Ring, ring.
“Mr.
Rex, it is me, Oswald.”
The phone was quickly answered.
The Penguin had been waiting for Rex’s call for quite a while.
He had received news that a bald, fierce man had single-handedly stormed the Gotham Police Department, demanding to take Gordon away by name.
The man had then shot his way through the precinct, sending Gordon fleeing in a panic.
There was only one bald man in Gotham capable of such a terrifying feat that the Penguin could think of.
Victor Zsasz, Falcone’s top hitman.
“Fish came by.
She forcefully demanded that Maroni hand me over.
Obviously, Maroni did not even consider the proposal.”
“He gave Fish two choices: let the matter go or go to war.”
“As you expected, Fish chose war.”
The Penguin’s tone was full of gloating.
“Falcone clearly gave her a lot of authority, so there was no need to start a massive war over a nobody like me.
But Fish just could not hold herself back.”
“To prevent the slight chance that Fish might back down, I deliberately went to her and offered to shake hands and make peace.
I knew that with her temper, she couldn’t stand even the slightest provocation.”
“She totally fell for it, hahaha.”
Successfully scheming against his former boss brought the Penguin a great deal of pleasure.
“Well done, Oswald.”
Since his subordinate was doing a great job, Rex did not skimp on praise.
“Then, after Fish makes her move, you should suggest to Maroni that he retaliate.
Nikolai’s location is at…”
Rex clarified the next step of the plan for the Penguin.
After the Penguin noted down the time and place, Rex added, “And Maroni’s second-in-command, Frankie.”
“This time, he was the one who revealed your identity to Falcone.
You know what to do, right?”
“Frankie?”
The figure of the man surfaced in the Penguin’s mind.
During this period, the Penguin had been showing off under Maroni, and he could clearly feel that Frankie was subtly excluding him, fearing that the Penguin would threaten his position.
He did not expect that Frankie wouldn’t be able to hold back from stabbing him in the back so soon.
The Penguin smiled knowingly.
“I know what to do, Mr.
Rex.”
Fish’s signal for war came swiftly.
She ordered her subordinate, the heavy-set Butch, to hijack Maroni’s arms-smuggling truck, which infuriated Maroni.
“Damn it, how did they know about that gun truck?
That route brings me three million dollars in profit every week!”
His second-in-command, Frankie, also felt the sting of the loss and tried to persuade Maroni to drop the matter.
“Maybe we can negotiate with them and give them some benefits.”
Seeing this, the Penguin chimed in from the side.
“Exactly.
After all, the Falcone family’s power is still the greatest.”
Hearing this, Frankie knew things were going to take a turn for the worse.
Sure enough, Maroni’s explosive temper could no longer be contained.
He fiercely rejected Frankie’s proposal.
“I want to strike back and hit their weak spot.
We do it today!”
The Penguin quickly seized the opportunity.
“If you really want to do that, I happen to know someone who knows exactly where the Falcone family’s weak spot is.”
“But he offended you before and wants to make peace with you.”
“Who?” Maroni asked.
“A boxer named Rex.”
“A boxer?”
Maroni frowned and thought for a moment, and the memory immediately came to him.
“So it is that bastard who made me lose money.”
He waved his big hand.
“No problem, I will leave it to you.”
Maroni patted the Penguin on the shoulder and turned to leave.
Frankie’s face instantly turned cold.
Maroni’s intention was for the Penguin to lead this operation.
This nobody had actually climbed over his head.
The next day, the Penguin led a large group of men from the Maroni family to a remote warehouse.
He nodded, and immediately, an underling went to the warehouse gates and planted a time bomb.
[Boom!]
With a loud explosion, Nikolai and the others inside, who were casually playing poker, did not even have time to react before a group of burly men charged in with machine guns and fired indiscriminately.
Nikolai and his subordinates were instantly wiped out.
When the gunfire ceased, the Penguin limped inside, looking at the results with satisfaction.
“Like I said, a piece of cake,” he said with a hint of pride in his voice.
“Yes, you did say that.
You really are smart.” Frankie handed his rifle to a subordinate and walked up to the Penguin.
“Too smart.”
“That sounds like it is full of sarcasm and hostility,” the Penguin said, sensing that the atmosphere had shifted.
“Hostility?” Frankie repeated.
Suddenly, he threw a vicious punch into the Penguin’s stomach, making him double over in pain.
“You hit the nail on the head.
You are nothing but a snitch, yet you have Maroni completely mesmerized.” Frankie vented his deep dissatisfaction at the Penguin.
He grabbed the Penguin by the collar and hoisted him up like a chicken.
“Are you going to keep playing your little smart games?”
“Now all I need is one shot.” Frankie made a hand gesture.
“Bang!”
And you will be finished.”
He gave a hard shove, sending the Penguin stumbling backward, but a smile remained on the Penguin’s face.
“Yes, that is a smart plan.
I never doubted your intelligence.
That is not your weakness.”
At this life-or-death moment, the Penguin did not beg for mercy as Frankie had imagined.
“I have a weakness?”
Frankie found it ridiculous.
He looked at the two burly subordinates on his left and right and mocked, “What weakness could I possibly have?”
“What is your motivation?”
“What is your passion?”
The Penguin asked in return.
“As long as you know what a man wants, you can put him to death.”
Seeing the Penguin act so mysteriously, Frankie felt a sudden wave of inexplicable panic.
He decided not to dawdle any longer.
But the Penguin did not stop speaking.
“The most important thing to you is money.
You love money more than anything else.
You are a cheapskate, a miser!”
After speaking, the Penguin gave a meaningful look to the subordinates standing right behind Frankie.
Instantly, the two men restrained Frankie from the left and right.
“What are you doing?
Let go of me!”
Frankie was both shocked and angry.
“Sorry, Frankie,” his top enforcer, Gabe, said, even as he tightened his grip.
“Like I said, a miser,” the Penguin kindly explained to him.
“You pay your men far too little.
The sad truth is…” The Penguin pulled a folding knife from his pocket.
“…there is no loyalty among thieves.”
Stab.
After plunging the knife into Frankie’s abdomen, the Penguin continued, “I only had to pay them a little bit more, and they agreed to work for me.”
In this moment of a successful counter-kill, the Penguin suddenly thought of Rex.
If it had not been for the money Rex had left him, the Penguin would not have been able to bribe Frankie’s trusted aides so smoothly.
This deepened the Penguin’s awe and reverence for Rex.
He stabbed Frankie several more times in a row, noting out of the corner of his eye that Gabe and the other man showed no trace of guilt after betraying and killing their former boss.
‘As expected, these thugs are completely untrustworthy.’
‘Only my loyalty to Mr.
Rex is truly genuine!’
_____
T/N: