- Who's there? Come out! - loudly and clearly said Siu.

In response there was silence.

The police cars seemed to squeak somewhere. The sergeant was going some steps forward.

And suddenly the lieutenant’s body stiffened. He hardly slowly turned back. And before the lieutenant saw the vision, he shot. Movements and sounds of life returned with the it.

The policemen, security guards were coming from all sides, sirens howling and there appeared the bright light. The lieutenant saw again an ominous silhouette and rushed to the pursuit.

The hood darted out of the emergency exit.

- He overreached me - thought the policeman.

*

They were running along the endless dusty corridors of the club, along the kitchen and shop the finished products, along the poolrooms, the apartment halls, then darted out the room of slot machines into the club garden, they began twisting along the Mody Road street, and then along the center of Tsim Sha Tsui Coulon.

Once Siu managed to take the third place at sprint during the annual competitions among police stations and he was given the deed and even a small bonus, that’s why he was sure in his forces.

In the early morning fog of the harbor, keeping a gun in readiness, he touched and crushed the tents street traders, cleaners and dockers. For the first time he felt like a real terminator with a license to kill. Guards- policemen were joining the chase. Traders-cyclists with Chinese trunks in terror scattered pomelo, Pitahaya and carom.

- A wonderful morning! - vaguely murmured aloud Siu and thought that maybe the killer had a partner.

Chasing turned to the Chinatown with a maze of stairs, back doors and gaps between buildings with the size of a Chinese man. The policeman was trying to see the face of the dark hood, but it was unsuccessfully, although the last often half-turned to him, and wonder that when the police officer hesitated the hood as if was waiting for him.

*

Suddenly Siu remembered, when he was a boy he has been working the whole summer producing packages, as a result he bought a short-old gun for seventeen yuan. He was carrying it under his jacket and once has been following an old smart fox for the whole day. It was going around, fouling the trail, and when the young hunter was exhausted, it waited for him with interest. When he tried to shoot, it started catching mice. As if the fox knew that he couldn’t hit from a rifle at such distance and was arrogant.

Chasing reached the old houses. The killer was running on the roofs, was tangling the policeman and Siu was shooting. For a moment, the criminal seemed to be caught. He was rushing about in a corner of the roof at the crossroads. The distance was becoming shorter.

- Hands up! Face down! - ordered the policeman.

The hood was staying motionlessly with his back and then the officer shot.

- A misfire!

The monster half-turned and his laughter was terrible. With high circles he performed an incredible dance of death including Kempo, and his tanto knife glittered everywhere.

- Is it all? - though Siu.

He desperately rushed to the enemy, but he completely owned the situation. The hood opened the ventilation hatch lid without being noticed and craftily drove the policeman in, where he fell, like a blind kitten. While the policeman was trying to get out of the hatch and changed the charger, time was already lost. He just saw as the hood jumped off the roof.

Swearing, the lieutenant jumped to the edge of the roof. Far below there was buzzing a wide avenue and Siu timidly came to the edge.

- How did he jump off? - thought the policeman, but then he saw a black solid shiny rope, which is often used by climbers.

He lay down on his stomach, with his shoe he caught hold of the roof fence and saw the open broken window, a confused red bearded face that immediately disappeared.

For a few moments the lieutenant has been trying to restore that picture.

Maybe, the criminal tied to the fence a long rope, came down it, swung having broken the window by his foot, and then somehow cut off the piece of the rope, because one could see just a piece of it below the roof. Maybe, the hood stood on the windowsill, took the rope and cut it by something in two, leaving about four meters. The officer suggested that it was a knife.

- It would be great evidence - he thought.

Any policeman knows well that the rope isn’t used by the leading countries policemen. However, Siu wanted to be a very good policeman. For two years, he has been studying with his colleagues the current Japanese system of tying up the enemy with ropes called "Hojōjutsu", which is used as handcuffs. This cruel medieval system is used nowadays in the east as an addition to deterrents. Without wasting time, the policeman repeated the enemy’s trick. He tied at the same place the end of his indigo rope, slowly scrambled down the roof, strongly swaying, and after several attempts he flew in through the window with a crash. In a dark shabby room with dusty mats there was a pale, bearded man in the corner, he was holding a piece of long pipe in his hands. Having seen a policeman in the uniform he indistinctly pointed at the next door. Siu slipped through a dark cement corridor. The apartment door was opened. The lieutenant has been walking along dark rooms, until he heard a strange rustling. He shouted in a loud deep voice "police", having seen a spacious bathroom and a half-naked thick dark-haired middle-aged Chinese woman who unexpectedly hit Siu’s head with force with an iron mop and threw the policemen out of the bathroom.

He was laying on the parquet floor. He was coming to his senses. He saw double and triple of a woman’s silhouette with a mop which was rocking, until the lieutenant fixed it by force.

- Vangbadan! – he cried.

He twice ran round the whole dull house, it was no purpose. Several policemen cars were staying around the house and his colleagues were running to him. To be close to the dangerous criminal and not to grab him! He was shyly hiding his eyes because they were full of tears, bitterness and defeat. When the colleagues surrounded him consoling, the policemen saw that the Siu uniform was cut up into thin strips. He rushed to the nearest police car, took off his cup up jacket and saw the calligraphy. There were written hieroglyphs in Old Chinese. It was the killer’s message.

*

The next report the audience was waiting for with undisguised interest. It was seen by the filling of the hall and the audience’s enlivening and content hands rubbing. The article entitled "New immortology issues" was introduced by the famous nice old man, Mr. Vand. His performances were given not only supply of the widest erudition, but also sparkling kindly humor. He was a very bright personality who managed to combine extremely ill-assorted research. The audience was also impressed by the courage of thought. An amazing scientist, who had not only ever missed the articles on this topic, but also attentively followed the related branches which could be linked to the topic of the longevity. He could suddenly arrive to some out-of-the-way for a seminar on some topic in the Ecuadorian Andes, discussing hoarse, putting on and taking off his jacket, nervously trifling with braces and suddenly disappear in Shaolin mountains, where so far they have been making potion Lingzhi.

*

Of course, Mari thought, that an unpleasant old man could eclipse others speakers. She stared attentively at crimson Thomas with sparkling eyes and she calmed down. His laboratory was also producing a good bomb, anyway the audience hardly scatter to other halls.

At the same time, she was tracking attentively the movement of the odd neighbor from the sixteenth row. Firstly, there was a red-haired hag next to him, secondly, she was showing attention to him, maybe false ones, and thirdly, she looked scared. It’s a rare talent to stare at people without being noticed.