Chapter 60, Chapter 59: A Trial of Black and Red: The Intruder and...
Breaking into a police base?
Easy peasy!
They all left 5 minutes ago and will return in about 25 minutes.
Noah's Ark's calm voice came through the earpiece. Zhuge Tongzhi, who was peeking out from around the corner of the wall, responded softly, then turned his gaze back to the wall and waited for a moment.
As she silently counted to the seventh five, she pulled hard, and a silver steel cable quickly retracted from behind her amidst the sound of machinery collapsing, disappearing into the grappling hook gun that had emerged from her satchel, before being pulled back into the bag.
"Who's there!"
Amidst several sharp shouts, the girl with black hair and black eyes took a step to the side and stood behind a one-way glass panel about the height of a door. She looked up and watched as two guards who were about to change shifts hurriedly ran past her.
As the last person's heels disappeared around the corner, she nimbly ran across the empty passageway in front of her. The hidden cameras lowered their heads as she passed, and the red indicator lights began to flicker slowly, like breathing.
With the officers having just left, the police officers in the monitoring room were on high alert, watching the large screen composed of multiple panels. The surveillance footage played steadily as the cameras rotated.
Unlike the new recruits who were glancing around aimlessly, the team leader, holding a hot coffee, calmly focused on several surveillance screens recording shift change locations, paying close attention to the surrounding corners.
After all, shift changes inevitably create gaps in patrols.
The team leader took a sip of coffee and looked through the rising steam at the security team on the screen, where they were handing over duties.
These are the places where unscrupulous people are most likely to exploit loopholes.
Fortunately, the equipment at this base has been completely upgraded. Not only have surveillance cameras been added to all blind spots, but an automatic warning function has also been added. Even if no one notices anything unusual immediately, the surveillance cameras will automatically report an error signal if they are interfered with.
Moreover, a person who is said to be extremely dangerous was just escorted to this police base today, so the security level of the entire base has been raised to the highest level. No idiot would dare to force his way in at this time.
Under the watchful eye of the team leader, the shift handover was completed smoothly as always, and the base was filled with peace and tranquility.
He exhaled hot, coffee-scented breath, raised his hand to beckon to the newcomer next to him, and planned to take advantage of this rare opportunity to give a live demonstration.
"Come on, everyone, come and take a look." The team leader shouted, stood up and pointed to the shift change screens that should be closely monitored when the new recruits changed shifts. Then he pulled up the handover times on the computer: "You all need to remember these times. Make sure to keep a close eye on these screens when you change shifts."
“Besides that, the key area to focus on is the surveillance in the central area. I don’t think I need to explain that much.” He pointed to a screen with a red frame in the center, showing a woman with silver hair and heterochromatic eyes sitting on the ground in loose clothing.
Confined inside by a specially made glass wall that appears smooth and transparent but can actually withstand bomb explosions, the woman leaned back on a reddish-brown sofa, sitting under the only dim light in the room. She was looking at her reflection in the glass wall, staring blankly into space.
"This will be the destination for all intruders." The foreman tapped the screen, then picked up the pager on the table, emphasizing the key points of the patrol, "So no matter what happens, if anything unusual occurs, be sure to use your walkie-talkies first..."
Good evening, Curaçao.
After passing through the last unguarded line of defense, Zhuge Tongzhi opened the high-tech door of Noah's Ark, which had been unlocked by electronic locks. He stood on tiptoe to take the landline phone off the wall and chuckled softly into the receiver.
The clear, childlike voice came through the telephone line, directly connecting to the speakers installed inside the glass wall, amplifying several times before booming loudly in Curaçao's ears.
The silver-haired woman, dressed in plain white loose clothing, suddenly stood up from the ground. Her hand instinctively reached for her waist, but she paused slightly after grasping nothing, as if she had just realized her status as a prisoner. Her fingers stiffened for a moment before she finally placed them on the sofa beside her.
"Ale?"
Curaçao stared at the wall in front of her that reflected her image. This specially made one-way glass wall was a mirror to her if it were not powered on, but anyone standing on the other side of the mirror could see what was inside.
"correct."
As the last syllable fell, the room, which had been dimly lit by only a single overhead lamp, suddenly became brightly lit. Curaçao raised her sleeve to shield her eyes, her eyes squinting as the sudden bright light shone through.
As the white patch left by the strong light gradually faded, she could see Zhuge Tongzhi holding a microphone outside the glass wall. The black-haired girl had changed into a simple black outfit, which made the brightly colored handbag on her waist stand out conspicuously.
At this time, alone? Curacao lowered her arm that was covering her eyes, her expression unchanged as she wondered to herself: She knew that Elle had cooperated with the Public Security Bureau, but did she have such high authority?
Moreover, only Bourbon, the undercover agent, should have the authority to open that door. Her gaze shifted slightly as she looked at the wide-open, empty alloy door behind Zhuge Tongzhi. She had heard this detail in the police's warnings against even thinking about escaping.
However, Zhuge Tongzhi, who had found out how to set up speakerphone on a landline, quickly resolved her question.
Her short, uneven hair, which was always a mess in the mornings, was now neatly tucked behind her ears, with stray hairs swaying slightly as she jumped up and pressed the speakerphone button.
“Luckily, they hid you here.” Zhuge Tongzhi looked up at the glass wall, which was thick enough to withstand a Pramie-style bomb, and clicked his tongue. “If it were anywhere else, I would have had to put in more effort.”
It's confirmed; this person sneaked in on their own.
But why this dangerous and underworld time? Curacao, somewhat speechless at his conclusion, immediately became wary and asked, "What are you doing here, El?"
"I've come to visit the girl the three kids have been talking about, One-chan." Upon hearing about the Junior Detective Club from El, Curaçao's expression immediately turned cold, her eyes looking down sharply at the elementary school-aged girl. "What exactly do you want?"
"Don't rush, just answer a few questions for me." Zhuge Tongzhi raised her hand and pressed it down. Curaçao noticed that the light, which had been adjusted to its brightest setting, gradually dimmed with her movement, eventually becoming a gentle brightness. "Nothing will happen to them."
El has access to this place. Realizing this, Curaço involuntarily took a step back. The utterly powerless emptiness made her clench her teeth, and then she heard the girl continue.
“I can even let you go.” The silver-haired woman clapped her hands as she looked at the short-haired girl. At the same time as the clapping sounded, the surveillance cameras installed in her house, whether obvious or hidden, all emitted a sharp buzzing sound, while the cameras outside the glass wall all lowered their heads.
"What exactly are you trying to do?" Curaçao didn't believe a word El said, and asked coldly amidst the surging, buzzing sound, "Cooperate with the Public Security Bureau's boring trap?"
“No, literally.” Zhuge Tongzhi looked down and pulled a thin notebook out of his bag, then started rummaging through a pile of odds and ends for a ballpoint pen. He said, “This is a deal. You answer my questions, and I’ll let you go.”
"Or would you rather be locked up here for those three kids you've only known for a day?" The girl, who had found a ballpoint pen, pressed the end of the pen and looked up at the silent Curaçao amidst the clicking sound, revealing a half-smile. "Would Rum's new confidant be so soft-hearted?"
"Weren't you engrossed in playing house here?" Curaçao scoffed, pointing at the man's noticeably different state from this morning, and retorted, "What, not only has your memory deteriorated, but your skills have also weakened?"
"If you can't even beat me now, then Rum's remaining eye is probably not far from going blind." Zhuge Tongzhi was quite accepting of his fighting prowess in his elementary school state. After drawing a few lines on the notebook in his hand, he confirmed that the pen tip was still usable.
She then began to unfasten the clasp on the seven-colored card hanging on her handbag. Curaçao looked at the seven-colored card, which was exactly the same as the five-colored card that had been taken from her, and frowned as she asked, "Why are you carrying a color card?"
Using the superposition of different colors on a color chart with light to stimulate memory storage is a memory method given in a training camp. Most of the members who survived the training and participated in the task used this method, but very few of them actually succeeded.
However, Rag and El, who stood out at a young age, quickly abandoned this method of memorization and developed their own unique shorthand methods, which unfortunately could not be effectively replicated on other test subjects.
“Because of a problem with your memory.” Zhuge Tongzhi casually repeated Curaçao’s words, showing no intention of delving into the matter. He tapped his notebook with his pen and said, “Since you don’t intend to leave, then tell me about my problem.”
“Don’t refuse, after all, I’m also a member of the Junior Detective Club.” The black-haired girl squatted down and pushed the seven-colored cards in her hand into a hidden compartment that was difficult to detect. The missing cards quickly reappeared on the ground next to Curaçao. “And you care about them.”
This was a blatant threat, but one that Curaçao simply couldn't refuse.
The silver-haired woman faced off against Zhuge Tongzhi, who was sitting cross-legged on the ground, for a moment. The significant height difference did not give her any advantage in terms of imposing presence.
Curaçao finally bent down and picked up the seven-colored cards wrapped in a card sleeve from the ground.
She stacked the two colors she didn't need together in her palm, exhaled, unfolded the color swatch, held it up to the light, and asked, "What do you want to ask?"
“It’s very simple.” Zhuge Tongzhi wrote two numbers on the notebook, turned it upside down, and stuck it to the glass. “Just use these two keywords to search your memory.”
Only now did he have the energy to pay attention to the other details of the ale. The moment Curaçao stood the notebook upright, he saw the logo with the words "Teitan Elementary School Workbook" printed on the cover. His previously tense nerves involuntarily relaxed, and a speechless feeling quietly crept into his heart.
But after seeing the two words written neatly on the notebook, her pupils involuntarily dilated for a moment, and she murmured, "Rum said that Rag is dead."
"Rum also said I'm dead." Alju, now a primary school student, stood on tiptoe and held up his notebook, calmly saying, "Curaçao, search using the keywords 'Lag' and 'defection'."
“Tell me everything you know.”
Separated by a transparent glass wall, calm black eyes met heterochromatic eyes. The minute hand on the watch face moved silently and gently. The latter was the first to look away and look at the color swatch under the light.
Five colors divided the transparent eyes into five parts, with the white light at the very center having a faint hue around its edge, falling on the constantly trembling pupil.
The data stream, visible only to Curaçao, leaps before our eyes, surging like a river.
…
Meanwhile, in Kenji Hagiwara's bedroom
"Hmm... Jinpei?" The man, who was wrapped in the blanket, turned over and mumbled sleepily amidst the continuous knocking on the door, "...Someone is knocking on the door."
After a while, the knocking continued relentlessly. Finally, Kenji Hagiwara, who had regained consciousness, sat up straight in bed. After a moment, he slammed the bedside lamp on.
The soft light illuminated the cartoon-print pajamas the man was wearing. The edges of the bandages could be vaguely seen under the slightly disheveled hem. After get off work, he and Matsuda Jinpei went to the hospital for further treatment of the wound on his back.
His half-length hair, styled in his sleep, was a mess. Kenji Hagiwara woke up under the light, brushed the strands of hair that were stuck to his forehead and cheeks, got out of bed and pushed open the bedroom door at the sound of a knock.
After graduating from the police academy, he and Matsuda Jinpei moved out of the police dormitory and rented a double apartment near their office.
When the rooms were assigned, Kenji Hagiwara chose the bedroom closest to the inside of the apartment, while Jinpei Matsuda, who didn't care about that, slept in the room closest to the apartment entrance. Therefore, whenever neighbors visited or the community came to promote their services, Jinpei Matsuda was usually the first to answer the door.
Honestly, I always felt that their community outreach was less than that of other households.
"Jinpei, someone's knocking on the door..." Kenji Hagiwara stepped out of his room in his slippers, yawned, and knocked twice on Matsuda Jinpei's half-open door before heading towards the main door. "Hmm, is he fast asleep?"
"Coming, coming!" He raised his voice so the person outside could hear him, quickened his pace to the door, and just as he was pressing the doorknob, he suddenly noticed a faint light source in the semi-open kitchen next door.
Dim moonlight shone through the gaps in the balcony curtains. Kenji Hagiwara squinted and saw a tall, dark figure stirring beside the desk, an ominous aura emanating from it.
In the dim, barely perceptible vision, a gust of cold air suddenly blew past his ankles, and he felt the hairs on his arms stand up in clumps.
"Okay." Kenji Hagiwara said apologetically, pressed the doorknob, and slowly pushed the door open. The light from the hallway shone in through the widening crack in the door.
He glanced discreetly at the kitchen, which was gradually being illuminated, and replied to the visitor outside the door, "I just fell asleep... Hey, Jinpei?"
He was startled when he saw who was in the kitchen, then realized that the person knocking on the door was also an old acquaintance. "Eh! Kei... Midorikawa-kun?"
"What's going on?" Upon recognizing the shadowy figure as his childhood friend, Kenji Hagiwara rubbed his arm, flipped on the overhead light switch next to the door, illuminating Jinpei Matsuda leaning against the desk, and asked in bewilderment, "Why don't you open the door?"
In the sudden bright light, he opened the door and let in Morofushi Kagemitsu, who was wearing a hood. After realizing that the other man was not disguised, he slammed the door shut. Meanwhile, Matsuda Jinpei was still engrossed in his phone, his brows furrowed.
"Jinpei?" Hagiwara Kenji noticed his childhood friend's strange expression, stepped forward, and snatched the phone from his hand, which was constantly being tapped. He looked down at it and asked, "Messages? Did you accidentally delete some messages?"
"...No." It wasn't until his phone was taken away that Matsuda Jinpei seemed to notice two more people in front of him and paused slightly. He glanced at his phone that had been taken away, and without bothering to greet Morofushi Kagemitsu who had appeared in the room, he went straight to Hagiwara Kenji's bedroom. "Hagi, let me see your phone."
"Well, what's going on?" Hagiwara Kenji was wide awake by the confusing situation. He watched Matsuda Jinpei disappear hurriedly behind the door, then turned to Morofushi Kagemitsu and asked, "Morofushi, what brings you here so late?"
The hectic pace of the past few days had left stubble on his chin, which he hadn't had time to groom. Morofushi Kagemitsu turned his gaze away from Matsuda Jinpei's retreating figure, looked at Hagiwara Kenji's expression for a moment, and said, "Looks like no one texted me, right?"
"Huh?" Kenji Hagiwara raised his hand and rubbed his messy, half-length hair, wondering if he was still dreaming, since the problems and developments he was encountering seemed so disjointed.
“I received your text message saying that you need to meet with me as soon as possible regarding Zhuge.” As he spoke, Morofushi Kagemitsu took out his two cell phones and turned on the device he was using as the 'Morofushi Kagemitsu' identity to make calls. “It’s the number that I gave you and Matsuda’s contact information.”
"But I couldn't get through to either of you on the phone." But Matsuda Jinpei had been looking at his phone the whole time, so it was impossible that he hadn't seen the caller ID.
Someone intercepted his signal, so that message also...
Sure enough, he found the inbox empty on the page where he had received the message. The message that had been sent fifteen minutes earlier had vanished without a trace.
Is Zero still there? Morofushi Kagemitsu, who immediately understood the other party's intention, felt a tightness in his heart. He had just brought up the communication page when he saw Furuya Rei's call notification taking over the phone screen.
"Hiro, the director didn't message me." Five minutes after Morofushi Kagemitsu left, Furuya Rei, who had been transferred by his superior via text message, made a sharp turn and drifted past several cars. He gritted his teeth and said to the hands-free phone on the passenger seat, "I'm on my way back."
"Me too." Morofushi Kagemitsu closed his eyes, nodded to Hagiwara Kenji, whose expression had turned serious, and then rushed downstairs with his colleague who had grabbed his car keys. "Is there any situation at the base?"
"No, the security system over there shows no one broke in." Rei Furuya's angry voice came through the phone, as if he slammed his fist on the steering wheel and muttered under his breath amidst the honking of the horn, "Damn it!"
He followed Kenji Hagiwara's footsteps, ran to a well-maintained white Mazda, took the key from the man in pajamas, inserted the key, started the engine, and pressed the accelerator in one smooth motion.
"Zero, stay calm. The other side has superb hacking skills."
The white Mazda smoothly drifted out of the parking space, roared into the quiet alley, and soon merged into the sparse traffic on the main road.
“I’m closer from here, let’s go there first.” Zhu Fujingguang also tossed his phone onto the passenger seat, gripped the steering wheel tightly, and said calmly in a deep voice, “Try contacting the base’s police.”
"Okay, be careful, Hiro." Furuya Rei paused before hanging up the phone, then added, "I'll come find you."
“Of course.” Morofushi Kagemitsu stepped on the gas and ran a red light, inwardly apologizing to Hagiwara Kenji for his driver’s license, and smiled at Furuya Rei in the passenger seat: “Hurry up and gather the men, Team Leader Rei.”
"receive."
The phone call was abruptly ended. As Morofushi Kagemitsu watched the street scene rapidly receding behind him and the night sky disappearing into the distance, his blue-gray eyes sharpened, and several names popped into his churning thoughts.
Eventually, it narrowed down to just one word.
He freed one hand to dial Ran Mouri's number on his phone, but his finger hovering over the dial button hesitated for a moment before finally not pressing it.
Is that you, Al?
The white Mazda sped off from the city center towards the suburbs like a streak of light.
…
Wearing his pajamas, Kenji Hagiwara watched his beloved car speed away, praying for his driver's license as he walked silently towards his apartment in his slippers.
After a series of actions that left him drenched in sweat, Kenji Hagiwara opened the door and slipped inside before finally relaxing. He rushed into the kitchen, parched with thirst, and brought out two glasses of water. He gulped down his own glass while shoving the other glass into Jinpei Matsuda's face.
"Mmmmmm?" The man drinking water kept shoving the glass at the person he was talking to, making some noises.
Matsuda Jinpei, who was looking down at two phones on the sofa, looked up helplessly, took the glass of water he was about to use to wash his face, and said, "Hagi, finish drinking before you talk."
"Ha!" After gulping down a large glass of water, Kenji Hagiwara finally caught his breath, sat down next to Jinpei Matsuda, and peered at the two identical black-screened phones, asking curiously, "Jinpei, haven't you been sleeping at all?"
"I woke up a little earlier than you."
"Then why didn't you open the door?" Kenji Hagiwara asked curiously, accidentally pressing his forgotten wound while wiping the water from the corner of his mouth. He immediately gasped and clutched the painful spot.
But Matsuda Jinpei did not answer. He put the untouched cup back on the table, rested his head on his hands, leaned back on the sofa, and stared at a small black dot on the ceiling.
A sharp pain shot through his lip, and the bruises on his face that wouldn't go away anytime soon also started to throb. Kenji Hagiwara began rummaging through the first-aid kit for pain-relieving spray.
The sofa beside him, which had been tilted, suddenly leveled out. The curly-haired police officer looked up at the ceiling for a moment, then turned to his childhood friend, whose face was still bruised and swollen, and suddenly spoke:
"I had a nightmare before I woke up."
Kenji Hagiwara paused, glancing at his childhood friend who had turned to look at him from the sofa.
“In my dream, you died, and so did I.” Matsuda Jinpei turned on the screens of both phones and opened the message inbox, but apart from work notifications, there were only some miscellaneous advertising text messages.
They rarely send text messages, and most of the few they do send go unanswered, because they usually see the other person soon after sending the message and can give the answer in person, so text messages are naturally useless.
But looking at the text messages on his phone that had no follow-up, he suddenly felt a strange sadness, as well as a sense of relief and bewilderment.
"I can't quite remember the details." His turbulent emotions left him disoriented, unsure of his surroundings. Matsuda Jinpei looked up at Hagiwara Kenji, who was standing under the living room light, and murmured, "Hagi?"
"I'm here, Kojinpei."
Kenji Hagiwara tossed the pain-relieving spray back into the medicine box and walked toward the sofa. The dark shadow behind him acted as an anchor, firmly fixing him in the apartment.
"Right here."
-----------------------
Author's Note: While enjoying the food cooked by these ladies online, I was unexpectedly cut to pieces.
Damn it! Damn it! Damn it!
…
The person whose lunchbox was kicked out will half-awake and half-asleep, knowing some of the original plot details about themselves.
Hagi was shocked when she was rescued and fell into a coma, where she is plagued by nightmares and finds it difficult to wake up.
Mazda safely navigated the critical point, and the original storyline unfolded gradually as he learned about it.
But dreams are gradually erased, leaving behind only emotions and fragmented keywords.
Therefore, Hagi Madoka loses control of her emotions when she sees Matsu Tiantian in Alice in Wonderland.
And now Song Tiantian is in a daze.
Because their deaths were too much of a shock to each other.
…
Last week's updates were a bit inconsistent, but I'll try to improve this week!
Mwah
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