Chapter 54 - The Chase

Zhan and Yibo quietly counted to three, then rammed open the apartment door with their shoulders, rushing into the apartment while shouting, "Federal agents!" No one was in sight. They looked in each of the three rooms and were just getting to the bedroom when they heard something crack and rustle. Yibo shouted, "Federal agents! Come out!" No response.

Yibo pointed his gun at the door and looked at Zhan. Zhan counted to three with his free hand, then opened the door. The bedroom was deserted. One of the two windows was open. They looked out and saw their target just hurriedly rushing down the fire escape. "You go and get the car. I'll go after him!" Said Yibo and with an elegant leap jumped through the window outside onto the fire escape.

As fast as he could, Yibo followed the target. Again and again he called out to him to stop. But the target kept running down. When Yibo almost caught up with him, the target simply jumped the last two and a half meters down onto the path in the small alley. Yibo did the same and jumped.

Once at the ground, he ran after the target. Through the narrow alley, over a chain-link fence, through the backyard of a small restaurant, up a staircase, up onto a wall and from there onto the roof of a house and with a big jump over onto the roof of the adjacent house.

From the roof of the house, they continued to a terrace, where the target threw several ceramic flower pots at Yibo. "Leave me alone!!!" Roared the target.

"You want me to leave you alone? Should I maybe remind you that federal agents can't just let a target go for whom there is a warrant? And I would never let you go anyway! With or without a warrant! I'll have the pleasure of taking you into custody and putting you behind bars." Yibo replied, shaking his head.

"Surely you know what they'll do to me if you take me to jail!"

"So, am I supposed to feel sorry for you now? No, hahaha, certainly not. You deserve whatever they do to you in jail. But first you have to get through the interrogation anyway. And I'm not sure you'll be able to do that. Because there are some agents who would like to knock your life lights out."

"But I'm innocent. I was just doing what I was told to do at the time. I would never have done all those things on my own!"

"Why are you lying?"

"I'm not lying!"

"Yes you are! When my in-laws contacted us 10 months ago, they told us everything! We read reports that proved what they said. Or in other words, the reports prove that you played a rotten game with them. And even worse, that you were a double agent!"

"I never was!"

"Yes you were! And if that wasn't bad enough, you also took money from the Milan Mafia and betrayed my in-laws in return!"

"Listen to me! I didn't do that. I was just following orders."

"We've read all the correspondences between you and the top commanders. So I know you're lying. Your orders were to pull the Xiao's off their mission concerning the Milan Mafia because there was clear evidence that their cover had been blown and their true identities had become known. But instead of pulling them off, you left them there. And then we found out that you were in contact with the old boss of the Milan Mafia. And we found your foreign account, where a lot of money had come from that same Milan Mafia boss. One day before the alleged accident of the two and one day after." Slowly, Yibo wondered where Zhan was? Shouldn't he have caught up with him and the target by now?

"I know it says so in the records. But it's all lies!"

"The only one lying is you!"

Suddenly the target's expression changed from fearful to mocking. "Okay, I realize it. You caught me." He said with a broad grin.

"Why did you do that?"

"Why? Do you think the pay is adequate for the work we do every day? Well, I don't. I risked my life every day and for what? For a hungry salary!"

"You're out of your mind! I think that the pay for our work is more than adequate."

"Hahaha, only someone who has millions in his account can say something like that. You made a lot of money as an idol. But how would it look without the money? Oh wait, now that you're not an idol anymore, do you even make that much money?"

"Well, you must have missed something. Because your perfidious plan against Zhan and me went wrong. You wanted me to be chased out of the country in disgrace. Because you know that if I had to go, Zhan would go with me. But you failed. I am still a popular idol. Even though you told the media that I am married to a man. That really hit like a bomb. But after two or three weeks everything calmed down again. More than that, I got even more fans and encouragement from the media institutions."

"Lucky I'd say."

"Is that all you have to say?"

"Sure. Or did you expect me to apologize to you?"

"Certainly not. I would have been interested to know why you did that, though?"

"I just..." That's as far as the target got. For suddenly he froze. He widened his eyes in disbelief. Yibo also froze and stared at the small circular hole that had suddenly appeared on the forehead of the target, the former boss of his in-laws.

A thin trickle of blood ran from the bullet wound in the forehead. The target was still alive long enough to raise his hand in shock, wipe it across his nose where the blood ran down in a thin thread, and then look at the blood on his hand. Then he just slumped forward. One last sigh, more like a loud breath was heard, then he was dead.

Yibo was shocked and needed two or three seconds to come out of his stupor, turn around and look for the person who had fired the fatal soundless shot. But he saw no one. Instead, he heard someone laughing. Definitely the laughter of a female person. "Xian Chu? Is that you?" Yibo shouted as loud as he could.

"Good guess Agent Wang!" Yibo heard her reply. He hastily searched for her with his eyes, but just couldn't spot her.

"Show yourself!"

"Why?"

"So I can arrest you you murderer!"

"He deserved to die. Or do you see it differently? Well I have a more than good reason. He killed my father!"

"Excuse me? The politician is really dead now?"

"Yes damn it! That asshole was one of my father's allies. They met four days ago and wanted to talk about how to leave the country. But instead of talking, he killed my father! He strangled him with his belt!"

"How do you know that?"

"Because I found his body and he still had the belt around his neck."

"And now? Are you going to kill me now, too?"

"Well, I could. To be honest, that's what I had in mind. I was going to hit Agent Xiao really hard with it. But then I saw Agent Xiao running to his car and I had another idea."

"And what idea was that?"

"What do you think? Don't you wonder why he's not with you yet?"

"What have you done?"

"Nothing yet. So not really."

"Where's Zhan?!" Yibo's voice trembled slightly.

"He's fine. For now, anyway. He's probably sleeping for a while now."

"Where is he? What have you done with him?"

"Where he is I'd better keep to myself. And what I did to him? Nothing more than give him a syringe of sleeping potion."

"Fucking piece of shit! Where's my husband?"

"I'm not going to tell you. Not yet. I have to say, it gives me a lot of pleasure to see how scared you look now. It's a good thing I scrapped my first plan. Killing you and watching Agent Xiao suffer, well, I would have liked that. But I like my new plan much more."

"And what's your new plan?"

"To make you suffer. Torture you since you love Zhan so adoringly is more satisfying to me. Even now you are standing frozen, with tears in your eyes and trembling."

"Why are you doing this?"

"Why... why... why? Because I can! And because you deserve it!"

"We deserve it?"

"Sure. Agent Xiao was my partner. Okay, we didn't get along that well. But we worked well together. Or would have. But then you reappear in his life and he's only interested in you. He insulted me in your presence! He chose you over me, his partner!"

"You were not a good partner to Zhan! You offended him and did what you wanted. Besides, you made common cause with your criminal father. You lied and cheated!"

"So what? He was my father! So it's only natural that I stand behind him! And in order to do that, I had to lie and cheat! You would do anything for your father, wouldn't you? Even if he is an ignorant man with four wives. Oh no, there are only three wives left, aren't there? But I think you know what I mean. After all, you've been hiding the fact that your parents are polygamists all your life."

"What does this have to do with my parents and their faith? They are not harming anyone with this and they are voluntarily leading a polygamous marriage. Nobody forced them. And besides, they are not criminals criminals like your father was!"

"My father was forced to everything!" Asserted Xian Chu.

Yibo did not answer now. For he remembered again how he should behave in cases like these. He remembered again who he is and what he has learned. He is no longer the clueless idol. No, he is now a special agent, and as such, he would no longer allow himself to be distracted and confused by Xian Chu.

Stealthily, Yibo left the terrace and sah ran behind the house. "Do you think if you hide, I won't find you?" Xian Chu called out to him.

Yibo smirked and said softly whispering to himself >>Yeah, keep talking. I'll find you all the faster that way!"<< And she kept talking. Tried to provoke Yibo to talk and thus revealed to him exactly where she was hiding.

Carefully he approached her position, careful not to make any noise. When he was already very close to her, he picked up a stone from the ground and threw it to a bush near the house where he had previously been on the terrace and witnessed his target die before his eyes.

As intended, Xian Chu reacted to Yibo's trick. He heard her immediately fire several shots from her gun at the bush. The hissing sound the silencer made was normally barely audible. But to Yibo it was like a roll of thunder. "Are you alive?" Xian Chu called out.

Yibo carefully rose from his hiding place, grabbed Xian Chu from behind, and dragged her down from the tree she was sitting in. He threw her hard to the ground, pushed her weapon away with his foot, and placed his foot on Xian Chu's hand. "Where is he?" He asked her as he bent down and placed his hand on her throat.

"No, I'm not telling you anything." Xian Chu gasped and coughed. Yibo gripped tighter and asked her again. Her face flushed red. She wanted to answer that she won't say anything, but couldn't get out more than a choked gasp.

"We can keep going until you suffocate in agony. Or you can tell me where Zhan is!"

She fixed her gaze on a silver foreign car parked crookedly on the side of the road. Tears streamed from her eyes as she desperately tried to dislodge Yibo's hand from her throat. She fought down the rising faintness with all her might. But she would not last much longer. With the last of her strength, she managed to utter the words, "I didn't hurt him." out. Then she lost consciousness.

Yibo stared at the unconscious Xiao Chu. He yanked her up, shook her, and angrily asked, "What do you mean? Where is my Zhan?" The next moment, he looked toward the road when he heard a car coming. Recognizing the car, he dropped Xian Chu on the ground in relief and almost cried with relief when Zhan got out of the car and came running to him.

Zhan held Yibo tightly in his arms. "I'm sorry baby. There was an accident and I got stuck."

Relieved, Yibo handcuffed Xian Chu, who was slowly regaining consciousness, and explained to Zhan what had happened in the meantime. That she killed the target and Yibo saw him take his last breath. That she claimed to have drugged and kidnapped Zhan. And how he finally managed to control the situation again and put Xian Chu out of action.

Zhan grinned and congratulated Yibo on his first successful solo mission. "I'm incredibly proud of you baby." He said and patted Yibo on the shoulder in approval.

Yibo wrapped his arms around Zhan even tighter, kissed him, and then read Xian Chu her rights before taking her to the car and calling the agency to report what happened. And while giving his report, he looked relieved and smiling at Zhan who was already securing the scene. He was glad that nothing had happened to Zhan and that Xian Chu had lied again. Because without Zhan he can't imagine his life anymore.

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