Chapter 217

After dinner, Luke was ready to go for a walk outside.

As soon as he stepped out of the hotel building, he heard a loud music.

In front of the hotel was the Las Vegas Strip, the busiest area in the entire city of Las Vegas, and across the street was the plaza where the Country Music Festival was held.

At this time, the open-air plaza was already filled with people, the plaza was brightly lit, the LED big screens on both sides of the stage were already lit up, and the colorful lights were shining overhead.

Luke glanced at his cell phone, it was only a little more than 8:00 p.m., didn’t he say that it would not start until 10:00 p.m.?

He took out his ticket and glanced at it again, and realized that it was the closing show at 10:00pm or so, and there would be a mystery guest there then, so it was marked more obviously, and the festival’s real start time was 8:30pm.

It was a little embarrassing, but it was better to be early than never, and the country music festival was just starting now.

Listening to the powerful music coming from the open-air square, watching groups of men and women who were talking and laughing step into the square.

Luke also unconsciously entered the piazza, it was really rare for him to go alone like this.

Well, he looked around as far as his eyes could see, it wasn’t rare, it was just him.

This gave Luke a little pause, and he didn’t even call Daisy to ask if the other man was safely back in Los Angeles.

He knew full well he should have made a call at this point.

A lot of relationships between men and women had become estranged because of little things like this and ended up going their separate ways.

But he just didn’t want to call.

Love it or leave it.

There shouldn’t be too many young and energetic girls in the square, and as a man with hang-ups, handsome, and multi-golden, he was still afraid that he wouldn’t be able to find a woman.

Just kidding.

[As I was slowly passing an orphan’s home one day

I stopped for a just a little while]

Luke enters the piazza, a country song is playing, the acoustics are great and the big LED screen is dazzling.

There was a man and a woman singing on the stage, Luke hadn’t seen either of them before, they were probably resident singers.

Listening to the beautiful music, looking at the surrounding singing and dancing crowd, Luke was also infected, the mood became a lot more comfortable, followed the surrounding for together with the dance beat, jumped up.

People are emotional creatures.

Often in the entertainment atmosphere, people will become happy, often stay in the depressing atmosphere, optimistic people will also become melancholy.

Take the profession of a doctor for example, it’s quite good, it makes a lot of money, it’s respected, it has a status, and the older you get, the more popular you become, and you don’t have to worry about losing your job after 35 years old.

But Luke himself doesn’t like this job, no other way, dealing with patients all day long, exposed to some negative emotions, can the mood be good?

Therefore, even if the doctor is well-paid, high income, Luke does not envy.

This bowl of rice is not anyone can end, not only to have the appropriate knowledge and skills, but also have to be able to withstand the corresponding psychological pressure.

Luke shook his head and gradually let go, let loose in the square twisting and singing loudly, he has not been as relaxed as today for a long time.

The atmosphere of the country music festival was great, the more people gathered in the square, in Luke’s experience it looked like 10,000 to 20,000 people couldn’t be beaten.

The feeling of 20,000 people singing, dancing and having fun together in the square was awesome.

The only downside was that Luke was the only one.

He suddenly missed Blackie and Fatty a little bit, if these two people were there, they would definitely have a happier time.

There was also mom, grandpa and uncle.

Luke decided, the next time there is an opportunity to come out on vacation, bring the whole family to play together.

As one grows older and has more life experience, one’s mentality changes.

Luke had been a man in two lives.

In his last life, if he had seen this group of crazy fun-loving people before the age of 30.

Luke would have thought, why is this group of people so decadent.

If they play like this every day, they will not be able to bring down the country, can there be hope for such a country?

Luke was also not sure why he, a small person, should worry about the sky.

After 30 years old, Luke’s mindset changed, because he suddenly realized that he would not play.

Every day was nothing but work, either on a roll or on the way to a roll.

Even if he had the occasional time off, it was hard to relax.

Didn’t even know what to do? Play something? There seemed to be no hobbies left.

It was a horrible feeling, and it was then that he realized the value of relaxation and fun.

But understand when it is already too late, he has fallen into the whirlpool of roll, others roll you do not roll, you may not even be able to feed your family.

And talk about hobbies.

Unless you’re a bachelor, it’s hard to stay out of it.

Of course, it was also possible that his family conditions and personal abilities in his past life were not good enough.

He had also seen some people who lived a dashing life, but those were the minority.

There was only envy.

Fortunately, in this life, he had the system and the capital to play and be happy.

Twist, jump, wave, how to be happy how to come.

Luke played in the square for more than an hour, and it was already almost ten o’clock, but the number of people still did not decrease.

I guess everyone is waiting for the mysterious guest of honor for the closing show.

If it was Long Legs Moldy who was there, it would be a worthwhile trip.

Thinking about this, Luke also had some small expectations.

Around ten o’clock.

A cheer erupted around the stage.

Luke looked towards the big screen and realized that several men with long hair appeared on the screen, with their arms tattooed in an artistic manner.

Luke had a feeling that this would be a group, but unfortunately he didn’t recognize them.

He did know a lot of Hollywood stars, but he didn’t recognize more than ten singers.

And this band was obviously not among those ten.

Just because Luke didn’t recognize it didn’t mean the other tourists didn’t.

Soon, the band took the stage, cheers rose and the atmosphere of the concert reached its peak.

The crowd in the square chanted the word ‘Crowe’.

Luke wasn’t sure if it was the name of the person, or the name of the band.

Anyway, it felt like the people in the square had reached a G-tide, so high.

The music stopped for a moment.

Then the band known as ‘Crowe’ started to play.

The music started again with a strong rhythm, and a low male voice rang out, with a magnetic and penetrating sound.

As soon as he opened his voice, the cheers from below got louder, some of the young women were already hissing and screaming at the top of their lungs.

One of the girls stood tall, pants down, buttocks exposed, wiggling and twisting.

Luke was also bobbing his head, immersed in the music.

At that moment, a Latina girl came up next to him, short and plump.

“Hey handsome, I like your black hair.”

Luke smiled and swept her off her feet, “You have a great body too.”

The Latina leaned forward, “I’ve been following you for a while, are you traveling to Vegas? All by yourself?

“Yes, are you alone too?”

The Latin girl smiled, “You can call me GG.

I am a tour guide.

I know the streets of Las Vegas. I know where there are good shows, great performances, exciting shows, and I can show you the most unique scenery in Las Vegas.”

The Latin girl licked her lips and gave a you-know-what expression. “If you think traveling alone is too lonely, you can consider it.”

Luke said darkly, a tour guide? Or a high-class chicken?

“Are you a volunteer tour guide?”

“No, it’s the free ones that are the most expensive, that’s why I clearly marked my price, 2000 dollars a day.”

Two thousand dollars wasn’t a lot for Luke, but what could a key guide do, or anything.

Luke wasn’t ugly, and rich, and considered himself sort of attractive, it wasn’t like he couldn’t find female companionship, so what was the point of spending money?

How low.

Besides, people are not familiar with each other, who knows if it’s a fairy jump?

“Thanks, I still like traveling alone.”

The Latin girl took out a business card and kissed it with her lips, “If you change your mind, you can call me.”

Luke originally wanted to politely accept the business card, don’t care whether to use it or not to give people a face.

But when he saw the dark red lipstick on the business card, he didn’t want to be nice instead.

“No need.”

The Latin girl withdrew her hand with some embarrassment, “You are gay, I can help you introduce male companion.”

“You’ve got the wrong guy.” Luke made a perfunctory remark and didn’t pay any more attention to her as he vaguely heard a sound.

Like the sound of a gunshot.

The Latina girl swept Luke’s eyes down to his crotch and bristled, “Poor guy, no wonder he’s alone.”

The music was so loud that Luke didn’t hear what the Latin girl was saying.

But the cop’s intuition gave him a sense of danger.

In the distance, there seemed to be a faint commotion, but it was muffled by the sounds of revelry.

The commotion came from far away.

Luke looked up and around and noticed a fire high above the hotel.

FUCK!

“There’s a shooter!” Luke shouted, crouching down.

As the words fell, a burst of bullets shot by.

“Ta-da-da-da ……”

“Ah!”

“Pfft ……” Various sounds mingled with each other.

The sound of gunfire became clearer and Luke felt bullets flying past him.

The sound of bullets striking objects was heard.

And the sound of people screaming.

“Poof ……” sound, Luke felt liquid splash beside him, twisted his head to see, the Latin girl just now was shot in the head.

An originally delicate face was smashed.

Although the two did not know each other, but after all, they had spoken, this feeling is very bad.

But Luke couldn’t do anything about it, the bullets came from high above the hotel and swept violently, more than hundreds of bullets in half a minute.

Luke was getting a little chilly.

As for counterattacking with a pistol, it was useless; the men couldn’t see well enough to fight.

The music in the square stopped, the sound of gunshots rang through the night sky, and the crowd of revelers in the square woke up.

There are more than 20,000 people in the square, the sound of music, revelry, screams cover the sound of gunfire, some people even heard the gunfire, but also thought it was the sound of fireworks.

So before it was only a localized chaos, the gunman shot for half a minute’s time before the whole square was in complete chaos.

The original clamor of the square was only left with the sound of gunfire, screams, and screams, permeated with an atmosphere of panic.

At this time the square is full of people, want to run also can not run, only is located in the square perimeter of the people quickly flee, lucky to escape.

However, the good thing is that Americans, unlike other countries, have more experience in dealing with shootings, and most people crouch down and shrink into a ball.

At this point, the more you run, the more likely you are to become a target for the shooter, and it’s also easy to cause a stampede.

In many shooting incidents, the stampede causes far more casualties than the shooting itself.

Generally speaking, this response is fine and correct.

A normal shooter would just kill one or two people, three or five at the most, and the shooting should have ended soon afterward.

But this time seemed to be different, after a minute had passed, the gunshots were still ringing, as if the bullets could not be finished.

Luke had been observing the gunman’s movements, and during the shooting, the gunman briefly stopped twice, and he too thought that the gunman had struck, but soon the shots rang out again.

He guessed that the gunman had just been changing magazines.

Luke was also a bit confused at this time, there were more and more injured people around, as far as the eye could see there were at least hundreds of people suffering from gunshot wounds, and he didn’t expect the gunman’s combat power to be so persistent.

In the midst of the crisis also stood out a lot of ‘heroes’.

Soldiers from other countries, ex-servicemen, and some medical workers.

They began to take the initiative to help some of the injured people.

Luke wasn’t idle either, he had been watching the gunman, observing his exact position as well as the shooting situation.

He realized that although the shooting was heavy and there was a lot of firepower, there was only one gun firing.

As of now, Luke had only spotted one gunman, but of course, that didn’t mean that there was only one gunman, and there were probably other accomplices in the hotel.

Luke sat on the floor, keeping himself calm while weighing the pros and cons.

He was an LAPD officer, and if this had happened in Los Angeles, he would have been the first to apprehend the suspect after locating the shooter. This was his responsibility and obligation.

He was responsible to the citizens of Los Angeles.

But this is Las Vegas.

He has no law enforcement power here, and he has no obligation to protect the citizens of Las Vegas.

People’s taxes don’t pay his salary either.

And in his opinion, the gunshots had been going on for almost 2 minutes, so it was logical that there should be police around such a big open-air concert.

But Luke didn’t spot any police.

“Da da da da ……” The gunshots overhead continued to ring out.

The screams were also unceasing.

Everyone around the square who could ran away, and the square wasn’t so crowded anymore.

Tourists also back to the flavor, this shooting thing is different from the past, this gunman seems to have no intention of stopping, the rest of the people also no longer hesitate to follow the crowd to run out.

Those who could ran, and those who were injured became more obvious.

Luke stood up and looked around, there were at least hundreds of people with gunshot wounds, maybe even more than five hundred.

Big event.

Definitely a big event.

“Whoosh.”

“Bang!”

A bullet flew past Luke’s ear, striking the ground and splattering Luke with flying chunks of concrete.

He was a little annoyed, it was so damn suffocating, he hadn’t been this suffocating since he became a cop.

He had already determined the location of the gunman, it should be on the east side of the 32nd floor of the hotel.

Luke thought twice and decided to take action and arrest the gunman.

The decision was made for two reasons, firstly, he realized that although the shooting fire was strong and the sound of gunfire had not stopped, there should only be one gunman.

With surprise, Luke still had a chance to shoot the other man.

Secondly, the deaths and injuries in the piazza exceeded hundreds.

This was definitely an unprecedented big event.

If one could catch the gunman, both the real rewards and the system rewards would be very generous.

To put it bluntly, this was a good opportunity to build a career.

Do it.

Luke still had two bullet avoidance cards, even if he couldn’t catch the murderer, he would have no problem defending himself.

Thinking of this, Luke no longer hesitated and began to act, first checking his gun, hanging his badge on his waist, and turning on the law enforcement recorder.

When he was ready, he yelled, “Everybody out of the way, LAPD!”

Luke sprinted in the direction of the hotel, encountering a crowd in his way, shouting “LAPD, get out of the way.”

Upon hearing Luke’s shout, the crowd reacted differently.

Some heard the word PD and got out of the way out of habit.

Others showed a confused look, man, are you sure it’s LAPD? This is Las Vegas. You’re a fake cop, aren’t you.

There were also tourists from Los Angeles who felt a warmth in their hearts when they heard the familiar voice.

The image of LAPD was a few points taller in their hearts, and there were also people who spontaneously took out their cell phones to film Luke ‘running against the grain’ towards the hotel where the shooter was.

Luke quickly ran under the hotel.

Along the way, he heard police car sirens, but didn’t see any police, and downstairs, he encountered a few hotel security guards, gathered in groups of three or five as if they were discussing something.

Luke didn’t care about them directly into the elevator and pressed the elevator on the 30th floor.

He didn’t dare to go directly to the thirty-second floor, in case the gunman still had accomplices.

Then the elevator entrance is the best place to ambush, once the elevator door opens, Luke doesn’t even have a place to hide in the elevator.

“Dingdong ……”

The elevator reached the 30th floor, and Luke held his gun in both hands and pointed it at the elevator entrance.

Luckily what he feared didn’t happen, there was no one outside the elevator.

Luke exited the elevator, there were no suspicious people in the corridor, the sound of the gunshot became clearer and clearer, it should have come from the direction of the upper floors.

Luke began to search the corridor, looking for the stairway, ready to go up to the 32nd floor from the stairwell.

He had just rounded the corner when he saw the door to one of the rooms open and someone appeared to be peering out.

“LAPD, put your hands up! Get down on the floor.”

“Don’t shoot, I’m a hotel employee, please don’t shoot.” The man who spoke was a black man, looking to be in his forties, wearing a janitor’s uniform, somewhat slim, and very submissive on the ground.

Luke asked, “What are you doing here?”

“I was cleaning my room when I suddenly heard gunshots and I freaked out, I wanted to run away from the hotel and I was worried that I would run into the shooter.

I was waiting for the police to rescue me.”

Luke sized up the other man, “Don’t move, I’m going to search him.”

Luke cuffed him first, then searched him, and found no weapons, instead he found a room card.

“Can this card open a room on the 32nd floor?”

“It can.”

“I’m going to borrow it.” Luke finished and unlocked the handcuffs, “You can get off the elevator, I didn’t run into any shooters on my way here.”

“Thanks, where are the other cops? Why are you the only one?”

“That’s what I’d like to know.” Luke shook his head, “Where’s the stairwell?”

The black man pointed to the hallway ahead, “All the way to the head, on the right.”

“Thanks.” Luke finished, found the stairwell and headed up.

When he reached the 31st floor, Luke vaguely heard a commotion and walked to the stairway to listen carefully, like someone was talking on an intercom.

Luke didn’t rush in right away and listened for a while, hearing only one person’s voice, like a police officer reporting a situation.

But even so, Luke still didn’t dare to be careless.

Luke took a deep breath, held his gun in both hands, and rushed into the corridor: “LAPD! Don’t move, get on the ground!”

The words fell, and not far from the corridor, a white man wearing a Las Vegas police uniform was on the phone.

“LVPD!” the white officer was also pointing his gun at Luke, “Don’t shoot, I’m a cop too.”

Luke sized up the other man, “Are you really a cop?”

“That’s what I was going to ask, you’re LAPD and why are you here in our Las Vegas?”

“Can’t an LAPD officer come to Las Vegas for a visit?” Luke responded, seeing that the other man still had his gun pointed at him, and chided, “Put your damn gun down.”

“You put the gun down first.”

“Put it down together.”

The two men slowly put away their pistols.

The white cop breathed a sigh of relief, “So why were you up here first? Where are the other lvpd’s?”

“You’re asking the wrong person.” Luke sounded a bit disgruntled and questioned in reverse, “Why was the shooter shooting on the 32nd floor while you were fuming on the 31st?”

The white officer defended, “I wasn’t gawking, I was reporting a situation.”

“What did you find out about the situation?”

The white officer said, “The shooter should be upstairs, there’s a lot of firepower, probably more than one shooter.”

Luke pressed, “Have you been up to the 32nd floor?”

“No.”

“You haven’t been up there in all the time since the shooting?”

“I’ve been there and the stairway to the 32nd floor is locked, I can’t get in.”

“That’s an awesome excuse you have.” Luke shook his head and lost his smile, “Do you realize that the gunman upstairs has shot and wounded hundreds of people?”

“Like I said, I’ve been in contact with my superiors, I suspect there’s more than one shooter, and me going up there would be a death sentence, it wouldn’t help.”

Luke asked, “How’s the contact going, what are the lvpd’s plans?”

“I’m waiting for orders.”

“I’m a cop too, don’t put words like that in my mouth.”

“I’m telling the truth.”

“I have a suggestion, according to my observation downstairs, the shooter should be on the 32nd floor, how about we go up together and catch him?”

“No, I can’t go up, I have to report the situation to my superiors in time and wait for their orders.” After righteously speaking, the white police officer whispered again, saying.

“Listen, I know you want to be a hero. But being a hero isn’t that easy. Did you hear how hard the gunfire was?

There’s definitely more than one shooter, definitely not.

We go up there, we’re going to get shot up, we’re just going to die.”

Luke said, “I’ve watched from downstairs, there’s only one person shooting, and so far I haven’t found any accomplices on the other side.”

The white officer said, “Just because we haven’t found any, doesn’t mean there aren’t any. We can’t take any chances.”

“I’ll take the main attack, you just need to cover.”

“No, the situation is still unclear, we can’t be so reckless, we should wait for more police support.”

The white police officer’s words, at first glance, sounded like they made sense, and it was fine to consider it from his point of view, but in essence, he was still a wimp, it would be better to fight with this kind of person, than to do it alone, and Luke didn’t want to give his back to this kind of person.

As for waiting for more people to support, the words are right, but really wait until more LVPD came.

This LAPD of his own had no chance of participating in the battle, the credit had even less to do with himself, and the reward was probably out of the question.

If Luke was an ordinary person, he wouldn’t even go back to the hotel or take the risk.

But he was the hangman, such a good opportunity to brush experience, Luke did not want to give up.

Moreover, Luke wasn’t a fool, if the gunman really had other accomplices, Luke couldn’t beat them, with the protection of the bulletproof card, escaping was still no problem.

“Take off your bulletproof undershirt and give it to me.”

“Why?” The white officer took a step back.

“Either come up to the 32nd floor with me or give me your bulletproof vest.”

“FUCK, you’re so reckless you’ll get yourself killed.”

“So I want the bulletproof undershirt, don’t make me do it myself.” Luke closed in on the white officer.

He wouldn’t have done this if it were normal, because with this kind of tension, a gun might go off.

But Luke had already seen through this cop, who was essentially a goon, and Luke felt that he would compromise.

Sure enough, under Luke’s approach, the white police officer compromised, “Hey, STOP, I’ll give it to you.”

Reluctantly, the white police officer took off his body armor and handed it to Luke, who stepped aside, “Mark my words, reckless action will get you killed.”

“If your coworkers show up, tell them there’s a LAPD upstairs, don’t let me get you by mistake.” Luke put on his bulletproof undershirt, it was heavy, this thing actually had steel plates inserted.

Luke went straight up the stairs and walked to the 32nd floor stairway and found the stairway door locked, Luke looked through the crack and saw no sign of anyone.

Luke, having worked with David for so long, still learning a few things from him, lifted his foot and kicked the stairway door open.

He took a deep breath and rushed into the hallway and began to carefully search the hallway and found no sign of anyone.

Luke watched carefully as he walked, the sound of gunfire continued unabated, Luke could be sure that the shooter should be on this floor and had not fled, firing much slower than before.

Luke followed the sound of gunshots forward and found the room where the gunman was.

Luke didn’t enter the room immediately, but searched the corridor again to make sure there was no 32nd floor without the gunman’s accomplices.

After that, Luke stood at the door of the room, took a deep breath, took out his room card and swiped open the door, which was still padlocked.

Not much of a problem.

Luke raised his foot and kicked the door of the room, “LAPD! Don’t move!”

The door was kicked open and Luke saw what was going on in the room, there was a white man standing on the balcony, strafing the bottom of the balcony.

The other man seemed to have heard the commotion and jerked around, strafing Luke with his AR15.

However, Luke was one step faster and fired directly, “Bang Bang Bang!”

The gunman was also wearing a bulletproof vest.

The two men fired at each other, and Luke hit his right arm and right leg.

The other hit Luke’s chest.

“Bang!” Luke felt a heavy hammer hit his chest, and his whole body couldn’t catch his breath.

Luckily, the opponent’s right hand was hit, and the rifle fell straight to the ground.

Because he was worried that the gunman still had a gang, Luke didn’t dare to directly rush into the room.

“LAPD! don’t move!”

The gunman, an old white man who looked about the same age as the vice squad, smiled at Luke and pulled out his pistol with his left hand.

Luke was about to shoot again when he realized that the old white man’s gun wasn’t shooting at him, but at his own head.

“Bang!”

With a shot to the head, the old white man lay motionless on the ground, a hole opened up in his head, dead as a doornail.

“FUCK!”Luke was helpless.

But also put his head down and started searching the hotel’s toilets, lockers, rooms, and balconies, and found no sign of the other shooters.

Luke scanned the room, there were at least twenty to thirty rifles, more bullets than he could count, and many of the semi-automatic rifles were fitted with bump-fire stocks, and their power and rate of fire were equivalent to fully automatic rifles.

Luke looked down from the balcony, most of the people in the square dispersed, sporadically left a few hundred people.

These people did not want to run, but had lost the ability to run, either dead or injured.

At this time, Luke also couldn’t help but feel some emotion, one person actually caused hundreds of casualties.