While Weijun was gone, Liwu found herself sowhere between bored and doubly anxious. To prevent her thoughts from traveling too far--to dramatic corners where she was diagnosed with an untreatable illness, she focused on the people. Her eyes scanned the room like a hawk, cataloging every twitch, every nervous shuffle, every misplaced glance.
She had this ga she liked to play where she would picture them as criminals, deciding what kind of cri they were likely to commit simply basing off their looks and movents.
That’s when she saw him.
A man in a nurse’s scrubs and construction boots, holding the hand of a little girl with two bouncing pig tails. She was in a hospital outfit, clearly a patient. At first glance, it looked ordinary--a nurse and a patient who was on her way out after getting her results. But Liwu’s instincts scread otherwise for many reasons.
Reason one was the construction boots. They were not standard hospital wear for nurses at any hospital with the exception of combat zones perhaps. The second reason was that the girl’s tiny hand was limp, her eyes darting around the room, not at the the man but at the door. Fear, Silent, desperate fear.
Liwu’s lips curled into a smirk. Not today.
She sprang up so fast that she knocked over a patient in a wheelchair. In one fluid motion, she leaped over the wheelchair and grabbed the girl, twisting her away from the man’s grip. Her knee shot forward, slamming into his chest, sending him sprawling across the linoleum floor.
People gasped. A robot panda that was entertaining patients in the waiting room scread for help.
Liwu put the toddler on her lap and stared sharply at the man. "Who are you and where were you taking her? And don’t claim to be her father because she’s not yours."
She showed her badge to the man and the people in the room that recognized it froze.
"She is detective Tai Liwu." Soone shouted.
Gasps echoed. But Liwu did not have a mont to explain or call for back up because three more n surged forward from the crowd. They wore similar boots to the man she had taken down.
"You have backup I see," Liwu muttered, rolling her shoulders. She slapped her chest and flung the toddler onto her back. The bullet proof vest she had strapped on in the morning extended two straps like bag straps and fastened the toddler to her back.
The thugs circled around Liwu, pulling knives. Nobody in the crowd dared to confront them.
The first lunged. Liwu pivoted, swinging her leg in a sharp arc that cracked against his jaw. He collapsed like a sack of potatoes. The second tried to grab her arm, but Liwu used her right elbow to smash into his ribs. The man whizzed, stumbling backward. Soone hit him on the back of the head with the panda robot arm.
The third was smarter--he circled waiting for an opening. His target was not Liwu but the toddler on her back. She grinned. "You will not get to this baby unless I am dead and you are thinking way too hard." She spun, her heel catching him square in the temple. He dropped instantly.
Liwu jumped from side to side, balancing a toddler on her back who blinked with wide, curious eyes.
The first man, recovering from her kick, tried to scramble toward the ergency exit door. Liwu narrowed her eyes. "Oh no you don’t."
She stepped on the leg of the second man and he scread just as she whipped out her baton and flung it across the room. It sailed like a missile, smacking the escapee square in the back of the head. He crumpled against the door fra, unconscious at Weijun’s feet.
The toddler giggled. Liwu slapped her chest two tis and the straps retreated. Carefully, she transferred the girl to the chest and bounced her from side to side. "Aunt Liwu is hilarious, right?" she winked at the little girl.
The smartwatch on her wrist buzzed. Facial identification software lit up, scanning the child’s face. A notification flashed: MISSING TODDLER PING HAITANG --MOTHER; SYSTEM HOST. ALERT ISSUED TWO MINUTES AGO.
Liwu’s jaw tightened. She smiled at the girl, "Tangtang, huh, it is your lucky day. And those idiots, it is their unlucky day."
Weijun’s n and hospital guards finally arrived and handcuffed the criminals. So were groaning and others were unconscious. Liwu stood tall, toddler balanced on her hip like she had been born for it. In that mont, her aura radiated calm dominance, the kind that made even seasoned officers hesitate to cross her.
Weijun returned with her baton, and took in her sight. "I leave you alone for five minutes...."
Liwu smirked. "What can I say? Trouble loves finding ."
He shook his head, half in disbelief, half in awe. "You took down four n with a toddler on your back! You’re incredible."
She whispered, "Tell that to your brother the next ti he has sothing bad to say about ." She grabbed the baton, tossed it in the air casually before catching it.
Tangtang giggle again, tugging at Liwu’s hair. Liwu kissed her forehead. "This is the first ti a baby is not screaming and trying to get away from . I am so happy..." Tears slipped from her eyes involuntarily.
Weijun laughed. "You are a badass. Like....a movie hero. Only scarier. If criminals find out that babies are your weakness, you are dood."
Liwu spun the toddler around, making baby noises as if the child was one month old, not three years. "Wanna do the ballet spin?" she asked the child?
The toddler squealed with delight. It was like the fear had never existed in her eyes before.
"Do you want to et a cat and dog that can talk?" She asked the toddler.
The girl’s eyes widened.
Weijun sighed. God help whoever tried to separate Liwu from that child. Maybe, even the mother would not be able to claim her back. This was a second kidnapping.
Bureau officers showed up and escorted the criminals to the precinct. Weijun escorted Liwu back there as well, but just to make sure that she handed the toddler back to her rightful parents.
When it happened, Weijun allowed himself to breathe. He watched her leaning against the window, sighing as if she had just lost her favorite toy. Hopefully, she was not craving babies like Old Tai. Now that he thought about it, that Tangtang was a girl. Did that contribute to Liwu’s adoration of the child?
Approaching her slowly, her said softly, "You are the only woman I know that can turn a hospital room into a action movie set and demand for a DNA test to be done before handing over a baby that clearly belonged to the parents that reported her missing."
She shrugged. "Better safe than sorry. The market for child system hosts and children of system hosts is big. Everyone is trying to improve their genes or give birth to geniuses. It is ridiculous!"
Weijun raised his eyebrows. Considering that Tai Alix and Zhang Caishen, who were both system hosts had birthed fifteen children who were outstanding in their fields, the desire of people to improve the genes of their children was not such an outrageous thing. Kidnapping children to fulfill this dream however, was criminal.
"Not just children, adults are kidnapped too," she shared. She looked at him with a spark in her eyes, "Watch out for yourself too. Two years ago, we busted a kidnapping ring run by a woman. Only n were targeted using honey traps. Won paid to...err....acquire the sperm of male system hosts the natural way, against their will."
Weijun shuddered. He thought things could not get any crazier. Hopefully, that kind of thing was not happening in his city.
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