manynovel Chapter 8 Manhattan Harbor
Chapter 8 Manhattan Harbor
Before Li En even reached the outer perimeter of the port on 12th Avenue, he could already feel those gazes.
A dozen pairs of eyes pressed in from different directions.
Some people were half-turned in the gaps between the containers, while others were tilting their heads in the cab of a scrapped truck.
Several men in work jackets stood under the lamppost, hands in their pockets, casual in their posture, but their eyes followed him.
Unlike the people on Hell's Kitchen Street.
Drug addicts and homeless people on the street would look away when they saw the dark blue uniform.
These men didn't look away; they scrutinized him from head to toe, from his badge to his holster, and then back to his face.
Puzzle was written on their eyebrows and the corners of their mouths: What are the police officers doing at the port at this hour?
Li En glanced around out of the corner of his eye.
The men standing on the perimeter, dressed in thick overalls, looked like dockworkers.
Canvas gloves, steel-toed boots, and the exposed neck at the collar were tanned a reddish-brown by the sun.
But their eyes didn't look like those of the workers.
The workers were tired; their eyes were weary.
There was a light in these people's eyes, a taut light.
And they were all white.
When Li En reached the entrance, two bald, burly men came up to him and stood in front of him.
There was only a narrow gap between their shoulders, blocking the way.
"Officer, what's the matter?"
The one on the left has a thick beard, and when he speaks, he tilts his chin forward and points his nostrils at Lee Eun.
The one on the right had a bluish shave on his chin, thin lips, and small eyes. His gaze lingered for a moment on the holster at Li En's waist.
Lee En's gaze went over their shoulders.
There was another person standing in the shadow of the nearby shipping container, with only half of their body visible. Their hand was on their lower back, and their fingers moved slightly under their clothes.
He turned his gaze back and looked directly at the two people in front of him.
"What? Freeport isn't private property."
"Our company has contracted this area." The bearded man took half a step forward, his chest almost touching Lee En's chest.
He was half a head shorter than Li En, and he tilted his head back, trying to create a sense of oppression with the width of his body.
However, the upward angle diminished the imposing presence by half, making it look somewhat comical.
Li En did not back down.
He stretched out his hand.
"Do you have any cigarettes?"
The two burly men exchanged a glance.
His bushy beard relaxed his brows, and his bald-chinned eyes squinted for a moment before opening again.
That sentence broke through the tense atmosphere, allowing some of it to escape.
Turns out he was just there to freeload.
They've seen this kind of thing many times.
It's perfectly normal for police officers in Hell's Kitchen to borrow a few packs of cigarettes when they pass by the port, as their salaries don't last until the weekend.
With his bald chin, he reached into his pocket and pulled out two cigarettes.
The white paper roll, twisted at both ends, is thicker than cigarettes sold in the market, and no trademark can be seen on the paper.
Li En took it and put it in his shirt pocket, his movements as natural as if he were taking his own things.
"My partner, Brock, really likes to smoke."
He said this in a very flat tone, without any emphasis or pause, as if he were talking about something completely unimportant.
The man with the thick beard twitched at the corner of his eye, and the wariness in his eyes eased slightly.
Lee took out a photo of Cortel from his pocket and held it up in front of the two of them.
"The child's mother called the police, so I'm here to ask if he works here."
The bearded man glanced down at the photo.
He wrinkled his nose, a quick movement without any change in expression on his face.
He turned to look at Guangxiachin, and the two stared at each other for a second.
The bearded man turned back, his face bearing an expression that was hard to decipher as apology.
"Excuse me, officer, I don't know him."
Li En put the photo back in her pocket and nodded.
He seemed completely unconcerned about the answer, as if he were just there to go through the motions, fill out the police report form, and call it a day.
Li En had already sensed that something was wrong.
All the people staring at him on the way from 12th Avenue to the port were white.
It was no coincidence that none of the workers, thugs, or lookouts in the shadows had black faces.
The port was controlled by a white gang, and the work on the docks wouldn't fall into the hands of black people.
Cortel is Black.
Even if he is controlled by something, just by approaching this area, he will be held down and questioned by the sentries standing on the perimeter.
He couldn't possibly go inside, much less work inside.
Li En turned around, preparing to leave.
His gaze swept over a row of stacked containers in the distance.
The afternoon sunlight cut through the gaps in the metal sheet, casting parallel bright lines on the ground.
In the middle of one of the bright lines, there stands a black shadow.
He stopped in his tracks.
The man with the thick beard and bald chin turned his head in line with his gaze.
A hundred meters away, Cotter was pushing a flatbed cart with several cardboard boxes wrapped tightly in plastic film on it.
He was so thin that the handcart was wider than his shoulders, and when he pushed it, he swayed from side to side, as if he were struggling against the metal frame.
The hood of the gray sweatshirt wasn't pulled up, revealing the short hair shaved on the back of his head.
The bearded man turned around, took out two more cigarettes from his pocket, and handed them to Li En.
The movements were faster than before, and the grip on the cigarette roll tightened.
"Officer, we'll handle this."
Li En did not answer.
He looked into the bearded man's eyes, his voice deepening.
"Solve it? How do you want to solve it?"
He leaned forward half a step with his chin, his voice very low.
"Officer, this is a matter between us and the neighboring port. Getting involved won't do you any good."
The neighboring port.
Li En's mind raced.
South of the 12th Avenue port is the 10th Avenue port, which is another dock area managed by different people.
The two gangs share a coastline, vying for cargo, berths, and transportation routes.
Kotter worked at Port 12.
A Black boy appeared on white gang territory, pushing a cart, and no one stopped him.
He just stood there talking about our business with the neighboring port.
Kotter wasn't number 12; he came from next door.
To be used as a pawn, or as a commodity?
Lee En's gaze passed over the two men's shoulders and landed on Cortel.
The child seemed to sense something, stopped pushing the stroller, and turned around.
From a distance of 100 meters, Li En couldn't see the details on his face, but the shape of his eyes was very clear.
The light in his eyes was gone, his pupils were like two dark holes, empty and devoid of any expression.
Those eyes met Lee's for a second, then Cotter turned back and continued pushing the cart away.
The cardboard boxes on the truck wobbled, but he braced them with his shoulder, shifting his weight back, and pushed them step by step deeper into the harbor.
The back of the gray sweatshirt was soaked with sweat and clung to the spine.
Li En's hand touched the handle of the gun at his waist.
Insert your thumb and forefinger into the anti-slip grooves, and straighten your index finger to rest on the outside of the trigger guard.
0.8 seconds.
He can draw his gun, aim, and fire in 0.8 seconds.
……