Jimmy finished the check on his two guns and ammunition, looked at his watch, and after 5 minutes had passed, opened the car door and got out. He walked along the wall corner towards the iron gate while Jones came up behind him and closed the car door.
They had already surveyed the surrounding environment beforehand. Behind the iron gate was a corridor; Jimmy made sure there was no one else around and then went straight through it into the apartment building.
At the end of the corridor was another iron door, which was also open; it seemed that during the gunfight earlier, when the people from the underground gambling den came out, the venue hadn't bothered to send anyone to deal with it, which made things easier for Jimmy.
After passing through that iron door, the interior of the apartment building, completely remodeled, lay before Jimmy. Aside from a few support columns, the rest of the space seemed interconnected, with some areas directly open and others with doors set into the walls.
Several people were lying on the floor, motionless. Jimmy checked two of them, then didn't bother with the rest. Shot in the chest and head, they were beyond saving. Judging by the bloodstains on the floor, most of them had probably been shot in the head—the gunman had a habit similar to Jimmy's, favoring headshots.
Jimmy looked around; there were no standing figures within at least a twenty-meter radius. He looked upstairs and saw one person clutching another's chest, presumably questioning him. Then he shot him and pushed the body to the ground.
Jimmy saw him turn and start walking towards the staircase; if he waited any longer, they would run into each other.
As the man reached the head of the stairs, Jimmy called out in advance, "FBI, drop your weapon, drop your weapon."
The reason Jimmy hadn't waited for him to reach the stairs before calling out was for safety. Just looking at the scene, with so many people killed by him, and judging from his walking, he seemed unharmed; this man's gunmanship and awareness were exceedingly sharp. If Jimmy had waited until face-to-face to speak, he might not have had the chance to finish before being taken out.
The figure paused suddenly, not showing his face at the stairwell, seemingly taken by surprise. Then, he turned and ran towards a room, jumping straight out the window. It was the second floor, and he wouldn't sustain serious injuries from the fall, and if trained, might not be injured at all.
In Heart Eye's view, Jimmy watched the figure jump out the window and escape.
Jimmy reconfirmed that there were no standing people around and began to walk upstairs, carefully checking every person on the ground to make sure they were dead; he didn't want to be shot unexpectedly.
After confirming there were no survivors on the second floor, Jimmy went up to the third. There were two people here: one dead at the door, the other in a room. Having checked, Jimmy could only sigh—the person inside was Raymond, dead with a gunshot wound to the head.
The fourth and fifth floors were devoid of people; it looked as if they were simply unoccupied.
Jimmy went downstairs, came out through the iron gate, and returned to the surveillance van. "Jones, notify Peter, Raymond is dead. F**k."
Jones: "Are you certain? Did you see it with your own eyes?"
Jimmy: "Yeah, apart from the one who just ran away, everyone else has been killed, not one left. I didn't see the killer, or even know how he got in."
Jones nodded, took out his phone to call Peter, and put it on speaker on the center console. He started the car, ready to return to Federal Square.
Peter must have been awake since the previous wake-up and answered the phone almost instantly.
Peter: "Jones, what's the situation at the scene?"
Jones: "Peter, Jimmy went in for reconnaissance, Raymond has been killed, mission failed."
Peter: "Are you guys safe?"
Jones: "Safe. We are headed back. I've already called the cops. NYPD will handle the rest."
Peter: "Alright, head back and get some rest."
Jones got out of the van, retracted the surveillance cameras, and made a U-turn on the road, driving towards Manhattan; meanwhile, Jimmy was mulling over the gunman he had just encountered.
The scene was very clean—not in terms of the ground but how the gunman had executed these people swiftly and decisively.
It was evident that he must have started killing from the first floor; if he had begun from the top, the people on the first floor would likely be spread out starting from the staircase. However, those people didn't seem to be concentrated or facing in one direction.
Although the victims were gang members, they amounted to more than twenty people. The killer effortlessly took them all out without injuring himself, which was quite an impressive level of expertise.
For Jimmy, achieving the same outcome was difficult because to reach such an accuracy, he would have to use a revolver. The key was reloading; even at his quickest, it would take close to two seconds. To suppress and eliminate over a dozen people on the first floor, Jimmy would need to reload at least twice. Along with that, he had to rush the staircase to the second and third floors, where a few gunmen were already prepared. The difficulty of killing them was not high, but it shouldn't have been that easy.
By replaying the route and killing process of the escaping gunman in his mind, Jimmy realized he had come across a formidable opponent, evenly matched, and if he hadn't had Heart Eye, he might have faced life or death the moment he showed his head.
Not long after Jones drove away, several cars arrived: sedans and vans. Without speaking, they took tools and went in through the iron gate, made some quick work of the bodies inside, loading them into the vans. After the bodies were dealt with, the vans left. The remaining people cleaned the bloodstains and bullet casings from the ground and then drove away as well.
The next day, Peter showed up at the office. Having monitored the situation late into the previous night, Jimmy and Jones arrived later than usual that day; moreover, no specific tasks were assigned to Jimmy and Jones, as Jones needed to edit the previous day's surveillance footage, removing irrelevant material and keeping only the pertinent anomalies.
Jimmy watched Jones cut the video when suddenly his phone rang—it wasn't the one issued by the FBI, but the one he had used before in Little Rock.
Jimmy: "James, long time no see."
James: "Jimmy, how's it going at the FBI?"
Jimmy: "Hold on, let me find a different spot."
Jimmy gestured to Jones then walked up to an empty conference room on a higher floor.
Jimmy: "James, I'm doing alright over here, how about you?"
James: "How can you be just alright after just arriving in New York? There must be a lot of troublesome things, right?"
Jimmy: "Haha, you know me, I won't trouble others, although there definitely is a strong sense of frustration here. The cases here are too hard to crack."
James: "Oh, I can't help you with that. Got time to come back for a visit soon?"
Jimmy: "Oh? What's the matter? You know I just started working here, I can't really schedule anything right now."
James: "Nothing much, New York will do too. Someone will come to see you in a few days. Don't worry, it's someone you've met."
Jimmy: "Who?"
James: "You'll find out then. That's all for now. Goodbye."