Chapter 396 We’ll Start With Him, Then
Courtney only felt sick to the stomach as she clutched the corner of the table for support, retching up nothing but stomach acids.
Just then, she heard a strangled, intermittent cry from the bed behind her. When she looked back, she saw Poppy biting into her arm with all her might. Her eyes were bloodshot, and she showed no signs of relaxing her bite even when her arm started bleeding.
“Are you crazy?” Courtney hurried toward Poppy and grabbed her arm. “Hurry up and stop biting your arm! You wanna die here?”
If Poppy broke the main artery, no one would treat her in this wilderness. Only one thing awaited her then—death.
However, Poppy wasn’t swayed by Courtney’s words. She was still biting into her wrist as hard as possible, causing her wrist to bleed nonstop.
In a moment of desperation, Courtney lowered her voice and chided, “You’ve done so many things for Britney, yet you try to kill yourself now that you’ve gotten in her way. Keeping her interests in mind, eh?”
Poppy’s expression changed. Stunned, she stared blankly at Courtney and loosened her bite on her wrist.
Courtney continued, “There are many ways to die if you want to. Well, all your troubles will end when you die, but the living are gonna live on. If you think your death can bring any change to the living, I’d say such a price is too heavy. And besides, someone like Britney will just have you disposed of in the mountains to feed the wolves if you’re dead.”
Poppy’s face turned pale at her words. Trembling, she said, “S-She’s not human.”
“Indeed, she’s not human. She’s a madwoman.” Courtney took the opportunity to pull Poppy’s wrist away from her mouth. Then, she ripped a strip from the bedsheet and quickly bandaged Poppy’s wound with it to stop the bleeding. “What kind of a person do you think that woman is? After all, she followed a bunch of drug dealers to such a desert island instead of leading a better life. And besides, she’s got someone’s blood on her hands.”
Poppy was taken aback. “Blood? You mean she killed someone?”
Seems like she doesn’t know what happened to Louis. Putting Poppy’s hand back in place, Courtney explained with a straight face, “Britney killed someone, which is why she’s wanted by the police wherever she goes. She can only follow these people around because she’s got no other choice. But you’re different. You only have a petty criminal record. As long as you get out of here and go to a place where nobody knows you, you can still start all over again. You’re still young, after all.”
Poppy seemed afraid to think of such a possibility, and she was still in a daze as she listened to Courtney.
Courtney let her stay alone as she went over to the door. After knocking on the door, she shouted at Fatso, who was guarding them outside, and asked him for a tub of clean, tepid water and a towel. After bringing the water and towel in, she wiped Poppy’s body clean, saying, “Everything can start afresh after it’s cleaned as long as you can overcome your problems.”
“But how can we ever get out of here?”
“Well, there’ll be a way as long as we don’t sit around doing nothing.” Courtney lowered her voice. “It seems to me that we’re not really under close watch here, and there aren’t many people around. If we work together and tear down the window, we might have a chance to run away from here.”
Poppy darted a look at the back window beside her, which had been sealed shut, before looking down at her bandaged wrist. Then, she shook her head, saying, “It’s not as easy as you think it is. If it really were that easy, I would’ve run away from here long ago. The fat guy at the door’s keeping an eye on everything.”
From the corner of her eye, Courtney gazed at the figure outside through the mottled window. “We’ll start with him, then.”
…
Meanwhile, in the room of an inn in the riverside village, Oliver was analyzing the current situation using the tracking device attached to the computer, marking about a dozen islands on the map where Courtney could’ve been one by one. “The range covered by the signal’s too wide. There are 13 islands in total, and there’s no way to determine which island Courtney’s been taken to. It’d be too time-consuming to search the islands one by one.”
“What about we let the police handle this instead?” Cameron looked very worried. “The police have plenty of manpower, so why don’t we let them search all the 13 islands at the same time? Whichever island Courtney’s on, they probably won’t alert the drug dealers as long as they reach all the islands at the same time.”
Gale nodded in agreement. “I think so, too.”
“No, we can’t do that,” Alexander disagreed flatly. “The drug-trafficking ring must have its own counter-surveillance equipment. With so many people setting out to the river all of a sudden, those drug dealers are gonna kill her and flee if anything wrong happens. It’d be impossible for so many police officers to hide themselves well.”
“So? Don’t tell me you’re gonna go search for Courtney alone?” Gale got anxious as well. “Do you think you have superhuman powers? You’re courting death for nothing!”
“There’s another way.” Alexander exchanged a brief look with Oliver. Then, he said calmly, “The drug-trafficking ring has suffered a lot since the crackdown on drugs last year, and they’ve not done any business for a long time. As long as someone dares to buy drugs from them right now, there’ll be a way to lure them out. As long as most of the people on the island are lured away, what’s left will be an empty shell, which is nothing to worry too much about.”
“You wanna get involved in drug trafficking?” Gale’s eyes started in disbelief. “Are you crazy?”
What Alexander suggested was workable in theory. However, if there was any slip-up during the process, not only would Courtney be in danger, but Alexander, who took part in the operation, would lose his life as well.
Despite being in operation for ten years, Dragon’s drug-trafficking ring was never wiped out—the reason being, he was an extremely cautious man. When the situation was tense, he could lie low for a couple of years without showing his face so that no one could trace his whereabouts. When everyone believed that he might have fled abroad or quit the business, he would quietly stretch out his claws.
In other words, Alexander had proposed a theoretical solution to a case that all the narcotics agents in the country had been unable to solve. The solution wasn’t guaranteed to be safe, but it might have been done before.
“I think we can give it a try,” Oliver chimed in with deep furrows in his brow. “I looked through the case files. Three years ago, Kyoto’s Anti-Narcotics Squad tried infiltrating Dragon’s drug-trafficking ring in such a way, but they saw through it, and three narcotics agents died as a result. But that was when Dragon was at the height of his power, and this time it’s different. This time, they’ve suffered heavy losses. If Dragon doesn’t come out and secure a deal or two, his underlings might not be willing to live on an empty stomach with him. And besides, our purpose this time isn’t to gain Dragon’s trust.”
“What do you mean?” Gale asked.
Oliver’s eyes were dark and fathomless. “We start with his underlings. Even if he lies low, his underlings need money to eat. No one will be willing to work with him if he can’t feed those underlings. If we ask around a little on the black market, we’ll find out someone’s still doing these. It’s just that everyone’s still testing the waters because of what happened before.”
“What makes you so confident that they’ll trust you?”
“Money.” Oliver shot a glance at Alexander. “They won’t trust anyone since they only believe in money. As long as there’s money, the deal will definitely be made.”
Gale’s face was taut the whole time. However, seeing how determined both Alexander and Oliver looked, he knew there was no way he could talk them out of this. He asked with resignation, “Well then, what are you guys gonna do?”
