You're a US police officer, what are you thinking about going back to the East for?

Chapter 126 Subduing Carlos

"Are you done talking?"

Lyon's brows furrowed tightly, and he did not soften his stance despite Carlos's tearful confession.

"Stop pretending to be a victim in front of me."

"Let's make this clear. It's true that your wife and children were kidnapped, which is terrible, but the root of all this is you."

"You're a hopeless gambler who's also gotten involved with the mafia."

"Those Mexicans deserved to die, but you're no better. The only innocent people in this whole affair are your wife and daughter."

Lyon knew all too well what a gambler was like; he'd seen plenty of guys like that in his two years as a policeman.

Carlos casually remarked, "I gambled away all the family's money and am now drowning in debt," as if he didn't care much about the consequences.

But in reality, behind that short sentence lies countless disgusting things that would make Leon want to shoot him on the spot.

When a gambler is blinded by greed, there are no limits to what is acceptable.

Using children's tuition fees to gamble, deceiving all the relatives and friends he could contact to borrow money, and maxing out his wife's credit cards are all just routine operations.

Moreover, Carlos is no weakling. He's a special operations police officer with a gun who deals with gangsters every day.

When those loan sharks came knocking on his door with IOUs, who knows if Carlos ever considered using the safety of his wife and daughters as leverage?

"You know in your heart how desperate your wife and daughters must feel when a policeman, blinded by greed, goes crazy at home."

"So don't expect me to keep you here just because I pity you."

Lyon stared at Carlos, his tone icy: "If I have any sympathy, it's only for your unfortunate wife and innocent child."

"If you want to stay at ACU, then you have to work for me."

Carlos opened his mouth, his face ashen, but he couldn't utter a single word of explanation and could only silently lower his head.

Lyon looked at him, quickly calculating the benefits in his mind.

Emotionally, he wanted to pull out his gun and shoot the gambling addict right now. But rationally, Carlos's value was immeasurable.

Mexicans would proactively provide Carlos with intelligence.

What does this mean?

A constant stream of high-value system tasks!

Moreover, these are ready-made targets that come to him without him needing to investigate. Today he raids a local drug factory, tomorrow he dismantles a gang's warehouse—these are all massive amounts of justice points.

Moreover, Carlos is a two-way player in the paint.

Since he could pass on police intelligence to Mexicans, Níón could take advantage of this to fabricate false intelligence for him, guiding the Sinaloa Cartel's assassins to attack politicians or corrupt police officers whom he disliked but was reluctant to deal with directly due to his position.

Even in the future, when one's attributes and skills are strong enough, and one has enough resources at hand, there is a real chance to follow the clues and directly confront the Sinaloa Group's Seattle branch.

That's an enormous sum of money! I can't even imagine it.

Having made up his mind, Leon looked at Carlos and stated his terms.

"From today onwards, you must abide by my rules. There are three conditions."

"First, you must report all intelligence and instructions given to you by the Mexicans, no matter how small, to me immediately. I will decide which gang to target, when to target them, and how to target them."

"Secondly, all the information you provide to the Mexicans must be prepared and verified by me in advance. You have to say whatever I tell you to say to them. Even if I tell you to tell them that the Seattle Police Department is disbanding tomorrow, you have to do it."

At this point, Leon paused for a moment: "Third, and most importantly: absolutely ban gambling."

"This is the bottom line. If I ever find you touching another playing card again—"

Lyon pointed to Carlos's left leg, which was hanging in mid-air and in a cast: "I'll break your right leg myself, and then throw you out into the street to feed the coyotes."

"Did you understand?"

Carlos, lying in his hospital bed, did not hesitate for a moment.

"clear."

He nodded heavily, his eyes red-rimmed.

He had already revealed his identity completely, which was tantamount to handing over his life and fortune to Lyon.

No matter how demanding Lyon's requests were, he had to agree to anything that would allow him to stay at ACU, and there was no room for negotiation.

Lyon frowned again as he looked at Carlos.

Finally, he couldn't help but sigh.

The guy in front of him was giving Leon an extremely eerie feeling, like a string stretched to its limit. If news of his kidnapped wife and daughter's death came tomorrow, Leon felt that Carlos would definitely find a gun, shove it in his mouth, and pull the trigger immediately.

Lyon wasn't really sure what kind of feelings Carlos had for his wife and daughters.

But given how he once drove his family to the brink of collapse because of gambling, the symbolic significance of this kidnapped mother and daughter in Carlos's heart probably far exceeds any actual familial affection.

They might be more like Carlos's hope for a normal life.

"Alright."

Lyon stood up and straightened his clothes.

"If I have the chance in the future, I'll keep an eye out for their whereabouts for you."

Carlos suddenly held his breath.

Before he could even show a grateful expression, Leon poured cold water on him: "But don't get your hopes up too high, and I won't make any promises to you."

"This is a transnational kidnapping case. Who knows if your wife and daughter are still in some basement in Seattle, or have already been transferred to another state in the United States? It's even possible that they have already been loaded into a shipping container, transported out of the United States, and arrived in Mexico."

"With my current capabilities as a special operations team leader in a branch office, the probability of me finding them is almost zero."

After saying that, Leon placed his hand on the doorknob, pushed open the ward door, and left with a final sentence: "Also, don't flatter yourself."

"I just said I'd keep an eye out for you, it's none of your business, you don't need to thank me."

"It's simply because I hate human traffickers. That's all."

The door clicked shut, and Leon's figure disappeared down the corridor, leaving Carlos alone in the ward.

The man with the broken leg looked at the closed door, and tears finally welled up in his eyes.

He covered his mouth tightly to stop himself from crying, but his shoulders were trembling violently.

"Thank you—thank you—"

[Large-scale regional mission: Breeding Ground of Sin has been completed]

[Settlement: You led your team to take down a large gang stronghold that combined prostitution, gambling, and drugs.]

As the commander of the operation, you effectively allocated manpower. Aside from smashing the nose of a gang leader, the entire team performed their duties efficiently, maintaining control of the situation and preventing the anticipated bloody firefight.

Participation rate: 40%

[Actual amount distributed: 320 Justice Points]