Spy-x-War Showdown
Chapter 196 - 195 Craftsmanship

Chapter 196: Chapter 195 Craftsmanship

Brian barrelled through the streets in his car, not knowing how many vehicles he forced to a stop along the way, but he finally managed to crash into the multilevel parking garage of the West City Mall.

The police arrived shortly after, but the helicopter hovering above certainly couldn’t see inside the parking garage.

Reaching the garage allowed them to escape the helicopter’s gaze, yet danger wasn’t any less imminent as the police would soon have the place surrounded. However, Brian and his team now had a chance to flee.

For people like Brian, as long as there was room to maneuver, they were okay. Nobody could deal with a gun to their head, but losing the cops in a large mall, that was much easier.

As the car came to a halt among rows of vehicles, Brian stomped on the brake. He turned to Yang Yi and said gravely, "Take your stuff; we split up here. You’ll be fine. I’ll call you when you’re in the safehouse, and if we get caught or killed, just act like you never saw us."

Paul tossed Yang Yi’s bag to him from behind and whispered, "Good luck!"

"Good luck!"

Yang Yi grabbed his bag, flung open the car door, and immediately ducked his head to sprint out.

Die together?

Share misfortune?

That wasn’t an option now.

Yang Yi wasn’t just abandoning Brian and his team to save his own skin now that their identities were exposed. The choice to split up had nothing to do with loyalty; it was purely about what was most advantageous.

Getting into a firefight with a SWAT team wasn’t Yang Yi’s forte. One more, one less, it made no difference. In fact, squeezing into Brian’s finely tuned combat squad would have only been a burden.

Moreover, as far as he knew, Yang Yi’s cover was still intact. Sticking with Brian under such circumstances would be foolish. The right move was to separate. Even if Brian’s team got caught, Yang Yi might still find a way to rescue them, serving as a safety valve.

Yang Yi slung a backpack over his shoulder and, with his head down, bolted.

After parking in the garage, the next logical step was to enter the mall. Next to the mall entrance were the elevators, beside which was the emergency exit. Yang Yi sprinted into the stairwell and immediately took off his backpack.

He opened his bag quickly but without panic, pulled out a t-shirt and a pair of loose sports pants, then swiftly stripped off his clothes. Slipping into the new outfit, he stuffed the old clothes into the bag.

Tucking a switchblade into the inside of his pants, he dumped the handgun into the bag. Just as Yang Yi was about to zip it up, he paused, reached back into the bag, and fetched a glasses case, from which he took out a pair of glasses and put them on.

The glasses were non-prescription. After putting them on, Yang Yi tousled his hair a bit, took a few deep breaths, and vigorously rubbed his hands across his face.

When he dropped his hands, Yang Yi’s facial expression had changed, and with it, his entire demeanor had undergone a transformation.

Of course, Yang Yi wasn’t performing magic or applying makeup; he was simply acting, playing the role of a slightly nerdy Asian college student.

A simple disguise combined with effective camouflaging—primarily in demeanor and expression—transformed Yang Yi into a different person. However, his intent wasn’t to make himself unrecognizable to others, but to ensure that everyone who saw him would not associate him with Brian and the others.

A young man with a tense expression and hurried steps might be questioned and searched by the police in the parking garage even if he wasn’t with Brian. But a student who appeared harmless and natural was likely to be overlooked by the police and simply directed to evacuate.

Details determine success or failure.

Yang Yi walked up through the emergency exit. He did not leave the parking garage directly but headed up to the second floor. After checking that no one was outside the emergency exit, he leisurely walked toward the elevator.

Just as he reached the elevator, Yang Yi heard a click; a middle-aged man had just locked his car and was quickly heading towards the elevator.

The middle-aged man was lucky; he had parked his car very close to the elevator.

Yang Yi watched the man make a phone call as he walked toward the elevator. A thought struck him, and Yang Yi pulled a twenty-dollar bill out of his pocket and clenched it in his hand.

Yang Yi pressed the elevator button. As the man also arrived at the elevator entrance, Yang Yi quietly dropped the bill to the other side of the man.

The elevator was still descending. Yang Yi nudged the middle-aged man who was on the phone. As the man looked at him in confusion, Yang Yi pointed to the bill on the man’s side and whispered, "Sir, did you drop this?"

The middle-aged man looked at the floor, then he saw the bill and immediately said, "Oh, it’s mine, thank you."

The man was holding the phone with one hand and, as he bent down to pick up the bill, Yang Yi reached into the man’s right pants pocket and gently pinched out a set of car keys with two fingers.

Yang Yi had thrown the money to the man’s left side, so when the man reached down with his left hand to pick it up, he naturally wouldn’t put the picked-up money into his right pocket, right? And without reaching into his right pocket, he certainly wouldn’t notice his car keys were missing.

Yang Yi was now a craftsman; the skills he learned from Hank were not in vain. Although Hank was a burglar rather than a pickpocket, he was skilled in the latter’s craft. Lock-picking required actual practice with lock-picking tools, but learning to pickpocket from Hank wouldn’t delay him.

Besides, there were plenty of pickpockets in Pelican Bay Prison. Within Yang Yi’s own circle of subordinates, there were two who had this skill, giving him ample opportunity to perfect the craft of thievery.

After thanking Yang Yi once more, the elevator doors opened, and they both entered. They reached the ground floor together.

Almost simultaneously entering the first level of the parking garage, Yang Yi glanced at the car that Brian and the others had abandoned, then he turned and walked with the man towards the passage leading from the parking garage to the mall.

Yang Yi felt that if he had just come out of the elevator, even if the parking garage was filled with police, they would probably just evacuate him rather than handcuff and search him. Without knowing if the police were already inside the mall, he thought this was a better strategy.

He entered the mall with the middle-aged man, but upon seeing that there were no police inside, Yang Yi turned around and returned to the parking garage.

Brian and his team had acted so swiftly that the police couldn’t mobilize enough personnel immediately to pursue and block them, so escaping was a bit more convenient at the moment.

It was easy for Yang Yi to leave the mall, but he did not plan to just leave directly; because there was a huge difference between escaping alone and splitting up. The difference was tremendous.