The aisle is dark, cramped and long. There is a row of old-fashioned light bulbs overhead. The walls on both sides are covered with dirty wallpaper. The doors of the same shape have a door every some distance. They are locked and cannot be opened. The rusty handles are more It looks much stronger. What kind of ghost place is this, it’s like a low-level hotel in the 1920s and 1930s... Leo walked forward on the damp and moldy wall, trying to find the descending stairs. He didn’t know which floor he was currently on, but from "In Elan's words, at least it can be known that this floor is not the top floor.
The handle of a door on the right seemed to be loose. Leo shook it a few times and opened the door. Inside was an empty and weird room. The walls, floor, and ceiling were all gray and white. Step on it. At that time, he found that the soles of his feet were sinking. It turned out that the four walls were covered with soft cushions, just like the small white rooms in a mental hospital, to prevent the patient from hitting the wall and self-injury when he was mad. It seems that this is a prison room to prevent the inmates from committing suicide.
He exited this room and moved on. Some more doors were opened one after another. The facilities and uses inside were shocking-sulfuric acid pool, dissection table, lime well, torture chamber, gas chamber, incineration chamber... What the hell is it? The person who built and used this building was simply a pervert who took pleasure in torture and killing! Leo looked at these bloody and terrifying rooms, his scalp was numb, and an angry flame ignited in his chest: If this place is really covered with the blood of the victim, he must bring the perpetrator to justice. Law, throw it into the prison or the death penalty room!
The floor is not level, sometimes it looks like an uphill, sometimes it looks like a downhill, the aisle keeps turning, as if trekking through a Mebis ring connected end to end, never going to the end. The constant loss of physical strength and the pain of the wound made Leo's footsteps heavier and heavier, and his sore and numb soles could hardly be lifted. He leaned his back against the wall next to a door and rested for a while. He didn't know what protrusion his elbow had touched, and made a toothy creak, like a rusty pendulum.
He heard a dull, rumbling sound in his ears, getting closer, getting closer...
what is that? A black metal ball with a diameter of more than one meter was so huge that it almost filled the corridor, like a giant bowling ball running on the bowling lane, rolling towards him!
—Damn it, this scene is like an old low-cost horror movie! But the facts are in front of him, even if he sticks himself to the wall, he can't escape the end of his belly clinging to his back after being run over!
Leo shook the doors on both sides frantically, hoping that any one of them would loosen the slightest. When he was hopeless, he turned and ran wildly, running and pulling every door he passed by—he remembered that the previous door that could be opened was left here. Not far away, but the approaching bang behind him reminded him of a cruel reality-no matter what, he didn't have time to run back there!
Desperate fear gnawed at his brain like a sharp knife. When he thought he was doomed to escape, a man's voice came from above his head: "Grab my hand-hurry!"
The survival instinct urged him, leaped without hesitation, and grabbed the helping hand that reached down from the ceiling.
A pair of strong hands wearing fingerless tactical gloves gripped his wrists firmly and pulled him up into the ventilation duct. Leo used his two forearms very cooperatively to support the metal plate of the pipe opening, struggling to climb upwards, and with the help of the opponent, he quickly pulled his suspended body into the square ventilation pipe.
A huge iron ball rolled under his feet, and the metal ball rubbed a harsh sound on the rubber of the boot sole.
Leo lay on the unpleasant ventilating duct and gasped, and a trembling sensation from the bottom of his heart rose from the bottom of his heart, and was driven by adrenaline throughout his body, causing his muscles to shake involuntarily.
"Relax, it's all right," said a voice in his ear.
Leo calmly went to see the man who saved his life at a critical juncture-face to face with him, lying in the same ventilation duct, black hair, black eyes, yellow race, looking very young, not more than twenty-eight years old, His appearance is very handsome but lacks distinctive features. When I see it, I am shocked, and then my impression is blurred, just like a copy from the cover of a fashion magazine. He speaks fluent English with a slight Oxford accent, and 80% of his language teachers are from the south of England.
It was a strange face he had never seen before. When he stared at those dark eyes, he couldn't help thinking of the cryogenically treated war knife. The black coating concealed the reflection of the blade, which made people ignore its deadly sharpness, as if the sharp claws of a beast were hidden under the smooth fur. His bare skin felt awe-inspiring.
As if aura suddenly appeared, and as if divine enlightenment, Leo suddenly understood the identity of the other party at this moment. He moved his dry, skinned lips, a name, to be precise, a code name, suddenly emerged from the depths of his mind—
"'Finish'! You just make it!"
The man stared at him, close enough to smell his nose, and a wicked smile slowly rose from the corner of his mouth: "Hello, Leo, persevering pursuer."
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 mind into a bowl of mixed salad with countless pieces, wrapped in a sticky sauce, no knife and fork in his hand, I don’t know which one to take. .
Finally, he said: "Come on, follow me, we leave from the ventilation duct. There are mechanisms everywhere here, some have been malfunctioning for a long time, some can trigger operation, the main control room is in the bedroom on the top floor, I think You don’t like to challenge those two professional murderers alone."
He began to back against the inner wall with the sole of his shoe. After a moment of shock, Leo finally recovered his language ability. Among the many entangled questions, he extracted the most critical one under the current situation: "Where is this place?"
"The Horror Castle of Holmes—Have you heard of it?"
"Holmes?"
"No, it's not the famous detective. It's H?H? Holmes."
When he said this, Leo immediately reacted: Henry? Howard? Holmes, the first serial killer in American criminal history, is also the first serial killer suffering from schizophrenia. Worthy of the nickname "Doctor Pain", he used murder to defraud insurance money and seize property, accumulating huge wealth, and then built a hotel-style building "The World's Fair Hotel", waiting for the victims to join the net. More than one hundred of the rooms have their own merits, and he has seen some bloody facilities and uses just now. This murderous castle full of agencies was burned down by Holmes himself before he fled. The police unearthed more than two hundred corpses from the ruins. It was a burning hell.
While in custody, the murderous doctor also wrote a book to plead his innocence. His admirers rebuilt the hotel on the ruins and called it "Holmes' Castle of Horrors". It was opened as a tourist attraction, but soon again. Was razed to the ground by an anger from the victim's family. Holmes went to the death penalty stand, but the ghost of the killer was still in the burnt ruins, wandering on the dark side of people’s hearts. The hotel was rebuilt for the second time. Many curious hunters and enthusiasts came here to visit and worship until The government ordered it to be completely closed.
A century later, this replica of the murderous castle was already a remote and uninhabited city on the shore of Lake Michigan, and unexpectedly became the home of two serial murderers.
"A terrible place..." Leo murmured as he crawled through the ventilation ducts.
"No, it's just like a fat spider. It just waits for its prey to come to the door. It doesn't matter whether it's old, weak or sick. It has no technical content at all," said Shaqing.
Sure enough, the thinking of the police and the murderer will never be in the same way! Leo gritted his teeth to make sure, his painful and tired body couldn't even move his anger. "Why save me?" he asked gloomily, "I thought we should be enemies."
"We are indeed enemies, and the purpose of my trip is not to save people." Shaqing laughed lightly.
—Of course, to kill people. Leo silently finished the second half sentence in his heart.
"As a bonus agent, I do not ask you to repay your life-saving grace. I only trouble you with one thing: don't interfere with my work." The closing action suddenly stopped, turning his face, and said coldly: "Otherwise I just stood by and watched them put the white knight on your corpse."
His profile is extremely handsome and indifferent, seeing Leo's heart twitching, and he can't tell if it is a kind of hatred or regret, or a combination of both, he even came into being at this moment. The astray guy has the idea of getting back on track. "You say'work'? It's not your job, nor your responsibility. It's mine." He said earnestly, "I know you hate them, but you are becoming them. Believe me, you don't I want to see a self who I want to kill myself when I look in the mirror."
"Do you want to persuade me to abandon the secrets 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 gangs have already ruined her like a prostitute in the late stage of AIDS, and she doesn't care about those influences at all. Murderers with meager power. You must know that no matter how hard the murderers work, they can only kill one by one, and politicians only need to move their mouths, it is a great feat that is enough to slaughter the city and destroy the country." The young man laughed scornfully and brought it along. With a strong irony.
He was confusing the subject and secretly changing the concept, Leo said.
"Furthermore, I have saved you a lot of taxpayers' money. You see, the government spends 100 million dollars on death row prisoners every year, and each prisoner in the prison consumes as much as 30,000 yuan per year. The people support it with blood and sweat. These dregs that should have gone to hell a long time ago, the judicial process is as long as a footwear, and the loopholes in the legal provisions are as many as stars-as a law enforcement, don't you feel helpless and ashamed, don't thank me for solving it all for you once and for all Waste and trouble? Actually, I don't think I'm strong enough. After all, my personal strength is limited. I can only do my best to catch one and solve the other." He said painfully, and finally let out a pitying sigh.
Leo was almost grinning at him. It's amazing that a person can implement his ideas to this level, even though in his opinion this is a radical fallacy. However, he can feel that in these confessions, the deliberately disguised elements are far more real than true, just like the face of a dead end, you don't know which face is true or which is false. This man concealed his soul under a very different and changeable mask. His mood was more slippery than a loach, and even Leo, who had dealt with countless criminals and was well versed in psychological tactics, gave birth to a deep feeling. A deep sense of powerlessness.
You don't need to argue with him, just catch him directly. There are some truths in life. When he faces the wall alone for many years, he will naturally figure it out, Leo thinks that iron can't be tough.
"Well, don't try to persuade me to correct my evil, federal agent, I know exactly what I want. You can continue to hunt me, and I can continue to escape the pursuit, we all have our own ability." Say.
"I will catch you!" Leo replied firmly, "Even if not today-one day, I will catch you and let you go where you should be."
"Federal prison? That's a really good place." He grinned, "Maybe one day I will go in on a whim, but not because I was caught by you, but because I wanted to go in." He suddenly stopped crawling. Move, take out the screwdriver from the pocket, unscrew a metal plate under the body, and then jumped easily from the hole.
Leo followed him out of the hole. When he jumped down, the already ripped wound was shocked again. He couldn't get up with his hands on the ground for a long while, and his whole body shivered like cold, sweat rolling down his forehead.
He helped his back a bit, touched the blood in his hand, frowned and said, "You have lost too much blood, and it won't take long for you to go into shock."
Leo grabbed the opponent's hand vigilantly as he leaned toward the zipper of his clothes, "What are you doing?" He asked weakly and sharply.
"What else can I do, help you deal with the wound." The tone of the killing sounded a little angry and anxious, "rest assured, your nose is swollen like a pig's head, but anyone with a normal aesthetic view will not have any reveries! Say, this is actually a means of refusing to welcome. What are you looking forward to in your heart, agent?"
Leo was so angry that he clenched his fists by the allusion in his words-he was just professionally guarding against too close contact with anyone, but the other person had such an unbearable association. When he uttered this vicious irony in an elegant accent that was completely incompatible with the content, he suddenly found a potted plant that he had cultivated for a year and finally found out that he had mistaken the pitcher plant for a hyacinth and turned into anger.
"... You son of bitch!" The black-haired and blue-eyed agent couldn't help but explode.
He shrugged indifferently, pulled open the zipper of his placket, stripped off the blood-soaked combat uniform, and opened the elastic vest inside. A huge wound that was devastated to the horror appeared on the detective's back waist, and the unmelted suture became an accomplice, tearing the flesh to bloody and out of shape. "Damn..." he murmured, quickly unzipping the zipper of his dark gray sportswear, taking out quick-acting hemostatic powder from the inner pocket, sprinkling it on the wound, and then pasting with elastic rubber tape instead of sutures. The contractile force binds the flesh on both sides together.
The wound was barely closed. He checked his swollen and bruised left rib and gently pressed it with his fingers, "The 9th and 10th ribs are closed fractures. I have nothing to fix now, but as long as I don't hit it again, the problem is not big. "Speaking, he held up his cheeks and carefully checked the jaw displacement and abnormal mobility. "It is suspected that it is a low maxillary fracture. You have to have a CT scan. If the displacement is severe, you may need surgical open reduction. , Restore the occlusal relationship, and fix the zygomatic alveolar ridge and the edge of the pear-shaped hole with a bone plate."
"Sounds a bit serious." Leo said vaguely while holding his jaw.
"You need early treatment." He let go of his hand and pointed to the corner ahead: "There are down stairs. This is the second floor. After you get down to the first floor, follow this route and you will find the door soon. "He drew a black pen from his secret pocket, pulled Leo's hand, and drew a simple road map in his palm, clarifying the organs that need to be avoided. "The door is locked and it is difficult to break from the outside. It's much easier to turn on."
"Do you know the internal structure of this building?" Leo asked.
"There are things to follow, as long as you get the right way, nothing can't be found. This is the advantage of the Internet age." Finally, he took out a mobile phone and put it into Leo's coat pocket: "After you go out, you have Two options, one, walk 50 minutes to an hour, and return to a civilized society-in view of your injury, I do not recommend you to do this. Second, find a hidden place and wait an hour, the phone will automatically Turn it on, and then you can use it to contact your organization and ask them to send someone to pick you up."
"Why should it take an hour... Is this the time you planned to commit the crime?" Leo was startled, his eyes brightened, and he tried to persuade the other party: "Damn it," Are you going to deal with two professional killers alone? Do you know their background? 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 and finish. , Leave this to us to deal with, I swear, those two scumbags will be punished accordingly—"
"Shhh." He pressed his right index finger to his lips, and the top of the gray-black tactical glove showed a little white fingertip, "Don't waste any more energy or torture the wound. I hope you can go by yourself, Leo, not I knocked out and threw it out."
"Damn, you are so irritatingly stubborn!"
"To each other." Qing Qing slowly raised his hand knife in front of him, "You have three seconds to think about it."
Leo gritted his teeth, dragged his aching 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, and cannot fight the devil and the cavalry. The only and best way is to contact the police as soon as possible and let them send special police teams and commandos. Encircle and suppress.
As he watched Leo's back disappear into the corner of the corridor, his eyes flashed intricately, but his face was indifferent to vitality. Fingertips touched the elastic, smooth and soft skin, which is a perfect protective layer to isolate him from the danger of emotional expression.
Serial murderers are his enemies, and the police and the FBI are also his enemies. In this time of isolation and helplessness, the extra emotions can only add to the burden.
He stood there and waited for a few minutes. It is estimated that Leo had already walked out of the door, and then down the stairs to the first floor, swiftly moving towards the power distribution room. This long-abandoned building does not have the power company's wiring. It should be powered by the engine. As long as the lighting is cut off, the indoor natural light is lacking, and the darkness will provide the best cover for his actions.
The dusk enveloped the desolate castle on the shore of Lake Michigan, and the night was about to fall.