I was in a bind, too. I’d already uncovered the captain’s involvement, and I even suspected the other side might be trying to create a haunted object. But how could I break their scheme?
The problem was, they had quite a few people. They’d caused the ship to sink, quite possibly to create a haunted object, just like with the ghost bus incident.
I took a deep breath and explained, “According to the records of the Hứa family, someone figured out how to create artificial haunted objects toward the end of the Qing dynasty. Since then, many haunted objects that defy common sense have appeared.”
Dương Kỳ murmured, “You’re saying they sank the ship so everyone would die in despair, then turn the whole ship into a haunted object?”
I couldn’t bring myself to nod or shake my head. Turning an entire cruise ship into a haunted object was almost impossible, but the ghost bus had come into being that way last time. Who could say this ship couldn’t become one, too?
“Could they blow up the ship?” Bạch Tịnh asked from beside me.
I nodded. “Quite possibly. The captain knows the ship’s structure inside and out, and he knows how to make it sink quickly. Our best option is to deal with the sinking first without alerting him. We don’t know how many people they have, so a direct confrontation would be difficult.”
Just as I was trying to figure out what to do, someone knocked on the door.
Dương Kỳ opened it. His personal steward glanced at Bạch Tịnh and said, “Mr. Dương, the chief officer wants to see Steward Bạch to discuss some work matters.”
“I’ll go see what’s going on.” Bạch Tịnh stood and nodded to me.
I couldn’t interfere in shipboard matters, so I had no choice but to let Bạch Tịnh go ahead.
Dương Kỳ looked at me from the doorway. “What now? We don’t have enough people.”
An idea suddenly came to me. I said to Dương Kỳ, “Find the Giai Đức auction house’s security team and ask them to help.”
Just as I was about to lead Dương Kỳ to the ninth deck, the door to my suite opened.
Mumu’s mother hurried over and said anxiously, “Miss Hứa, Mumu wants to see you…”
“Mumu?” I hurried to suite 1016.
Inside, Mumu’s father was wearing a bathrobe and drying his hair. When he saw me, he smiled. “Miss Hứa, don’t listen to my daughter’s nonsense. A blood clot is pressing on her nerves, so she’s just babbling.”
“Shut up.”
I couldn’t be bothered to say more. I rushed over to Mumu.
Mumu stared at me in terror, stammering, “Sister Hứa, I… I saw lots of old men and women hanging up… It was so cold there. I also saw… your steward hanging there, too. She told me to find you.”
Old men and women hanging up? Bạch Tịnh had told Mumu to find me?
A horrifying image flashed through my mind. The elderly—that meant their lifespans had been drained away. And there were so many of them. That haunted object must be incredibly powerful. Someone had captured Bạch Tịnh to activate it.
“Find Bạch Tịnh!” I called to Dương Kỳ decisively.
Dương Kỳ and I rushed out and hurried to the stewards’ lounge. But when we got there, neither Bạch Tịnh nor Dương Kỳ’s steward was there, and none of the other stewards were around, either.
I took out my phone and called Bạch Tịnh.
Ding…
A phone rang from inside a locker in the stewards’ lounge.
“She didn’t even bring her phone?”
Dương Kỳ frowned. “She’s gone.”
“Head to the captain’s quarters. Go to the ninth deck first.”
I hurried toward the stairs. We only had one deck to go, so taking the stairs would be faster.
When we reached the ninth deck, I rushed to Chu An Hạ’s door and pounded on it several times.
The door opened.
Before Anna, the short-haired woman, could say a word, I shoved the door open and rushed in. Chu An Hạ was on the phone. “Chu An Hạ, if you don’t want to die, bring your company’s security team with me.”
“Huh?” Chu An Hạ stared at me, stunned.
I urged him, “Any longer and the ship will sink.”
As if to prove my words, the ship lurched the moment I finished speaking and sank noticeably lower in the water.
“The ship really is sinking!”
Chu An Hạ shouted in terror, yelling into the phone, “Security team, assemble… Where do we assemble?”
Chu An Hạ looked at me.
A flood of thoughts raced through my mind. I said urgently, “The stairwell door by the valuables room. Bring all your equipment.”
“Okay. The stairwell door by the valuables room. Bring all your equipment, including your guns. Right now, immediately! I’ll give each of you another hundred thousand!” Chu An Hạ shouted.
I stepped out of the room.
Dương Kỳ asked, “Aren’t we going to find the captain?”
“He’s not in the captain’s quarters.”
I explained, “Mumu said it was very cold. On this ship, there’s only one place that’s very cold and off-limits to outsiders.”
Dương Kỳ understood immediately. “The cargo hold. The walk-in freezer.”
There was only one place on the whole ship where people could be hung up and it would be very cold: the meat freezer in the cargo hold.
When I led Dương Kỳ and Chu An Hạ to the valuables room, eight security guards were already there wearing bulletproof vests. Six carried stun batons, and two had handguns.
Boom…
At that very moment, the ship shuddered again and sank another few feet.
Panicked screams rang out from above. The whole ship began to creak.
I said coldly to the guards, “Head down to the meat freezer. Follow my orders. Anyone who gets in your way, take them down. Show no mercy.”
The security guards stared at me, stunned.
The head of the security team looked at Chu An Hạ.
“Listen to Miss Hứa. All of you, listen to Miss Hứa.” Chu An Hạ nodded repeatedly.
The security team leader nodded to the others. “Follow Miss Hứa’s orders. You guards, protect her up front.”
The security guards all nodded, then headed down the stairs.
When we reached the third deck, several chefs saw us in their panic and immediately backed away, too afraid to move.
“Where’s the meat freezer?” I asked one of them.
A fat chef pointed down. “The lowest deck.”
I nodded to the others, and we kept moving.
Before long, the guards at the front reached the meat freezer on the lowest deck.
Boom.
The ship shook again. A guard staggered and pushed open the freezer door. Gunfire erupted inside.
“They have guns!”
A guard was hit, but his bulletproof vest stopped the shot. After checking that he was all right, he pulled a handgun from his belt.
The security team leader looked at me. “Miss Hứa, they have guns inside. It’ll be hard to force our way in.”
“If we don’t go in, the ship will sink in ten minutes. All 1,500 people aboard will die.”
“A full-frontal assault. One million each,” I explained.
The head of the security team’s expression changed. A second later, he ordered the others, “Full-frontal assault. One million each.”
“Give me a gun.” I held out my hand to the head of the security team.
The head of the security team took a gun from his hip and handed it to me. “Want me to show you how to shoot?”
“I’ve used one before.”
I checked the magazine, switched off the safety, then took out the snuff bottle and sniffed it once.
For a moment, everything before my eyes became crystal clear.
The security guards up front looked at us. I nodded.
The head of the security team ordered coldly, “Move.”
Two security guards charged into the storage room. Gunshots rang out.
“Go, go!” the head of the security team shouted. Everyone rushed inside.
I followed behind. When a figure darted past the shelves ahead, I pulled the trigger.
Bang.
Someone was hit.
Bang.
I fired a second shot, and the bullet tore through the second man’s thigh.
“Not bad,” Dương Kỳ said, praising me as he held a gun of his own.
I didn’t answer or pay attention to anything else. I hurried farther inside.
Thanks to the snuff bottle, my mind was exceptionally clear. The movements of those men even seemed half a beat slower to me.
There were four people outside the storage room in all. The security guards took down the other two.
I hurried to the cold-storage room. As the head of the security team opened the door, I immediately aimed my gun at the two sailors inside.
Two gunshots rang out, and the two men fell.