Twenty Seven Years

  Chapter 477 Henry

  While Veraker and the others were busy, a group of government troops approached downstairs.

  The number of soldiers in this group exceeded sixty, and the doorman at the entrance of the hotel couldn't help but feel afraid. He didn't even dare to ask a question, and watched them timidly walking in.

"Bernard, you lead a team to watch all the entrances and exits here. No one can leave without my permission. If anyone tries to go out by force, they can be killed on the spot." After entering Laizein, he was appointed as the fortieth Lieutenant Dwight, the leader of the Seventh Search Team, stood still 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 several entrances and exits of the hotel.

"Duncan, we are divided into two groups. While I am leading people to search upwards from one floor to the next, you must simultaneously blockade at the entrance of the stairs to ensure that no one on each floor is missed, and no one secretly uses the stairs to transfer and avoid Start our search."

"Yes."

   "Hello, may I ask if this is..." Old Henry, Duke Hall's confidant and temporarily in charge of managing the hotel, noticed the situation in the lobby and rushed to Lieutenant Dwight with two waiters.

  Dwight patted Duncan on the shoulder, told him to carry out the task, and then looked at old Henry: "You are?"

   "I am Henry, the servant of the Duke of Hall, and the Duke of Dai Hall is temporarily managing the hotel." Old Henry bowed respectfully to Dwight.

   "I am Dwight, the captain of the 47th Search Team. I was ordered to conduct a search in this area to eliminate danger." Dwight said, "You came just in time. Tell me, how many people are currently living here?"

   "Search?" Henry looked puzzled.

"Don't you know? According to reliable information, the International Equality League has left a force of at least several hundred people in Laizein. If we want to restore the real stability of Laizein, we must remove these people as soon as possible. Get it out," Dwight explained.

  Henry said "Oh": "So you came to our hotel to check the situation?"

   "Otherwise?" Dwight shrugged.

   "Please follow me." Henry invited Dwight to the living room, and ordered the two waiters around him to prepare drinks and snacks.

   "There is no need to entertain, there are still many places waiting to be investigated." Dwight declined Henry's kindness, "Bring the layout map of each floor and the guest information registration form, and cooperate with us to finish it."

   "Ah... good." Henry's reaction was a little slow.

   Fortunately, Dwight has always been attracted by the exquisite decoration of the hotel, so he didn't notice anything vigilantly.

As a confidant of the Duke of Hall, Henry has become a habit of serving the Duke's family since he was a child, and it has become the meaning of life. Therefore, even if the International Equality League controls Laizein and liberates everyone, he still will never leave the Duke of Hall , did not leave happily like most of the servants, and lived a free life.

It is precisely because of this that after the Duke of Hall placed Veraker and others here, he only informed Henry of the matter, and ordered him to be in charge of everything in the hotel on the surface, and secretly for Veraker and the others. All needs are provided.

  Actually, Henry knew very well that the biggest reason Duke Hall sent him over was not to value himself.

   Quite the opposite.

   This is using him as a shield.

  If Verac and others are discovered, Duke Hall can immediately put all the responsibility on himself, accusing himself of betraying him secretly, and covering the survival of the International Equality League in Laizein without telling him.

  Henry, on the other hand, will bear all the responsibilities without hesitation, and will leave nothing to Duke Hall, and will not cause any trouble to Duke Hall.

  The Duke of Hall can make the International Equality League owe him a favor without paying any risk himself.

   And the price is only to sacrifice yourself.

  Henry is honored.

   This is the meaning of his life.

  When the International Equality League promoted new ideas in Laizein, advocated that everyone live a free and equal life, and gave everyone a lot of help, Henry, like others, tried to imagine the feeling of living for himself.

   It's a pity he couldn't imagine it.

  The earliest memory he could go back was serving Lord Hall, a daily life for over twenty years.

  Letting him free was to him throwing him from the boat into the boundless sea.

  The result must be to be drowned by the outside world.

   What's more interesting is that in his opinion, this kind of "drowning" is completely incomparable with being a "scapegoat" for Duke Hall. The former is the extreme of fear, but the latter is a kind of honor.

  It seems that this is the greatest achievement he can achieve in this mediocre life.

  Based on these, when he learned that Lieutenant Dwight was here to search, Henry felt a little joy in his heart—he was about to die for Duke Hall.

   But this thought only lasted for a moment.

  Because Verac et al. were found, it is the worst case. Although the Duke of Hall can block the gun himself, there will be no danger, but this will also mean that the Duke of Hall will not be able to obtain benefits from the International Equality League, and there will be one less option in the future.

  He couldn't just let Lieutenant Dwight search Verak and the others.

  Verak and the others are of great significance to the Duke of Hall, and their safety is more important than their own realization of the value of life.

   On the way to get various forms needed by Lieutenant Dwight, Henry's brain was running fast.

   There must be a way to inform Verak and the others about the search, but there are soldiers watching the stairs and don't say anything. If you go up and down the stairs for so long, you will inevitably be suspected.

  It is not safe enough to entrust others to inform. Of course, the less people know about the things Verak and the others hide here, the better.

  The biggest question is, what should Verak do with the notification?

   Evacuate the hotel? Now all the entrances and exits of the hotel are blocked, if you dare to go out, you will definitely be arrested.

  Hiding in a hotel? This is almost the only way, but Lieutenant Dwight seems to be very strict, a dozen people, as well as telegraph and other information, where is it safe to hide? How much time do they have to hide?

  Thoughts hit a wall everywhere, Henry glared fiercely at the position of the door.

  If the doorman told himself the news immediately, there would still be time to do many things.

   After being annoyed for a while, Henry still devoted all his energy to thinking about solutions.

  In any case, at the very least, they must first inform Verak and the others of the government army's search, so that they can be more or less prepared.

  I may be helpless, but those revolutionaries are very smart, and there may be a turning point.

  Others can't believe it, so I have to bite the bullet and report it myself.

  Henry thought about the words to deal with in his mind, and walked to the elevator at a moderate pace: "Excuse me, please, I'm going up to get the documents Lieutenant Dwight needs."

   "Where did you put it?" At this moment, Dwight's voice drew closer from behind.

   "These are all in the office, which is on the fourth floor." Henry replied while his heart was beating wildly.

  Because the things Dwight needs are not actually in the office, he doesn’t know how to find a reason to go to another place to get the things after he goes up to inform Verak and the others.

  Dwight thought for a while: "I'll go with you."

   "Ah, good." Henry responded fairly quickly, and he didn't see anything unusual, but he was already panicked.

  The things were not in the office at all, and Dwight couldn't report to Verak and the others after following him, so it's over!

   "Shut..." The elevator door was opened.

   "Let's go." Dwight stepped into the elevator first.

   "Ah." Henry followed.

  This hotel has been built for a long time, and the elevator is a bit old, and it keeps making a "humming humming" sound when climbing.

  Henry stood behind Dwight and secretly wiped his cold sweat.

  Dwight glanced over his shoulder.

  In order to avoid doubt, Henry quickly put his hand on the elevator: "After a while, when Laizein officially returns to stability, the elevator must be properly maintained."

   "Yeah." Dwight nodded.

   Soon, the elevator came to the fourth floor, and Henry led Dwight towards the office.

   "Lezerin just left the rule of the International Equality League not long ago, and I heard that the hotel was returned to the Duke of Hall just a few days ago, so there should be few people living here?" Dwight asked.

   "There are still a lot of people, mainly because most of the mansions and properties of the rich and powerful have been cleaned up. Now living in the mansion is better than staying in the hotel temporarily." Henry took out the key.

   "Then why is the hotel still well preserved?"

"Originally the hotel was also to be confiscated, and the items were counted and distributed to the people in need. However, at that time, important guests from the International Equality League often visited and needed a place to settle down. Because our hotel is close to the Equality Building and the environment is good, it was confiscated. Keep it." The two stopped in front of the office door, and Henry inserted the key into the lock.

   "It's so lucky, many powerful people didn't leave any decent property." Dwight followed Henry into the office.

   "This was Duke Hall's office before, but he came here occasionally, and now he arranges for me to take care of the hotel, so I'm allowed to stay here." Henry came to the desk and pretended to search for information, but he was secretly thinking about countermeasures.

  Dwight seemed to have never seen it before, and he was always curious, looking left and right.

  After searching for about 30 seconds, Henry yelled, then turned around and said to Dwight apologetically, "I didn't find it, it should not be placed here."

   "Not here?"

   "Maybe it's on the first floor. If it doesn't exist here, it must be on the first floor." With Dwight by his side, Henry could only give up the report, protect himself first, and delay as much as possible to find another way.

   "Let's go." Dwight didn't mind the trip for nothing, and went back to the first floor with Henry to find all the materials he needed, and then began a comprehensive search of the hotel.

  The search team 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 the strict search layer by layer and room by room, 100% rule out the possibility of hiding members of the International Equality League.

  The third part cooperates with the second part. When each floor is searched in the second part, the stairways of each floor are blocked accordingly, cutting off the possibility of anyone trying to go down to the searched floor in advance to avoid them.

  The three teams of soldiers cooperated closely, making Henry secretly scream that something was wrong.

"Mr. Dwight." Watching the soldiers open each room one by one, meticulously detailing every corner, Henry tried to dissuade them from taking a casual look, "After all, this is Duke Hall's place. It is completely understandable, but try not to make too much noise, damage anything and affect the rest of customers."

"It's also for everyone's benefit." Lieutenant Dwight didn't follow Henry's suggestion. "This place is very close to the government building. If we miss something due to negligence and cause people from the International Equality League to find a chance to hide, what do you say?" What kind of consequences will it bring? Of course, I don’t mean that those people must be hidden in the hotel, it’s just that we maintain such an attitude to search every place, so that we can truly make them have nowhere to hide.”

   "Do they dare to stay under your nose?"

   "I can't rule out this possibility, so we need to search. After all, maybe even you don't know that there are people from the International Equality League who sneaked in unknowingly." Dwight said.

  Hearing this, Henry trembled in his heart.

  If Duke Hall hadn’t only told himself about what he believed about Veraker and the others, I’m afraid that after hearing what Dwight said, he would think that the other party had some definite information.

   "Okay, then hurry up and search. Don't worry if you finish the search." In this case, Henry had no choice but to support.

  Dwight arranged for the soldiers to search unhurriedly, making sure that every corner was checked.

  When a dignitary living here feels offended, he will come forward in person and sincerely explain the good intentions of the government army.

   Under such a rigorous search, after more than an hour, they finally arrived at the floor where Verak and the others were.

  Henry wanted to try to remind Verak and the others by making a louder noise, but he was afraid that it would arouse Dwight's suspicion, and he didn't expect that the search team was close at hand, so what if Verak and the others knew about the situation.

   "Is this the last floor?" Dwight confirmed to Henry looking at the layout.

   "Yes, and no one lives here." When Henry spoke the second half of the sentence, he slowed down a little, trying to make Dwight give up the search on this floor.

   But Dwight's rigor greatly exceeded his expectations.

   "The last floor, everyone, don't relax. The more uninhabited the place is, the more likely people from the International Equality League will sneak in."

   Instead of leaving, he asked the soldiers to step up their guard.

  Henry had already imagined the upcoming fierce gun battle, and Duke Hall looked disappointed when he heard the news.

   "Please open the door."

  The search finally came to the door of the luxury suite where Veraker and others were located.

  A dozen armed soldiers lined up behind Dwight, waiting to enter.

  Henry came to the door under the gaze of everyone, took out the key and slowly unlocked it, and then pushed the door open.

   Just when he was hesitating to dodge, lest a face-to-face would be sieved by bullets from both sides, Dwight had already passed him and walked into it with someone.

  Five seconds.

   Ten seconds.

   Thirty seconds.

One minute.

   Until Dwight brought people out, there was no sound of conflict from inside.

   It shouldn't be!

  Henry glanced inside suspiciously after everyone came out. The room had returned to its original state at some point. If he hadn’t come every day to secretly deliver food and newspapers, he would have wondered if anyone had ever lived here!

  (end of this chapter)