by Zhou HaoHui
Han checked his watch. “Get in touch with Xiong and see where he is,” he ordered Yin.
“They’ve just left Ye’s villa and are en route,” Yin reported after he had finished his call. “They’ll be here in about half an hour.”
Han switched on his microphone. “This is Lima One. All units be advised: the target will arrive in thirty minutes. Carry out the operation as planned, beginning now. There’s no need to respond.”
The three members of the investigation team watched the monitors. From their view inside the tiny command room, the square appeared calm. The sweeper was even leaning against his broom and puffing on a cigarette.
The red BMW entered the parking lot in front of the Deye Building at 9:25, just as Han had specified. Captain Xiong, dressed as Ye’s driver, parked the car in an empty space between a white van and a black Volkswagen. Both of these vehicles were equipped with bulletproof glass windows.
Xiong exited Ye’s car first. Soon two men in black felt caps exited the van and the Volkswagen and stood guard beside the BMW. Xiong then walked around the car and opened the passenger door for Ye.
The two felt-capped men stood about thirty feet away from each other, one in front and one behind. Xiong stood in the middle, with Ye close behind him. Together the four of them walked briskly toward the entrance of the Deye Building.
Other plainclothes officers stationed at the square assumed their assigned positions around Ye and her escorts. Five of them appeared to be casually walking, each with their own distinct destination in mind, yet as Ye moved, she was always flanked by at least two officers fifteen feet away.
Three officers remained fixed in their original positions around the square. Each position was a central point for foot traffic. These officers glanced in every direction, paying careful attention to any unusual activity in the square.
Inside the command room on the hotel’s sixth floor, Han and the others supervised the operation from above. With every step Ye took, they could feel her feet treading upon their own hearts.
The square bustled with pedestrians. Mothers pushed strollers across the stone pavement, past elderly people carrying overstuffed bags of produce. A group of middle-aged and elderly women at the southern edge danced to the music pumping from a large black speaker on the ground. As Ye and Xiong advanced, a steady stream of pedestrian traffic passed through the protective circle of plainclothes officers. None of these civilians seemed to notice that anything was out of the ordinary.
SPU Captain Xiong finally escorted Ye into the Deye Building. The officers in front of them halted in the lobby, where they would keep watch. It was at that moment that the elevator reached the ground floor. The security guard standing by the elevator door barely glanced at Xiong. Any more than that, and both men would have risked blowing their covers.
Xiong allowed himself to exhale. His SPU officers had been assigned security duty for the building’s interior. The knowledge that his own men were present eased the pressure on Xiong’s nerves. He allowed himself a moment to shut his eyes and exhale. The first stage of the operation was behind them.
* * *
“What’s your next move?” Mu asked Pei.
Pei blinked at her for a moment. “What do you mean?”
“You’ve already put yourself in his shoes, haven’t you? I see your eyes darting back and forth. You’ve barely looked at Ye. You’re looking for holes in the operation. You’re trying to get inside his mind.”
Pei felt all eyes in the hotel room turn to him.
“You’re right. I am looking for flaws. That way I’ll be able to figure out what action the killer might take,” he said. He turned his attention to Han. “You’re running a very tight operation, Captain. I didn’t notice a weak link. I don’t have any idea how to pull off Ye’s murder. Unless…”
Han’s eyes narrowed at once. “Unless what?”
“We’re missing something crucial. It would be almost impossible to slip past Xiong and his officers’ defenses, and even if he did, he’d have no chance of escape. He’d be swarmed by more than a dozen officers immediately. No matter how many times I play the situation out in my head, the best result he can hope to achieve is annihilation. If he touches Ye, it’s suicide. It ends as a defeat for everyone.”
“A defeat for us?” Han growled. “As long as we beat Eumenides, I can almost stomach the loss. Besides, if you’d ever seen Captain Xiong in action, you’d be begging Eumenides to try something.”
Mu cocked her head. “Couldn’t he just kill her from a distance? You know, with a long-range rifle?”
“A sniper rifle?” Yin squinted. “Where do you think we are, Washington, DC? Not even our department has that kind of equipment.”
Han shook his head. “Very unlikely, Mu. There’s never been a homicide case like that in the history of China.”
INSIDE A LUXURY SUITE
“A sniper rifle? How ridiculous.”
The man’s lips spread into a frigid grin. A handful of users on the forum were excitedly debating how Eumenides might carry out his sentence against Ye Shaohong. One of the more popular suggestions had involved a long-distance attack.
Unless he had some very unique connections, it would have been all but impossible for him to get hold of a sniper rifle. Likewise, if he had opted for a more common firearm, such as a pistol, he would be mobbed by police officers the second he unholstered it in public. It was beside the point. Using a gun was never an option.
He rose and walked to the bathroom.
The face that stared back at him in the mirror was as familiar as it was alien. He rubbed his cheek. The stubble felt prickly against his skin, despite the white bandages on both his hands. He picked up a razor and carefully shaved the stubble away, then carefully wiped down the sink.
Relaxed, he shut his eyes and rubbed his smooth jaw.
He remembered.
What’s a killer’s weapon of choice? A gun? You could not be more wrong.
Mark my words: Never use a gun. When you grow accustomed to using a gun, you are already standing on the brink of your own destruction. First, you’ll have to risk everything to find one. And you’d have to find one you can trust. Then you’ll have to work out a way to carry it. And what are you going to do with it when you’re done? These questions will slow you down. They will make you a slave to the gun, just as they will leave a trail for the police to follow.
The best weapons are those that can be found anywhere. Use what you can get anytime, carry freely, and dispose of whenever you wish. Your weapons will become your most intimate partners in the coming days. You must find a reliable partner, one that will never betray you.
The man opened his eyes, and he carefully disassembled the razor in his hands. A thin blade gleamed in the mirror.
OCTOBER 23, 4:00 P.M.
Afternoon rush hour had arrived. The streets around Citizen Square were choked with cars and buses, and even the shoulders were crammed full of anxious cyclists. Taxis were lining up around the square; their drivers flipped through newspapers and smoked cigarettes, at peace with the commuter chaos around them.
Even though the day was quiet and uneventful, Ye Shaohong had been fidgeting for the past seven hours. She liked to think of herself as an occasional coffee drinker at best, generally preferring tea, but the five crumpled espresso-stained cups in her wastebasket said otherwise.
Even within the climate-controlled safety of Ye’s spacious offices in the Deye Building, Xiong remained stoic and vigilant. Now that they were inside, the chances of Eumenides striking during this time window were slim to none. Their most dangerous trial would come when it was time to escort Ye back across the square to the car.
The plainclothes officers had been in position around the square for some time. So far, no one had reported any suspicious individuals, or seen a match to the suspect’s physical profile.
Back in the Sky Peak Hotel, Pei peered tensely at the monitors. He wanted Ye to make it back to her car without incident, but at the same time, he also yearned to catch his first glimpse of Eumenides. He remembered Mu’s comment in the conference room the previous day, about how his vote of agreement with Han’s plan went against every one of the principles a police officer was meant to uphold.
Han studied the square through the window. “This is it,” he announced. “Ye and Xiong are leaving the building!”
The room itself seemed to hold its breath in anticipation. As Ye and Xiong exited the Deye Building on the first monitor, the other screens showed the thirteen plainclothes officers dispersing throughout the square. Within moments they had formed a secure perimeter.
As Pei studied the monitor, he noticed a taxi parked at the square’s southeast corner. A figure appeared to be moving in the passenger seat.
“Something’s wrong,” he announced.
“Show me,” Han said, rushing over.
Pei strode over to the window and pointed toward the vehicle he had seen in the monitor. “The red taxi in the southeast corner has been parked there for over ten minutes, but look closely. There’s someone in the passenger seat.”
The taxi in question was outside the officers’ perimeter, but it was still within a manageable distance from the hotel. Han could just make out the shape of a silhouette inside.
He switched his microphone on. “This is Lima One. Lima Seven, eyes on the red taxi one hundred feet southeast of your position.”
A bike-mounted officer posted on the eastern side casually turned his head to focus on the taxi. The passenger-side door opened, and a man exited.
Despite their distance from the ground, Pei and the others had a clear view through the monitors. The man was short and thin as a rake, and he was holding an opaque plastic bag in his right hand. He glanced around the square, and his gaze quickly locked onto Ye Shaohong. He began to walk toward her with brisk steps, his left arm swinging back and forth as he walked. The officers in the command center could see something white covering his left hand.
It’s a bandage, Pei thought.
Han’s heart thumped against his ribs. “Lima Seven, move to intercept. He’s a match!” he yelled into the microphone.
Lima Seven was already moving. He flew off his bike and pounced on the man like a wild tiger. Before the man had moved five feet from the taxi, Lima Seven tackled and pinned him to the ground. The man struggled with all his might to get up, but he could only twist and squirm pathetically on the ground.
Confusion quickly replaced Han’s initial excitement. How could someone this frail possibly have killed Sergeant Zheng?
As Lima Seven cuffed the suspect, Han saw a man exit a black taxi at the eastern edge of the square. He was short, thin, and he carried a plastic bag in his right hand. A white bandage was wrapped around his left. As soon as he stepped outside the taxi, he took off in a sprint toward Ye.
Suddenly there were more than a dozen scrawny men, all with nearly identical features, streaming from taxis parked all around the square. Every one of them was making a mad dash directly at Ye and Xiong.
Han’s perimeter unit sprang into action. Each officer instinctively chose a different angle to intercept the incoming men. The thin men were no match for the officers in hand-to-hand combat. One by one, they were forced to the ground. Some were quickly handcuffed, while those who attempted to resist got a taste of the Chengdu Police Department’s elite combat training.
Han’s expression remained grim as he observed the action from six floors above. Almost twenty men had simultaneously stormed from taxis—far outnumbering his thirteen officers. Police hidden inside the white van and the Volkswagen also joined the fray, but there were just too many of the strangely similar men. Two of them had already slipped past the protective perimeter and were only a couple of yards away from Ye.
However, neither individual so much as touched her. Xiong had left Ye’s side to dash toward them. He showed no mercy. His fist struck the first man’s ribs like a sledgehammer, and then did the same to the second one’s jaw. Before they could even begin to wheeze in pain, the two had already collapsed to the ground. Their knives fell from their hands, but something didn’t feel right to Xiong. It was the way the weapons hit the pavement, he thought. However, he had no time to dwell on this observation. He was already standing face-to-face with three more men.
These men had been right at the heels of the first pair. However, they froze in their tracks as they watched their comrades fall. Their faces were marked with blank incomprehension.
The SPU captain made no move to strike. Instead he returned to Ye’s side, keeping his eyes on the three men, his fists waiting. He would not leave her side. If it came down to it, he would not hesitate to kill anyone who made a wrong move.
All of this occurred within seconds. The civilians in the plaza were only just beginning to react. A pair of university students fled screaming, while a group of elderly dancers stood gaping at the brawl that had broken out. After first backing away, some of the bystanders gradually drew closer again until they could watch from a safe distance.
Xiong turned and saw Ye behind him. She was trembling. He pointed to her BMW, which was now only fifty feet away. “Run for the car!” he yelled. “I’ll meet you once I’ve taken care of these three!” He turned back to face the knife-wielding trio. This was Eumenides’s doing. Of that he was certain.
Han surveyed the scene, bile rising in his throat. The plainclothes officers were closing around these new arrivals, and while it appeared that the situation would soon be under control, this did not change the fact that their entire plan had been thrown off balance. They needed to get Ye into her car now.
As if he could read Han’s mind, a tall officer with a black felt cap was already approaching Ye Shaohong, who was only ten yards from the BMW. The tall officer waved to her.
Ye sprinted toward the officer without hesitation. Her momentum and fear sent her sprawling, and he caught her firmly. The officer put an arm around her shoulder, and together they dashed to the BMW.
“Quick, open the door!” he yelled.
Her fingers shook as she fished out her keys from her purse. After several attempts, she opened the door, and the officer helped her into the passenger’s seat. With Ye now inside the car, he took the keys. Two beeps sounded and the door was locked again.
As Han watched this scene unfold from above, he finally permitted himself to breathe a sigh of relief. Even if any more of those strange men appeared, Ye was safe.
The plainclothes officers subdued their targets one by one, and then rushed to the middle of the perimeter for support. The three assailants standing dumbfounded at the center of the ring quickly dropped to the ground. Now Xiong turned and ran to the BMW.
Another thin man emerged from a taxi at the edge of the plaza, not far from Ye’s car. He simply stood beside the taxi’s door with a blank stare on his face.
The officer who had just helped Ye into the BMW immediately began rushing toward this newest arrival.
“Police! Get down on your knees!” he yelled.
With a yelp, the man bolted. The officer chased after the suspect, and within ten seconds he had already shortened the distance between them. His legs pumped with smooth, mechanical precision.
Curious, Han turned his head toward Yin. “Who’s that? He’s a real sprinter.”
“Not a clue,” Yin said, shaking his head.
Many of the plainclothes officers had already changed their clothing before returning to their posts in the afternoon, in order to avoid arousing the killer’s suspicion. A knit hat alone wasn’t enough to identify the officer from this distance.
Pei’s eyes also followed the officer. He watched on the monitors until the man had chased the suspect beyond the cameras’ field of vision, and then he returned his attent
ion to the square. After surveying the area, his eyes grew wide with surprise.
“Wait—he wasn’t one of the men you assigned to the square?”
“What do you mean?” asked Han.
“Your thirteen officers are still inside Citizen Square, so who’s that?” Pei’s tone had become tense.
Han’s jaw dropped. “This is Lima One,” he cried into his microphone. “Check the sparrow’s condition! Check the sparrow’s condition, now!”
Xiong, who was already standing in front of the BMW, knocked on the door. No response came from inside. His stomach churned. He pressed his face to the window and peered inside. A low moan escaped his lips.
Ye Shaohong’s head was slumped to one side, as though in peaceful slumber. The stream of blood that oozed from her neck, and had already dyed the right side of her blouse a deep crimson, implied otherwise. Her left hand hung limp at her side, directing the flow of fresh blood toward the leather gearshift, a dazzling shade of red replacing the original eggshell white.
Because the other officer had run off with the BMW’s keys, the police had no choice but to break the car door’s window. A medical examiner was immediately rushed to the scene. He pronounced the woman dead on the spot.
The gash across Ye’s throat was three inches long and one third of an inch deep. Extremely level, it had most likely been made with a sharp razor blade.
Both her windpipe and carotid arteries had been cut. The wound had caused her to go into shock from acute blood loss, resulting in death.
* * *
The surveillance video from the scene had recorded everything that afternoon. During the task force’s meeting several hours after the incident, each member was given a transcript of all key events that had occurred from the moment of the culprit’s arrival at the square to the moment he vanished from the cameras’ field of view after the murder:
16:02:23—Ye Shaohong and SPU Captain Xiong Yuan emerge from Deye Building.
