The Last Killer

The aisle is dark, cramped and long, with a row of old-fashioned light bulbs above the head. The walls on both sides are covered with dirty patterns of wallpaper. There are doors with the same shape at intervals, all of which are locked and cannot be opened. It looks much stronger.What the hell kind of place is this? It's like a low-end hotel in the 30s and [-]s... Leo walked forward with his hands on the damp and moldy walls, trying to find the stairs going down. "From Elan's words, at least one can know that this floor is not the top floor.

The handle of a certain door on the right seemed to be a little loose. Leo shook it a few times and opened the door. Inside was an empty and weird room. The walls, floor and ceiling were completely gray and white. Stepping in At that time, he found that the soles of his feet were sinking. It turned out that the walls were all covered with cushions, just like the small white rooms in the mental hospital, which were used to prevent patients from hitting the walls and self-harming when they went mad.It appears that this is a prison cell to prevent the suicide of prisoners.

He exited this room and continued walking, and some doors were opened one after another. The facilities and uses inside were shocking—sulfuric acid pool, dissecting table, lime well, torture room full of torture instruments, gas chamber, incineration chamber... What the hell kind of place is this?The person who built and used this building is simply a pervert who takes pleasure in torture and killing!Leo looked at these gloomy, bloody and terrifying rooms, and while his scalp was numb, a flame of anger ignited in his chest: If this place is really covered with the blood of the victims, he must bring the perpetrators to justice. Law, thrown into prison or death chamber!

The floor is uneven, sometimes it seems to be going uphill, sometimes it’s like going downhill, and the aisle keeps turning, as if trekking in a Mabis ring that is connected end to end, and it will never come to an end.The constant loss of physical strength and the pain of the wound made Leo's footsteps heavier and heavier, and he could hardly lift his sore and numb feet.He leaned his back against the wall next to a door for a short rest, and his back elbow touched some protrusion, which made a toothache creaking sound, like a rusty pendulum.

His ears heard a dull, rumbling sound, getting closer, closer...

what is that?A dark metal ball with a diameter of more than one meter, so huge that it almost filled the corridor, rolled towards him like a giant bowling ball running on the bowling lane!

—Hell, this scene is like an old low-budget horror movie!But the fact is before his eyes, even if he sticks himself against the wall, he still cannot escape the fate of his belly sticking to his back after being run over!

Leo frantically shook the doors on both sides, hoping that any of them would be loose in the slightest. When he was hopeless, he turned around and ran wildly, dragging every door he passed while running—he remembered that the previous door that could be opened left It wasn't far from here, but the approaching bang behind him reminded him of a cruel reality - no matter what, he still had no time to run back there!

Desperate fear stirred his brain like a sharp knife, and when he thought he was doomed, a man's voice came from above his head: "Grab my hand—quick!"

Survival instinct urged him, he jumped up without hesitation, and grabbed the helping hand extending from the ceiling.

A pair of strong hands wearing fingerless tactical gloves firmly grasped his wrists, pulling him up into the ventilation duct.Leo used his two forearms to support the metal plate at the mouth of the duct very cooperatively, struggling to climb up, and with the help of the other party, he quickly pulled his body hanging in the air into the square ventilation duct.

A huge iron ball rolled under his feet, and the metal ball rubbed against the rubber on the sole of the boot with a harsh sound.

Leo lay gasping for breath in the foul-smelling ventilation duct. A sense of hopelessness rose from the bottom of his heart and spread throughout his body driven by adrenaline, causing his muscles to vibrate involuntarily.

"Relax, it's alright," said a voice next to his ear.

Leo concentrated on looking at the man who saved his life at a critical moment—face to face with him, lying in the same ventilation duct, black hair, black eyes, yellow race, looks very young, no more than 28 years old, appearance Very handsome but lacking in character, stunning at first and blurry afterwards, like a photocopied from the cover of a fashion magazine.He speaks fluent English with a slight Oxford accent, and his language teachers are probably from the south of England.

It was a strange face he had never seen before.When he looked into those dark eyes, he couldn't help but think of a cold-treated war knife. The black coating covered up the reflection of the blade, making people ignore its deadly sharpness, as if the sharp claws of a beast were hidden under the smooth fur.His exposed skin felt a ravaged awe.

As if he had a flash of inspiration and enlightenment, Leo suddenly understood the identity of the other party at this moment.He moved his dry and chapped lips, a name, to be precise, a code name, suddenly emerged from the depths of his mind——

"'Finishing'! You are killing!"

The man stared at him, he was so close that he smelled each other, and the corner of his mouth slowly raised a wicked smile: "Hello, Leo, the persevering hunter."

Leo opened his mouth silently.During the whole year of hunting, he had too many doubts, anger and emotions. He had imagined the details of how to interrogate him if he was caught countless times, but at this moment he couldn't say a word.This sudden and close encounter turned his thinking into a bowl of mixed salad with countless pieces, which were sticky wrapped in the sauce, and the knife and fork was missing in his hand, and he didn't know where to start. .

Finally, Sha Qing spoke first: "Come on, follow me, let's leave through the ventilation duct. There are organs everywhere here, some of which have been out of order for a long time, and some can still trigger the operation. The main control room is in the bedroom on the top floor. I think You don't like to challenge those two professional killers alone."

He began to rub the soles of his shoes against the inner wall and backed away.After a moment of hesitation, Leo finally regained his language ability. Among many entangled questions, he picked out the most critical one in the current situation: "What is this place?"

"Holmes' Castle of Dread—ever heard of it?"

"Holmes?"

"No, not the famous detective. It's H? H? Holmes."

When he said this, Leo immediately reacted: Henry?Howard?Holmes, the first serial killer in the history of American crime, is also the first serial killer with schizophrenia.Worthy of the nickname "Pain Doctor", he used murder to defraud insurance money, seize property, accumulate huge wealth, and then built a hotel-style building "The World's Fair Hotel", waiting for the victims to fall into the net.Among them, more than 100 rooms have their own merits, and he has seen some of the bloody facilities and uses just now.This murder castle full of institutions was burned down by Holmes before he fled. The police unearthed more than 200 corpses from the ruins. It is simply a burning hell.

While in custody, the murderous doctor also wrote a book to defend his innocence. His admirers rebuilt the hotel on the ruins and called it "Holmes' Castle of Terror". It was razed by an outrage from the victims' families.Holmes was on the execution platform, but the ghost of the killer is still in the charred ruins, lingering in the dark side of people's hearts. The hotel was rebuilt for the second time. The government ordered it to be completely closed.

A century later, the replica of this murder castle is already a deserted deserted city on the shore of Lake Michigan, but unexpectedly it became the shelter of two serial murderers.

"Terrible place..." Leo murmured as he crawled through the ventilation duct following Sha Qing.

"No, just like a fat spider, it just sits and waits for its prey to come to its door, accepting all photos regardless of the old, weak, sick or disabled, without any technical content." Sha Qing said.

Sure enough, the minds of the police and the murderer are definitely not on the same path!Leo gritted his teeth to make sure, his aching and tired body couldn't even mobilize his anger. "Why did you save me?" he asked gloomily. "I thought we were enemies."

"We are indeed deadly enemies, and the purpose of my trip is not to save people." Sha Qing chuckled.

—Of course, to kill people.Leo silently completed the second half of the sentence in his heart.

"Mr. Detective, as a gift, I don't ask you to repay your life-saving grace, but I just want to ask you one thing: don't hinder my work." Sha Qing's movement suddenly stopped, turned his face, and said in a cold tone: "Otherwise I'll just stand by and watch them put the White Knight on top of your body."

His side face is so handsome, but also so indifferent, Leo's heart twitched, he couldn't tell if it was a kind of hatred or regret, or both, he even had an idea of ​​this infatuation at this moment. The idea of ​​pulling a guy who has gone astray back on track. "You say 'work'? It's not your job, it's not your responsibility, it's mine." He said earnestly, "I know you hate them, but you're becoming them, trust me, you don't I think when I look in the mirror, I see a version of myself that I want to kill with my own hands."

"Do you want to persuade me to abandon the dark and turn to the bright and return to the embrace of the law, sir? It's a pity that she can't take care of herself. A lot of politicians, corrupt officials, profiteers, and gangsters have already ruined her like a prostitute with advanced AIDS. She can't care about those influences at all." Weak murderers. We must know that no matter how hard the murderers try, they can only kill one by one, and the politicians only need to use their mouths, which is a great achievement enough to wipe out cities and countries." Sha Qing laughed and brought With strong irony.

He is confusing the subject and changing concepts secretly, Leo thought to himself.

"Besides, I can help you save a lot of taxpayers' money. You see, the government spends [-] million dollars on death row prisoners every year, and each prisoner in the prison spends up to [-] dollars a year. The people support it with blood and sweat. These dregs who should have gone to hell long ago, the judicial process is as lengthy as a foot wrap, and the loopholes in the legal clauses are as numerous as stars in the sky-as a law enforcement officer, don’t you feel helpless and ashamed, thank you for solving it for you once and for all Is it all waste and trouble? Actually, I don’t think I’m strong enough. After all, my personal strength is limited, so I can only do my best to catch one and solve the other.” Sha Qing said bitterly, and finally let out a sigh of compassion.

Leo was about to be laughed at by him. It is considered remarkable that a person can implement his ideas to such an extent, even though in his opinion this is completely extreme fallacy.However, he can feel that in these confessions, the deliberate camouflage is far greater than the real one, just like the finished face, you don't know which face is real and which one is fake.This man hides his soul deeply under a different and changeable mask, and his emotions are more slippery than a loach, which makes even Leo, who has dealt with countless criminals and is well versed in psychological tactics, have a deep feeling. A deep sense of powerlessness.

There is no need to argue with him, just grab him directly, there are some principles in life, when he faces the wall alone for many years, he will naturally figure it out, Leo thought bitterly.

"Okay, stop trying to persuade me to change my ways, federal agent, I know exactly what I want. You can continue to hunt me down, and I can keep on escaping, we each have our own abilities." Sha Qing said nonchalantly while crawling explain.

"I'll catch you!" Leo replied firmly. "Even if it's not today—one day, I'll catch you and let you go where you belong."

"Is it a federal prison? That's a really good place." Sha Qing smiled, "Maybe one day I will go in on a whim for a trip, but not because you caught me, but because I want to go in." He suddenly stopped crawling He moved, took out a screwdriver from his pocket, unscrewed a metal plate under his body, and then easily jumped down from the hole.

Leo followed him and stretched his legs out of the hole.When he jumped down, the wound that had already been torn intolerably torn was hit again, and he was unable to get up on his hands for a long time. His whole body was shivering from the cold, and sweat rolled down from his forehead.

Sha Qing helped his back, touched the blood on his hands, frowned and said, "You have lost too much blood, and you will go into shock soon."

When Leo reached for the zipper of his clothes, he vigilantly grabbed the opponent's hand, "What are you doing?" He asked weakly and sharply.

"What else can I do, help you treat the wound." Sha Qing's tone sounded a little angry and anxious, "Don't worry, your nose and face are swollen like a pig's head, but anyone with normal aesthetics will not have any reverie! Or Said, this is actually a means of refusal to greet, what are you expecting in your heart, agent?"

Leo clenched his fists angrily at the allusion in his words—he was just professionally guarding against any close contact with anyone, but the other party had such an unbearable association.When Sha Qing uttered this malicious sarcasm with an elegant accent that didn't match the content at all, he suddenly felt ashamed and angry that he had mistook the pitcher plant for a hyacinth after a potted plant that had been cultivated for a year had finally blossomed.

"...Youson of bitch!" The black-haired and blue-eyed detective couldn't help but swear.

Sha Qing shrugged indifferently, unzipped his zipper, took off the blood-soaked combat uniform, and opened the elastic vest inside.A huge wound that was ravaged to the point of horror appeared on the detective's lower back, and the unmelted suture became an accomplice, tearing the flesh until it was bloody and out of shape. "Damn it..." Sha Qing murmured, and quickly unzipped the zipper of his dark gray sportswear, took out quick-acting hemostatic powder from the inner hidden pocket, sprinkled it on the wound, and then pasted elastic rubber tape instead of sutures, using the tape The contraction force binds the skin and flesh on both sides together.

The wound was barely closed. I checked his swollen and bruised left rib, and pressed lightly with my fingers, "The 9th and 10th ribs are closed fractures. I don't have anything to fix them now, but as long as I don't hit them again, it's not a big problem. He held up his cheeks and carefully checked the jaw displacement and abnormal movement. "It is suspected to be a low fracture of the maxilla. You need to have a CT scan. If the displacement is severe, you may need surgery for open reduction." , restore the occlusal relationship, and fix with a bone plate at the zygomatic alveolar ridge and the edge of the pyriform hole.”

"Sounds a bit serious." Leo said vaguely with his jaw supported.

"You need early treatment." Sha Qing let go of his hand and pointed to the corner ahead: "There are stairs going down there. This is the second floor. After going down to the first floor, follow this route and you will find the gate soon. He took out a black pen from his secret pocket, took Leo's hand, and drew a simple road map on his palm, pointing out the mechanism that needs to be avoided, "The door is locked, it is difficult to crack from the outside, and it is difficult to break it from the inside." It's much easier to turn on."

"Do you know the internal structure of this building?" Leo asked.

"Things that can be traced, as long as you find out the right way, there is nothing you can't find. This is the benefit of the Internet age." Finally, Da Qing took out a mobile phone and put it in Leo's coat pocket: "After you go out, you have Two options, one, walk for 50 minutes to an hour and return to civilized society - I don't recommend you to do this given your injuries. Two, find a shelter and wait for an hour, and the phone will It automatically turns on, and then you can use it to contact your organization and ask them to send someone to pick you up."

"Why does it take an hour... This is the time you planned to commit the crime?" Leo was stunned, his eyes brightened, and he tried his best to convince the other party, "Damn it, , you plan to deal with two professional killers alone? Do you know their details? One of them is a former black market fighting champion and the other is a retired ranger. Do you think you can beat them together? This is impossible, give up, Finish, leave this matter to us, I swear, those two scumbags will be punished accordingly—”

"Hush." ​​Sha Qing pressed his right index finger to his lips, and a little white fingertips were exposed from the top of the gray-black tactical glove, "Stop wasting energy and torturing the wound. I hope you can walk by yourself, Leo, instead of I was knocked out and thrown out."

"Damn, you're so annoyingly stubborn!"

"To each other." Sha Qing slowly raised the knife in front of him, "You have three seconds to think about it."

Leo gritted his teeth, dragged his tired body and turned towards the stairs.

At this moment, his mind is very clear: with his current poor physical condition, he is unable to stop the killing, nor can he fight against the devil and the cavalry. The only and best way is to contact the police as soon as possible and ask them to send a special police team and a commando team to come Siege.

Sha Qing watched Leo's back disappear into the corner of the corridor, his eyes flickered complicatedly, but his face was indifferent and lacking vitality.Fingertips touched the elastic, smooth and soft skin, which was a perfect protective layer, separating him from the danger of emotional expression.

The serial murderer is his enemy, as are the police and the FBI. In this isolated time, excess emotion can only add to the burden.

He stood there waiting for a few minutes, guessing that Leo had already walked out of the gate, so he went down the stairs to the first floor, and moved quickly towards the power distribution room.This long-abandoned building has no power company lines, and it should be powered by engines. As long as the lighting is cut off, the indoor natural light is scarce, and the darkness will provide the best cover for his actions.

Dusk hangs over the desolate castle on the shores of Lake Michigan, and night is coming.