Starting from South America, speeding through the world

Chapter 298 The dead are the most important

At ten o'clock in the morning, the sun hung high in the sky, making the dust on the street corner appear white.

Occasionally, the sound of a trumpet could be heard coming from the church.

That was the background music for the funeral procession, slow and somber.

A dilapidated Chevrolet van was parked in the shadows in the distance.

A young man with a buzz cut was sitting in the driver's seat, with an action camera strapped to his chest.

Next to him was a fat man wearing sunglasses, fiddling with a small drone.

"I heard that more than just Sinaloa people came today." The man with the buzz cut licked his lips.

"This is a rare and grand occasion."

"Nonsense, Juan Salazar's mother is dead, who would dare not come to mourn?"

"He's not some nobody."

The fat man's eyes lit up with excitement.

"This is a major scoop. Just think about it, 'the inside story of a drug lord's funeral' has been exposed."

"It's so damn relevant to current hot topics."

Upon hearing this, the man with the buzz cut gave a nervous laugh.

"I think we're dying faster than we're uploading."

"Who cares?" The fat man shrugged indifferently.

"This is a chance to get millions of views on YouTube!"

"Do you know how many advertisers are throwing money at these kinds of videos right now?"

This time, the man with the buzz cut didn't argue anymore; he was clearly persuaded.

Just then, a silver-gray pickup truck turned in from the street corner.
It then slowly stopped on the right, completely blocking the view of the church.

"Damn it." The fat man frowned in dissatisfaction and craned his neck to look outside.

"Can you fucking move forward a little bit?"

The pickup truck remained motionless.

The fat man was a little angry. He put down the drone controller and was just about to get out of the car—

Click.

The pickup truck's door opened.

Two masked men, tall and fully armed, came down.

His jacket was half-open, revealing a tactical vest underneath, which was full of magazines.

They walked straight up to the fat man, knocked on the car window, and gestured for him to roll it down.

The fat man shuddered in fright and instinctively tried to do as he was told, but the man with the buzz cut held him down firmly.

"Are you fucking crazy?!"

The next second—

"boom!"

The butt of the gun smashed the glass, and shards splashed onto the two men.

Jim reached in, ripped off the buzz cut's camera, and hung it around his neck.

After that, he made a "don't move" gesture and walked side by side with Zhou Yi toward the church.

The exterior walls were painted white, and a wooden cross hung above the iron gate.

The yard was covered by a blue and white striped awning.

The wreaths were arranged in rows, tied with ribbons that read "Descansa en Paz".

The smell of burning incense and candles mixed with gasoline under the scorching sun, sticking stickily to the skin.

There were many black SUVs parked in the yard, with dark-tinted windows and clean bodies.

At least six people were on guard, with pistols and walkie-talkies hanging from their waists.

On the steps, the pastor was chanting, but it was hard to hear clearly in the heat.

Zhou Yi and Jim quietly circled around to the back and pressed themselves against the half-person-high cement wall.

There were piles of bricks and scrap wood there, which conveniently blocked the view of the outer sentries.

Jim pointed slightly with his index finger toward the corner ahead.

Zhou Yi nodded, took out a lens from his pocket, and carefully adjusted the angle—

Two armed men in plainclothes stood in the shade.

One was looking down at his phone, while the other was turning around and scanning the street.

Zhou Yi leaned down close, pinched the man's mouth with his left hand, and suddenly pulled his head back.

At the same time, he gripped the knife handle with his right hand and stabbed it under his ear.

As the artery was slashed open, fresh blood gushed out, and a loud thud was heard coming from the throat.

Zhou Yi casually tossed the body aside, removed the magazine and walkie-talkie, and stuffed them into his vest. At the same time, Jim's target also fell, bloodstains sliding down the wall.

The two looked at each other from less than three meters apart and continued to advance in tacit agreement.

The passageway leading inside is narrow, with benches arranged in two rows to allow for passage.

Zhou Yi moved first, lightly touching the ground with his toes, his body cutting out of cover.

Two muffled "plop" sounds almost overlapped—

The two bodyguards who were closest to the camera fell backward to the ground.

It wasn't until then that someone in the hall realized what was happening.

The shrill cries of "Confront the enemy!" were incessant, accompanied by the sound of heavy objects being overturned.

Two gunmen rushed over, ducked behind the wall, and fired, scattering bullets everywhere.

In an instant, plastic petals flew everywhere.

Zhou Yi kept moving, crouching against the right door frame, his gun muzzle slashing upwards—

Two bodyguards are lying on a bench trying to pull the AR-15.

Several shots hit right between the eyebrows.

Jim filled in on the opposite side, cut into the low sector, and hit the enemy rushing out from the corridor.

The man was shot in the calf and fell to the ground, groaning in pain.

Then, his head exploded and he never moved again.

Seeing that they were outmatched, the three bodyguards near the altar escorted Salazar to retreat to the back hall.

Another person lifted Uzi up to provide cover from behind.

After the gunfire, dust billowed up from the stone wall, and the air instantly became murky.

Zhou Yi remained unhurried, pulled out a smoke grenade, and tossed it low into the corridor entrance.

A white mist billowed out, cutting off visibility.

Soon, the left window was smashed, and two enemies tried to climb out and escape.

Jim anticipated this, pressed his left shoulder against the wall, and locked the gun barrel to the lower edge.

Two short bursts.

The leader's neck was broken, which frightened the second man so much that he immediately shrank back.

At the end, through the thermal imaging camera, someone was seen carrying Salazar and running away.

Zhou Yi raised his hand and made a gesture, and Jim pressed himself against the opposite wall and leaned forward.

The two men advanced in an alternating, orderly fashion, each charge accompanied by brief bursts of suppressive fire.

The benches outside the corridor had been overturned and used as makeshift shelters, with fresh bloodstains all around their edges.

Salazar was pinned tightly beneath the tall bodyguard.

His chest was pressed against the ground, his face was deathly pale, and his forehead was covered in cold sweat.

Jim gained the best line of sight first, lowered the muzzle of his gun slightly, and fired in an instant.

The bullet pierced the bodyguard's temporal bone.

His body leaned back, and the spray of blood mist landed on Salazar's back like warm, sticky rain.

Almost simultaneously, Zhou Yi also fired his gun.

The last person was shot through the jaw, bone fragments exploded from the back of the skull, and the body fell to the ground.

Under the intense gunfire, Salazar's ears were ringing, his vision was filled with white mist, and his throat felt blocked, preventing him from making a sound.

Zhou Yi quickly stepped forward, grabbed his collar with his left hand, and delivered a knee strike to his ribs.

Suddenly in pain, Salazar instinctively resisted, but Zhou Yi's strength was astonishing, and he easily controlled Salazar's struggle with one hand.

Then, he pulled out the ketamine syringe, bit off the protective cap, and plunged it into his thigh.

In less than five seconds, Salazar's eyes glazed over and his body slumped down.

Zhou Yi bent down, hoisted the person onto his shoulder, and began to retreat under Jim's cover.

Sporadic firing could still be heard from inside the church, as if it were a probing attack.

Jim immediately raised his gun and returned fire.

After several times, amidst screams, the surroundings finally quieted down.

The two returned along the same route, crouching low as they passed through the doorway, stepping onto the slippery ground covered with spent cartridge cases.

The sun was high in the sky, and the heat outside was still intense.

Zhou Yi tossed Salazar into the back of the truck with a thud, then turned and got into the driver's seat.

Jim grinned at the two dumbfounded young men, pulled their action cameras off his chest, and tossed them back to them.

"Happy funeral," he said. "Remember to upload it."

The silver-gray pickup truck started up, its tires kicking up dust as it sped straight onto the main road.

(End of this chapter)