The Brain Science Case v1c2

Chapter 2: Paranoid Delusions – 2

Earlier—

“Ugh, no sunset! How annoying…”

Tang Yingli had intended to take a short nap, but she couldn’t fall asleep on the MRT. When she emerged from the underground mall and saw the sky blanketed in dark clouds, her mood soured even further.

“The landlord’s not here! My brother’s on duty… So I have to drag my luggage around until at least seven p.m. Ugh!” She should have just swallowed her pride and let him take a day off to pick her up from the airport.

Now, dragging a large suitcase through the streets felt incredibly cumbersome, and she looked exactly like a runaway.

“First, find a place to sit, get something to eat… Does the department store take US dollars?” She gave a wry smile. Credit card it is!

Once she calmed down, Yingli began to wander on her own. Though the streets were familiar, seeing them again after so many years still felt fresh. The covered walkways were no longer uneven and difficult to navigate, which saved her a lot of effort.

“Not much has changed, huh?”

The endorphins from her light exercise had chased away her drowsiness. She gazed at the large cuckoo clock above the department store entrance and reset her watch.

Six o’clock in the evening. The cuckoo clock chimed right on time, and Yingli couldn’t help but smile. But there were only a handful of people watching—and calling it a handful was being generous. Strictly speaking, it was just a few scattered souls.

Most of those who stopped were parents with their children. The little girl closest to her had a red and a blue balloon tied to her left wrist. Her backpack looked heavy, but her steps were light as she held her mother’s hand.

How nice! Yingli thought with a pang of envy. The cuckoo clock’s performance ended, and the crowd at the entrance began to disperse. As she stepped inside, a young man in a white jacket brushed past her in a hurry.

“Huh?” she muttered. “Carrying all that?”

The man was holding several department store paper bags and was heading toward a well-known cosmetics counter, where a petite woman was waiting for him.

So he was carrying things for his girlfriend? She shook her head, smiled, and walked toward the elevators.

She pressed the button for the food court floor. As she stepped out of the elevator, she took a deep, almost greedy breath of air—inhaling the aromas of all kinds of delicious food.

Her eyes lit up. “Alright! Time for something sweet!”

**

Chewing on the chewy boba pearls, Yingli wore an expression of almost dizzying satisfaction.

Bubble tea! A delicacy so easily obtainable only in Taiwan!

Her phone buzzed with a message. It was her brother! She had thought he was finally free, but the message was an apology… he had another surgery to perform.

“How long am I supposed to wait now?” She puffed out her cheeks and angrily slurped her tea. Whatever! Once I get in touch with the landlord, I’ll head to the rental place first.

But even with the comfort of bubble tea, she still had to continue dragging her suitcase around.

The restaurants were crowded in the evening, so Yingli went straight up to the floor with women’s accessories and perfume counters. It was much less crowded here, perfect for her—and her large suitcase—to pass through.

“Welcome! Feel free to try anything on if you like.”

She stopped at a counter near the escalator. “This one… excuse me!” She covered her mouth and let out a small burp. “Do you have a smaller size?”

It was a silver ring. “Yes! Which finger are you planning to wear it on, miss?”

“A pinky ring, I think?” She held up the little finger of her left hand and finished the last of her drink.

“Have you had your finger sized? Or would you like to just try one on?”

“Let’s try one on!” She shook the empty cup. “I’ll just go throw this away.”

“I can get that for you!”

“It’s okay! It’s close!”

Taking a long stride over to the side of the escalator, as she was about to toss the empty cup, she noticed a paper bag had been “placed” inside the trash can.

She thought “placed” because the bag wasn’t just tossed in; it was sitting upright and stable inside the bin. A new-looking department store paper bag.

The object inside was square and carefully wrapped. It was the only thing in the trash can.

A strange feeling flickered through her mind. Yingli lifted the bag. It was slightly heavy, and inside was a long, rectangular box, like one for a cake. Unable to resist her curiosity, she opened it. The moment she saw what was inside, her amygdala screamed a warning.

“This is…”

BANG!

A massive sound, almost like a gunshot, rocked her eardrums. The glass of a nearby jewelry counter shattered, and the security alarms blared.

“Nobody move! Put all the money and jewelry where I can see it!”

The man in the white jacket, now wearing a ski mask, sounded menacing. All the salesclerks either dropped to the floor or screamed. “If you don’t listen…” He pulled the trigger, and a salesclerk immediately fell to the ground.

Amidst the blood and screams, Yingli looked back and confirmed that the man’s clothes were the same as the person she had bumped into at the entrance.

And now, he wasn’t holding a single paper bag.

[Time until department store bomb detonation: 22 minutes remaining]

**

Zhou Jinglin got out of the car at the same time as Fang Zijun. “Just got a report from the precinct captain. Two suspects, one male, one female, robbing the jewelry and luxury goods counters on the third floor. They’ve sealed the escalators, elevators, and fire escapes!”

Cai Yuwei and Chen Huomu followed close behind. They ran toward the main entrance, running into a wave of evacuated people. She could hear the sirens of an ambulance in the distance.

“Someone’s been shot! The suspect opened fire!” Chen Huomu reported.

Fang Zijun gritted his teeth. “Ah Mu, you take Yuwei to the other side. Jinglin, you’re with me!” He drew his pistol, and she did the same. As they went upstairs, Fang Zijun stayed in contact with the officers on the scene.

“He’s fired at least five shots… another lunatic! Shooting bullets like they’re free!” he cursed.

To prevent the suspects from escaping to higher floors, some officers had already circled around to the fourth floor to close in from above. The main access points, including the fire escape doors, had been locked from the outside, the elevators wouldn’t stop at the third floor, and the escalators had all been shut down.

As they climbed the motionless escalator to the third floor, Fang Zijun paused. “Ah Mu! What’s your status?”

Zhou Jinglin tightened her grip on her service pistol—a Walther PPQ M2—and pressed a hand to her earpiece.

‘We’re in position!’

“Good!” Exchanging a look with an officer holding a riot shield, Fang Zijun nodded. “Go up and carefully locate the explosive device… Let’s move!”

To avoid being shot by the robbers, the officer with the shield went first, with Fang Zijun right behind him. Zhou Jinglin suppressed the trembling in her hands, forcing herself to focus on the mission at hand.

As they reached the third floor, they were met with a scene of chaos. Shattered glass and jewelry were scattered everywhere, and several salesclerks lay in pools of their own blood.

How many people did he shoot? Zhou Jinglin holstered her weapon. Less than five meters away, a salesclerk was lying on the ground, bleeding.

“Miss! Are you okay?” She was lying face down, her left hand tightly gripping a phone. Next to her was a huge, matte black suitcase.

Was she the one who called the police?

Fang Zijun’s voice came through. “Sweep the area first, everyone else check on the injured! The suspect definitely has more ammo, be careful…”

‘Chief!’ Chen Huomu’s shout came through the earpiece. ‘In the trash can… it’s a homemade bomb! It’s gonna blow!’

A trash can?

Zhou Jinglin turned and saw an empty paper bag next to the bin, with a strange-looking box sitting on top of it.

Fang Zijun yelled urgently, “Jinglin! Get away from there—!”

It was too late.

The chief’s last words were drowned out. Zhou Jinglin crawled forward two steps and threw herself over the salesclerk, shielding her with her own body.

It was the only thing she could do.

**

BANG! BANG! Firing two more shots under the cover of the bomb blast, the robber burst into a service stairwell.

“You go first, take the stuff and get out!”

The woman slung the backpack full of loot over her shoulder and, contrary to his instructions, ran upwards.

She must be planning to blend in with the evacuees, Tang Yingli thought, watching silently. The fingers of her right hand were bent at a strange angle. She and two other salesclerks were being held hostage; among the three of them, she was the only tourist.

“Get in!” he ordered.

Compared to the salesclerks, who were almost too terrified to move, Yingli was astonishingly calm. She was the first to step into the control room, her eyes scanning the small, three-ping (approx. 10 square meters) room.

All she could see were large server racks, each big enough to hide a person. Without air conditioning, the server room was exceptionally stuffy. Every breath was thick with the heavy smell of electronic components.

The door was the only way in or out. Unless you counted the air vent in the corner, which led who-knows-where.

The armed robber quickly entered, jammed the door shut, and dragged in a fire hose—more than enough to tie up three people.

“Don’t kill me! Please don’t…”

“Ha! If I wanted to kill you, it’d be easy. One shot from here, and it’s all over!” He pressed the muzzle of the gun to the clerk’s forehead, making her scream. “Quiet! Be quiet! You can scream your head off after I’m gone!”

He tied the rest of the hose to a server rack, effectively trapping them there. The robber let out a heavy breath and shook out a piece of paper. “Where does this lead…” He was trembling, his rapid breaths accompanied by a faint wheezing sound.

Is that a map? While he was preoccupied, Yingli tried to work herself free from her bonds.

Amidst the low hum of the electronics, she could faintly hear a commotion from outside the door.

He looked up, his nerves stretched taut again. “Dammit! This screw!” BANG! He fired another shot at the screw.

Ten. She clearly heard the sound of the bullet ricocheting and bent another one of her knuckles.

BANG!

Eleven.

One of the salesclerks whispered, “What are you doing?”

BANG!

“Finally opened!” He pried the cover off with force. “Damn! It stinks!” He put one foot on the edge of the opening, hesitating.

“Go on, jump.”

His back went rigid.

Waiting behind him was Yingli, who had somehow untied herself from the hose.

“Jump. You don’t dare, do you?”

“When did you…”

“I thought something was strange when I saw you at the entrance. Why would someone be carrying bags into the department store… Something was definitely wrong!”

The four bombs must have been set on timers and placed in various locations throughout the floor to create chaos, cause casualties, or serve as a diversion.

But what they never expected was for the robbery to draw a police siege so quickly.

The moment she discovered the homemade timer bomb in the paper bag, Yingli had immediately instructed the salesclerk who was helping her to call the police.

And the police department had not disappointed her.

“Don’t move if you don’t want to die!”

Facing the gun, Yingli actually smiled. “Go on, shoot!” She stepped closer. “You can’t, can you? A .45 H&K USP only holds twelve rounds!”

He pulled the trigger. Just as she had said, the magazine was empty.

“I imagine the police are swarming outside that door, right? You missed your window to escape, effectively trapping yourself in here, and now your weapon is useless.”

“So what now? When faced with danger or fear, the amygdala in the brain triggers a fight-or-flight response. Judging by your face, you’re leaning toward flight, right? Besides the air vent, you don’t have many options!” She raised an eyebrow. “Or… do you want to try getting past me?”

The pistol was slick with sweat. The man in the ski mask let out a faint wheeze, his lips turning slightly purple.

But the flicker in his eyes showed he had made his decision.

“Planning to resist to the end? As expected…” Yingli pushed up her glasses, a chilling smile spreading across her face.

“The brain doesn’t lie.”

As the last word left her lips, the man used the gun as a close-quarters weapon and charged at her with a roar.

**

“Freeze! Police!”

Zhou Jinglin kicked open the control room door, only to be met with a bizarre scene.

Two salesclerks scrambled past her, fleeing for their lives. Between the server racks, a woman dressed in black had a man pinned to the ground. His cotton ski mask had been torn off, and in her right hand, she gripped a bloody pistol.

“Ah! Perfect timing, he’s taken care of! God, I’m exhausted…”

“Drop the gun!” Zhou Jinglin gritted her teeth, her own weapon aimed squarely at the woman.

“The culprit’s right here… it’s out of bullets!”

“I said, drop it!”

With an innocent look, the woman tossed the gun at her feet. Zhou Jinglin stepped forward and kicked it away.

“Hands behind your back! Now!”

“You’re not actually going to cuff me, are you?” she asked, her face a mask of disbelief.

Zhou Jinglin took out her handcuffs. “Chief! I’ve found a suspect with a firearm in the server room!” She expertly cuffed the woman. “Miss! You’ll have to come with us to the station. Everything you say can and will be used against you, and you have the right to remain silent!”

“W-Wait a minute! I’m the victim!” Her protests were drowned out by the swarm of officers who rushed in. “I’m the victim!”

“Take her away!”

Her cries of injustice faded into the distance. Cai Yuwei followed her into the room. “All taken care of? That was fast! Are you okay?”

When the homemade bomb had exploded, she had been crouched behind a sturdy counter, and the black suitcase had absorbed most of the impact. Other than some temporary hearing loss, she was unharmed.

“I’m fine.” Zhou Jinglin glanced at the unconscious man, then at the open air vent. “You cuff him, too! I’ll submit the gun and ski mask as evidence.”

“No problem!”