Brazil: Criminal Empire - Chapter 109: A Ravenous Beast (Patreon)

What pleased Cassiano most was finding two tripod-mounted M240Bs in Jairo’s armory.

Their jet-black barrels looked especially menacing under the storage room lights.

The M240B, currently used by the U.S. military, fires standard 7.62×51mm rifle ammunition. It has a maximum range of 1,800 meters, an effective range of 1,200 meters against area targets, and 800 meters against point targets.

In terms of range, caliber, and firepower, it completely outclassed the M249 light machine gun used by the Ghost Squad.

The M240B also had an impressive advantage when it came to sustained fire.

At a firing rate of 100 rounds per minute, it could keep firing continuously without requiring a barrel change.

However, the M240B had one major drawback in squad-level combat. It was heavy.

An unloaded M240B weighed 12.7 kilograms. With the tripod, that rose to 17.8 kilograms. Add a 200-round ammunition box, and the total weight reached 26 kilograms.

By comparison, an unloaded M249 with a bipod weighed 7.5 kilograms. Even with a 200-round ammunition box, its total combat weight was only around 10 kilograms.

That gave the M249 excellent mobility on the battlefield, while its 800-meter effective range was more than enough for most combat situations.

So despite being slightly less accurate, the M249 was still the better squad-level fire support weapon.

One major reason Jairo had never managed to use the two M240Bs was the suddenness of the Ghost Squad’s attack.

Kaká’s exceptional sniping had also kept the car wash under precise suppression.

Together, those factors threw Jairo’s men into complete disarray.

They simply had no time to set up defensive positions with the M240Bs.

By the time Cassiano and his men had fought their way into the deepest part of the building and captured Jairo, the two M240Bs had never even made it onto the battlefield.

If even one of them had been deployed along the Ghost Squad’s route of attack, the battle might not have ended nearly as easily.

“Cassiano, we got pretty lucky.”

“Yes, we did.”

Rock’s words immediately brought a broad smile to Cassiano’s face.

From that simple “we,” Cassiano could tell that Rock truly considered them his own people.

Fully automatic M4s and AR-15s covered the weapon racks.

Rock also spotted five military M1014 shotguns hanging on the wall.

Highly regarded by the U.S. military as a breaching weapon, the M1014 had an exceptionally high rate of fire for a semi-automatic shotgun.

Its seven-round capacity was enough to handle most situations involving trench fighting or forced entry.

The pistols in the armory were still mostly Glocks, though there were also several Brazilian-made Taurus PT92s.

There were also more than a hundred thousand rounds of assorted ammunition.

To Rock’s mild surprise, he found a crate containing twenty M67 grenades, along with three crates holding a total of sixty MK3A2 offensive grenades.

The M67s were just what he needed to replenish the grenades he had already used.

Overall, Jairo’s armory was decent. Not exceptional, but certainly not bad either.

Although Jairo was also a mid-ranking figure in Crazy Train, he clearly did not place as much importance on weapons and equipment as Correa did.

Correa had bought heavy machine guns and P90s because he paid close attention to his men’s firepower.

Jairo, on the other hand, probably figured that fully automatic M4s and similar weapons were enough to handle most fights.

As a result, the two powerful M240Bs had spent most of their time sitting in storage gathering dust.

The rapid questioning coming from outside suggested that Jairo was currently being treated to the plastic bag memory technique.

Clearly, Jairo was not nearly as stubborn as Correa.

It did not take long before he revealed where he had hidden his valuables, along with the combination to his safe.

One of the safes was actually located somewhere in this very basement.

Perhaps Jairo had been so focused on putting money away that he had accumulated five properties in wealthy neighborhoods.

Now, those properties and everything inside them belonged to Rock.

After today’s battle, Ciro was going to be insanely busy.

And that was without counting anything else they might capture later. Correa and Jairo alone had already contributed eight properties between them.

That did not even include all the cash seized from their strongholds.

Jairo clearly understood the value of spreading his assets around. His properties were scattered across different neighborhoods in different parts of the city.

Rock grabbed the still-bound Jairo with one hand, lifted him up, and carried him into the room where Jairo said the safe was hidden.

It was right beside the armory.

Jairo certainly knew how to enjoy himself.

He had turned the room into a private cigar lounge.

Temperature- and humidity-controlled cabinets were filled with all kinds of cigars.

Rock knew very little about cigars.

Even so, he could tell these were expensive.

Anything that needed specialized climate-controlled storage was unlikely to be cheap.

Maybe the best place to store them was Rock’s storage space.

Anything kept there would remain unchanged indefinitely.

Jairo was also surprisingly good at hiding things.

His safe was concealed directly beneath the table where he smoked cigars.

You had to pull back the carpet just to see it.

Jairo eagerly opened the safe and revealed the huge pile of money inside.

At a rough estimate, there was nearly two million dollars in cash and another two million reais.

Looking at such a fortune, Rock could not help thinking that leaving all this money in the hands of drug traffickers was a waste.

Whatever they could not spend simply had to be hidden somewhere.

In Mexico and Colombia, farmers occasionally uncovered huge amounts of U.S. currency while working their fields.

It was all money drug traffickers had been unable to put into banks.

Rock silently made up his mind.

If they could not spend it all, he would gladly help them.

Jairo’s eyes were swollen and his mouth twisted from the plastic bag memory technique. When he saw Rock staring thoughtfully at the mountain of cash, he cautiously spoke up.

“Sir, I don’t know how Crazy Train offended you. If you let me go, I promise I can help settle whatever happened.”

Even after the fighting was over and he had been captured, Jairo still had no idea what was going on.

He could not figure out when he had offended an organization this ruthless.

More than thirty of his men had been wiped out almost effortlessly.

He was convinced that someone else in Crazy Train must have dragged him into this mess.

Now that Rock seemed pleased with the money, Jairo hurried to seize what he thought might be his chance to survive.

He no longer cared about becoming the ruler of the Stone River favela.

As long as he could stay alive and continue enjoying his comfortable life, he was willing to give up control of the Stone River favela entirely.

“I’m afraid this little bit of money won’t be enough to buy your life back.”

Rock looked at the desperate desire to survive in Jairo’s eyes, a faint smile playing on his face.

“There’s more money in those houses. About the same as what’s here.”

Jairo hurriedly explained the situation with the properties he had mentioned earlier.

Each mansion contained anywhere from over a hundred thousand to several hundred thousand dollars in cash.

Some of it belonged to Jairo himself, while some had originally belonged to Ricardo.

Now it all belonged to Rock.

“That’s all?”

Rock looked at him.

“Do I need to bring someone in to help jog your memory again?”

To Jairo, Rock suddenly looked like a ravenous beast opening its jaws, still nowhere near satisfied.