Thinking of this, Brendan arranged for someone to send a telegram to Sean, telling him to stay put and deploy personnel to monitor Henry's movements.
Then he issued an underground bounty of ten thousand dollars, targeting Henry's head.
He found four top assassins he had worked with before, giving each a two-thousand-dollar deposit, and would similarly deliver the ten-thousand-dollar bounty after Henry was killed.
Then he notified the family's mineral prospecting team to vacation at the California coast, temporarily leaving this troubled area.
Finally, Brendan arranged personnel to continue investigating Henry's family information and who Henry currently cared about.
Hmph! He'd kill even royalty!
Brendan secretly swore vengeance in his heart.
——
Henry had no idea about the storm Brendan was stirring up against him.
At 3:30 PM, he led the remaining 5 officers to the town church and cemetery to attend the farewell and burial ceremony for the fallen officers.
Most of the townspeople were Protestant.
Twenty-four black coffins were arranged in a row in the church, neat and solemn enough to suffocate.
The only pastor, Philip, was a Scotsman around fifty years old. He delivered the eulogy and prayed for the deceased, while the relatives and friends below prayed together. Afterward, they covered the coffins with velvet palls and sent them to the cemetery.
The relatives and friends could only shed tears silently, meaning not to disturb the peace of the deceased souls.
During burial, some flower petals were scattered in. After the burial, crosses were erected in front of the graves with bouquets of flowers placed there. The relatives and friends observed another moment of silence before leaving.
Among these twenty-four families were over fifty children, several still in swaddling clothes.
The parents all nodded silently to Henry in acknowledgment, grateful that he had avenged everyone.
Whether in his previous life or this one, Henry disliked depressing places like cemeteries.
The black coffins and white tombstones reflected each other, making the world seem to become a pixel world of only black and white, as if life and death were only an instant apart, realizing how fragile life truly was.
Mayor William participated in the entire funeral, with his granddaughter Janice accompanying him.
At the end, he spoke with Bryan Mills' widow Linda.
Around Linda's feet were the two exquisitely adorable children André and Becky in formal attire.
Henry listened quietly nearby. After hugging Linda, he accompanied them as they slowly walked home together.
Mayor William's three bodyguards followed behind.
The town wasn't big - at most half an hour's walk.
It was approaching 7 PM, but the sky was still bright.
The group took a few minutes to walk from the cemetery onto the central avenue.
Huh?
Henry's eyes swept over six people scattered fifteen or sixteen meters away on the avenue - three wearing black, two wearing gray gentlemen's suits, and one in a cowboy vest - who exchanged glances with each other.
His sharp gaze noticed something wrong inside their clothes.
"The three in black are reaching for guns from their coats, they'll shoot within a second. The two in gray are a second slower. The cowboy vest is fastest - he's an expert!"
Henry instantly grasped the six men's movements in that moment, and his brow began to ache faintly - danger!
This sounds lengthy, but for Henry it was only an instant, as if a scene about to happen suddenly unfolded before him, allowing him to see all details at a glance.
Henry's hands flashed like lightning, drawing two Colt 1878 double-action revolvers from his waist holsters, and with a thrust of his waist, fired immediately as the guns cleared their holsters!
"Bang bang!"
The movements were too fast for the naked eye to follow. If a blink takes 0.3 seconds, Henry's entire action took no more than 0.03 seconds!
The cowboy vest's hand had just reached his waist revolver handle when a bullet hit his brow, his eyes suddenly losing their spark.
Another black-suited gentleman was hit in the brow almost simultaneously! The revolver in his hand dropped to the ground.
Henry raised both guns and pulled the triggers repeatedly.
"Bang bang bang bang!"
The remaining four all took bullets to the brow, their concealed pistols dropping.
At this moment, the cowboy vest and first black gentleman were just collapsing to the ground.
From when Henry began drawing to firing 6 bullets took no more than 0.5 seconds!
The alarm hadn't lifted yet!
Four more cowboys and gentlemen over thirty meters away also seemed wrong!
Henry continued firing, looking very casual, not aiming at all.
But after four shots, those four also fell almost simultaneously, their brows similarly opened with baby-mouth-sized holes, their pistols scattered on the ground.
Alarm lifted, total time elapsed: 1 second!
Although double-action revolvers required much more trigger pressure than single-action, Henry's LV3 constitution upgrade allowed him to handle it easily.
Henry holstered one revolver and took out .44 bullets to reload the pistol.
The others only now reacted, looking at Henry's tall figure as if seeing a ghost or god.
The children hadn't been shielded by adults and saw everything clearly, all staring at Henry with glowing eyes.
"Pete, you guys go search them. These are all assassins," Henry said while reloading.
Pete and the other four suppressed their shock and quickly moved forward to investigate.
Janice broke free from her grandfather William's hand, ran forward a few steps, and looked up admiringly at the tall, handsome Henry.
Henry just smiled at her and paid no more attention, spending over forty seconds loading one pistol before switching to the other.
After inserting both pistols into their holsters, he patted Janice's small head.
William also walked to Henry's side and said angrily, "Lawless! These bandits dare to rush deep into town to kill people."
Henry said, "Indeed so. Unfortunately, in the urgent situation I couldn't hold back."
William kindly patted his shoulder and said, "This isn't your fault, Henry. You've been exceptionally outstanding. Well done!"
Henry nodded and looked toward Linda, saying, "It's alright, don't worry. The masterminds behind these people won't escape either."
Linda nodded vigorously, picked up Becky with both hands, and said, "Becky, thank big brother Henry."
Becky said sweetly, "Thank you, big brother Henry."
Henry smiled and praised, "Becky is so good."
Pete walked back and said, "Two of them are wanted gunfighters - Quick Gun Jimmy and Devil Allen. They're definitely all assassins."
Henry instructed, "Arrange a cart to haul them all back to the police station. I'll examine them later."
Pete walked to the roadside, untied the police horse tethered by a tree, mounted, and quickly headed toward the police station.
"Luke, watch these corpses. McDee and Lawrence, come with me to escort everyone home first. Also, everyone maintain a few meters' distance from me to avoid accidental injury."
After speaking, Henry led everyone to continue walking home.
Everyone followed behind him, watching his tall figure, their hearts nearly overflowing with security and pride.
About half an hour later, Henry bid farewell to everyone one by one and walked back to the police station.