Alice delightedly put down today's New York Sun, which serialized the Death Valley incident, and proudly said, "He is my childhood friend. He wasn't this formidable four years ago. His actions today also surprised me, but isn't that reasonable? Otherwise, how could he always fight against many by himself?"
Rachel said expectantly, "I hope he can successfully rescue my father. I hope both of them are safe and sound."
Alice comforted her, "Since Henry dared to go, there shouldn't be a problem. He used to be very meticulous in his actions."
Rachel said gratefully, "Thank you, Alice. It's all because of you that my father has a chance to be rescued."
Alice smiled and said, "You're welcome. We are good friends."
Rachel nodded vigorously, lowered her eyelids, and began to pray silently.
Just then, the doorbell rang.
The two looked at each other, and Rachel excitedly stood up, ran to the door, and loudly asked, "Who is it?"
"It's me, Rachel!" Robert said excitedly from outside the door.
Rachel immediately pulled the door open and saw her long-missed father standing with a hotel attendant.
"Dad!" Rachel flew into Robert's arms.
The father and daughter embraced emotionally, Rachel's big blue eyes filled with tears that couldn't help but stream down her cheeks.
Seeing this, the attendant didn't need to ask anything further, and probably didn't expect a tip, so he bowed slightly and left.
It took more than a minute for the father and daughter to compose themselves before they both walked into the room.
"Dad, this is my best friend, Alice Sinclair. She was the one who asked Henry for help this time," Rachel introduced.
Robert immediately said respectfully, "Thank you very much! Miss Sinclair."
Alice smiled and said, "You're welcome. Rachel is my best friend, and I'm glad I could help you. Where's Henry?"
"Mr. Henry sent me to the edge of the Upper District and then rode off alone. He said I was framed by Mike, the leader of the Whist Gang, and he's going to talk to him."
Alice and Rachel exchanged glances.
Meanwhile, Henry arrived at Five Points Street.
This is the intersection of four streets, with convenient transportation in all directions, making it particularly easy to escape if something goes wrong. Therefore, it has been favored by many desperadoes for a century.
Over time, it became the core area of New York's underworld forces.
The Whist Gang has dominated for more than twelve years, so this became their base.
It was difficult to conceal the fact that Henry saved Robert, as Alice and Rachel had an agreement to negotiate with Carter and his people.
Since they had made an enemy, they had to eliminate the Whist Gang's leader.
It was highly unusual for the Whist Gang to have dominated New York's Underground World for so long, indicating that the current leader, Mike, was a very extraordinary person.
Therefore, if he were removed, it would be almost impossible for anyone else to possess his abilities and resources to continue dominating, and the Whist Gang would likely splinter.
After the recent battle, Henry found that these gang members were far inferior to the Black Market guards—both in terms of vigilance and combat power.
Of course, it might also be related to their long period of dominance; people tend to become complacent without formidable opponents.
Henry tethered his horse in an uninhabited alley about a hundred meters from the four-story Phoenix Hotel.
After dismounting, he put away his horse and walked out of the alley, heading towards the Phoenix Hotel.
A characteristic of the Whist Gang was their unique cries to each other, shouting "Why-os" in the street to identify themselves as gang members.
Core members would have a tattoo of a bleeding axe and dagger on their wrist, shoulder, or neck, while outer members did not have this privilege.
The Phoenix Hotel was frequented by individuals involved in illicit industries, and the service was extremely rough, lacking even a doorman.
Henry walked into the hotel and headed directly towards the back door.
"Stop, who are you?" asked one of the six guards at the back door.
"Boss Soro sent me to deliver a letter and a verbal message to Boss Mike," Henry said in a deep voice.
"Hands up, search him." Two guards walked over.
Soon the search was over, and a guard led Henry, pushed open the back door, and walked towards the apartment behind the back door.
As for Henry being a new face, the guards didn't find it problematic, as gang personnel turnover was high, and it was normal for a favored tall newcomer to arrive from a branch.
Besides, Henry was alone and unarmed, facing dozens of armed guards. What could he do?
Beyond the back door was an alley about fifty meters long and ten meters wide. Both sides of the alley were stone walls over three meters high, with shooting holes about half a meter square every five meters.
In the fortress-like building directly ahead, two Gatling Machine Gun's menacing six barrels even protruded.
There were about 30 gunmen just here.
Moreover, this was the New York metropolis, and even in the chaotic Lower District, these two machine guns were too conspicuous, indicating the Whist Gang's overwhelming arrogance and reckless indulgence.
"Walk forward." The guard dropped a sentence and returned to the hotel, closing the back door.
Henry calmly stepped forward, quickly passed the fortress, and about twenty meters ahead was a three-story apartment building covering approximately 1500 square meters.
At the apartment entrance were three guards. After another search of Henry, one guard led him into the apartment and then up to the third floor.
Henry noticed that the inside of this apartment had been renovated into a winding labyrinth, particularly suitable for urban ambush warfare.
It seemed the intelligence was true—the earliest group of bandits who followed Mike were retired soldiers from the North-South War.
A few minutes later, the guard led Henry to a large door on the left side of the third floor and then turned to leave.
The two guards at the large door searched Henry again before pulling open the outer iron door and saying, "Go in."
Henry twisted the handle of the inner wooden door, pushed it open, and walked in, finding a large hall of nearly two hundred square meters.
Fifteen guards were divided into five card tables playing cards, three were playing darts, five were playing arm wrestling and betting, and two were playing billiards, making it very lively.
Henry felt like he had entered a bar's entertainment hall.
At this moment, a mustachioed gang member watching the arm wrestling asked, "Hey, who are you looking for?"
Henry smiled slightly, walked five or six meters forward to the middle of the hall, and said, "I'm delivering a letter and a verbal message to Boss Mike on behalf of Big Boss Carter."
"Walk forward, the boss is in the big office on the right."
"Thank you."
Henry activated his Super Reaction Talent, his hands blurring into a phantom. Within one second, 24 12-inch skill Flying Daggers shot out, striking 24 of the bandits within ten meters of him, excluding the mustachioed one.
Most were stabbed in the throat, while a few, due to angle and position, could only be stabbed in the back of the neck.
However, 12 inches is equivalent to 30.5 centimeters, so whether stabbed from the front or back, there wasn't much difference.
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