While Verak and others were busy, a group of government troops approached downstairs.
The number of this group of soldiers exceeded sixty, which made the doorman at the hotel entrance feel intimidated. He didn't even dare to ask a question and watched timidly as they walked in.
"Bernard, you lead a team of people to guard all the entrances and exits here. No one can leave without my permission. If anyone tries to get out by force, they can be killed on the spot." After entering Lezein, he was appointed as the 40th Regiment.
Lieutenant Dwight, the leader of the Seventh Search Team, stood in the lobby of the hotel and ordered while looking around.
"Yes." After the second lieutenant named Bernard saluted, he immediately led nearly half of the soldiers to block the entrances and exits of the hotel.
"Duncan, we are divided into two groups. While I am leading people to search one floor at a time, you must simultaneously blockade the stairs to ensure that no one on each floor is missed, and no one secretly uses the stairs to move to avoid danger.
Start our search."
"yes."
"Hello, may I ask what this is..." Duke Hall's crony, Old Henry, who was temporarily responsible for taking care of the hotel, noticed the situation in the lobby and rushed to Lieutenant Dwight with two waiters.
Dwight patted Duncan on the shoulder and told him to go on the mission, then looked at old Henry: "Who are you?"
"I am Henry, Duke Hall's servant. I am temporarily taking care of the hotel on behalf of Duke Hall." Old Henry bowed respectfully to Dwight.
"I am Dwight, the captain of the 47th Search Team. I have been ordered to conduct a search in this area to eliminate danger." Dwight said, "You are here at the right time. Tell me how many people currently live here?"
"Search?" Henry looked confused.
"Don't you know? According to reliable intelligence, the International Equality Alliance has left a force of at least several hundred people in Lezein. If we want to restore the true stability of Lezein, we must remove these people as quickly as possible.
Find it out," Dwight explained.
Henry said "Oh": "So you came to our hotel specifically to check the situation?"
"What if?" Dwight shrugged.
"Please come with me." Henry invited Dwight to the living room and ordered the two waiters around him to prepare drinks and snacks.
"No need to entertain, there are still many places waiting to be investigated." Dwight declined Henry's kindness, "Just bring the layout map of each floor and the guest information registration form, and cooperate with us to complete it."
"Ah...ok." Henry's reaction was a little slow.
Fortunately, Dwight had been attracted by the hotel's exquisite decoration and didn't notice anything.
As a confidant of Duke Hall, Henry has become accustomed to serving the Duke's family since he was a child, and it has become the meaning of life. Therefore, even if the International Equality Alliance controls Lezein and liberates everyone, he will still never leave Duke Hall.
, unlike most servants who happily left to live a free life.
It is precisely for this reason that after Duke Hall placed Verak and others here, he only informed Henry of the matter. He explicitly ordered him to be responsible for everything in the hotel, but secretly he was responsible for Verak and the others.
Provide all needs.
In fact, Henry knew very well that the biggest reason why Duke Hall sent him here was not because he valued himself.
Quite the opposite.
This is using him as a shield.
If Verak and others are discovered, Duke Hall can immediately put all the responsibility on himself, accusing him of secretly betraying him and protecting the International Equality Alliance's survival in Lezeinli without his knowledge.
Henry, on the other hand, will bear all the blame without hesitation, stay away from Duke Hall, and not cause any trouble to Duke Hall.
Duke Hall could make the International Equality League owe him a favor without any risk to himself.
And the price is just to sacrifice yourself.
Henry felt honored.
This is the meaning of his life.
When the International Equality League was promoting new ideas in Lezeinli, advocating that everyone live free and equal lives, and giving everyone a lot of help, Henry, like others, tried to imagine what it would be like to live for oneself.
It's a pity that he can't imagine it.
The earliest memory he could trace back was serving Duke Hall, and this had been his daily life for more than twenty years.
To set him free was to throw him from the ship into the boundless sea.
The inevitable result is to be drowned by the outside world.
What's even more interesting is that in his opinion, there is no comparison between such 'drowning' and being a 'scapegoat' for Duke Hall. The former is extremely scary, while the latter is actually an honor.
It seems that this is the greatest achievement he can achieve in his mediocre life.
Based on this, knowing that Lieutenant Dwight was here to search, Henry was actually a little happy in his heart - he was going to die for Duke Hall.
But this thought only lasted for a moment.
Because Verak and others are discovered, this is the worst case scenario. Although Duke Hall has blocked the gun himself and will not be in any danger, this will also mean that Duke Hall will not be able to obtain benefits from the International Equality Alliance.
There is an optional path.
He couldn't just let Lieutenant Dwight search out Verak and the others.
Verak and the others are of great significance to Duke Hall. Their safety is more important than realizing the value of their own lives.
On the way to get the various forms that Lieutenant Dwight needed, Henry's brain was running rapidly.
We must find a way to inform Verak and the others about the search, but there are soldiers watching the stairs without saying anything. If you go up and down the stairs for so long, you will inevitably be suspected.
It's not safe enough to ask someone else to inform them. Of course, the less people know about Verak and the others hiding here, the better.
The biggest question is, what should Verak do after being notified?
Evacuate the hotel? All entrances and exits of the hotel are now blocked, and anyone who dares to leave will definitely be arrested.
Hiding in a hotel? This is almost the only way, but Lieutenant Dwight seems to be very strict. With more than a dozen people, telegraph machines and other information, where can be considered safe? And how much time do they have to hide?
His thoughts hit a wall at every turn, and Henry glared at the door fiercely.
If the doorman had told him the news immediately, he would still have time to do many things.
After being annoyed for a while, Henry spent all his energy thinking about solutions.
In any case, at least the news of the government troops coming to search must be notified to Verak and others first, so that they can be more or less prepared.
I may be helpless, but those revolutionaries are very smart, and there may be a chance of improvement.
If others can't believe it, you will eventually have to bite the bullet and inform yourself.
Henry thought about how to deal with it in his mind, and walked to the elevator at a neither fast nor slow pace: "Excuse me, I need to go up and get the documents that Lieutenant Dwight needs."
"Where did you put it?" At this time, Dwight's voice came closer from behind.
"These are kept in the office, which is on the fourth floor." Henry answered while his heart was beating fast.
Because the things Dwight needed were not actually in the office, he didn't know how to find any reason to go and get the things elsewhere after he went up to inform Verak and the others.
Dwight thought for a moment: "I'll go with you."
"Ah, okay." Henry responded quickly, and couldn't see anything unusual, but he was already panicking.
The things were not in the office at all, and Dwight followed and was unable to report the news to Verak and the others, so it was over!
"Hello..." The elevator door opened.
"Let's go." Dwight entered the elevator first.
"Ah." Henry followed.
This hotel took a long time to build, and the elevator is a bit old, and it keeps making a "humming" sound when climbing up.
Henry stood beside Dwight and secretly wiped away the cold sweat.
Dwight turned his head and glanced.
To avoid suspicion, Henry quickly put his hand on the elevator: "After a while, when Laizein officially returns to stability, the elevator will have to be properly maintained."
"Yeah." Dwight nodded.
Soon, the elevator reached the fourth floor, and Henry led Dwight towards the office.
"Lazein has just left the rule of the International Equality Alliance, and I heard that the hotel was just returned to Duke Hall's hands a few days ago. So there shouldn't be many people living here, right?" Dwight asked.
"There are still a lot of people, mainly the mansions of most of the rich and powerful. All their properties have been cleared away. Now it is better to live in a hotel than live in a mansion." Henry took out the key.
“Then why is the hotel still so well preserved?”
"Originally, the hotel was also to be confiscated, and the items were collected and distributed to the people in need. However, at that time, important guests from the International Equality Alliance often visited and needed a place to settle. Our hotel was confiscated because it was close to the Equality Building and the environment was good.
Keep it." The two stopped in front of the office door, and Henry inserted the key into the keyhole.
"How lucky you are. Many powerful people don't leave any decent properties." Dwight followed Henry into the office.
"This used to be Duke Hall's office, but he came here occasionally. Now he arranges for me to take care of the hotel, so he lets me stay here." Henry came to the desk and pretended to look for information, but in fact he was secretly thinking about countermeasures.
Dwight seemed to have never seen it before, always maintaining curiosity, looking left and right.
After searching for about thirty seconds, Henry called out, then turned around apologetically and said to Dwight: "I didn't find it, I guess I didn't put it here."
"Not here?"
"Maybe it's on the first floor. If it's not here, it must be on the first floor." With Dwight by his side, Henry could only give up reporting the news, save himself first, and delay as much time as possible to find another way.
"Let's go." Dwight didn't mind the trip in vain. He returned to the first floor with Henry and found all the materials they needed, and then began a comprehensive search of the hotel.
The search party was divided into three parts.
The first part is responsible for blocking the entrance and exit, not giving anyone a chance to leave.
The second part is responsible for conducting strict searches, floor by floor, room by room, to 100% rule out the possibility of hiding members of the International Equality Alliance.
The third part cooperates with the second part. When the second part searches each floor, the stairwells of each floor will be blocked accordingly to cut off the possibility of anyone trying to go down to the searched floor in advance to avoid them.
The three groups of soldiers cooperated closely, which made Henry secretly scream that something was wrong.
"Mr. Dwight." Watching the soldiers open each room next to each other, paying close attention to every corner, Henry tried to dissuade them from taking a casual look. "This is Duke Hall's place after all. I'm sorry for your seriousness."
It’s completely understandable, but we should try not to make too much noise, damage anything, and affect the rest of the customers.”
"This is also for everyone's benefit." Lieutenant Dwight did not follow Henry's suggestion. "This place is very close to the government building. If we miss something due to negligence, and the people of the International Equality Alliance find an opportunity to hide, what do you think?
What consequences will it bring? Of course, I don’t mean that those people are definitely hiding in the hotel. It’s just that we maintain such an attitude in searching every place so that we can really make sure they have nowhere to hide.”
"Do they dare to stay under your nose?"
"This possibility cannot be ruled out, so we need to search. After all, you may not even know that someone from the International Equality Alliance has sneaked in unknowingly," Dwight said.
Hearing this, Henry's heart trembled.
If he hadn't believed that Duke Hall only told him about Verak and others, I'm afraid after listening to Dwight's words, he would have thought that the other party had some precise information.
"Okay, let's search quickly. Don't worry if the search is over as soon as possible." In this case, Henry had no choice but to support.
Dwight arranged for the soldiers to search slowly, making sure that every corner was checked.
When the powerful people living here felt offended, he would personally come forward and sincerely explain the good intentions of the government troops.
After such a rigorous search, more than an hour later, they finally arrived at the floor where Verak and his friends were.
Henry wanted to try to alert Verak and the others by making loud noises, but he was afraid that this would arouse Dwight's suspicion, and he also didn't expect that the search team was close at hand. Even if Verak and the others knew about the situation, what would happen.
"Is this the last floor?" Dwight looked at the layout and confirmed to Henry.
"Yes, and no one lives here." When Henry said the second half of the sentence, he slowed down a little, trying to get Dwight to give up the search on this floor.
But Dwight's rigor far exceeded his expectations.
"It's the last level. Don't relax, everyone. The more uninhabited a place is, the more likely it is that someone from the International Equality Alliance will sneak in."
Instead of leaving, he even asked the soldiers to be on guard.
Henry had already imagined the fierce gun battle that was about to come, and Duke Hall's expression of disappointment after learning the news.
"Please open the door."
The search finally came to the door of the luxurious suite where Verak and others were located.
A dozen armed soldiers lined up behind Dwight, waiting to enter.
Henry came to the door under everyone's gaze, took out the key, slowly unlocked it, and then pushed the door open.
Just when he was hesitating to avoid being hit by bullets from both sides, Dwight had already walked past him with his men.
Five seconds.
Ten seconds.
Thirty seconds.
One minute.
Until Dwight brought people out, there was no sound of conflict inside.
It shouldn’t be!
After everyone came out, Henry glanced inside in confusion. The room had returned to its original state at some point. If he hadn't secretly delivered food and newspapers every day, he would have doubted whether anyone had lived here!