chapter three：New hatred piled on old
1：pence
For an instant the god abandoned me
In a twinkling the hell greets me
“:Three of spades” Bernie is a sweeper, he cleans “sludge” for the gang: gets rid of those smaller gangs who do not obey.
“Jack of Spades” Ogier discovered his potential from the street, and taught him fighting skills. Bernie did his job as a sweeper for five years. Being cruel and ruthless, he chopped all the way from a street punk to the three of spades with his proficiency of axe.
A new gang is active around the edge of Spade family’s turf. Majority of its members are Mexican and they are based in an abandoned factory in the suburban. It is growing rapidly and snatching the family’s market share. The family has given the sweeping order, which is to be carried out by the four of spades and Bernie.
Three vans galloped towards the abandoned factory, carrying 7 or 8 people. During the journey the four of spades asks Bernie, “why do they call you ‘pence’?”
After a short silence, Bernie replies: “Once I was a little boy lived in a cheap council home. My father was either high or drunk, and he beat me almost every day. I was always hungry. One time I took several pence from his table for bread, he found out and beat me half-death. I grabbed an axe and chopped down, I kept chopping until exhausted…Since then I became a regular prison visitor, an inmate gave me this nickname.” Bernie keeps saying with a emotionless tone and blank face, flipping his axe back and forth.
“Each time raising my axe, I feel like the God has abandoned me; the moment I land it, the hell is greeting me, again.” Bernie turns his head to the window…
