Almighty Coach

Dai Li couldn’t escape, and he couldn’t call for help. He was like a cat on hot bricks, not knowing what to do.

The kidnappers outside swore at Dai Li incessantly, and some angry guys even kicked the door hard, but it didn’t help. The steel door was really strong. The kidnappers outside didn’t know what to do either.

Minutes later, Leon finally arrived.

“Boss, he is inside, but he locked the door and we can’t get in,” one of them said.

“Didn’t you try breaking the door?” Leon asked angrily.

“We tried, but the door is too strong. We even shot the door,” said the man, pointing at the dents the bullets had gouged into the door.

Leon looked at the scratches on the door. The door was strong indeed. The bullets couldn’t penetrate it, but only left marks on its surface.

Leon was unhappy with this, and he was getting angry again. He banged on the door heavily and shouted at Dai Li, “Hey, you. Open the door immediately, and you’ll receive a quick death. Otherwise…”

Dai Li interrupted him. “Idiot! I still have to die even if I open the door. Why should I open it then? Even if you want to trick me into opening the door, you are not sincere enough!”

Leon suddenly felt a little awkward. He wanted to make some caustic remarks, but Dai Li had ridiculed him instead.

Dai Li continued to shout out the door, “Three of your men are still in my hands. Believe me or not, I’ll kill them!”

“Do as you like! Three idiots. Since they couldn’t deal with you, what do I want from them?” Leon snorted.

The answer was just as Dai Li expected. They were kidnappers, and it was definitely useless to threaten them with their accomplices’ lives. As was shown in movies and TV series, villains never cared about the lives of their partners.

I guess I should find other ways. Dai Li sat down hopelessly, leaning against the wall.

At that moment, a faint voice became audible.

“Help, help…”

…

“How could this door be so strong!” Leon kicked the door angrily.

“Boss, this room was a chemistry laboratory before, so it was specially designed. There were no windows to prevent the chemical reagents from being changed by sunlight. The door was specially designed too. It was reinforced for fear that someone would steal the research results,” said one of Leon’s men.

“So how should we open the door?” asked Leon.

“We have to use a cutting machine, like the one firefighters use to cut open car. But we don’t have that here,” said the man.

“Then go and get one right now!” Leon roared at that man.

That man shivered with fear and turned away immediately.

Blecher was also anxious. He had thought everything would be alright when he caught Dai Li, but he hadn’t expected Dai Li to almost escape.

“Leon, is everything alright?” asked Blecher in a low voice.

“Mr. Blecher, don’t worry. There are no windows in the room, and the door is the only way out. He can’t escape,” said Leon confidently.

Blecher nodded, but the next second, a terrible thought occurred to him.

“But if he calls the police, what should we do? He has caught your men. Your men should have cell phones, right?” Blecher asked with trepidation.

“Call the police? Mr. Blecher, you can try calling 911!” said Leon with a smile.

Blecher took out his cell phone and found it had no signal.

“The cell phone has no signal. What’s wrong? You did this?” asked Blecher.

Leon nodded with a sneer on his face. “I blocked the cell phone signal of the whole building, so you can’t get a call in or out. More than that, we also blocked the satellite positioning signals of GPS, so you lose your connection to GPS as soon as you enter this building.”

Blecher took a deep breath and commended him, “You’re really prescient.”

Leon explained, “People we kidnap will do everything they can to call the police, so the police can track us through the positioning of the phone. In addition to cell phones, many electronic products now contain GPS positioning systems, which is a big risk for us. Therefore, I installed a signal jammer to block cell phones and GPS positioning systems in this whole building.”

“I’m relieved now.” Blecher was becoming considerably calmer.

“Mr. Blecher, let me deal with it. You go and have a rest first. When my men find the cutting machine and cut the door open, we’ll be able to pry his mouth open!”

…

“Help, help!” came the faint voice again.

Dai Li was startled by the sound and instinctively pointed his gun in the direction of the voice, only to find that the bloody man had raised his head.

He is alive! Putting the gun down, Dai Li walked over to him.

“Could you give me some water?” asked the bloody man. His voice was still weak.

Dai Li looked around and found several pop-top cans on the table, two of which had not been opened yet. They were both beer, left by the kidnappers.

“No water here. Just beer. Make do with it.” Dai Li immediately opened one beer and gave it to the bloody man.

The bloody man drank the beer and regained some strength. “They tied me up too. Could you help to untie me?”

Dai Li took the knife and cut the rope. The bloody man tried to move, but he seemed to be in great pain, as if moving stretched the wounds on his body.

“Are you alright?” asked Dai Li.

“Better than I thought. Just skin traumas,” said the bloody man. “I need something to bandage my wounds.”

Dai Li searched the room again and found a roll of bandage and a morphine ampule in the interlayer of Santos’ leather case.

He hesitated for a moment and handed the morphine ampule to the bloody man. “You may need this now.”

“Oh, thank God.” The man took the morphine ampule and injected himself expertly.

Soon it worked and the bloody man was no longer as weak as before.

Dai Li took up the medical tape and started to bandage his wounds. At the same time, he asked, “Why did they bring you here?”

“Oh, I almost forget to introduce myself. I’m an investigative journalist. My name’s Edward Snow.” He paused and went on, “Thank you for saving me, Coach Li.”

“You know me?” Dai Li didn’t expect to meet an acquaintance when he was kidnapped.