Chapter 1012: Go Up
Zhang Heng brought the hotel staff, a waitress on the ninth floor away, not wanting 0 to know what happened in Room 936. He didn’t mind having a guide to lead the way, especially in areas he was unsure was safe. He could always ask the staff to check whether the path was dangerous. Of course, doing so would put her in danger, but it was highly unlikely that anyone from either side would harm her.
That being said, it couldn’t hide the fact that Zhang Heng was using the waitress as a guinea pig. The waitress didn’t realize that, of course, but she soon noticed Zhang Heng pausing between steps, crouching in front of a wall, or suddenly laying down on the ground, and his actions piqued her curiosity.
After a while, she couldn’t hold back, asking, “Mr. Officer, are you investigating this matter alone?”
“Hmm… What? Why ask?”
“Nothing. It’s just that usually, at least two officers will investigate the same case…”
“There are two of us investigating this, but my partner is busy with other things,” Zhang Heng said.
“Oh… I see.”
The waitress nodded, but after a while, she asked again, “Then, Officer, can you tell me what we are looking for now?”
“Yes. You saw the guy wearing exoskeleton equipment earlier. I’m looking for his accomplices. There should be three other men that look like him.”
“There are three of them that look like him?” The hotel staff’s eyes widened. “Can you deal with them alone, Mr. Policeman, sir?”
“I shouldn’t face any problems dealing with one. Dealing with two at the same time, however, could be challenging. If three attack me simultaneously, I don’t think I’ll be able to handle them,” Zhang Heng confessed.
“Then what should we do when we meet them?”
The hotel staff was dumbfounded.
Zhang Heng did not answer her question. Then, suddenly, they heard an explosion. It came from under their feet. The blast was so violent it was audible on the twelfth floor. The entire hotel shook and rattled on its foundations.
The waitress almost lost her balance. She tried to grab Zhang Heng’s arm to stabilize herself. However, the latter dodged her again. Retracting her hand awkwardly, she asked, “What’s the matter?”
“The man in Room 936 fought with someone,” Zhang Heng said.
“Who is it? Isn’t he fighting with the police?” The hotel staff was puzzled.
“We are not from the same department.”
“…”
“Uh, is the relationship between your department and other departments so different?”
The waitress reluctantly squeezed out a smile on her face.
“No. It’s just I don’t know them well,” Zhang Heng said casually. While he spoke, he squatted down again, studying the flower pot that had been knocked over in the corridor.
He knew the man in Room 936 was prepared to sacrifice himself to eliminate his enemies, and he had deliberately allowed the emergency response team to deal with him. He never thought that 0 and the emergency response team would actually fall for this trap.
The special operations team couldn’t win the battle at the station when all their members were still alive, after all. There was now only one person in room 936, about to reach the end of his road. With his exoskeleton equipment severely damaged, it would be impossible for him to go against four emergency response team members. However, Zhang Heng did not expect that the latter would eventually detonate the exoskeleton equipment’s power core.
The previous frightful explosion had been caused by the detonation of the power core. Zhang Heng figured that even 0 had to be shaken up by a blast of such magnitude, something which actually bought Zhang Heng more time.
Zhang Heng had been flowing breadcrumbs left behind by the three special operations team members, the broken flower pots in the corridor indicating they had passed here. Although he also found the same breadcrumbs on the tenth-floor corridor, he discovered that the three switched to a different, safer route in the end.
This time around, Zhang Heng found no such a trace at the door of another safe passage. In other words, the three members of the special operations team were most likely hiding on this floor.
This outcome surprised Zhang Heng too. Initially, he thought that the three would most likely go to the rooftop. Compared to the hotel room, the roof gave them a better chance at setting up a defense line. Moreover, based on Zhang Heng’s understanding of Mr. G, he suspected that it wasn’t a coincidence that the remaining members of the special operations team escaped into this hotel.
It would be unsurprising if some flying equipment were prepared for them at the rooftop to help them get away from here.
However, it now appeared that the remaining three members of the special operations team would fight their enemies here. Although their courage was commendable, it also meant that their mission had failed. It was no longer possible for them to bring the memory encoder back to the first level.
“What shall we do next?” asked the hotel staff on the side. The explosion that came from downstairs gave her a good scare. Besides, Zhang Heng mentioned to her that there were three other exoskeleton fighters. Even she noticed that the threat was getting closer to them. And she finally realized that she was a guinea pig.
“There’s nothing for you to do anymore. You can leave now.” Zhang Heng thought for a moment and looked up.
The waitress was taken aback when she heard what Zhang Heng said. She did not expect that she could leave so easily.
After that, Zhang Heng told her again, “A fight will be breaking out here. If you stay here, it’s about to get very dangerous. And you better don’t go downstairs. Whether you are taking an elevator or a safe passage, it’s not safe for you. There is a high possibility that you might be accidentally hurt.”
“Where should I go then?”
“Go up,” Zhang Heng said. “It’s safer if you go to a higher floor. You can go to the fourteenth floor and stay there. I will bring you away from this place when the battle is over.”
“Oh, thank you, Mr. Officer.”
After thanking him, the waitress went upstairs as fast as possible. Zhang Heng, too, finally started to act accordingly after watching her leave.
He took the key the waitress left him, unlocked an empty room in the middle of the corridor, and put down his backpack.
He had found the location of the remaining three special operations team members before 0. His next step was to acquire the memory encoder. His original plan was to work with the three special operations team members to deal with the emergency response team because they were the strongest among the three parties. Thus, Zhang Heng was confident that he could convince them to work with him. After eliminating the emergency response team, the two sides could work something out to resolve their conflict.
However, for some reason, Zhang Heng knew that this plan was not going to work anymore. A chaotic fight was about to break out here, and his goals had changed as well.