Chapter 496

Arthur stared at Eric, frowning a little as he watched his Senior put the device next to the lock. He gently depressed it, pushing the hotel room door open before sliding a strange, hooked item around the top edge of the door, near where the door latch existed. He then closed the door, slid the thin piece of plastic down and then nodded to the team.

He really, really wanted to ask his senior where he had learnt to break into hotel rooms. Their Sifu taught them a lot to survive the modern world. He taught them how to fight, how to cook, how to journey through various forms of wilderness and the first aid required to keep a body functioning. They even had pool side training classes, not just for swimming and rescue but for battle.

What he did not teach was how to break into high class hotel rooms.

Eric held a hand up, showing three fingers. Shaking off the idle thoughts, Arthur circulated energy through his body, triggering the Heavenly Sage techniques. He would need to move fast, but quietly, but thankfully, all his time in the Towers had geared him towards both those things. It was because he was significantly faster than even other Climbers that he was the one on point here, in fact.

The moment Eric’s hand closed fully, he thrust the door open. It swung open, cracking against something as it widened and Arthur leapt within, utilizing Cloud Steps to pass over the small hallway. The suite – a large one – consisted of a foyer with a bathroom, a small living room and then, finally; the bed room with massive bay windows that overlooked KL.

On all fours, leaping forwards like a kid playing tiger, Arthur crossed the hallway in a flash. He noted the traps laid on the ground, a simple chair in the way of the opening door that was still in the process of clattering to the floor. Behind that, a piece of metal wire strung across the floor, meant to trip and give assailants trouble.

The assassin was paranoid to take such precautions, but they were also slow. Waking groggily from their sleep, they grabbed for a gun at the corner of their table, missing it on the first extension. He never had a chance for a second attempt, as Arthur caught his arm and hauled him off the bed, one foot on the bed and the other on the ground. Holding arm and neck at full extension, Arthur pinned the man to the side of the room as the rest of the team slipped in.

“Check him,” Arthur growled, ignoring the kicking the other was offering. He even let his technique fall aside, not willing to waste precious Tower energy when he realised how weak the other was. He might be thirty plus and in good shape, probably an ex-Malaysian armed forces member, and still someone who saw a lot of the outdoors from the way his skin was highly tanned even for a Malay man.

Jan stripped the other man, unceremoniously, causing the other to shout imprecations and thrash, but Arthur just closed his fingers around the neck further; causing the man to finally slump over as the blood choked off in his brain. A slight release allowed more blood to flow within, even as the team stripped the bed, went through drawers and took everything of note.

Yao Jing rolled in the large suitcase and together, the group proceeded to tie the man up. Once more, Arthur was amused to note the rather startling proficiency Yao Jing had with the rope, and the variety of knots and ways the other man managed to bind and secure the assassin.

In moments, gagged, blindfolded, headphones on and bound securely, the team was rolling their prey out of the room. It was, Arthur knew, a little disturbing how easily they had entered, kidnapped and left the building; all with nary a disturbance.

“Should we be putting him inside the trunk?” Arthur muttered as he stared at Yao Jing lifting the suitcase into the trunk with ease. Which, if you had ever tried to deadlift a person in a suitcase before – or just a person – was not as easy as it looked, unless, of course; you were a Climber. Especially one that specialized in strength like Yao Jing – all that muscle he had was not just for show. In fact, one of the reasons they had to buy new weights was because of the man after their latest Tower return.

“Where else would we put suitcases? It’d be uncomfortable in the back with us,” Jan said, quite reasonably.

“I…” He hesitated, shook his head and waved a hand in defeat.

In moments, the group was driving off, heading through KL traffic. At six in the morning, it was busy but not terrible; though the occasional shift and thump in the back indicated that their prisoner was unhappily attempting to escape.

“Where are we going?” Arthur asked after a moment.

“Yao Jing suggested we take him out to Klang. There’s a few abandoned manufacturing centers that way.”

“Do I even want to know…” He rubbed his face, deciding that questions about why his bodyguards had not just an idea of how to transport a body inconscpicoulsy but also, a place to transport him to. He had been out of touch for a few hours after all. A group of motivated and enthusiastic people could do a lot.

“Better question, boss.” Jan leaned around from the front seat, so that she could see Arthur. “You wanna be here, ah? If we have a talk with him, maybe messy lah.”

Arthur looked into her eyes, noted how little empathy there was for the assassin. It was clear she was more than willing to torture whatever information they needed out of him. On the other hand…

“We have his phone?”

“Got lah.” She raised the phone and the other one attached to it, where Eric had provided another tool to copy everything over. Again, questions of why someone had such things rose up; but Arthur suppressed it with a firm squash.

Everyone was allowed their hobbies.

“We should go through it first. See if there’s anything to find.” He exhaled, looking up. “It’s not like we need him to confirm much. We probably know who he is working for. A few pictures, some questions and we can confirm all that.”

“The polis also can…”

“Yeah, and we don’t really need hard evidence to do what we need to.” Lips pursed, Arthur mind spun out over the course of actions they might have to take. “No, the question is more how much of a lead do we need, to do what we need.”

“Do what?” Eric asked, at last.

“That’s the question, isn’t it? Casey and Rick have been trying to play the political and business game. They’ve just been hitting back. The last time was trying to run me over during my date-” and he actually though that girl was not a plant, just a little dull, “-and the time before that, they tried to run our car over.” With a truck, which had consisted of a lot of explaining to do. Unfortunately, the driver in that truck had pleaded innocence before disappearing off the face of the earth days later.

“The rules don’t seem to count for them. So it might be, it’s time we stopped playing by them too,” Arthur said, in the end. If that wasn’t a grim pronouncement, he was not sure what else might count.