S.C.I Mystery Series Volume 5 Chapter 86

Countdown from the Murderer 16 – Magic

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The detention centre was next to the police station. Because many prisoners had to be held here temporarily, this small building had an independent security system, and was actually a small prison.

Generally speaking, prisoners do not escape from the detention centre because the number of prisoners here is much smaller than in a real prison yet there are quite a lot of officers responsible for guarding them. In addition, there is a police station next to the centre, and the base of the SWAT team is also nearby, so they can arrive at the scene in minutes, making it extremely difficult for them to escape.

At least from the time this detention centre was built until now, there have been no incidents of prisoners escaping.

But the fact that there hasn't been an escape usually means that the consequences of an escape would be more serious.

The police station building wasn't located in the middle of nowhere, so once they escaped from here, they could easily enter the downtown area and it would be difficult to catch them again.

Luckily, it happened late at night.

Just now, after Zhao Hu and Ma Han left with Qian Fu, the door was closed and there was a guard at the entrance of the detention centre. So far, the door hasn't been opened again, which means that no one inside has come out... The assassin is still in the detention centre.

When Bai Yutang arrived with the SCI members, the SWAT team also arrived.

Xiao Fei, the leader of the SWAT team, led the officers out of the vehicle and the armed SWAT team members entered the small building.

As soon as Xiao Fei saw Bai Yutang, he asked, "Captain Bai, is it your SCI's prisoner? Are they dangerous?"

Bai Yutang nodded slightly helplessly.

At the back, Zhan Zhao and Zhao Jue rubbed their hands and followed.

Zhan Zhao was excited, but first asked the director of the detention centre, "Where's Wang Meiyun?"

The director said that she had already been transferred, and as he said that, he reached out and pointed to the opposite side of the building.

The crowd looked back and saw that there was a small block on the opposite side of the building which was a temporary holding area for the convenience of transferring inmates. There was also the detention centre's infirmary inside.

The male and female inmates were held in separate cells, which were not connected and needed to be entered through two different doors. All the female prisoners were transferred to the temporary cells, while the cells where the male prisoners were held were all locked down.

Zhan Zhao signalled for Luo Tian and Qin Ou behind him to go to the vicinity of the infirmary, and for Ma Han and Zhao Hu to go to the entrance of the detention centre, and to keep an eye on their cell phones, he would give them instructions if there were any changes.

All four of them nodded and went to wait according to Zhan Zhao's arrangement.

Bai Yutang glanced at Zhan Zhao and raised an eyebrow slightly – Cat, what's on your mind?

Zhan Zhao winked at him – It's best if it doesn't get used! Not being able to use it means there's a wormhole!

Bai Yutang shook his head helplessly and signalled to Director Wang to look at the surveillance first.

There was a wounded guard sitting at the door of the surveillance room. There was still blood on his head and the medical staff was bandaging his wounds.

This guard's surname was Fang, he was the one who was attacked after first discovering that the assassin had committed suicide.

Zhan Zhao looked him up and down, then followed Bai Yutang and Xiao Fei into the surveillance room to look at the surveillance footage.

In the surveillance footage, Guard Fang walked past the room where the assassin was being held, glanced inwards, then suddenly panicked as he pulled out his walkie-talkie and shouted while taking out a key to open the door.

The cell doors in the detention centre are all electronic keys now. The lock has to be activated from the surveillance room first before the guards on the other side can open the door via the electronic key, which is a double insurance policy.

Several guards in the surveillance room said that they had received a report from Guard Fang just now that the prisoner had committed suicide and they immediately activated the cell door lock.

From the footage, Guard Fang opened the door to the room in a hurry and rushed in.

A few moments later, the assassin was seen walking out, and the moment he stepped out of the cell, the entire surveillance screen flashed, as if it was suddenly exposed.

That white light lasted for about three seconds or so before the picture immediately returned... but strangely enough, the corridor was empty and no one was there.

At that moment, Guard Fang was seen covering his head and crawling out, stumbling to his feet and walking out of the surveillance footage.

In the image captured by another surveillance device, Guard Fang met the other guards who rushed to him in the hallway.

The entire process, from the moment Guard Fang realised the problem and requested to open the door to the time the man disappeared, was just over a minute.

After another minute or so, other guards arrived at the cell door one after another.

In other words, the whole process was less than three minutes.

This was bizarre. Where did the assassin go?

The entire detention centre only had three floors, there's not much room to hide. The SWAT team members divided into three groups and checked the entire place from top to bottom, but they didn't find the assassin.

"Evil!"

The director wiped his sweat. He had been a director for so many years, but this was the first time he encountered this kind of thing.

As soon as it was said that there was something wrong with the surveillance, the crowd instinctively wondered if it had been hacked.

Bai Yutang brought Jiang Ping with him and asked him to check if the surveillance had been tampered with just like the surveillance in Wang Meiyun's neighbourhood.

Jiang Ping shook his head before checking. The surveillance system of the detention centre and the surveillance system of an ordinary community are not at the same level. The method of invading the community was just average, but it also invaded the police station?

Sure enough, after some inspection, there was no record of the surveillance footage being tampered with.

At this time, Zhan Zhao and Zhao Jue were almost in the same position, reaching out to touch their chins together and giving a quiet "Oh~"

Zhan Zhao picked up his cell phone and clicked a few times. After sending a message, he shook his head in slight disappointment, "I thought I had discovered a wormhole, but it's a trick."

Zhao Jue nodded his head in disappointment.

Bai Yutang looked at Zhan Zhao.

The two briefly exchanged glances. Bai Yutang glanced at Guard Fang, who was being bandaged by the nurse at the doorway, and then looked at Zhan Zhao.

Zhan Zhao smiled faintly and nodded.

At this time, Zhan Zhao's phone rang, it was Luo Tian calling.

Zhan Zhao picked up the phone, "Oh? Caught him, okay."

The SWAT team leader was dumbfounded, and together with the director, they looked at Zhan Zhao in disbelief, "Caught him? Where did you catch him?"

Zhan Zhao said, "Oh, in the temporary cell area, he should have been preparing to kill Wang Meiyun."

After saying that, Zhan Zhao glanced at Guard Fang at the door, then smiled at him.

Guard Fang was slightly stunned before suddenly standing up and grabbing the nurse who was wrapping his head.

The nurse was startled, but just as Guard Fang wanted to pick up the scissors on the side to hold the nurse hostage, his hand was grabbed by a hand reaching out behind him, and at the same time, another hand reached out and grabbed him by the ear.

"Aiyo... yo..."

Guard Fang cried out in pain and saw that behind him, Zhao Hu and Ma Han had arrived. Ma Han grabbed his hand and took the scissors away from him, while Zhao Hu grabbed him by the ear and asked him to let go of the nurse's hand.

......

The person was caught almost at the speed of light. Xiao Fei, the SWAT team leader, has been dealing with SCI for many years and was not too surprised, but the process was a little confusing. What's going on?

In fact, when they were in the elevator at the police station just now, Zhan Zhao had discussed this matter with Bai Yutang. There were two possibilities, one was a real wormhole, the possibility of which could basically be ruled out. The second was that he really escaped.

So what was the point of escaping? Even if he escaped from the cell, it's impossible to get out of the detention centre, he could only stay in the facility.

He was detained at the same time as Wang Meiyun and Qian Fu.

Did he escape to kill Qian Fu? He wasn't that dedicated, was he? Making up for the wrong kill before?

But Qian Fu wasn't in the cell and had already been brought away for interrogation by SCI.

Bai Yutang guessed that there was a mole in the detention centre. Zhan Zhao also thought that it was very possible, otherwise it would not be so easy to "disappear".

If there's an insider, it's impossible for him not to know that Qian Fu has been taken away, so the only person the assassin could kill after escaping was Wang Meiyun.

If the person he wanted to kill was Wang Meiyun, it made sense.

Because in order to kill Wang Meiyun, he must enter the area where the female prisoners were held.

There were two layers of guards in isolation, and while it’s not impossible to enter...

Once he "disappeared", for security reasons, the female prisoners would be sent to the temporary cells, which made it easier to start, but how should he get closer? Naturally, he would disguise himself as a guard...

The assassin who was caught was indeed wearing the guard's clothes, which were the same as the clothes these guards were wearing now.

Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao had already determined that there was something wrong with this Guard Fang when they watched the video.

Because the Guard Fang in the video, looked a bit fatter than he did now... not because he looked fatter on camera, but because he wore two sets of uniforms when he went into the cell.

After Zhan Zhao's explanation, everyone understood. This was actually very simple "magic". Zhao Zhen wasn't there today, but if he was, he probably would have laughed at this inferior technique.

This series of operations used the flash of light just now as well as the angles of the two cameras at the door of the cell.

How was that flash created? It was simple, it was a strong light.

A remote-controlled device that emitted a strong light was affixed to the underside of the cameras.

The crowd found a transparent light-emitting sheet with a magnet in Guard Fang's pocket. It was like a fridge magnet that could be attached to the frame of a surveillance camera. There was also a very small remote control button in his pocket. Once pressed, the small "fridge magnet" could emit a blinding white light, making the crowd unable to open their eyes.

The door of this cell was in a corner of the hallway. Two cameras were installed here, one facing the hallway in front of the cell door, known as camera A, which was the camera that captured the flash of light.

The other was facing a hallway on the other side of the corner and was referred to as camera B.

These two hallways were fully covered by the cameras... The only thing missing was a small area between the two cameras.

This area was where the corner was and was a right-angled area that could only go towards either A or B. It is called area C.

First, Guard Fang, who was wearing two uniforms, walked from area B into area C, at which point he reached out and attached the light emitting sheet to the camera. He then entered area A, walked to the door of the cell and made a surprised gesture, requesting that the door be opened and saying that the prisoner had committed suicide.

The lock on the cell door was activated and he entered, quickly removing his uniform and putting on the clothes the assassin had taken off.

Guard Fang then lowered his head and quickly left the cell. Just as he exited the cell, he pressed the button. The white light came on and the footage was interrupted by the bright light... He quickly ran to area C, switched off the button, and put away the illuminating sheet.

During this process, because he was wearing the killer's clothes, the crowd, although they didn't get a good look at his face, had a preconceived notion that the killer had run out!

Guard Fang stood in area C. He quickly took off the assassin's clothes and the uniform he wore inside, then swapped the clothes, with the assassin's clothes on the inside and the uniform on the outside.

At this point, the one who was in the cell was still the assassin.

The assassin put on the outer uniform that Guard Fang had taken off, covered his head, and crawled out of the cell and into camera A's area.

Why was he crawling out? Because that way the camera couldn't get a shot of his face.

When he crawled into area C, the assassin quickly wounded Guard Fang.

After being hit, Guard Fang covered his face and walked into camera B's area.

The assassin, who was still hiding in area C, turned around and went back into the cell. He looked in, pretending to be the first guard to arrive, and then rushed away, pretending to be looking for the missing prisoner.

Once upstairs, he quickly went downstairs, keeping his head down or blocking his face the entire time, and found Guard Fang waiting for him on the other side of the stairway, and pretended to help him to the infirmary.

Whenever any of the guards approached him, he would simply say "I'm fine, you guys go find him" and shielded the assassin from the chaos as they made their way to the infirmary.

When they got to the infirmary, the assassin could find a place to hide for a while and wait for all the people from the women's area to be escorted here. Because he was wearing a guard's uniform, he could pretend to be a staff member and maintain order or something like that.

When SCI and SWAT arrived, the original guards from the detention centre returned to their posts and the guarding duties were handed over to the SWAT team.

The SWAT team wouldn't know all the guards. The assassin was wearing a uniform and could enter the infirmary, take advantage of the opportunity to approach the temporary cells, and look for a chance to attack Wang Meiyun.

Luo Tian immediately went to the temporary holding area after receiving Zhan Zhao's text message. At that time, he happened to see the assassin dressed as a guard, approaching Wang Meiyun, and immediately went up and captured him.

The detention centre was in a state of chaos. From the assassin's "disappearance" to SCI's capture of the assassin and the mole, it took less than fifteen minutes in total.

Although there was no danger, Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang had a question.

Why did the killer suddenly want to kill Wang Meiyun, and why did he arrange for a mole to meet him?

He shouldn't have wanted to kill Wang Meiyun before, or else he would have done it in the hotel. At worst, he would have killed her along with Qian Fu and he wouldn't have had to endure for so long in the bathroom.

It's clear that he received a sudden "order" to kill Wang Meiyun. Who gave him the order? The mole, Guard Fang?

Then where did Guard Fang get the order? Who gave him the light-emitting device that interfered with the camera?

Bai Yutang whispered to Zhan Zhao, "Cat, didn't Zhou Ping want to visit the prison just now? He should have been in contact with the guards."

Zhan Zhao obviously thought of the same point as Bai Yutang – There was indeed something wrong with this reporter!

‿︵‿︵ʚ˚̣̣̣͙ɞ・❉・ ʚ˚̣̣̣͙ɞ‿︵‿︵

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Translator Notes

Please feel free to comment any mistakes I made so I can improve and do better as I go through the book.

Translated: March 19, 2024 by Angel

Edited: July 11, 2024 by Angel