Chpater 78 | A heart like a rock I

If you like my translation, be sure you become a patron!

PATRE0N.C0M/shanefreak

If you find any error, do comment!

....

It was a rainy night in Gotham. The rain in Gotham was always delicate and prolonged, with a bone-chilling coldness that corroded the soul. The raindrops, illuminated by the streetlights, looked like a gray web. When they reached the ground, each drop would splash tiny water droplets.

The sound of an engine came from the end of a dark alley, accompanied by the sound of water. The noise from the tires on the uneven road surface grew louder and louder as the car approached the back door of the police station. When the blinding headlights appeared, Gordon knew he was in trouble.

A stretched luxury car stopped in front of Gordon, and he saw the reflection of a rifle barrel on the car window. A person nodded at him in the rearview mirror. No one said a word, and the whole process was as quiet as the night in Gotham.

Gordon took a deep breath and touched the handgun on his waist. Although the handgun had just been equipped with new parts, it didn't give him any sense of security. In this city, the police couldn't rely on their guns to gain any law enforcement power, and they couldn't even protect themselves.

A man in a black suit got out of the car and opened the door for Gordon. Gordon looked at his watch. It was 9:12 in the evening, and he was going to miss dinner with Barbara again.

In the end, Gordon got into the car. When the car started, he looked out the window. The neon sign of a store flashed by in his field of vision, leaving behind a glowing trace of red and blue. Raindrops hit the car window, blurring these glows into an indistinct halo.

Gordon said, "Who am I going to see?"

"You'll find out when you meet him," the person sitting in the passenger seat replied.

As the car drove on a bumpy road, it shook a bit. The headlights flashed on different buildings. Soon, it turned into an alley that Gordon had never been to before. He knew it should be in the East District, and it was on the edge of the most dangerous area in the East District.

He got out of the car, and the man in the black suit led him to the front door of a mansion. Two people with guns stood in front of the gate. One of them walked up to Gordon. Gordon put his hands on his forehead, and the person took away the gun on his waist. After a thorough search to confirm that he had no weapons, Gordon followed the guide into the mansion.

The mansion was decorated very luxuriously, with bright lights inside, but there were not many people around. Gordon went upstairs and the person leading the way opened a door, revealing a sturdy figure. He knew that it was Sal Maroni, the newly appointed head of the East District.

Maroni turned around, he wasn't handsome and looked a bit fierce, with his mouth always firmly downward and his eyes slightly upturned in a wicked way.

He turned the ring on his hand and said, "Captain, please sit down. It's presumptuous of me to invite you here tonight."

"I don't know what's happened to the gang members nowadays. You all seem polite and courteous, as if you're more like a cop than I am."

Gordon's response was rude, and he didn't follow Maroni's suggestion to sit down but stood up straight.

Maroni's expression changed, but he didn't seem to mind Gordon's offense. He said, "I invited you here to talk business, you know, the kind of business that gangs often discuss."

"I don't do business with gangs."

"Oh?" Maroni laughed, "That's quite novel. I've heard some of your people say my offer wasn't enough, but I've never heard of anyone who doesn't want to work with gangs."

"The fact is, I don't work with any gangs."

"Why did you get involved with the Godfather's business? Your outdoor task force must have made a lot of money from his private prison, right?"

"I'm just doing my job as a police officer, fighting crime is the duty of the police," Gordon said.

He was telling the truth. Even though he knew that the criminals he arrested only brought in higher revenue for the Godfather, his own actions were indeed about apprehending criminals. If this behavior could bring him profit, it was even better. But if not, Gordon would continue to persevere, after all, he had done so even before getting involved in this business, and he was the only one doing so.

"My conditions are very simple, you don't have to do anything, just delay and find various reasons to stop the outdoor task force from going out."

Maroni spread his hands and said, "How simple! All you have to do is nothing, and I will offer you a price that satisfies you."

Gordon said, "I can see that you have been imitating the Godfather. I have never met Mr. Falcone myself, but I know that Gotham has countless poor imitators of him, thinking they speak elegantly, polite and courteous, using similar tones and even imitating his Italian accent."

"But it doesn't matter, Mr. Maroni. You are not Falcone, and Gotham will not have a second Falcone, at least not now. Gotham belongs to the Godfather, not you."

Maroni's face darkened completely, as Gordon voiced his concern. He had indeed been imitating Falcone, or as Gordon put it, too many people in Gotham were imitating the Godfather.

Although they had never finished high school, they imitated Falcone, using all kinds of sophisticated language, and forcing a short sentence into a complex, grammatically correct long sentence.

They wore suits, ties, flowers on their chest, and held pens instead of handguns, just like the Godfather.

Falcone was the benchmark of Gotham City, his charisma was too strong that all the gang leaders were imitating him, including Maroni.

When you come to Gotham, you will be surprised that the gangs don't kidnap you, but rather come to your doorstep silently in a black luxury car on a rainy night, and then sit behind a black desk in a luxuriously decorated room, dressed in formal attire, with polite manners, and converse with you.

They don't look like gangs, but rather a group of old-fashioned nobles, all influenced by Falcone. (XD)

This is what makes Maroni ashamed, because he is different from others. He never succumbed to the Godfather's power. He thinks he is destined to overthrow Falcone, but he has to admit that he has been imitating the Godfather all along.

And he didn't imitate well, Maroni doesn't like wearing suits at all. He doesn't have the elegance that the Godfather possesses, even a well-ordered suit can't hide his barbarism.

But Falcone represents the most glorious era of Gotham gangs, and his every move is marked by the traces of that turbulent era. This kind of temperament, which comes from the precipitation of that golden age, the kind of power that seems to have everything in control, fascinates Maroni.

He is full of malicious intentions to replace the Godfather, but at the same time, like all the people in Gotham, he is also full of sincere respect for the Godfather.

Gordon looked at Maroni's silence and said, "Do you know? Even before entering this door, I knew that it wasn't the Godfather who invited me, even though you used his favorite car model and his most common way of inviting people."

"Is that so? Why?" Maroni asked.

"If it were Falcone who invited me today, I wouldn't have been searched or disarmed. The Godfather doesn't care if I have weapons on me when I see him because he is much more confident than you are."

Maroni was almost unable to maintain his disguise. Every word Gordon said hit him hard, and it was all true.

When Falcone invites someone to talk, he doesn't disarm them, even if they are a notorious killer. He dares to sit behind the table, less than two meters away from those people, unarmed, and persuade them with words alone.

But Maroni didn't dare.

How could he let a well-trained old cop with a gun approach him within two meters? He had no confidence at all, and he had to guard against Gordon's sudden attack. He didn't even know why Falcone dared to do that.

Maroni never understood why the Godfather was so confident that no one dared to lay a hand on him. In his view, if he made one mistake, all his efforts would be in vain under the sound of gunfire, and he would never give anyone that opportunity.

He felt that his caution was not wrong, but it did not prevent him from feeling a sense of shame that he had been defeated before the fight. He said to Gordon in a low voice, "Do you think your actions are wise? Provoking me repeatedly on my turf?!"

"Are you dropping the disguise now?" Gordon asked him, "Your language was no different from that of the street thugs just now. You didn't use any complex vocabulary because you thought I had seen through the truth, so there was no need to pretend anymore, right?"

Maroni waved his hand, and behind him, there was a click as a bullet loaded into a chamber, the sound echoing in the room. The man in the suit behind Maroni held a shotgun pointed straight at Gordon.

Gordon shook his head and said, "This is the difference between you and Falcone, Maroni. You brought me here under the pretense of discussing business, but in this world, there's no reason to kill someone just because a business deal didn't go through. You're still stuck in your gang ways. If I don't agree to your terms, you'll point a gun at me and force me to comply."

"So why did you bother sending a car and men to bring me here? You might as well have hired some thugs like the other gangs in the East District, tied me up in a basement, punched me a couple of times, and then pointed a gun at my head and asked for my agreement."

"Enough." Maroni said, taking a deep breath and waving his hand. The person behind him lowered the gun, and he continued, "You're smart, Commissioner Gordon. Tonight, I can let you leave, not because I'm emulating anyone, but because I'm being merciful and giving you a chance to think. If you change your mind, you know where to find me."

Gordon walked out of the mansion, his shirt almost soaked with sweat. (XD)

Only he knew just how dangerous it had been just now. If he hadn't repeatedly provoked Maroni with references to Falcone, triggering Maroni's rebellious mindset, he might not have been able to leave the mansion in one piece.

The cold wind of Gotham blew against his body, and the fine raindrops fell on his face. He walked back slowly, thinking that he wasn't wrong in what he had said. Maroni was far inferior to Falcone, and he had clearly offended Maroni with his tactics.

If Falcone had invited him tonight, regardless of whether Gordon had used these tricks to provoke him or not, the boss wouldn't have even spared a car to take him back.

With these thoughts in mind, Gordon looked up at the night sky of Gotham, raindrops falling into his eyes. He wiped his face and then realized that this trouble was far from over.

[ShaneFreak: Man, now I know why I liked this novel... There is nothing to laugh but I can't stop laughing....]

[Now, I will be translating this novel, and upload 3-4 chapter a day on webnovel, and all extra chapters will be uploaded to patre@n, Become a PATR0N today!]

__________

Find any error and become helper of the day!