Chapter 8: The Closed Door and Silent Game
Leon Schmidt's compartment door stood like a silent challenge before everyone.
The person inside showed no reaction to the death and heated accusations that had just occurred outside, and this abnormal calm itself seemed extremely unusual.
"Mr. Schmidt!" Samuel Jones pounded forcefully on the heavy wooden door, his voice carrying undeniable authority. "Please open the door immediately! We need to question all passengers and require your cooperation in the investigation!"
Dead silence inside the door.
"Could he also be..." Lily Tang speculated quietly, her face drained of color.
"Or perhaps he's the killer, inside cleaning up evidence?" Pierre Chan lowered his voice, his eyes vigilant.
Kenneth Ryder attempted to examine the door lock, shaking his head: "Like all structures, it's system-locked. Can't be opened by physical means. Unless we try violent cracking like David... " He glanced at where the now-nonexistent corpse had been on the ground, the meaning clear—that would be suicide.
Irina Petrova snorted coldly: "Maybe dead, maybe doing something unspeakable. But we can't do anything about him right now." Her gaze once again sharply turned to Sophia Rossi, clearly not entirely believing her story.
Sophia had already returned to her nonchalant demeanor, leaning against the corridor wall, seemingly unconcerned about Leon's fate, even somewhat pleased that everyone's attention had shifted.
Anya Sharma was still studying the connector from Sophia, her brow furrowed: "The self-destruct protocol is very thorough, the design thinking is very professional, not like ordinary civilian equipment. But based on this alone..." She didn't finish, but the meaning was clear—couldn't convict.
Charles didn't participate in the futile calling at the door. His gaze swept over the corridor, door frame, and those seemingly decorative patterns on the walls. As a brain-computer interface engineer, he had an instinctive analytical desire for this consciousness projection-based environment.
He noticed an extremely subtle interface at the edge of Leon's door frame, almost blending with the wood grain texture, different from standard charging or data ports.
"Dr. Sharma," Charles suddenly spoke, "could you scan the energy flow in this area? Especially some non-standard frequency bands."
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Anya looked at him, seemingly somewhat surprised, but didn't ask further, pointing her datapad at the door frame. After a moment, she let out a soft "huh."
"There's very weak but stable energy leakage, the frequency band... very unfamiliar, not commonly used by the train system. It's like... continuous low-power data transmission or... signal shielding?"
Signal shielding? Charles's heartbeat skipped a beat. If Leon was conducting some operation inside that required shielding external detection, that would be extremely significant.
"Can you interfere with it? Or reverse track it?" Kenneth Ryder immediately became interested.
"The energy level is too low, and the encryption method is unknown. Forced interference might trigger more extreme defensive mechanisms." Anya shook her head. "Tracking the source... it's inside the door, meaningless."
In other words, they knew Leon was up to something inside but couldn't stop it or peek at it.
This feeling of knowing there was a threat but being powerless made the atmosphere even more oppressive.
"Are we just going to wait for him to come out, or wait for someone else to die?" Pierre Chan shouted somewhat desperately.
"Perhaps we can try a different approach." Carmen Ortiz, who had been silently observing, suddenly spoke. She walked to Leon's door, but didn't knock. Instead, using a steady, clear tone, she said: "Mr. Schmidt, or whoever you are. We know you're conducting independent operations. We have no intention of immediately becoming your enemy. But the current situation is that all of us, including you, are trapped here, facing the same invisible killer. Cooperation might be the only chance for survival. If you have any discoveries or needs, you can communicate through some method. Otherwise, continued suspicion will only make it easier for the killer to succeed."
Her words were rational and direct, throwing out a proposal for cooperation while also being a test.
Inside the door, still no sound in response.
Just as everyone thought they'd failed again, from beneath that tightly closed door, from the extremely narrow gap, a folded piece of paper slowly slid out.
Everyone was stunned.
Samuel immediately stepped forward, carefully using his shoe tip to flip the paper over, then picked it up and unfolded it.
It contained only one line of cold, merciless text:
"Next: the talkative cop."
A chill instantly swept through the corridor.
This was both a response and a warning, even more a naked provocation and divisive tactic!
Leon Schmidt not only knew everything happening outside, he even directly predicted the next target—Samuel Jones!
"Bastard!" Samuel's face turned iron-gray as he crumpled the paper, fury burning in his eyes.
Fear escalated again. The killer was not only among them, but there was also a possibly even more dangerous character (Leon) with extremely high technical capability watching from the shadows, possibly even connected! Was he warning, or announcing? Was he allied with the killer, or another independent threat?
"He... how could he know?" Lily Tang looked at Samuel in horror, then instinctively moved away from him.
The chain of suspicion twisted and extended again. Now, not only was the original killer hiding among the crowd, but there was also a mysterious, technically superior Leon Schmidt. The possibility of cooperation seemed thoroughly shattered by this note.
The train traveled silently, like a huge metal coffin, carrying a group of mutually suspicious prisoners who could collapse at any moment, heading toward deeper darkness.
The next "night" seemed destined to be even bloodier. And the target had already been clearly marked.
