Puzzle Madness

Chapter 15 The Hunt —
John Dou followed behind the [client], his leather heels hitting the ground rapidly again and again.

The client wore a hooded sweatshirt and a shoulder bag slung across her shoulders. She tore off a mask attached to a mineral water bottle and tossed it behind her. The bottle contained a handful of black, gurgling particles; it looked like activated charcoal.

She was more flexible than John Dou had imagined, and she had also learned how to use cover in a narrow environment to avoid possible bullets. John Dou never found a suitable shooting angle.

[She's really good at handicrafts.]

John Dou could already imagine the excellent results that [the client] would achieve during the on-the-job training: she was better than he had imagined, and the previous rounds of offense and defense had made John Dou realize this.

As she ran, she took off her backpack and threw it towards the sky outside the aisle. The shoulder bag, whose contents were unknown, drew an arc and fell into the square of the community.

John Dou didn't even glance at the backpack that might contain the package. His partner was guarding the neighborhood, so nothing would be lost.

[The client] must have been paying attention to John Dou's speed—and she noticed that he didn't even seem to be slowing down because of the backpack: she had already rushed to the downstairs when she suddenly stopped and rushed upstairs.

A small pause instantly shortened the distance between the two: but if they ran downstairs, they would be blocked by Richard. The backpack thrown out was a cover, used to test the situation of being surrounded -
These contents are all included in the Asia-Europe Post’s on-the-job training.

【Ah. 】

He sneered in his heart: She has learned very well, but the tricks she has mastered are too mechanical and will not affect the final outcome of today.

John Dou followed [the client] up the stairs, dashing up flight after flight. The narrow residential building slowed the pursuer's speed, the huge and powerful body became an obstacle - they chased and fled like this: until the number [8] painted on the wall appeared, and there were no more stairs leading up.

The [client] rushed around the corner, and John Dou stopped: he knew that after this corner, he would be in another long, narrow corridor, surrounded by various daily necessities and narrowed into a narrow path. He was not as agile as the [client]; if he continued to chase in that terrain, he would only be left behind.

He glanced around and found what he wanted.

Even in such old residential buildings, new fire alarms are installed to ensure timely rescue in the event of a fire caused by the accumulation of tapes in the tapes.

Clap!

John Dolce clenched his right fist, raised the tip of his elbow, smashed the glass of the alarm cover, and pulled the fire alarm switch - he did not stop, but continued to stride forward and around the corner:
【There.】

He narrowed his light grey eyes like a hawk, staring at the black figure at the other end of the corridor who was not looking back but just accelerating forward with his head down.

drop drop --
Amid the humming of fire alarms, doors on both sides of the corridor opened, figures leaping out and screams echoing. It was daytime; the residents still inside were mostly family members of employees from the nearby Mong Cai City Third Tape Factory.
"what happened?!"

"Where's the fire? Which room?!"

John Dou could see the client suddenly stop in her tracks and almost fall down - a door suddenly opened in front of her, and a resident holding a big red bucket rushed out.

Wow!

A wave splashed out of the bucket and hit the railing.

By this time, the [client] had already entered John Dou's shooting range, but the obstacles in the corridor - and the noisy crowd - were too many.

John Dou continued forward, slightly quickening his pace. As he pushed the residents aside, he pulled his service pistol from the clip under his arm and unscrewed the silencer.
"Law enforcement action! Everyone, freeze! Get down! Get down!"

Even those residents who didn't pay attention to John Dou's words mostly noticed the pistol swinging in his palm.

But the commotion continued; few people squatted down as he instructed, but simply stood there in shock.

Almost everyone in the room had left: dozens of people were crowded in the corridor, packed with miscellaneous items - but the tall and thin John Dou could still see his target clearly over the thick and bald heads.

The [customer] walking in the middle of the corridor tried hard to squeeze through the gap, but was blocked by the crowd at the other end and slowed down.
【Um. 】

John Dou knew: Even this slight delay had already determined the direction of the arrest. The probability of capturing the client alive had greatly increased.

[Do you want to kill me? Or—never mind, let's just keep this distance for now.]

Perhaps it was because of the divination tape I listened to earlier, or perhaps it was because of the vague orders from above.
This recovery operation gave John Dou a vague, subtle premonition, uncertain whether it was good or bad. This was the first time in his many years of field work that he had experienced such a feeling.
-
John Dou's mind was swirling with thoughts, but his body reacted faster: the crowd thronging the corridor could slow down the [client's] movements, but John Dou also couldn't get close to him quickly—if things continued this way, the [client] would only take advantage of the chaos.

[That's enough: at this distance, there's no way she can escape from me.]

He raised his pistol high and pointed the muzzle at his head:
boom!
"Everyone squat!"

There was a whistling sound as the bullet hit the ceiling, dropping paint and white ash.

“Wa ...

"Ah! Ah!"

The excitement now exceeded the residents’ threshold: the choice of fight or flight was not really two options in most cases.

Amidst screams and howls, John Dou quickened his pace. The crowd suddenly became shorter: some crouched, some collapsed, and some even crawled back home.
In this scene, the "Client," still running forward, stood out. The gunshots didn't frighten her at all, but instead cleared a path for her to continue her escape.

She squatted and stood, trying to change her position to avoid being shot; she had grabbed a brick from the public earthen stove in the corridor and held it in her hand.

The [client] did not throw the brick at John Dou as a weapon—quite the contrary, she continued to accelerate. The rooms on either side were dead ends, and there were no neighboring buildings outside the window; she had only one escape route:
Break through the window at the end of the corridor and jump out from the eighth floor: at the other end of the window, there is another lower building.

"That's it—run that way."

John Dou muttered softly, straightened his arm, and pulled his pistol back to the normal shooting position.
-
boom!
John Dou fired his second shot of the day: although there was no crowd blocking his aim, the line drawn by the bullet just passed through the target's running legs and embedded in the concrete ground.

"Tsk."

John Dou did not continue to shoot. He did not intend to shoot randomly and gamble his luck -
Even though he was a field employee of the Asia-Europe Post and was currently carrying out an emergency recovery mission for the Special Package Handling Department, he would try not to kill or injure civilians who were not related to the mission whenever he had a choice.

If that happens, there will be too many reports to write; and it will be difficult to deal with the aftermath - Richard is really annoying.

If you want to capture it alive.
There were too many civilians in the building they were in right now, making it an unsuitable hunting ground: even if they managed to subdue the [client], they would inevitably have to contend with the law enforcement officers who would arrive later.

According to his and Richard's preliminary investigation, the residential building adjacent to the target's current location - Building No. 3 of Tianhu Community next door - had only three or five people left in the entire building due to a gas explosion that occurred a few years ago.

That might be a more ideal place to capture him.

John Dou missed with one shot, but [the client]'s escape continued.

Ahead of her, the sound of gunfire and the scattered concrete debris accelerated the residents' escape—they swarmed back into their homes and slammed their doors shut.
There was undoubtedly only one course open to [the client]; storming into the apartment and fighting was no longer an option.

Although the corridor was not spacious and was mostly blocked by the shared stove, sundries piled outside and even bicycles brought up; the customer still tried to avoid possible trajectories by constantly moving his body up and down, pulling down the surrounding sundries, suddenly squatting and accelerating.

John Dou did not continue shooting; he just pointed the muzzle of the gun at the ground and hung it behind him.

Likewise, the corridor is not long:
In the intense and short span of ten seconds, [the client] had rushed to the end of the apartment corridor.

Wow!

[The client] swung the brick he was holding, shattering the glass - then put his forearm in front of his face, jumped up, and rushed out of the wooden window.

boom!
A faint sound of impact reached John Dou's ears: the target should have landed on the rooftop of a residential building in Tianhu Community.

[Hmm. Pretty quick.]

It certainly wasn't like Corey's supports who, after their induction training, grew bellies at their desks: Regardless of what the report said, it looked like [the client] was still maintaining training in office life.

John Dou muttered, pushing his way through the crowd that was still crouching near him, not daring to move, the hard heels of his leather shoes clicking. His face was still that expressionless mask; from a long stride to a sprint—
Then he followed the target closely and jumped out of the window.
-
(End of this chapter)