At an ICAC office in western Hong Kong Island, everyone from the Operations Department had gone out to participate in a secret operation. Only one Assistant Investigator, who had been feeling unwell, remained behind in the main office. It was almost time to leave work, but there was still no news at all from the people who had gone out on the operation. The young Assistant Investigator was growing restless and turned on the television beside the wall.
“Tony? Still not leaving?” Two employees from the Technical Division came out of their office and greeted him.
“Chief Xu and the others still aren’t back,” Tony said. “I can’t reach them by phone either.”
“Really? This operation’s that secret? Hey, A’Wen, haven’t you been helping that bad-tempered Lu Guang Ming investigate something lately? Come on. Tell us how ‘secret’ it is.”
The technician called A’Wen gave a helpless smile. “You know the rules. I can’t say. Tony, stop worrying. There are so many of them. Nothing’s going to happen. Go home and get some rest.”
“Hey! Look!” Tony suddenly pointed at the television.
The news was reporting two vehicle explosions: one had occurred beside an abandoned seaside factory near Wan Chai, and the other on a mountain road not far from Lung Kong University. At both locations, two vehicles had apparently collided before catching fire and exploding. Thick smoke and strong irritating fumes had triggered widespread panic among the public. Police had sealed off both scenes, and the number of casualties remained unknown.
The report then showed “Number One” and Deputy Commissioner Xie Ying Jie emerging from a meeting at Police Headquarters. Speaking to the cameras, “Number One” said that the police regarded the incidents with the utmost seriousness and had instructed Deputy Commissioner Xie Ying Jie to personally oversee the investigation and provide the public with an explanation.
The next report concerned two barrier-smashing incidents at the Cross-Harbour Tunnel. According to witnesses, an unlicensed van and a motorcycle had entered the tunnel one after another by smashing through the toll barriers, then engaged in a high-speed chase and collisions inside. Police said the incident was under investigation. Two injured individuals had been found at the scene and taken to hospital.
Tony frowned worriedly. “That earlier crash and fire… could it have something to do with Chief Xu and the others? They didn’t run into danger, did they?”
“Pah, pah, pah! Stop jinxing them. How could it be anything that terrifying? Maybe it was just an ordinary traffic accident. Right, A’Wen?”
A’Wen stared at the television, brows tightly drawn, and did not answer for a long time. The other two gradually began feeling uneasy as well. Just then, someone knocked against the glass doors of the main office. Tony looked over. It was Chief Xu’s former deputy—Pan Sir, a Senior Investigator from the Investigation Branch who had transferred two months earlier to the Community Relations Department at another district office.
Tony hurried over and opened the door for his former superior. “Pan Sir!”
“Why doesn’t my access card work anymore?” Pan Sir asked.
“We changed the system recently. Since you transferred out, maybe your information wasn’t entered into the new one.”
Pan Sir entered the office and exchanged greetings with the two technicians he knew. Tony noticed his strange expression and the way he kept looking around, so he asked, “Pan Sir, who are you here to see?”
“Only the three of you are here?”
“Yes. Everyone else went out with Chief Xu. You—” Pfft—!
Before Tony could finish speaking, a bloody hole appeared in his forehead and his body fell straight backward. The suppressed pistol immediately turned toward the other two men, who had been caught completely off guard. Pfft—! Pfft—! Blood splashed across the desks.
Pan Sir calmly took out a handkerchief, bent down, and wiped a speck of blood from his polished shoe. Then he put on a pair of rubber gloves, turned around, and opened the glass doors. Several killers in black masks and black gloves filed inside and began pouring gasoline throughout the office.
…
Inside the hospital room, the two officers guarding Xia Liu Yi sat in their chairs yawning. Xia Liu Yi secretly hid his cuffed hand beneath the blanket, pulled the IV needle from the back of his hand, and began working the needle into the handcuff lock.
Two new officers arrived to relieve the shift. Xia Liu Yi immediately closed his eyes and pretended to be asleep. He heard the officers exchange a few words before the previous pair left. Of the two new arrivals, one sat beside Xia Liu Yi’s bed. The other did not remain outside in the corridor to keep watch, but instead walked to the hospital-room door and locked it.
The officer sitting beside the bed spoke casually. “Hey, buddy. Did you hear? They think the two vehicle explosions this afternoon were done by the same group. Both scenes were soaked in gasoline. Definitely not ordinary traffic accidents.”
“Oh? Really?” the other man answered from behind him.
“You think both cases could be connected to this Xia Liu Yi? Superintendent Huang is coming personally to question him later—” Before he could finish, a pair of handcuffs suddenly looped around his neck from behind. The officer struggled as choking sounds came from his throat. The man behind him pulled hard. Crack. The officer’s body went limp.
The killer propped the corpse against the back of the chair and silently approached the bed. The handcuffs in his hands had just begun moving toward Xia Liu Yi’s neck when Xia Liu Yi’s eyes snapped open. He drove the IV needle straight into one of the man’s eyes.
“Aah!! AAAAAH—!” The man covered his eye and screamed. Xia Liu Yi surged upright, grabbed the dropped handcuffs, and looped them around the attacker’s neck from behind. The man struggled and drew a dagger from his waist, stabbing backward. Xia Liu Yi twisted away and tried to jump from the bed, only to discover that one ankle was still cuffed.
The attacker slashed repeatedly with the dagger. Xia Liu Yi rolled across the mattress, snatched up a pillow, and used it to block left and right. Cotton burst through the room, and the flying fluff blinded the attacker. Xia Liu Yi seized the chance to throw the blanket over the man’s head. While the attacker struggled beneath it, Xia Liu Yi roared and lifted the entire hospital bed, then overturned it straight onto him. The attacker’s body from the chest downward was pinned beneath the bed, and he screamed under the blanket.
Because Xia Liu Yi’s ankle was still cuffed to the bed frame, the collapsing bed dragged him onto the floor as well. He took advantage of the fall, grabbed an enamel bedpan from the floor, and began smashing it repeatedly against the attacker’s head through the blanket.
At that exact moment, Xiao Ma kicked open the hospital-room door and rushed inside holding a gun. A’Nan and A’Mao followed close behind. Under the muzzles of their guns, one dead police officer sat slumped in a chair, while their Boss, wearing a hospital gown, was straddling a blanket and enthusiastically beating someone beneath it with a bedpan.
“…” Xiao Ma. “…” A’Nan and A’Mao.
Boss’s fighting style is getting more and more impressive.
They rushed forward, unlocked the shackle around their Boss’s ankle, and crowded around him as they fled. “Boss, you’re amazing. You even dare kill cops,” Xiao Ma marveled while running. “The one in the chair wasn’t killed by me!” Xia Liu Yi snapped. “The one I beat with the bedpan was a corrupt cop. He tried to kill me and pin everything on—” He stopped abruptly. “Shit! Go save Kevin!!”
…
Kevin had come out of emergency surgery half an hour earlier. He was still unconscious and had been transferred to intensive care. Two police officers were guarding the corridor outside. A few minutes earlier, two new officers had arrived to take over the shift. One of them was Qin Hao, who had been demoted and transferred away from the Major Crimes Unit after the serious mistake he made during the earlier undercover operation. The other was a colleague Qin Hao did not know well.
Not long after the shift change, while no one else was in the corridor, that colleague suddenly drew a knife and attacked Qin Hao. Qin Hao dodged quickly. After a fierce fight, he turned the attacker’s own knife against him and killed him. Qin Hao was still pinning the corpse down and panting heavily when Xia Liu Yi appeared with Xiao Ma and the others, all of them equally out of breath.
Both sides froze. A moment later, every gun came out.
“You’re trying to kill Kevin?!” Xia Liu Yi roared.
“What Kevin?!” Qin Hao stared at him in bewilderment, then suddenly looked shocked. “Kevin is in there?!”
“You’re trying to kill him?!”
“This man was trying to kill him! I was saving him!”
Xia Liu Yi released a breath and shoved his gun back into his waistband, then ran straight toward Qin Hao despite the gun still aimed at him. Xiao Ma, A’Nan, and A’Mao hurried after him. A’Nan even greeted Qin Hao politely as he passed. “Brother Qin Hao, long time no see.”
Qin Hao lowered his gun as well and stared blankly as the entire group entered the room. “What are you doing?!”
Xia Liu Yi and Xiao Ma were already frantically disconnecting Kevin from the medical equipment. “There are moles in your police force! Someone wants to kill him to silence him! I’m taking him with me!”
“No,” Qin Hao stopped them. “He’s directly involved in the case. He can’t leave.”
“Someone wants him dead! If another ten moles come here, can you stop all of them?!” Xia Liu Yi shouted.
Qin Hao considered it for a moment. “Then I’m going with him.”
“Are you fucking annoying?!” Xia Liu Yi pulled out his gun and pressed it against Qin Hao’s head. “Don’t think I won’t kill you!”
Qin Hao did not budge. His expression remained stubborn. “My duty is to guard him. If you want to take him out of my custody, you’ll have to kill me.” Xia Liu Yi lowered the muzzle slightly. Qin Hao immediately added, “I saved you twice. You won’t kill me.”
Xia Liu Yi laughed from sheer fury and knocked the gun grip against his forehead. “You damn mole!”
They quickly disconnected Kevin from everything except the oxygen cylinder and IV stand, then wheeled the hospital bed into the parking lot through the freight elevator. Everyone squeezed into a van. Just before they were about to drive away, Xia Liu Yi suddenly leaned toward Qin Hao and attacked without warning. Qin Hao raised his arm to resist, but Xiao Ma and A’Mao immediately lunged over and pinned him down together.
Xia Liu Yi used Qin Hao’s own handcuffs to cuff him to Kevin’s hospital bed, then searched him thoroughly. He threw the phone, communicator, police identification, wallet, and everything else he found straight out the window. He gave Qin Hao a light slap across the face. “I won’t kill you. But don’t even think about trying anything. I don’t have time to deal with you right now. We’ll settle that undercover business between us later.”