Twelve patrol teams were like a piece of silk soaked in water. They slowly spread out towards the entire block under the night.
Through the night vision goggles, the outline of the building at night became clearly visible. The police officers were holding newly equipped handheld thermal tracking cameras and constantly changing the direction of the search.
Abandoned attics, small rooftop gardens, narrow stone paths between buildings...all places where an adult might be hiding were visited by patrols.
Occasionally, a cat or a lone pigeon would come into view. At the moment of confrontation, these living creatures would always run away immediately, leaving the police officers in shock.
Hesta was observing all this not far from them.
These patrol teams are like extensions of her cloak. The sounds they make and the flashing figures continue to interfere with the vision of the mercury needles in the distance.
——Nothing is more conducive to concealment than the noise made by searchers.
She did not change into the carer's clothes. The uniform and identification were only temporarily carried by her - they all had their own uses tonight.
In order not to be detected by the capture radar, Hesta did not enter bullet time for the time being.
Amidst all the noise, she was like a squirrel in the forest or an inconspicuous fish, using the raised bricks and rock walls to keep moving forward and wandering on the streets late at night.
Sometimes she hangs behind a thick tree trunk, like a silent bat hanging upside down in the air; sometimes she leans over in the shadow of a white marble statue of the Virgin, the color of her cloak blending into the black granite base;
Sometimes the police officers feel a breeze behind them for no reason, like a ghost's breath. They turn around suddenly, only to find that there is nothing behind them: neither in their eyes nor in the picture of the thermal camera.
And Hesta was humming a soothing and quiet Askia ditty in her mind, and she just stepped on the unheard beat and moved forward.
…
In an alley near the city's central axis, two police officers were standing under a tree smoking. The large army had not yet followed, so they were taking a break here.
After a while, another pair of police officers crossed the street and came this way.
"It's too cold tonight."
"It's too cold," the man stamped his feet, "I don't know what the higher-ups are thinking. The murderer is so capable. He might already be in the hospital now. We still need to look for him here - I'll find him right away. The walkie-talkie ate it.”
The few of them were tacitly understanding each other and smiled at each other. After chatting about year-end allowances and holidays, they began to pass fire to each other to light cigarettes.
Suddenly, a person frowned and raised his head, looking at the tree above his head.
"……What's wrong?"
"Did you hear anything just now?"
The other three shook their heads.
"I seem to hear something," the man raised his head, "coming from the trees."
"A bird? There are a lot of pigeons in this area. I encountered several of them tonight."
The police officer was doubtful, but he checked back and forth around the tree trunk several times to make sure there was nothing abnormal before returning to the group.
After the cigarette burned out, they vaguely felt that there seemed to be something a little inconsistent around them, but they couldn't find the reason for the moment.
Everything seemed a little too quiet.
Not far away, the barking of police dogs was getting closer and closer. They decided to separate and continue working.
"Goodbye!"
"Goodbye and good luck!"
"Haha, good luck!"
The two groups of people turned around and reached for the walkie-talkies at the same time - however, their waists were empty, with only a broken belt buckle where the walkie-talkies originally hung.
They exclaimed at the same time, and turned around again in shock. After confirming that they all encountered the same problem, the four of them ran towards the main road to contact the main force, shouting.
Behind the bushes not far away, Hesta looked at the four departing figures calmly.
When the surroundings became quiet again, she removed the batteries from the three walkie-talkies in her hands and hung them on the branches of the shrubs behind her - there were already seven or eight police officers' walkie-talkies hanging there.
Hesta left one for herself and continued in the direction of the hospital.
The successive thefts gradually attracted attention, and the police officers' communication equipment was suddenly occupied by such synchronized information.
Things were becoming chaotic, and Pauler had to order again that the search work was suspended, and everyone stayed where they were, and stopped running for summons.
This order was repeated twice as before, but before Pauler could say the final "finished", a burst of electronic noise suddenly sounded, and then, a series of disturbing and bizarre laughter continued from all over the room. came from the person's walkie-talkie.
Several mercury needles immediately recognized that this was the screaming doll left by the "assassin" in the old hospital building last time.
"What's going on!" Pauler in the control room threw away the walkie-talkie in his hand, "What is this!"
Avinash had to call his subordinates and ask them to coordinate a ground unit to go out and look for the source of the sound.
Soon, Mercury Needle, who left the hospital, found a package of clothes, some cards, a screaming doll and a walkie-talkie in a bird's nest on the top of a tree.
The talk button of the walkie-talkie was held by a large clip, so it was always in talking mode.
He took off the clamp, crushed the puppet, and everything returned to silence.
"Sir," he spoke directly to Avinash through the communication device, "I found that the assassin did not take anything from the hospital nurse... I guess it may not have intended to disguise itself as an insider of the hospital?"
"...Return to the team immediately."
…
At this time, Hesta had arrived on the sidewalk separated by a wall from the Central Hospital - like a lizard hanging upside down on a branch, she walked along the chassis of the steel overpass through the deserted street. After landing, she quickly hid again. The side of a decorative stone square pillar can block the prying eyes of infrared cameras in the distance.
This is already a visual blind spot for all the mercury needles in the hospital. Unless the two people on the rooftop suddenly poked their heads out from the roof and looked directly below, it would be almost impossible for them to realize that there was anyone here.
But this kind of aggressive behavior still has a strong sense of gambler. After all, in addition to the sight of mercury needles, there are also many surveillance cameras arranged in this area - in a surveillance room not far from here, there must be some people facing him at this moment. Looking at dozens of monitor screens, I feel sad at the infinite chaos tonight.
She couldn't make sure her every move was perfect, but on such a noisy night, the risk was worth it.
After a moment of observation, Hesta entered bullet time. She jumped over the wall and jumped directly into the back garden of the hospital, hiding in the shadow of the swaying trees.
Simple and unnoticed.
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