Hidden Assassin 231

## Chapter 231: Retrospect

**2013-02-08**

The snow finally stopped at noon, leaving behind a layer of cold, gloomy ice on the streets. The clouds above New York were brewing for a more ferocious blizzard, and the news issued a mild snowstorm warning.

The room, ravaged by bombs and flames, was a scene of chaos. Police officers were busy cleaning up the scene, examining the bodies, and some were analyzing all the surveillance footage.

Around one in the afternoon, a car pulled up outside the shuttered entertainment venue. A strong wind whipped up, and two men in plain clothes stepped out. One was a tall, thin man nearly two meters tall, while the other was around 1.7 meters, with a refined appearance and a pair of thin-framed glasses, looking like a nine-to-five white-collar worker at a big company.

A portly, stern-looking police captain emerged from the building, “You are…”

“FBI, I’m Denny Lavant, this is Agent Michel Philip. I believe they’ve already introduced us to you on the phone… Actually, we were planning a vacation trip to San Francisco, uh, I mean… this seems more interesting than sightseeing.” Denny, the tall man, pulled out his credentials and introduced himself. Michel, the refined-looking one, said nothing but presented his credentials and casually adjusted his glasses, surveying the surroundings.

“Oh, I’m Tim, Tim Robins, the head of this precinct.” Shaking hands with them, the captain led them inside. “This place is an entertainment venue on the surface, but in reality… well, it also serves as a large underground boxing arena, held every Saturday. I’m sure you’re aware, as we investigated it before, but it was shut down because your people were involved at the time.”

“Right, but that’s all settled now. Tom, the one who investigated this back then… *slit throat gesture*… gone. Hehehe, naturally, after this business was settled.” Denny winked playfully.

“Uh…” The captain shrugged, reluctant to delve into the matter. They walked towards the rear corridor, where the walls were wet and sticky from the morning’s water spraying. Police officers passed by the three of them, creating an atmosphere of chilling gloom. After a moment, the captain deliberately changed the topic.

“This way. Uh, I’ll give you a brief rundown. The incident occurred at 10:45 this morning. There was only one explosion, but it was incredibly powerful, affecting the entire passageway, almost 20 meters in length, and killing eight people. Five were directly hit by the blast, while the other three were unharmed. One of them, named Gary Dumbo, was a black-market boxer. While not highly ranked, he could easily take down eight to ten ordinary people with his bare hands. His Adam’s apple was crushed, and his neck was twisted… like twisting a chicken, according to the judge. He didn’t even have time to resist…”

He shook his head in disbelief. Agent Michel, the bespectacled one, frowned. “Adam’s apple? Meaning he was directly hit from the front, no other injuries?”

“None. His body was intact, and the examination was quick. You know, we have the best forensic team in America… Preliminary results show he was in good physical condition before his death, not on any medication, didn’t sleep with any women. He was strong enough to kill a bull, and then… he was effortlessly killed.”

“Troublesome…” The two agents exchanged glances. The captain added, “Oh, by the way, according to the forensic team, Gary Dumbo’s Adam’s apple was shattered. It could have been a direct hit with a sledgehammer, but the wound examination confirmed it was a punch, with the force perfectly concentrated at one point, at least 300 pounds. You know, even if he survived due to his rigorous training, this punch would have caused catastrophic damage to his neck, he wouldn’t have lasted long.”

“Bruce Lee reborn? Where’s the scene?”

“You’ll see it soon.”

They turned around a corner, and the walls blackened and peeled away by the explosion came into view. A group of policemen were carefully inspecting the area, searching for anything useful. Since the police arrived quickly, the scene was mostly intact.

“The center of the incident should be that middle room inside. You know, besides underground boxing, they have all sorts of shady businesses. It’s gotta be said, their connections are impressive.” The captain put on a mask, covering his nose and mouth, leading the two past charred objects on the floor. Occasionally, he pulled back a white sheet covering something, usually a corpse. “The owner of a private company rented this room, with a vague background but generally known as a relatively legitimate businessman. He rented this room to store some things, of course, ostensibly company documents. He often came here to handle some matters, which wasn’t unusual. Every underground boxing enthusiast has a room like this, as long as you can pay.”

“He entered the room when the incident happened. His two bodyguards stood outside the door, all of this is captured on surveillance footage. They were professionals, maybe even too professional. Both had guns… Shortly after, the camera turned away. When it captured them again, it was an hour later. The monitor operator was drunk yesterday, and didn’t notice the lapse in surveillance at that time. In the footage, they were already lying on the ground. The first two people on the scene tried to check their bodies, but the killer apparently planted the bomb under one of them. The two were instantly blown up. The body with the bomb… it was basically obliterated. Most of the debris we saw was… and then there’s this one inside…”

“Aaron Eckhart, businessman…” The room, its door already blown apart, appeared before them. It was charred and black from the fire. Several police officers were busy on one side of the room, moving a bookshelf that was originally there. Behind it was clearly a secret room, with no way to open it normally. They were attempting to break down the door. The body lay not far from the door, partially burned. A forensic officer was making notes beside it.

“What’s that?” Agent Michel, adjusting his glasses, pointed towards the secret room. The captain said, “Obviously, a room that can’t be opened. The person in charge refused to explain, then claimed it was a secret operation here. As long as you have enough money, you can have a room like this. No one knows how to open it, except for the owner. Even the property owner doesn’t know the method. The victim’s thumb was cut off, and there’s a fingerprint lock there. The killer obviously went in. That busy guy is an expert, he’s the best at lockpicking, hehe…”

“So… what’s the status of this Mr. Eckhart?”

“Dead, cooked. Like a medium-rare steak. I like it.” Hearing Michel’s comment, the thin and somewhat neurotic forensic officer raised his head. He picked up a scalpel and gently poked it at the corpse. “There are 23 wounds in total. The person who did this was a genius… no, I mean he’s a master. No question about it. This cut on his throat was the first one. The killer grabbed him from behind, clamping his nose and mouth. With force, a lot of force…”

The forensic officer stood up, attempting to recreate the scene with enthusiastic gesticulations. He pulled back one hand, while the scalpel in the other hand sliced back and forth. “You can’t imagine, his bone was dislocated, with slight fractures. The other party just clamped him with his hand, with enough force to crush his face. Then he slashed his throat first, the wound was deep, blood would have sprayed out over a meter. Then his thigh, shoulder, all over his body, the other party stabbed him like… like a dart, repeatedly over 20 times. All of this was to prevent him from making even a tiny sound. A near-perfect masterpiece. I haven’t looked at the debris outside yet, but I’ve seen the three complete bodies. Clean and efficient. The person who came was absolutely a master. I really wish I could see him, appreciating his work is a treat…”

Michel covered his mouth with his mask, silently listening. Then he said, “Alan, anyone more twisted than you?”

The forensic officer made an indescribable gesture, then said, “The person who came is really amazing. I bet you FBI bitches won’t catch him. What do you say?”

“I like it medium-well.”

“These two guys were college classmates. They’ve known each other for a long time, and have shown their appreciation for each other’s butts.” The tall agent explained to the strangely confused captain, then said, “Let me see the surveillance footage. Of course, it’s definitely been tampered with.”

“Sure, follow me.” The captain led the way to the surveillance room, followed by Denny. Michel stayed behind at the scene. “Uh, according to our experts’ initial inspection, the footage hasn’t been tampered with. It’s been running seemingly normally, except… it’s been subtly modified behind the scenes. The other party used this time difference to enter, but we don’t know how they controlled the entire surveillance system…”

They reached the surveillance room, where dozens of screens displayed rotating footage. Several police officers were studying it. Upon seeing the captain enter, they introduced Denny’s identity. Then, one officer controlled the timeline and started to explain the footage.

“The surveillance system in the entire floor is very complete. Theoretically, there are almost no blind spots. The footage hasn’t been modified. But when we tracked back the path the killer entered, we found subtle signs of human manipulation in a few cameras. First, here…”

“The camera next to the entrance seems to have malfunctioned. The operator was sharp, then judged that the camera mount was faulty, so they had a bodyguard take a look. During those few seconds, the killer entered this intersection…”

“Following that, several cameras had subtle adjustments. If we didn’t know the outcome, we wouldn’t have noticed these irregularities. From outside to this room, there are many paths to choose from. In the first timeframe, you can see that there are people moving here, here, and here too. So the killer must have chosen this path. The camera turned away, he walked out. The camera behind was just in time to point at this intersection… there’s no one. He was just one step faster than the camera. The two cameras on this passageway, look, this one seems to be barely overlapping with the one in front, but it’s always just slightly off. He went from here, to here, and then turned. Every passageway was exactly 13 seconds, no more, no less… I hate this number…”

“Through the blank camera, we traced him here. Look, the camera in front started to scan back. Here, the two black guys are walking towards that corridor. Then… the camera overlapped, we can’t see anyone. There’s a door there… We found two bodies inside. Forty-two seconds later, the black guys turned. Look, pay attention, the blind spot outside the camera started appearing again. Between these two cameras, it’s moving. The next corridor is also 13 seconds…”

“Here, the cleaner starts to overlap with the blind spot, but it widened here… so the cleaner didn’t die. The killer didn’t know how to avoid that cleaner. He paused here, then came this way. From this camera next to it, we can see him. His name is Gary Dumbo, another deceased… he disappeared but didn’t show up in the next camera. Of course, the camera is currently shooting the other side of the corridor. He didn’t appear suddenly, it wouldn’t raise suspicion. Then he just disappeared. We found him in this room. His body seemed like it was thrown in by the killer. Well, lastly, the killer entered this room. Then the businessman and his bodyguard arrived. You can clearly see…”

The entire surveillance room fell silent. Denny subconsciously remained silent. The captain walked back and forth with his hands behind his back. Only the officer’s voice explaining the footage echoed strangely, making the atmosphere even more eerie. Although they had already deduced these things countless times, hearing their colleague systematically explain it still sent chills down their spines. On the surveillance footage, the interior of the entertainment venue was not silent. People seemed to be passing through every corridor. This was precisely why the eerie feeling was even more profound: there were countless people coming and going, countless eyes watching, yet someone moved through the venue silently, like a ghost, undetected by anyone.

Calm, precise, bizarre, ruthless. If he wanted, he might be lurking behind them at this very moment… For a moment, several people couldn’t help but think this. Denny manipulated the surveillance monitor, watching it again, then nodded. “Yes, he’s right here…”

Before his words finished, a sudden gunshot abruptly echoed from the corridor outside. The next moment, another huge explosion shook the entire floor. The officers rushed to draw their guns, but Denny, like a panther, charged out of the surveillance room door, towards the source of the sound.

The commotion came from the corridor that had already been hit by the first bomb.

Smoke billowed in front, officers with guns ran over from all sides, and officers were pulling back from the smoke, just about to charge in, when a voice suddenly came through the mini-earpiece on their collars. He rushed towards another path.

Gunshots faintly echoed. After turning a few corners, he re-entered the entertainment venue lobby, then burst through a side window. It was a narrow alley behind the building. In the distance, at the intersection, two familiar figures stood and paced restlessly. It was Michel and his doctor friend, one holding a gun, the other a scalpel, while passersby ran far away.

“What happened?”

“The secret room door was open, and then…” Michel held his gun, shrugging, “One of them threw a bomb inside, then rushed out. Guess who that was?”

“Who?”

“That old friend we’ve been trying to catch for a long time.”

Denny was stunned for a moment. Alan, the twisted doctor, also swung his scalpel. “I was thinking the same thing, it’s probably him.”

“庄 阿米尔… 裴罗嘉…” After a moment, Denny nodded, “That’s Pei Luo Jia’s place, they’re coming to destroy evidence… Immediately inform the national security bureau and everyone involved in the Yujinxiang case. Maybe we can combine the cases…”

After greeting Alan, the two FBI agents went to handle the situation. Alan took out his phone and dialed a number. A moment later, the conversation began.

“Hello… James…庄 阿米尔’s team was called back. Pei Luo Jia is clearly afraid of Flower-Picking Great Thief Yujinxiang… Nothing, just telling you. I just crossed paths with him, and I’m unscathed. Something to celebrate…”

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