A soft, heavy thud sounded from directly below the floorboards.
"Damn."
Jing Shu stamped her foot against the cold floor. She had only caught a fleeting glimpse of Fei Zhuzai dropping away into the darkness when the heavy floor tile under his feet slid back into place with a mechanical snap. Jing Shu couldn't tell exactly how he had triggered it. It had to be the same principle as the trap plank at the villa's gate. A one way release mechanism. Either that, or he had primed the hidden switch in advance and simply strolled over it at the right moment.
In any case, she hadn't reacted fast enough to stop him. Otherwise, she would have fired the weapon. Who would predict that someone with a gun pressed to his head would just vanish mid stride? Fei Zhuzai deserved a boxed lunch for that level of performance. One second he is cursing up a storm in the dim light. The next he had burrowed into the earth. It's impressive. This had to be premeditated.
Trust Su Mali to be a walking soap opera. Even here, in a derelict basement, she ran into secret mechanisms like those seen on a television screen. Jing Shu had lived two lives and had never seen one in person until now.
"He's gone. He escaped. We might be trapped in this house. Start looking for a way out immediately." Jing Shu holstered her pistol with a sharp click and squatted to rap her knuckles on the ceramic tiles. They sounded the same as the others. Solid and dense rather than hollow.
Wang Chuang started searching the dusty corners for a trigger. Da Mao examined the heavy door for potential options.
Su Mali went to the entrance, her shoes clicking on the tile. "Wang Chuang, you trained for emergency escapes, right? Can this door be opened from the inside?"
The bearded middle aged man, Wang Chuang, shook his head slowly. "It's a stainless steel vault door. The live bolts are solid and lock into fixed slots on the outside of the frame. From in here, it won't open. Our rifles won't even scratch the surface. This isn't a door where you can just shoot the lock. If I'm right, this used to be a casino vault where they stored the cash."
Jing Shu kicked the door hard with her boot. A dull, low boom answered her, the vibration traveling up her leg. If the door had been made of wood, she would have smashed it into splinters already.
"So the bolts are on the outside, and we can't shoot through from the inside. Which means escaping through the door is impossible?" Jing Shu asked, narrowing her eyes as she looked at the cold metal.
Wang Chuang nodded, his expression grim. "Yes. And we may run short on air soon. If they leave us shut in here long enough, we could suffocate in the dark."
"Could we blast it with explosives?" Jing Shu asked. If it came to it, she would rather blow the door than sit and wait to die in the silence. Not knowing Fei Zhuzai's real aim made her feel even more exposed to danger. She had already died once in her previous life. She feared death more than most people in this basement.
Though in truth, this attack likely targeted Su Mali. It probably had little to do with Jing Shu herself.
Wang Chuang shook his head again. "Enough explosives to open a door like this would kill us too. There's nowhere in this room to take cover from the blast."
Right. Jing Shu still had a few charges stored in the Rubik's Cube Space, spoils taken from the Zhetian organization, but they were useless in this enclosed space.
Su Mali's eyes went wide, the pupils dilating as fear finally began creeping in. "No wonder they kept the door open before. Da Mao, did you find the mechanism Fei Zhuzai used to vanish?"
The other bodyguard, Da Mao, a steady man in his early thirties, shook his head as he swept his flashlight beam along the floor. "I swept for hazards when we first came in. I saw no visible switches, cameras, or listening bugs. Fei Zhuzai didn't seem to touch anything just now. It could be voice activated, or controlled centrally from another room. Vaults usually have a central system for security."
Su Mali let out a long, shaky breath. "I should have brought the satellite beacon with me. At least then we could call for help. Even if big data shows our last location, how would anyone find a hidden room in an underground casino under an abandoned manor? I wonder how Uncle Gou is doing right now."
After the four of them had searched every inch of the room and had found nothing, the panic pressed harder against their chests. Wang Chuang is right. In a sealed room, without any ventilation, the oxygen would dwindle.
Jing Shu drew a deep, rattling breath and still felt short of air.
"Miss, drink some warm water and lie flat on the sofa. Stay perfectly still. Don't eat anything. Reducing your digestion lowers the body's oxygen demand," Da Mao said, settling Su Mali onto the cushions first. She couldn't help much with the physical search anyway. It's better to save the air.
"Do you want to lie down too?" Da Mao asked Jing Shu.
"No. I need to think," Jing Shu said, her mind racing. She trusted no one in this building. Su Mali had insisted Uncle Gou had never betrayed them, but something in the chain had clearly broken.
Regret bit down hard on Jing Shu's conscience. Why had she not stocked mountaineering oxygen tanks in the Rubik's Cube Space? They're literal lifesavers in a situation like this. Who would expect to be short on air after getting a second life? Jing Shu had calculated almost everything except being trapped like a turtle in a jar. There were a thousand ways to die in the apocalypse. She's bound to bump into one of them eventually.
Even if Jing Shu took a tank out now, the bodyguards would be suspicious. Who brought a bulky oxygen cylinder to a simple business meeting?
"Then I'll leave the search to you two. I'll rest a bit," Su Mali said, drinking her water with a steady hand and lying back against the leather. She truly carefree at heart. From childhood on, obstacles had always been cleared for her, so she believed the people around her would fix anything that went wrong.
Jing Shu refused to sit and wait for death to arrive. If the vault door is a dead end, then the hole Fei Zhuzai used is the only chance for escape. If the hole hid danger, the professionals could probe it first.
"What tools do you have? Any pry bars, specialty picks, chisels, or heavy hammers?" Jing Shu asked, looking at Da Mao.
"I carry a field survival kit in my pack, but against a heavy vault room it won't do much," Da Mao said, producing a well stocked set from his gear. He laid out a Swiss army knife, a heavy flashlight, a multi tool with hammer and chisel heads, and several hardened steel drill bits.
Jing Shu brightened at the sight of the steel. "It is good enough. Water wears stone over time."
What happened next stunned both of the retired soldiers. What were they even seeing in this dim room?
The girl who had looked as weak as their young miss chipped a shallow pit into the concrete, then drove a steel drill bit into the floor like a nail. The mini hammer in Jing Shu's hand struck the metal with the audible force of a sledge. She pounded the bit deep into the floor, pulled it out with a grunt, shifted her position, and kept chiseling. In no time, one whole tile square is grooved with deep marks.
For the first time in their careers, the men watched a drill bit used as a nail. Just how strong is Jing Shu?
Clink. Clank. Clink.
Sparks flew from the impact of metal on stone. The chisel began to bend under the pressure. She gulped the stale air, sweat pouring down her face and neck.
Tile by tile, she levered the pieces up by brute physical force. When her breathing finally grew ragged to the point of physical pain, Jing Shu pried free a slab 20 centimeters thick and 80 by 80 centimeters across.