Chapter 78: Heart Like a Stone (Part 1)

Gotham rainy night. Gotham's rain is always delicate and long, with a bone-chilling coldness. The rain line is like a gray net under the light. When it approaches the ground, every drop of rain will splash tiny water.

The engine sound came from the end of the dark alley, accompanied by a slight sound of water. The subtle sound of the tires running over the uneven road surface is getting closer and closer. When the dazzling headlights appeared at the back door of the police station, Gordon knew that he was in trouble.

An extended luxury car stopped in front of Gordon. He saw the reflection of the rifle barrel in the car window glass. A person nodded at him in the rearview mirror. No one spoke. The whole process was as quiet as the night in Gotham.

Gordon took a deep breath. He reached out and touched the pistol on his waist. Although the pistol had just been replaced with new accessories, it could not bring him any sense of security. In this city, the police could not obtain any law enforcement power with their guns, and they could not even protect themselves.

A man in a black suit came down and opened the car door for Gordon. Gordon glanced at his watch. It was 9:12 p.m. and he was going to miss his dinner with Barbara again.

Finally, Gordon got into the car. When the car started, he looked out the window. The neon lights of the store signs flashed in his field of vision, leaving a brilliant trace of red and blue. The raindrops hit the glass of the car window, blurring the light into an unclear halo.

Gordon said, "Who am I going to meet?"

"You'll know when you see him." The man sitting in the passenger seat answered him.

When driving on a somewhat rugged road, the car shook a little, and the lights kept flashing on different buildings. Soon it turned into an alley that Gordon had never been to. He knew that this should be in the East District, and it was in the most dangerous edge of the East District.

He got out of the car, and the man in the black suit led him to the door of a mansion. There were two people standing in front of the gate, both holding guns. One of them came up, and Gordon folded his hands in front of his forehead. The man took the gun from his waist and searched him up and down. After confirming that there was no weapon, Gordon followed the guide and walked in.

The mansion was luxuriously decorated and brightly lit inside, but there were not many people. Gordon went up to the second floor. As soon as the guide opened the door, Gordon saw a rather burly back. He knew that it was Sal Maroni, the new big boss of the East District.

Maroni turned around. He was not handsome, but looked a little fierce. The corners of his mouth were always fiercely downward, while the corners of his eyes were always hanging upward in a somewhat evil way.

He turned the ring on his hand and said, "Sheriff, please sit down. It's very presumptuous to invite you tonight.

"I don't know what's wrong with the gang members nowadays. You are all polite and seem to be more like policemen than me. "

Gordon's reply was very rude. He did not sit down as Maroni asked, but stood upright.

Maroni's expression was uncertain, but he did not seem to mind Gordon's offense. He said: "I asked you to come here to discuss a business with you, you know, like the kind that gangsters often discuss."

"I don't discuss business with gangsters."

"Oh?" Maroni laughed, "This statement is very novel. I have heard some of you say that my offer is not enough, but I have never heard that anyone does not want to cooperate with gangsters."

"That's the fact. I don't cooperate with any gangsters."

"Then why do you want to participate in the Godfather's business? Your field team should have made a lot of money from his private prison, right?"

"I'm just a policeman. Fighting crime is the duty of a policeman. "Gordon said.

He was speaking from the heart. Even though he knew that the criminals he arrested were only bringing higher turnover to the Godfather, his own behavior was indeed catching criminals. If this behavior could bring him profits, it would be better. But if not, Gordon would keep insisting on it. After all, he did the same thing when there was no business, and he was the only one who did it.

"My conditions are very simple. You don't have to do anything. You just need to drag it on and find all kinds of reasons to stop the field team from going out."

Maroni spread his hands and said, "How simple! All you have to do is do nothing, and I will offer you a price that satisfies you."

Gordon said, "I can see that you have been imitating the Godfather. I have not met Mr. Falcone, but I know that there are countless poor imitators of him in Gotham, who think they are elegant, gentle and polite, and speak in a pretentious tone, and even learn from him with an Italian accent. "

"But it's useless, Mr. Maroni, you are not Falcone, and there will never be another Falcone in Gotham. At least now, Gotham belongs to the Godfather, not you."

Maroni's face turned completely dark, because Gordon spoke out his worries. He was indeed imitating Falcone, or as Gordon said, too many people in Gotham were imitating the Godfather.

Although they didn't even go to middle school, they still imitated Falcone, using all kinds of very elegant expressions, and trying to turn a short sentence into a long and difficult sentence with all kinds of complex grammar.

They wear suits and bow ties, with flowers on their chests, and hold pens instead of pistols, just like the Godfather.

Falcone is like a benchmark in Gotham City. The Godfather's personality is so strong that all the gang leaders are imitating him, and Maroni is one of them.

When you come to Gotham, you will be very surprised. When the gangs here hire people, they will not find a group of kidnappers to kidnap you. Instead, they will drive a black luxury car and arrive at your door silently on a rainy night, and then sit behind a black desk in a luxuriously decorated room, dressed in formal clothes, and talk to you politely.

They don't look like gangs, but more like a group of old-fashioned aristocrats, and all of this comes from the influence of Falcone.

This makes Maroni feel ashamed, because he is different from others. He feels that he has never succumbed to the power of the Godfather. He feels that he is destined to overthrow Falcone, but he has to admit that he has indeed been imitating the Godfather.

And his imitation is not like that. Maroni is not suitable for wearing suits at all. He does not have the elegant temperament of the Godfather. Even a neat suit cannot cover up his barbarity.

But Falcone represents the most glorious era of the Gotham gang. His every move is engraved with the traces of that boiling era. This kind of temperament precipitation brought from that golden age and the power that seems to have everything under control fascinate Maroni.

He is full of malice to replace the Godfather, but like everyone in Gotham, he is also full of respect for the Godfather from the bottom of his heart.

Gordon looked at Maroni's silence and said, "Do you know? Before entering this door, I knew that it must not be the Godfather who invited me, even though you used his favorite car model and his most common way of inviting people."

"Really? Why?" Maroni asked.

"If it was Mr. Falcone who invited me here today, I would not be searched or have my gun confiscated. The Godfather actually doesn't care if I have a weapon when I meet him, because he is much more confident than you."

Maroni was almost unable to hold back his disguise. Every word Gordon said pierced his heart. Everything he said was true.

When Falcone invited anyone to come over to talk, he would not confiscate their weapons. Even if the other party was a desperado who had killed countless people, he dared to sit behind the table, less than two meters away from those people, unarmed, and only used words to convince them.

But Maroni didn't dare.

How could he dare to let a well-trained old policeman approach him within two meters with a gun? He had no confidence at all. He had to beware of Gordon's sudden attack on him. He didn't even know why Falcone dared to do that.

Why was the Godfather so confident that everyone he saw dared not attack him? Maroni never understood this question. In his opinion, if there was a mistake, all his efforts would be wiped out by the gunfire, and he would never give anyone this opportunity.

He felt that his caution was right, but it did not prevent him from feeling ashamed of losing before the battle. He said to Gordon in a low voice: "Do you think your current actions are wise? You keep angering me on my territory?!"

"Have you started to put aside those disguises?" Gordon asked him: "Your wording just now is no different from that of the street thugs. You didn't use any complicated words because you think I see through the truth, so there is no need to pretend anymore?"

Maroni waved his hand, and there was a click behind him. The sound of bullets being loaded echoed in the room. The man in a suit behind him was holding a shotgun and pointing it straight at Gordon.

Gordon shook his head and said, "This is the difference between you and Mr. Falcone. You asked me to come here to discuss business, but there is no reason in this world to kill people if the business cannot be negotiated. You are still a gangster. If I don't agree to you, you point a gun at me and force me to agree."

"So why did you send a car and send someone to pick me up here? You might as well just find a group of kidnappers, just like the other gangs in the East District, tie me up in a basement, punch me twice, and then point a gun at my head and ask me if I agree. If I don't agree, If you agree, then shoot me in the arm. "

"That's enough." Maroni said, he took a deep breath and waved his hand, the man behind him put down his gun, he said: "You are very smart, you know I don't want to lose to Falcone."

"Your intelligence saved your life, Sheriff Gordon, I can let you go tonight, but this is not me imitating anyone, but I kindly give you a chance to think, if you change your mind, you know where to find me."

When Gordon came out of the mansion, cold sweat almost soaked his shirt.

Only he knew how dangerous it was just now. If he hadn't repeatedly used Falcone to stimulate Maroni and aroused Maroni's rebellious psychology, it would still be a question whether he could walk out of the mansion intact.

The cold wind of Gotham blew on him, and the fine rain hit his face. He walked back slowly. He thought, he was not wrong. Maroni was really worse than Falcone. He was already angry.

If it was Falcone who invited him tonight, regardless of whether Gordon's little tricks could anger the Godfather, even if he spoke rudely to Falcone, the Godfather would not even send him a car to take him back.

Thinking of this, Gordon raised his head and looked at the night sky of Gotham. Raindrops fell into his eyes. He wiped his face, and then he thought, I'm afraid this trouble is far from over.