Working as a police officer in Mexico.

Chapter 703: Rebellion and Crime Are Clearly Differentiated.

Just as Chief Schulz was laying a trap in Belize City to capture Ivan Petrenko.

On a remote road in the west of the city, near the border, a dilapidated taxi was bumping along, its wheels kicking up clouds of dust.

Inside the car, Ivan Petrenko's face was ashen. He kept urging the driver, "Faster! Faster! As long as we get out of Belize safely, I'll give you another $500!"

The driver was a dark-skinned, seemingly honest middle-aged local. He glanced through the rearview mirror at the anxious Ivan and his two equally nervous subordinates, whose hands were always on their waists, and mumbled a reply: "Sir, don't worry, I know this road very well. We'll get around the checkpoint in no time."

Ivan felt a little calmer, but a strong sense of crisis made him as easily frightened as a bird startled by the mere twang of a bow.

He was the first to receive a warning from an informant within the casino, even minutes before Fermín received the call.

Knowing full well that "objects from outer space" in Mexico would be punishable by death, he made a swift decision, taking only his two most trusted confidants and his most important cash and passport, abandoning most of his luggage and men, and immediately fled.

He originally planned to drive himself, but his underlings had taken the cars to deliver goods, so he had no choice but to risk hailing this seemingly ordinary taxi and offering the driver a large sum of money to smuggle him out of the country via a side road.

If we kill the driver, then nobody will know.

The car drove along an increasingly desolate road, flanked by dense tropical bushes. The night was deep, with only the headlights illuminating a small area ahead.

Ivan stared intently out the window, trying to figure out which way to go, but the unfamiliar surroundings made him increasingly uneasy.

"How much further?" he couldn't help but ask again.

"Almost there, almost there. Just turn that corner ahead, and we'll be there in a little while." The driver pointed to a dark bend ahead.

Ivan took a deep breath and forced himself to calm down.

Once you cross the border, the sky's the limit...

However, just as the taxi rounded the bend, its headlights illuminated a relatively open space ahead—

Swish!
Several extremely bright spotlights suddenly lit up from different directions, as if daytime had suddenly arrived, illuminating the taxi and the three people inside, leaving them nowhere to hide!

Ivan and his men were momentarily blinded by the bright light and instinctively covered their eyes with their hands.

Almost at the same time, the taxi braked suddenly and came to a stop!
The seemingly simple-minded driver, with an agility disproportionate to his size, suddenly pushed open the car door and darted out like a rabbit, running wildly towards the lights while shouting hoarsely in heavily accented Spanish:

"Sir! I'm the one who called the police. There are people on the bus trying to illegally cross the border out of the city!"

It wasn't until this moment that Ivan fully realized they had been betrayed by the taxi driver!

"Damn bastards! We've been tricked!" Ivan roared, instinctively reaching for his pistol.

But it's too late.

"Bang! Bang! Bang!"

A crisp and menacing gunshot pierced the night sky, the bullet hitting the open ground in front of the taxi with pinpoint accuracy, kicking up a cloud of dust.

"Listen up, people inside the car! You are surrounded! Put your hands on your heads and get out of the car to surrender!"

"Damn it, boss, let's fight them!"

"Yeah, boss, let's go for it."

The two trusted henchmen were furious. One of them pushed open the door and shouted, "You damn cops, killing one today is enough, killing two..."

What are you talking about?

Before he could finish speaking, the police in the distance opened fire, riddling the henchman who had just gotten out of the car with bullets. The henchman lay on the ground, convulsing, his eyes wide open, utterly dead.

Ivan and his remaining confidant witnessed their companion being riddled with bullets in an instant. Their survival instinct overwhelmed any thought of resistance. The two practically scrambled out of the taxi, raised their hands high, and collapsed onto the dusty ground, shouting hoarsely in heavily accented Spanish:
"Don't shoot! Surrender! We surrender!!"

Several beams of powerful flashlight light immediately locked onto them.

A team of police officers wearing bulletproof vests and carrying assault rifles cautiously approached, then roughly pinned the two men to the ground, searched them, and disarmed them in one swift motion.

A policeman who appeared to be a squad leader shone a flashlight on Ivan's disheveled face, which was covered in fear and dust. "Name?!"

Ivan Petrenko's heart pounded and his brain raced.

Was the police just conducting a routine questioning of illegal immigrants? Had they not yet connected me to the casino case? A sliver of hope sprouted in his heart like a poisonous weed.

He tried to remain calm and was just about to come up with a name.

Just then, the portable police radio tucked between the waist of the policeman holding him suddenly crackled to life, transmitting a clear command from the control center:
"Attention all intersections and border checkpoints: Focus your search on a Russian man named Ivan Petrenko, suspected of involvement in a major drug case. This man is extremely dangerous and may be carrying weapons. If spotted, immediately apprehend him and report the incident. To reiterate, target's name: Ivan Petrenko..."

Time seemed to freeze at this moment.

The police officer holding Ivan froze abruptly, and all the police officers around him suddenly focused their gazes on Ivan's pale face like searchlights.

The squad leader who had just asked the question slowly squatted down, almost pressing his face against Ivan's, the flashlight beam shining directly into his eyes.

Russians are, after all, different from Mexicans.

The race is obvious at a glance.

"Ivan Petrenko?"

It’s over.

It's all over.

Ivan Petrenko collapsed to the ground, his face ashen, having lost even the last bit of strength to struggle.

...

Director Schultz paced back and forth in his office, where the ashtray was overflowing with cigarette butts.

When the phone on his desk rang and he heard the message from the other end that "target Ivan Petrenko has been captured on the west side of the city and is being escorted away," he slammed his fist on the desk, making the teacup jump.

"Good! Well done!" Schultz's face was flushed with excitement, as if the fatigue and pressure of the past few days had vanished. "Keep a close eye on him. Send a whole squad of armored border patrol vehicles to pick him up. I want this Russian delivered to me with every hair on his head! Now!"

He put down the phone and rubbed his hands together excitedly.

Ivan Petrenko is the key to this case.

Catching him would mean a breakthrough in the case, not only providing Mr. Victor with a temporary explanation, but also eradicating the scourge lurking in the Special Administrative Region and even the wider area. He had even begun to outline the steps for interrogating Ivan and the series of arrests that would follow.

The order was issued swiftly.

A convoy consisting of three armored off-road vehicles and a modified heavy escort vehicle, carrying a full squad of elite special police officers, sped toward the arrest location to meet up with the team escorting Ivan.

However, before they could reunite, the convoy was traveling along a relatively remote but essential route to the city, a four-lane highway, when a sudden change occurred.

Suddenly, from a side road, a huge container truck rushed out without warning. Like an out-of-control steel behemoth, with its blinding high beams on, it crashed into the armored truck at an astonishing speed!
"boom!!!!!"

The deafening crash shattered the stillness of the night, like a thunderclap from a clear sky!
The armored truck was like a bowling pin that had been hit by a bowling ball; it was lightly knocked sideways and rolled away, with the rear hatch opening and people being thrown out.

Broken glass, twisted metal parts, and human remains were scattered everywhere.

The large transport truck involved in the accident was also severely damaged at the front, emitting black smoke, and stopped in the middle of the road. The driver appeared to have died on the spot.

The scene was horrific!
When Chief Schultz received the emergency report and rushed to the scene with a large number of reinforcements and ambulances, the sight before him struck him like a thunderbolt, leaving him blank and frozen in place.

The police car's rotating lights illuminated the area intermittently as rescuers desperately tried to pry open the deformed car door. The shouts of the paramedics and the sounds of metal cutting mingled together.

Schultz stepped into a sticky liquid and looked down to see it was still blood.

He saw the armored truck, now a pile of scrap metal, its body almost folded in half. Rescue workers were struggling to widen the space with hydraulic shears, and from inside were the mangled, blood-stained bodies of his elite special police officers.

"The brothers in the escort vehicle, including Ivan Petrenko, are preliminarily judged to be dead on the spot..." An officer with abrasions and tear stains on his face ran up to Schultz and reported in a choked voice.

After a preliminary examination, a forensic pathologist shook his head at Schultz and whispered, "Multiple fatal wounds, comminuted skull fracture, broken neck... no signs of life."

From heaven to hell, it took less than an hour.

Schultz felt a sweet, metallic taste rise to his throat, making him feel slightly dizzy.

This is definitely not an accident!

This is fucking murder!

It was a blatant and extremely arrogant provocation!
You're telling me there was a car accident on a four-lane road late at night? And what a coincidence?

It would be strange if they didn't ask about my legs!
"Investigate! Investigate for me!! Find out the origin of this car and all the driver's social connections."

"Understood, Chief."

……

The following morning, in Mexico City, on the private runway of the official residence next to the Chapultepec Forest.

Viktor, dressed in simple sportswear, was doing his daily morning run. His breathing was steady and rhythmic, and there was only a fine layer of sweat on his forehead.

The rising sun shines through the tall trees, casting dappled shadows on the tree-lined path.

George Smiley, one of the Thirteen, stood at the finish line, holding a thin folder in his hand. His expression was grave.

After finishing his last lap, Victor slowly stopped, took the towel handed to him by a servant, and walked towards Smiley while wiping his sweat. "George, so early, it doesn't seem like good news."

"Something has happened in Belize."

He gave a concise report on the Neptune casino drug case, the Alvarez family's report, the police headquarters' attempt to silence witnesses, Fermín and others' confessions, the capture of key figure Ivan Petrenko, and finally the "accidental" car crash that killed Ivan and several special police officers.

Victor listened until Smiley finished speaking, then he draped the towel over his shoulder, picked up a bottle of water, and took a sip.

"Humans have been making progress for thousands of years, but their methods of killing to silence witnesses are still the same old ones. They burn down factories, granaries, and account books at the end of the year, and kill imperial envoys when investigating smuggling. They do all sorts of things. Don't they know the difference between crime and treason?"

“We must dig deep, use every resource at our disposal, including the Ministry of the Interior and the police system, and investigate thoroughly, starting with that dead driver. I want to know who dared to use things that are explicitly prohibited by my rules on my turf, and who dared to provoke me in such a clumsy way.”

“Understood, sir!” Smiley replied solemnly.

Victor nodded, squinting. "Oh, by the way, haven't the people from Hong Kong already arrived?"

"Send them to Belize."

"Give this case, along with the Alvarez family witnesses, to them, and tell them that Mexico will provide all necessary military support and local coordination, but the lead in the investigation will be given to them."

Smiley paused for a moment, but immediately understood the intention: "You want to utilize their external and professional perspective, while..."

Viktor interrupted him and said the most crucial sentence: "The Chinese internet is ultimately understood best by the Chinese themselves. As for those things hidden behind the 'extraterrestrial objects,' let them investigate them themselves."

What a brilliant strategy to learn from China's strengths and use them to control China!
Asians are the people who understand Asian criminals best abroad.

"I'll arrange it immediately."

……

Mexico City Police Headquarters, Joint Task Force Temporary Office.

Li Wenbin and Zheng Chuyao are meeting with Mexican officials to familiarize themselves with the preliminary, scattered intelligence they have gathered regarding the influx of "extraterrestrial objects" into Mexico. The meeting is serious but relatively stable.

At that moment, the meeting room door was pushed open, and Undersecretary Eberstein and Secretary Bill walked in with grave expressions, signaling for the meeting to be suspended.

"Superintendent Li, Superintendent Zheng, the situation has changed."

Minister Bill got straight to the point: “We have just received direct instructions from Mr. Victor that a major drug case has occurred in the Belize Special Economic Zone, involving extraterrestrial objects, and there has been a serious incident in which a suspect was silenced.”

Li Wenbin and Zheng Chuyao exchanged a glance.

Eberstein continued, “Mr. Victor has instructed that this case will be the first target of our joint task force. Please lead your elite team to Belize immediately to take full control of the investigation. The Mexican side, including Belize Police Chief Lionel Schulz and all his subordinates, will cooperate with your work unconditionally. All personnel involved, evidence, and leads will be open to you.”

Li Wenbin took a deep breath. Without the slightest hesitation, he stood up. "Thank you for Mr. Victor's trust, and thank you for the support of the Minister and the Deputy Minister. We are ready to depart immediately for Belize and will do our utmost to find out the truth!"

Zheng Chuyao nodded firmly, her eyes gleaming with a professional fire.

Now I can really unleash my potential.

……

(End of this chapter)