The Devil's Cage

Panda Novel

Hiller saw the police cruiser on his tail through the back mirror. His eyes weren’t showing panic at all since things were going as planned, and he told his collaborator in the passenger seat, “Hey Joe, go show them what we’re made of!”

“Leave it to me!”

After the blurry reply, Hiller’s partner who seemed to be intoxicated by drugs, shouted and moved his body out of the window with the assault rifle, firing backwards at the police.

Dak Dak Dak Dak!

Shots were fired, the police cruisers that were chasing the thugs were slightly affected.

Unluckily, one of the drivers of the cruiser was shot in the arm.

Bang!

Bang Bang!

Despite the wounded officer trying his best to hold on, he lost control of his arm, crashing his cruiser into the one beside him and triggering a chain reaction, with a few police cruisers crashed together.

“Hahahaha! See that!? See that?! A perfect and grand performance!”

Joe was shouting loudly despite his blurry mind, the finger on the trigger still tight, the gun firing non-stop and bullets flying out like fireworks.

A sharpshooter was scary, but a poor shooter was scarier because you never knew where the stray bullets would land. Joe was exactly the embodiment of that poor shooter.

The drugs that he took made him high as the sky, everything in his eyes looked like nothing but entertainment under the influence of drugs.

Entertainment was only enjoyable when the person was happy.

Therefore, when the first magazine of the assault rifle was depleted, Joe reloaded a new one into it.

The assault rifle gunshots became the only melody in the morning street, where panicked screams and painful cries became the accompanying music.

But Joe didn’t care, he was beyond himself and had forgotten everything else.

Joe didn’t notice the unusual expression on his partner’s face, the slight sneer with a harsh coldness.

When Joe finished the second round and went to load a third, the car he was in suddenly braked.

Pak!

The magazine fell on the floor.

“What the hell are you doing Hiller?” Joe shouted, but his partner didn’t even reply.

Instead, Hiller turned the car around and drove towards the police behind him. His leg pushed down on the accelerator and then placed a heavy loaded package over the pedal to replace his foot before he jumped off the car.

Two rounds of tumbling on the ground later, Hiller, who had some scratches, didn’t even spare a glance at the intense crash behind him, sprinting towards the convenience store, which was part of his plan.

“MOVE!”

Bang!

The gunshot was the best source of intimidation, the people in the convenience store already frightened by the chase scene on the road, swarming out like bees as Hiller strode towards the back door of the convenience store.

He had prepared enough supplies necessary for his escape.

He was quite confident that he could escape Rain City.

Hiller pushed open the back door and strode towards the garbage bin, where he hid his bag of escape supplies, but when he opened the lid, he was stunned.

The bag of supplies wasn’t there!

Someone took it?

No! Impossible!

The garbage bin here was cleaned once every two days and the convenience store only brought out their garbage at night.

It was morning, which meant no one should be able to notice the bag Hiller hid here.

“Are you looking for this?”

Suddenly, a heavy, hoarse voice sounded behind Hiller.

“Who the?!”

Hiller turned around out of instinct and his gun followed the motion towards his back, however, the person behind him was faster than expected.

Pak!

The moment Hiller finished his turn, he was disarmed and the gun was kicked away.

Then…

A sky full of kicking mirages!

Hiller was like a small boat in the middle of a storm, kicks after kicks, the combo drowned him completely.

Bang Bang Bang!

As the kicks broke Hiller bone by bone, he somehow heard some very confusing words.

“This kick is for my Honey Apricot Mousse!”

“This kick is for my Kirstol Chocolate!”

“This kick is for my Mango Camaro!”

“This kick is for my Matcha Red Bean Pie!”

“This kick is for my Half-Boiled Cream Pudding!”

…

What? Why are those all names of desserts?

Did I not pay for my meal? But I never ordered dessert in my life?

What the hell is happening?

With unsolved questions lingering in his head, Hiller was knocked out cold on the ground.

Kieran gave another kick to Hiller’s face before he stopped.

He then grabbed Hiller’s bag before walking out the back alley of the convenience store.

As he walked, he collected all the things on his shoes and coat that might leave behind a trace and put them into the plastic bag that he had prepared.

When he got back to the minivan, he changed back to his black T-shirt, jeans and sneakers.

“Let’s go.” Kieran said after he got in.

“Yes boss.” Gorbor didn’t ask anything and started the van.

As the ace bodyguard, Gorbor knew what he should ask and what shouldn’t.

After driving away from this block, Kieran purposely ordered Gorbor to drive further away before he threw away the plastic bag and Hiller’s bag into the garbage bin.

The bag from Hiller had quite a lot of money, despite the fact that he knew the money should be clean, it was useless to Kieran, so throwing it away was not a burden for him.

When Kieran went back to the coffeeshop, Riton Lystie already left with his bodyguards.

“Things went smoothly.”

“Where did you go?” Eckart waved at Kieran before asking.

“Took a walk.” Kieran replied without showing any extra expression.

“I thought you went to look for troubles with the armed thugs!” Eckart joked.

“Look for trouble? No, I would never.” Kieran said seriously.

I went to punish them.

Kieran added in his heart before sitting down on the chair and closed his eyes.

Eckart who already understood Kieran’s habits wisely shut his mouth. Similarly, he himself was also tired from all the work and after the attack, Eckart needed to rest to recover.

Only Lyn Amie the makeup artist was still energetic.

He widened his eyes at Kieran, sizing him up quietly.

He felt like Kieran was not telling something.

“He must have lied!”

Lyn Amie was almost certain since he did work with a lot of actors and actresses, but that was it.

Question Kieran?

The makeup artist would never dare.

…

Meanwhile, Lin An, with blood over his forehead, rushed into the back alley of the convenience store.

With a single glance, the officer spotted the thug that was somehow deformed.

The other angry officers that followed Lin An into the alleyway also spotted the ‘man’…

Well, it would be considered a ‘man’, even though other than the shape, there was no other distinctive features left.

“Did he get stomped on by an elephant?”

“No, it seems like he got rammed over by a rhino.”

“Damn!”

“This is brutal.”

The discussion from his colleagues made Lin An frown.

Somehow, his mind reminded him of a person.

There was no solid evidence pointing to the person but the thought wouldn’t leave Lin An’s mind.

“Call the ambulance!”

“And… search the area, set up a perimeter within the next three blocks!” Lin An ordered.

Then, he turned around, running towards his cruiser.

He had to verify something and the sooner, the better.