Chapter 1069: Whack-a-Mole
In that moment when the person bent over, Bohemia quickly scurried out from the other side of the desk on all fours. The person immediately realized that the person under the desk had stood up and hurriedly straightened up. She stood behind the desk and, without waiting for the shadowy figure to stand up straight, she reached for the telephone on the desk and slammed it down heavily towards his face.
Before the person could fully straighten up, he was hit and let out a muffled groan, sitting back on the ground. Bohemia didn't dare give him a chance to see her clearly. She quickly crouched down and grabbed the secretary's chair, ready to lift it up.
However, to her surprise, the simple task that was usually as easy as picking up a pen made her arms go weak this time, and she almost dropped it on herself. Taking advantage of this gap, the person on the ground quickly rolled out of the way as the chair slipped from her hand and rolled out towards the other side of the desk. Not only was he not hit by the chair, but he also managed to block the doorway.
Damn it!
Bohemia was afraid that he might see her face. The game's objective was quite clear; she couldn't let anyone know that 'she' was in the office building tonight. This meant that as long as no one discovered her identity, the mission wasn't a failure.
In her desperation, Bohemia's gaze quickly scanned the desk and caught a glimpse of something faintly glimmering in the dim moonlight. She reached out and grabbed it, then quickly crouched down and squeezed back under the desk.
The shadowy figure muttered some incoherent curses, and it was difficult to tell who it was. Next, the pair of shoes appeared once again at the edge of the desk. The person seemed afraid of being discovered, and even though they were burning with anger, they clenched their teeth and remained silent. As they bent over and reached under the desk, Bohemia raised her hand and forcefully thrust the paper cutter she had found earlier into the arm of the figure encased in a sleeve.
An abrupt and suppressed scream completely shattered the eerie silence that had filled the room. Bohemia had a faint sense that she had heard this scream somewhere before, but she didn't have the time to think about it. She quickly pulled out the paper cutter and scurried out from the other side of the desk again.
This time, the person had become more cautious and remembered to be on guard. He gritted his teeth and, despite the pain, immediately took two large steps forward, blocking her way to the door. She quickly lowered her head, covering her face with her hair, and stepped back a few paces. However, she had unknowingly backed herself into a dead-end between the desk and the wall.
Seeing an opportunity, the person made a low, guttural sound from his throat and moved to grab her. While Bohemia now had only the agility of an average woman, her combat awareness and quick reactions were undiminished. She kicked the trash can under the desk, sending it rolling forward. The person, caught off guard, was tripped by the trash can and fell, half-crashing and half-rolling on the ground.
Bohemia agilely climbed onto the office desk, leaped over the chair on the floor, and dashed toward the office door while the person had not yet fully risen. She unlocked the door and rushed into the corridor.
As she turned around and slammed the door shut with a loud bang, it was followed by the sound of the person colliding with the door from the other side. Bohemia quickly grabbed the doorknob, pulling it as hard as she could and not letting go. The person on the other side also gripped the doorknob, applying increasing pressure, far beyond what a woman's strength could endure.
As she watched the gap between the door and the frame slowly widen, she was about to lose her grip. Bohemia suddenly reached her hand into the gap, used the paper cutter to stab it again, not knowing where it landed on the person. She quickly let go, turned, and ran.
When a person is in pain, they need a moment to react. The person let out another painful cry. After pulling out the paper cutter and regaining his composure, he forcibly opened the door and hurriedly entered the corridor. However, the corridor was dimly lit, empty, and there was no sign of Bohemia.
Once the sound of footsteps had faded away, Bohemia, who was hiding behind the warden's office door, found a moment to catch her breath. Her hands were trembling, and her heart was pounding.
She had been afraid that the person would hear the sound of the door closing. Therefore, after rushing into the warden's office, she didn't even dare to close the door completely. She left it slightly ajar. If the person were suspicious, a closer look would reveal that the door was open. Fortunately, he seemed to have never considered the possibility that the one who had attacked him in the middle of the night was the warden himself.
When Bohemia had finally caught her breath, the Descartes Spirit drifted over slowly.
"There was someone outside the window just now," it said nonchalantly.
"Why didn't you tell me earlier?" Bohemia was furious and immediately turned it into a piece of chewed gum, muttering, "Why don't you get to the point? Instead of mumbling like a bad cell signal, you could just speak plainly."
The Descartes Spirit was unapologetic, "I did call out to you. It's not my fault you were too impatient to listen."
"Enough with the excuses! It's like talking to a wall with you. Just say what you mean."
Surprisingly, the Descartes Spirit was unfazed. No matter how Bohemia berated it with Higher Consciousness, it always had something to say. After they exchanged insults for a while, they suddenly fell silent, almost simultaneously.
"Um... it seems like you've returned to your own office," the Descartes Spirit said something irrelevant, but Bohemia wasn't in the mood to mock it this time.
Indeed, she had returned to the warden's office. The mysterious person who had quietly climbed the stairs and then turned back when they saw the lights on in her office was targeting this very room. And now, the faint, slow footsteps were once again echoing in the corridor, steadily approaching the darkened office.
This time, the footsteps were slightly quicker. The person who had been attacked by Bohemia in the secretary's office earlier and left, making his steps resonate in the corridor, was probably heard by the mysterious person's ears. Furthermore, upon arriving upstairs, he found the lights in the warden's office were turned off. Anyone would assume that the person who had just left was the warden himself.
"It's good to make people think you've gone home for the night," the Descartes Spirit commented. "But this is essentially trapping yourself in the room. Setting aside everything else, if he pushes the door and finds it unlocked, he'll immediately realize something's wrong."
Bohemia should have realized that the little game wouldn't let her sleep through the night so easily.
Tears were about to fall from Bohemia's eyes. The warden's office had louvered windows that, when opened, would make enough noise to wake the dead. Besides, with her ordinary body, could she even jump from the second floor?
Upon closer inspection of the office, she realized the only place to hide was the corner cabinet.
"Back into a corner once again," the Descartes Spirit remarked.
"Shut up," these were the last two words Bohemia spat at it.
She had barely hidden for a while when the door to the warden's office was gently pushed open. The person outside was evidently aware that something was amiss. The door slowly slid open, and they stood at the entrance for several seconds, gazing but not moving inside. The faint light in the corridor cast the man's shadow on the floor, unmistakably a male figure.
The shadow on the floor paused, and a hand reached for his waist, pulling out a small dark object. He clasped his hands around the small object, holding it by his side, and took a step toward the room slowly. The man seemed to survey the surroundings briefly, then fixed his gaze on the bookshelf in the room's corner.
The sound his shoes made as they touched the floor was so faint, almost like an illusion. When he suddenly pulled open the cabinet door, it made a loud thud against the wall, a sound that could practically startle someone's heart. The man stepped back quickly, holding the small object in his hand towards the cabinet for a few seconds before finally lowering his hand slowly.
He reached into the cabinet, his back straightening, and looked around the office. Seeing that it was empty with no one in sight, he carefully stowed the small object back at his waist.
"Have you ever played the game Whack-A-Mole?" the Descartes Spirit floated in mid-air and asked out of the blue.
Bohemia couldn't dare to make a sound now. She held her breath, pressing herself firmly against the wall outside the warden's office.
A while ago, she had stood behind the door and, as the man walked towards the bookshelf in the corner, carefully circled around him and silently exited the warden's office. However, once in the corridor, the real problem arose: where should she hide next?
"Even though I haven't played it myself, some of the people I've absorbed have played it. Let me tell you, your situation right now is just like that game. When you stick your head out from one hole, that hole will attract the hammer—bam!" The Descartes Spirit spoke with vivid emotions, "You're just like a mole, hiding pretty fast."
All Bohemia wanted to know was how much longer until daylight.
Maybe I should go back to Sandwich Secretary's office, she secretly thought. That person she had stabbed twice before wouldn't possibly return...
Just as she had this thought, the office suddenly emitted a series of 'beep-beep' sounds, immediately breaking her train of thought. This sound was very familiar, as it was the same beeping she heard when entering the safe code a while ago. Bohemia's heart raced as she realized the safe's door had suddenly opened— the intruder somehow knew her safe code.
At the time when she had unlocked the safe, she was the only one in the room with Sandwich Secretary. So, it meant that the person inside the room now was...
"Not him," the Descartes Spirit, who had drifted towards the door at some point, said while extending its form to peek inside. "Not your secretary... but this guy's silhouette seems a bit familiar."
Bohemia paused, then she realized an even more pressing issue.
How this person figured out the code wasn't that urgent. The problem was that she had already cleared the safe of its contents. If this person found the safe empty, they would undoubtedly become suspicious, and what if they raised an alarm?
"Hmm?" Indeed, there was a low voice from inside the room.
Bohemia thought about returning to Sandwich Secretary's office, but she had run out of time, as the person's footsteps were rapidly approaching the door.