Give Them a Little Shock

"Mr. Detective, aren't we going to keep moving?"

Judy felt that the carriage had been stopped for quite some time. Chao, seated opposite her, had remained silent the whole time, seemingly pondering something of vital importance.

That afternoon, before the Detective had come to see her, Judy's heart had been pounding as if something were about to happen. When he finally showed up and told her he had found Dane's whereabouts, she could barely contain her excitement and immediately agreed to his request: hire a private carriage and head to Golden Street in the north of the city at around eleven that night.

Thinking back on it now, she realized she had been far too hasty. Going out alone with an adult man in the middle of the night—if he had ill intentions, she would undoubtedly be at a serious disadvantage.

She couldn't count on the driver to help her. After all, she had hired a carriage, not a mercenary.

Judy instinctively felt behind her waist, where she had hidden a dagger.

If he really had been after her, she would make sure to take someone down with her, even if it cost her life.

"No. We'll wait here."

The Detective suddenly spoke.

It was the first thing he had said since getting into the carriage.

For some reason, Judy felt greatly relieved. Whatever he said, it was better than silence. "Wait? Do you mean Dane is nearby?"

But the Detective fell silent again, lost in thought.

Damn it, why was this guy so mysterious? Judy thought irritably. Ever since she had hired Mr. Detective to find someone, she had asked a few people familiar with the business about him, but none of them had ever heard of Mr. Chao. She had even tried to follow him after their meetings, hoping to see where in the city he lived. But every time, she lost sight of him halfway through—and not in any ordinary way. He would turn a corner and vanish without a trace, leaving her utterly baffled.

Judy had also noticed another detail. Whenever the Detective met her, he wore exactly the same clothes, as if he owned only one outfit. He had no assistant, and he never took a carriage when he left. That could only mean one thing: Mr. Detective was really poor.

And a poor detective meant poor results, while poor results meant he would have a hard time completing his clients' requests—especially one as difficult as this.

If Mr. Chao hadn't seemed so conscientious, asking her about the questions raised by the things Dane had left behind every time they met, she might have fired him long ago.

Judy lifted the curtain and looked outside. The street was utterly still. A few streetlamps cast a faint glow, but a little farther away, everything was pitch-black. Thick clouds blanketed the sky, and even the moonlight had lost its usual brilliance, barely illuminating one corner of the sky.

She really had no idea where on Golden Street Dane might appear.

"If he's right here, why are you sitting still?"

"If you don't want to look for him, just tell me where he is and I'll go. But I'll only pay half the fee!"

"Say something, will you?"

After getting no response despite asking over and over, Judy grew anxious.

Suddenly, a strange flicker of firelight caught the corner of her eye.

After a moment's hesitation, Judy looked out the window again. To her surprise, a faint light had appeared inside a building at the end of the street.

Was that... the Sinclair Grand Theatre?

It was nearly midnight. How could there still be anyone inside the theater?

Unless—

Judy sprang up, intending to leap out of the carriage.

But a hand suddenly seized her shoulder and pushed her back into her seat.

"Wait here. Don't move," the Detective said quietly. His fingers were like iron clamps, leaving her unable to budge.

"Dane's in the theater, isn't he? I remember now... Those serial murders all happened late at night. Did he get caught up in investigating them? Did he..." Judy couldn't help swallowing. "Was he killed too?"

"As far as I know, not yet."

"Then I'm going to save him!"

"Not yet!" the Detective said coldly. "Listen carefully. I didn't bring you here without a reason. You really can help him, but you have to follow my instructions! If you act on your own now, you won't just get yourself killed—you'll get him killed too!"

Judy shuddered.

Although he was just an unknown detective with no reputation, there was something strangely persuasive about his words. She stared at the Detective for a long moment, then slowly nodded.

"Then... can we really save Dane just by sitting in the carriage?"

"Do you think I'm handling this alone?" The Detective lowered the brim of his hat. "Don't worry. The rescue has already begun."

"They're here!"

As the words rang out, the first man in blue slammed through the door and charged into the corridor.

Then he saw something he could hardly believe: the six rats hadn't fled in panic. Instead, they had all gathered by the entrance. What's more, there was barely any fear on their faces. The moment they saw him, they grinned viciously!

"Suka Bule, go on, shoot me again!" Anthony gripped his sword with both hands and brought it down with all his might.

The man in blue didn't even have time to raise his gun before his head was separated from his body.

"Kill!" The Russian stepped over his corpse and charged at the enemies behind him.

"Damn it, they didn't run!"

"Back up, they're coming out!"

"Bayonets! Fix bayonets!"

The men in blue immediately fell into disarray. They had never expected that, at a time like this, the rats would have the nerve to bite back! In the past, whenever they were sent in, the hunt had always been easy and leisurely. Their prey could only hide or beg for mercy, while they found all kinds of ways to kill them.

But this time, the rats had bared their fangs.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

The rifles fired in rapid succession. Blood burst across Anthony's body, but he paid no heed. After stabbing the enemy in front of him through the chest, he slashed a third man's throat.

"Hahahaha... This is the hunt I've been longing for!" he roared with laughter. "Come on! All of you, get over here!"

While Anthony held the men in blue's attention, Taylor and Asahara Naruko leaned out through the doorway and began picking them off with crossbows.

Crossbows had to be loaded by hand, but their bolts were just as deadly as bullets. Anyone hit couldn't keep fighting; at the very least, they were left with a massive wound that bled profusely.

"Watch out for the enemies on the other side!" Zhou Zhi warned.

The men in blue coming down from the other side also reached the corridor, and the gunfire grew even heavier.

Anthony had taken more than a dozen bullets. No matter how dulled his senses were, his body could no longer hold out. His final act was to grab an enemy, sink his teeth into the man's neck, and drag him down with him.

Qiao James, who had charged out with him, was also forced back under fire, his right arm shattered by a bullet.

"Fall back! Stop fighting them at the doorway!" Zhang Zhiyuan shouted.

The five who remained retreated into the corridor and smashed open the lounge doors. They planned to use the rooms as cover and keep holding off the pursuers.

The police captain outside also realized things weren't going as he had expected.

His men seemed to have gotten into a fierce firefight with those rats by the corridor entrance. Then they stopped outside the doorway, guns trained on the corridor, but hardly any of them dared to go in.

"What are you all dawdling for? Why haven't you dealt with those rats yet?" he shouted at the men downstairs.

"Officer Ghost, there's something wrong with these people!" one of his men replied, looking troubled.

"What's wrong?"

"They don't seem to be afraid of dying!"

"What?" The police captain could hardly believe his ears. "Then why don't you shoot them?"

The man looked even more troubled. "We did... but they just don't seem to die. They took more than ten bullets and still didn't go down. They even killed three of our men! It's as if the bullets didn't hurt them at all..."

"What did you say?" Ghost's expression finally changed. "Hold the entrance. I'm coming over."