Chapter 11 Chapter 10 Regression Line
On the M30 highway between Toledo and Madrid, the morning was silent.In the middle of the asphalt road where no cars passed, a few early birds rested on the white line.
From the far north came the sound of wheels turning and engines roaring.A tanker was coming like a long tank from the direction of Madrid.The birds in the middle of the road were frightened and rushed into the still bright morning sky.
The tanker leaves.The road was quiet again.Time seemed to stand still except for the slowly changing sky.
There is a small branch road on the east side of the road, which stretches into a gentle and endless grassland.The sun rose half way from the end of the plain.
An extremely lonely figure avoided the road far away and walked alone on the grassland.He staggered a bit and wore a worn-out peaked cap on his head. He looked like an old farmer who was old but still in good health.
He walked to the top of one of the relatively sloping grass slopes, stood in front of a wooden board erected beside the path at the top of the slope, and looked down at a pasture built against the grove below the grass slope.
He held up the brim of his hat, revealing a pair of sad eyes.
The windows of the two-story log cabin in the middle of the ranch were dark.There was no smoke coming from the chimney.The original herd inside the pasture fence is gone.Only four days apart, the ranch has lost all life. Kang Zhefu turned his head to look at the wooden sign next to him that said the ranch's advertisement for sale.Nailed to it was a small strip of wood marked "SOLD." ——Tilia, did you buy it? Kang Zhefu slowly climbed down the grassy slope and approached the pasture cautiously.He had gone through a lot of hardships to escape here, and he didn't want to be shot through the body with a shotgun by the ranch owner as a thief. He managed to climb over the fence outside the pasture.Pain in right chest.The condition of the wound was not good, and the anti-inflammatory medicine that Father Fernandez gave him had run out again. Kang Zhefu quickly approached the center of the manor with light steps, and reached one of the walls of the wooden house.The curtains in the windows were all drawn down, making it impossible to see what was going on inside the house. Kang Zhefu groped into the small garden behind the house.There is a small back door there.It was the kind of small door lock that could be opened with a credit card.But Kang Zhefu doesn't even have a single banknote on him now. Just as he was thinking about how to open the small door, a man's voice came from inside the door. "Is that Mr. Kang?" He said in English. Kang Zhefu froze for a moment, and immediately put on a defensive posture. "Come in, please. The door is unlocked." The weakness and pain of the body made Kang Zhefu's thinking ability much slower than usual.However, during the years of drug addiction in the Mercenary Corps, he had become accustomed to fighting with his brain disturbed.He meditated.The tone of the other party did not seem to be hostile.If it is a killer sent by the police, CIA or "Shuo Guo", they will definitely not sound a warning. He took a deep breath and pushed the little door open. The room was pitch black, and from the residual food and oily smoke in the air, Kang Zhefu concluded that it was the kitchen. After his eyes got used to the darkness, he made out a figure sitting behind a large dining table in front of him.The man sat quietly, with his elbows resting on the table and his chin resting on his hands.A completely non-aggressive pose. "Mr. Kang, please close the door, it will be easier to talk." This time Kang Zhefu heard clearly: the man's English has a slight special accent.People who hear it for the first time will never notice the difference—except for Kang Zhefu who misses Tilia day and night. The man's peculiar accent was exactly the same as Tilia's. "Are you from 'Suo Country'?" Kang Zhefu took off his peaked cap. "My country's name is 'Myersan'." The man pressed a light button on the wall behind him.A light bulb lights up in the center of the kitchen ceiling. "Its meaning is just like your Excellency said: New Moon Shuo Kingdom." Kang Zhefu looked at the man in front of him: small eyes, very sparse eyebrows, low and small nose, darker complexion than ordinary Orientals, a face without any character, similar to people from Southeast Asian countries.A black suit is very fitting.The overall impression is that of a middle-level government official, a car lock pusher, or an accountant's staff, in short, the type that does not attract people to take a second look. Kang Zhefu found something on the wooden table: the "Legend of the Moon Kingdom" given to him by Professor Mendoza.In the middle of the book is the pierced sword hole. "Tilliam Logy did not misunderstand the person." The man said, "Mr. Kang can really escape here." "You mean Tilia? Where is she?" "She has returned to our place. She is very safe, Mr. Kang can rest assured. I personally arranged all the procedures for her return." The man's eyes revealed confidence. "Tilia's full name is Wenluo Tilia Luoji. The surname 'Wenluo' means 'song' and was the surname of a queen in ancient my country. In the subsequent era of great division, the Wenluo tribe It is also a vassal of one of the separatists, and Tilian Luoji is his descendant." The man points to the book on the table. "These historical events are also recorded in this book." "Did Tilia tell you to wait for me here?" Kang Zhefu showed an anxious expression.This is a rare thing for him - he has never liked to expose his emotions to the eyes of others. The man thought for a while. "You can also say that. She did ask me to do so before leaving. In addition, we have something to talk to Mr. Kang about." "Aren't you going to kill me?" "That was just a terrible misunderstanding." The man smiled. "I'm sorry for hurting your Excellency. But someone in our country acted without permission and wrongly ordered to kill." ——Is it a misunderstanding to kill Da Kui? Kang Zhefu originally wanted to say this, but felt that it was not the time to ask such a question. "What does your country want to talk to me about?" "I have no right to discuss this important matter with Mr. Kang." The man looked very serious. "My name is just a small official in our country. My mission is to bring Mr. Kang back to the capital of our country and meet with the most important people in our country in person." "Why do you want me to go back with you?" "Tilia is waiting for you there." Kang Zhefu seemed to have been hit to the heart all at once.He was silent for a while. "Do you believe me? Can you be sure that I am not an undercover agent deliberately let go by the CIA?" "There are people from us in the CIA too," Granny said. "Mr. Kang, you are no longer tolerated by the U.S. government. Even if you tell them everything you know now, it will not do much harm to our country. It is useless to arrest me to the CIA now. I hold a Malaysian passport with the name Called 'Wu Wenfang', a furniture merchant by profession. You won't find any other clues, and you won't see Tilia again." Kang Zhefu pulled out a wooden chair across from Granny Han, sat down and bowed his head in thought. "Mr. Kang." Brother Nanhan straightened his tie. "If you want to see Tilia again, you have no other choice." Kang Zhefu buried his eyes in his palms. "When are we leaving?" Brother Nanhan smiled in relief. "Don't worry, Mr. Kang. What you need most now is a good doctor."
During the two months of convalescence in a secret private hospital in Bordeaux, a port in southwestern France, Kang Zhefu did not shave at all, and now his dark and thick beard has changed his entire face shape. After changing his hair, which was originally neat like a corporate executive, into a short crew cut like a soldier, Ge Nanhan took pictures of him and made a fake passport for him.Kang Zhefu saw at a glance that the person who made the fake Singapore passport was a first-class expert.The entry visas of several countries are stamped inside. Kang Zhefu set off from Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport to Bangkok, Thailand with this passport named "Wang Yongbo", then went south to Indonesia, went east to Papua New Guinea, and entered New Zealand in the southern hemisphere. Ge Nanhan, who was waiting for him in Wellington, the capital of New Zealand, arranged another passport for him. He was amazed by the safety measures of the "Suoguo people". This time, Kang Zhefu set off as "Liu Weiming", an overseas Chinese in Australia, and rested for five days in Honolulu, Hawaii.While walking on the beach of Waikiki at dusk, Kang Zhefu felt a strange sigh when he thought that he was still desperately fleeing on the opposite side of the earth more than two months ago. After the plane arrived in Vancouver, Canada, Graham was waiting for him outside the airport as expected.What I received was a long-distance bus ticket. The long journey began to tire Kang Zhefu.But when he thought of Tilia's face, he cheered up again and watched the unchanged scenery outside the car window.On both sides of the road are endless fields and plains, and occasionally pass by a gas station with a restaurant.I stopped twice on the mountain road, both because of a small herd of wild goats blocking the road. When the bus passed an MTB (multi-purpose off-road bicycle), Kang Zhefu couldn't help but look a few more times at the rider in colorful tights.The driver didn't look back at him, just lowered his head and stepped on the bare road ahead.After a while, the bicycle turned into a small black speck and was thrown far behind. It was the end of August when we arrived in Toronto on the east coast of Canada.His hair has grown a bit, but it is still a monk-like crew cut, no different from the "Liu Weiming" in the passport. When Granny ordered him to go south to Boston, USA by land, he guessed that he was already approaching his destination.Otherwise, Golanghan would not have asked him to risk crossing the customs of the continental United States. On the long-distance bus, Kang Zhefu had fully practiced his Australian-accented English—he had come into contact with many native Australians when he was in the mercenary regiment, and this job was not too difficult. The customs officer was deceived by his obvious accent, not to mention that he had also been in and out of Hawaii once. Seven hours later, Cranhan also came with him.He picked up Kang Zhefu who was waiting at the airport by car. The car circles the city center. "Leave your passport to me." Granny, who was sitting in the driver's seat, said to Kang Zhefu, who was in the back seat, "The paper bag next to you is full of everything you need." After Kang Zhefu handed over his passport to Granny, he opened the light brown ordinary shopping bag.a wallet.A stack of US dollar bills and a dozen small change.The banknotes are all old.There are two other documents, one is a California driver's license, and the other is a social security card for a US citizen. "The name is still 'Liu Weiming', and the foreign name is 'Rey'." Ge Nanhan said after putting the Australian passport in the inner pocket of his suit. Names. You’re an American, don’t worry about accents and slang.” "I have always had a question." Kang Zhefu asked when he put the money and documents into the black wallet, "Did you know me very early?" "You'll know the answer soon enough." "Where am I going next?" "The place where you were born." Brother Nanhan smiled. "That city that is both dreaded and coveted." He said and handed Kang Zhefu a ticket from Boston to New York. The car stopped beside Boston Common.It is near the bus terminal, just for Kang Zhefu to take the bus to the airport. "At eight o'clock in the evening the day after tomorrow, go to the observation deck on the eighty-sixth floor of the Empire State Building. Someone will tell you where to go there." Conan Han didn't even look away from the beginning to the end. "You'll never see me again." After Kang Zhefu got off the car, Conanhan drove back to the forty-six-story "Ritz-Carlton" hotel within five minutes. After handing over the car to the waiter to park it, he walked quickly to the elevator in the hotel lobby.Although he no longer needs to lead Kang Zhefu, he still has a lot of work to do, including contacting his contact person in New York, destroying Kang Zhefu's false documents, etc. As he walked through the thickly carpeted corridor on the twelfth floor, Conan Han's face remained unchanged.He didn't care about Kang Zhefu's safety at all. But the moment he opened the door to the room, the steel-like confidence on his face collapsed. In the supposedly empty single room, a tall and muscular man in a black leather jacket sat on the bed.Although the sitting posture is very relaxed, the man naturally exudes a strong aura. The man wore a pair of sunglasses, his long black and brown hair was tied into a ponytail, and he had a mustache on his lips and chin.There is a fresh scar on the right ear. "Kalta!" Granny's voice was trembling. "You... why are you here?" He quickly closed the door. "Guy who doesn't understand etiquette! You should call me 'Your Excellency Admiral'!" the man Karta scolded. "Where is that Chinese man?" "What Chinese?" Brother Nanhan regained his usual composure. "Don't play tricks in front of me! A little 'postman', your life and death are in my hands! Tell me, where is Kang Zhefu?" "I can't tell anyone without the order of 'Master'." Ge Nanhan looked firm. "You also know that he is the guest of the 'Master', you can't do anything to him! The last time you...Your Excellency acted without authorization, the 'Master' was furious, you should not act beyond your authority..." "All I know is that he is the enemy! Guedlian fell on him—we can't even get his body back!" Kartar's voice was like a roar. "I heard that Chaidelian completed the 'Blood Moon' on his body before he died. That means it is very obvious - we want us to avenge him!" "Your Excellency cannot disobey the orders of the 'lord'..." Karta smiled. "It doesn't matter if you don't tell me. Anyway, I know you're going to take him back to the 'capital'. My subordinates will find him in New York..." Karta stood up, took off his sunglasses, and revealed Xinghuo's dazzling pupils. "He has no chance of meeting the 'Lord' alive."
Fifteen hours later, Kang Zhefu wore gold-rimmed glasses, a purple and yellow ball cap of the Los Angeles professional basketball team "Lakers", a light blue windbreaker, and washed-white Levi's 501 jeans, and he wore white Nikes. Air blue sneakers, stepping out of LaGuardia Airport in New York. New York.The heart of American culture and economy. It is also the place where Kang Zhefu was born and grew up.
Kang Zhefu stood on the west side of Central Park in Manhattan, New York, in Room 3 on the first floor of the huge and magnificent "American Museum of Natural History" between Seventy-seventh Street and Eighty-first Street. The exhibition hall is called "Man and Nature".Kang Zhefu faced a group of model dolls of ancient nomads.Lifelike dolls of children and women weave clothes and milk goats.The strong male knights cleaned and trimmed the hard bows for the horses. They are just a few of the more than 34 million exhibits in the world's largest natural history museum. Kang Zhefu breathed the breath of the past in the exhibition hall. The "Museum of Natural History" was Kang Zhefu's favorite place to hang out when he was young.Many Sunday mornings, he couldn't wait to take the bus from Downtown's Chinatown, and often stared blankly at the 34-ton giant meteorite, or the world's tallest building in the Roosevelt Memorial facing the museum entrance (5 Ten feet) of dinosaur bone fossils, until the ecstasy. As he grew older, Kang Zhefu began to realize how ironic it was to build this natural memorial in New York. While he was staring at the original scale model of the whale, behind the huge columns of the New York Stock Exchange on Wall Street, which was nine kilometers away from him, someone moved their fingers and made a huge sum of money that could not be spent in a lifetime; Up to 100,000 street sleepers, sleeping under walls painted with bright graffiti or on benches in underground railway stations; on the splendid and luxurious Fifth Avenue, the 128-carat diamond in Tifanny's jewelry store is shining At the same time, in Harlem in the north, a 14-year-old black drug dealer with a long and heavy gold chain on his neck and gold rings on his fingers lay down in front of the flames of a light machine gun; People started haunting, wasting their youth in alcohol and sex... And the huge whale in front of him, like the flaming torch held by the goddess of Liberty Island, remained motionless. At this time, the young Kang Zhefu would feel a sense of loneliness. Today, Kang Zhefu, who is almost thirty-three years old, returned to New York City for unexpected reasons and returned to this long-lost museum.The sense of loneliness that comes from being out of tune with a highly capitalist society is stronger than when I was a bewildered teenager. He is determined to seize the only happiness in front of him. Even if it's just for the last time, he wants to see Tilia again. Just as he turned around and walked away from the exhibition hall, he suddenly smelled a little dangerous smell. Although it was only a very slight strange feeling, like all the fighters who were born and died in the Shura field, Kang Zhefu trusted his intuition more than the intelligence data analyzed by the computer. "Have you tracked here so quickly?..." The sense of crisis dissipated in an instant.It seems that the other party is not ready to make a move yet, right? ——I can only hope that I am faster than the other party. Kang Zhefu made up his mind and took another step. There is only one road ahead.
Throughout the noon and evening, Kang Zhefu has been wandering around in New York City, taking taxis, subways and buses, walking through the empty grassland of Central Park three times, and walking through the front and rear portals, vertical and horizontal corridors and staircases of various old residential buildings. On the way, I went to a department store and bought a whole set of ready-made black suits, white shirts, black ties, hats and leather shoes to change into. I carried a business suitcase containing only a copy of The New York Times and put on my sunglasses. All the anti-tracking methods that I have learned. However, when he arrived at the luxurious and clean Empire State Building at the junction of Fifth Avenue and Thirty-third, he still didn't have much confidence.After all, he was alone, but surrounded by too many hidden enemies. His only "weapon" is a thorough knowledge of the terrain of New York streets. The 1,475.4-foot, 102-story Empire State Building was once honored as "the tallest building in the world" and became one of the proud symbols of New York City. But today, the mansion once climbed by a fifty-foot-tall chimpanzee on the silver screen is facing the pitiful fate of being up for sale and not being bought. Taking the elevator to the viewing platform on the eighty-sixth floor, Kang Zhefu walked to the south-facing railing and overlooked the night scene of downtown Manhattan.The clusters of high-rise buildings are like a luminous forest, and like the bony back of a huge monster, releasing a huge amount of heat energy and carbon dioxide. "Do you like New York?" A woman's voice came from behind.Kang Zhefu's shoulder trembled slightly, but he immediately determined that it was not Tilia. The woman's tall body like a model stands on Kang Zhefu's left side, looking at the night side by side with him.The fair skin does not let the French beauty, the brown straight long hair is very layered, but the beautiful side profile is obviously like an oriental person.The dark blue suit and high-heeled shoes are high-end products that can only be found in famous stores on Fifth Avenue. Kang Zhefu did not expect that the person who contacted him was such a beautiful woman who made people's hearts flutter. "I insist on living in New York." The woman's voice was very beautiful. "It's the pinnacle of the world. The place where the highest dreams come true." The woman turned her face to Kang Zhefu.Eyes that were as clear as water and full of charming style stared at him. From her bright red lips spat the names of two streets.Kang Zhefu knew that the junction was on the east side of Midtown, not far from the current Empire State Building.There is a business district, where the headquarters of multinational corporations such as the IBM Building, AT&T Building, Philip Morris Tobacco Company Building, etc. are located, and the United Nations Headquarters stands on the east coast. "It's the branch building of 'Haiquan Enterprise'." The woman said. "Go to the reception to find Manager Li, tell me the alias on your current ID, and someone will naturally take you to the place you want to go. Arrive between ten and eleven tomorrow morning." Kang Zhefu knew that "Haiquan Enterprise" is a large Chinese-funded enterprise in Southeast Asia, mainly engaged in shipping and steel construction projects. The founder and current president Ruan Qiyuan was born in Vietnam. He is one of the few most courageous Chinese rich men in the world. Comparable to Ryuichiro Takahashi. ——Even "Haiquan Enterprise" is involved?How powerful is this Shuo country? ... "I've prepared a hotel room for you to rest tonight." The beauty handed Kang Zhefu a room key.The hotel is a mid-level hotel, unobtrusive. Kang Zhefu was tired of being manipulated like a doll for more than three months.But the beautiful woman in front of her suddenly said, "You are a very good-looking man." Kang Zhefu couldn't deal with it for a while. The woman stretched out her slender fingers and flicked her long hair.A burst of high-end perfume entered Kang Zhefu's nose with the evening wind. She caressed the silver earring on the left, "How is it? May I go back to the hotel with you to sleep? I promise that after dawn, you will never see my face again." Kang Zhefu breathed a sigh of relief when the woman spoke directly.He smiled, "Sleeping with a beautiful woman like you is probably the dream of all men in the world. But..." He didn't continue. "Is it because of Tilia?" Kang Zhefu was slightly surprised. "I know Tilia." The woman smiled and sighed, staring at the bright night in the city center again. "The last time I saw her, she was only...sixteen years old. At that time, I already felt that there was a unique charm hidden in her immature face, a charm that did not belong to the world...a strong and The autonomous vitality...is hard to describe, but even I am amazed.” She looked at Kang Zhefu again, "Only unique men will be attracted by her charm....You, and Karta..." "Karta?" "You have to be careful with this man." The beauty's face turned pale. "He is the vanguard general of our country, the number one swordsman under the 'lord'. A man who will not hesitate to kill in order to get what he likes. He wants to put you to death just for Tilia. Even the 'lord' can't control he." The woman turned and walked towards the elevator lobby. "What's your name?" The woman just turned her head and smiled, raised her soft brown hair again, stepped on her high-heeled shoes, and walked towards the elevator door with a graceful posture.
Belle walked south along Fifth Avenue after leaving the Empire State Building.The luxury shops on both sides of the street have long been closed, but there are still many tourists on the sidewalk.They stopped in front of one after another exquisitely designed and softly lit window, knowing that it was futile, but still trying to satisfy their hunger for material and vanity with vision. After walking for more than ten minutes, the beauty stopped and looked at the driveway, ready to wave for a taxi. "." The hand that the beauty was about to extend froze.She turned around. Karta with long hair and shawl was standing less than one meter behind her.Although he had changed into light blue casual clothes, he still had that aura that ordinary New York gangsters would not dare to approach. The beauty Jiaman frowned tightly. "Didn't I tell you not to look for me again? Don't affect my work." "What's wrong with you?" Karta smiled. "The expression in that second just now was terribly nervous. It's the same as Brother Nanhan. Am I really that scary?" "Have you seen Goranhan?" "Relax, Jiaman." Karta patted Jiaman's arm, motioning her to move forward together.In order not to stand out in the street, she had to obey his wishes. "Where is the Chinese? Around here?" "I can't understand what you're saying?" "You are my woman. Are you going to betray me?" Jiaman sneered, "I 'used' to be your woman." She paused, and then said, "Now I only obey the orders of the 'lord'. You should do the same." "I can't do it." Karta's fierce eyes flashed in the night. "For the sake of Tilia, and also for the martyrdom of Chaidelian, I cannot let Kang Zhefu live. Since Chaidelian has painted 'Xueshuo' on his body, the Chinese will pay back the blood to the sword of Shuoguo on the sword of a warrior." Jiaman bit her lower lip. "Since you killed him to get Tilia, why do you expect me to tell you his whereabouts? I..." "You're right." Karta smiled again, with a hint of self-confidence in control of everything. "Actually, I saw you. I'm sure he's not far away. I just want to make sure from your response." Jiaman was stunned. "You...you have sent your subordinates..." "He won't survive tonight."
After entering the 34th Street, Sixth Avenue underground railway station's uplink entrance, Kang Zhefu suddenly heard a faint buzzing sound in his ears. The muscles in his sides tensed up like a conditioned reflex.This is a natural response to sensing a crisis. As he slowly descended the stairs, Kang Zhefu kept scanning around the dark corridor; tattered advertising posters remained on the walls sprayed with graffiti pictures and words; There are all kinds of garbage that is indispensable to modern civilization; the scattered pedestrians on the stairs and in the corridors have the usual indifferent faces of urban people... The corridors are winding and winding, and there are many dark corners where criminals can ambush and attack. ——Is it just a robber... The buzzing sound suddenly intensified.He looked back subconsciously. Two men in suits and leather shoes were holding briefcases, talking and laughing as they stepped down the stairs, about ten meters behind Kang Zhefu. The man on the left is very tall and thin, but his steps are steady and powerful; the companion beside him is as fat as a round rock.Both of them looked like Asians. Kang Zhefu turned his head quickly, and still kept the same pace as before, walking forward along the corridor. After turning a corner, Kang Zhefu immediately threw away the suitcase in his hand and sprinted towards the depths of the station at full speed! ——He was sure those two men were killers! The sound of footsteps chasing after him proved that his idea was correct. When he ran to the end of a long straight corridor, Kang Zhefu turned his head slightly, and saw two men had pulled out shining blades from their suits.It is the kind of broad-bladed machete used by the U.S. Army. The blade is about a foot long. What surprised Kang Zhefu was that the fat man ran as fast as the tall man.The purpose of Kang Zhefu's escape was to separate his opponents and knock them down one by one, but this strategy has failed. There was another long staircase ahead, and Kang Zhefu jumped down one after another, dodging between two pedestrians, and finally rushed to the entrance of the platform below. Kang Zhefu followed the rushing momentum, pushed forward with his left palm, and jumped over the coin gate at the entrance lightly, completely ignoring the guards' shouts and curses. The watchman's voice suddenly stopped, and he hid far away - two men with sharp machetes jumped over the gate together. A train was just pulling into the platform.It turned out that the silver metal car walls were as dirty as if they had been drilled through a coal mine hole. The train hadn't stopped yet, of course Kang Zhefu couldn't stand and wait.He continued to run along the edge of the platform towards the rear of the train. A few meters in front of him and to the right is a waiting bench, on which a street sleeper covered in dirty clothes is lying.The homeless sleeper seemed to be awakened by Kang Zhefu's footsteps, he half propped himself up, and stretched out his hand to wipe his sleepy eyes. Kang Zhefu ran across the bench—— ——A silver light suddenly flashed from the front of the sleeper's chest! Kang Zhefu turned his head for a while, and the tip of a double-edged dagger was approaching between his eyebrows!
Jiaman suddenly laughed. Karta shrugged his eyebrows. "why are you laughing?" "You underestimate the Chinese." "...?" Jiaman brushed her long hair beside her ear. "I bet you... he'll make it to the 'capital' alive. If you lose, marry me. Okay?" "You are bound to lose." Karta's eyes flashed with anger. "You can bet on anything." "Just kidding. I don't want to marry a man like you at all." Jiaman sighed. "I only hope that the subordinates you sent can save their lives. They are my compatriots after all, right?"
At the same time that the "street sleeper" thrust out the sharp and ruthless sword, Kang Zhefu had already sent out a spinning kick! He had already concluded that this "sleeper" was also an enemy. ——How can someone who is so easily awakened by the sound live in a subway station?What's more, he didn't have a strong stench that matched the dirty clothes. The dagger brushed against Kang Zhefu's right ear. Kang Zhefu kicked the "homeless" left knee joint with his right foot! ——In general traditional martial arts, there are always several sets of so-called "empty hands into white blades" tricks, which are nothing more than using various complex joint grappling techniques to snatch sharp weapons from the opponent's palm; in movies, there are often scenes where the protagonist kicks the sharp blade away from the villain's hand .In fact, all these are clever tricks created by people who have never faced a real life-and-death struggle behind closed doors and based on fantasy. ——Kang Zhefu's knee-kicking attack was the most realistic and most likely "bare-handed-to-knife" move after various practical analysis.It includes all the following advantages: 1.The action is simple and powerful.The kick angle is low and the body is easier to balance. 2.Use the longest weapon (leg) to attack the closest target (knee) in a straight line, so the speed is the fastest, and the distance between the upper bodies of the two sides is the farthest, reducing the distance advantage of the opponent holding the weapon. 3.The bottom kick has the least chance of being cut by the opponent with a sharp knife. 4.One hit can make the opponent incapacitated, and can escape immediately to avoid fighting. 5.No matter how strong a person is, he cannot strengthen his joints.Concentrating on attacking the joints is the first key to the weak defeating the strong. ——Together, this is the most scientific fighting technique that Kang Zhefu learned in the mercenary regiment! Under the trampling of the hard heel, the left knee of the "street sleeper" made a trembling sound of tendon rupture, and then bent at an abnormal angle. The "sleeper" screamed and fell down.For the rest of his life he could no longer walk normally. The train came to a slow stop. Kang Zhefu didn't look at the "sleeper" again, and still ran towards the end of the platform.When he stopped to kick his opponent, the pair of killers, one tall and one fat, came closer. All train doors of the train are opened simultaneously.The passengers who got off the bus stepped onto the platform in groups, and Kang Zhefu immediately disappeared into the crowd. The pace of the two killers slowed down, searching for Kang Zhefu with anxious eyes.Several passengers who were close to them were scared away by the two sharp machetes. At this moment, the train began to make the sound of gas jets, and the doors were about to close. At the moment when the door was about to close, Kang Zhefu dodged into the compartment.This quick movement was noticed by the tall and thin killer. "Go in!" When the tall man shouted, the doors had already been closed, and the train began to move slowly. The fat man gritted his teeth, raised the sharp knife in his hand, and slashed towards the car door with fierce force. The thick glass with anti-collision effect on the car door was smashed under the blade like a fragile biscuit. The two ran along the direction of the train, and jumped into the compartment through the hole in the window lightly one by one. The three blacks sitting in the carriage shrank together in fright.A shaggy-haired Puerto Rican hoodlum in a leather jacket stood leaning against a steel railing, directly facing the fat killer. The Puerto Rican gangster saw the big knife in the fat man's hand, and cursed in English with a strong Spanish accent: "What the Fuck..." At the same time, he reached into the jacket with his right hand and touched the 9mm pistol stuck in the holster under his arm . The fat man showed murderous intent. When the gangster drew his pistol halfway, a silver light beam swept across his belly. A tooth-piercing sound of metal grinding. The waist and abdomen of the Puerto Rican, together with the railing post behind him, were chopped into two pieces! The fat man took back the machete with an undamaged blade, stepped over the hooligan's body, and ran towards the rear of the car on the floor of the car full of blood and guts. The tall man followed closely behind. One of the middle-aged black men curled up on the seat was so frightened that he lost control of himself.He had never seen such brutal killing on the streets of Harlem. The fat man kicked open the door at the end of the carriage.New York trains still use the old ones that connect the carriages with hooks, and the distance between the carriages is a foot. The fat man opened the other car door on the opposite side.In this way, the two killers crossed one car after another, searching for Kang Zhefu's location. The two entered the last section of the train.Kang Zhefu was still missing. "Impossible!" cried the tall man. "I clearly saw him get into the car!" "Did he get out of the car again at the last moment?" Fatty's voice was very loud.It seems that the tall man is his subordinate. The tall man shook his head. "I looked out once when the train left the station. There was no sign of him on the platform." "Where's on the track?" The fat man said angrily, "Maybe he jumped from the gap in the truck to the side of the track when the train just left the station, and then ran back to the station..." Cold sweat dripped from the tall man's forehead.Karta's majestic face appeared in his mind.He immediately took out a mobile phone from the inside pocket of his suit. The fat man put the machete back into the scabbard inside his suit, snatched the phone from the tall man's hand, and dialed a series of numbers. "Admiral? I'm Kekule." Fatty's voice was filled with awe. "I'm...sorry, we... I lost track of him...he led us away, he should still be near the station on Thirty-fourth Street, please send someone...yes...sorry, we will be in the next Get off at one stop, and come as soon as possible. Yes... as ordered...sorry..." When the train arrived at the Forty-second Street station, the two killers got out of the train and ran for the steps of the platform.They had no fear of being stopped by the police—murders, robberies, and rapes on night trains are commonplace in New York. The train doors closed again.The body started slowly and continued to drive north. Kang Zhefu, who was lying on one of the carriages, let out a sigh of relief.He was still thinking about how to get out if the killer was still on the train. As soon as he boarded the train just now, he quickly opened the door at the end of the carriage, and climbed onto the roof to hide in the gap between the trucks.This move really fooled the other party. Now in the dark tunnel, Kang Zhefu was thinking hard about how to survive the night safely and arrive at the "Haiquan Enterprise" building in the business district east of Midtown on time tomorrow morning. ——Is there any passage that will not be discovered? ... Kang Zhefu looked at both sides of the tunnel, his eyes suddenly flashed with excitement.
早上十时十一分，曼克顿东侧第四十七与第四十八街之间一条冷清的窄巷中央，一片地下水道圆盖自下向上缓缓掀开，厚重的圆盖翻倒到一旁。 康哲夫短发的头颅从水道洞口伸出。乍现的阳光令他一时间睁不开眼睛。 他勉力爬到地面上。整整一夜在地下水道中行走，腹中又空空如也，他的体力降到了低点。一张脸沾满了污垢，胸前的衬衫染成暗灰色。 他知道自己没有时间休息。 康哲夫并没从正面走进“海全企业”的纽约分部大楼。杀手可能正在街上等着他。 远远绕过半圈之后，他窜进了大楼用以起卸货物和垃圾的后门，进入大楼地牢的停车场，小心避过警卫员的耳目。 他在停车场的男洗手间内逗留了五分钟，洗净双手和脸庞，从水龙头喝了好几口水，这才吁了一口气。 登上走火用的阶梯后，康哲夫推开太平门，进入大堂的升降机廊道。正在等候升降机的人全都向他投以奇异的目光。 康哲夫钻出升降机廊道，进入了正面的大堂。他只希望对方不会在自己的地方公然动手。 他没有理会正过来阻拦的一名制服警卫，径自走向大理石制的接待柜台。 大堂是典型纽约式商厦的普通设计，建于六、七十年代。光滑的大理石地板。木质的外层墙壁跟圆柱。正面墙壁的巨大时钟下挂着一幅油画肖像，康哲夫知道画中的老年肥胖男人就是“海全企业”总裁阮琪。 坐在接待柜台后的一位身材略胖的金发小姐，向康哲夫那身又破又脏的西服投以惊讶的眼光。 “早安。”眼神带着惶惑的胖小姐仍不失礼貌，展露出可掬的笑容。 “我约见了贵公司的经理李先生。”康哲夫已把台词练习过几遍。“我的名字是雷伊·刘。” “请等一会。”胖小姐捡起桌上的电话筒，以内线与楼上的办公厅联络。 从后面赶来的那个警卫向康哲夫摆出戒备的姿态，右手按着腰上的警棒。“戴维丝小姐，有什么麻烦吗？” 刚结束了通话的胖小姐连忙向那警卫摆手。“不。这位是李先生的客人。”她恭谨地向康哲夫说：“刘先生，请用升降机往三十三楼。李先生已在等候。”
升降机越过了二十九楼之后，内面便只余康哲夫一人。他凝视头上的单位数字闪灯一个接一个地亮起。 升降机门从中央打开。一名穿着称身灰色西服、样貌看似中国人的矮小男子已在门前等候。毕竟在纽约这个混杂千百人种的都市，要确定一个人的真正国籍相当不易。 康哲夫察觉眼前的男子跟哥喃汉非常相似：一张平凡得让人一别过头便会忘记的脸。 “我是李隆生，本企业纽约分部的会计经理。”男子自我介绍后，向办公厅的走廊招手。“这边请。” 走廊两旁布着密密麻麻的办公桌。人人神情木然地埋首工作，纪律明显比美国本土的企业严谨。只有偶尔几名迎面而来的职员向李隆生甚有礼貌地问安。 李隆生的办公室一如他本人般毫不起眼。 装饰性的陈设只有桌上一座小小的牧羊犬塑像。两边墙壁架子上整齐排列着档案、帐目、字典和法律书籍。 正面的办公桌后原本是一面玻璃幕，但此际放下了百叶帘，看不见外头繁盛喧闹的街景。 李隆生把房门上锁，随后又从口袋掏出另一串钥匙，打开办公室左面一道钢门。 康哲夫污秽的皮鞋踏着厚地毯，随着李隆生走了进去。 内里是一间只有十平方尺丁方的小房间。李隆生把钢门反锁后，房间便完全密封。没有窗户，正面却有一道看来极为厚重的保险库大门，是用船舰舵轮般的转盘打开的类型。 “请稍候。”李隆生从西服内袋掏出一张塑胶卡片。 保险库门旁有一副数字键盘。李隆生先把卡片插入键盘上方的槽口，再按键盘输入一串数码。 “我是李隆生。”他朝着门旁壁上一个麦克风说。康哲夫猜到那是声音识别系统。 键盘侧一点小绿灯随电子音响亮起了。李隆生把卡片收回口袋里。 他随之转动保险库门上两个细小的轮式密码锁，这个程序花了差不多半分钟才完成。 李隆生再次提起那串钥匙，小心挑选出其中一条插进库门的匙孔中，扭转了三圈。保险库门传出一记轻快的电子响声。 李隆生扭旋门上的转盘。保险库门向外逐点打开，直至张成一条仅容侧身而过的门缝。 康哲夫率先进去。保险库非常巨大，两侧排列着钢材制的文件柜。他猜想里面放满了一叠叠现钞、债券和股票。 随之步进的李隆生转动库门内的轮子。达半尺厚的钢门关上时发出深沉的异声。李隆生把转轮中央一根短小的杠杆扳下。“这样外头的人绝对无法打开这道门。”他微笑解释。 李隆生领着康哲夫走到保险库中央。这儿空无一物。 李隆生蹲下来，掀起地毯上一条夹缝。下面出现一个小匙孔。 他掏出第三条钥匙插进去。向左转动两圈半，再向右转动四圈。匙孔发出“卡”的一声异响。 李隆生伸出右脚踏踏匙孔旁。一片钢地板从地毯下轻轻弹开拱起。李隆生把整块钢板揭开，暴露出下面一个足容人身的洞穴。内里透出黄色的亮光。 “请康先生到下面去。”李隆生说。 “要到下一层楼吗？”康哲夫俯首瞧向垂直的洞穴。洞穴其中一面壁上有钢制爬梯，下面亮着黄色的小灯。“是到三十二楼去？” 李隆生摇摇头。“你要到的地方，是这幢大楼的三十二楼与三十三楼之间，是一层不存在于一般人认识中的空间。”他顿一顿又道：“也就是康先生此行最后的目的地。” ——媞莉亚就在下面吗？ 康哲夫叹服无言。这样隐密的设计的确超乎一般人的想象。 他钻下洞穴，双手握住冰冷的爬梯。李隆生把上面的钢板拉合，随着也爬了下去。 梯子并不长，攀了四步便到达地板。 康哲夫踏上了一条走廊的尽头。宽度仅容两人步过、排列着黄色照明灯的走廊另一头是一道双敞门。门前有一条站立的人影，看来十分高大。 两人以不缓不急的步伐走过去。康哲夫的心跳不由自主地加速。 在门前守卫的是一名全身穿着黑色军服的壮汉，身材比康哲夫高出两、三寸。方形的脸庞坚硬得像岩石。壮汉手持MP5A3轻机枪，腰上佩有短剑和几排弹夹，额顶上架着一副红外光夜视镜。 康哲夫察觉壮汉腰上短剑的制式奇异而古雅、跟一身现代化军事装备甚不协调。 壮汉以鹰隼般的目光扫视康哲夫。 “这位是'主公'的客人康先生。”李隆生对那壮汉说。 "Open the door." 壮汉咧嘴一笑，把手上机枪的保险钮拨到“连射”的位置，举起枪口瞄准康哲夫。 “你干什么？”李隆生挡在康哲夫身前。“要违抗'主公'的命令吗？” “我只接到喀尔塔提督的命令：把这个中国人杀死。”壮汉的声线粗哑。“你不想陪葬便躲开一旁。” 康哲夫额上冷汗淋漓，却苦思不出任何脱脸方法。走廊又直又狭，毫无闪躲之处；他与对方还有一段距离，无法在壮汉扳机之前先发制人。 “康先生，不要试图拿这位李经理作人质。”壮汉狞笑。“我会毫不犹疑地先射杀他。” “李先生，你先返回上面吧。”康哲夫闭目。“你没有必要捱子弹。” 李隆生发出爽朗的笑声，回首瞧着康哲夫。“看来'主公'没有看错人。” 壮汉眼见李隆生全无退意，目中闪露出杀机。“你真的愿意跟他一起变成蜂巢吗？” “安全带康先生进去是'主公'给我的命令。”李隆生异常镇静的说。“在我有生之年，我从未令'主公'失望过。” 壮汉咬着下唇，把枪举得更前。 “你连同胞也要杀吗？”李隆生义正词严地喝问。 壮汉脸色一阵青白，但仍强辩：“举凡我朔国文臣武将，都必须有在必要之际牺牲殉死的觉悟。这是喀尔塔提督的教诲。” “那个疯子！”李隆生叱骂。 康哲夫立时察觉不妙。在军人世界中，深得部下尊崇的将领比神更不可侵犯。 壮汉的脸色果然变了。这次把枪口对准李隆生的心窝。 扣在扳机上的食指即将运力的一瞬间，壮汉身后那道外层铺上厚厚防垫的大门自内里拉开了一线。 “把枪放下。不得对客人无礼。”一把苍老的声音，却带着不怒而威的逼力。 壮汉的身体立时有如被尖针刺得泄气的皮球，慌惶地锁上机枪的保险钮，垂手站到一旁。 出现在大门之后的是一名身穿古式绣银长袍的矮小老者，头上浓长的白发整齐地梳理束成辫子，唇上和下巴蓄着又短又硬的花白须，皱纹满布的一双眼睛透出奇异的亮光。 康哲夫却对这种光采非常熟悉：是拥有崇高权力者贯满欲望的瞳光。 两名同样身穿奇异古服的魁壮男人，背上交叉背着双剑，紧紧拱护在老者身旁。康哲夫一眼看出，这两个剑士是那种随时愿意放弃生命的可怕角色，也就是中国古书上所形容的“死士”。 老者伸出左手向康哲夫一招。那只手掌的中指上戴着一枚硕大的黄铜指环。原本护在康哲夫身前的李隆生也立时垂首侍立在走廊一旁。 康哲夫想：这种一招手间便令部下感到无地自容的魔力，只有古代的皇室贵胄才能拥有吧？ 老者向康哲夫展出融人心魄的微笑。 “康哲夫先生，欢迎光临我新月朔国的临时首都——。”
Notes:
The windows of the two-story log cabin in the middle of the ranch were dark.There was no smoke coming from the chimney.The original herd inside the pasture fence is gone.Only four days apart, the ranch has lost all life. Kang Zhefu turned his head to look at the wooden sign next to him that said the ranch's advertisement for sale.Nailed to it was a small strip of wood marked "SOLD." ——Tilia, did you buy it? Kang Zhefu slowly climbed down the grassy slope and approached the pasture cautiously.He had gone through a lot of hardships to escape here, and he didn't want to be shot through the body with a shotgun by the ranch owner as a thief. He managed to climb over the fence outside the pasture.Pain in right chest.The condition of the wound was not good, and the anti-inflammatory medicine that Father Fernandez gave him had run out again. Kang Zhefu quickly approached the center of the manor with light steps, and reached one of the walls of the wooden house.The curtains in the windows were all drawn down, making it impossible to see what was going on inside the house. Kang Zhefu groped into the small garden behind the house.There is a small back door there.It was the kind of small door lock that could be opened with a credit card.But Kang Zhefu doesn't even have a single banknote on him now. Just as he was thinking about how to open the small door, a man's voice came from inside the door. "Is that Mr. Kang?" He said in English. Kang Zhefu froze for a moment, and immediately put on a defensive posture. "Come in, please. The door is unlocked." The weakness and pain of the body made Kang Zhefu's thinking ability much slower than usual.However, during the years of drug addiction in the Mercenary Corps, he had become accustomed to fighting with his brain disturbed.He meditated.The tone of the other party did not seem to be hostile.If it is a killer sent by the police, CIA or "Shuo Guo", they will definitely not sound a warning. He took a deep breath and pushed the little door open. The room was pitch black, and from the residual food and oily smoke in the air, Kang Zhefu concluded that it was the kitchen. After his eyes got used to the darkness, he made out a figure sitting behind a large dining table in front of him.The man sat quietly, with his elbows resting on the table and his chin resting on his hands.A completely non-aggressive pose. "Mr. Kang, please close the door, it will be easier to talk." This time Kang Zhefu heard clearly: the man's English has a slight special accent.People who hear it for the first time will never notice the difference—except for Kang Zhefu who misses Tilia day and night. The man's peculiar accent was exactly the same as Tilia's. "Are you from 'Suo Country'?" Kang Zhefu took off his peaked cap. "My country's name is 'Myersan'." The man pressed a light button on the wall behind him.A light bulb lights up in the center of the kitchen ceiling. "Its meaning is just like your Excellency said: New Moon Shuo Kingdom." Kang Zhefu looked at the man in front of him: small eyes, very sparse eyebrows, low and small nose, darker complexion than ordinary Orientals, a face without any character, similar to people from Southeast Asian countries.A black suit is very fitting.The overall impression is that of a middle-level government official, a car lock pusher, or an accountant's staff, in short, the type that does not attract people to take a second look. Kang Zhefu found something on the wooden table: the "Legend of the Moon Kingdom" given to him by Professor Mendoza.In the middle of the book is the pierced sword hole. "Tilliam Logy did not misunderstand the person." The man said, "Mr. Kang can really escape here." "You mean Tilia? Where is she?" "She has returned to our place. She is very safe, Mr. Kang can rest assured. I personally arranged all the procedures for her return." The man's eyes revealed confidence. "Tilia's full name is Wenluo Tilia Luoji. The surname 'Wenluo' means 'song' and was the surname of a queen in ancient my country. In the subsequent era of great division, the Wenluo tribe It is also a vassal of one of the separatists, and Tilian Luoji is his descendant." The man points to the book on the table. "These historical events are also recorded in this book." "Did Tilia tell you to wait for me here?" Kang Zhefu showed an anxious expression.This is a rare thing for him - he has never liked to expose his emotions to the eyes of others. The man thought for a while. "You can also say that. She did ask me to do so before leaving. In addition, we have something to talk to Mr. Kang about." "Aren't you going to kill me?" "That was just a terrible misunderstanding." The man smiled. "I'm sorry for hurting your Excellency. But someone in our country acted without permission and wrongly ordered to kill." ——Is it a misunderstanding to kill Da Kui? Kang Zhefu originally wanted to say this, but felt that it was not the time to ask such a question. "What does your country want to talk to me about?" "I have no right to discuss this important matter with Mr. Kang." The man looked very serious. "My name is just a small official in our country. My mission is to bring Mr. Kang back to the capital of our country and meet with the most important people in our country in person." "Why do you want me to go back with you?" "Tilia is waiting for you there." Kang Zhefu seemed to have been hit to the heart all at once.He was silent for a while. "Do you believe me? Can you be sure that I am not an undercover agent deliberately let go by the CIA?" "There are people from us in the CIA too," Granny said. "Mr. Kang, you are no longer tolerated by the U.S. government. Even if you tell them everything you know now, it will not do much harm to our country. It is useless to arrest me to the CIA now. I hold a Malaysian passport with the name Called 'Wu Wenfang', a furniture merchant by profession. You won't find any other clues, and you won't see Tilia again." Kang Zhefu pulled out a wooden chair across from Granny Han, sat down and bowed his head in thought. "Mr. Kang." Brother Nanhan straightened his tie. "If you want to see Tilia again, you have no other choice." Kang Zhefu buried his eyes in his palms. "When are we leaving?" Brother Nanhan smiled in relief. "Don't worry, Mr. Kang. What you need most now is a good doctor."
During the two months of convalescence in a secret private hospital in Bordeaux, a port in southwestern France, Kang Zhefu did not shave at all, and now his dark and thick beard has changed his entire face shape. After changing his hair, which was originally neat like a corporate executive, into a short crew cut like a soldier, Ge Nanhan took pictures of him and made a fake passport for him.Kang Zhefu saw at a glance that the person who made the fake Singapore passport was a first-class expert.The entry visas of several countries are stamped inside. Kang Zhefu set off from Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport to Bangkok, Thailand with this passport named "Wang Yongbo", then went south to Indonesia, went east to Papua New Guinea, and entered New Zealand in the southern hemisphere. Ge Nanhan, who was waiting for him in Wellington, the capital of New Zealand, arranged another passport for him. He was amazed by the safety measures of the "Suoguo people". This time, Kang Zhefu set off as "Liu Weiming", an overseas Chinese in Australia, and rested for five days in Honolulu, Hawaii.While walking on the beach of Waikiki at dusk, Kang Zhefu felt a strange sigh when he thought that he was still desperately fleeing on the opposite side of the earth more than two months ago. After the plane arrived in Vancouver, Canada, Graham was waiting for him outside the airport as expected.What I received was a long-distance bus ticket. The long journey began to tire Kang Zhefu.But when he thought of Tilia's face, he cheered up again and watched the unchanged scenery outside the car window.On both sides of the road are endless fields and plains, and occasionally pass by a gas station with a restaurant.I stopped twice on the mountain road, both because of a small herd of wild goats blocking the road. When the bus passed an MTB (multi-purpose off-road bicycle), Kang Zhefu couldn't help but look a few more times at the rider in colorful tights.The driver didn't look back at him, just lowered his head and stepped on the bare road ahead.After a while, the bicycle turned into a small black speck and was thrown far behind. It was the end of August when we arrived in Toronto on the east coast of Canada.His hair has grown a bit, but it is still a monk-like crew cut, no different from the "Liu Weiming" in the passport. When Granny ordered him to go south to Boston, USA by land, he guessed that he was already approaching his destination.Otherwise, Golanghan would not have asked him to risk crossing the customs of the continental United States. On the long-distance bus, Kang Zhefu had fully practiced his Australian-accented English—he had come into contact with many native Australians when he was in the mercenary regiment, and this job was not too difficult. The customs officer was deceived by his obvious accent, not to mention that he had also been in and out of Hawaii once. Seven hours later, Cranhan also came with him.He picked up Kang Zhefu who was waiting at the airport by car. The car circles the city center. "Leave your passport to me." Granny, who was sitting in the driver's seat, said to Kang Zhefu, who was in the back seat, "The paper bag next to you is full of everything you need." After Kang Zhefu handed over his passport to Granny, he opened the light brown ordinary shopping bag.a wallet.A stack of US dollar bills and a dozen small change.The banknotes are all old.There are two other documents, one is a California driver's license, and the other is a social security card for a US citizen. "The name is still 'Liu Weiming', and the foreign name is 'Rey'." Ge Nanhan said after putting the Australian passport in the inner pocket of his suit. Names. You’re an American, don’t worry about accents and slang.” "I have always had a question." Kang Zhefu asked when he put the money and documents into the black wallet, "Did you know me very early?" "You'll know the answer soon enough." "Where am I going next?" "The place where you were born." Brother Nanhan smiled. "That city that is both dreaded and coveted." He said and handed Kang Zhefu a ticket from Boston to New York. The car stopped beside Boston Common.It is near the bus terminal, just for Kang Zhefu to take the bus to the airport. "At eight o'clock in the evening the day after tomorrow, go to the observation deck on the eighty-sixth floor of the Empire State Building. Someone will tell you where to go there." Conan Han didn't even look away from the beginning to the end. "You'll never see me again." After Kang Zhefu got off the car, Conanhan drove back to the forty-six-story "Ritz-Carlton" hotel within five minutes. After handing over the car to the waiter to park it, he walked quickly to the elevator in the hotel lobby.Although he no longer needs to lead Kang Zhefu, he still has a lot of work to do, including contacting his contact person in New York, destroying Kang Zhefu's false documents, etc. As he walked through the thickly carpeted corridor on the twelfth floor, Conan Han's face remained unchanged.He didn't care about Kang Zhefu's safety at all. But the moment he opened the door to the room, the steel-like confidence on his face collapsed. In the supposedly empty single room, a tall and muscular man in a black leather jacket sat on the bed.Although the sitting posture is very relaxed, the man naturally exudes a strong aura. The man wore a pair of sunglasses, his long black and brown hair was tied into a ponytail, and he had a mustache on his lips and chin.There is a fresh scar on the right ear. "Kalta!" Granny's voice was trembling. "You... why are you here?" He quickly closed the door. "Guy who doesn't understand etiquette! You should call me 'Your Excellency Admiral'!" the man Karta scolded. "Where is that Chinese man?" "What Chinese?" Brother Nanhan regained his usual composure. "Don't play tricks in front of me! A little 'postman', your life and death are in my hands! Tell me, where is Kang Zhefu?" "I can't tell anyone without the order of 'Master'." Ge Nanhan looked firm. "You also know that he is the guest of the 'Master', you can't do anything to him! The last time you...Your Excellency acted without authorization, the 'Master' was furious, you should not act beyond your authority..." "All I know is that he is the enemy! Guedlian fell on him—we can't even get his body back!" Kartar's voice was like a roar. "I heard that Chaidelian completed the 'Blood Moon' on his body before he died. That means it is very obvious - we want us to avenge him!" "Your Excellency cannot disobey the orders of the 'lord'..." Karta smiled. "It doesn't matter if you don't tell me. Anyway, I know you're going to take him back to the 'capital'. My subordinates will find him in New York..." Karta stood up, took off his sunglasses, and revealed Xinghuo's dazzling pupils. "He has no chance of meeting the 'Lord' alive."
Fifteen hours later, Kang Zhefu wore gold-rimmed glasses, a purple and yellow ball cap of the Los Angeles professional basketball team "Lakers", a light blue windbreaker, and washed-white Levi's 501 jeans, and he wore white Nikes. Air blue sneakers, stepping out of LaGuardia Airport in New York. New York.The heart of American culture and economy. It is also the place where Kang Zhefu was born and grew up.
Kang Zhefu stood on the west side of Central Park in Manhattan, New York, in Room 3 on the first floor of the huge and magnificent "American Museum of Natural History" between Seventy-seventh Street and Eighty-first Street. The exhibition hall is called "Man and Nature".Kang Zhefu faced a group of model dolls of ancient nomads.Lifelike dolls of children and women weave clothes and milk goats.The strong male knights cleaned and trimmed the hard bows for the horses. They are just a few of the more than 34 million exhibits in the world's largest natural history museum. Kang Zhefu breathed the breath of the past in the exhibition hall. The "Museum of Natural History" was Kang Zhefu's favorite place to hang out when he was young.Many Sunday mornings, he couldn't wait to take the bus from Downtown's Chinatown, and often stared blankly at the 34-ton giant meteorite, or the world's tallest building in the Roosevelt Memorial facing the museum entrance (5 Ten feet) of dinosaur bone fossils, until the ecstasy. As he grew older, Kang Zhefu began to realize how ironic it was to build this natural memorial in New York. While he was staring at the original scale model of the whale, behind the huge columns of the New York Stock Exchange on Wall Street, which was nine kilometers away from him, someone moved their fingers and made a huge sum of money that could not be spent in a lifetime; Up to 100,000 street sleepers, sleeping under walls painted with bright graffiti or on benches in underground railway stations; on the splendid and luxurious Fifth Avenue, the 128-carat diamond in Tifanny's jewelry store is shining At the same time, in Harlem in the north, a 14-year-old black drug dealer with a long and heavy gold chain on his neck and gold rings on his fingers lay down in front of the flames of a light machine gun; People started haunting, wasting their youth in alcohol and sex... And the huge whale in front of him, like the flaming torch held by the goddess of Liberty Island, remained motionless. At this time, the young Kang Zhefu would feel a sense of loneliness. Today, Kang Zhefu, who is almost thirty-three years old, returned to New York City for unexpected reasons and returned to this long-lost museum.The sense of loneliness that comes from being out of tune with a highly capitalist society is stronger than when I was a bewildered teenager. He is determined to seize the only happiness in front of him. Even if it's just for the last time, he wants to see Tilia again. Just as he turned around and walked away from the exhibition hall, he suddenly smelled a little dangerous smell. Although it was only a very slight strange feeling, like all the fighters who were born and died in the Shura field, Kang Zhefu trusted his intuition more than the intelligence data analyzed by the computer. "Have you tracked here so quickly?..." The sense of crisis dissipated in an instant.It seems that the other party is not ready to make a move yet, right? ——I can only hope that I am faster than the other party. Kang Zhefu made up his mind and took another step. There is only one road ahead.
Throughout the noon and evening, Kang Zhefu has been wandering around in New York City, taking taxis, subways and buses, walking through the empty grassland of Central Park three times, and walking through the front and rear portals, vertical and horizontal corridors and staircases of various old residential buildings. On the way, I went to a department store and bought a whole set of ready-made black suits, white shirts, black ties, hats and leather shoes to change into. I carried a business suitcase containing only a copy of The New York Times and put on my sunglasses. All the anti-tracking methods that I have learned. However, when he arrived at the luxurious and clean Empire State Building at the junction of Fifth Avenue and Thirty-third, he still didn't have much confidence.After all, he was alone, but surrounded by too many hidden enemies. His only "weapon" is a thorough knowledge of the terrain of New York streets. The 1,475.4-foot, 102-story Empire State Building was once honored as "the tallest building in the world" and became one of the proud symbols of New York City. But today, the mansion once climbed by a fifty-foot-tall chimpanzee on the silver screen is facing the pitiful fate of being up for sale and not being bought. Taking the elevator to the viewing platform on the eighty-sixth floor, Kang Zhefu walked to the south-facing railing and overlooked the night scene of downtown Manhattan.The clusters of high-rise buildings are like a luminous forest, and like the bony back of a huge monster, releasing a huge amount of heat energy and carbon dioxide. "Do you like New York?" A woman's voice came from behind.Kang Zhefu's shoulder trembled slightly, but he immediately determined that it was not Tilia. The woman's tall body like a model stands on Kang Zhefu's left side, looking at the night side by side with him.The fair skin does not let the French beauty, the brown straight long hair is very layered, but the beautiful side profile is obviously like an oriental person.The dark blue suit and high-heeled shoes are high-end products that can only be found in famous stores on Fifth Avenue. Kang Zhefu did not expect that the person who contacted him was such a beautiful woman who made people's hearts flutter. "I insist on living in New York." The woman's voice was very beautiful. "It's the pinnacle of the world. The place where the highest dreams come true." The woman turned her face to Kang Zhefu.Eyes that were as clear as water and full of charming style stared at him. From her bright red lips spat the names of two streets.Kang Zhefu knew that the junction was on the east side of Midtown, not far from the current Empire State Building.There is a business district, where the headquarters of multinational corporations such as the IBM Building, AT&T Building, Philip Morris Tobacco Company Building, etc. are located, and the United Nations Headquarters stands on the east coast. "It's the branch building of 'Haiquan Enterprise'." The woman said. "Go to the reception to find Manager Li, tell me the alias on your current ID, and someone will naturally take you to the place you want to go. Arrive between ten and eleven tomorrow morning." Kang Zhefu knew that "Haiquan Enterprise" is a large Chinese-funded enterprise in Southeast Asia, mainly engaged in shipping and steel construction projects. The founder and current president Ruan Qiyuan was born in Vietnam. He is one of the few most courageous Chinese rich men in the world. Comparable to Ryuichiro Takahashi. ——Even "Haiquan Enterprise" is involved?How powerful is this Shuo country? ... "I've prepared a hotel room for you to rest tonight." The beauty handed Kang Zhefu a room key.The hotel is a mid-level hotel, unobtrusive. Kang Zhefu was tired of being manipulated like a doll for more than three months.But the beautiful woman in front of her suddenly said, "You are a very good-looking man." Kang Zhefu couldn't deal with it for a while. The woman stretched out her slender fingers and flicked her long hair.A burst of high-end perfume entered Kang Zhefu's nose with the evening wind. She caressed the silver earring on the left, "How is it? May I go back to the hotel with you to sleep? I promise that after dawn, you will never see my face again." Kang Zhefu breathed a sigh of relief when the woman spoke directly.He smiled, "Sleeping with a beautiful woman like you is probably the dream of all men in the world. But..." He didn't continue. "Is it because of Tilia?" Kang Zhefu was slightly surprised. "I know Tilia." The woman smiled and sighed, staring at the bright night in the city center again. "The last time I saw her, she was only...sixteen years old. At that time, I already felt that there was a unique charm hidden in her immature face, a charm that did not belong to the world...a strong and The autonomous vitality...is hard to describe, but even I am amazed.” She looked at Kang Zhefu again, "Only unique men will be attracted by her charm....You, and Karta..." "Karta?" "You have to be careful with this man." The beauty's face turned pale. "He is the vanguard general of our country, the number one swordsman under the 'lord'. A man who will not hesitate to kill in order to get what he likes. He wants to put you to death just for Tilia. Even the 'lord' can't control he." The woman turned and walked towards the elevator lobby. "What's your name?" The woman just turned her head and smiled, raised her soft brown hair again, stepped on her high-heeled shoes, and walked towards the elevator door with a graceful posture.
Belle walked south along Fifth Avenue after leaving the Empire State Building.The luxury shops on both sides of the street have long been closed, but there are still many tourists on the sidewalk.They stopped in front of one after another exquisitely designed and softly lit window, knowing that it was futile, but still trying to satisfy their hunger for material and vanity with vision. After walking for more than ten minutes, the beauty stopped and looked at the driveway, ready to wave for a taxi. "." The hand that the beauty was about to extend froze.She turned around. Karta with long hair and shawl was standing less than one meter behind her.Although he had changed into light blue casual clothes, he still had that aura that ordinary New York gangsters would not dare to approach. The beauty Jiaman frowned tightly. "Didn't I tell you not to look for me again? Don't affect my work." "What's wrong with you?" Karta smiled. "The expression in that second just now was terribly nervous. It's the same as Brother Nanhan. Am I really that scary?" "Have you seen Goranhan?" "Relax, Jiaman." Karta patted Jiaman's arm, motioning her to move forward together.In order not to stand out in the street, she had to obey his wishes. "Where is the Chinese? Around here?" "I can't understand what you're saying?" "You are my woman. Are you going to betray me?" Jiaman sneered, "I 'used' to be your woman." She paused, and then said, "Now I only obey the orders of the 'lord'. You should do the same." "I can't do it." Karta's fierce eyes flashed in the night. "For the sake of Tilia, and also for the martyrdom of Chaidelian, I cannot let Kang Zhefu live. Since Chaidelian has painted 'Xueshuo' on his body, the Chinese will pay back the blood to the sword of Shuoguo on the sword of a warrior." Jiaman bit her lower lip. "Since you killed him to get Tilia, why do you expect me to tell you his whereabouts? I..." "You're right." Karta smiled again, with a hint of self-confidence in control of everything. "Actually, I saw you. I'm sure he's not far away. I just want to make sure from your response." Jiaman was stunned. "You...you have sent your subordinates..." "He won't survive tonight."
After entering the 34th Street, Sixth Avenue underground railway station's uplink entrance, Kang Zhefu suddenly heard a faint buzzing sound in his ears. The muscles in his sides tensed up like a conditioned reflex.This is a natural response to sensing a crisis. As he slowly descended the stairs, Kang Zhefu kept scanning around the dark corridor; tattered advertising posters remained on the walls sprayed with graffiti pictures and words; There are all kinds of garbage that is indispensable to modern civilization; the scattered pedestrians on the stairs and in the corridors have the usual indifferent faces of urban people... The corridors are winding and winding, and there are many dark corners where criminals can ambush and attack. ——Is it just a robber... The buzzing sound suddenly intensified.He looked back subconsciously. Two men in suits and leather shoes were holding briefcases, talking and laughing as they stepped down the stairs, about ten meters behind Kang Zhefu. The man on the left is very tall and thin, but his steps are steady and powerful; the companion beside him is as fat as a round rock.Both of them looked like Asians. Kang Zhefu turned his head quickly, and still kept the same pace as before, walking forward along the corridor. After turning a corner, Kang Zhefu immediately threw away the suitcase in his hand and sprinted towards the depths of the station at full speed! ——He was sure those two men were killers! The sound of footsteps chasing after him proved that his idea was correct. When he ran to the end of a long straight corridor, Kang Zhefu turned his head slightly, and saw two men had pulled out shining blades from their suits.It is the kind of broad-bladed machete used by the U.S. Army. The blade is about a foot long. What surprised Kang Zhefu was that the fat man ran as fast as the tall man.The purpose of Kang Zhefu's escape was to separate his opponents and knock them down one by one, but this strategy has failed. There was another long staircase ahead, and Kang Zhefu jumped down one after another, dodging between two pedestrians, and finally rushed to the entrance of the platform below. Kang Zhefu followed the rushing momentum, pushed forward with his left palm, and jumped over the coin gate at the entrance lightly, completely ignoring the guards' shouts and curses. The watchman's voice suddenly stopped, and he hid far away - two men with sharp machetes jumped over the gate together. A train was just pulling into the platform.It turned out that the silver metal car walls were as dirty as if they had been drilled through a coal mine hole. The train hadn't stopped yet, of course Kang Zhefu couldn't stand and wait.He continued to run along the edge of the platform towards the rear of the train. A few meters in front of him and to the right is a waiting bench, on which a street sleeper covered in dirty clothes is lying.The homeless sleeper seemed to be awakened by Kang Zhefu's footsteps, he half propped himself up, and stretched out his hand to wipe his sleepy eyes. Kang Zhefu ran across the bench—— ——A silver light suddenly flashed from the front of the sleeper's chest! Kang Zhefu turned his head for a while, and the tip of a double-edged dagger was approaching between his eyebrows!
Jiaman suddenly laughed. Karta shrugged his eyebrows. "why are you laughing?" "You underestimate the Chinese." "...?" Jiaman brushed her long hair beside her ear. "I bet you... he'll make it to the 'capital' alive. If you lose, marry me. Okay?" "You are bound to lose." Karta's eyes flashed with anger. "You can bet on anything." "Just kidding. I don't want to marry a man like you at all." Jiaman sighed. "I only hope that the subordinates you sent can save their lives. They are my compatriots after all, right?"
At the same time that the "street sleeper" thrust out the sharp and ruthless sword, Kang Zhefu had already sent out a spinning kick! He had already concluded that this "sleeper" was also an enemy. ——How can someone who is so easily awakened by the sound live in a subway station?What's more, he didn't have a strong stench that matched the dirty clothes. The dagger brushed against Kang Zhefu's right ear. Kang Zhefu kicked the "homeless" left knee joint with his right foot! ——In general traditional martial arts, there are always several sets of so-called "empty hands into white blades" tricks, which are nothing more than using various complex joint grappling techniques to snatch sharp weapons from the opponent's palm; in movies, there are often scenes where the protagonist kicks the sharp blade away from the villain's hand .In fact, all these are clever tricks created by people who have never faced a real life-and-death struggle behind closed doors and based on fantasy. ——Kang Zhefu's knee-kicking attack was the most realistic and most likely "bare-handed-to-knife" move after various practical analysis.It includes all the following advantages: 1.The action is simple and powerful.The kick angle is low and the body is easier to balance. 2.Use the longest weapon (leg) to attack the closest target (knee) in a straight line, so the speed is the fastest, and the distance between the upper bodies of the two sides is the farthest, reducing the distance advantage of the opponent holding the weapon. 3.The bottom kick has the least chance of being cut by the opponent with a sharp knife. 4.One hit can make the opponent incapacitated, and can escape immediately to avoid fighting. 5.No matter how strong a person is, he cannot strengthen his joints.Concentrating on attacking the joints is the first key to the weak defeating the strong. ——Together, this is the most scientific fighting technique that Kang Zhefu learned in the mercenary regiment! Under the trampling of the hard heel, the left knee of the "street sleeper" made a trembling sound of tendon rupture, and then bent at an abnormal angle. The "sleeper" screamed and fell down.For the rest of his life he could no longer walk normally. The train came to a slow stop. Kang Zhefu didn't look at the "sleeper" again, and still ran towards the end of the platform.When he stopped to kick his opponent, the pair of killers, one tall and one fat, came closer. All train doors of the train are opened simultaneously.The passengers who got off the bus stepped onto the platform in groups, and Kang Zhefu immediately disappeared into the crowd. The pace of the two killers slowed down, searching for Kang Zhefu with anxious eyes.Several passengers who were close to them were scared away by the two sharp machetes. At this moment, the train began to make the sound of gas jets, and the doors were about to close. At the moment when the door was about to close, Kang Zhefu dodged into the compartment.This quick movement was noticed by the tall and thin killer. "Go in!" When the tall man shouted, the doors had already been closed, and the train began to move slowly. The fat man gritted his teeth, raised the sharp knife in his hand, and slashed towards the car door with fierce force. The thick glass with anti-collision effect on the car door was smashed under the blade like a fragile biscuit. The two ran along the direction of the train, and jumped into the compartment through the hole in the window lightly one by one. The three blacks sitting in the carriage shrank together in fright.A shaggy-haired Puerto Rican hoodlum in a leather jacket stood leaning against a steel railing, directly facing the fat killer. The Puerto Rican gangster saw the big knife in the fat man's hand, and cursed in English with a strong Spanish accent: "What the Fuck..." At the same time, he reached into the jacket with his right hand and touched the 9mm pistol stuck in the holster under his arm . The fat man showed murderous intent. When the gangster drew his pistol halfway, a silver light beam swept across his belly. A tooth-piercing sound of metal grinding. The waist and abdomen of the Puerto Rican, together with the railing post behind him, were chopped into two pieces! The fat man took back the machete with an undamaged blade, stepped over the hooligan's body, and ran towards the rear of the car on the floor of the car full of blood and guts. The tall man followed closely behind. One of the middle-aged black men curled up on the seat was so frightened that he lost control of himself.He had never seen such brutal killing on the streets of Harlem. The fat man kicked open the door at the end of the carriage.New York trains still use the old ones that connect the carriages with hooks, and the distance between the carriages is a foot. The fat man opened the other car door on the opposite side.In this way, the two killers crossed one car after another, searching for Kang Zhefu's location. The two entered the last section of the train.Kang Zhefu was still missing. "Impossible!" cried the tall man. "I clearly saw him get into the car!" "Did he get out of the car again at the last moment?" Fatty's voice was very loud.It seems that the tall man is his subordinate. The tall man shook his head. "I looked out once when the train left the station. There was no sign of him on the platform." "Where's on the track?" The fat man said angrily, "Maybe he jumped from the gap in the truck to the side of the track when the train just left the station, and then ran back to the station..." Cold sweat dripped from the tall man's forehead.Karta's majestic face appeared in his mind.He immediately took out a mobile phone from the inside pocket of his suit. The fat man put the machete back into the scabbard inside his suit, snatched the phone from the tall man's hand, and dialed a series of numbers. "Admiral? I'm Kekule." Fatty's voice was filled with awe. "I'm...sorry, we... I lost track of him...he led us away, he should still be near the station on Thirty-fourth Street, please send someone...yes...sorry, we will be in the next Get off at one stop, and come as soon as possible. Yes... as ordered...sorry..." When the train arrived at the Forty-second Street station, the two killers got out of the train and ran for the steps of the platform.They had no fear of being stopped by the police—murders, robberies, and rapes on night trains are commonplace in New York. The train doors closed again.The body started slowly and continued to drive north. Kang Zhefu, who was lying on one of the carriages, let out a sigh of relief.He was still thinking about how to get out if the killer was still on the train. As soon as he boarded the train just now, he quickly opened the door at the end of the carriage, and climbed onto the roof to hide in the gap between the trucks.This move really fooled the other party. Now in the dark tunnel, Kang Zhefu was thinking hard about how to survive the night safely and arrive at the "Haiquan Enterprise" building in the business district east of Midtown on time tomorrow morning. ——Is there any passage that will not be discovered? ... Kang Zhefu looked at both sides of the tunnel, his eyes suddenly flashed with excitement.
早上十时十一分，曼克顿东侧第四十七与第四十八街之间一条冷清的窄巷中央，一片地下水道圆盖自下向上缓缓掀开，厚重的圆盖翻倒到一旁。 康哲夫短发的头颅从水道洞口伸出。乍现的阳光令他一时间睁不开眼睛。 他勉力爬到地面上。整整一夜在地下水道中行走，腹中又空空如也，他的体力降到了低点。一张脸沾满了污垢，胸前的衬衫染成暗灰色。 他知道自己没有时间休息。 康哲夫并没从正面走进“海全企业”的纽约分部大楼。杀手可能正在街上等着他。 远远绕过半圈之后，他窜进了大楼用以起卸货物和垃圾的后门，进入大楼地牢的停车场，小心避过警卫员的耳目。 他在停车场的男洗手间内逗留了五分钟，洗净双手和脸庞，从水龙头喝了好几口水，这才吁了一口气。 登上走火用的阶梯后，康哲夫推开太平门，进入大堂的升降机廊道。正在等候升降机的人全都向他投以奇异的目光。 康哲夫钻出升降机廊道，进入了正面的大堂。他只希望对方不会在自己的地方公然动手。 他没有理会正过来阻拦的一名制服警卫，径自走向大理石制的接待柜台。 大堂是典型纽约式商厦的普通设计，建于六、七十年代。光滑的大理石地板。木质的外层墙壁跟圆柱。正面墙壁的巨大时钟下挂着一幅油画肖像，康哲夫知道画中的老年肥胖男人就是“海全企业”总裁阮琪。 坐在接待柜台后的一位身材略胖的金发小姐，向康哲夫那身又破又脏的西服投以惊讶的眼光。 “早安。”眼神带着惶惑的胖小姐仍不失礼貌，展露出可掬的笑容。 “我约见了贵公司的经理李先生。”康哲夫已把台词练习过几遍。“我的名字是雷伊·刘。” “请等一会。”胖小姐捡起桌上的电话筒，以内线与楼上的办公厅联络。 从后面赶来的那个警卫向康哲夫摆出戒备的姿态，右手按着腰上的警棒。“戴维丝小姐，有什么麻烦吗？” 刚结束了通话的胖小姐连忙向那警卫摆手。“不。这位是李先生的客人。”她恭谨地向康哲夫说：“刘先生，请用升降机往三十三楼。李先生已在等候。”
升降机越过了二十九楼之后，内面便只余康哲夫一人。他凝视头上的单位数字闪灯一个接一个地亮起。 升降机门从中央打开。一名穿着称身灰色西服、样貌看似中国人的矮小男子已在门前等候。毕竟在纽约这个混杂千百人种的都市，要确定一个人的真正国籍相当不易。 康哲夫察觉眼前的男子跟哥喃汉非常相似：一张平凡得让人一别过头便会忘记的脸。 “我是李隆生，本企业纽约分部的会计经理。”男子自我介绍后，向办公厅的走廊招手。“这边请。” 走廊两旁布着密密麻麻的办公桌。人人神情木然地埋首工作，纪律明显比美国本土的企业严谨。只有偶尔几名迎面而来的职员向李隆生甚有礼貌地问安。 李隆生的办公室一如他本人般毫不起眼。 装饰性的陈设只有桌上一座小小的牧羊犬塑像。两边墙壁架子上整齐排列着档案、帐目、字典和法律书籍。 正面的办公桌后原本是一面玻璃幕，但此际放下了百叶帘，看不见外头繁盛喧闹的街景。 李隆生把房门上锁，随后又从口袋掏出另一串钥匙，打开办公室左面一道钢门。 康哲夫污秽的皮鞋踏着厚地毯，随着李隆生走了进去。 内里是一间只有十平方尺丁方的小房间。李隆生把钢门反锁后，房间便完全密封。没有窗户，正面却有一道看来极为厚重的保险库大门，是用船舰舵轮般的转盘打开的类型。 “请稍候。”李隆生从西服内袋掏出一张塑胶卡片。 保险库门旁有一副数字键盘。李隆生先把卡片插入键盘上方的槽口，再按键盘输入一串数码。 “我是李隆生。”他朝着门旁壁上一个麦克风说。康哲夫猜到那是声音识别系统。 键盘侧一点小绿灯随电子音响亮起了。李隆生把卡片收回口袋里。 他随之转动保险库门上两个细小的轮式密码锁，这个程序花了差不多半分钟才完成。 李隆生再次提起那串钥匙，小心挑选出其中一条插进库门的匙孔中，扭转了三圈。保险库门传出一记轻快的电子响声。 李隆生扭旋门上的转盘。保险库门向外逐点打开，直至张成一条仅容侧身而过的门缝。 康哲夫率先进去。保险库非常巨大，两侧排列着钢材制的文件柜。他猜想里面放满了一叠叠现钞、债券和股票。 随之步进的李隆生转动库门内的轮子。达半尺厚的钢门关上时发出深沉的异声。李隆生把转轮中央一根短小的杠杆扳下。“这样外头的人绝对无法打开这道门。”他微笑解释。 李隆生领着康哲夫走到保险库中央。这儿空无一物。 李隆生蹲下来，掀起地毯上一条夹缝。下面出现一个小匙孔。 他掏出第三条钥匙插进去。向左转动两圈半，再向右转动四圈。匙孔发出“卡”的一声异响。 李隆生伸出右脚踏踏匙孔旁。一片钢地板从地毯下轻轻弹开拱起。李隆生把整块钢板揭开，暴露出下面一个足容人身的洞穴。内里透出黄色的亮光。 “请康先生到下面去。”李隆生说。 “要到下一层楼吗？”康哲夫俯首瞧向垂直的洞穴。洞穴其中一面壁上有钢制爬梯，下面亮着黄色的小灯。“是到三十二楼去？” 李隆生摇摇头。“你要到的地方，是这幢大楼的三十二楼与三十三楼之间，是一层不存在于一般人认识中的空间。”他顿一顿又道：“也就是康先生此行最后的目的地。” ——媞莉亚就在下面吗？ 康哲夫叹服无言。这样隐密的设计的确超乎一般人的想象。 他钻下洞穴，双手握住冰冷的爬梯。李隆生把上面的钢板拉合，随着也爬了下去。 梯子并不长，攀了四步便到达地板。 康哲夫踏上了一条走廊的尽头。宽度仅容两人步过、排列着黄色照明灯的走廊另一头是一道双敞门。门前有一条站立的人影，看来十分高大。 两人以不缓不急的步伐走过去。康哲夫的心跳不由自主地加速。 在门前守卫的是一名全身穿着黑色军服的壮汉，身材比康哲夫高出两、三寸。方形的脸庞坚硬得像岩石。壮汉手持MP5A3轻机枪，腰上佩有短剑和几排弹夹，额顶上架着一副红外光夜视镜。 康哲夫察觉壮汉腰上短剑的制式奇异而古雅、跟一身现代化军事装备甚不协调。 壮汉以鹰隼般的目光扫视康哲夫。 “这位是'主公'的客人康先生。”李隆生对那壮汉说。 "Open the door." 壮汉咧嘴一笑，把手上机枪的保险钮拨到“连射”的位置，举起枪口瞄准康哲夫。 “你干什么？”李隆生挡在康哲夫身前。“要违抗'主公'的命令吗？” “我只接到喀尔塔提督的命令：把这个中国人杀死。”壮汉的声线粗哑。“你不想陪葬便躲开一旁。” 康哲夫额上冷汗淋漓，却苦思不出任何脱脸方法。走廊又直又狭，毫无闪躲之处；他与对方还有一段距离，无法在壮汉扳机之前先发制人。 “康先生，不要试图拿这位李经理作人质。”壮汉狞笑。“我会毫不犹疑地先射杀他。” “李先生，你先返回上面吧。”康哲夫闭目。“你没有必要捱子弹。” 李隆生发出爽朗的笑声，回首瞧着康哲夫。“看来'主公'没有看错人。” 壮汉眼见李隆生全无退意，目中闪露出杀机。“你真的愿意跟他一起变成蜂巢吗？” “安全带康先生进去是'主公'给我的命令。”李隆生异常镇静的说。“在我有生之年，我从未令'主公'失望过。” 壮汉咬着下唇，把枪举得更前。 “你连同胞也要杀吗？”李隆生义正词严地喝问。 壮汉脸色一阵青白，但仍强辩：“举凡我朔国文臣武将，都必须有在必要之际牺牲殉死的觉悟。这是喀尔塔提督的教诲。” “那个疯子！”李隆生叱骂。 康哲夫立时察觉不妙。在军人世界中，深得部下尊崇的将领比神更不可侵犯。 壮汉的脸色果然变了。这次把枪口对准李隆生的心窝。 扣在扳机上的食指即将运力的一瞬间，壮汉身后那道外层铺上厚厚防垫的大门自内里拉开了一线。 “把枪放下。不得对客人无礼。”一把苍老的声音，却带着不怒而威的逼力。 壮汉的身体立时有如被尖针刺得泄气的皮球，慌惶地锁上机枪的保险钮，垂手站到一旁。 出现在大门之后的是一名身穿古式绣银长袍的矮小老者，头上浓长的白发整齐地梳理束成辫子，唇上和下巴蓄着又短又硬的花白须，皱纹满布的一双眼睛透出奇异的亮光。 康哲夫却对这种光采非常熟悉：是拥有崇高权力者贯满欲望的瞳光。 两名同样身穿奇异古服的魁壮男人，背上交叉背着双剑，紧紧拱护在老者身旁。康哲夫一眼看出，这两个剑士是那种随时愿意放弃生命的可怕角色，也就是中国古书上所形容的“死士”。 老者伸出左手向康哲夫一招。那只手掌的中指上戴着一枚硕大的黄铜指环。原本护在康哲夫身前的李隆生也立时垂首侍立在走廊一旁。 康哲夫想：这种一招手间便令部下感到无地自容的魔力，只有古代的皇室贵胄才能拥有吧？ 老者向康哲夫展出融人心魄的微笑。 “康哲夫先生，欢迎光临我新月朔国的临时首都——。”
Notes: