The shadow was as quick as lightning.
She dove and rolled down the steps by the front door out of instinct, her nightgown fluttering around her.
A black cat leapt over her head and landed soundlessly.
“Meow...” The black cat looked at Linda who was sprawled on the ground.
“You bastard! I almost had a heart attack!” muttered Linda as she got up. Her nightgown was dirty and her bottom was scratched. She lifted her gown and found she was bleeding a little.
Xia Lei watched awkwardly.
She was smart but untrained.
She finally gave up on her injuries, picked up her gun and entered the house.
Professor Oman’s house was dark but as she stepped inside, it was now lit brightly. The house now stood out in the darkened street.
“Idiot, does she not know what stealth is?” Xia Lei panicked, quickly following her footsteps.
The lights suddenly went out in the house.
“At least you still have some sense in you.” Xia Lei heaved a small sigh of relief and walked around to the back of the house. He watched Linda through the walls.
She was holding a flashlight and looking around his study.
Xia Lei also moved to the back so he could see better. Although the room was only lit by her flashlight, he was still able to make out her actions clearly.
The police had drawn a human outline around where the professor’s body was. There were still bloodstains on the floorboards though it had been dried up. The mess in the room was not cleaned up, the floor was still scattered with books, papers and random objects.
This was normal. It was important to keep the scene of the crime untouched until it was solved
“Professor Oman, I hope that guy does not know your secret. Don’t worry, I will decipher the metal book and I’ll also help the police catch the murderer.” Linda said looking at the bloodstains on the ground before tracing a cross over her body. After she prayed, she walked towards a bookshelf.
“What is she doing?” Xia Lei was curious.
Just at this moment, she reached out to push a bookshelf. The shelf slid aside.
There was a small wooden door behind, locked with a passcode.
She entered the passcode on the device then opened the door and went inside. The door closed automatically but did not affect his sight. Xia Lei increased the power of his extraordinary vision and the space behind the wooden door came into his sight.
It was a narrow secret chamber, akin to a storeroom. There were archaeological antiques inside. Armour, weapons from the crusaders, oil paintings, and also miscellaneous antiques.
Xia Lei was anxious. “No evidence of a break-in. Is the metal book still in his secret chamber?”
Linda walked to a safe, then opened it with a passcode. Just as it opened, she fell backwards and sat on the ground.
The safe was empty.
This extinguished what anticipation Xia Lei had in his heart. If the metal book was in the safe, it would be so much easier. He just had to slip inside, knock Linda unconscious, then take away the book. While unethical, it was his best course of action. However, it would seem that it didn’t matter.
After sitting on the ground for a minute in stunned silence, Linda closed the safe and then left the secret chamber. Back in the study, she looked at the bloodstains once again. “Professor Oman, don’t worry, I’ll get the metal book back. I am sure the people of the church will take action and help me.”
As she finished, she left the study.
Xia Lei also left in a rush, running after distancing himself for the house. He sprinted up the hill. He had to return to his room before she did.
Both of them had returned empty-handed from this excursion, but at least he learned something. Now he confirmed that the leaf book was the other part of the bronze book. This was a very important discovery for him.
Three minutes later, he was already up the hill. He turned around to see that Linda had already exited the town. She was travelling faster now, obviously didn’t want anyone to see that she had been to Professor Oman’s house. He then sprinted faster.
He approached Linda’s house.
However, just as he was nearing the house, he stopped abruptly. Half a minute later, he dove into the bushes next to the road. In the blink of an eye, he was gone. He had just dove when Linda’s door suddenly opened and four people walked out.
They were all Caucasian men, bald and clad in black hooded cloaks. It did not look like long Arabian-style robes, nor the kind pastors wore. They looked more like robes worn by witches and wizards.
Xia Lei didn’t just see the bald heads hiding in their hoods, he also saw the guns hiding beneath their cloaks. These four people didn’t just have pistols, they also had submachine guns.
Who were they?
What were they doing in Linda’s house in the middle of the night?
Based on Xia Lei’s understanding, she is just an ordinary archaeologist who participated in the metal book’s research project because of Professor Oman’s invite. If these people were here for the metal book, it wasn't with her. What did they want?
He had no time to think because when he turned around, Linda had already reached the slope of the hill.
The four people spoke in Italian.
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“Did the archaeologist escape?”
“Impossible, she doesn’t even know we are coming.”
“Her clothes are still in her room. Her passport is in her backpack. She planned to go to Malta. She would definitely bring her passport.”
“There is also another man’s luggage in her house.”
“Will the man be a problem?”
“Doesn’t matter. When we find them, we will kill them all.”
“I think someone’s coming.”
“It’s the archaeologist.”
“Looks like she has a gun.”
“Don’t startle her. We have to retreat. Before killing her, I have a few questions I need answers to.”
The four retreated into her house.
Their plan was very simple. Hide, ambush, interrogate Linda and then kill her. If she didn't have a gun, they probably would have rushed forward by now. That gun also gave Xia Lei an opportunity to solve this problem because if the four attacked now, without a gun on him, Xia Lei did not dare fight four people with submachine guns.
As her front door closed, Xia Lei crawled from the grass and ran down the slope, crouching.
On the slope, Linda was muttering to herself as she walked. “Thank goodness I didn’t get Mr Ma Lei to accompany me. I’ve done something shady and even failed. Fuck that guy. He killed the professor and even took the book. When should I call the church and ask for help? Sigh, this is going to be difficult…”
However, at this moment, a burst of wind hit her.
Just as she realised this, she was already on the ground with the ‘gust of wind’. There was a person on her. He was Ma Lei. She looked at him, terrified.
“Shhh. Listen to me, there are shooters in your house. I was lucky to have escaped. Don’t make a sound, listen to me and we will live,” Xia Lei said as he crawled up.
The breeze blew.
Linda felt the breeze on her stomach and almost died of embarrassment. As she fell, the wind blew her skirt up.
Xia Lei tugged her dress down, grabbed her hand and pulled her out of the bush. Without a word, he sprinted down the slope with her.
Etiquette was not important now.
He was running fast, pulling Linda along with him. Her gown fluttered and billowed in the wind. However, at this point, she couldn't care less, Plus, she was sprinting too quickly to keep her gown down.
“I can’t run anymore… Is there really a shooter?” Linda turned around but could not see anything. To her, it was a patch of darkness.
“Not just one, four,” said Xia Lei as he ran. “Please, believe me. I heard their conversation. They want to catch, interrogate then kill you.”
“Who are they?” She sounded terrified.
“I don't know, they wore…”
Tut-tut-tut…
Gunshots rang out behind them.
The four shooters were starting to chase after them as they realised something went wrong.
The range of their submachine guns was two hundred meters. The gap between Xia Lei, Linda and the shooters was about the same. The bullets flew above their heads, whistling in the wind.
Xia Lei dragged her a few more meters before stopping.
He took the pistol from her and shot at one of the shooters. It was too bad the pistol only had a range of fifty meters. It did not hit the man.
“Get up, follow me!” Xia Lei gave up on using the gun to kill them off. He pulled Linda and then brought her towards the town. As they ran, he shouted, “Terrorist attack! Terrorist attack!”
The gunshots behind quickly died down.
The four shooters did not shoot but Xia Lei shot several times.
The gunshots and his shouting quickly attracted attention. Many people turned on their lights and some people walked out of their houses with guns. Some had pistols, others had rifles or even SAS rifles.
It was a town in Sicily after all.
When Xia Lei and Linda arrived at the town, the black-robed men had already disappeared in the hills.
They were indeed dressed very suspiciously. If they continued running, they would be up against an entire town of Sicilians, not just one Chinese man and an archaeologist.