Kansas had a nice weather that day.
The wind direction is just right, and the temperature is not too high, and the best thing is that there is just the right amount of sunshine. Everything was so pleasant that everyone was walking out of the house - and the end result was that the market was full of people.
In the beginning, Rand just saw that the line at the checkout was much shorter, and Rogers said he needed a sugar-free cereal, so Rand decided to line up first. However, Rogers bought a lot of organic wheat flour and whipped cream, as well as a large pile of rolled paper, which blocked most of Rand's view, so he didn't pay much attention, and naturally pushed the cart to the cashier. beside.
But how did that sentence come about
Don't walk on an empty train during rush hour on the subway—it's always empty for a reason.
This metropolitan survival tip makes sense.
When Rand approached there, he found that the situation was not good.
stink.
This was the first thing he felt.
A strong odor filled the vicinity of the cashier counter. It was a kind of sweat-stained clothes that had been fermented for a long time in a humid and closed environment, with a biological odor, accompanied by a strong sour odor. Drunk drunks will wake up to find that their vomit from last night can do just that.
Rand looked forward from behind the cardboard box that read "Organic-Healthy Everyday" and met a pair of blood-red, swollen eyes off guard.
Rand almost didn't recognize the man as the aggressive police officer from before. Of course, it wasn't because of his poor memory. The latter's face had swollen like an over-pumped plastic puppet in these few short days, and the pompous police uniform was gone, replaced by a large, wrinkled advertising T-shirt, a A pug sticks its tongue out on it, and a public welfare declaration is written above it. Officer Tony's beard is unshaven, and his hair is greasy on his forehead. His tall figure may have added some majesty to him before, but now his appearance is matched with that body like a mountain, which only makes him look very abject. and embarrassment. At this time, he once held a mobile phone and yelled at the person on the other end of the phone, his face turned purple due to emotional excitement, and even his eyes were bloodshot.
A skinny Mexican woman, supposed to be the cashier, stared at him in shock with a scanner in her hand, her lips quivering several times without success.
Everything on the conveyor belt has been scanned, but Tony has no intention of checking out, he is still shouting into the phone - until he suddenly sees Rand.
"Hey, it's you—"
His face suddenly contorted, and he rushed over like a bull with a red cloth on the field, trying to catch Rand.
Rand was startled, he took a few steps back, and then saw Tony's slanted foot slammed into his leg.
The thick stench grew stronger.
"You damn bastard... You thought you got me down with money, I don't know what you did to Lawrence..."
I don't know what went wrong, Tony shook his huge body and failed to stand up successfully for a long time.
Rand swallowed and took two steps back slowly. Tony's unstoppable swearing finally reminded Rand reluctantly of who he was, the arrogant police officer.
Rand looked Tony up and down, unable to imagine why someone could make himself into such a ghost in such a short period of time, it was unbelievable.
What he didn't know was that the reason Tony actually appeared in a weekday market in this state was because of temporary unemployment—his partner, George Sr., visited Rand and a few others that day. Afterwards, I finally felt that maybe I should talk to the director.
Tony's arrogant behavior and bad attitude were almost unbearable, and it was at this time that Tony was videotaped in the police car smoking some kind of thing called "happy powder".
He finally had to accept a period of hiatus.
In fact, this is not the first time he has encountered such a thing, remember? He even used to be a DC detective! However, the exposure of his special relationship with some people forced him to leave the clean northern city and be sent to this hell in the middle of the continent.
However, the strange thing is that Tony finds that he can't stand the treatment... His temper has become more irritable, the excitement is burning his sanity like a fire, he can't sleep, almost all the time he is Cursing the people in the police station, all the people, the bitch who told him to be suspended, the bureaucrat chief, the damn nigger... oh yeah, yeah, and that fucking little bastard, that murderer...
Tony was panting, his eyes bulging slightly, his face looking at Rand with a twisted expression. He didn't notice that his mind had become like a muddy mess. However, his strangeness has caused a commotion among others in the market. The cashier shouted at Rand in heavily accented English: "Sir... Sir we are calling 911..."
As a result, before she could finish her voice, Tony had already jumped up. He rushed to the cashier and yelled at the woman: "911 I'm a fucking police officer! I'm a fucking cop!!"
His fist slammed on the conveyor belt so hard that the back of his hand began to turn purple, and some sparkling saliva flowed from his slanted lips.
The woman stepped back in fright, and Rand couldn't help rushing up, seeing that Tony seemed to be ready to throw his entire body over the conveyor belt to attack the woman.
"Hey, I said, stop!"
He shouted at Tony, reaching for Tony.
But his palm slipped away from Tony's arm.
It was an extremely disgusting feeling.
The man who seemed to have some mental problems didn't even have a single hair on his arm. His skin was terribly hot, and at the same time, the surface of the skin was slippery, and there was a layer of mucus.
Heck, these sweats are disgusting - Rand didn't think much about it during the crisis, it just flashed through his mind.
When he was about to stop Tony again, a few patrolmen arrived.
They pinned Tony to the ground, and the man rolled his eyes and squirmed on the ground like a wild boar, making a hissing sound that made his whole body feel extremely uncomfortable.
There was no humanity in that voice, only the madness of a mindless beast—and he was facing Rand the whole time.
It was as if the voices were announcing something to Rand.
He made Rand's nerves so tense that he almost jumped when Rogers tapped him on the shoulder.
"Oh, sorry!"
Rogers' eyes widened in surprise, a box of cereal in his other hand, he said apologetically.
"I didn't mean to, just wanted to make sure..." he added, then his eyes fell on Tony, who was being shoved and dragged away from the market by the patrolmen. "He didn't hurt you, did he?"
"No," Rand shook his head, "I don't think so, just a little…"
Rand wasn't quite sure how to describe that feeling exactly.
Bad feeling
This phrase is so vulgar. But Rand did think Tony looked odd.
He waved at Rogers: "He's just disgusting to me... But he looked normal before. I don't know what happened to him to suddenly become like this."
Rogers pursed his lips and gave a smirk: "Who knows. But he probably won't bother you in the future, isn't he fortunate?"
Whether as an amiable neighbor or a well-known hitman in the industry, Tony wasn't the kind of guy to get Rogers' attention, and he was just as unconcerned about this little episode as he appeared to be.
Even Rand's fish was more interesting to him than Tony's.
That night, when Rogers routinely made that call to report all about Rand's whereabouts to a woman he thought was stupid and arrogant, he was about to mention the fish in particular.
"...Yes, the police finally got him back, and I can handle him if he shows up again."
"I see." Caroline rubbed her eyebrows. She lowered her head and looked at her hand. The notebook contained some meaningless words - not Rogers' report. Then she realized she was distracted, but who could blame her? Compared with other people of the same class, Rand is as good as a castrated sheep, and his regular schedule can be said to be almost the same. And, from her heart, Caroline didn't feel that Rand, who was already a serious adult, needed such special attention - of course, this kind of thought only occasionally crossed her mind, and then was She pressed deeply into the depths of her consciousness.
In any case, the importance of Rand to Vinson is self-evident.
Thinking of this, Caroline sullenly added: "Is there anything else that needs special attention?"
It was at this time that Rogers suddenly thought of Rand's new aquarium and the fish's tail that had suddenly grown larger.
"Well, I don't think so... But our little prince seems to be obsessed with raising fish recently..."
"Rogers." Caroline interrupted him reluctantly. "Or should I call you 'Spider'? You know you're paid a week for a full month of professional surveillance, right?"
"Uh, yes."
Rogers raised his eyebrows.
"Then, I hope you understand what's worth researching information and what's just general information. If you do find something worth noting, let me know, if not... You just need to keep Rand safe." Caroline There was an undisguised tiredness and exhaustion in his voice. "Can you understand what I said?"
Although he knew that the other party couldn't see it, Rogers couldn't help showing a subtle smile.
Of course, he's been vocally disguised all the time.
"Okay, I get it, of course I do. Information that works, information that doesn't... Simple, I'll do it."
He said softly and sweetly, then hung up the phone.
After that, he never mentioned anything about the fish to Caroline again.