Dai Li had thought that the kidnappers were taking him for the ransom. But he realized that it was more complex this time.
Before he met Blecher, Dai Li didn’t plan to resist. He would pay the kidnappers the ransom. But that was before he knew the kidnappers were going to kill him.
It was a deadlock!
At this critical moment, Dai Li put aside the idea of paying to be safe. He knew his only option was to spare no efforts to live.
A man’s potential would burst out when his life was in danger. It was the same for Dai Li. At that moment, he became extremely calm and thought actively. Many plans occurred to him.
I must escape. But it doesn’t seem practical. They have a lot of hands and guns. So my only way is to call the police for a rescue. The key point is that I must, first of all, subdue the three here. However, I’m not likely to win a fight against all of them.
Luckily, I already have Kevin Taylor in my Athlete Illustrated Handbook. I can use a copy card. And I will have 70% of the strength of Kevin Taylor. In that way, I might be able to beat them down as long as they fight with their bare fists. But the two black men have guns! Even though I can subdue one of them, I will be killed by the other black man’s gun. No matter how skillful and strong I am, the gun will be fatal to me.
More importantly, my hands are tied now and I can’t move my hands. I must find a way to free my hands.
While Dai Li was thinking, Santos, the expert of interrogation, had already put his little case on the table and then turned back to ask the two black men, “Would you like to appreciate my interrogation again?”
The two men’s faces turned pale immediately.
“I never want to watch you interrogating again. It’s so disgusting. It almost made me vomit. D*mn it! I can’t even stand the sight of meat now,” one black man said.
“Don’t mention meat! It makes me sick, too! I’ll go first!” said the other black man.
“Me, too! I don’t want to stay with you weirdo!”
They left firmly and closed the big steel door.
God bless me! Dai Li was happy. He had just thought of a way to win the fight against the three. But two of the three left together with their guns, which made Dai Li feel that his escape was going to be easier.
The two with guns have left. My only trouble now is that my hands are tied. I must find a way quickly to free them, Dai Li thought quickly.
The fear of the black men made Santos satisfied. He turned his back to Dai Li and opened the leather case. He said to Dai Li with a South American accent, “Do you know? I once learned medicine. I wanted to become a surgeon. But I’m unlucky in that my family was poor, and my father was an alcoholic who spent every penny he had on drinking. And my mother left me when I was a small child to marry another man. I had to earn my college fees on my own.”
“College fees are so expensive. And learning medicine was more expensive. I couldn’t afford it with normal jobs. So, I chose a lucrative job. I planted marijuana in a basement secretly. Later I was caught by the police, and I was ordered to quit school.”
“Then, I got a night shift job in a mortuary. That was a job with extra income. There were always some people who accidentally died when they were delivering drugs. And I would slit their bellies and stomachs to get the drugs out and return them to drug dealers for a big reward. Sometimes, people dying would be sent to me,” Santos said.
He turned to Dai Li with a facial expression of hysteria, and then he added, “But I still slit their bellies and stomachs when they were not dead. Do you know the cool feeling of dissecting a living person? I could see his heart beating, his lungs breathing, and his stomach contracting. I could see the desperation on his face, the fear in his eyes. And his face was contorted with pain. That’s awesome! That’s great art!”
Dai Li watched Santos in terror. He realized that this skinny guy was a psychopathic murderer.
And then Santos walked over and pointed to the leather case opened by him. He said, “These are my best friends who want to touch you closely. Choose one.”
Dai Li looked at the leather case. Inside were small knives, small saws, small awls, small hooks and so on. They were all instruments of torture. They were shining terrifyingly in the dim light. All these made a man frightened.
Dai Li finally understood how the man in the chair became so bloody.
Santos continued saying, “It’s hard to make a choice, right? Never mind. I will choose for you.”
Santos took a small knife and a small hook and said, “This knife will cut your skin, and I am going to carve a star on your skin and use this hook to pull the star up.”
He leaned closer to Dai Li and showed Dai Li the instruments. And then he added, “I don’t know if you have learned about the Visual Analogue Scale, a method to measure the degrees of pains. According to it, pains are divided into 10 levels. 0 means painlessness while 10 means the worst pain. And I can guarantee you that these two devices in my hands will give you a pain of Level 8.”
“No! I will tell you. I will tell you the whole thing!” Dai Li cried out suddenly.
“Er? You will? That’s not interesting. I would like to use the knife. You Chinese always act like this. You coward! You give up fighting when you are facing a tiny threat.” Santos curled his lip disappointedly and then he asked, “Tell me then. Where is the new drug?”
“In the safe box in my office,” replied Dai Li.
“What’s the code of the safe box?” asked Santos.
“To tell you the truth, this new drug is produced by a new technology and many of its ingredients haven’t been revealed to the public.” Dai Li suddenly switched to another topic.
“Don’t try to fool me. I am asking you for the safe box’s code. You don’t want me to draw a little star on your chest, do you?” said Santos, showing his knife.
“I just want to tell you that it is very complex to make this new drug. You can’t produce it in a short time, even though I will give it to you now,” said Dai Li.
“It’s the hirer’s job to see if he can produce it or not. My job is to get it from you. Now, tell me the code,” said Santos.
Dai Li added immediately, “I want to let you know that it’s valuable, maybe priceless! Your boss spent a lot of money on hiring you to get it. You know that.”
“So, what’s up?” asked Santos.
“I can tell you the recipe of the new performance-enhancing drug. The core secret of making it. Having the recipe will shorten the time for study and counterfeiting very much. And it will be much easier to make it,” continued Dai Li.
“His study on it is none of my business. Tell me the code, now! Otherwise, I will use violence.” Santos’s knife got closer to Dai Li.
“Think about it. How much will the hirer pay for the core secret!” Dai Li cried out at once.
Mentioning money stopped Santos’s knife. And he asked, “What do you want to say?”
“That hirer spent a lot of money on hiring you to get a sample of the new drug. Do you think he will be willing to buy it if there is the core secret to the new drug? To you, the speed of study never matters. But to him, isn’t the speed a very important factor? You once went to college. You should know that time is more important than money to scientific researchers!” Dai Li spoke so hurriedly that his speech was incoherent.
However, Santos understood him.
“You are right. We should make more money.” Santos moved the knife away from Dai Li’s chest. And he added, “Then tell me. What’s the recipe for the new drug?”
“OK, listen to me carefully,” Dai Li cleared his throat and said in Chinese, “Qing, Hai, Li, Pi, Peng, Tan, Dan, Yang, Fu, Nai, Na, Mei, Lv, Gui, Lin, Liu, Lv, Ya, Jia, Gai…(Hydrogen, helium, lithium, beryllium, boron, carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, fluorine, neon, sodium, magnesium, aluminum, silicon, phosphorus, sulfur, chlorine, argon, potassium, calcium…)”
He repeated from memory the Periodic Table of Elements in Chinese. And Santos was totally confused.
“D*mn it! What are you saying? I don’t understand at all,” Santos shouted.
“I’m reciting the core elements of the new drug. You can’t understand it. That’s because I recited it in Chinese!” said Dai Li.
“You are fooling me! It seems you want to be taught a lesson. Okay, I will respect your choice. You will soon beg me to kill you!” Santos raised his knife again.
“No, I’m not fooling you. Let me explain,” Dai Li said at once. “I brought this new drug from China. And its instruction manual is written in Chinese. I’m not a chemist. I’m a coach. I cannot translate those chemistry terms. I can only tell you the Chinese version.”
“But I don’t know Chinese. It makes no sense to me,” said Santos angrily.
“I can write it down for you. And you can find someone to translate it into English for you later. And you can also use the translation app on your mobile phone,” said Dai Li.
“Okay, good idea.” Santos nodded, and he found a paper and a pen. And then he looked at Dai Li to find that Dai Li was tied up and couldn’t write.
So, Santos walked up and stood behind Dai Li.
“I’m going to untie you. Don’t try to fool me, or I will hurt you. Don’t try to escape. You’re surrounded by my men here. You can’t escape!” said Santos. And then he lowered his head and untied Dai Li.
Dai Li was so happy. My efforts are not in vain. The fish has swallowed the bait, finally.