"Hello, Sasha. Hopkins. The young man smiled nervously, "I don't think you have seen me." He coughed, "But I think you know my brother well...... Well, his name is Jack. ”

This sentence, which could be said to be almost identical to the opening sentence that Catherine had heard a while ago, did not attract Sasha's real attention, and what made him concentrate was the stark and cold malice, and the child looked away from a rose-lace of a magnificent color, and he saw a man of about twenty-five or thirty years of age, with somewhat messy hair, straight eyes, and a small mustache trimmed into the shape of a thumbnail on his chin...... He may want to imitate a celebrity or a costume designer, or a modern character, but his facial features are a little too unremarkable, and his face is too round and very boyish, and this mustache does not add much charm to him, but looks dirty, and it sticks to a man's face as conspicuously as a stain of steak sauce that has not been left overnight.

"Oh, you don't think you remember much." The man said with a kind of hypocritical pleasure, "You are the same as your crumbly father...... The noble man forgets things, it doesn't matter, it doesn't matter, I'll take you to meet him, and make sure you can remember it as soon as you see him. ”

He pushed the doctor away and grabbed the handle of the wheelchair.

Sasha noticed that the doctor had no objection – the man was allowed to speak to him and approach him, and that until then, only the regular doctors, nurses and Catherine and her new partner had that right.

The wheelchair did not turn to the road that Sasha was already very familiar with, they walked for about twenty minutes, and then entered another building, passed through the square foyer and went down through an elevator that required the use of a password and iris inspection, like most hospital elevators, this elevator was very slow, Sasha sat quietly in the wheelchair, his eyes stayed on the elevator control panel for a while, mentally counted the number of buttons on it, and then turned away without a trace, staying on the closed elevator door, The elevator doors were two unusually clean, mirrored stainless steel that had been wiped down, and they didn't quite accurately reflect the scene behind Sasha, who was now at a height that could see the nurse's chest to his knees, as well as the man's shirt and pants.

This gentleman's taste is not flattering, not to mention the materials that can only be summed up in synthetic fibers, in terms of color and pattern alone - blue underside, white sperm, sand does not discriminate against this pattern, Bill Gates's wardrobe also has a lot of coral red, light orange and cartouches, but this pattern and color are not very suitable for this man who is in a bad mood and obviously lacks self-control, they will always make his mood worse than the previous second.

The man gently rocks his body back and forth behind Sasha's wheelchair, which may be psychologically explained as impatience or anxiety, but when combined with a weird smile, it probably only means that impatience is the answer.

Sasha didn't think it was something he could look forward to—he was starting to miss his aunt.

Catherine's new abilities have been recognized and appreciated by the upper echelons of the organization, and a verbal warning has exposed her dereliction of duty, betrayal, and absconding. Hopkins was also treated and cared for in the best of the best: after his last comprehensive medical examination, he could leave the room buried deep in the rock to enjoy the sun, the breeze and the scent of plants, or go to the games room and library, and choose his favorite food and clothes...... And so on and so forth, in return, Catherine changed her previous indecisiveness, and could almost be said to have plunged into a new job with a fanatical or even pious attitude, and there were many places where she was needed, not only intelligence, but also the activities of some action groups that also required her participation - many criminals were sharp-eyed, and through some details, they could easily tell whether someone would threaten them, and Catherine's previous criticism of weakness and cringe became the best disguise, and in a few months, There were already more than half a dozen criminals planted under the tips of her fingers.

Of course, in addition to the generous bonuses and the smile of her boss, Catherine is burdened by the dangers and pressures that inevitably come with her, but she still insists on visiting Sasha every day (as long as she is here), and she doesn't seem to mind Sasha's previous "abandonment". Or rather, the woman, who has apparently evolved from fantasy to delusion, does not think she has the power to "abandon" her. But in any case, at least on the surface, she was still very kind to Sasha, and she told Sasha that when he was completely healed, she would temporarily entrust him to a private nursing home with many children about his size, where he could have a "carefree" time, but this was also temporary, and after a year or two, when she took care of some things, she would take Sasha back and they could live together.

Sasha translates this to mean that in the next period of time, he will be transferred from one cage to another, and after getting rid of the endless examinations and injections, he will welcome the more annoying and noisy, aggressive child than a swarm of Africanized bees, waiting for Catherine or some other hunter in the institution to take Anthony. After Hopkins is killed, Catherine will find a way to take herself out to live with her.

Are you kidding! God, Sasha didn't think she or anyone else could kill her father, but she did get in the way more than once. But Sasha never regretted coming into contact with Catherine...... He knew very well that he needed his mother and longed for it. Catherine's emotions are hot, sincere, and surging, and although this emotion cannot replace the innate love and sense of responsibility that a mother has for her child, at the very least, the huge void that has always existed and grows in the palace of memory can be temporarily compensated and comforted by this emotion, and he must use this method to curb its expansion, lest his reason and emotion be distorted or even collapsed.

It's like the father's hole is filled by the mother and him.

***

The elevator suddenly opened in front of Sasha's eyes, and he was slightly startled by the distraction, and the man behind him let out a gloating sneer, he pushed the wheelchair out of the elevator, and when he grabbed the handle, the false cufflinks at the cuffs of his shirt hit the metal parts of the wheelchair, making a crisp sound that echoed in the straight passage. Sasha found that it was a wide, straight and snow-white, silent walkway, and from the inside out, there was a miserable smell, and even the wind blowing from the air outlet - although it was supposed to be fresh and warm, it still made them shiver when it fell on people's skin.

The wheels of the wheelchair are made of good rubber and the bearings are oiled, but they still make a sound when walking in this hallway...... Drum slippery, drummer, Sasha was pushed into the isolation room with two doors, and at the other end of the isolation room was an empty room, which was cold and filled with the smell of itchy formalins solution - although the vent on the top was whining all the time, the smell was still clear, and Sasha was only in Anthony. Hopkins sniffed once or twice when he was teaching pharmacology (because the drug can cause a variety of diseases, Anthony Hopkins. Hopkins had been avoiding too much contact with Sasha) - the young man deliberately stopped his wheelchair as he pushed Sasha past a shallow pool that took up almost half of the room, so that Sasha could see what's inside.

Inside was a corpse, neatly arranged in formalins' solution like a cutlery to be washed.

"You know this well," the man laughed, "my dear little murderer." ”

At the end of the room, too, there are double doors that allow carts to enter and exit, leading to a more gloomy room with four stainless steel autopsy tables, each with its own scales and sink. Only one table was occupied, and the gray-white corpse cloth bulged out into a long lump that looked like a tumor from a dissecting table.

The man pushed Sasha in front of the dissecting table, and the armrest of the wheelchair hit the edge of the stainless steel frame.

The cloth was violently lifted, the dead man naked in the white fluorescent light, and the bare feet were tied with morgue toe tags - Sasha retained the face of the man his father had investigated, his name was Jack, Catherine's partner, an employee of the agency, a man with a bit of responsibility. Perhaps for this reason, God forbid, his body was barely burned or damaged, which has to be said to be a miracle in the fire of Aliaou.

"Look, look, you little bastard." The young man hissed, and he grabbed Sasha's two hands from behind and pressed them against the dead man: "This is my brother, he is not yet thirty years old, not married, no children, for ten years, he is the one who feeds, dresses, and goes to school, and every Monday morning he rushes into my room and kicks my ass to wake me up, but now ...... You see, you see, this is a good thing your crumb dad did. Sasha relaxed his body and did not resist, the strength of adults was irresistible to him, his round, pink little finger was forced to press tightly on the dead Jack, he was bloodless, hard and cold, like inferior white marble, Sasha briefly patrolled, and he found a continuous, irregular round wound on the man's thigh, which had been cleaned and did not look very deep, and the edges were slightly sunken, as if he had been bitten by a crocodile—Sasha's eyes flickered, Anthony. Mr. Hopkins' fingers are slender, thin, but very powerful, and in his record of no less than ten prison escapes, he once killed a tall burly guard with a plastic fork, and once used his fingers and teeth to make himself a handcuff key—with a metal lead from a ballpoint pen and a small piece from a large paper clip; In the Amazon jungle, as his child, Sasha has seen more than once how he tore vines, dug up bark, strangled the necks of predators, or bled them by picking up vital parts, leaving marks on the milky flesh of his prey that resembled the former.

"Do you know how he died?" The young man leaned down, his face pressed against his sandy hair, and the rancid smell of poached eggs and ham came from his mouth: "The old brute who was supposed to go to hell broke his spine, ruptured his femoral artery, threw him into an empty room, and left him alone, bleeding and desperate to die...... But he didn't die from excessive bleeding, he died from suffocation, God, do you know what it feels like to die of suffocation? He pressed his fingers on the back of Sasha's neck and closed it slowly: "That's a wonderful thing, how about it, would you like to try it too?" I may not have the expertise of your killer father, but I promise it's definitely slow and painful, how?! ”

Sasha's head was pushed forward by him, his pale hair swept slightly over the body with a thin layer of frost, his head was slightly tilted, from this angle, he could see the wound more clearly, the wound was deeper than it looked, if the femoral artery was really ruptured, then the person should have died less painfully - bleeding more than 1000ml in a short time, peripheral circulatory collapse can appear, blood pressure drops, confusion, coma. And when Sasha and Catherine leave the hall occupied by the Snake Mating Troupe, her partner Jack is still alive, although Anthony . Mr. Hopkins must have done so soon after this, but the fire of unknown origin would not break out until at least ten minutes later, by which time the man had no idea of anything.

"Where will he go?" The young man asked suddenly.

Sasha's keen hearing told him that almost all of them had stopped breathing for a split second. The Hopkins child almost laughed, and he pursed his lips, curvading the corners of his lips into the formation.

His silence seemed to infuriate the young man, or rather, Jack's brother, and his breathing suddenly increased, and his face turned red: "Ah...... Ah......" He deliberately dragged the tail note long and rose at the end, trying to create a scornful and angry appearance: "Looks like I'm going to have to give you a little favor - how about a little human flesh?!" His hand suddenly increased in strength, and Sasha's forehead slammed into Jack's arm, and the cold, hard body hit his nose.

"Come on, come on, come on...... What, frozen meat is not appetizing? The man grabbed the soft hair of the sand and let his face run over the corpse, the child's indifference made him angry and frustrated, his strength and voice grew louder and louder, and his previous calmness and triumph were like rotten corpse water, which melted as soon as he opened the package and did not know where it flowed: "Say," he panted, and wrinkled his face like a child without a toy: "Say, tell me, where is he?" ”

Sasha calmly looked at the apparently angry man, his nose aching, hot, and could feel the viscous fluid flowing out of his nasal passages.

All the while, the doctor just stood with his arms crossed and watched silently, until the brainless young man actually began to dig up his brother's body with the knife he carried with him...... His eyebrows were knotted.

"It's a little colder, but it's a good piece of meat." The young man gave a disgusting smile: "Try this, and maybe you'll be able to remember where your ghoul daddy is!" He tugged hard at Sasha's hair, causing his head to tilt back.

The doctor took a deep breath and lowered his arm—but faster than he was Sasha.

The child shook his head vigorously, and silky golden curls slipped out of the man's hand, and he pounced.

He bit the young man's forearm so hard that his teeth creaked like an angry little snake.

The young man screamed.

(To be continued)