Operation Red Book

"No, no, no, I have it. I have the key." Joshua quickly took out the key in his hand and stuffed it into his mouth.

"What are you doing? Control him."

Several masked men came forward and held Joshua down, and one of the big men pinched Joshua's mouth.

"No, no, no, don't let him swallow it!"

Joshua gritted his teeth, his legs trembling, and he held the key in his mouth and said vaguely, "Release Mr. Moriarty and Mr. Johnson, and I will open the safe for you."

"Little guy, I can saw open this broken safe right away. I don't care about your key."

"If you could just saw it open without damaging the things inside, you wouldn't have to go to so much trouble to find the key."

"Then swallow it, and I'll kill you and cut you open. I can still get the key."

"I will scream for help desperately. The soundproofing here is not good and the sound will always be heard below. By the time you get the key out, the police will have arrived."

"I don't know if your key can open the box!"

"Let me go first. I'll give it a try. If it succeeds, it won't be too late to let them go later."

The masked man gave an order and released the hand that was holding Yoshua.

Joshua slowly walked to the safe, took out the key from his mouth, inserted it into the keyhole, and then slowly turned it, and the lock opened.

Seeing this, the masked men rushed forward to grab the item. Joshua quickly locked the door, quickly took the key in his mouth, and stretched out his arms to hold the safe tightly.

"Let them go!"

Joshua was pulled away by the masked man and punched hard in the stomach.

"Uh-huh——"

Joshua opened his mouth and spat out the key mixed with blood.

Joshua crawled over on his hands and knees, grabbed the key and hunched over.

The 180cm tall man just curled up into a ball and refused to stretch his body no matter how the masked man punched and kicked him.

"Let them go..."

Joshua's whole body was shaking, and his flaxen curly hair was trembling, making sounds.

The masked man raised his hands to stop the beating and sighed heavily. "Ah-hh. Alright, untie them and get out."

Joshua looked up and watched the masked man untie the ropes of Moriarty and Johnson, then watched them walk out of the room, and then watched the two masked men return to the room, and he finally breathed a sigh of relief.

His whole body was in pain, and it hurt more when he moved. Joshua slowly crawled to the safe, inserted the key into the keyhole and slowly turned it. Once, twice, the lock opened.

The masked men pulled Joshua aside, grasped the handle of the safe and pulled it out with force.

Suddenly, everyone was stunned, and the five black heads turned around and looked at Joshua.

Joshua was resting under his desk, and the gazes of the five people made him shudder.

The masked man made way for Joshua, and he looked at the safe facing him.

This sight made him shudder again, and his heart started pounding again.

There was no cash in the safe, but a bomb that was counting down, with less than five minutes left before exploding.

"Bam—"

The door of the room was kicked open and Moriarty was thrown in. He had his eyes closed, his golden hair was messy, and his face was calm.

He rolled on the ground and then stopped moving.

A tall, white-haired man walked in slowly with a pistol in hand. It was Johnson who had just been tied to the table.

He glanced coldly at everyone in the room, his gaze briefly resting on Joshua, who was beaten black and blue.

He sneered a few times in front of the astonished crowd, his deep voice was as deep and powerful as a sharp sword.

"This bomb was made in Germany. It is powerful enough to destroy the entire building, including the Freesia Café below."

Johnson turned his head and his shoulders and neck made a cracking sound.

"I have no intention of paying you in cash. As you know, the economy is in turmoil and I have nothing left."

Johnson smiled, showing his white teeth.

"You should die with me. At least we will appear in the daily newspapers - shocking! Sir Johnson was killed by a bomber, and many charred bodies were found at the scene."

"You...hateful old bone!"

"Don't move!"

Johnson lowered the pistol and slowly aimed it at the bomb in the safe.

"I fired a shot, and it exploded immediately without waiting for the countdown to end. BOOM!"

Johnson pretended to shake the pistol, which frightened everyone present.

"Is there no room for negotiation?" Joshua said tremblingly, enduring the pain.

"You are new here, I haven't seen you before."

Johnson walked over, dragged Joshua and threw him in front of the bomb, then took out a pair of scissors from somewhere and threw it at Joshua's feet.

"I'll give you one chance. The red line means stop, the green line means speed up, and the black line means explode immediately."

Johnson's creepy voice sounded above, and Joshua's hair stood on end, as if he was trapped in an endless ice cellar.

The ticking sound of the bomb mixed with tinnitus continued to vibrate Joshua's brain waves. Time seemed to have stopped, the numbers displayed on the dial gradually slowed down, and his vision became blurred, unable to tell whether it was reality or an illusion.

There was less than a minute left, and Joshua felt his whole body getting hot. He stood in front of the bomb and looked down at his right hand.

The scissors were in his hand at some point, and the cold touch forced Joshua back to reality. The number displayed on the dial was less than 30 seconds.

Joshua quickly cut the green and black threads with his knife.

Johnson raised the corner of his mouth in satisfaction, while the two masked men screamed and covered their eyes.

"What are you going to do? You're going to kill us!"

"Red means stop, cut red!"

“Aaaaaaah! Bloody Hellllll—”

Nothing happened in the room and the bomb dial stopped.

Joshua sat down weakly, sweating all over as if he had just fallen into the water.

"Red means stop, right?" Joshua looked at Johnson, breathing heavily after surviving a disaster.

Johnson smiled and nodded, but then he pulled out another red button, his voice still chilling.

"It seems you can play word games with me. See you in heaven!" After saying that, he pressed the red button heavily.

Joshua looked back in horror. The numbers on the dial were changing rapidly and the ticking sound was ringing madly, each tick hitting Joshua's heart hard.

There were screams of fear and running footsteps all around. Some people tried to run out of the room. Johnson stretched out his hand and fired a shot into the air: "Bang——"

Without thinking too much, Joshua picked up the bomb in the safe and stood up shakily with strength that he didn't know where it came from.

He quickly ran to the large window on the left side of the room, stepped onto the soft chair with all his strength, turned around and broke two pieces of glass, then raised his head and fell towards the lake outside the window.

I don’t know how much time had passed. There was no explosion as I had imagined, no falling into the water as I had imagined, and no feeling of falling as I had imagined.

Even the air around seemed to slow down.

Joshua slowly opened his eyes. He still held the bomb in his arms, and the number on it stopped at the last three seconds.

Above his sight was a broken window, with glass fragments scattered everywhere and then stopped around him. Looking closely, there seemed to be slowly flowing water droplets around.

He tilted his head to look to the right, and finally realized what was going on—he was stuck in the air.

The fruit trees below were still swaying in the wind, and ripples were forming on the surface of the lake. It seemed that only the time around him had stopped.

At this time, large icicles suddenly grew out of the broken windows, piling up layer by layer to form an ice-blue ice road, which gradually extended towards Joshua.

A familiar white figure suddenly appeared on the icy road. It was Mr. Victor whom I had seen at London Train Station before.

He walked gracefully, walking on the icy road as if it were flat ground, his long silver hair scattered on his white fur coat, fluttering in the breeze.

Victor's light blue eyes were like a calm lake in the Arctic Ocean, but Joshua felt unusually at ease.

"I'm really tired..."

Joshua's vision gradually blurred, and he felt the bomb in his arms being taken away, and his whole body was carried on someone's shoulders...