Conan Rick's Investigator

Suddenly, the subway car slowed down abruptly, causing Qin Zhibo and Koizumi Hongzi, who were standing, to sway violently toward the front of the car, and they almost collided with each other.

After slowing down, a rustling sound of metal friction was heard from under the floor of the carriage.

When the shrill whistling stopped, the subway also stopped at the right time.

Chapter 984 "Dog Fight"

"Stopped?"

"What happened?"

Hondou Eisuke stood up from his seat and looked out the window curiously.

Outside the reinforced glass was not a subway station, but pitch black. The subway was stopped in a dark tunnel between stations.

Qin Zhibo looked at the subway's alarm light. The red light was not flashing, which meant that there was no malfunction in the subway. It was simply stopped by human control.

"Wait a moment, I'll go check it out."

Qin Zhibo had already memorized the direction of the train when he entered the subway station, and now he was heading towards the direction of the train.

When passing the two middle carriages, it seemed that the scattered New Yorkers were also confused about the situation and kept saying "en?"

Qin Zhibo came to the front cab, a small space of less than 3 square meters, separated from the passenger area by a mottled metal door.

The vertical glass strips on the door of the conductor's room revealed the situation behind the door. The subway driver was not there and the driver's seat was empty.

The driver disappeared rather suddenly because the subway stopped under emergency braking.

Qin Zhibo took a look at the complicated control levers and various buttons behind the door, feeling a little regretful. Conan had not yet defeated a subway driver, so he himself did not know how to drive the subway.

……

After returning to the original carriage, Qin Zhibo told Koizumi Hongzi and Hondou Eisuke about the current situation.

There are now two options. One is to stay in the subway. If the Metropolitan Transportation Authority finds that the subway does not arrive at the station on time, it will send people to search along the track.

Or get off the train to look for the driver. In the current situation, the driver must have gotten off the train, because there are no subway driver-related occupations in the following carriages.

As for calling for help, it's impossible because this is the subway and there is no phone signal.

"Could the driver have gone to the toilet?"

"Why don't we go look for it."

Neither Hondou Eisuke nor Koizumi Akako wanted to just sit there and wait, and neither did Qin Zhibo.

Although you will eventually be rescued if you just wait in the subway, the process will definitely be quite long.

The United States has not yet experienced the 911/ incident, and its vigilance against terrorist attacks and hostage-taking incidents is not high, perhaps even lower than that of Tokyo, Japan today.

In addition, New York's subway lines are aging and still use technology that is a hundred years old, so delays of more than ten minutes are not uncommon.

The subway has been busy all day, can't it take a break in the middle of the night?

Even if you can't find the driver, you can go to the maintenance points every few subway tunnels. There are wired telephones installed there, which make it convenient for subway maintenance workers to communicate with each other and quickly notify the ground in an emergency.

Having made up their minds, the three of them got off the subway from the rear door at the end of the train.

Standing on the pitch-black track, dark red indicator lights stretch into the bottomless darkness.

Qin Zhibo took out a lighter and lent it to Hondou Eisuke, while he used the night vision goggles to observe his surroundings.

The three of them searched around and Koizumi Hongzi saw a map on the wall next to the track. It marked the locations of maintenance points on the line, and the nearest one was more than a mile away.

The subway station was four miles away, and the walking time alone was enough for the transportation department to discover that the subway was out of service.

After searching around the subway twice, I saw that the subway driver had completely disappeared. If he had gone to the bathroom, he should have come back long ago.

So the three of them decided to head towards the maintenance point.

……

In the deep underground of New York, three people walked towards the maintenance point a mile away with the only light source.

The subway line from Broadway to New York City Hall, also known as Manhattan, is the earliest line opened in New York and has a history of 102 years.

Due to its age, this subway line also undertook the construction of many other pipelines.

Water pipes like red thorns grow wildly on the wall, and black rubber pipes are wires that supply electricity to signal lights.

Occasionally a drop of water seeps out from the joints of the water pipes, forming small puddles on the uneven concrete floor.

Snap, snap, snap...

Three pairs of feet stomping on the puddles made the only clear sound in the tunnel.

The dim and depressing environment made the three of them speak very little and walk forward based on their intuition.

The cold and damp air blows over from the unknown front from time to time, giving people an uncomfortable feeling.

Suddenly, something that was out of tune with the gloomy atmosphere here came into Qin Zhibo's sight, lying in a puddle on the road.

He stepped forward and saw that it was a blue and white work ID card.

The photo on the work ID card is of a man with stubble on his chin. His name is Paul and he works as a subway driver.

This old work ID card was lying in the puddle, but there were no water stains on it. It was obvious that it had just fallen here recently.

Normally, Qin Zhibo would cast a spell to find things at this time.

But this time, with Koizumi Akako around, he obviously doesn't need to do that.

Koizumi Hongzi took the work photo, held it in her hand, closed her eyes and meditated for two seconds, then opened her eyes.

“The person should be right in front.”

"But be careful, there's something wrong with this place..."

Koizumi Akako issued a warning with a serious expression.

As a witch, her magical sixth sense is always accurate except when it is used on Kaito Kid.

This made Qin Zhibo alert, as if there was really some danger lurking in the tunnel.

Hondou Eisuke also swallowed his saliva nervously and followed at the end of the team.

……

After walking a little further, the narrow subway tunnel suddenly opened up.

The walls on both sides of the tunnel open to the sides, and this is a fairly spacious vertical shaft.

The subway tunnel passes through the shaft via an iron bridge to the other side. A dozen meters below the shaft lies the complex network of New York City's underground water pipes.

The air here is extremely humid, and there is a faint smell of rust and decay.

"It should be right down here..."

As soon as Koizumi Hongzi finished speaking, a series of strange cries came from the empty space below the shaft.

It was a noise like a mole gathering, the barking of large dogs, and even the sad sobbing of a woman.

The chaotic noise aroused people's curiosity and they walked to the iron bridge and looked down.

Qin Zhibo stood on the edge of the iron bridge and looked down. Through the gray-green night vision goggles, he saw a group of sneaky figures gathered in the deepest part of the shaft, as if they were holding some kind of evil gathering.

Their misshapen, hunched figures crawled and moved around, all surrounding a man who was slumped to the ground, panic-stricken.

The man's mouth was sobbing and he kept making begging sounds for mercy.

"please..."

"letmego...oh-mygod!"

Suddenly, a hunched figure rushed towards him and knocked the man to the ground with one claw.

"Roar--!"

The figure barked towards the sky like a wolfhound, and Qin Zhibo only then began to see some features on its face.

It was a humanoid monster with its upper and lower jaws protruding like a dog. Qin Zhibo immediately recognized what it was.

Ghoul!

Qin Zhibo's face trembled. He didn't expect to encounter a zombie in the underground of New York.

Generally speaking, zombies live in cemeteries near human gathering places, but this group of zombies lives directly under the most prosperous city in the world.

At this moment, Koizumi Hongzi, who was lying on the edge of the iron bridge without caring about her image, also understood something and murmured, "That... seems to be a ghoul?"

Hondou Eisuke, who was also lying next to him, was surprised. "Ghoul?"

Koizumi Hongzi explained: "It is a creature that feeds on rotting corpses. It looks like a dog, but its body size is about the same as that of a human..."

"Dog? Human?" Hondou Eisuke's eyes widened, as if he had thought of something.

"But these creatures usually live in cemeteries. Why are they here? And there are so many of them at once..."

Koizumi Akako murmured about her confusion, while Hondou Eisuke was more concerned about the situation of the person below.

"There's someone down there, right? Is that the subway driver? Is he going to get into trouble?"

"There's no hope. He's already dead."

Hondou Eisuke couldn't see the situation below clearly, so Qin Zhibo used the night vision goggles to report the current situation to the two of them.

The zombie's claw just now grabbed the driver's neck directly.

Blood gushed out under the action of blood pressure, and several zombies around him quickly crawled on both sides, licking the man's blood greedily like puppies.

"Let's go quickly before they find us."

Qin Zhibo didn't want to stay any longer. If he was discovered by these zombies, he might have to give them an extra meal.

"Oh……"

Hondou Eisuke felt a little unwilling, but there was no better way, so he could only get up from the ground.

But as luck would have it, when he climbed up, he touched a stone on the edge of the iron bridge, and the stone slid into the vertical shaft and collided with the abandoned water pipe hanging in the air.

Dang clang——

A hollow sound of metallic knocking echoed in the shaft, immediately causing several ghouls feeding below to look up.

Qin Zhibo's heart immediately became alarmed, and he reached out to pull Hondou Eisuke and Koizumi Akako, who were still looking out, back from the edge.

At this moment, the three of them dared not move and could only hope that the zombies below did not discover them.

Although these beast-like creatures have only so-so combat power and are only slightly stronger than an ordinary human with weapons, they have a huge advantage over humans in physical strength and endurance.

Moreover, ghouls are social creatures. After experiencing the events in the dreamland, Qin Zhibo no longer dared to underestimate the wisdom of this race.

Qin Zhibo held the wrists of the two men tightly. The two men also knew the urgency of the situation and held their breath and dared not move a step.

Fortunately, the zombie below didn't pay too much attention to the "accidental" sound. After looking up for more than ten seconds, it continued to lick the fresh flesh and blood.

"call--"

"Let's go first..."

Qin Zhibo stretched his head slightly and glanced down. After confirming that the other party had relaxed their vigilance, he quietly instructed the two to leave.

Thirty-six strategies, walking is the best strategy.

As for the subway driver, Qin Zhibo guessed that the zombie used the method of "hitting someone" to lure the driver to stop the subway, and abducted him when he got off the train to check.

Let's just say he was unlucky.

Qin Zhibo was about to drag the two away when an unusual noise came from under the iron bridge.

The rustling sound once again alerted the three people, simply because it was the sound of something crawling through the pipe!

The sound of a hard object hitting the pipe was very fast, and the rapid sound moved quickly below, accompanied by a dull "bang" sound as it jumped on the empty pipe.

Qin Zhibo was shocked. Could it be that he discovered it?

But then, this concern was dispelled.

These sounds were not coming towards him from above, but towards the depths below.

Qin Zhibo stretched his head and looked down, and found that in the dark green field of vision, several zombies had actually broken out into a conflict.

They stirred their evil, gangly bodies, tore at each other with claws and teeth, and thrashed about in the watery open space at the bottom.