☆☆☆

Santa Cruz Beach, California, 2025

Mark stretched his lower limbs in the back seat. Pen × fun × Pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 Info had to be driven to his destination by someone from the gang because his right hand was still bandaged. The two people sitting in the front seat didn't say a word, and the car was so quiet that you could hear the sound of swallowing saliva from time to time. Mark knew that they were nervous to death, and that news of his injuries had reached his father's ears, which made every gang member feel like a great enemy. However, they don't know who hurt the little boss, and Mark keeps Thomas Bright under wrap for the time being. He wanted to go to Pennsylvania himself to find out how Houdini Jr. had escaped from the high-security state prison, but at this time, the investigation of Kentaro Yamamoto had also been raised, and more importantly, Gary Sr. had personally called him to say that there was news of the tattooed Russian gangster. When it comes to the gang, Mark has to go out himself, so he gives Eddie the investigation of Houdini Jr.'s whereabouts, and sends two of his best men on the road with him.

The soldiers were divided into two ways, and he personally invited the elder Gary, who lived in the town of Santa Cruz, to come out of the mountain.

There are two roads to Santa Cruz, the famous Highway 1, which offers a beautiful view of the sea, and the steep and difficult 17th winding road. Because it's closer, Mark always takes Route 17 to get to Santa Cruz. He estimates that he usually drives the Jaguar himself in less than half an hour, because the driver's "cautious driving" has already taken twice as long.

The mountain road was a one-way street left and right, and the car in front of them was driving slowly, and their car was holding down the speed. Mark could barely bear it, and with the overtaking zone ahead of him, he saw a great opportunity to move into another lane, but his driver was very gentlemanly and did not rush his opponent. Mark's driving skills are probably best described as "professional", and the "turtle speed" of this situation really makes him uncomfortable, and he sighs and immediately hears the driver swallow heavily in his throat. Trying not to embarrass his men, Mark turned his face to look out the window, and when he was almost there, he could already see vehicles on the road with trailers pulling sailboats or surfboards on their roofs.

Entering the town, the first thing that catches your eye is Pacific Avenue, where chain hotels are concentrated, Super Eight, and Holiday Inn...... With everything you need, budget hotels, restaurants and surf shops are the most important to find here. The sea is blue and clear, like blue brocade, dragging white waves, the beach is dazzlingly white, and the sky is also a crystal pure blue. Then you'll see a woman in a fiery bikini, a middle-aged uncle with a tropical drink, a family with kids, and a surfer dressed in a shark plastic skin.

In fact, compared to other West Coast beach resorts, the town of Santa Cruz today is very unremarkable, not as luxurious as Monterey Beach, San Francisco Fisherman's Wharf fame, Los Angeles Santa Monica Beach as bustling as it is, and Marbury Beach as sophisticated. In the last century, however, it has had its glory days. The 1907 "Boardwalk" playground ushered in Santa Cruz's heyday, and even now near the waterfront, you can hear the rumbling of giant wooden roller coasters (1) that have been in operation for 100 years. After World War II, the beach ushered in the golden years of hippies, and marijuana, ****, and extravagant days were the norm in Santa Cruz.

On the corner of Almar and Younglove streets, there is a liquor store called USave, and on the corner there is a small hot dog stand called Gary's Snappy (2) Hot Dogs - a traditional flavor. When Gary Sr. retired, he opened a hot dog stand here, and he was accompanied by a black American water spaniel named "Snappy."

The car stopped in the parking lot in front of the liquor store, and the passenger seat got out of the car first, opened the door for Mark, and saw that Snappy had already rushed to greet him.

Mark bent down and patted it, don't look at this guy's small size, but his body is very strong, he asked, "Snappy, is you in good spirits!"

Snappy didn't like to scream, just shook his ears in response to Mark.

In front of the hot dog stand, Gary is busy giving change to a customer. He had deep-set eyes, a high nose, a light-colored checkered cap on his head, and his hair and sideburns were pale but neatly trimmed. Today he wears sky blue jeans, a short-sleeved shirt with a green tropical leaf pattern, a wide black apron, and a white towel pinned to his waist. After finishing the business at hand, he turned around, and when he saw the person coming, he immediately smiled and opened his arms.

Despite Gary's age, Mark could imagine how many girls such a smile could charm him when he was younger, and he was just as handsome as his father.

Mark stepped forward, and the two hugged affectionately.

Gary whispered in Mark's ear, "Yesterday, Timmy (Mark's father's nickname) called me specifically, how long have I not seen him so anxious to get angry? Who can hurt his precious son, but it will cost a lot!"

"I don't want to make a big deal out of it, and besides, I can take care of myself!" Mark said.

"He doesn't think so!" Gary corrected.

Gary let go of him and smiled at him, and Mark returned the favor.

Gary glanced at the bandage on his hand and asked with concern, "Are you okay?"

Mark nodded. "It's out of the way," he thought to himself: in fact, the scabbed area of the wound was a little itchy, which was a sign of recovery. "Can we get down to business?"

The look on Gary's face was like saying, "You're going to get down to business without a hot dog?"

"Hot dogs, of course!" Mark added!

The two attendants ordered the classic Snappie Hot Dog, while Mark asked for the luxurious Double Cheese Bavarian Sausage Hot Dog. Gary immediately got busy, he used the best ingredients, the best cheese, and the sausages came in a variety of flavors, absolutely authentic classics. He only needs to sandwich the bread and ham for the customer, wipe the shredded cheese, and the customer needs to do the rest. There were more than two dozen seasonings on the hot dog cart, as well as four small jars, each with onions, jalapeños and other ingredients. This traditional hot dog stand is almost impossible to find in the city, where it is full of chain sales, fast-made cheap goods, office workers can satisfy their hunger, or deceive foreign tourists, but if you really want to taste the food, you will not feel satisfied.

The attendants held the oversized hot dogs and feasted on them.

Mark delicately adds toppings and sauces to his hot dogs.

There are two plastic chairs next to the hot dog stand, where Gary sits and greets important guests. The two of them sat down side by side, and Mark took a bite, which he thought was the most delicious and authentic hot dog in the United States, and he and Chris had been in New York for a few years. Immediately aroused his appetite, he took two big bites, and now he was in dire need of nutrition.

The two attendants knew each other very well, and knew that the two of them were going to talk about things, so they walked into the wine shop on the side.

Gary opened his mouth first and said, "I want to hear what you know. ”

Mark told Gary Sr. everything he knew. For five minutes of narration, he barely saw a hint of reaction on Gary's face.

"It turns out that you also had such an episode with the boss of the Yamamoto group. Gary spoke.

Mark shrugged his shoulders in a chic manner, he didn't care about the old feuds between the gangs, it was no longer his father's era, "I will naturally do what I promised, and I already have a clue to follow." ”

Suddenly, Gary stood up and walked towards the big green bin in the corner. The unobtrusive place is the secret of his hiding things. He took out a green bag from the back of the dumpster and quickly walked back.

"Take a look. He said.

Mark took the thing and opened it to see that inside the bag was an envelope containing many photos and documents. He looked at it as fast as he could, and it was a lot of pictures of corpses, and it was clear that the dead were all gang members, and they looked very dated. He looked up and asked, "What's going on?"

"When you were still in Los Angeles, Riley had Ray contact me privately, and Ray told me about the Russian man covered in tattoos. Actually, I'm sure enough, just waiting for you to come to me. Unexpectedly, Timmy called me first and told me to come out and help you!"

Mark showed a strange expression: "Why is Father so nervous?"

"Of course, because there is a reason for it, and what he is nervous about is this guy you are looking for. ”

"I don't understand. ”

"You know who I am in the gang. ”

Gary was one of his father's several hair boys. They were both born in Berkeley, California's San Francisco Bay Area, and grew up on the streets and knew each other very well. When they grew up, the young ones dared to dare to do it, and the gang led by their father continued to grow in strength in the local area, and by the time the older generation of gangs found that they could no longer restrain them, the gang had established itself in the entire western Irish gang, and then it was the era of the old and the new, and a huge pyramidal empire was built, although my father was at the top, but it was also inseparable from the strong support of these veterans. Old Gary is the most special of several people, he is a professional killer in the gang, commonly known as the gangster law enforcer, scavenger, executioner, no matter which way it is said, it is the same meaning, a stealth person who cannot see the light. Despite his lack of real status, Gary Sr. was well respected in the gang.

Mark nodded.

Gary said, "The person you're looking for is the same identity as me! However, he is not an ordinary killer, but a terrifying presence in the Russian gangsters." At that time, our gang was expanding wildly, and the interests of the Russians were constantly clashing, and in several fights, both sides used their last trump cards to prepare for a great purge of each other's territory. That was the first time I knew of such a terrible adversary, with corpses strewn all over the scene every time, and it was a fatal blow with a single blow, and the technique was so professional that even I felt that these brothers had died horribly. After a few fights, I couldn't even figure out his true face. Fortunately, he was not a god who could be invited by the Russian gangster branch casually, he only made a few moves, and Timmy was forced to negotiate peace with the old Russians, because there was still a strong enemy of the Italian mafia at that time, and both sides retreated a step, but we retreated more, and finally Timmy endured this bad breath. I'm not reconciled, I've been tracking this guy. Every corpse in the photo is his masterpiece!"

"How is that possible?" said Mark, "if he is of the same age as you, he is at least seventy years old by now, but according to the informant, this man is in his early thirties." He looked down at the photos in his hand again, "Besides, these photos are obviously earlier, and you and your father have not been born yet!"

"Ray said he had a lot of unusual tattoos, right? The eight-pointed star and the nine-story tower are tattooed on the joints and the back of the hand, which is very rare even within the Russian gang. Despite his unique presence and his knack for hiding his tracks, I had my own unique way of tracking him, and there were a few times when I was almost close to him......" Gary seemed to be lost in thought, and after a pause, he continued, "until I left the gang and didn't stop investigating, and then I dug up more content in the east. ”

"When I was in New York, I was taken care of by the Cole family, and it was because of you that the new generation of leaders praised you!"

He gestured with his hand at the height, "Hehe, he was still a child at that time, so I taught two hands by the way." After all these years, he still remembers. ”

However, then Old Gary's expression changed, and he said very seriously, "Back then, I traced the clues and found that this guy's original activity was in the east. He selected a few photographs from Mark's hand and placed them on his lap, "This is his debut -- the dead were nine Armenians, because they were on the territory of the Russians, and they were thought to be hacky insiders of their gang." ”

Mark looked at the photos carefully, and the nine people died in a horrific state, each with several knives, one person had nine cuts in the throat, the other had two stabs in the back of the neck, and the abdomen had been cut open and the intestines had been dragged out...... This isn't the first time he's killed someone, and he's definitely a veteran.

"Amazing, right? Can you tell what year it is?"

"It must have been from the last century, look at this dress, before World War II?"

Gary nodded and said, "What he did this night was a big event that could have made headlines." It's a pity that on the same night, another person created a tragedy that shocked the world. Annihilating seven enemy men in one night is naturally more powerful than the Russians punishing their own dogs!"

"Isn't this Valentine's Day in 1929?"

The Valentine's Day Massacre is a brilliant gang fight directed by the Italian mafia's "godfather" Carbon in Chicago. His No. 1 killer, Jack McGunn, plotted the assassination of George Moran, the "bed bug" of the Irish gang, by posing as a police officer and killing seven of his nemesis with a submachine gun. It was a powerful image that will forever go down in history as McGunn's way of telling the nation's gangsters on Valentine's Day that knives and fists are obsolete and that the era of "Tommy" (Thompson's nickname for the submachine gun) has arrived.

"Aren't the Russians a hundred years old? Isn't there a mistake?" Mark hesitated, frowned, and asked, "You want to tell me he's not...... Humans?"

Gary said, "I'm not trying to define you, I can only say that he is a special and very dangerous person, which is why your father is so worried. We just want you to know who you are and be prepared!" )