S.C.I. (Volume I) - Case 4: Chapter 21

The Non-Human Killer 21 - A Clean Sweep  

At 3:00 AM, a massive container transport truck slowly drove into the K-City abandoned vehicle recycling station in the suburbs of S City.

The truck drove without its headlights on, making it look like a massive moving monster in the pitch darkness.

The SCI members, who had been lying in wait at the scrapyard since 11:00 PM, instantly snapped to full alertness—they had arrived!

Ma Han, maintaining his customary vigil from the highest sniper vantage point, reminded Bai Yutang over the walkie-talkie, "Boss, there's another motorcade right behind them."

Bai Yutang, Zhan Zhao, and Jiang Ping were inside a surveillance vehicle concealed deep within the scrapyard, observing the scene through digital cameras positioned at various angles.

"How many cars?" Bai Yutang asked in a low voice.

"Six," Ma Han replied. "All compact cars, likely the buyers."

Sure enough, shortly after the transport truck entered the yard and came to a stop, a small convoy of six black sedans pulled into the facility as well.

At that moment, a figure emerged from the cab of the transport truck, walked over to the rear, and with a metallic rattle, pulled open the container doors. After climbing inside, the person switched on a light, and the illumination pouring out from the interior illuminated the area where the lead car was parked.

By the light, everyone recognized the man as Attorney Hu Lie.

Bai Yutang looked at Zhan Zhao in some surprise. "How is it him? Didn't Shang Luo come?"

Zhan Zhao also furrowed his brows in brief contemplation, then picked up the walkie-talkie to ask Ma Han, "Can you see the situation inside the transport truck? Is anyone else in there?"

Ma Han peered through his high-magnification scope for a moment and reported, "The cab is empty, and I can't see inside the container."

Just then, several people stepped out of the sedans. Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao recognized one of them immediately—Fu Yishan. The rest were foreigners, and one of them was carrying a small case that looked like a laptop.

"Heh..." Bai Yutang smiled. "Looks like this old man was the one connecting with the buyers. A complete hypocrite."

Zhan Zhao paused slightly. "They aren't trading in cash?"

"It seems very likely that Shang Luo didn't come," Jiang Ping chimed in. "Doing a direct online transaction and wiring the money to an overseas account means Shang Luo wouldn't have to show his face. It's much safer than a cash deal."

Bai Yutang nodded, picked up the walkie-talkie, and instructed the various units lying in wait around the perimeter to stay alert and wait for his command before moving in.

Down below, Hu Lie turned off the light, jumped down from the truck, and shook hands with the arriving men.

Jiang Ping captured their conversation through the pre-positioned bugs.

They heard Hu Lie saying, "There are a total of 34 trunk corpses in the truck. Each one has a market value of up to five million US dollars, and with the promotion surrounding the mystical Tusi civilization, they're bound to appreciate even further."

"Five million US dollars each?" Bai Yutang asked in shock. "Didn't they say three million last time? Prices went up?"

Zhan Zhao let out a dry laugh. "They went up in the meantime, obviously. The publicity campaign has been massive—they're even more mysterious than the Pharaoh's mummies, complete with curse-inflicted deaths."

"Five million a piece—that's one hundred seventy million for all 34," Bai Yutang shook his head. "These people have lost their minds over money!"

The two trading parties didn't waste words. Fu Yishan acted as though he were the seller's agent, leaning in to whisper earnestly to the foreigner. Because the clarity of the listening device was limited, the words weren't entirely clear, but the opposing party also sent a few men onto the truck to inspect the condition of the trunk corpses.

Zhan Zhao stared at the monitor for a moment, then asked Bai Yutang, "Xiao Bai, doesn't that foreigner look a bit familiar?"

Jiang Ping enlarged the image, captured a close-up of his face, and ran a search after locking onto his facial features... The search results left both Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang greatly astonished.

The foreigner was none other than the second-in-command of the infamous Colombian drug cartel, the "Athletics Club"—Taber Terrence.

Jiang Ping looked like his eyeballs were about to pop out. "Boss, that's a whale! A literal whale-grade catch."

"They always said Shang Luo made his initial fortune selling drugs, so that explains it..." Zhan Zhao mused for a moment before adding, "They also say Taber and the Italian mafia boss Leonard are mortal enemies... I wonder if Shang Luo being driven out of Italy had anything to do with him."

"Heh..." Bai Yutang gave a faint smile. "This kid's got quite an ambition, but for Taber to show up completely empty-handed like this? That's way too risky..."

Just then, the men inspecting the trunk corpses emerged from the container and whispered a few words into Taber's ear. Taber nodded and motioned for his subordinate to bring out the laptop.

Jiang Ping pushed the zoom on the camera, capturing the image on the computer screen to save as evidence.

Bai Yutang picked up his walkie-talkie.

On the computer display, the transaction amount was shown as twenty million. Taber typed in a string of numbers and pressed the enter key, and the interface indicated the transfer was successful.

"Turn on the lights!"

Four spotlight towers around the perimeter of the scrapyard suddenly blazed to life, casting intense beams directly into the center of the yard. The people on the ground instinctively raised their hands to shield their eyes from the glare, though they didn't panic. Taber's men quickly rushed to shield him behind their backs.

Zhan Zhao frowned slightly. Something felt unnatural.

Bai Yutang raised his walkie-talkie, intending to give the order, when he saw Taber and two of his men leap directly into the container, while Hu Lie scrambled back into the cab—this wasn't right.

Zhan Zhao shouted urgently, "Nobody come out!"

The SCI members lying in wait all around were just gearing up for action, but upon hearing Zhan Zhao's warning, they froze. Bai Yutang immediately countermanded his order: "Hold your positions! Turn off the lights upstairs."

At the same time, the roofs of the four sedans popped open, and several figures emerged, each hoisting a shoulder-fired rocket launcher. The four floodlights around the yard went dark in an instant.

Bai Yutang gritted his teeth. "True to their name as international-tier drug traffickers—they even brought out rocket launchers."

Hu Lie started the transport truck's engine while the sedans pulled back to either side, clearing a path for the transport truck to barrel through.

"Boss, should we move in?" Ma Han, positioned at a sniper rifle scope on a distant high-rise, aimed at Hu Lie in the driver's seat.

"Hold on, don't fire until I give the word!" Bai Yutang stopped Ma Han, then turned to Zhan Zhao. "Cat, we lack firepower."

Zhan Zhao nodded. "We can't afford a firefight... not worth it." With that, he instructed Jiang Ping to patch him into the microphone set up at the top of the scrapyard.

"Can you close the main gates of the scrapyard?" Zhan Zhao asked.

"Yes! I figured something might happen, so I integrated with the yard's security system." With that, Jiang Ping pressed a button, and the massive iron gates of the scrapyard... slowly began to close.

The gates slammed shut with a heavy crash. Observing the expressions of the armed mercenaries outside, they seemed rather surprised.

Zhan Zhao thought for a moment, offered a faint smile, and asked Bai Yutang, "Xiao Bai, want to place a bet?"

Bai Yutang handed the microphone over to Zhan Zhao. "Of course!"

Taking the mic, Zhan Zhao greeted Taber in Spanish, introducing himself as a police translator.

Spanish is the official language of Colombia. After finishing, Zhan Zhao observed their expressions through the camera feed and spotted clear panic—it was working!

Hearing the greeting from inside the container, Taber paused for a moment and looked toward Fu Yishan in confusion.

Fu Yishan was equally astonished, thinking to himself whether the police force had anticipated this or something. Do tactical operations actually bring a translator along with them?

After a brief pause, Zhan Zhao continued, "Aren't you wondering why Mr. Shang Luo explicitly promised to conduct the transaction with you in person, yet failed to show up?"

Taber furrowed his brow, rolling his eyes as he thought it over, and asked Fu Yishan, "How does he know that? Why would the police bring a translator along? Did they know I was coming?"

Fu Yishan shook his head repeatedly, looking utterly bewildered. He could never have imagined they would run into a monster fluent in seven different languages.

Zhan Zhao went on, "Did he tell you that this batch of trunk corpses was painstakingly gathered from various sources, and that to heighten the mystical aura of the Tusi civilization, he orchestrated an elaborate setup to rapidly drive up their market value in a short span of time?"

Taber's eyes widened as he listened to Zhan Zhao press on. "Yet do you realize that what you've spent twenty million US dollars to buy is merely a pile of fake, rotting corpses that are completely worthless?"

Upon hearing this, Taber gestured to the vehicles that were clearing a path on either side. The sedans came to an immediate halt, while Hu Lie, gripping the steering wheel inside the truck, felt sweat soak through his palms in terror.

Just then, one of Taber's subordinates grabbed a loudspeaker and shouted toward the sky, "What's the meaning of this?"

Zhan Zhao chuckled. "Go ahead and smash open one of those trunk corpses to see for yourselves. Despite the outer layer being wax-coated mummies, the internal organs inside are likely still fresh."

Taber nodded at one of his men, who hauled down a corpse, pulled out a dagger, and violently drove it into the hard shell of the carcass. When he pulled the blade back out, it was stained with blood...

He checked another one, and it was the exact same story... Taber grabbed Fu Yishan by the collar. "You set me up?!"

Zhan Zhao smiled faintly and continued, "Has Mr. Taber ever heard the saying about sacrificing a rook to save the king?"

Taber snatched the loudspeaker from his subordinate's hand and spoke coldly, "You mean Shang Luo failed, so he used me to deal with you while he slipped away through the backdoor?"

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang exchanged glances, thinking to themselves that for a whale, his brain certainly worked fast.

"Shang Luo isn't getting away, because we received a tip-off long ago, and we have absolute mastery over both his plan and your preparations," Zhan Zhao said with a hint of triumph in his tone. "That's why we arranged for a counter-terrorism police unit to be here to greet Mr. Taber in person."

Taber gritted his teeth, drew a breath, shoved Fu Yishan aside, and roared, "You're bluffing me?"

Zhan Zhao smiled. "I'm not bluffing you. I simply want to make a deal with you."

"What deal?"

"Mr. Taber hasn't peddled drugs within our borders, and this time you can be considered an indirect victim... However, if you resort to armed resistance, that changes the nature of the situation entirely."

Taber hesitated, and his subordinates looked at him anxiously, as if silently communicating that it wasn't worth dying for a punk like Shang Luo.

Sensing that Taber was wavering, Zhan Zhao added, "To put it simply, if you don't resist, you're merely an undesirable alien, and we will deport you back to Colombia. But if you mount armed resistance, it becomes a crime—a direct violation of our nation's laws... Serving time in Colombia carries at least no mortal peril, but serving time here... from what I understand, there are plenty of people who desperately want Mr. Taber dead."

"Heh..." Taber let out a dry laugh. "You've certainly done your homework on me." After pondering for a moment, he nodded to his subordinates.

The men stepped out of the vehicles one after another, laid down their weapons, and raised their hands in surrender.

"We accept your terms," Taber said as he stepped down from the vehicle as well.

Right at that moment, Hu Lie frantically cranked his engine, throwing the truck into reverse with the intent to charge toward the main gates. Bai Yutang told Ma Han—who had been lining up his sights through the scope for ages—over the walkie-talkie, "Fire."

Ma Han, waiting on standby, pulled the trigger on cue... The tremendous penetrating power of the SVD sniper rifle drove a bullet through the side window, piercing straight through Hu Lie's head, killing him instantly.

Bai Yutang ordered the SWAT team to arrest Taber and his crew. The SCI members moved in, slapping handcuffs on everyone without breaking a sweat.

Zhang Long and the others pulled open the doors of the sedans and collectively swallowed hard. Inside the vehicles were rocket launchers, grenades, AK47s, and tear gas...

The police officers dropped their jaws in disbelief, thinking to themselves, Good grief, if a firefight had broken out just now, we only had standard sidearms... and our heaviest gear was a few AKs and assault rifles...

Bai Chi, experiencing such a heart-pounding scene on his very first field assignment, was flushed red with excitement.

Once the scene was cleared, Wang Chao flashed a "clear" signal toward the monitor.

The officers present still found it hard to believe they had captured Taber without firing a single shot.

Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao also breathed sighs of relief, exchanging a light high-five before realizing both of their palms were slick with sweat.

Jiang Ping removed his headset and let out a long breath. "Gosh, talk about catching big fish with empty hands... Taber's massive ship survived the Pacific only to capsize in a scrapyard today." He then added with a hint of regret, "It's just a shame we let that punk Shang Luo slip away."

"Heh..." Bai Yutang suddenly smiled. "I wouldn't be so sure."

Zhan Zhao paused slightly. "Xiao Bai, you think..."

Bai Yutang nodded, opened the car door, and said, "Let's go take a look."

Taber sat inside the vehicle, watching the law enforcement personnel bustling back and forth in bewilderment.

At that moment, the scrapyard gates slowly swung open, and Taber peered outside—where were the military aircraft, artillery, and counter-terrorism squads?

"Just how many of you are there?" Taber asked the guard standing by the police car in English, frowning.

A familiar voice answered, "Undercover agents and SWAT combined, exactly thirty people."

"What?" Taber looked up to see two figures walking toward him.

The man in the lead wore a short white leather jacket. Judging solely by his physique, Taber could tell he was an absolute expert—and more importantly, he looked somewhat familiar.

The man following behind was the one who had spoken to him in Spanish earlier, dressed in an indigo suit, scholarly and handsome... Taber stared in a mild daze, gazing at him for a long moment before asking, "You really are a translator?"

Zhan Zhao shook his head. "I'm the police psychologist."

...Taber seemed to understand, nodding slowly. "I see... So everything just now was psychological warfare? You're truly cunning."

"All is fair in war," Bai Yutang replied casually.

"You..." Taber stared at Bai Yutang for a moment. "Are your last name Bai?"

Bai Yutang looked at him with slight surprise before smiling and nodding. "That's right."

"Oh... No wonder..." Taber seemed somewhat amused. "You're much easier on the eyes than your older brother, though you're just as annoying."

Bai Yutang shrugged, ignoring Taber as he turned and walked toward the open container at the rear of the transport truck.

"If everything you said just now was a lie..." Taber mused briefly, "that means you haven't caught Shang Luo."

Zhan Zhao smiled faintly. "Not necessarily."

"Oh?" Taber skeptically followed his gaze toward the transport truck, watching as Bai Yutang executed a clean, graceful vault, leaping up onto the vehicle with a fluidity that prompted Taber to let out a soft whistle. "Like a leopard. I really do hate people named Bai."

Bai Yutang climbed into the truck, swept his gaze across the interior, smiled with sudden realization, and said in a cold voice, "Come on out, Shang Luo."