Chapter 77: Captured (Part Four)
Translator: Kim_Guo Editor: Tehrn
Huo Peng stealthily followed behind an European. He mentally prepared himself each time the European so much as quivered. Half an hour ago, he almost lost track of the man. He managed to catch up with him again purely because he was familiar with the streets. No matter what, he could not make the same mistake again.
Just like his colleagues, Huo Peng was originally uninterested in the operation. According to their leader, they had received orders out of nowhere. This was no small matter – he was helping other departments with their work.
He typically only helped others when he felt like it. What’s more, he heard from the previous group how foolish these foreigners were. They couldn’t differentiate one Chinese from the next – just like the Chinese couldn’t differentiate one Caucasian from the next.
Yet, this man in front of him was different.
Whether consciously or subconsciously, he had superb anti-tracking skills. Huo Peng was thankful to have had such a skillful teacher. Otherwise, he would have lost the man a long time ago, and he would have thought it was accidental.
At that moment, his target was entering a cab. Huo Peng waited for a moment before he hailed one for himself. “Follow that car in front.”
The driver fantasized about being in a car chase, just like the ones in American films. An hour later, Huo Peng found himself looking back at the diminishing buildings. He asked the driver, “Sir, where does this road lead to?”
“The airport, I suppose. Or perhaps the suburbs.”
Huo Peng repeated the target’s information in his head. He was 48 years old; born in Sao Paulo, Brazil; a baker by profession. He was here for a vacation.
A vacation? He counted one round around Nanjing’s streets as a vacation? He immediately reported back to his department, “Frog, help me look Smith up. Did this Bruce book a flight for today?”
“He just booked one. He’s bound for Shanghai at 3 pm today.”
“Impossible.” Huo Peng shook his head. Something was not right. There were many places of interest around Nanjing. A foreigner on vacation would not merely walk one round around Nanjing before flying to Shanghai. This wasn’t typical of a visitor to China.
Maybe this Mr. Bruce was just unfamiliar with China. Huo Peng tried to convince himself of this, but said, “Please inform our colleagues at the airport to keep their eyes on this Bruce Smith.”
Rolin used a portion of his resources to track these hundred-odd foreigners. However, he was mainly reliant on the conversations from the police network to make a judgment. His attention was captured when Huo Peng said the word “airport”.
It was impossible to use energy to retain this Mr. Bruce. The base could only work within a specific area around the base. Outside the area, the energy chain only worked to minimize the energy loss. It could not expend energy. To put it more accurately, the energy chain could transport pure energy, while the base was less capable of transforming energy. This explained why the base could use crude oil while the energy chain could only transport power.
In fact, Huang Xuan had no intention to capture Bruce. He sat quietly in his house. Through the airport’s surveillance cameras, he saw Bruce calmly board the airplane with everything prepared.
…
Just as planned, the time traveler disguising as Bruce took out the last of his high-energy biological bombs. He planted one of them beside the control tower of the terminal. He planted the other in the terminal near the hangar.
The airplane was due for take-off soon. Bruce knocked Huo Peng unconscious and left him in the restroom near the first bomb that he planted. He did not care where Huo Peng came from. As long as he could control the base, he would be able to contact his own space base. When he did, he would be back on track again.
Bruce leaned comfortably against the seat. Once the two bombs, which originated from higher-level time and space, were detonated, half of the airport would burst into flames. Then, the airplane would lose contact with the control tower. Nobody would care where the airplane was headed for two hours.
Two hours was more than enough.
Before Bruce boarded the plane, Rolin had already informed Huang Xuan. However, Huang Xuan did not inform his older uncle, even as the plane took off.
He was not confident of persuading his older uncle to arrest the lawful foreigner. Moreover, it was highly likely that the traveler would be able to escape from the clueless policemen.
Everything was much simpler on the plane.
Huang Xuan rushed down to the airport. The first thing he did on arriving was to remove the two bombs that the traveler planted. He was a complete novice at this. While he did tremble, he successfully removed the bombs.
They were two yellow objects, each as big as a fingernail. According to Rolin, they were standard biological bombs designed by the management. They were capable of blowing half of the airport’s terminal into pieces. This way, not only would he be able to take control of the base, but he would also be able to create a vigorous oscillation which would grant him access to the passage.
It was a pity that his plan was bound to fail.
It is said that one strong man can defeat ten skillful men. The traveler did not have the benefit of time, location or people. He was in another plane and possessed far less energy than others. He wasn’t going to succeed, especially after losing his supplies. If he did, he would probably be featured in the new spatial and temporal management teaching materials.
As it was, the only people who featured in the teaching materials were excellent victors and foolish failures.
There was no room for the suspense of war.
Maybe it was unfair to put it that way. In actual fact, Bruce did have a chance to escape. When the bombs in the airport didn’t explode, he already had a premonition. However, he was over-confident.
He had successfully stolen the aircraft and arrived at his destination. Yet, he couldn’t use his secret key. By that time, it was too late.
Zhang Shujie’s instincts were extremely useful. The moment he found out that the A354 aircraft had been stolen, he retrieved the culprit’s personal information. This, in turn, was provided by the police officers who had been tracking Bruce.
Thanks to Rolin’s interference, the plane’s performance began to deteriorate. However, by doing so, he had consumed several million kWh of energy.
The plane slowly began to land in Nanjing airport.
Huang Xuan stood in the waiting area in silence. He was heavily guarded by armed policemen.
Upstairs, Zhang Shujie stared at the Airbus in the night sky with a solemn expression. There were 128 passengers on board. Among them, 28 were foreigners, and 4 were Taiwanese. In addition, there was a diplomat and three government officials. The policemen had already cordoned off the area. Nobody expected anyone on the plane to voluntarily step out.
What was to follow was probably the same old process of negotiation, threat, more negotiation, and physical restraint. Zhang Shujie sighed. He was in a position of higher authority. While he had no say in the management of the airport nor the security of the aircraft, he was the one who had provided valuable information to the special forces. He had already been commended by Beijing for this. There were hundreds of passengers onboard the aircraft. Had he attempted to resolve the conflict by force, tens of innocent passengers could have been injured, or even have lost their lives. He had reviewed the numbers countless times in his office. However, coming face-to-face with the reality felt different.
Huang Xuan was slightly nervous. Rolin attempted to comfort him, saying that the way the policemen were arranged would ensure they wouldn’t even miss a mouse. However, he still felt uneasy. This was his first time meeting a time traveler after all.
His older uncle forbade him from saying a word at the scene. He had to resort to begging his older uncle before he allowed him to so much as see the plane up close.
Huang Xuan reached into his shirt and clutched the energy chain hanging around his neck. Apart from absorbing energy, Rolin had no use for it. It couldn’t minimize his energy consumption. However, even this little contribution of energy was going to be useful here.
“Still no news?” the leader of the special forces, Xiao Zhong, asked coolly.
“None,” his assistant replied, as he shook his head and continued to wait by his phone.
“He has no requests, and he rejected negotiation,” Xiao Zhong muttered to himself. Turning to glance at Zhang Shujie, he asked, “Old Zhang, what do you think? You’re the most experienced here.”
Zhang Shujie raised his eyes and looked at the telephone on the table. He said, “He seems to belong to an organization.”
“Hmm?”
“Since he belongs to an organization, he likely has a motive. Let’s persist, try to engage in negotiation with him.”
His advice was of no use. Xiao Zhong shook his head in disappointment. By the looks of things, negotiation was not going to solve the problem.
They had to quickly find a resolution.
From where Huang Xuan was standing, he could see over a hundred policemen. The muzzles of their guns blended in with the night sky. Further down, he could see the roads filled with cars of all types. The glaring lights from the police cars and ambulances gave people a sense of unease.
The lights near the runway were dimmer. Huang Xuan could only make out silhouettes. Just when he thought it was going to be a sluggish night, the lights in the airport suddenly went out. The runway turned into a sea of darkness. The stars in the sky suddenly seemed much brighter.
16 commandos split into three paths; one group headed for the passenger’s cargo door and two groups each headed for the exits on the wings.
The scratching of feet against concrete sounded. The waning moon resembled a half-opened eye. To the majority of the people in the airport, the crescent moon was an eyesore.
As the commandos approached the aircraft, their leader made a hand signal. His men understood and moved to their respective positions. At that critical moment…
The door squeaked open, and a hoard of passengers stampeded out of the aircraft. In the darkness, they navigated themselves off the long and narrow runway and into the airport.
The lonely airport was suddenly filled with noise.
The riot police readied themselves. Police officers were shouting through their loudhailers, trying desperately to organize the crowd. The lights near the runway were switched on and becoming brighter. The beam of the searchlight constantly rotated.
Only two people were running toward the waiting area. With two pops, they collapsed onto the ground.
Everybody tensed up.
If Rolin weren’t there, the traveler could have escaped all of his captors. He could have escaped from the airport and gone to the outskirts of the city. He could have had more chances to create spatial and temporal oscillations.
Yet, “ifs” are reserved for things that didn’t happen. Rolin took control of the airport’s searchlight and shone it on the traveler. Two policemen subconsciously ran in that direction but were shot down in an instant. The crowd at the scene became more agitated.
The searchlight followed the traveler. Xiao Zhong clapped loudly and said to Zhang Shujie, “Is that your subordinate? Reward him!”
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