Chapter 143: Three deaths.
With no crime scene to examine, the team returned to the precinct, bitter because they had been so close and still failed. They gathered in the operating center, and a very angry President Tai Alix berated them.
Not even Weijun, her biggest critique, mustered the courage to talk back. It was not their fault, they could not teleport and chase the Huo Lingtian, this much everyone knew. But, did the higher ups care? Absolutely not!
The room hummed with tension, screens flickered, keyboards clattered and heartbeats were in overdrive. Liwu stood at the center with He Xiao Yi. Her arms were folded, her sharp eyes scanning the live feeds sent back by three agents of the bureau that were teleporting in pursuit.
They blinked in and out of sight, tracking Huo Lingtian across rooftops and alleys.
Weijun leaned towards Xuanji and whispered, "This is so cool. It’s like a movie."
Liwu shouted at the screen, "he is going back to the banquet hall where his son died. This was a revenge mission right from the beginning. Now that he has Su Daji, he is almost at the end of his of his four year plan. One of you should blink to the banquet hall and wait for him there."
No matter how loudly she shouted, her words seemed to fall on deaf ears. She turned to the chief, "Chief, I demand to be picked up and teleported to the banquet hall."
Her chief shook his head. "The fugitive hunt has been assigned to agents. We did our job by identifying the culprit. Now, we should focus on finding the three children he took."
"They are probably in an amusement park, having the time of their life." She growled.
Linlin and Xuanji rushed to a desk with the physical map of all the locations Huo Lingtian had been to. Indeed, one of the locations was an amusement park. They had assumed he had been there to kidnap another child, not drop off the ones he had taken!
"Dispatch drones and officers there, now." Linlin bellowed.
Chief Abby put a hand on Liwu’s shoulder. "The blinking agents will handle it." Blinking agents was another name for the agents that could teleport.
Liwu shook her head, "Sir, he needs someone that will calm him down. He will listen to me or Xiao Yi. We have studied his profile. He is not a killer by nature--he is angry and desperate. We should at least try to bring him in alive."
Chief Abby’s voice was firm. "You are not going. It’s too dangerous. That is a man who is not going to let anything get in between him and his revenge."
Liwu’s fists clenched. "It doesn’t mean we should let him spiral. He needs a kind face, an understanding ear."
The chief’s eyes narrowed. "The decision has been made. The higher ups want this case closed with any means necessary. Evey ministry and government office in this country is being bombarded with calls from panicked parents. Children are being pulled out of school and system hosts are about to be hunted with torches and pitch forks. The time for talking is over."
She clenched her jaw. The decision was made, and like others, she had to remain in the operation room and watch as capable agents pursued the fugitive.
On the screen, Huo Lingtian flickered in and out of sight, teleporting erratically. His movements were frantic, as though he was losing control. He darted into a hotel: the same one where the fire had happened ten years ago.
"He is about to be cornered," Someone said.
Liwu shook her head. "No. He has cornered himself. That’s different."
The agents followed. Their cameras caught glimpses: stairwells, bright lights, the echo of footsteps. Then the feed shifted. In a banquet hall that had been decorated for some kind of function, Su Wan, the missing girl, was there. She was tied to a chair on a platform, with a wired vest strapped to her small frame.
She was crying for help.
Huo Lingtian himself was in the room, standing next to a wall that had been smashed. There was an old elevator which had been revealed. Inside, Su Daji had already been tossed and locked in. Flames licked at the edges, smoke curling upward.
The agents paused.
Liwu’s heart lurched. "He set Su Daji on fire. They are too late."
Two agents teleported to the elevator door and one moved to help Su Wan. The ones outside the elevator shaft shouted orders and called Su Daji’s name. They tried to break through, but the door had been sealed with some kind of glue.
Si Daji pounded on the door, coughing, terrified.
Liwu pressed forward, her voice rising. "Send me in! I can stop this!"
Chief Abby slammed down on the console. "Detective Tai Liwu, stop this. If you need to, take a step outside and clear your head. There is a bomb in the room and that elevator is already on fire. Huo Lingtian has not tried to teleport away, he is standing there with a gun to his own head. I told you, talking time is over."
"The chief is right." He Xiao Yi said slowly, "It is decided. Nothing is going to change what is coming."
On the screen, the agents were trying to negotiate, to get him to tell them what he had used to seal the door.
And then it happened. Huo Lingtian pulled the trigger. The agents teleported to him, but it was too late. He crumpled, lifeless, as the fire raged.
"I have deactivated the bomb," One of the agents shouted.
He teleported out of the room while Aang teleported in with system hosts that were experts in chemistry and mechanics. It took them ten minutes to open the doors of the elevator.
Su Daji was dragged out, ninety percent of his body burned. He was unconscious, his face ruined beyond recognition.
The operation room fell silent. Screen flickered, feeds shifted, but no one spoke.
Then, Linlin’s voice filled the air. "Liwu, Xiao Yi, I just received a message. Mr. Rong Jian’s mother passed away an hour ago. Rong Jian has also committed suicide. He took a whole bottle of sleeping pills and slit his wrists in the bathroom of the hospital. The officers that found him said he a left a note for the detectives that went to see him."
Liwu and He Xiao Yi turned around at the same time.