Chapter 44 43

Bob.Halliberg showed his military ID and tried to convince the CIA personnel that the situation was urgent, but he still couldn't avoid being thoroughly checked at the security checkpoint.The same is true of Mary.Finally, they finally passed the metal detector. Please come with me quickly!Halliberg yelled at her and rushed forward.Mary has never been clear about his intentions and what he was going to do here, but she still ran after her out of breath. They rushed up a narrow concrete staircase, which was certainly not the place used by hotel guests.They ran to the third floor, entered a hallway that was also used by insiders, and came to a large house.It must have been a warehouse, but now it looks like the NASA control center in Houston.Men and women in casual clothes sat behind rows of simple desks, staring nervously at their laptops.Thick bundles of wires ran from their desk to a large instrument on a huge shelf.Countless LED lights flash on the face of the instrument.There are more than a dozen large flat screens hanging on one wall, which quickly change and display the images of various parts of the hotel.A super large screen in the center shows the picture inside the big glass ball on the top floor of the hotel.In the center of the picture is a huge circle, which is the seat of the leaders of various countries.Mary saw that the person sitting in the center of the circle was the new Secretary-General of the United Nations.He is speaking to the audience.Mary couldn't hear him.The sound was cut out.

The control room was overcrowded, but it was silent, filled with a tense atmosphere.The slight clicks and clicks of the keyboard and the movement of the mouse add to the already tense tension.As Halliberg and Mary opened the door and rushed into the room, it seemed to Mary that they had disturbed a silent prayer, or some occult ritual.Only a few raised their heads and glanced at them in surprise.However, most people don't pay attention to them at all, still engrossed in the screen in front of them. A man in the outer circle was standing, staring at the screen on the wall.Strong and stocky, with short cropped blond hair, he walked over as soon as he saw Halliberg and held out his hand to Mary.You must be Miss Ashe.He said, I am Jim.Crete, head of security for the conference.Mr. Halliberg has told me all about your unusual experience.Mary could hear the doubt when he used the word unusual.He glanced briefly at Halliberg.Normally, ordinary people are not allowed to enter this room.However, Bob insists that you can help us stop a possible terrorist attack.

I'm not sure what I can do.Mary answered. Can you arrange a place for us?Halliberg asked, I want to watch the surveillance footage with Miss Ashe.Maybe she could recognize someone. certainly.Please come with me.Crete led them to the desk of an Asian-faced young woman sitting in front of a laptop.This is Wu.Please assist Mr. Halliberg and Miss Asher.They're looking for terrorists who might have infiltrated the hotel. But sir, there's no one in the restaurant who hasn't been thoroughly investigated by us.said the young woman. I know.But please do as Mr. Halliberg tells you.

Yes, sir.She turned her head to Halliberg.What would you like to see? I need a panorama that shows all frames.Halliberg said. But sir, we have over four hundred monitors in the restaurant. Can you think of a way to show me a picture of all the people? Wu nodded, tapped the keyboard, and the screen immediately displayed: 108 items found.She clicked 0K, and the screen immediately filled with sixteen small frames.Most of them are meeting scenes shot from different angles.As can be seen from the bottom row of the screen, there are six more such miniatures. look further down.Halliberg said.Wu tapped the keyboard again, and sixteen miniature pictures appeared immediately.This time it shows the restaurant entrance and kitchen.More than 20 chefs are nervously preparing dinner.

Next.Halliberg ordered. There are more images of kitchens and long queues at the security checkpoint.Mary and Halliberg just passed by there.In one aisle there was a cleaning lady pushing a cleaning cart slowly.Two security officers patrolled another walkway. next. Aisles patrolled by more CIA personnel appear.In a presidential suite, several men who appear to be Arabs are sitting together drinking tea.It must have been the bodyguards or escorts who were not allowed into the meeting area. Were cameras installed in the rooms of the delegation members?Halliberg asked. Wu nodded.have.However, tenants can turn it off themselves.The pact we established is: as soon as the head of state enters the guest room, turn off the monitor immediately.After going out, it must be opened again immediately.

Please zoom in on the picture here.Halliberg pointed to images of Arabs. Wu pressed the keyboard.The picture immediately filled the entire screen. Do you recognize anyone?Halliberg asked. Mary shook her head. continue. Wu switched to the monitor to take pictures from more angles, until they had seen all 108 pictures. Something was wrong, a tormenting voice in Mary's head kept telling her.Something is wrong! Halliberg watched her attentively.Did you see anything, Miss Ashe? No, no, she didn't see anything, nothing she couldn't explain with common sense, except for the voice in her head.The voice tried to convince her that she missed something that could not be explained by common sense.

□□□ Father is sitting on the sofa.The TV is on.But the little girl noticed that he was not watching TV, but was staring blankly at nothing, as if he could see something from there, something that didn't exist at all.These days, his eyes have been like this.He's been like this since his mother's absence. The girl put down the doll in her hand.Somehow, the girl found that playing with the doll was not as fun as it used to be.she cried.She knew her father didn't want to hear her questions, but she had to.Daddy, when will Mommy come home from the hospital? He turned his head and looked at her, moving very slowly.For a moment he didn't seem to see her.Then, his eyes became clearer.I don't know baby.

But what happened to her?Did the doctor have to cut her stomach open to take out Baby?Sabrina told her in kindergarten what the doctor had done to her aunt.Now, Sabina has an extra cousin. A faint smile appeared on the corner of his mouth.But this smiling face is really unstable, like a thin tower built out of building blocks, it collapsed with a bang.He shook his head. why?Is she sick? Father looked at her.The little girl understood the meaning of this expression: You still don't understand this.Come here, come to me.said father. she ran over.He held her on his lap.do you knowSome people can see things that only they can see.He said.

Like seeing ghosts?the little girl asked. Father nodded.His vision blurred.Yep, like seeing ghosts.He said, you know, there are no ghosts in the world, but there are still some people who can see and get scared and do wrong things. The girl snuggled up to her father.He strokes her hair.She began to understand what her father meant.That's why Mommy locked me in the closet.Because she thought if she didn't lock me up, some ghost would come and take me away? Father was silent for a long time.That's right.Finally, he murmured, yes, my very smart baby. Will Mommy get better soon?

Father's body trembled violently.He cried. □□□ Miss Ashe? Oh no.Mary exclaimed, no, I don't see anything. Halliberg gave her a deep look.Are you sure?There was suspicion in his voice.Can he see through her mind?After all, he was a psychologist.He could see a voice in her head repeating that she should open her eyes and see the truth. That voice stayed with her all her life.She had heard that voice since she was a child.Until the day her father picked her up, put her on his lap, and told her the truth about her mother, she never thought that there was anything wrong with that voice.Instead, she had always regarded the voice as friendly.

But at that time she knew that this voice would also lie. She has been terrified by the voice ever since.It was many years later that she understood what had happened to her mother and why she committed suicide six weeks after being admitted to the hospital. Delusional schizophrenia.Mary looked through all the relevant books she could find.Only a very small number of people with schizophrenia actually have hallucinations.They lose the ability to draw a clear distinction between themselves and their environment.People with schizophrenia often perceive their own thoughts as external voices, thinking that they hear this voice.On the other hand, they will force some coincidences and insignificant things to themselves, thinking that they have some meaning out of nothing.For example, when they see two women laughing in a cafe, they think they are secretly laughing at themselves.Even the branches swaying in the wind were regarded by them as an act of laughing at themselves.In the eyes of these people, the world wears a mask.Behind the mask, the world devises devious, malicious plans.And those plans are aimed at them. This leaves them confused and overwhelmed.Although most know intellectually that they are schizophrenic and that things are not what they feel they are, they are still unable to resist the powerful force.Driven by delusions of persecution, the patient will commit increasingly serious incidents, eventually ending in self-harm or attacking others. There are far more people with schizophrenia than most people realize.It is estimated that nearly 2 percent of adults suffer from this condition.This means that, among the acquaintances, there are at least one or two schizoids.But in most cases, these people's condition goes undetected.Schizophrenic people are good at hiding their emotions and hiding them from themselves.They can be seen as eccentric or stubborn.Most of these people will encounter troubles at work and easily lose their jobs.In the end, many people can only rely on alcohol and pills to resist the unreasonable fear in their hearts, and finally end up on the streets.A portion of the homeless population suffers from the disease without ever being diagnosed. It is conceivable that at that time, Mary's father strongly blamed himself.He held himself responsible for his wife's death.Although the doctor repeatedly told him that his wife's suicide was not out of desperation for being sent to a mental hospital.His wife didn't feel abandoned, but rather relieved to be in a hospital where she felt safe.It's just that at some point, the voice in her head began to order her to commit suicide.This was found in her diary after her death. At first, in desperation, my father turned his anger on the doctors and the expensive private hospital.Even though Mary's mother was clearly suicidal, the hospital's security measures were too lax and not strictly enforced.As a result, a woman as clever as Mary's mother could steal a nail clipper from the nurse's handbag and use it to cut her own artery.However, the father later withdrew the lawsuit against the chief physician in the civil lawsuit.He knows it's not fair.The doctor has done his best to help his wife.No need to ruin him, he still has a wife and two kids.For the father, no matter what he did, he could not bring back the lost family happiness. Years after their mother's death, they couldn't shake the blow.However, a closer relationship developed between Mary and her father.Still, Mary never told her father that she, too, had that voice in her head. Schizophrenia is hereditary.Mary knew that she was a high-risk group for this disease.If she doesn't want to take drugs that severely limit her brain power, the only guardrail is reason!She couldn't give in to that voice in her head if she wasn't going to meet the haunting ghost that had killed her mother.Not once! Miss Asher, Halliberg's urgent voice is heard in Mary's ear, if you can't help us, no one can. tell him!The voice urged her softly.Tell him, what's wrong with the picture is what you see. Mary bit her lip.Is she going to back down?What if, this time, that voice is the key to avoiding disaster? I don't know.It was so strange, but after saying this, she felt relieved.It took a lot more strength to hold back that voice than she admits. What don't you know? Anyway, there is something very strange.She felt that the way she spoke was extremely childish.Anyway, there is something very strange.A rational thinking adult would not say such a thing.And it's even less likely that a business consultant from Copeland International Business Consulting would say so, and it would be too imprecise to say that there is nothing meaningful to say.But she still felt the need to speak up. You think about it.Halliberg comforted her.He didn't laugh at her, or blame her for being blind.What is wrong with the picture?Is anyone behaving strangely? Mary shook her head.It's not like this.She could feel something was wrong, but she just didn't know where.There isn't a single scene so unusual that it's a suspect.Now the voice that had gained a little more freedom from Mary was clamoring louder. Damn, please say it again.Tell me, what did you see! Jim, who was bending over and lying in front of a screen, was separated by two tables.Crete raised his head and looked at her in surprise.Halliberg stared at her incredulously.Mary was taken aback when she realized she had spoken her thoughts in German. sorry.She quickly said in English, I am too nervous.I thought, nothing. No, there must be something.Halliberg says your senses tell you something is suspicious.Your feeling is right, please trust your feeling.Think about what you see, what you see that is not right.We all see it, but nobody sees it, but your intuition does.Shall we take another look at the screen? Need not.Mary didn't know why she said that, but she knew it was useless to read it again.What the voice told her did not come from the picture, but from the whole.Or, more precisely, based on the relationship between pictures. Sweat beaded her upper lip.She's so close to the answer.If only she could make the connection between intuition and understanding if she used logic and mathematics Suddenly, she saw it!How clear and obvious that is!It was as if someone had pulled back the curtains of a brightly lit theater from both sides.It has to do with chance, and between unusual numbers.Everything on the screen makes sense, it just doesn't relate to each other. Cleaning lady!Mary said aloud that there was a scene where a cleaning lady appeared. Yes, I saw it too.What's up with her? nothing.It's just that in the 108 pictures, all I saw were security personnel, but only this picture showed a cleaning lady.I was thinking, in such a big hotel Oops!Jim, didn't you stop all cleaning during the meeting? Halliberg questioned loudly, his voice echoing through the room.Some CIA personnel looked up from the screens in exasperation. Of course it was banned.Said Crete, who had just bent over in front of the screen two tables away.He walked over frowning. Then we're in trouble.Halliberg said, Wu, can you show that scene with the cleaning lady again? Wu pressed the keyboard.A screen from her laptop appeared on a large screen on the wall.She switched back to the overview screen where the cleaning lady appeared just now.But the corresponding shot shows only an empty aisle. Damn, where did she go?Halliberg yelled. Wait, let me search for the character screen again.As Wu said, he tapped the keyboard a few times, and one hundred and eleven matches appeared on the screen.The cleaning lady reappears in the frame on the second thumbnail, walking unhurriedly down another aisle.Wu zoomed in on the screen. Where is she doing?Crete asked loudly, which area is that? District 12, fourth floor.Wu replied. Allen, there was no panic in Kriter's voice.Quickly send a group of people to the 12th floor on the fourth floor.The suspect was wearing a cleaning gown and was pushing a cleaning cart.There is likely to be a weapon or explosives inside.Subdue her immediately.Jack, put a map of the hotel structure on the screen.Damn it!What is this man doing on the fourth floor?What the hell is there? Laundry room, answered by an African-American of indeterminate age, warehouse and several machine rooms. engine room?What computer room? Heating, air conditioning and the like machine room. Damn, it's over!Send someone to turn off the damn air conditioner immediately!quick!Just then, Mary smelled a faint scent of cinnamon.