CHAPTER 46: THE LOCATION

Michael was dumbfounded by Kate’s request. At the moment, Kate was not acting as a police officer at all.

In normal situations, if a police officer saw people fighting, they would definitely intervene.

And right now, in front of Kate, Michael and Steve had already made an agreement, that they would meet later on to settle the score between them.

Now, Kate actually wanted to tag along. Michael was wondering, what could her intentions be?

"Why do you want to come? It is not as if I’m going to play around, you know that, right?" Michael asked while gazing at Kate intently, trying to see through her.

Kate was slightly irritated upon hearing Michael’s question. She had her own pride, so, how could she just tolerate Michael thinking of her like this? Was he not looking down on her?

"I agree that I might not be as strong as you are, but I do have some ability. I know that you are going to deal with the gangsters, so, do you think that I will come over to play around?

I’m coming over because I want to deal with Dante as well. Additionally, in case of anything, maybe I might be of assistance." Kate responded with a slight frown on her face.

Looking at the disgruntled expression on Kate’s face, Michael was slightly surprised. After all, during the first encounter with her, this lady was quite domineering.

Looking at her right now, she did not look anything like she did back then. Well, she had quite changed during the other encounter in the apartment that he had rented.

"Okay then. But let me tell you, don’t come over and expect me to be in charge of protecting you. You already know, they are going to have guns. If you don’t have a method of protecting yourself against bullets, then don’t put your life at risk." Michael stated before walking away.

Michael’s impression of Kate was not bad. Apart from the first encounter between them, there was actually nothing that had happened that could worsen his impression of her.

And, considering that she came over to help the children at the orphanage, his slightly negative impression of her turned slightly positive.

But even then, it was not as though he would go out of his way to protect her. Yes, she was a beauty, and he was impressed. But leaving that aside, it was not as though he was the one who asked her to come along.

If there was a chance of helping her out, Michael really did not mind. But if it involved putting his life at risk, now that was a completely different matter.

Kate looked at Michael as he walked away, then began contemplating on something. In the end, she just shook her head, as if she did not want to go through with the idea that had popped up in her mind.

...

About an hour later, Michael, who was relaxing within the dormitory. He was reading about driving different types of vehicles, when he suddenly heard a notification sound coming from the phone that he had taken from the gangster.

Taking the phone, Michael realized that it was a message, sharing a location.

Looking at the location that was shared, Michael realized that it was Dante or Steve who had sent it over. This guy had saved the contact as boss, and Steve was also referred to as boss by the gangsters around him.

So, it was a little difficult for Michael to be able to tell which boss the guy was talking about.

Regardless, Michael was happy about the location that they had selected. It was at the very outskirts of the city, where there were quite a number of abandoned buildings.

There was an old factory that was abandoned for several years now, and this was the location that had been shared.

Judging from the distance from that abandoned factory to the nearest settlement, even if there was a gunshot there, it would be impossible for the people living around to hear it.

Accompanying the location shared, there was a time for the meeting, which was 7:00 p.m.

Currently, it was still in the morning hours, almost noon. So, there were several hours left to go until the appointed time.

Michael did not think much about this, and instead, focused on increasing the driving skills to the advanced level.

While he understood that it was impossible for him to be able to advance the skill to the advanced level in a short while, putting in a little more effort was not a problem.

At least, the effort put in right now would account for something later on. So, thereafter, he just focused on reading, taking a break during lunch hours, and continued reading till evening.

Kate had left a little after Michael had managed to drive away Steve and the other crooks. She claimed that she would be back in the evening, believing that the gangsters would want to solve their issues during night hours.

By the time that it was 5:00 p.m., Kate came over. It seemed that she was quite prepared, considering that she came in her casual clothes, but carried a gun with her.

Michael, upon seeing that Kate came with a gun, he thought of something. He could purchase a gun from the system store.

But then again, he thought, there was no need for that. After all, not to mention that he did not know how to use a gun, he did not think that there was any need for it.

Even without using a gun, he was confident that he would be able to handle the members of the shadow assembly gang. And, Michael thought of the possibility of Dante inviting Daniel from the Phantom gang.

So, Michael was kind of prepared to face more than just the shadow assembly. This was why he had told Kate that there was a possibility that he might not be able to protect her.

Kate went ahead and began conversing with Rebecca and the girls in the orphanage, chatting about to pass time and ease her nervousness.

She was obviously nervous, considering that they were going to face a group of gangsters that had guns with them.

Handling them would not be that easy. And, there was a possibility that she might end up being shot, and if it was a vital area, if she was not rescued soon, she would die.

But even then, she was still having the intention of going. At least, she had to make sure that Dante paid for his actions.

By now, she understood, it was not going to be that easy for her to be able to collect criminal evidence on Dante, as she did not have enough time.

She could just use her family influence to make sure that Dante was locked in prison. But as a police officer, she preferred to find evidence against someone, before making an arrest.

She already knew about the criminal activities that Dante had been carrying out, but without evidence, it was just rumors.

The evidence that was collected against him, during the previous raid, had already been dealt with, she had no doubt about that.

During the time that she had arrested Michael, she did not really pay much attention to Dante. But now, she needed the evidence against him, but there was none.

The evidence that was collected and taken to the police station had obviously been dealt with by now. After all, if Dante’s subordinates had been released, it meant that the connections used to have them released were not simple.

Additionally, considering that Edward had been transferred away, the person who had been brought over to replace him, had obviously already been bought over.

....

Drenn city outskirts, a former industrial district...

Almost the entire district was abandoned, with no development ongoing. This area mostly had factories, and factory workers’ residences.

Due to how rampant the criminal activities within the city had been, the workers and factory activities had been hindered, leading to the two factories in the area being closed down.

After the factories were closed down, nobody had been able to occupy this piece of land, as it was claimed by the government.

It was not that easy to be able to hand over this piece of land to someone else, despite many people who eyed this piece of land having some connections with the higher-ups within the city.

It had already been several years since the factories were shut down. The buildings, due to lack of maintenance, some of them had already begun collapsing, while others had their paint chipped off.

Some buildings had mold growing on the walls, with thick vegetation covering almost the entire district.

At the very outskirts of the city, at the very edge of the district, there was an old abandoned factory.

Rust covered its steel walls, and shattered windows gaped like hollow eyes. Inside, broken machines and scattered crates lay beneath a thick layer of dust.

The air smelled of metal and decay. Outside, tall grass swayed around cracked concrete paths.

The place was completely silent, as there was no one here.

The silence was broken a few minutes later, as the humming of car engines sounded, approaching.

Several vans suddenly arrived outside the factory, with the car tires trampling the tall grass and other vegetation that had grown out in this place.

Soon after the cars stopped, several people, armed with different types of weapons alighted from the vehicles. And from the passenger seat of one of the vehicles, Dante alighted as well.