We ascended from the third floor of the dormitory to the fourth, reaching the room where we had previously seen the light. Gripping our guns, we kicked the door open. A blinding light struck our eyes. A figure was writing, his back to us. It wasn't Gao Mingqiang, but a gaunt individual. The lights in the room suddenly brightened. We immediately assumed he was a suspect and lunged, cuffing him without a word.
The man offered no resistance and was swiftly subdued. Seeing his calm demeanor, I refrained from using force and asked coldly, "Who are you?"
"I am a doctor, conducting research here!"
"A doctor? Did you do this to those rats?"
"Heh, yes. I didn't expect you to dare come back. Why didn't I kill you earlier?"
"You bastard! If it weren't for you, so many people wouldn't have died in Lester! Tell me, are you part of the organization?"
"Me? The organization? What's that? I'm just a biologist, a foreign scientist. I don't know anything about any organization!"
"You have no connection to the organization? Then where did you get this technology?"
"It's all my own creation! Look at my notebook, and the powder beside it. Just a little of this powder, and the rats' temperaments change drastically, then they breed uncontrollably. Hahaha, and then they become what you saw. Isn't it interesting? No one agreed with this research, but once I could control those rats to kill anyone at will, everyone here was terrified. So, no one dared to resist. Even the owner of the cement factory could only fear me and not disturb me. Then one day, I began to control this city, making the rats devour the flesh of the common people, leaving some of their flesh behind for the rats to bring back to me so I could eat too… Heh heh…"
"You scoundrel!" I yanked his clothes fiercely, but he showed no fear, as if he had anticipated this. Suddenly, he let out a series of strange squeaks and said, "You've got it all wrong, officer. You think you can arrest this great rat in my den? Did you ask my companions? Ahahaha!!!"
As soon as he finished speaking, eerie squeaking sounds surged from all directions. Within a minute, the space around us was filled with them!
Could it be that this guy can truly control the minds of those rats?!
As we pondered this, he snapped his fingers before us. Soon, countless rats appeared from all sides, crawling through countless cracks and swarming towards us. Strangely, the rats seemed to ignore the people in front of them.
This is so bizarre. Does this person have some peculiar scent or aura that makes the rats not attack him?
But in the next second, the strange man uttered, "My children, tear these two policemen apart. You can feast on their flesh afterward. I have no objections. Once you deal with them, we can continue as before, ahahaha!!!"
The rats seemed truly obedient. Upon hearing this, they immediately sprang into action, closing in on us. Our flashlights were on, but the rats now seemed unafraid!
How is this possible? Have these rats developed a higher tolerance after being exposed to strong light repeatedly?
This was the only thought I could muster. But now was not the time for confusion. This man had indeed surrounded us with rats. With one hand holding a flashlight and the other steadily pulling the trigger, we fired. However, our target wasn't the rats, but the strange man himself.
He dodged everywhere, quickly rolling and disappearing beneath a nearby office desk. He then likely pressed a switch, causing the floor to slide open, and he plummeted into the basement. The man had escaped!
We remained surrounded by rats, our very lives in peril. We had utterly lost this battle, allowing the killer to escape right before our eyes with no way to stop him.
As the rats began to gnaw at our shoes and trouser legs, Liu Yuning and I stood so close that our flesh seemed to be stuck together. There was not a millimeter of space between our clothes. The shortest distance in the world was perhaps the distance between us right now.
Yet, we were about to die here. If we truly perished, our will would have to endure…
I thought of many things then, the reaction of He Xin upon hearing of our deaths, the reactions of Dao Zhiyong, Xia Xiaoling, Xiao Yuande, Xiahou, and others…
Just as the rats began to bite us, an abominable voice suddenly echoed, "Gentlemen, you still have a chance! There's an iron plate above. But surely you wouldn't watch him die like this, would you?"
"Him?" We were both confused about what was happening. But as his voice faded, the office desk flipped over, crushing a number of rats. The others quickly scattered, leaving behind the bound figure beneath the desk – Gao Mingqiang!!
He was indeed still alive!
Because there was a gap beneath the desk and it had been dark there, it was normal that we hadn't seen him. I immediately leaped over, ignoring the rats' reactions, and embraced the rope-bound Gao Mingqiang. Liu Yuning joined me, and together we helped him untangle himself. He seemed to be unconscious. After he was freed, I slapped his face a few times, and he finally opened his eyes wide, "Damn it! I was so close to catching him, but this guy is so cunning!"
"Mingqiang, you're alive! Why didn't you tell us? Do you know how much we've missed you all these years?" I said.
"Stop being sentimental. Hurry and chase him!"
"Haha, chase me. You see the wounds on Gao Mingqiang, chase me then. You have two choices now. One is to continue chasing me, perhaps you'll catch me. But if you leave now, those rats will definitely attack Gao Mingqiang. If you can abandon him to chase me, then come on! Ahaha!! Foolish police officers, we'll meet again! I'm leaving now!"
As the man's voice faded, we heard sounds of someone leaping upstairs and the thrum of a helicopter. It seemed he had truly escaped.
We listened there in regret. At such a moment, everyone wanted to pursue the criminal, but we couldn't abandon Gao Mingqiang here. The perpetrator had likely anticipated that we would stay to protect him, thus using him to buy time for his own escape.