The truth, however, was that an American police officer could kill a citizen when they determined that the latter was threatening their life, but they weren’t obliged to protect a citizen when the citizen’s life was under threat.
The Supreme Court ruling in 1981 had set up the ground rule: the American police had no specific duty to protect a citizen(1).
Of course, the pressure which the media put on the police was a different matter.
It was actually the leadership of the police department, instead of the bottom-level officers, who were affected by that pressure.
Takagi said, “So, I’ll make sure that your family has fun in Los Angeles, but you must not decline my personal gratitude.”
Luke smiled bitterly. “But Mr. Takagi, you’ll make me the target of jealousy in my police department.”
Pondering for a moment, Takagi proposed, “If so, would you like to be my corporation’s head of security? Your annual pay won’t be lower than 500,000 dollars.”
Luke was rendered speechless by Takagi’s offer.
But on second thought, an annual pay of 500,000 dollars was only befitting of someone who crushed fifty robbers without getting hurt himself, and who retrieved bonds worth 640 million bucks.
Luke just needed to solve another emergency for Nakatomi Corporation on the same scale to be worthy of that pay.
Luke secretly apologized to Robert as he said earnestly, “Mr. Takagi, I love being a police officer. My foster father is a police officer and I’ve always looked up to him. So, I’m afraid that I have to decline your offer.”
Takagi sighed softly, knowing that belief couldn’t be easily reshaped by money.
He could only say, “Alright, I have a personal house in Los Angeles that I would like to give to you. All you need to do is sign your name on the deed. Your colleagues won’t know as long as you don’t say anything.”
Luke was amazed by how shrewd Takagi was. By offering Luke a house, he could stay in touch with Luke.
Then, it was settled. Takagi told Luke something about the dead hostage from last night.
The hostage was another senior manager at the company, who had tried to save his own skin by selling Gennero out.
He had spoken to Detective John via the walkie-talkie to prove to the robbers that he knew John well.
He did convince Hans, but was shot right after Hans confirmed that his intelligence was accurate.
Many of the Nakatomi Corporation employees had witnessed that hostage being taken away after he volunteered to offer intelligence.
So, his death had nothing to do with Luke or John.
The other fifty employees of the company who had laid low weren’t even hurt when they were rescued.
It was further proof that the senior manager’s death had been his own fault.
Also, Takagi mentioned that Hans was responsible for the death of a construction engineer at his company.
The robbers tortured Kiyoshi for information on the layout of Nakatomi Plaza, and killed him after verifying that it was true.
Luke found the name familiar, and finally remembered that it was from the first case that he and Elsa had taken when they came back.
Things had turned out exactly the way they were supposed to.
It wasn’t Elsa and Luke’s fault for not pursuing the case further back then, because there were just too many similar cases.
But Luke still encountered those unfortunate robbers in the end, though Elsa didn’t get to play a part.
She called Luke that night, full of regret. “If I had seen this coming, I would’ve postponed my vacation for a couple of days.”
Luke chuckled. “I’m sure that we’ll have more opportunities.”
He didn’t really mean it. He had gone to the plaza to hook up with Jimena. How could he have brought Elsa with him?
Even if Elsa had been in Los Angeles, she wouldn’t have been at the location at all, nor was she capable of fighting fifteen armed robbers. She wasn’t Detective John.
Elsa’s strength lay in investigation rather than killing
Relaxed, Luke grinned at his stats panel.
Luke (aka Luke Coulson)
Strength: 31
Dexterity: 20
Mental Strength: 14
Extra stat point: 1
Luke had claimed the mission reward after he dealt with Hans Gruber.
Mission: Eliminate Hans Gruber’s gang and retrieve the bonds.
Total experience: 5,000. Total credit: 5,000.
Contribution rate: 75%. EXP +3,750. Credit +3,750.
As experience has reached 7,000 points, the host has leveled up to level 9.
Seeing that Strength was drawing closer to 40 points, Luke was more than satisfied.
He was only two levels away from the minimum requirement for the ultimate lifesaver, Elementary Self-Healing, and from healing his left hand.
He only had 400 experience points left after the level-up, but he had more than 14,000 credit points.
He couldn’t hold back the urge anymore. Opening the list of abilities, he learned Elementary Driving and also selected a few uncommon abilities from the people that he had killed or defeated.
For example, Basic Language Proficiency (English, Spanish and Portuguese), from the electrifying, long-legged Vanessa, only cost a hundred credit points.
Luke immediately picked that. He had no time to learn languages, so this ability would be very handy.
A hundred credit points was nothing for him.
Luke also picked Basic Demolition from an expert bomber on Hans’s team.
But Luke knew that he would run low on credit points in the future.
The X-gene super abilities all cost no less than a thousand credit points. Some even cost more than ten thousand.
He had a lot of credit points for now, only because he hadn’t officially joined the greater battlefield that was going to be New York.
Luke wouldn’t settle down in New York until he got Elementary Self-Healing, or he might be easily killed off by some random guy.
How efficient was Takagi?
That very afternoon, a lawyer visited Luke and had him sign a few documents. After the lawyer handled the rest of the paperwork, the house would be Luke’s.
Tempted, Selina urged Luke to check the house out.
When they reached their destination, they realized that it was a detached villa which covered two hundred square meters. It had five bedrooms, two bathrooms, a garage and a pool.
Luke and Selina toured the house after letting themselves in with the key Luke had just gotten. He remarked, “This house, plus the furniture and decor, must be worth more than a million, right? I don’t think what I did is worth that much.”
Selina, however, was excited. “Haha, Luke, can we move in here? I’ll swim in the pool when the weather gets hotter.”