When Rob woke up from his doze, the red light at the door of the operating room was still on. He rubbed his face vigorously with his palm as a towel, then turned to look at his partner next to him.
The black-haired agent sat on the bench in the corridor, staring at the white wall opposite, as if he was thinking. Rob found that his posture has not changed at all since sitting down.
He hesitated a little, and said, "My stomach is so hungry, I'll go buy something to eat."
Leo nodded slightly.
Rob can't wait to get up and leave. Although he has always been a good hand at enlivening the atmosphere, the atmosphere now makes him feel uncomfortable, and he has no intention to become active at all.
Soon after he left, the green light at the door of the operating room came on, and several medical staff took off their masks and walked out exhausted. Leo immediately bounced up, greeted him and asked, "How is he?"
The headed middle-aged doctor replied: "The operation went smoothly. The bullet penetrated the upper lobe of the left lung and caused a penetrating injury to the chest, but it did not damage the heart."
"Can you recover?"
"The human lung function has a strong compensatory ability, and the impact on the body after the injury should not be too great, but it requires a postoperative recovery period of more than three months."
Leo felt his chest spasm for several hours and the muscles stretched out, and he exhaled dryly.
The doctor saw that his pale face was a little bloody, and he added a reassuring sentence: "Don't worry, you won't be able to run 20 kilometers with a heavy load in the future, or go to free combat competitions. The daily work and life are still no problem."
In terms of finishing, the "day-to-day work" is much more intense than kickboxing. How much will your skill be affected? People like him who admire strength must find it difficult to accept... While feeling sad and regretful, a trace of untimely gratefulness was born deep in Leo's heart: perhaps because of this, he will cherish his life even more, and the harshness of walking the tightrope on the cliff. I love convergence and wash my hands thoroughly from then on.
The patient who was still under anesthesia was pushed out, Leo pressed down the chaotic thoughts in his mind and followed the medical staff to the intensive care unit.
According to the doctor, he will be awake within 24 hours. But 24 hours have passed, 48 hours have passed, and 72 hours have passed, and I still haven't woken up.
Leo frowned and asked the attending doctor, but the other party couldn't tell why. He just emphasized that the operation itself was successful, and from the examination report, there was nothing unusual about the physiological indicators.
"Then why has he been in a coma? Is there a problem with the treatment?" Leo asked, his tone very aggressive.
The attending doctor frowned because of his rudeness, but he was unwilling to clashed with a law enforcement officer who seemed to have not slept for three days. Instead, the young assistant beside him went back swiftly: “The treatment is of course important, but the patient’s own will to survive is even more important. If he is unwilling to wake up, his physiological mechanism is dominated by his subconscious, which may also cause stupor or psychogenicity. coma."
Unwilling to be sober? Lost the will to survive? Is he talking about finishing? Leo showed an ridiculous look and sneered at the young doctor: "Even if he is pointed at by a gun, he can overwhelm a dozen people with his bare hands. You mean such a person has no will to survive, kid?"
The other party was forced to swallow ice cubes in the winter and shrank his neck abruptly. The attending doctor hurriedly came out to make a round, and walked away awkwardly with his assistant.
Leo glanced at their backs with a ugly expression, sat down on the edge of the bed, and stretched out his hands to brush away the tiny fibers that fell on his cheeks. The Asian young man closed his eyes quietly, and his eyelashes cast a dark and thick shadow under his eye sockets, like the motionless butterfly wings, which made his cheeks thin and his lips pale. Leo's hand stopped on the top of his cheek, and then he stroked it from the forehead to the bridge of the nose to the chin. He said in a deep voice, "You are looked down upon, kill him, get up and kick him in the ass."
"Get up. If you want to continue to escape, now is the best time-there is only one agent who is hungry and sleepy to death. He is not your opponent at all."
"Your empty bullets smashed Rob out of a big bruise, and he complained about why you didn't put on him another body armor."
"Your explosives are also installed in the wrong place. Didn't you say that you are going to bomb the fifth area of the prison? Why did you only bomb the Jindao Bridge? You know how stupid my expression was when I got the casualty report, and I was laughed at by rookie Rob. ."
"And Shanier, that cunning jackal was almost caught, but unfortunately he escaped in the end. But we issued a national wanted order, and it is estimated that he will have the unfortunate life of being displaced for the rest of his life."
"..."
In the silent ward, there was only a man's intermittent voice, as if he was about to say what he hadn't had time to say in more than a year of acquaintance, in a few hours.
The phone kept ringing, but Leo did not answer.
The door of the ward was pushed open, and two plainclothes agents walked in and told Leo that they had come to watch the shift, and the bureau told him to go back immediately.
Leo sat on the side of the bed and ignored them, feeling that he had nothing to say to them-he only had the desire to talk to the unconscious coma on the bed, and he didn't even bother to shake his vocal cords to other people. Until one of the agents unbearably dialed the boss's phone, Gaudí’s screams burst out of the phone, wrapped in anger: "Leo! You fucking didn't answer the phone? Get me right away! Right away! Top of it! Still waiting for your report!"
With a "pop", it seemed that the other party had dropped the receiver. Leo squeezed the phone, calmly lost his mind for a moment, turned his head and said to the two agents: "If he wakes up, please notify me as soon as possible."
Then he walked out of the ward without looking back.
The next day, I don't know which person in the hospital leaked the news. The media rushed in. The police urgently dispatched personnel to quarantine the ward area where the killing was located. However, the media people are still trying to get into the inside with every possible means to create news headlines that are eye-catching and explosive enough, such as "serial killer killer committed another crime after breaking out of prison, and was seriously injured by the FBI." A large number of fans also got news, and the hospital was surrounded by water. There was even a blond young girl in a low-cut wedding dress, kicking and hitting to try to rush into the cordon, while screaming feverishly: "Go away! You thugs! Butcher! Don't delay my wedding! Finished, your bride is here! Let me in—"
That night, the FBI dispatched a special operations team to secretly transfer the killing and transport it to the police internal hospital by helicopter.
Rob explained all the above to Leo vividly, but his partner didn't give face at all, and didn't even give him a trace of extra gaze. There are several boxes of archive files stacked on the desk. Leo is dealing with the official duties that have been piled up over this period of time, finishing off the tasks on his hand. He works almost day and night, sleepless and sleepless. Although he has always been a workaholic, he has never been overloaded to the point of violating human nature like this, and he is shocked to see Rob. He tried to persuade Leo not to abuse himself so much and put his body first, but the other party simply replied with two words: "—Go away."
Rob had nothing to do, looking at Leo's eyes, like watching a crazy magician who burned his body and soul together as a spellcasting material. Finally, he made a bad move, dazed, and said to Leo: "The hospital called and said that the killing seemed to have a reaction..."
Leo slammed the contents of his hand and rushed out the door.
As a result, he almost beat Rob in the hospital corridor. The doctor solemnly told them that the patient has been in a coma for 17 days and lost consciousness, but the subcortical center can still maintain spontaneous breathing and heartbeat. If it continues for more than a month, I am afraid it will enter a vegetative state.
"This is really strange." The doctor said, "From the results of our many brain examinations, we did not find any head injuries or lesions. It stands to reason that he should have been awake long ago. His pupils are sensitive to light. In response, there are purposeless eye tracking movements and sleep-wake cycles. Under the input of nutrient solution, the vital signs are also stable. I think his coma...maybe it is psychogenic."
Leo heard the word in the mouth of a doctor in the previous hospital, and immediately fought back: "Fart!"
The doctor choked, and tried to explain in plain language to the two detectives who were almost fighting: "This is a reactive mental illness caused by intense mental trauma. You can understand that the patient's subconscious comes from isolation and injury. , Self-protection and other reasons, closed one's spiritual world, unwilling to communicate with the outside world, so he refused to be awake physically. In this case, the medicine has little effect. I suggest you try suggestive therapy."
Leo pondered the doctor's words and asked, "How?"
"You can find some people or things that are of great significance to the patient, including a certain smell, sound, etc., and use language actions and environmental simulations to stimulate the patient, which may be able to wake up."
"We can play movies by his bedside, "Chain Saw", "Zodiac" and other 24 hours rolling broadcast," Rob whispered to Leo, "We should go to prison and bring a few prisoners to perform live performances. Version?"
Leo gave him an angry look, walked into the ward, and locked the door with his backhand.
He sat on the side of the bed again, staring at the thinner face in his sleep.
"Is it really that you don't want to wake up yourself, finish it." He said softly, "Why, because of me? Because of the shadow of childhood? Or because of the "fucking world" in your mouth? This world has disappointed you to this point. It’s a situation that makes you disdain that you don’t even want to open your eyelids?"
There is no answer.
But Leo always felt that it was not that simple. The truth is hidden in the deepest part of Qing Qing's heart, and he has been searching for the other party's ambiguous words and deeds and ambiguous attitude, like groping for gold in the sands of the Ganges. He knows that he is good at camouflage, acting, and inverting black and white, but he has a faint intuition. In a certain place-a negligible and trivial place-he leaves a gap in the door, which is the gateway to his spirit. The tiny gaps in the world are like that of "The Whispers Before Bed".
I will find the gap and push open the door. Leo said silently to the finale. This time you will not be disappointed anymore, I will find you behind the door and take you out.
He got up and left the ward, instead of going to the office, he went straight to his apartment in Manhattan.
Leo closed his eyes and quietly recalled on the sofa where they had nested together, as if the other's body temperature still remained. Recalling everything between him and Shaoqing—from the first time he heard this code name, every word between them, every look, every fight, every bit of a tacit understanding, every love-hate showdown …
As if an extremely long and extremely long movie film was slowly pulled past the eyes, every frame of the picture was wiped away from the dust, shining brightly in the memory. It turned out that he had so deeply imprinted in his mind and heart that even the details of the pictures that flashed past made his body tremble unbearably.
-How slow did he have to spend so much time and so much price to determine the importance of the other party to him? Only then can we discover the so-called "God belongs to God, Caesar belongs to Caesar", what a ridiculous self-deception
-If he really loves him, he will have the courage to be an enemy of the whole world. Because every bit of pain of the other party will be reflected in his heart with blood.
-How could he bear the heart to throw him into a dark and foul prison, destroying the inherent human right of "freedom" with his own hands
Leo opened his eyes, and tears rolled from his deep dark blue eyes, running along the brows and into the temples.
As if telepathically, a final sentence emerged from countless memories, before a rape that finally made him regretful: "By the way, you have received the belongings I sent, please keep it for me. Don’t get angry. Throw it away, especially the phone..."
Especially the phone.
Yes, this is the gap.
How did you respond at the time
—He got up and punched his nose.
Leo curled up in pain, holding his head tightly with both hands. After a long time, he calmed down and panted, stood up swayingly, walked into the bedroom, and took out the BlackBerry phone that was sent to him by mail from the bottom drawer.
Due to a long period of inactivity, its battery has been exhausted. Leo plugged in the charger, turned it on, and browsed through its SMS, mailbox, and file management.
Soon, he found what he wanted, a ten-minute recording, lying alone in the audio file folder. He shrank his thumb as if burned by flames, and then pressed the play button without hesitation.
"Leo Lawrence."
It's the sound of finishing touch. There was a brief pause, and then it was changed to Chinese: "I hope that the person who heard this recording is you, not the tramp who digs through the trash can, or the kid in the second-hand mobile phone refurbishment shop. Of course, this is just my personal wish. , Maybe you will really lose this phone in a rage—in a way, Leo, I have always failed to guess your mind."
He laughed lowly, as if he was self-deprecating.
"Now I'm thinking, what is my motive for keeping this recording for you. You know I always plan things carefully, even if I have a whim, I have to plan first and act later, but this time, I really don't know what the motive is. , Drove me to do this. But I guess, when you hear this message, I should be no longer in the world."
Leo fought a cold battle abruptly, and squeezed his phone in the cold.
"Haha, did you startle? I just want to try the vulgar sentence pattern of this bad street. Actually, I'm very likely to go back and kill you, and then continue to get away with it. Do you feel confused, right? , I have written the final duel between us in the plan ahead of time. Either you die or I die.
I was wondering why I have always teased and provoke you for more than a year, keeping your eyes and bullets on me. I said in Luna Double Island, this is a very interesting pastime to spend my leisure time outside of work, right? This was indeed the case at the beginning, I found pleasure in you, and at the same time, I was also investigating you. It's like a mess of weapons in a room, carefully selecting a handy and powerful one. Among a bunch of police and detectives, I chose you.
I think you should be honored about this, what do you think? Especially when you tell me with a serious face,'A person must be responsible for what he has done, we are all the same, no one can do whatever he wants', I know I have found the right person.
You know, you’re too damn accurate when you say something to me: “I know you hate them, but you are becoming them, trust me, you don’t want to see someone in the mirror and want to do it yourself Strangling myself. 'Yes, I know this from beginning to end, so every time I look in the mirror, I see a serial murderer who wants to kill myself. Since the first person died in my hand, I have been no different from them, the same bloody hands, the same cruelty. But I never regretted it. Sometimes I think that when I die, 80% of the serial murderers who died at my hands will meet again in hell—of course, I don’t mind killing them again, anyway, there is no more evil place to go. .
The more people I kill, the more indifferent I am, because the end is already doomed. Before I find Enjoyer to avenge my revenge, I will kill all the way in a bloodbath. If I can send Enjoyer to hell, then it will be my turn next. "The voice paused for a moment again, and suddenly became soft and playful: "Dear agent, do you know why I gave myself the code name'Finish'?" "
Leo was startled. Kill... Kill... Green? He was shocked.
"Yes, that's what you think. Only by reading it in Chinese can you understand the true meaning-
I have solved so many serial killers, and the last serial killer to be solved is myself. "
An unusually calm voice. From the calm, there was a cold heart that was ashamed of death—the coldness of abandoning one's own life!
He finally understood where the strength and instability of the finale came from, Leo thought. Killing is not afraid of death, and even longing for death. While killing the enemy with a single blow, he also killed the warm and bright parts of his soul with a single blow, and then with blood and coldness, he calmly faced the death ending that was set for him.
-From beginning to end, he walked on the path of self-destruction.
And he is the executioner chosen by him.
He always provoked and angered regardless of the occasion, deliberately made himself angry, and gritted his teeth with hatred, precisely because he hoped to "finish" the dark life and end up in a kind, brave, upright, and bright life. In the hands of law enforcers. This is what he left in his heart, the last glimmer of good wishes for this world.
Leo let out an indescribable groan from deep in his throat.
After a long period of pause, the voice continued to sound, seeming to be a little confused: "As for you, Leo, since when did your usefulness gradually change... I don't know. But this is not a good phenomenon. It will make me weak, inefficient, and sometimes even give birth to unrealistic fantasies-fantasies that I can still have a reason to live." He sneered, "How naive! Yes! Right. Knowing that it is a natural enemy that is incompatible with fire and water, I tried to test it again and again and tried every means to make you remember me. The end result is like two celestial bodies that forcibly move to the same orbit, colliding with each other and destroying each other.
No need, Leo, no need to destroy each other. Just destroy me.
Keep you, continue to shine and heat, look at the world for me.
This fucking, fucking world. "
There was silence in the room, and the recording ended.
Leo stood there motionless, as if his consciousness was still projected in another space-there, a serial killer who was good at calculating and finally gave his life to him, was sitting on the sofa, holding a mobile phone, while Recording, while raising a faint smile at the corner of his mouth.
After a long time, Leo seemed to break free from his suffocation, took a long breath, then sat down at the desk, took out the pen and paper, and wrote a long word in the center of the first line without hesitation.