by Zhou HaoHui
Ms Mu took a step back. She had never seen Huang like this. He was acting like a cornered beast. Pent-up rage flared in his eyes, ready to explode at any second.
Eumenides said nothing.
‘I need to see my son first. I’m not saying anything until I’m sure that he’s safe.’ Despite the anger in Huang’s face, his tone was pleading. ‘Otherwise I won’t answer any more questions.’
‘Fine,’ Eumenides said curtly.
Seconds later, a video feed appeared on Huang’s monitor. It showed a bed standing a couple of metres from the camera. Sitting on the bed was a boy. He was blindfolded and gagged and his hands were bound, but he didn’t seem to have been physically harmed. As the boy struggled against his restraints, Huang’s heart crashed to the floor.
He leant closer to the screen and called out, ‘Deyang, it’s your dad!’
*
Pei immediately stepped away from the terminal. He took out his phone and dialled SPU Captain Liu’s number.
‘Liu, where are you now?’
‘We just left an internet café and we’re on our way to the fifth link in the chain, which is apparently located inside a men’s dorm at the Chengdu University of Technology.’
‘I caught a glimpse of the video feed from Eumenides’ end. The ultimate destination you’re looking for is most likely a cheap business hotel. If you find any leads pointing to a place like that, tell me right away.’
‘Understood! Has Eumenides asked about Chen Hao yet?’
‘He has. He saw through the age anomaly right away, just like we planned.’
‘Great. Now he thinks he has the upper hand.’ There was a muffled shout from somewhere in the background behind Liu. ‘TSO Zeng wants to talk to you.’
‘Put him on.’
‘Hey, Captain,’ Zeng said, sounding slightly out of breath. ‘While I was tracking the next connection, I intercepted a signal from that unknown program we saw at the café. It’s monitoring a series of pulses that seem to indicate a constant output from Huang’s end. I’ve already sent the intercepted signals to the server at the café. You can print out the results and see for yourself.’
‘Good work,’ Pei said and ended the call.
He called over the café’s owner and asked him to print out the document, then went back to Computer 33. The video-feed window had disappeared and Huang no longer appeared to be on the verge of throttling his keyboard. Pei could still hear Eumenides’ voice issuing from Huang’s headphones.
‘All right. I’ve already held up my end. Now it’s your turn. Is this him?’
Huang nodded silently.
*
‘Yang Lin. Forty years old. Twenty years with the SPU. Currently an instructor in hand-to-hand combat. Are you positive this is him?’
‘Yes,’ Huang said, his voice catching in his throat.
‘Excellent,’ Eumenides said. ‘But I’d still like you to look at the rest of the pictures.’
‘Why?’ Huang asked, genuinely curious.
‘I’m worried you might have made a mistake. It’s been almost two decades, after all. You need to see all the photos before you give me a final answer.’
‘Fine,’ Huang said, trying not to appear too eager. After all, one of his objectives was to keep Eumenides occupied for as long as possible.
A new series of photos appeared on his monitor. The question-and-answer routine continued.
‘Is this him?’
‘No.’
It took more than half an hour for them to cycle through the remainder of the photographs. Huang’s answer was always the same: a resolute ‘No’.
‘You’ll be reunited with your son very soon,’ Eumenides finally said.
Huang let out a deeply relieved sigh. ‘Where should I go to meet him?’
‘Not so fast, Huang. I’m not quite finished. I’d like to have a little chat with the man standing beside you.’
Huang looked over in surprise. ‘You mean—’
‘There’s no need to act coy, Huang. I know Captain Pei is right next to you.’
Huang took off his headphones and handed them to the captain.
Pei hesitated before accepting them. Something wasn’t right. Was Eumenides… stalling?
He donned the headphones and switched places with Huang.
As Huang stepped away from the computer, he made eye contact with Ms Mu. She gave him an encouraging thumbs-up.
The café owner approached with a folded piece of printer paper. Ms Mu flashed him a questioning look.
‘Captain Pei asked me to print this out for him,’ he said, shaking the piece of paper.
*
‘Captain Pei, first I’d like to express my thanks.’
‘For what, exactly?’ Pei asked, keeping his face as immobile as possible.
‘For helping me kill Mayor Deng.’
‘Your memory of that day seems to differ from mine,’ Pei replied. ‘I’ve never given you any help.’
‘I can hear that you’re angry. But let’s be clear about one thing. You realised that I was using Han Hao as my pawn, but you still let me proceed with my plan. If you had truly wanted to stop me, I wouldn’t have been able to kill Mayor Deng. Which means you allowed me to do it. In that regard, I have already lost to you once.’
Pei chuckled. ‘Don’t patronise me, Eumenides. Mayor Deng is dead. I don’t need to hear your twisted logic about who “won”.’
‘The truth is, Mayor Deng’s death could never have truly been my victory anyway. It was my mentor’s meticulous planning that made it happen. Not me. ’
A shiver ran down Pei’s spine. ‘And now that you’re fully in control, I’m supposed to understand what? That you want to make this personal – a battle between you and me?’
‘Exactly. I’m sure you feel the same way. I imagine you’re aching to get your revenge on me. Am I right?’
Pei stayed silent.
‘It’s rare that one gets the opportunity to take on such an evenly matched opponent. I’ve actually been enjoying myself today.’
‘You saw through my trap at Huang’s house. You’ve already got the better of me once today.’
‘We’re even,’ Eumenides said. ‘You know, I thought it would take you much longer to realise who my target was. I plucked all those random files from the archives, but you had your sights on Huang almost right away. You even figured out my identity. How did you do it?’
‘Why should I tell you?’ An uncomfortable thought prickled at the back of Pei’s mind. Why was Eumenides drawing out the conversation like this?
‘Tell me what the flaw in my plan was and I’ll return the favour,’ Eumenides said. ‘After all, that’s the only way we’ll become better opponents.’
Pei had to admit, he was tempted. He thought back to what Yuan Zhibang had said about the ‘catfish effect’ during their final meeting inside the Jade Garden.
Yuan had told him how Norwegian fishing ships would place a single catfish in each tank of sardines when they were bringing their catch back home. The sardines used to die long before they reached harbour, but with the catfish in their tank, they made every effort to escape the predator, which built their strength and endurance and kept them alive during the long trip to shore.
It was clear that Eumenides saw Pei as his own personal catfish. As Eumenides had said, the two of them had one thing in common: they both relished the challenge of doing battle with someone of similar calibre.
Pei made his decision. If there were any weaknesses in his strategy, he wanted to know what they were. So he made the first move and told Eumenides how he’d come to work out his identity first by analysing the dust trails in the archives then by checking the records of children who’d been reported missing between 1985 and 1992.
‘Hmmm.’ Eumenides let out a long exhale. ‘I suppose my visit to the archives was a little rash. But then again, would anyone in my situation have been able to keep a clear head?’
Pei figured it was now his turn to ask questions. �
�How did you know that we were planning an ambush this morning? I didn’t tell anyone that I was talking to Huang and I’m confident there were no leaks.’
‘There’s a scrap-purchasing depot at the entrance to Huang’s housing development. I had a chat with the fellow who runs it. He told me that Huang’s wife is a bit of a neat freak. They collect the rubbish from her garage every Monday – junk mail, packaging, the previous week’s magazines and newspapers. When I asked him if he’d ever noticed any piles of old papers in the garage, he laughed and told me the place was virtually spotless.’
Pei snorted to himself. Eumenides had seen the cracks in their plan before he had even set foot in Huang’s garage.
‘What will you do now?’ he asked. ‘Go after that SPU marksman – Yang Lin?’
‘It’s a matter of principle,’ Eumenides said softly.
‘Coming from you, that’s a dangerous statement indeed.’
‘Some things need to be seen through to the end,’ he said with pride. ‘For my mentor, it was the killings of Sergeant Zheng and Mayor Deng. For me, I need to find the truth behind my father’s death. I’ll do it my own way, no matter how dangerous.’
A silhouette entered Pei’s peripheral vision. He blinked to clear his head and saw that Ms Mu was holding up a piece of paper out of range of the camera. It looked like an ECG graph. But instead of a fairly uniform pattern of waves there were long, even lines and then sudden fluctuations. Something about it looked familiar.
He froze. It couldn’t be.
‘Something on your mind, Captain?’ Eumenides asked.
Recovering quickly, Pei feigned a chuckle. ‘Do you know what I’m thinking?’
‘You’re nervous. I can sense that much.’
‘I’m just feeling a little claustrophobic with these headphones on.’ He removed the bulky headset and set it down on the desk. As he rubbed his temples in mock exhaustion with one hand, he carefully prodded the headphones with the other. A small curved piece of metal was set into the cloth around each of its speakers. Sensors.
Eumenides had turned the headphones into a makeshift polygraph. A lie-detector.
Trying to mask his humiliation while simultaneously attempting to work out what this new development meant for Huang, Pei slowly put the headphones back on.
‘I was thinking,’ he said, ‘that you might be able to get what you want through other means.’
‘Meaning…?’
‘Through normal channels. Let the police look into the truth behind the January 30th case.’
‘The police? You’re the ones who covered up the truth in the first place. You honestly expect me to trust you? The only way I’m going to get to the heart of this is by using my own methods. Just like before.’
‘Your own methods?’ Pei said, his anger building. ‘Are you actually proud of your “methods”? Your criminal methods?’
‘I punish evil. There’s more justice in the world because of what I do.’
‘No. You’ve merely created another kind of evil. True justice isn’t anything like this twisted version of yours. Besides, you’ve already lost control of what you started.’
‘What do you mean?’
‘The punishment you inflicted on that poor teacher. You thought you were only giving Teacher Wu a shock, that you were somehow helping him regain his dignity and sense of duty, but now he’s dead, and all because of you.’
‘That’s impossible!’ Eumenides cried in apparent disbelief. ‘All he did was cut off his own hand. The ambulance came in time. Besides, the personal breakthrough he achieved as a result of my actions was far more significant than any physical pain he endured.’
‘You haven’t heard the news, have you?’ Pei asked gravely. ‘Teacher Wu is dead. He killed himself.’
Several seconds passed.
‘Suicide? But why?’
‘You broke him. What happened in the hospital simply pushed him over the edge. Listen to the recording that’s circulating online and everything will become clear.’
Pei pulled the MP3 player out of his pocket, positioned its speaker in front of his headset’s microphone and hit the play button.
While the disturbing interview was being aired, he glanced up at Ms Mu. She looked furious and Pei realised it was the first time she’d heard it.
‘Who was that interviewer?’ Eumenides asked after listening to the entire recording. His voice was void of emotion.
‘That’s not important. The reporter didn’t kill Teacher Wu. It was you who sent him to his doom.’ Pei sneered at the camera. ‘And you actually thought you were helping him.’
He heard Eumenides’ breathing quicken. This was exactly the result he’d been aiming for. But before he could land another blow, Eumenides came back with a calm response.
‘You’re wrong. I wasn’t the one who hurt him. That was another evil act. Since you aren’t able to punish that reporter, you’ve decided to pin the responsibility for Teacher Wu’s death on me.’
‘At the very least, you’ve lost control. That’s why there are rules in society, rules that you have failed to follow. When you set yourself apart and convince yourself that you’re still in charge, this is what happens’
‘I thought this was going to be a friendly chat,’ Eumenides said. ‘I don’t appreciate these petty accusations. Frankly, I’m a bit disappointed. I can’t see any point in continuing this.’
‘Tell me where the boy is,’ Pei said, steering their exchange back on course. ‘He’s innocent. You already have the information you wanted. There’s nothing more to be gained from keeping him captive.’
‘I will let him go. But I’m not leaving just yet.’ Eumenides snickered. ‘I wouldn’t want to disappoint Ms Mu.’
‘You want to talk to Ms Mu?’
‘Yes. Give her the headphones, please.’
Pei was stunned. Instead of ending the conversation now that it was obvious that Pei had nothing else of worth to offer, Eumenides was actually prolonging it. He had to know that he was giving the police more time to trace his location. What did he have up his sleeve?
He got up from the chair and gestured to Ms Mu.
Once he was out of the camera’s field of vision, he whispered to her, ‘Do everything you can to stall him. If he asks you something, play along. Don’t lie, though. You saw the printout.’
Ms Mu nodded solemnly at the captain. Keeping Pei’s orders firmly in mind, she sat down in front of the camera.
Pei glanced at his watch. It was now 3:51 p.m. They had been talking to Eumenides for nearly two hours.
His phone rang. It was TSO Zeng.
‘Captain,’ Zeng said. ‘We’ve just confirmed the next point in the network. It’s at the Jinhua Hotel on Shunde Street. When I phoned them, the receptionist told me that at ten o’clock this morning a youngish man and a boy checked into the room that corresponds to the IP address we have. The boy appeared dazed. The man claimed to be his uncle and said that he’d brought the boy to Chengdu to get him looked at in the nearby hospital. I ran a search on the ID card he used to check in. It belongs to a migrant worker who reported his wallet stolen yesterday.’
‘It’s definitely him!’ Pei hissed. ‘Hold on a minute.’
He glanced anxiously at Ms Mu, who was still talking to Eumenides. Shunde Street… The captain tried to call up a mental image of the area but kept drawing a blank. He was still not very familiar with the city.
Huang noticed the change in Pei’s mood and came over to him. ‘Anything I need to know?’ he asked.
‘How far is Shunde Street from here?’ Pei asked.
‘Twenty minutes.’ Huang scrutinised Pei’s face. ‘Is something happening there?’
‘That’s where Eumenides is. Do you know the way?’
Huang’s face lit up. ‘Of course! I’ve lived in this city for decades. I’ll drive.’ Without even waiting for Pei to give the order, he raced out onto the street.
As Pei followed him, he clamped his phone back to his ear. ‘Still there, TS
O Zeng? When you get to the hotel, I want you to secure all the entrances and exits. Don’t go into the room. I’ll be there in about twenty minutes.’
‘Roger that!’ Zeng said. ‘As long as someone continues to stall him, Eumenides won’t get away this time.’
Pei glanced behind him. Ms Mu was still fully absorbed in her conversation with Eumenides, but he was sure she’d registered the change in atmosphere. Going back to update her would only waste time and it would also risk alerting the killer on the other end.
Seconds later, Huang drew up to the entrance in the patrol car and Pei hopped in. As the car lurched back into motion, Pei called Lieutenant Yin.
‘We’ve already traced Eumenides to his current location and we’re on our way over. Tell your people stationed around the café to stand down,’ he ordered. ‘Ms Mu’s still talking to Eumenides. I want you to monitor her and report any activity to me.’
‘Understood, sir.’
*
4:13 p.m.
Jinhua Hotel
As Pei and Huang emerged from the patrol car, SPU Captain Liu raced over to them.
‘We’ve secured all entrances and exits to the hotel, including the windows at the rear of the building. We got here at two minutes after four and I can guarantee that no one’s left the hotel since. We’ve also shown young Deyang’s picture to the front-desk staff. They’re positive that he’s the boy in Room 212. Although the man with him is most likely wearing some sort of disguise, his general appearance and physique is a match for the description of businesswoman Ye Shaohong’s killer.’
‘Excellent,’ Pei said. ‘Ms Mu should still be talking to Eumenides and she just needs to keep that going for a little longer.’
‘How are we going to take him down?’ Liu asked.
‘We’ll do it the easy way,’ Pei said. ‘I’ll take care of the electric lock, but we’ll assume that the door will also have been bolted from the inside. When the moment comes, wait for my signal.’
Everyone got into position. Pei squatted by the room door with key card in hand. Liu and an SPU officer stood within striking distance of the door. Four other SPU officers hugged the walls to either side and Huang hovered nearby.
