by Zhou HaoHui
Brother Hua was pleased with Du’s work and immediately hired the reporter as his official mouthpiece for all communications with Eumenides. Du had become his personal biographer. He had specifically requested that Du accompany him today as he made his last stand against the serial killer. If Eumenides were to carry out his threat, then Du would chronicle the day’s events and report on them in another article that would publicly attack the killer.
As far as Captain Pei was concerned, the stands were the best place for Du to be. By putting Eumenides’ two targets together, the police could focus all their efforts on protecting both of them simultaneously. But the reverse scenario was also a concern. If he and his officers failed, they’d be serving Eumenides his victims on a silver platter.
From his seat, Brother Hua could see the Golden Sea Hotel looming over the opposite side of the stadium. A single street separated the five-star hotel from the stadium, and any guest staying on its upper floors would have a full view of the game and most of the stadium’s seats. Brother Hua was alert to its strategic importance and had stationed several men inside a room on the hotel’s twentieth floor.
The police had also taken advantage of the hotel’s useful location. For the past two hours, Captain Pei, Lieutenant Yin and Ms Mu had been standing in front of the window of Room 2237. The curtains were drawn shut and the room was pitch black. Anyone peering in from outside would only see the curtains. The three of them, however, had a perfect view of the seats and were in constant radio contact with the officers on the ground.
Ms Mu glanced up from her binoculars. ‘Where’s SPU Captain Liu? I don’t see him among the other plainclothes officers.’
‘You wouldn’t recognise him even if he was standing right next to you just now,’ Pei said.
‘I doubt that,’ Ms Mu replied with a chuckle. She brought her binoculars back up to her eyes and, as if challenged, continued to look for Liu.
‘Echo Two, this is Echo One.’ Pei spoke into the microphone attached to his headset. ‘Please respond.’
‘Echo Two here.’
Ms Mu’s forehead creased. It was SPU Captain Liu’s voice.
‘What’s your status?’
‘Still in position. Nothing appears to be out of the ordinary.’
In position? Ms Mu squinted into her binoculars, trying to figure out where exactly he was.
‘Stay alert,’ Pei said, his voice solemn.
‘Understood.’
*
From inside Room 2107 a man watched the stadium. He was tall, with a sturdy, athletic body. He wore a loose set of exercise clothes and a tight-fitting cap. His face was hidden behind a beard and he had sunglasses on despite being indoors.
As soon as the match began, he stood in front of his window and did not move. He observed the stadium through a small portable telescope, dividing his attention between the pitch and the rest of the stadium.
At the same time, the man was also being observed.
A camera had been hidden inside the central ceiling light and was pointed directly at the window. As soon as the man walked over to the window, all of his actions were filmed. A wire ran from the camera and through the ceiling, transmitting these images to a small surveillance monitor the size of a paperback novel.
Another man in his mid-thirties was watching the monitor. He was dressed in the uniform of a hotel employee, but his calculating expression did not resemble that of a member of staff. Hatred smouldered in his eyes as he stared at the screen.
This was not the only screen in the tight space. In fact, the room was packed with hundreds of surveillance monitors. One of them showed Captain Pei, Ms Mu and Lieutenant Yin huddled in front of the window of Room 2237.
Another screen showed a live broadcast of the football match. The referee whistled three times, two short blasts and one long, and the game was over. A low roar emanated from the stadium, clearly audible from inside the hotel. On the screen, the members of the Chengdu Peppers pumped their fists and high-fived one another in celebration of their victory.
The spectators’ cheers were deafening. The man dressed in the hotel uniform watched as Brother Hua and others in the crowd leapt out of their seats and added their applause to the mix. Down on the pitch, the players were ecstatic. They lined up, grabbed each other’s hands and bowed to the spectators. An even greater roar filled the stadium and the crowd surged towards the field. A handful of rowdy youths leapt onto the pitch, their eyes glinting eagerly as they got closer and closer to their heroes.
The man picked up a microphone.
‘Move!’ he shouted.
*
The police had kept most of the unruly spectators at bay, but a few fans had managed to get around them and onto the pitch. The team was high on adrenaline and several players tore off their jerseys and tossed them at the fans that had got closest. This only encouraged the other spectators, and within seconds they began leaping down from the stands at an alarming rate and stampeding towards the players.
The Chengdu Peppers looked nervous. Two more players hastily tossed their jerseys into the crowd and the team sprinted towards the dressing rooms. The police were pushed to their limits to contain the rabid fans, but even their best efforts barely managed to slow the surging human tide. People fought over the thrown shirts, clawing and kicking one another.
The Jin River Stadium was in chaos.
Eight figures broke away from the throng of spectators and ran towards the stands. Their muscular legs pumped as they sprinted across the pitch.
Across the street, Captain Pei was gripping the curtain so tightly as he watched the unfolding riot that his knuckles turned white.
‘Echo Two, defence level one!’
No answer came through his earpiece. Pei had not expected one.
*
The man in the hotel uniform glanced at the image of Pei on the screen but quickly turned away to focus on the one monitoring Room 2107.
The athletic man was gazing intently through his telescope, searching for a specific target.
The man in the hotel uniform curled his lips into a sneer as he watched his displays. He was ready.
He stood up, walked over to the door and draped a large white towel over his shoulder. His disguise was complete.
He stepped out of the room and into the dimly lit hotel basement. He navigated the dark hallways with ease, slipped into a lift and pressed the button for the twenty-first floor.
*
The athletic man in Room 2107 was keenly observing the commotion in the stadium below. He moved his telescope slightly to the left, following the individuals racing towards the stands. Once they were about twenty metres away, they were blocked by a dozen fans and stadium staff. He nodded in understanding. Cops.
The running men halted at once, and the plainclothes officers subdued them in seconds.
With that, the athletic man in Room 2107 put down his telescope. He turned his head slightly to one side and heard a quiet beep behind him.
Recognising the sound of the door’s electronic lock, he whirled around. The light from the hallway illuminated the silhouette at the door. He saw a hotel uniform and the long towel draped over one shoulder, but other details were too dark to make out.
‘Who’s there?’ he yelled.
The microphone hidden in his collar picked up his voice, transporting it away…
*
‘Who’s there?’ the voice squawked into Pei’s ear.
Pei spun around and sprinted towards the door. ‘Move!’ he yelled into his microphone. Lieutenant Yin was right behind him.
At the sound of Pei’s order, fifteen plainclothes officers stationed on the street outside the Golden Sea Hotel began running to the hotel entrance.
*
In Room 2107, the man in the hotel uniform stood motionless in the doorway. Scowling at the athletic man inside, he pulled the trigger of the gun hidden beneath his towel.
A loud echo reverberated through the room and the bullet struck the athletic man
in the chest. After letting out a long wheeze, he dropped to the floor.
The shooter shrugged off the towel and trained his pistol on the man. He approached the window. His victim was lying on the floor, breathing in shallow gasps, with both hands covering his chest and his face contorted in pain.
Crouching down, the shooter pressed the gun’s long silencer against the man’s temple. With his free hand he tore off the man’s sunglasses and false beard. Despite the darkness of the room, a stream of light coming through the doorway was enough for him to make out the man’s features. ‘It’s you!’ he bellowed.
The man stared back at his attacker with bloodshot eyes. Recognition came to him quickly. Beneath the hotel uniform, it was definitely him. ‘Captain Han Hao!’ he shouted, each syllable causing him sharp pain.
Han recognised the face of the man he’d shot all too clearly. Without the sunglasses and beard, there was no doubting that this was the SPU officer who had handcuffed him at the airport when they’d last met.
SPU Captain Liu glared at Han with a look that could only be described as pure hatred.
Another thought suddenly came to Han and he unbuttoned SPU Captain Liu’s collar. A microphone was taped to the other side of the fabric. Shock turned to panic and Han stood up straight away, pulled the curtain open and stared down at the street below. More than a dozen men were swarming into the building.
Gritting his teeth, he pivoted around. Pain shot up his right leg – Liu had grabbed his ankle. Han levelled his pistol at the SPU officer’s forehead. ‘Let go of me!’
Liu’s grip did not loosen. He met Han’s eyes with a ferocity that struck the former task-force leader like a fist to the gut. Han lowered his gun and kicked Liu in the temple with his other foot. The SPU officer went limp.
Han had wasted enough time. He ran out of the room. As soon as he emerged into the hallway he heard the clatter of approaching footsteps from the nearby staircase. They were coming from upstairs. He immediately knew who it was. Sweat beaded on his forehead.
He had only seconds to act before he’d be seen. Reaching into his pocket, he pulled out his universal key card and swiped it over the lock for Room 2108. He disappeared inside, slammed the door and locked it. With his heart pounding in his ears, he pressed his eye against the peephole.
*
Captain Pei and Lieutenant Yin raced out from the stairwell with their guns drawn and quickly kicked in the door to Room 2107. SPU Captain Liu was lying on the floor, bleeding and unconscious. Han was gone.
‘Where did he go?’ Lieutenant Yin asked in a strained voice. He searched the room anxiously, checking the bathroom, the cupboard and the window.
Pei crouched down and examined Liu’s wounds. ‘Seal all exits from this building,’ he said into his microphone. ‘Send two men to the hotel’s security centre.’
Another set of footsteps approached and Ms Mu entered. When she saw the body on the floor, her mouth fell open. ‘What on earth is SPU Captain Liu doing here? What the hell happened?’ she asked.
Pei had no time to explain. He held his fingers near Liu’s mouth and nostrils, checking for breath. Then he pressed hard against the pressure point located between the base of his nose and his upper lip. After almost five seconds, Liu finally stirred.
‘Captain,’ Liu murmured weakly. His eyes fluttered open and his voice became tense and urgent. ‘Have you arrested Han?’
Pei shook his head. ‘He was gone by the time we got here.’
‘He couldn’t have gone far,’ Liu said, trying to prop himself up. He fell back, grimacing in pain, and held his hand over the wound in his chest.
Pei moved Liu’s hand away, slid his own hand beneath the officer’s shirt and felt the bulletproof jacket beneath it. The bullet hadn’t pierced the Kevlar. He sighed in quiet relief.
‘Damn it,’ Liu said. ‘I got careless. I didn’t expect him to shoot me as soon as he opened the door.’
Pei placed a reassuring hand on his shoulder. ‘Stay where you are. You might have a broken rib.’
Ms Mu came over. Despite her concern for Liu, her mind was still on the operation. She couldn’t hold back her questions any longer. ‘What was Han doing here in the hotel? What the hell were you people up to?’
‘Captain Pei put this together,’ Liu said between gasps. ‘His analysis was spot on. Unfortunately I just wasn’t up to the challenge.’
They quickly filled Ms Mu in.
*
Two days earlier
Captain Pei’s office
Pei called Lieutenant Yin and SPU Captain Liu into his office for an impromptu meeting. ‘We know two things,’ he said. ‘One: no one was able to enter or exit Mayor Deng’s office when the murders happened. Two: the recording of the killer between the blackouts is real. These two things sound contradictory. But if we untangle this paradox, we must reach a new conclusion: the killer was in the office the whole time.’
‘But I thought we already agreed that there was no one in the office besides Vice President Meng and Vice President Lin,’ Lieutenant Yin said. ‘The cameras started recording when the two victims entered the office, and they kept recording uninterrupted until the first power outage. No tampering could have occurred between those two points. There were clearly two people in the room when the power went out. So where did the third person come from?’
Pei raised his head. ‘Another paradox. But we shouldn’t fear these contradictions. We should welcome them. You see, most paradoxes have a single explanation. We can find the answer.’
Lieutenant Yin brightened slightly as he attempted to put the pieces together. ‘There were only two people in the room when the power went out. No one was able to enter the office once everything went dark, but the killer was there. The only explanation for what happened—’
He was about to continue with his hypothesis, but he stopped himself. It was too absurd for him to say out loud.
‘—the only explanation,’ SPU Captain Liu said, picking up Yin’s thread and giving him a knowing nod, ‘is that the killer was one of the two men in the office.’
Lieutenant Yin looked at Captain Pei, his eyes alert. Pei nodded silently, but Yin shook his head. ‘But how is that possible? Vice President Meng and Vice President Lin were the two people inside the office. They were both Eumenides’ targets. Don’t forget the recording from after the first blackout. When the killer appeared, both men were still in their beds.’
‘You’re thinking yourself into a corner,’ Pei said, raising his eyebrows. ‘I don’t blame you, though – it took me a long time before I figured it out. Our adversary did a lot of careful planning and if that piece of styrofoam hadn’t got stained with blood and fallen onto the terrace downstairs, I honestly don’t think I would have come up with the answer.’
Lieutenant Yin looked over at SPU Captain Liu, who was trying on the styrofoam and bloodstained clothes.
‘Do you remember what you said about Liu earlier?’ Pei asked.
‘I said that he looked a lot like the person in the security footage,’ Yin answered, before clicking his fingers in realisation. ‘That’s it! Someone else wore this styrofoam. It wasn’t Eumenides!’
‘You’ve sidestepped the first trap,’ Pei said approvingly. ‘The “killer” in the recording wasn’t Eumenides at all. It was someone who was the same height as Eumenides but much thinner.’
Yin and Liu exchanged glances.
‘Vice President Meng!’ Liu blurted out. ‘But how do you explain the fact that the recording shows three people in the office?’
‘That’s the second trap,’ Pei said. ‘It had me completely baffled at first. But once I realised that the figure I thought was Eumenides was actually Vice President Meng, that dead end disappeared. Remember, there were two separate recordings that night, made by two separate cameras.’
Lieutenant Yin slapped his hand against Pei’s desk. ‘The recording of Vice President Meng’s bed was fake!’
‘It all adds up,’ Pei said. ‘The clock was on
Lin’s side of the office, which was the same side on which the supposed killer appeared. Until now, we haven’t had any reason to doubt the recording of Meng’s bed.’
‘That recording must have been looped,’ Liu said.
Lieutenant Yin paused for a moment as the pieces fell together in his mind. ‘The first power outage lasted five minutes. During that time Vice President Meng must have changed out of his clothes and put on the styrofoam to pad out his figure and make himself look more like Eumenides. He must have planned for the emergency generator to kick in as well, because he needed to show his back to the camera so that the police would suspect Eumenides. When the power cut out again, he went to work.’
Yin started to pace around the room, continuing with his train of thought. ‘Vice President Lin had taken sleeping medication, so he wouldn’t have put up much of a struggle when Meng slit his throat. Once he’d killed Lin, Meng took off his clothes, stuffed them into the backpack and threw it down onto the terrace. And the rope we eventually found? He hid that on the terrace beforehand. Meng did all of these things to make us believe that someone broke into the office and killed Vice President Lin. The styrofoam pieces, however, would have given him away, so he tossed them out of the window, figuring that they’d be light enough to scatter across a broad area and so avoid attracting anyone’s attention. He didn’t realise that a single piece of styrofoam, the one stained with Lin’s blood, would land on the terrace.’
‘So after all that, Meng got back into bed and slit his own throat?’ Liu asked incredulously.
Lieutenant Yin shook his head insistently. ‘Of course not. Whatever happened to Vice President Meng, it wasn’t suicide. I think we can safely assume that he didn’t cut his own throat, put the knife in the backpack and throw it down to the terrace before climbing back onto his bed and choking on his own blood. And anyway, based on the angle of the cut to his throat if nothing else, it had to have been made by someone else.’