Chapter 14 14

Unexpectedly, I was finally able to meet Dr. Du Luosi alone. I saw her sitting at a work table full of knife scars in the corner of the room, leaning forward, resting her hands on the table, clasping her hands, waiting quietly with.His eyes were solemn but full of tenderness. This petite survivor holds secrets that Joe desperately wants to know.Now he suddenly felt guilty. Some of the light bulbs on the ceiling were broken, and some of the good ones were crumbling. So when he walked underneath, he could only feel the interlacing of light and shadow, as if he was in the kingdom of water. He felt like a condemned man, imprisoned in a concrete cell underground.Walking past rows of death row cells, about to receive the death penalty, but at the same time he believed in forgiveness and rebirth.As he got closer to the truth of the matter, his thoughts became more and more confused, and hope was like a school of bright fish, flashing past in the dark part of his heart.

The right wall faces the beach and the sea. There are two doors and a row of large windows, but the coast cannot be seen, because the glass is all protected by metal shields. Basically, the banquet hall looks like a bunker. Jo pulled up a chair across from Rose and sat down. Back in the cemetery, the woman had an astonishing charm.Small as she was, she looked more formidable and inviolable than Jo, though her wrists were as tiny as those of a girl of twelve.Her magnet-like eyes attracted his whole being, penetrated into the depths of his heart, and made him suddenly feel inferior.But her appearance is so fragile, her pink neck is so slender, her fragrant shoulders are so thin, she is as vulnerable as a child.

Jo held out his hand to her, and Rose held out her hand and squeezed it. The fear and hope in Joe's heart were at war, and he couldn't ask Nina about it at all. Rose looked more solemn now than in the cemetery."It's going so badly, they're killing everyone I've talked to, they're not going to let it go," she said. The first question Jo wanted to ask, after the shackles had been lifted from his heart, was about the life or death of his youngest daughter. "I'm in that room with the Dais...and Lisa." She opened her almond-eyed eyes and said, "You mean... when did it happen?"

"Disaster……" Her little hand tightened slightly in his, "Did you see it?" Joe nodded and said, "They killed themselves, it's horrible... so violent and crazy." "It's not madness, it's not suicide, it's murder. God, how are you still alive?" "I ran away." "While they were still being slaughtered?" "Charlie and Dina are dead, and Lisa is on fire." "So she wasn't dead when you ran away?" "Not dead, she stood there and continued to burn, but she didn't cry out, it was very quiet...

Just burn quietly. " "Then it is a miracle that you escaped in time." "Rose, how did they do this?" She watched Jo with downcast eyes, at her clasped hands.Instead of answering Joe's question, she said, as if speaking to herself, "I thought it was just a way to get to work—to bring news to the families of the people who died on that plane. But it was all because of me. ...all this bloodshed." "Are you really on Flight 353?" Joe asked. She looked Joe in the eyes again and said, "Economy class, row sixteen, seat B, one seat away from the window."

The sincerity of her voice is as real as rain and sunshine on blades of grass. "Really walked away from the crash site unharmed?" "Unharmed," she whispered, reinforcing the miraculousness of her escape. "And it's not just you." "Who told you that?" "Not the Dais, nor the people you've talked to. They all have faith in you and keep the secret you told them. Ask me how I know, it goes back to that night. Do you remember Jeff Yin With Yin Mei?" A faint smile appeared on the corner of Rose's mouth, "Freely exchange pastures."

"I was there this afternoon," he said. "They're really nice people." "A peaceful and lovely life." "And you're a good reporter." "Flattered." Her eyes were like a dark but shining lake.Joe couldn't see whether the sinking secret was going to pull him down or bring him up. Rose said: "I'm so sorry for everyone on that plane. Sad for their untimely death and even more so for their families...and for you." "You don't know you're putting them in danger, do you?" "God, of course I don't know."

"Then you don't have to feel guilty." "Even so, I still feel sad." "Rose, please tell me, I've come full circle just to get the answer. What on earth did you tell other people? " "But they killed everyone I told them about. Not just the Days, but others, at least a dozen." "I don't care." "But I care because now I know it's dangerous and I can't push you into the fire. I have to think about it." "No danger, nothing. I'm dead anyway," he said, "unless what you tell me will bring me back to life."

"You're a good man, and you can do a lot for this messed up world in your lifetime." "It's impossible in my situation." Her eyes, the pool of water, revealed sadness.Jo felt suddenly frightened, and wanted to escape her gaze—but couldn't. Their talk had given Joe access to questions he had dreaded to ask, and he knew now that he must ask before losing his nerve again. "Rose...where is my daughter Nina?" Du Luosi pondered for a moment, and finally used her free hand to pull out a Polaroid photo from the inner pocket of the dark blue sports jacket.

Jo saw it was a tombstone, with the names of his wife and daughter engraved on the brass plates—it was one of the photographs she had taken the day before. She squeezed Joe's hand tightly to express encouragement, then let go of Joe's hand, and stuffed the photo into his hand. Jo stared at the picture and said, "It's not here, it's not underground. Just Michelle and Rose, but no Nina." Almost in a whisper, she said softly: "Open your heart, Jo, open your heart and mind—what do you see now?" Finally she brought him the gift that changed the perceptions of Laura, the Days, and others.

Joe stared at the photograph. "Joe, what do you see?" "tombstone. "Open your mind." With an expectation that cannot be described in words, Joe used his hands to find the image. "Granite, copper plates... grass all around." "Open your heart," she said softly. "The names of the three of them...the date..." "Keep watching." "...sunshine...shade..." "Open your heart." While Rose's sincerity was unmistakable, her little mantra—open your mind, open your heart—was starting to seem silly.It seems that she is not a scientist, but a new generation of guru. "Open your mind," she whispered, still firmly. Granite, copper plate, surrounding grass. She said, "Don't just look at it, understand?" Joe's original strong expectation, like sweet milk gradually spoiled, began to feel a little sour. Rose said, "Do you think the photo is weird? Not for the eyes...but for your fingers? Is there something weird about the skin?" Jo was on the verge of telling her no, that all he felt was a photograph, smooth and cold - but then he did start to feel weird. At first it seemed to Joe that his complex skin structure had undergone a change that he had never experienced or imagined before.As he stroked the photo, he could feel the raised shapes of everything in it, the tiny grooves of skin under his fingertips.It seems that each fingertip has an array of finely tuned and sensitive nerve endings. More tactile information flowing from the photo began to enter Joe's brain, beyond what he could process and comprehend. Overwhelmed by the sensation of touching the color paints, fixers and other chemicals that make up the image of the cemetery on the photograph. Then through touch, Joe felt the depth of the photo, as if it was not just a photo in two dimensions, but a window into the cemetery through which he could reach the cemetery.He could feel the warmth of summer at his fingertips, feel marble, copperplate, and green grass. What's even more amazing is that he can feel the color now, it seems that there are wires passing through his brain, mixed with his senses, when he says "blue", he feels a blinding light from a distance, Then I heard myself say "brightness", the feeling of blue and light immediately transformed into a visual effect. Panting, Joe dropped the photo as if it came alive in his hands. The blue light snapped into a tiny dot in the center of his field of vision, just as the picture on the screen disappears when you turn off the TV.This point of light gradually became smaller, like a distant star, and then disappeared. Rose was leaning on the table looking at it, and Jo stole a glance into her commanding eyes, and sensed that something was different from what he had seen before.There was no less sorrow and pity, sympathy and wisdom, but now Jo saw—or thought he saw—Rose galloping toward the precipice on a mad horse of thought.She wanted Joe to follow. She seemed to read his mind. "Joe, what you're afraid of has nothing to do with me. What you're really afraid of is opening your heart to what you've refused to believe all your life." "Your voice," he said, "that whisper, that repeated sentence—opening your heart, opening your mind—is like hypnotism." "You really don't believe it," she said quietly, as usual. "There's something in the picture." Joe could feel the tremor and frustration in his voice. " "What do you mean?" she asked. "Chemical material." "wrong." "A psychedelic that can be absorbed through the skin." "wrong." "I absorbed something through my skin," he insisted. "Put me in an altered state of consciousness." He rubbed his hands over the top of his corduroy jacket. "There is nothing in the picture that can pass through your skin and reach the blood circulation so quickly, and nothing can affect your mind in a few seconds." "How do I know if you're right?" "I know it's true." "I'm not a pharmacist." "Then ask someone else for advice," she said without hostility. "Shit!" His irrational anger flared up again, just as he had briefly done to Barbara. The louder he was, the calmer Rose became. "What you experienced just now is a psychological secondary feeling." "what?" Dorothy was 100% a scientist at the moment. "Auxiliary sensation is the feeling of the same type produced when different types of stimuli are applied to the human body." "The one used by the African natives to exorcise evil spirits?" "Totally irrelevant. For example, when a piece of music you are familiar with begins to play the first few bars, you are not listening to it, maybe you see a certain color, or smell a certain fragrance. For the general public That's rare, I say. But most people's initial feeling about these photographs is yes—especially among mystics, it's more common." "Mystic!" He almost fell to the floor. "I'm not a mystic, Dr. Du, I'm a crime news reporter—or was. I'm only interested in facts." "The parasensation isn't a product of religious madness, if that's what you think. Joe, it's backed by science. Even those who don't believe it, and those with good education, think it's the highest state of human consciousness A flash of inspiration." Her originally cold eyes seemed to be much warmer now.Jo's eyes averted as soon as they met her.I am afraid that the fire will spread to myself. "If it's some kind of skin-absorbed drug that's put on a photo," she whispers maddeningly, it's probably a diabolical trick. "Then after you drop the photo, the effect of the medicine will still be maintained." Joe didn't answer a word, and he was extremely confused. "But when you throw it away, the effect ceases immediately. For what you were dealing with was more than just a phantom, Joe." "Where is Nina?" Rose pointed to the photo he had just dropped on the desktop and said, "Go and see." "don't want!" "Don't be afraid." Joe was burning with a fury of the kind that had frightened him quite a bit before.He was also afraid at the moment, but he couldn't control it. "Damn it, where is Nina?" "Open your heart," she said calmly. "It's all shit!" "Open your heart." "How open? Until my head is empty? That's what you want, isn't it?" Rose gave him time to calm down, then said, "I don't want you to be like that, Joe. You ask me where Nina is, you want to know how your family is doing, I'll give you pictures so you can Saw them." Her willpower outstripped Jo, and a moment later he found himself picking up the picture. "Remember this feeling," she encouraged Joe. "Let it come back to your mind." Although he flipped the photo over and over in his hands, the feeling never came back.He ran his fingertips around the smooth image, but could not feel the granite, the copperplate, the grass.He summoned the blue light, and it never reappeared. Joe threw the photo aside angrily and said, "I don't know what I'm doing." Rose smiled patiently, and held out her hand to Jo sympathetically. But Joe refused to shake her hand. Joe now felt that she was like a new generation of religious fanatics, although this was deeply frustrating to him.But he was also sad that he couldn't get lost in that hallucinatory blue light a second time, and he let Michelle, Chris, and Nina down. But he thought that if it was hallucinations due to chemicals or hypnotism, it would be of little significance.Even if he daydreamed again, he couldn't get back what he had lost. A series of puzzles raced through his mind. Rose said: "It's ok, a dipped photo is usually enough, but not every time." "Impregnation?" "It's all right, Joe, it's really all right. There was a man...a man like you...the only way he could be believed was by contact." "I do not know what you're talking about?" "touch." "What contact?" Rose didn't answer his words, she picked up the photo and stared at it intently.It seemed like she really saw something clearly there that Joe couldn't. If her mind was in contact with chaos at this moment, she concealed it very well.Because she is as calm as a country pond in a windless evening. Her composure only fueled Jo's fire. "Where's Nina? Damn, where's my little girl?" Rose calmly put the photo back in her jacket pocket, "Joe, if I were one of a group of scientists involved in a revolutionary series of medical experiments, and if we stumbled upon a certain form of life after death... " "I wouldn't believe it even if I was killed." Her softness was the perfect contrast to Jo's sharpness. "It's not something you imagine out of nowhere. Molecular biology and certain disciplines of physics discovered so-called 'created universes' decades ago." "You're avoiding my question, where are you hiding Nina? Why do you want me to believe she's dead?" The expression on Rose's face was eerie, and her voice was still soft and Zen-like. "If science had shown me the way before, the fact of seeing life after death, would you be willing to see the evidence for it? Most people would immediately say 'yes', without considering the impact of this on his life. What a major impact it will even change his views on important things and his original plan for life.And then... if this revelation is going to bring you to the brink, would you look at the fact that it scares you as much as it lifts you; it scares you as much as it delights; its Unfathomable and eerie as it has inspired you? " "Dr. Du, what you told me is nonsense and meaningless. It's as absurd as crystals can cure diseases, soul communication and flying saucers kidnap people." "Don't just watch." Joe's eyes were red with anger. He thought Rose's calmness was just a tool for manipulating people.He stood up and clenched his fists, "On that plane, what did you bring to Los Angeles? Why did people from the Techno Company kill 330 people to stop you?" "I was just about to tell you." "Then tell me!" She closed her eyes, as if waiting for this storm of his to pass - but her calm only added fuel to the flames. "Your old boss, Honeylo, was my old boss. How involved was he?" he demanded of Rose. She didn't say a word. "Why did Mr. and Mrs. Dai, Lisa, Laura, and Captain Bai commit suicide? And why, according to what you just said, would their suicide be murder? Who are those people upstairs? What the hell is going on? ’ He was shaking with rage. ‘Where is Nina?’ Rose opened her eyes with concern, and her tranquility was finally disturbed. "What people upstairs?" "Two bastards working for Techno or some fucking secret service, or someone." Her gaze was directed towards the dining room. "are you sure?" "I recognized them at dinner." Rose Cemetery stood up, looking up at the low ceiling.It appears that she is in a submarine that is sinking out of control in the ocean.Frantically calculating the pressure in the depths of the sea, waiting for the first signal that the shell would rupture. "If two of them are in there, you can bet the rest are out," said Joe. "My God!" she said softly. "Kelly Ma is going to try to get us to sneak out after closing time." "She doesn't understand, we have to get out of here now." "She blocked the entrance to the elevator with a box—" "I don't care about those people or their fucking guns," Rose said. "If they come down here after us, I can face and control the situation. I don't care if I die in that situation, Joe. But they don't actually need to come after us. If they knew we were somewhere in this building right now, they could teleport us." "what?" "Remote control us," she said fearfully, walking towards one of the doors that led to the platform and the beach. Jo followed her angrily and asked, "What does that mean—remoting us?" The door was held in place by a pair of finger screws, and she removed the upper one.Jo held the bottom one between her hands to keep her from opening it. "Say, where is Nina?" "Joe, for heaven's sake—" This was the first time Dorothy showed her vulnerable side, and Joe took advantage of the victory to pursue, "Where is Nina?" "I'll tell you later, I promise." "Say it now!" At this time, there was a loud crash upstairs. Rose panted and turned to the door, her eyes fixed on the ceiling as if it was about to fall on their heads. Joe heard an argument coming from the elevator, it was Kelly and at least two or three men arguing.He determined that the loud noise was the sound of empty boxes and shelves blocking the elevator door being pulled away and thrown away. "When the two men in the leather jackets found the lift and knew that the building had a basement. They might have thought that instead of laying eyeliner on the beach, they would have left an escape route for Rose and Joe. The others Maybe looking for a shortcut to the bottom of the forty-foot cliff now, hoping to stop them. Joe faced Rose, determined to find out at any cost, and he asked furiously, "Where is Nina?" "Dead." She seemed a little insincere to say. "To hell with you she's dead." "Joe, please—" Joe was furious that Rose had lied to him, just as so many others had lied to him over the past year. "Damn you, she's dead, there's no way. I talked to Yin Meixi, and Nina was still alive that night, and she must still be alive somewhere now." "If they knew we were in this room," Rose repeated what she had just said in an urgent and trembling voice, "they could remotely control us, just like the Days, Lisa and Captain Bai!" "Where is Nina?" Overhead, the motor of the elevator rattled, and the elevator slowly rose. "Where is Nina?" The lights above the banquet room suddenly dimmed, probably because of the power consumption of the elevator. As the lights dimmed, Rose cried out in terror, ramming her body against Joe to move him away, and clutching frantically at his hand that was gripping the bolt below. Her nails went all over Jo's flesh, so painful that he had to let go of the lock.Rose opened the door, and a gust of sea breeze blew, she ran out the door, and ran straight into the darkness. Joe rushed out after, on the platform twenty feet wide by eighty feet long suspended in mid-air, every step echoing like a timpani.Rose had reached the landing.Jo followed her, and found that the platform was fourteen to sixteen feet above the sand, and that a two-stage staircase led down to it. Rose is dark and wears dark clothes, so she can hardly be seen against the background of the black steps.Her silhouette was only visible when she reached the light-colored sand. The beach is more than a hundred feet apart, and the phosphorescent sea churns up white waves, making a muffled sound as it washes against the beach. This is not a beach for swimming or surfing, and there are no campfires in sight. Jo didn't want Rose to stop or slow down, and when he caught up with her, Jo ran beside her, taking a slow pace so as not to overtake her. She is the only connection between Jo and Nina, and Jo is puzzled by her alternating calm and fearful attitude and obvious mysticism.Jo was furious that Rose had lied about Nina after she had made him believe she would eventually tell him the truth in the cemetery, but their destinies were intertwined because only she , to guide Joe to find his little daughter. As they passed the corner of the restaurant north on the soft sand, someone rushed over the edge of the cliff in front of them and ran to the right.This black figure appeared tall and fast at night, like an invisible beast that sprang out and attacked in a nightmare. "Attention!" Joe warned Rose, but she also saw the attacker and had already made dodge movements. When the fast-moving shadow blocked Rose's path, Joe tried to block the attacker, but he himself was thrown from behind by a second man, a guy from the sea, as tall as a fullback for a professional football team. member.They both fell to the ground hard at the same time, and the last breath was forced out of Joe's lungs. He gasped, because the sand was soft and deep when they landed, and he was crushed under it, kicking again mercilessly. Punching again, flipping up from under the attacker. , as he was standing up straight on his legs, he heard someone yelling at Rose from the distance on the beach—"Hold on, bitch!" Then, a gunshot, dull and flat.He didn't dare to think about the bullet through Rose's head, and he didn't dare to think that he would lose Nina forever.But he couldn't help thinking about it, it was like a brand mark, imprinted in his mind forever. His attacker stood up from the sand booth while cursing.When Joe turned to deal with this opponent, he was full of brutality and anger-for this twenty years ago he had been kicked out of the junior boxing team.Now he had become a beast, a swift and brutal predator like a pig. He sees this opponent as someone responsible for Fran's rheumatoid arthritis. He thought it was the son of a bitch who had swollen and deformed Fran's joints, and he thought it was the ruffian who had put a funnel over Captain White's ear and poured some maddening drugs into his brain. So Joe kicked the guy in the crotch, and as he bent over in pain, Joe grabbed the bastard's head and thrust his knee up straight into his face.Joe heard the sound of the man's nose cracking and felt his teeth fall on her knees.I saw the guy collapsed backward on the beach, panting like a cow, spurting blood, and crying like a child. But that wasn't enough for Joe, the beast at the moment was more ferocious than any wild beast.He kicks the guy in the ribs because he's wearing Nikes, not the hard-toed ones.So he stepped on the ruffian's throat instead, trying to break his trachea.The result was to lift the man's chest, one time was not enough and he wanted to continue until he gasped to death.But at this time he was knocked down from behind by a third person. Joe fell face down on the sand, immobilized with at least two hundred pounds of the new attacker's weight on top of him.Joe turned his head to one side, and tried his best to push the man up, but it was all in vain. He was already exhausted and could only lie there helplessly. Just as he gasped in frustration, he felt the guy pull out a blunt object and place it in his cheek.Joe knew what it was before he heard the man's threats. "If you want me to blow your head off, I have no objection," said the stranger, in a voice that echoed with a murderous madness. "I'll do it, you ass." Believing he would, Joe stopped fighting and gasped for breath. But the silent submission did not please the man who sat upon him. "You bastard, answer me! You want me to blow your fucking head off, don't you?" "don't want." "don't want?" "don't want." "Do you want to stand up?" "think." "I'm running out of patience." "I know." "You son of a bitch." Joe stopped talking, just spit out the sand in his mouth and took a deep breath to gather strength. where is rose The person sitting on Joe was also panting vigorously, and the exhaled breath smelled of garlic.This not only gave Joe time to calm down, but also allowed him to regain his strength.He smelled lime cologne and cigar smoke. How is Rose? "We want this now," the guy said, "I'll stand up first, but the guy will aim at your head. You lie still and don't stand up until I back up and tell you it's done." For reinforcement His words, and he pressed the barrel of the gun hard against Joe's face. It was painful for Jo to sink deep into her cheeks to her gums. "Do you understand, Joe Carpenter?" "Understood." "I can shoot you and walk away." "Then I'll be cold." "No one can touch me." "I will never." "I mean I have a police badge." "certainly." "Would you like to see it? I'll pin it to your fucking lips." They didn't yell "police!" But that doesn't prove they are fake, it just means they don't want to say anything.They want to get things done cleanly and leave as quickly as possible.To avoid explaining to the local police department why they are here, which will cause them to write endless reports for overstepping the case, and maybe be asked nerve-wracking questions about which law they are performing their duties on.If they weren't Techno employees, they must have a background in some federal agency, but they didn't hear "FBI" or "Drug Administration" or anything when they shot, so they must be the government Covert secret service unit paid out of budget allocation, billions in black box operations budget. At last the stranger left Joe and stood up, took two steps back and said, "Stand up." It took about two minutes for Joe's eyes to adjust to the dark, from the time he left the banquet room and ran north along the beach.At this moment, the surrounding area is not as dark as before.The longer he stayed in the dark, the more he realized that there was little he could do. Although the beautiful Panama hat was gone, the gunman was still visible in the darkness—the storyteller.In the dark night, his white trousers, white shirt and white hair seem to gather the light around him, like a ghost in a seance, emitting a faint light. Joe glanced back, and at Santa Fe by the Sea on the cliff, he could see the silhouettes of the diners at the table, but they probably couldn't see what was happening on the beach in the dark. The secret service officer who was kicked in the crotch and beaten in the face was still lying on the beach next to him.Although his breathing was no longer choked, he still covered his face in pain, and the blood was still gurgling.He tried to squeeze away the tears he had been holding back, and replaced the sobs with a stream of obscenities. Joe yelled, "Rose!" The gunman in white said, "Shut up!" "Rose!" "Shut your mouth and turn around." There is a figure on the beach, quietly appearing behind the storyteller.He didn't say he was a Techno, just said, "I have a .44 revolver an inch from the back of your head." The storyteller seemed as taken aback as Jo.Joe was completely confused by the turn of the whole situation Xu. The man with the revolver said, "Do you know how powerful this weapon is? Do you know what the head becomes? " Although the storyteller's whole body is still glowing faintly, but at the moment he is as powerless as a lonely ghost, "Shit!" "Smash your skulls and blow your pig's head off your neck, that's all it can do," said the latter, "and now drop your guns before Joe." The storyteller hesitated. " "Throw it away now!" Even if he surrendered, he wanted to lose face. The storyteller threw the gun at Joe's feet contemptuously. The rescuer with the .44 said, "Joe, pick it up." When Joe picked up the pistol, he saw the newcomer, using the gun for a club. The storyteller dropped to his knees, then supported him with both hands, but was not yet fainted.It wasn't until the second blow of the pistol that he fell headfirst into the sand, his face down, his nose planted in the sand like a potato. The stranger with the .44 pistol was a black man, dressed in black and black trousers. He bent down and gently turned the white-haired man's head to one side to prevent the unconscious ruffian from suffocating. The agent with the knee in the face had stopped swearing, now that his accomplices could not hear him, and sobbed again. The black person said, "Joe, go!" At this moment, Joe was even more impressed with Ma Kaili, a group of amateur motley crew. He said, "Where's Rose?" "Go this way, we've found her." The wounded agent who had been left behind wept, and Joe followed the black man, heading north.That was the direction he and Rose fled when they were hunted down. He also nearly tripped over another man passed out on the sand.There is no doubt that this was the first person who rushed to stop them, and it was he who fired. Rose stood on the sand in the shadow of the cliff.Jo could see only her figure in the darkness, but her arms were clasped, as if she were shivering with cold on this mild summer night. Joe was surprised by the relief he felt when he saw her, not because she was the only connection he had with his daughter, but because he was genuinely happy to see him alive and well.Although she brought frustration, anger and confusion to Joe, when he recalled the first time they met in the cemetery, Rose's kind eyes were still full of tenderness and pity, even though she was petite in the dark, there was still a kind of sacred Inviolable momentum, a temperament full of inscrutable, full of wisdom. Great generals and pure saints have the same temperament that makes their followers willing to sacrifice for it. And now Rose, standing on the dark seashore, makes people believe that she really came from the deep sea. She breathes freely in the water as in the air. She is indeed another world, coming to the world with amazing secrets. He was accompanied by a large man dressed in black, with thick curly blond hair like twists and turns of seaweed. Joe said, "Rose, are you all right?" "It's just... a little wounded." There was a little pain in her voice. "I heard gunshots," Jo said wistfully, wanting to touch her but not believing he would, and then he found himself spreading his arms and hugging Rose tightly. She gave a groan of pain, and Jo let go of her arms hastily.But Rose still had an arm around him, letting Jo know that, though hurt, she appreciated his concern. "I'm fine, I'm all right, Joe." In the distance came the sound of calling from the top of the cliff, and the wounded agent on the beach also faintly called for help. "We have to get out of here," said the blond man. "They're coming." "Who are you?" Rose asked. Joe asked in amazement: "Aren't they Ma Kaili's people?" "No," said Rose, "never seen that before." "My name is Mark," said the blond curly-haired man, "and he's Joshua." The black man — Joshua — said something that sounded like, "We're all from the 'Wizard World.'" Rose said, "Damn me." "What? What do you say you are?" asked Jo. "It's all right, Joe," said Rose, "I'm surprised, but maybe I shouldn't be." "I believe we are on the same side, Dr. Du. Regardless, we have common enemies," Joshua said. There was a sound in the distance, faint like a heartbeat at first, but then gradually changed to the sound of hoofbeats approaching by the Headless Horseman.The crackling sound came from the rotor of a helicopter.