."

George sneered, "That's only because you're not smart enough to understand."

"Both of you shut up and listen to me. The police won't make things difficult for Peter, but the Seta Group will soon react. They won't let Peter leave the police station alive easily. And neither will we. So, it's best if Peter dies in the police station. Otherwise, we'll have to do it ourselves, but that might be difficult."

Rubber anxiously asked, "I understand what you're saying, but why does the Seta Group have to kill Peter?"

"I don't know. Only Peter knows the reason now. Maybe we should rescue him first and then ask."

John took out his phone, "Crossing the river, I have to throw away my phone."

Rubber turned onto the bridge, John opened the car window and threw the phone into the water. It seemed they were all familiar with doing such things, obviously not caring much about a phone.

But Arthur felt a little sorry because John's phone was quite new.

Next, they needed to find a safe place to continue waiting.

After more than two hours passed, George, who had been browsing his phone in the car, suddenly said, "There's news, local news. Today, the police stopped a kidnapping at a TACO restaurant. A group of kidnappers kidnapped an American tourist there. The police arrived in time, rescued the hostage, and killed three kidnappers on the spot. The hostage was completely unharmed, and no police officers were injured. That's it."

Frank let out a long sigh and said, "Since the news is out, it means the matter is settled. Peter should have been released. I think Peter will call me soon. If it's a better outcome, it means Peter has been escorted to a safe place by the police."

This time Frank was right on the money. As soon as he finished speaking, the phone rang.

"Hello, Peter, are you safe? Don't mention it, it's what we should do. Don't forget to pay up. Do you want to meet? Now? Okay."

After a brief conversation, the call ended. Frank looked puzzled, "Peter wants us to pick him up. He was secretly transferred by the police. But since he's safe now, why does he want to meet us?"

Arthur didn't know why either, but he wanted to say something.

"Cut off the sprouts and the roots will die." He said in English, not very aptly, then continued, "My suggestion is to meet Peter, ask him what happened, and why the Seta Group is so determined to capture him. Since we have the opportunity, we should figure it out."

"That makes sense, let's do that."

Frank said to Rubber, "Go to the Tijuana Headquarters. Peter is there."

This time there were no waves. Peter got into the car smoothly outside the Tijuana Headquarters.

Meeting again, the atmosphere was somewhat strange. After Peter got into the car, the first thing he said was, "I know, you must be thinking of killing me now."

Frank spread his hands and said, "That's not the case."

"Alright, we both know who the other party is. You want to kill me, I want to drag you down. But you should understand, since I dare to get in your car, I'm not afraid you'll kill me. Now we're in the same boat, Captain!"

After saying calmly, Peter's expression changed, and he gritted his teeth, "I just didn't expect you to call the police. Well done! But you didn't expect I would survive, did you?"

Frank had nothing to say. Since they had come to this point, he might as well open up and speak.

"Let's be frank. What exactly happened that the Seta Group is so determined to get hold of you?"

Peter sighed, and said in a low voice, "The new leader of the Seta Group, z46, is named Juan.Bent. Rogge and Sanchez's full name is Sanchez.Bent. Rogge. Does that ring a bell? Sanchez is Juan's brother! Why didn't I know Sanchez was with the Seta Group? Why was there such a big intelligence failure? Because damn Juan kept it too well hidden! Even people within the Seta Group didn't know!"

Frank was stunned for a while, then he exclaimed, "Damn!"

Peter continued in a low voice, "The only way to resolve this is to kill Juan. As long as he's alive, he will retaliate!"

Frank looked very surprised and said, "What do you want to do?"

Peter gritted his teeth and said, "I want to go with you guys to take out Juan!"