Chapter 407 - Beyond Reach

As Qiu Yuanjie was in the hall "reverse-brainwashing" the two to three hundred MLM victims present, Bai Ying, responsible for arresting Yao Baishan, urgently ran up to him and told him that something serious had happened. Never did they expect that Yao Baishan would have a gun, and when they barged into the room, there was a woman with him, a sex worker. Yao Baishan took the woman hostage, and the situation was now desperate as he was acting like a cornered wild beast in the hotel room.

"Damn it, guns too? This MLM organization is getting more and more audacious."

Qiu Yuanjie was furious when he heard this. "Hurry up and contact the local police. Tell them to dispatch their special task force to assist us. We must ensure the safety of the hostage!" he barked.

"Yes, captain."

Bai Ying nodded in response and promptly left to execute Qiu Yuanjie's orders.

"Captain, nothing can go wrong this time, right? We can't let this big fish, Yao Baishan, slip away," Luo Shuang said.

"Unless he can fly through the air or crawl into the ground, he can never escape!"

Qiu Yuanjie snorted in response as his hatred for MLM organizations was deep. He suddenly looked around the vicinity and asked, "Where is Xiao Luo?"

Luo Shuang immediately scanned the premises thoroughly, but when she could not spot Xiao Luo either, she said, "Who cares if he's from the NSA. That bastard is not reliable at all; maybe he went to slack off somewhere. He obviously just wants the credit."

"Don't talk nonsense. All of you weren't able to answer the chief's question, but Xiao Luo could. That is enough to explain everything."

"That's because Chief didn't play his card in the normal way," Luo Shuang retorted.

"A lot of things don't happen in a normal way. If you bump into such a thing, would you blame your failure on your superiors too?" Qiu Yuanjie reprimanded her.

"I…"

Luo Shuang was suddenly lost for words.

"Don't overthink, just do your job," Qiu Yuanjie said as he patted her shoulder.

He then hurriedly headed off to the floor where Yao Baishan was located.

It was on the eighth floor. One of Qiu Yuanjie's subordinates was armed with a gun and stood guard in the corridor keeping eyes on Room 808. There was a bullet hole in the wooden door, and evidently, Yao Baishan had already fired a shot to deny the policeman entry.

"Captain, Yao Baishan's emotions are high, and he's a little out of control. We must act quickly. If this drags on for too long, I fear that he will harm the hostage," Long Ye said.

In fact, Qiu Yuanjie was already aware of what was happening even without Long Ye's report as he could hear Yao Baishan yelling inside from where he stood in the corridor. Yao Baishan was threatening to shoot the woman he held if the police refused to withdraw. He even said that he would jump off the balcony to commit suicide if they attempted to break in. He did not intend to divulge any information to the police.

"How long until the taskforce arrives?" Qiu Yuanjie asked, turning to look at Bai Ying, who had just hurried back from liaising with her associate unit.

"10 minutes at the earliest," Bai Ying answered.

"Long Ye, try your best to calm his emotions and comply with his demands within the allowable limits. Without my order, you are not allowed to act, nor should you forcibly barge in to arrest him," Qiu Yuanjie said.

"Roger that."

Long Ye nodded respectfully in acknowledgment.

After giving the order, Qiu Yuanjie hurried to the first floor with Luo Shuang and a few others. Standing at the hotel's rear entrance and looking up, they could clearly see the balconies protruding by more than one meter from each room.

"There lies the breach," Qiu Yuanjie said, pointing at the balcony of Room 808.

"The balcony?" Luo Shuang said.

Qiu Yuanjie nodded and replied, "Yes, Yao Baishan's full attention will be on the room's door. When the special taskforce arrives, get a team to quietly rappel down with a rope to 808's balcony and sneak in. In this way, we can take him by surprise and bring him under control."

"Great idea, the special task force is equipped for this job. They do rock climbing and abseiling as part of their training; this will be a piece of cake for them. Besides, as long as they get close to him, they can easily knock down even two Yao Baishan's armed with guns." Luo Shuang opined.

Qiu Yuanjie did not respond as he rubbed his chin and pondered the various issues that might arise.

"Captain, look, there's someone on the rooftop," Bai Ying cried, pointing at the hotel's roof in shock.

Qiu Yuanjie immediately gazed up and was stunned by what he saw. There was indeed a figure on the building's rooftop, which was more and a dozen floors high. And even more surprising was the fact that the person standing on the parapet with his back facing outward.

"It's that bastard from the NSA. What is he going to do, jump off the building?" Luo Shuang hissed. She was the first to identify him.

Bai Ying and the other team members were equally shocked. Xiao Luo stood at the edge of a building's rooftop, more than a dozen floors high, with his back facing outwards. What was he trying to accomplish? Was he really going to commit suicide? Was the pressure in the NSA so great?

Qiu Yuanjie took out his communicator and dialed a number…

At the same time, Xiao Luo, standing on the hotel's roof, heard his phone ringing. He took it out and took the call.

"Xiao Luo, why are you standing on the top of the building? It's dangerous, come down!" Qiu Yuanjie growled. He just couldn't understand the purpose of Xiao Luo's action and the risks he was taking.

"Helping you to arrest your criminal!"

Xiao Luo responded indifferently and ended the call, then put the phone back in his pocket.

In the next second, Xiao Luo jumped down from the top of the building to the gasps and startled gazes of Qiu Yuanjie and his team.

He… he jumped down!

For a moment, every one of them had their hearts in their throats, but their shock quickly turned to amazement because Xiao Luo did not fall straight from the top of the building to the ground. He dropped from one floor to the one below, almost at the rappelling speed, except that he was using his hands to hold each balcony's outer edge to slow his descent.

"Gulp!"

Qiu Yuanjie, Luo Shuang, Bai Ying, and the other team members were stunned silent as they never imagined that such a thing could be done. Was he even human? How can the joints of his arms and hands take the stress and load?

"Oh my gosh, what am I looking at?"

"Is he shooting a movie? Why don't I see the safety rope and cameras?"

"Jesus, this is a live Hollywood action blockbuster."

People passing in the street below stopped to watch, one after another, and many took out their mobile phones to video Xiao Luo swiftly making his way down the building with his bare hands. Without exception, everyone was bewildered and in disbelief.

"This guy is too reckless!"

Qiu Yuanjie worried about Xiao Luo and broke out in cold sweat. There was no safety rope, and he was relying only on his hands to slow his descent. In the event of a slip, he would fall all the way and be smashed into a pulp.

"He's a madman!"

Bai Ying and the others were equally appalled as beads of sweat trickled down their foreheads. Only a madman would dare to descend quickly from such a high building without any safety devices in place.

Luo Shuang remained silent as she felt equally shocked and apprehensive, but at the same time, she felt a sense of dissatisfaction. The person she thought was here to take credit was as fearless as the cops in Hong Kong movies and was now taking the most unusual path to arrest the criminal. This was as good as a slap in her face.

"Why would that bastard dare to jump? What was he thinking, this is a building more than a dozen stories high!"

But, in the same instant, the NSA's image, of which she initially had a low opinion, suddenly rose in her eyes. Such skills were absolutely beyond the capabilities of regular police officers like them.

…