Chapter 284: Chapter 144: Manhattan Project 3

The driver was a burly man in his thirties with a big beard and a fierce look in his eyes.

He showed no signs of slowing down.

The massive wheels crushed the pavement, the engine letting out a deafening roar.

Fifty meters from the checkpoint.

Thirty meters.

Ten meters.

"Stop!" the police chief shouted from the side of the road. "Open fire! If they don’t stop, open fire!"

Not a single officer dared to shoot.

David stood in the middle of the road.

The red semi-truck finally slammed on its brakes five meters in front of him.

PSSSHHH—

The hiss of the air brakes was like the gasp of a great beast.

The massive front of the truck came to a halt less than half a meter from David’s body.

The scorching radiator grille blasted waves of heat, searing David’s face.

The window rolled down.

The bearded driver leaned his head out.

He looked at David.

His face was covered in coal dust, and deep wrinkles lined the corners of his eyes.

They were the tell-tale signs of long years spent driving through the night.

"Officer." 𝒇𝒓𝙚𝒆𝔀𝓮𝓫𝒏𝓸𝙫𝓮𝓵.𝓬𝙤𝙢

The bearded driver’s voice was hoarse.

"My truck is loaded with rebar for renovating an elementary school in Pittsburgh."

"Maybe my tire treads aren’t deep enough. Maybe my emissions are over the limit. Maybe my bumper isn’t street legal."

"You can impound my truck, you can fine me, you can even arrest me."

The driver pointed behind him to the endless sea of headlights.

"But you can’t arrest all of us."

"You can stop one truck, but you can’t stop this tide."

"We’re doing this to put food on the table, to survive."

"What are you doing it for?"

The driver stared into David’s eyes.

"To be a lapdog for some billionaire sitting in his office?"

David was stunned.

He looked at the driver and was reminded of his father.

His father was just like this man—covered in coal dust, so tired every day he could barely stand up straight, but he’d still smile as he handed his fresh paycheck to his mother.

His father often said, ’We’re working folk. We earn an honest living, so we stand tall.’

David looked down at his own uniform.

This uniform represented the law, represented order.

’But what am I doing right now?’

’I’m helping a capitalist who wants to monopolize the city block the path of a group of workers who just want to make a living with their own two hands.’

’Is this what they call order?’

’Is this the justice I swore to uphold?’

The police chief’s roar continued over the radio.

"David! What are you doing! Write him a ticket! Impound his truck!"

David took off his walkie-talkie.

He looked at the bearded driver, then at the exhausted but resolute faces behind him.

They were his neighbors, his kinsmen, his father’s generation.

’If I really cause a bloody conflict...’

’My father would be ashamed of me.’

David took a deep breath and made his decision.

He reached for the switch on his shoulder light.

CLICK.

He turned it off.

Then, he raised the traffic baton in his hand and pointed forward.

It was the signal to proceed.

"Go on."

David’s voice was quiet, but amid the roar of the engines, it still carried clearly to the driver’s ears.

"All of you, go."

The bearded driver paused for a moment, stunned.

Then, a smile of understanding spread across his face, and he gave David a solemn nod.

ROAR!

The gas pedal was floored.

The red semi roared to life, its exhaust pipe spewing a cloud of black smoke.

It started moving.

It drove around the barricade and broke through the checkpoint.

As he passed David, the driver sounded the long blast of his air horn.

HOOOONK—!

The second truck followed.

Then the third.

And the fourth.

Seeing this, the officers who had been hesitating all lowered their spike strips and batons.

They were human, too.

They had families, too.

And they didn’t want to be accomplices.

The police line collapsed.

The torrent of steel thundered forward, surging past the final barrier erected by capital.

The headlights merged into a flowing river of light, illuminating the road to Pittsburgh.

In the command vehicle, the police chief furiously threw down his walkie-talkie, but he was powerless.

You can’t punish a crowd.

When thousands of people advance toward a common goal, no force can stop them.

David stood on the roadside, watching the trucks speed past one after another.

Rain splattered against his face, but he couldn’t feel the cold.

He felt he had just done the single most right thing in his entire life.

「It was already past two in the morning.」

At the reserved construction site for the Pittsburgh Inland Port, a few high-powered searchlights stood alone in the mud.

The area should have been piled high with steel and cement, but now there was nothing but empty fields of weeds and gravel.

Ethan Hawke raised his wrist to check his watch for the third time. His movements were stiff, anxiety crawling over him like ants.

"They’re two hours late."

Ethan’s voice wavered in the wind. He looked at Leo beside him, his tone urgent.

"Something must have happened. The state police might not have been able to stop them, but there are too many things that can go wrong on the road. Or maybe Morganfield used other methods."

Frank squatted on a rock, an unlit cigarette dangling from his lips.

Behind him stood nearly a hundred workers.

They were dressed in thin work clothes, stomping their feet and rubbing their hands together in the cold wind.

No one spoke. There was only the sound of heavy breathing and the occasional cough.

Frank had called them here to unload the cargo.

If the shipment didn’t arrive, they would just be a bunch of fools who’d come out here to freeze for nothing.

Leo stood on high ground by the riverbank, his hands stuffed in his coat pockets.

Across the river, the lights of the Morganfield Building were still on, like a giant, single eye staring at their predicament.

’That old man is probably sitting in his warm office right now, just waiting to laugh at our expense.’