Chapter 59 Theater: My Lord Will See Our Sincerity

Chapter 59 The Theater: My Lord Will See Our Sincerity

Just as he always carried a weapon when going out, Old John also made a habit of carrying a Swiss Army knife.

The restroom ceiling was about 2.5 meters high. Even Old John, the tallest of the three, could only reach about 2.3 meters at most even standing on his tiptoes. Old John handed the knife to Everly, crouched down to let his lighter-built granddaughter sit on his shoulders, then braced one hand against the stall's wooden partition, used the other to support Everly's back, and straightened up so that Everly could use the screwdriver attachment on the knife to remove the ventilation duct cover.

However, no sooner had they loosened two screws than a clatter of chaotic footsteps sounded outside the door. Immediately after, the handle of the men's room door spun frantically, producing a soft "click-clack, click-clack."

"Open up, open up, please! People are being killed in the performance hall! Let me in..."

Through the thin door panel, the tearful plea for help reached the three of them loud and clear.

Everly and Old John didn't pay it any mind. Who knew whether the person outside was a real victim or one of the masked men? If they opened the door to a hail of bullets, all three of them inside would die. Besides, there was a women's room right next to the men's room—the person didn't have to use the men's room.

In this situation, it was every man for himself. They could worry about saving others once they were safe.

Everly said nothing, only sped up her work on the screws. However, Xinkalan was after all an old theater with some age on it, and the ventilation duct cover hadn't been replaced in God knows how long. Two of the screws were already rusted on the outside—the screwdriver wouldn't bite, making them exceptionally difficult to turn.

Old John had locked the door and propped a mop against it. The person outside jiggled the handle a couple of times, then threw themselves against the door a few times with a "bang bang," but couldn't get the flimsy panel open, and eventually moved on. But that was just the start. The massacre in the adjacent performance hall had clearly already begun, and spectators seated near the small eastern door of the hall came flooding out in waves. The men's room door faced that side door directly, so just about everyone who came out made a beeline for the door, tried the lock, and slammed against it. After enough repetitions, the already flimsy door panel of the men's room started to look like it was about to give.

"Misha, you be the ladder. I'll hold the door."

Seeing the situation turning unfavorable, Old John quickly switched places with Misha. Of the three, he was the strongest—he was the only one who could keep the men's room from being breached.

Having survived the cockroach plague in Lemote Town, Misha was no delicate little flower. In fact, after the plague ended, worried that they might encounter a similar disaster in the future and be unable to escape, the whole town of Lemote had gotten into working out. Misha looked all dainty, but roll up her sleeves and there was a solid slab of muscle on her arms.

She braced her hands on the stall's wooden partition, let Everly step onto her shoulders, gritted her teeth, planted her feet, and with a powerful thrust from her waist, hoisted Everly up. Everly thanked her, braced one hand against the top of the stall, and with the other hand gripping the screwdriver, put even more muscle into prying at the screws.

Finally, the third screw came loose as well, and the cover plate, now unsupported on three sides, tilted open diagonally, revealing a gap.

It was at that very moment that the barrage of gunfire from the waiting hall ceased. In its place, a heavy footstep echoed from the corridor, drawing closer and closer like death's own whisper.

"Bang bang! Bang bang bang!" In the silence, the men's room door suffered another wave of battering more violent than before. The people outside seemed to be kicking at it. Old John's veins bulged on his arms as he put his whole body into bracing the door, barely managing to hold off the assault.

"Damn it, can't kick it open."

"We'll come back with an axe later. 'Tiger' and his men are still out there—they won't get away."

"Let's go kill the ones next door first."

Several low, muffled voices muttered outside the door. Then the heavy footsteps moved away from the doorway, heading toward the women's room nearby.

Everly knew the people next door wouldn't hold out for long. The more urgent things got, the more she needed to keep her cool. Seeing the last rusted screw wouldn't budge, she curled her fingers into a claw, grabbed the rusted plate, and using the screw as a pivot, strained with all her might. The corroded joint finally gave, and she twisted the plate aside, revealing an opening big enough to squeeze through.

"I'm going in first—give me a boost!"

She told Misha, clamped the knife between her teeth, gripped both sides of the ventilation duct's interior with her hands, and the muscles in her forearms hidden beneath her sleeves went taut. She brought her legs together, shifted her center of gravity upward, stepped off the top of the stall with her toes, and lifted herself nimbly to the height of the duct.

Below, Misha gave Everly's legs a helpful shove. Using the strength of her arms and waist, Everly grabbed the duct and pulled her legs in.

Her frame was small, so once inside, she quickly managed to turn around in the duct, lay flat on her stomach, and reached her hands down: "Misha, jump, and grab my hands!"

Old John had by then reinforced the door again using the mop, broom, and other items kept in the innermost stall. Seeing this, he hurried over and helped Everly push Misha up into the duct above.

Now only Old John remained on the ground.

It was at that moment that the door to the women's room next door was kicked open with a deafening "bang!" The rattle of submachine gun fire followed immediately, and the screams of men and women lasted only a brief moment before being cut short.

"Clack clack." Done with the women's room, the heavy footsteps once again sounded in the corridor outside, approaching the men's room. This time there were more of them now, as if new members kept joining the group.

Inside the men's room, Old John wiped away Everly's footprints on the stall panel, kicked off his boots and tossed them to her. Then, barefoot, he took a running start and slammed hard against the stall's wooden partition.

"Bang! Bang bang!"

At the same time, the heavy sound of chopping came from the men's room door. The force was so great that plaster dust from the wall behind the door came showering down, scattering across the floor. The axe blows and the kicks landed in perfect sync. Just a split second before the door was split open, Old John caught Everly's outstretched hand, pulled himself up, tucked his legs, and squeezed into the duct in a somewhat awkward scramble.

"Crack!"

The sound of wood splitting rang out. The person outside pulled out the axe, raised a foot, and kicked a fist-sized hole through the gash he'd just made. A man in a rat mask peered through the hole, looking inside. Old John's toes had just barely withdrawn into the duct at that moment, and due to the limited angle, the rat mask didn't see a thing.

"No one in here—might be hiding in the stalls."

The rat-masked man reported to his teammate, pulled his head back, and reached his arm through the hole, beginning to remove the mop, broom, and other items wedged against the door.

After Old John successfully entered the duct, Everly immediately crawled forward to make room for the old man. Meanwhile, Misha behind her reached out and grabbed the cover plate, turning it bit by bit back toward the opening, then curled her fingers into the gap of the plate, hooking the downward-tilted corner upward until it was flush against the opening.

The three of them, drenched in sweat, held their breath and lay perfectly still in the duct, listening to what was happening below.

Someone unlocked the door through the hole in the panel, and the next second, the masked men outside filed in, kicking open each stall of the men's room one by one, guns at the ready.

Empty. Empty. Empty. Empty!

"Where'd they go? The door was locked from the inside—someone had to be in here!"

"Did they slip out the window?"

One of them walked over to the upward-open window, hooked his finger on the handkerchief Everly had deliberately left there, and showed it to the others.

The group walked to the window, bent down, and peered outside. Sure enough, several bodies lay scattered on the open ground outside, all of them spectators who had fled the performance building and been gunned down by the masked men in the parking lot.

"Damn it, 'Tiger' and his crew got the easy pickings again! That's a few less offerings for my 'Lord'..."

"Don't worry, there are still plenty of people. My Lord will see our sincerity."

The masked men searched the bathroom a while longer, then left cursing. Throughout it all, no one thought to look up at the ceiling, and naturally, no one saw the small sliver of a finger wedged in the gap of the rusted cover plate.

The three of them lay motionless in the duct, waiting until everyone had gone.

"What do we do now?"

"Find a safe place to hide first. The screws on this cover were removed—if you look closely, you can still see the traces."

Everly and Old John discussed in low voices and decided to crawl along the duct to another room first.

If it were an external duct, it would never bear the weight of three people crawling through it. Fortunately, the ventilation ducts of the Xinkalan Theater, except for a few sections, were built within the walls. Crawling through them was mostly fine, aside from the dust and the occasional "clack" sound in certain spots.

Everly was at the innermost end of the duct, with Old John behind her, and Misha behind him. Everly and Old John were fine—they'd crawled into the deeper part of the duct—but Misha was in a tight spot. Between her and the other two was a cover plate secured by only a single screw. As she crawled, she had to be extremely careful to raise her body, bracing herself against the walls on both sides of the duct, and absolutely avoid touching the cover plate below, or she'd fall through.

It took Misha a full five minutes, sweating profusely, before she successfully made it past that section.

The men's room could have someone walk in at any moment, so the three didn't dare rest. With Everly in the lead, they crawled along the single duct for a while until they reached a T-shaped junction.

Everly suspected this was the eastern corridor. Spotting a ventilation opening not far to her left, she signaled "wait a moment" to the two behind her, then turned left on her own and crawled to the opening, peering carefully down through the grille.

Below the grille was a corridor laid with red velvet carpet. Several bodies lay slumped on either side, all face down, apparently shot while trying to flee. Aside from the corpses, the corridor was empty.

Judging by the decor, this was indeed the eastern corridor the three had passed through earlier. Continuing along the left passage should lead to the waiting hall ahead. As for the right passage of the T-junction, it probably led to the backstage area they hadn't managed to reach earlier.

Having seen the large number of masked men in the hall earlier, Everly wasn't keen on heading that way. If she made even the slightest noise while crawling and gave away their position, it would be a loss not worth the risk.

So she turned around, retreated to the T-junction, and crawled into the passage on the right instead.