Chapter 11: The Trap

April 4, 2101.

It was nearly midnight. A faint breeze stirred the curtains. Qingming was drawing near; blossoms fell, and spring was fading.

If even murder called for an auspicious date, this was a good one.

Gilson II sat in his hotel room, staring at the dozens of surveillance feeds tiled across his computer screen, his mind racing, his body tense.

Gambling Snake had arrived in Vegas that morning. Within an hour, Wei Sheng had lost track of him. The reason was simple. Gambling Snake had checked into a suite at a star-rated hotel and drawn all the curtains. Neither birds nor rats could get inside, and invertebrates lacked the intelligence for the job, so the assassins had taken over surveillance until he came back out onto the street.

Gilson II was now like a bird that flinched at the twang of a bowstring. He had no desire to relive the horrors of seven years ago. He had therefore wasted no time sending almost every Strong-rank fighter under his command, six in all, to the hotel. Even if they had to tear down the whole building, Gambling Snake could not be allowed to walk out alive. If he left alive at all, he would have to be carried out, preferably beaten into complete helplessness and brought straight before Gilson II. That, of course, was the best possible outcome.

The worst outcome Gilson II would accept was Gambling Snake being killed before Gilson II had a chance to torture him. That was all. He would never consider any strategy that gave the man another chance to threaten his life.

Speaking of Strong-rank fighters, one man in the count's service had not joined the hunt: Gary Jordan, known as Hound. In English, the word dog is not an insult in most circumstances, so the nickname was not derogatory. It stood for loyalty, alertness, and skill in the hunt.

In the end, Gilson II still trusted Jordan. In fact, after turning the matter over several times, the count had realized that Jordan was the most trustworthy man he had. So Jordan had been kept at his side as a bodyguard.

Everything was in place. All the count had to do was wait for the good news that would arrive sooner or later. Yet for some reason, he still could not keep his fear under control. It felt as though a pair of invisible hands had closed around his throat, leaving him unable to breathe.

Wei Sheng also felt that something was amiss. He could not put his mind at ease. His own task should have been finished by now, and in theory Gambling Snake had no chance of surviving an attack by six Strong-rank fighters. But his instincts told him something was still wrong.

Wei Sheng linked his mind to a pigeon near Gambling Snake's hotel and sent it circling over the surrounding streets in search of him. Again, he found nothing. Just as he began to think he was worrying too much and was about to give up, a man in black came into the pigeon's view on a brightly lit street. Wei Sheng recognized Gambling Snake at once, but he could not understand how the man had escaped from the hotel.

Before he could think it through, Gambling Snake turned into an alley. Light on his feet, he sprang up the wall as though walking on level ground. A few handholds on the building's uneven surface brought him onto its four-story rooftop. Then he was leaping like a swallow in flight and landing as lightly as a dragonfly touching water, racing across the roofs in a straight line. And that line led straight toward...

Wei Sheng's mind churned with alarm and doubt. How could Gambling Snake know where Gilson II was hiding? He had only just arrived in Vegas. Where had he gotten the information? Did he have someone on the inside?

There was no time to think it over. Wei Sheng knew his immediate priority was to warn the count. For one thing, he had a job to do. For another, as the saying went, a fire at the city gates spelled disaster for the fish in the moat. If that walking calamity came charging into the hotel and cut down everyone he saw, Wei Sheng would not survive either.

He kept control of the pigeon, sending it after Gambling Snake and devoting part of his attention to the man's every move. Meanwhile, Wei Sheng picked up the phone and called Gilson II. The computer on the count's wheelchair could also connect to his communicator, and he soon answered. “Wei Sheng? What is it?”

Wei Sheng said, “Gambling Snake is out of the hotel. He's heading here.”

“What?!” Gilson II cried. He immediately opened another connection to the assassins at the other hotel. “What the hell are you doing?! He's already gone!”

The reply came back, “Boss, there's something strange about this hotel. It's like... like a maze. I think we're all trapped.”

“You... idiots!” Gilson II roared. “He's coming to kill me, and you're lost in a hotel?! Get your asses back here!”

For the next five minutes, Gilson II kept up his abuse while chaos reigned at the other end. The Strong-rank ability users were furious too. The bastard had money, so fine, let him swear at them. But a bunch of grown adults getting lost inside a hotel? What the hell was that?

“My lord, he's here.” Before long, Wei Sheng's voice cut in again.

On his monitor, Gilson II watched the man in black walk through the hotel's front entrance and went deathly pale. Terror and fury gripped him. It felt as though Death's scythe was already pressed against his Adam's apple, so close he could not even swallow.

The moment Gambling Snake entered the lobby, he drew his gun and fired at the ceiling. Everyone scattered. The hotel's security guards carried no guns, so none of them dared approach him either. Who was going to risk their life for that kind of pay? Better call the police, fast.

The receptionist was sure he would come over and say something to her. Pale-faced, she hid beneath the desk, trembling. But all she heard was the sound of leather shoes approaching, then passing straight by...

As though he had been here before, Gambling Snake walked straight to the elevator and selected a floor. In the instant before the doors closed, he fired another shot through the gap, picking off a pigeon that had flown into the lobby.

The guy wasn't after money or women. He hadn't even asked who was staying in which room. He had simply gotten into the elevator. The onlookers were stunned. Had this fine hero fired his gun just to warn the crowd? What was he going to do next? Blow up the building?

The hotel manager promptly announced an evacuation. Before doing so, of course, he called Gilson II. The count plainly had no time for a little nobody like him, however, and ended the call after a few curses.

Naturally, Gilson II had built a safe room in this hotel too, again in the basement. He frantically urged Jordan to wheel him there at once. Jordan wanted to face Gambling Snake, but with the count giving orders, he had no choice but to comply.

With the more formidable assassins all sent out, most of Gilson II's armed men still in the hotel were ordinary people. Few ability users remained, and most of those were noncombatants like Wei Sheng. As Gilson II fled, the computer screen on his wheelchair was practically showing him an exceptionally bloody action film. Any of his men who dared block Gambling Snake's path went down with a single shot. Sometimes, at close range, Gambling Snake would drive his hidden blade clean through someone's head.

By the time Gilson II finally boarded an elevator heading down to the ground floor, Gambling Snake had vanished from the surveillance feeds. He had last appeared on the floor where Gilson II's room was located.

Twenty seconds passed in silence. The atmosphere in the elevator was suffocating. Suddenly, the communicator sounded again, making Gilson II jump. “Who is it?” he answered, his voice shaking.

Wei Sheng said, “It's me, my lord. Get out of the elevator, quickly!”

“What are you talking about? What's happened?” Gilson II asked.

Wei Sheng said, “He's slipped into the elevator shaft! You must have lost him on the cameras by now. I've sent animals inside under my control, so I can still get a rough idea of where he's going. But he's moving fast. I don't know how long I can keep up.”

“Then... what should I do?” His lordship had completely lost his head by now, ready to flee any way he could.

Wei Sheng said, “Jordan is with you, isn't he?”

Jordan answered from beside him, “Yes, I'm here.”

Wei Sheng continued, “Stop the elevator right now, open the doors, and carry the count up the stairs on your back. Head for the roof. Whatever you do, don't keep going down. Gambling Snake moves fast. If he jumps down the shaft and slides along the cables, he'll certainly reach the ground floor before you. He could also break straight into your elevator car or wait outside the safe room. That would put the count in danger.

“Go the other way now and run up the stairs. With the count unable to walk properly, Gambling Snake won't expect you to make that choice, at least for a while. That will buy you time. I've already arranged for a helicopter to pick you up on the roof. Once you're aboard, you'll be safe. He can't fly, after all.”

Gilson II's face lit up as soon as he heard this. Wei Sheng really was capable, he thought. Keeping his head in a crisis, saving his master when it mattered. He would have to give the man greater responsibilities from now on. He immediately snapped at Jordan, “Hurry up! Didn't you hear what he said?!”

Jordan thought the plan over and could find nothing wrong with it. He stopped the elevator and carried the count out on his back. Before leaving, he even thought to try a little trick, turning back to press the buttons for several other floors.

After running up twenty floors with the count on his back, he finally reached the roof and could catch his breath. There was not a cloud in the night sky, but there was no sign of any helicopter either. Unfortunately, they had left Gilson II's wheelchair behind, and neither man had any device on him that could communicate with the outside world.

Five minutes passed in torment. Gilson II's heart slowly sank, his sense of foreboding growing stronger. He seemed to have realized something, but it was too terrible. So terrible that he dared not think about it.

The door at the roof's only entrance opened. Gambling Snake stood there, a coil of thick white hemp rope in his left hand.

“Finding suitable rope held me up a few minutes. I trust I haven't kept you waiting long.” As he spoke, he casually closed the door behind him.

Gilson II sat on the ground, propped against the edge of the roof. Unable to move on his own, he could only scream hysterically. “Kill him! Jordan! Kill him now! Don't let him near me!”

Jordan stood in front of the count, the last barrier protecting Gilson II. “Hmph... This is just as well. I never thought running away would solve anything.”

Gambling Snake tossed the rope onto the ground beside him. “There was never any escape to begin with. We're fifty-two stories up, and that helicopter was nothing but fiction.”

Jordan said, “Then... Wei Sheng is your man on the inside?”

Gambling Snake said, “Don't you think that's a stupid question? Just as stupid as when you thought you'd been poisoned a little while ago.”

“You bastard...” Jordan gritted his teeth, but could think of no reply.

Gambling Snake said, “The answer is very simple. After I disappeared from the cameras, I didn't enter the elevator shaft. I went to Wei Sheng's room. While he was talking to you, I had a gun pointed at his head. He's much smarter than you, so he's a good actor too. Every word sounded convincing.

“Gilson II was already panicking. Once you lost sight of me on the cameras, Wei Sheng's ability became the only surveillance you could trust. In a crisis like that, his call was a lifeline. There was almost no chance you would find the holes in his story in so little time. So you believed him... You believed his animals could watch even the inside of the hotel. You believed in that supposed helicopter. And so, instead of entering the safe room, you came here.”

“Are you finished?” Jordan said coldly. “In the end, it still comes down to a fight.”

Gambling Snake fell silent. He slowly closed in on Jordan, his hidden blade ready to strike.

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