Fortunately, American police are more creative and don't always use the same old line like "You are surrounded" as the police in Hong Kong movies.
In the strong winds, and lacking experience in working at heights, I moved slowly, taking a full five minutes to descend less than two meters. At that point, I caught my breath, then attached the suction cup in one hand to the wall, checked the time with the other, turned on the windproof walkie-talkie I had placed against my ear, and adjusted the communication channel…
After a rustling sound, Hansen's voice came from inside: "Confirm identity, confirm identity..."
"Alright, Hansen." I gasped for breath, the wind rushing into my mouth as I spoke high in the air, making it difficult to speak: "Who else could it be but me... I'm in position now, can you see me from there?"
"I can see you." Hansen's voice came clearly through the walkie-talkie: "But I have to say, the way you stick your butt out against the wall is much uglier than Spider-Man."
I was a little annoyed; I hadn't expected this big, dark-skinned guy to be sarcastic. But I knew he was watching me through binoculars from the Twin Towers across the street right now, so I gritted my teeth and said, "Alright, I need your help now. You have to use your binoculars to confirm my location first, and then tell me the safe 'entry' point."
This was arranged beforehand. Hansen was observing the Torch Building from across the street using military-grade thermal imaging binoculars. I would enter from the sixty-second floor, the top floor filled with hostages and terrorists!
The plan was daring, but actually quite safe. The 62nd-floor building had a U-shaped layout, with a central lobby surrounded by a ring of different rooms. Almost all the hostages were concentrated in the central lobby, so most of the terrorists were likely also concentrated there. The surrounding rooms, including lounges, restaurants, restrooms, and makeshift kitchens, totaled twenty-seven rooms—this information was obtained from the final architectural and interior design plans of the building given to me by Officer Louis.
The terrorists on the 62nd floor, including their leader Ramuchi, number only eleven. Even if they've sent people to patrol the perimeter, there must be many empty rooms! Hansen's task is to use the thermal sensors to identify which rooms are empty, so he can "enter" the building from those empty rooms!
"To your left, go down, then move sideways for about seven meters. There's a safety belt there, and a row of empty rooms. You can choose to enter from there." Hansen's voice was steady. "But you only have five minutes at most, so, my Spider-Man. You'd better hurry up!"
I cursed under my breath and, braving the strong wind, began to move slowly toward the location he had indicated.
The feeling was truly heart-pounding. Below me was an abyss, surrounded by howling winds. I was clinging to the exterior of a skyscraper, my only protection a rope. This feeling of being suspended in mid-air was incredibly uncomfortable.
It took me a full five minutes to reach the location Hansen had mentioned. I checked with him again, and after Hansen confirmed that there was indeed no one there, I finally breathed a sigh of relief.
I took a suction cup from my pocket and attached it to the exterior wall of the building. Then I pulled out a rope from the suction cup, and the metal hook on it was attached to the rope around my waist. This barely secured my body, freeing up my hands.
From the large canvas bag at my waist, I took out a folded metal hook, like a giant compass. I gently pressed one end against the windowpane in front of me, and with the other end open, I drew a circle around it, using one end as the center…
There was no sound, not even the sound of cutting, not even the sound of glass shattering. Very quietly, a circular crack appeared in the glass. I pulled hard on the suction cup at the center, and easily pulled out a piece of the cut-off circular glass. A huge circular hole appeared in the window. Then I leaned in and gently climbed inside…
After landing, I didn't rush to remove the ropes binding me. Instead, I immediately pulled out a gun, squatted down, and carefully and cautiously kept watch!
Fortunately, the place I entered turned out to be a toilet! And... judging from the facilities inside, there were no urinals for men... hmm, it must be a women's toilet.
The room was dark, the lights were off, and it was quiet and silent. I squatted on the ground for a full ten seconds before standing up, relieved. I untied the ropes binding me and put the round, cut-off piece of glass back in.
"Hansen, I'm in position. The location is on the 62nd floor, in the side restroom... um, the women's restroom." I said the last word with a sigh.
Hansen didn't say much on the walkie-talkie: "Okay, let me confirm your location one last time. It's safe within about ten meters of you now. The guy closest to you is patrolling, going clockwise, and will pass your door in about a minute. Everything else is fine. That's the final location confirmation. You can start moving now. I'll go in immediately, and we'll have another call after I'm in position."
After saying that, the walkie-talkie was turned off.
I quickly switched the channel to Officer Louis: "I need your help."
Officer Louis's voice was very serious: "What?"
"Listen, immediately have your planes pretend to approach the back of the building! Note, I said the back! At the same time, have the people shouting down below make a louder noise! Because I'm about to take action from the front."
Soon, I heard the sound of propellers approaching in the distance. Sure enough, the police were very cooperative. Two helicopters pretended to try to get closer from the back of the building. I listened carefully with my ear pressed against the bathroom door and vaguely heard footsteps outside... but they were heading in the opposite direction from me. They must have been attracted by the approaching helicopters.
And just as this cover was being laid, Hansen began his operation!
I went back to the window and quietly watched the Twin Towers across the street. Suddenly, I saw a visible black line shoot directly towards the Torch Tower from a certain spot on the opposite building!
It was a rope with a hook that had extremely strong metal-piercing power! It pierced straight into the sixtieth floor of the building!! Immediately afterwards, a black cable connected the two buildings!
From the Twin Towers, a metal handrail was embedded in the cable, and then I saw a person, Hansen, holding onto that handrail with both hands, and then leaning out of the opposite building, using the difference in height to glide all the way down from mid-air!
The whole process took less than a minute! I'm sure many media outlets inside the Twin Towers saw it! And the police below definitely noticed too… As for whether the terrorists noticed, I don't know. After all, there were only eleven or twelve terrorists left. Furthermore, I had the police create a disturbance at the back of the building to attract a lot of attention, precisely to cover Hansen's operation.
This is gambling!
Almost like an aerial acrobat, Hansen glided down from mid-air and successfully entered the sixtieth floor of the Torch Building!
The current distribution is quite clear!
The 59th floor is where the police's front-line attack personnel are on standby.
The sixtieth floor was originally an empty buffer zone between the terrorists and the area, and Hansen has now entered this floor!
The sixty-first floor was originally occupied by terrorists, but when I escaped the first time, I almost wiped out all the terrorists on that floor. So, with Ramuch short-handed, he tightened his defenses, and the sixty-first floor was essentially empty.
The sixty-second floor. All the terrorists are here. The hostages are here too… and I am here now!
The rooftop... belongs to Jack and his gang, who have already defected to my side.
That's roughly the situation.
This is the most tense moment. I'm patiently waiting for news of Hansen's arrival, but my walkie-talkie keeps flashing. When I turn it on, I immediately hear the FBI director's roar through my earpiece!
“Mr. Chen, this is outrageous! You’ve gone too far! I swear, you will be arrested! You will be severely punished!!” The FBI agent roared, “We’ve tolerated your individual antics! But you have accomplices. Now they’ve also entered a dangerous area in such a dangerous way… You…”
I had expected this. They would definitely see Hansen's operation, and it would certainly enrage them. Before he could finish, I lowered my voice and said, "My men are in position now. Listen, I don't care how much responsibility you can take. My men are in now, and no matter how loudly you shout, he won't leave. Besides, my assistant is a rigorously trained military personnel. Instead of getting angry at me, think about how we can cooperate to do something meaningful."
There was a moment of silence on the other end of the walkie-talkie. Only heavy breathing could be heard before Officer Louis's voice came through: "Mr. Chen Yang, you've gone a bit too far this time. Your actions were too risky… What I mean is, you should have informed us beforehand. That way, we could have cooperated more effectively…"
I chuckled inwardly. Louis was deliberately softening his tone. I immediately said, "Alright. Now is not the time for chatting. I need you to be able to speak with Ramuchi and try to argue with him as much as possible. Only then can I take action. My men will try to reach the 61st floor from the 60th floor, since the 61st floor is empty. However, you'd better not conduct any large-scale operations. The helicopters you sent should be withdrawn immediately. I'm worried that provoking the terrorists like this will make them lose their temper."
Then I turned off the walkie-talkie.
Finally, Hansen contacted me and told me he was in position. Then, as planned, he would break through the ceiling passage on the sixtieth floor to enter the sixty-first floor.
"Now it's up to you," Hansen said seriously.
I sighed, tidied my gear, and then went directly into the ventilation duct from the women's restroom. This time, crawling through the ventilation duct wasn't as disorienting as before. The entire architectural layout of the 62nd floor was in my mind; I had memorized every room and its location.
From the moment I entered the women's restroom through the ventilation duct, I crawled clockwise. In the canvas bag I carried, I had prepared many small, timed explosive devices. I crawled carefully, and at each ventilation duct exit I passed, I gently affixed a small remote-controlled explosive device to the mesh cover of the duct exit.
After I had set up a total of nine explosive devices—which meant I had climbed through nine rooms—[then I was able to proceed].
Suddenly, I heard a faint sobbing coming from the outlet of a ventilation duct ahead. It sounded like a woman's voice, and my heart skipped a beat!
Immediately, I carefully crawled over. The more I crawled, the more familiar I became with this place... because the ventilation duct ahead had been destroyed!
I understand now. The place I'm in now is below the security guard's rest room where our group hid before! And further ahead is that makeshift kitchen! The ventilation duct behind it has been destroyed.
I pressed my body against the ventilation duct in the security guard's rest room, trying to listen carefully.
The crying woman's voice sounded familiar. After listening for a few seconds, I finally confirmed it! It was Jessica's voice!
We had already removed the mesh covers from the ventilation ducts in this room. So I could only carefully huddle up on top and cautiously peek down.
The room was the same, but I saw that there were more than a dozen hostages in this room! Not only Jessica, but also old Bruce and his female companion, and quite a few other hostages... but Yang Wei was nowhere to be seen!
In addition, there were two terrorists, one guarding the window and the other sitting at a table, carefully wiping a dagger with a cloth.
A bad feeling immediately arose in my heart...
Could it be that... Ramucci has changed his strategy and started to spread out the hostages for guarding?
This approach, while dispersing his own manpower, also greatly hinders the police rescue operation! If he disperses the more than two hundred hostages for safekeeping, the police may not be able to simultaneously launch attacks from multiple locations and successfully rescue all the hostages at the same time! This significantly increases the risk of the rescue operation!
I was pressed against the ceiling, and right below my eyes, at the exit of the ventilation duct, was Jessica! She was sitting on the floor, surrounded by several people. Jessica was sobbing softly, and next to her was Old Bruce's female companion, who was quietly comforting her. Most of the others looked distressed, but no one dared to speak.
The terrorist standing by the window was smoking, and he looked very indifferent.
The other terrorist sitting at the table was at least seven or eight meters away... This made my operation difficult; it was hard for me to take them both out at the same time. Because if I made even the slightest noise... these terrorists all have communication devices on them, and the slightest noise would attract the attention of the other terrorists! If Lamuch found out that someone had infiltrated... my plan would be in serious trouble!
I carefully dragged my canvas bag over and rummaged through it... and found a weapon I had previously chosen.
This is a small, tube-shaped device, a dark metal tube, inside which can hold a steel needle about the length of a cigarette! One end of the needle has been hollowed out, and it contains a small amount of extremely potent anesthetic! When the steel needle is injected into the human body, the anesthetic can quickly induce unconsciousness within just three seconds!
But that's not enough for me to take down two people at the same time!
Left with no other choice, I took a risk. I gently picked up a small pinch of dust from beside me, mixed it with a little of my own spit, and made a tiny lump of mud the size of a grain of rice. I then threw it down at old Bruce below.
Once... twice.
Old Bruce didn't realize it until I threw it for the third time.
He couldn't help but subconsciously look up, only to suddenly see my eyes peeking out from the ventilation duct in the ceiling. I quickly gestured for him to look down!
Old Bruce was quite alert; he immediately lowered his head, but I could already see a hint of surprise on his face.
Fortunately, the two terrorists in the room didn't notice anything amiss; the man polishing his knife was still intently working on it. Meanwhile, the man smoking by the window stared intently out the window with a grave expression…
After waiting a while and making sure no one else noticed, old Bruce quietly raised his eyelids. He deliberately hid behind his female companion and looked at me.
I gestured to him, pointing at the guy who was smoking, and then I pointed at him. My meaning was clear: I wanted him to help me distract the smoking guy.
As for the one wiping the dagger, I'll take care of him!
Bruce nodded, and then I took out the blowpipe in my hand, aimed one end at the guy sitting at the table, put the other end in my mouth... and blew hard!
Without a sound! A steel needle shot out and embedded itself directly in the exposed area behind his neck...
Part Two: The Road to Success, Chapter 156: No Solution
Without even a groan, the dagger in the guy's hand suddenly clattered to the ground, and then he slid off the chair and fell to the ground!
The terrorist who was smoking by the window was immediately alerted! He saw his companion suddenly faint, so he immediately threw away his cigarette butt. Just as he took two steps over, old Bruce suddenly jumped up and punched him in the face!
Although old Bruce was getting on in years, his old fists still held some of the flair of his youth! The punch landed on the terrorist's face, causing him to stagger, but quickly, being a well-trained terrorist, the attacker swung his rifle butt and flipped Bruce over. At the same time, I descended from the sky, landing on top of the terrorist! My legs clamped tightly around his neck, silencing him completely! Simultaneously, I bent down and snatched the communicator from his body, throwing it to the ground!
The terrorist tried to raise his gun again, but I strained my legs, twisted them forcefully, and spun around...
Snap!
With a crisp sound, his neck snapped, and his body went limp. I jumped to the ground and saw someone about to scream. I rushed over and covered his mouth, simultaneously whispering, "Quiet! Shut up!!"
Fortunately, only two women shouted, and they quickly shut up, so their voices weren't too loud.
I had just reached out to help old Bruce up from the ground when he looked at me with a face full of surprise: "You're back?! Oh my god... you..."
I shrugged. Although I hadn't come back to save them, I wouldn't object if I could help someone along the way. Just as I was about to say something, Jessica suddenly glared at me, gasped, opened her arms, hugged me tightly, and then burst into tears.
Her body was trembling, she must have been terrified.
Despite being once widely recognized as Hollywood's sweetheart, at this moment, in this place, I had no other thoughts about her. I immediately grabbed her, then carefully went over and picked up the weapons of the two terrorists, confirming that both were dead.
"There's no time to explain." I looked at old Bruce. "What's the situation here? How did you get here?"
Then, Old Bruce said a few words that confirmed my suspicions!
As expected, Lamouchi had dispersed the more than two hundred hostages, keeping them in several rooms, each with about several dozen people. This greatly increased the difficulty of the police rescue operation.
And Yang Wei, whom I care about most...
“I’m sorry, I don’t know how Miss Yang is doing.” Old Bruce thought for a moment and said, “However, we all know you’re not dead, and Miss Yang knows that too. The last time I saw her was after you jumped out, after those terrorists fired shots out the window and came back saying you had escaped. Then Miss Yang was separated from us. She was taken away by that terrorist leader and wasn’t imprisoned with us.”
I frowned. "Then what about the passageway in this room that leads to the lower level?"
“It’s sealed off.” Old Bruce looked at me. “But they don’t have welding equipment or anything like that. If we have the tools, we might be able to dig it out again!”