Chapter 1011: Room 936
Zhang Heng did not know that people from the emergency response team were waiting to ambush him in the monitoring room. After all, he was not omniscient and omnipotent. Zhang Heng knew that it was pointless to check out the monitoring room after looking at the number of shots on the elevator door. Besides, the monitoring room was the most noticeable location of the hotel. So, Zhang Heng did not want to join them to have fun over there.
Unlike 0, although Zhang Heng also attached great importance to the four members of the emergency response team, and he wasn’t about to change action plans because of them. The emergency response team had the advantage in strength, and if Zhang Heng stopped making a move right now, they would eventually catch up to him. The thing would worsen if they located the memory encoder before him and brought it downstairs to regroup with the federal policemen downstairs. By that time, Zhang Heng would be placed in a pa.s.sive position.
So, when the four emergency response teams were nestled in the monitoring room, Zhang Heng had already begun to move.
The Four Continents Hotel was a medium-sized hotel with a total of 14 floors and 832 rooms. It would take anyone a lot of time to search each room since the surveillance system had been destroyed.
But fortunately, Zhang Heng did not need to search all the rooms.
The four members of the special operations team were all wearing exoskeleton equipment. The exoskeleton equipment provided them with great strength, speed, and combat ability. But on the other hand, they would leave behind a lot of traces when they moved.
Zhang Heng saw the potholes on the wall left by the suspected exoskeleton collision on the ninth floor. The height of it was slightly above the head of an ordinary person. The body part that caused the pothole was the exoskeleton fighter’s shoulder. Other than that, Zhang Heng also noticed a patch of motor oil below the pothole. Zhang Heng then figured that one of the exoskeleton fighters suffered a very violent attack before it fled to this hotel. Although they managed to escape into the hotel, their exoskeletons were severely damaged. And it was most likely that the exoskeleton equipment had stopped functioning.
Zhang Heng continued to walk along the corridor, and soon he found the second and third patches of oil stains… oil stains that extended all the way to Room 946 at the end of the corridor.
Zhang Heng then thought for a moment, but in the end, he decided not to enter Room 936. After that, he took a few steps back and entered the linen room by elevator. Usually, all the hotels would have a linen room. It was mainly used to store some bedding items and cotton towels. Zhang Heng noticed that the linen room door was slightly opened when he pa.s.sed by. It meant that someone was in there.
Immediately, Zhang Heng drew his gun, leaned his back against the outer wall, stretched out his hand to gently push the door open, and threw a smoke bomb into the linen room. He then counted ten seconds before wearing the Filter Lens to enter the linen room.
The moment he entered the linen room, Zhang Heng tried to move as fast as possible. He rolled on the ground, trying his best to avoid all the possible attacks. At the same time, he quickly looked at his surroundings. In the end, he only saw a hotel staff coughing violently.
The latter curled up at the corner of the linen room, and his body was shaking in fear.
Considering someone had just thrown a smoke bomb into his workplace, her reaction was totally understandable. However, it seemed like she had been curling up there before Zhang Heng even threw the smoke bomb. Zhang Heng only threw the bomb because he did not hear someone moving in the linen room earlier.
Then the hotel staff in the linen room felt that someone was grabbing her arm. Zhang Heng pulled her up the ground and led her out of the linen room to the corridor.
The hotel staff finally saw Zhang Heng’s appearance. When she saw him wearing a set of police uniforms, the fear in her eyes dissipated. She was just about to rush into Zhang Heng’s arms while crying. However, she did not expect that Zhang Heng would take a step back.
Zhang Heng then asked, “What did you see earlier?”
“Hmm?”
Zhang Heng was very patient, and he repeated, “You should’ve just witnessed something terrifying. That’s why you hide in the corner of the linen room.”
“Oh, yes,” the hotel staff gulped and gestured, “I saw a man covered in metal running out of the safe pa.s.sage. At that time, I was about to change the bedsheets and towels in a guest room.”
“You saw only one man?” Zhang Heng frowned.
“Yes. Only one man,” the hotel staff nodded affirmatively. “I was so scared that I couldn’t move, and I collapsed in the corridor, but I had a good look at him.” After a pause, she said again, “he doesn’t look like he was in good condition. He stumbled while walking.”
“Did he escape into room 936 afterward?”
“Yes. He did.”
Based on what the hotel staff told him, it seemed like the exoskeleton fighter in Room 936 had left the team. Or, it was because his exoskeleton was too severely damaged, and he decided to leave the team to avoid dragging their feet. If that was the case, the memory encoder was not with him. Therefore, it was most likely that he was readied to sacrifice himself as well.
“Has anyone come to you before me?”
“No…”
“Is that right,” Zhang Heng then asked the hotel staff again, “You should have strong detergent in the linen room, right?”
“Huh? Yes.”
“Take a few bottles out and clean up the oil stains in the hallway.”
“Huh?” Although the hotel staff was puzzled by Zhang Heng’s request, she still obeyed his order because he was a policeman. She then turned around and walked into the linen room. She tried to look at the two bottles of detergent in a smokey environment. After that, she returned to the corridor.
Zhang Heng looked at the time and spent a few minutes with the hotel staff to clean up the grease in the hallway. Judging from what the hotel staff told him earlier, he figured out the emergency response team had not come here. So, Zhang Heng planned to set a trap for them.
0’s observation and reasoning ability were also outstanding. Although he might not be as good as Zhang Heng, the gap between him and Zhang Heng should not be too big. Zhang Heng believed that if 0 was here right now, he would draw the same conclusion similar to his. There was a high chance that 0 would not go to Room 936 first. What Zhang Heng had to do now was to disrupt his judgment.
The detergent would remove some of the oil stains, but a small amount of it could still be seen on the wall. And there were potholes on the wall. When 0 came here, he would be able to notice all the obvious signs left behind by his enemies. However, he would have a hard time figuring out what was going on in Room 936.
Of course, to achieve this goal, there was one last step for him to do.
Zhang Heng then packed the empty detergent bottles and looked at the hotel staff on the side. Then, it happened that she was spying on him too.
“Come with me.”
“Okay. Are you going to bring me in for questioning?” the hotel staff asked.
“Don’t worry about that. We can do that later. You should have the key to the guest room, right? I still need to do some investigation, and I might need your help.” Zhang Heng continued to play the role of a police officer.