Chapter 397 If They Both Die Because of This
Alexander and Oliver’s plan was to start with the black market. They would look for the street dealers that had been selling K Powder recently and make a few transactions. Then, they would offer to buy a large amount of drugs. The street dealers were basically resellers, so they certainly wouldn’t have such a large amount of drugs at hand. As such, they would introduce them to their drug dealer and get a commission.
Gale was still worried, though. “What makes you so certain that the one selling drugs to these street dealers has to be Dragon’s underling?”
“There’s no room for two kings in one castle,” Oliver explained. “The drug dealing market in Melrose City was previously monopolized by Dragon’s drug-trafficking ring, so the other drug dealers wouldn’t dare to come. Moreover, after such a big case had happened, those from anywhere else would want to stay away from here as much as possible right now. The only ones left are those who aren’t afraid of death, and they could only be Dragon’s men.”
However, Gale argued, “It still seems too risky to me.”
He still wanted to say something, but Cameron gave him a dirty look and snapped, “Why don’t you just shut up instead of being so overcautious? If Alexander hadn’t blown up at Courtney, she wouldn’t have traveled alone. If Oliver hadn’t messed with the drug-trafficking ring, she wouldn’t have been dragged into this either. No matter how you put it, it’s because of you two—the Duncans—that Courtney’s now in such big trouble! So what if it’s risky? It won’t seem enough to me even if they both die because of this!” My best friend Courtney is the kindest and strongest woman in the world, yet she has all the youthful days of her life ruined by the Duncans. And now, her life is in danger, her fate unknown. What else should we be thinking about other than how to save her?
After being told off to his face by Cameron like that, Gale dared not say anything else; he merely looked at Alexander and Oliver with a look of embarrassment.
“I know I’ve gotten Courtney into trouble,” Oliver admitted. “I promise I’ll be in charge of this till the end of it, and I’ll find a way to bring Courtney back safely.”
“How could you promise to bring her back when it’s not known whether she’s still alive?” Cameron glowered at Alexander with a scowl. “Are you bringing her back to let you Duncans humiliate her again?”
The atmosphere in the room instantly became tense, as if the air had frozen. After a long time, Alexander’s dull voice sounded in the room, saying, “As long as Courtney comes back safely this time, I’ll agree to whatever request she makes. I’m fine if she wants Jordan to go back to America with her or if she doesn’t want to see me again for the rest of her life.”
Cameron knitted her brows, but her anger showed no signs of abating.
In the end, Oliver eased the situation, saying, “Courtney’s definitely safe right now. If these drug dealers had really wanted to kill her, they wouldn’t have taken so much trouble to get her on a desert island. Actually, this strikes me as strange. This is unlike Dragon.”
Dragon had always been cautious, believing that it was better to be safe than sorry. So why would he abduct Courtney all of a sudden and leave behind a trail of signals along the way? Wouldn’t he expose his whereabouts completely by doing so?
At first, Oliver thought this might have been a smokescreen. However, after doing some data analysis and radar tracking, he confirmed that the trail of signals indeed originated from one of the 13 islands in the middle of the river.
Cameron wasn’t an unreasonable person either. Since what mattered the most at the moment was to save Courtney, she didn’t say anything else. However, she demanded, “Have your men tell the police department to release Elijah.”
Alexander’s expression changed a little.
Oliver argued, “Cameron, it wasn’t Alexander who got Elijah detained in the first place. It was Elijah who—”
“Cut that bullshit.” Cameron shot Oliver an angry look. “Elijah barged into the Duncans’ villa because Alexander’s got a record. Since he’d done it before, it’d be safe to assume that he might do it again, right? If I were Elijah, I would also suspect right away that Courtney was being hidden in the Duncans’ villa. You guys have the police detain Elijah on this excuse because you don’t want him to get involved in this, am I right? Hurry up and release him.”
Oliver still wanted to say something, but Alexander had taken out his cell phone and made a phone call. “Tell the police department to stop detaining him.”
Cameron’s expression finally softened after Alexander hung up the phone.
With that, Alexander and Oliver arranged for someone to carry out the next step.
No ordinary people could get in touch with drug dealers, so Oliver told his classmates who had joined the previous anti-narcotics operation about what had happened. Luckily, almost all of them agreed to help. After all, they had offended Dragon after what had happened before, so they couldn’t really just obey their higher-ups’ instructions and sit around doing nothing.
Finally, Oliver said, “We’ve gotten in touch with a dealer. Our guy will be meeting him tomorrow at Club Supernova’s back door. This time, we’ll start with ten servings. The one who’ll be meeting our guy is a guy who looks as skinny as a monkey.”
And thus began the operation.
…
From Poppy’s intermittent narration, Courtney put together a rough picture of the situation on the whole island.
On the island were Dragon’s most trusted men, and there were over 20 of them. Every day, eight men would patrol the island in four directions in pairs to prevent outsiders from reaching the island. They were replaced by eight other people at night, and this was repeated every day.
However, some of them had been staying on the island all the time. One of them was Fatso, who had been doing woodwork in the yard; the second was Lil’ Mackaque, who did nothing but suck up to other people all day long, whereas the third was Buffy, a stern, unsmiling man who was responsible for carrying out secret missions for Dragon. The other two were Britney and Dragon himself.
It had been three days since Courtney was brought to the island. Some men had come in one after another during this period of time, but Poppy dealt with them instead and had Courtney hide in the corner and keep quiet. According to her, since she was already in such a state anyway, she might as well accept Courtney’s favor so that it would be easier for her to start all over again when they got out of the island in the future.
Courtney hadn’t seen Britney again since her first night on the island. Puzzled, she asked, “Does your cousin rarely come out?”
“She’s no longer my cousin.” Poppy’s face was frosty. “I feel sick to the core whenever I think of that b*tch.” After cursing Britney for a while, she seemed to feel somewhat more comfortable. She explained with a grave expression, “Dragon isn’t easy to please. I’ve heard from those men that he’s got a weird habit. If he’s taken drugs before sleeping with Britney, he’ll hurt her badly when the drugs go to his head. Judging from the sound in his room on the night you came, she probably won’t be coming out for a long time.”
Courtney’s heart shuddered at Poppy’s words, and she almost trembled in an instant. Luckily, I was clever enough that day. If I had really let Britney bring me to Dragon, I would’ve been dead by now, she thought.
Poppy darted a glance at her before changing the subject. “What you said before… Is it all true?”
“Of course.” Courtney nodded. “I don’t know about the others, but Fatso’s definitely not an ordinary man. Since he’s the one Dragon trusts the most, it’d be best to start with him.”
“But how did you figure out that he has a kid?”
“Just take a look at what he does outside every day.” Courtney lifted a corner of the old newspaper covering the window. As light spilled into the room, one could see what was going on in the yard through the mottled window.
Fatso was sitting on a wooden stool while planing a piece of wood with the plane in his hand. Placed at his feet was a small chair that was almost completed and a wooden basin that had a carved wooden duckling in it.
Keeping her voice down, Courtney said, “Who else do you think these things are for if not for a kid?”
