S.C.I. (Volume I) - Case 5: Chapter 30

The Doppelganger Killer 30 - The Scheme

Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao meticulously mapped out the operation plan, and everyone dispersed to carry out their respective assignments.

"Bai, have you seen Luo?" Zhan Zhao suddenly asked right before heading out.

"...Luo?" Bai Yutang looked around. He had just been in the lounge a moment ago.

"Uncle Bao called him away," Luoyang answered from the sofa, chin propped in his hands with a cheeky smile.

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang exchanged a glance, asking, "You're smiling so mysteriously... Does this have something to do with you?"

Luoyang let out another couple of chuckles, blinking as he said, "I went to beg Uncle Bao yesterday and asked him if he could forgive Uncle Big Beard."

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang were taken aback. "You begged Director Bao to forgive him? What did you say to him?"

Luoyang tilted his head. "Yeah. Isn't Uncle Bao older than both of you? Wouldn't it be great if he forgave Uncle Big Beard? I told him that Uncle Big Beard might have done bad things in the past, but he really is a good person who has suffered so much. Could he please forgive him in the future so he can live a proper life?"

Stunned, Zhan Zhao asked Luoyang, "And Director Bao? What did he say?"

"He said no problem," Luoyang replied with a smile.

Both Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao were left speechless. Luoyang's move was truly brilliant, starting from Bao Zheng's end. But come to think of it, while Lu had indeed killed people in the past, killing Allan Poe was entirely in self-defense and required zero legal responsibility. Furthermore, all the actions he was forced to commit during those brutal training sessions back then shouldn't be blamed on Lu either—after all, he was the true victim, and nearly twenty years of living shut away from the daylight was more than enough exhaustion. If there truly was any justice in the world, this pitiful man deserved to have his remaining years spent in peace.

"Everything's ready." Just as the two were lost in thought, Gongsun walked in. "The tracker has been implanted into Jie Jie by a specialist and shouldn't be easily detected."

"Then let's begin the operation." Picking up his jacket, Bai Yutang walked out alongside Zhan Zhao. Before they even reached the elevator, someone hurried after them.

"I'm coming too." When Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang turned around, they saw it was Lu.

Bai Yutang didn't say much, holding the elevator door open for him to step inside.

A flash of joy crossed Lu's face as he entered the elevator. As the doors slid shut, he suddenly murmured, "I... have finally decided to live together with Yangyang."

Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao exchanged a glance and nodded with smiles.

Down in the parking lot, Wang Chao and the others were all set. Zhan Zhao, Bai Yutang, Jiang Ping, and Bai Chi boarded the command police vehicle.

Ma Han and Zhao Hu escorted Jie Jie—who was dressed like an extreme high-security criminal—out of the police station and into the transport van.

Officially, this trip was meant to transfer Jie Jie to the psychiatric research center for a comprehensive evaluation.

Once the transport van slowly pulled away, Jiang Ping began tracking its location via the onboard tracking system.

Not long after the vehicle drove out, Ma Han and Zhao Hu noticed a black sedan tailing them at a steady, unhurried pace.

"Chief... they've arrived, but there's a car trailing close behind," Zhao Hu reported over the walkie-talkie.

"They won't make a move themselves," Zhan Zhao stated. "They're only responsible for transmitting a signal to Jie Jie. You two be careful."

Bai Yutang instructed Wang Chao and the others to pull out their vehicles and set up an ambush nearby.

After the transport van drove a bit further, the black sedan suddenly accelerated, pulling up right alongside them. A moment later, a window rolled down slightly, and a bizarre, rhythmic whistle drifted out—one long and one short, repeating at regular intervals. After a few rounds of the whistle, the sedan sped ahead and pulled away.

Confused, Ma Han and Zhao Hu exchanged glances. Right then, a loud, heavy boom echoed from the rear cargo compartment of the transport van, sounding as though someone was violently battering the back doors.

Ma Han glanced in the rearview mirror and was shocked to see that Jie Jie had somehow broken free of his heavy iron chains and was frantically pounding on the compartment doors.

Slamming on the brakes, Zhao Hu spun the vehicle around to a halt on the roadside. The two men drew their weapons and sprang out of the cab. At that exact instant, the back doors of the transport van blew open with a deafening crash, and Jie Jie lunged out like a deranged, feral beast. He snatched the gun right out of the hands of the unprepared Zhao Hu and fired a shot directly above his head.

"Zhao Hu!" Ma Han shouted, firing and striking Jie Jie in the shoulder. Yet Jie Jie didn't seem to feel a thing; he whipped his arm around and fired another shot right into Ma Han's forehead.

Ma Han crumpled to the ground on cue.

Jie Jie cast a glance at the two "corpses" lying on the pavement. At that moment, the whistling sound drifted over from the distance once more. Dropping the gun, Jie Jie walked toward the black sedan parked up ahead.

The car door swung open, Jie Jie climbed inside, the door shut, and the vehicle sped away.

The gunfire startled the shops lining both sides of the street; people screamed and frantically dialed emergency services for an ambulance.

However, the "dead" Zhao Hu lying on the ground suddenly blinked his eyes open. "Brother Ma, the way you collapsed just now looked way too unnatural."

After a moment of silence, Ma Han opened his eyes too. "You're already dead. Dead men don't talk."

"How much longer do we have to lie here like this?" Zhao Hu complained miserably.

"The Chief said the act has to be convincing, so just bear with it a little longer," Ma Han said helplessly. Fortunately, the ambulance arrived promptly. The paramedics loaded Ma Han and the others onto the stretcher and sped away, followed closely by police cruisers moving in to secure the crime scene.

Inside the ambulance was Gongsun. As he helped clean off the blood packs from Ma Han and Wang Chao's heads, Ma Han suddenly asked, "Gongsun, where did these blood packs even come from?"

Gongsun grinned mischievously. "I prepared them myself."

The complexions of both men turned instantly green.

………………

"Chief, they're heading toward the northern suburbs," Jiang Ping stared at the moving signal of the tracker attached to Jie Jie on his monitor.

"The north..." Zhan Zhao smiled. "As expected..."

"The north is Wu Qiang's territory," Bai Yutang frowned. "Wasn't it him who supposedly died and had someone report the case?"

"If they really want to conduct those so-called experiments, they need a certain amount of space," Zhan Zhao explained. "A big fish like Taber must have several underlings around here; otherwise, he couldn't pull off operations of this scale. At first, we always suspected Chen Jie, but Chen Jie was likely just one of them."

"But Wu Qiang died a long time ago," Bai Chi noted.

"Do you guys remember Wu Qiang's wife?" Zhan Zhao asked suddenly.

"Uh..." Bai Yutang thought for a moment before nodding. "You mean... the one named Qin Meng?"

"She was the very first person to report the case. Come to think of it, for a gangland boss to die and his wife's first instinct to be calling the police—she's a rather peculiar character," Zhan Zhao said unhurriedly.

"That's true, and did you notice something else?" Bai Yutang recalled. "Wu Qiang's underlings showed an unusual level of respect toward Qin Meng. Do subordinates usually obey a boss's wife to that extent?"

"I heard Qin Meng practically ran half of Wu Qiang's operations for him," Jiang Ping added.

"If this was an inside job... then everything makes sense." Bai Yutang seemed to hit upon a realization. "Cat, the only crime scenes we actually witnessed firsthand... were Wu Qiang's and Chen Jie's, right?"

"That's right," Zhan Zhao smiled. "Didn't Gongsun say so as well? To fake a murder to look like the Shadow Killer's handiwork requires waiting around at the crime scene for quite a long time."

"During the previous murders of the other syndicate bosses, we only ever saw photographs," Bai Yutang pointed out. "And when we went to investigate those cases later on, they weren't very cooperative. Plus, with Lan Chenglin running interference... since we never laid eyes on the actual crime scenes, we couldn't prove the modus operandi matched. Moreover, given how easily people like Du She and his crew can slip through tight spaces, infiltrating a place to kill someone and staging it to mimic the Shadow Killer would be an absolute breeze."

"In other words, killing those other bosses was done to carve up territory and redistribute power. Killing Wu Qiang was done to fabricate a Shadow Killer serial murder case. And killing Chen Jie was simply to tie up loose ends." Rubbing his chin, Zhan Zhao slowly analyzed, "I've pieced the entire case together from start to finish, and frankly, the whole process is remarkably simple with a crystal-clear objective!

First, ever since that experiment back then, the two escapees had different paths: Du She refused to give up and continued his experiments, while Lu was entirely focused on hunting Du She down.

Second, Du She and Taber allied for certain reasons, hitting it off immediately to form an employer-supporter relationship as they prepared to carve out their own sphere of influence. Taber could control Chen Jie and Qin Meng, and he had Lan Chenglin embedded inside the police department. With the timing ripe, he initiated his move to eliminate rivals, utilizing the special abilities of the operatives Du She trained for him to carry out the assassinations.

Third, by pure coincidence, Lu and Luowen crossed paths. Because Luowen was working undercover, he had dug up a mountain of intelligence. Once the two compared notes, they uncovered far too many secrets they shouldn't have known, which led to Luowen being silenced. Gradually, Lu's presence became a threat to Taber, and Lu's unique abilities made him the ultimate candidate to frame as the Shadow Killer. They planned to pin everything on him.

Fourth, the experiments were still incomplete; Du She needed Luoyang—a successful experimental subject—along with advanced hypnotic capabilities, which is why they targeted me and Yangyang.

Fifth, Qin Meng likely wanted to get rid of Wu Qiang for a long time. Therefore, after murdering him, she staged the scene to resemble the Shadow Killer, reported it alongside the previous cases to lure us in, officially opened the Shadow Killer investigation, and then swiftly had Lan Chenglin assigned to the case.

Everything unfolded precisely in the direction they had meticulously designed."

Hearing this, Bai Yutang nodded repeatedly. "If we hadn't had that accidental encounter with Jie Jie, we genuinely might have believed that Lu was the Shadow Killer."

"Exactly!" Bai Chi chimed in. "If Yangyang hadn't exposed Lan Chenglin back then, he probably would have successfully pinned all the blame on Lu."

"By then, Lu would have become the scapegoat, Taber would have successfully seized control of the local territory, and Du She could have carried on with his experiments," Zhan Zhao smiled. "Killing Chen Jie was sacrificing a pawn to save the rook. Once Jie Jie's involvement was exposed, Du She would be tracked down before long, so they eliminated Chen Jie and cleared out all the files—only they didn't anticipate that Chen Jie still managed to leave behind a clue."

"And now that Du She has rescued Jie Jie..." Bai Yutang frowned, "they're likely planning to flee."

"With Du She's assistance, and the squad he trained under the banner of the Midnight Punisher—though not entirely perfected, they're already dangerously potent. Even if they relocate elsewhere, they can easily stage a comeback," Zhan Zhao mused. "This operation... should be our final window. If we fail to wipe them out in one fell swoop, they'll likely vanish into thin air and go into hiding to keep harming people."

"Chief!" Jiang Ping called out suddenly. "They've entered a private villa."

"What place is that?" Bai Yutang frowned.

"It's a private estate," Jiang Ping replied, rapidly running a search on the property records. "It was sold a decade ago... and the registered owner is... Qin Meng."

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang exchanged a significant look—as expected.

At that moment, Wang Chao's voice crackled over the walkie-talkie: "Chief, we've arrived. We didn't dare get too close. Lu just stepped out with a portable communication camera; he's planning to infiltrate the premises."

Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao furrowed their brows. What Lu was doing carried undeniable risks, but since they had no idea what awaited them inside that villa, having Lu scout ahead and feed back visual intelligence would undoubtedly benefit their subsequent maneuvers.

"Brother, there are underground utility tunnels running beneath this entire villa district," Bai Chi pointed out to Zhan Zhao.

Zhan Zhao nodded. By this time, their vehicle had also arrived near the villa enclave.

As their car stopped, they were joined by a detachment of SWAT officers that Bai Yutang had requested from Bao Zheng, along with Ouyang Chun and his team who had rushed over upon hearing the news.

"Bai Chi, take the SWAT team underground. Set up an ambush in every single tunnel—we can't let a single person slip away!" Bai Yutang ordered.

"Understood!" Bai Chi departed with the SWAT operatives.

Ouyang Chun also boarded the command vehicle, while the remaining Interpol agents converged with the SI team members to prep for the impending assault.

Just then, a video signal popped up on Jiang Ping's screen—it was the live feed transmitted by Lu.

The footage wobbled for a few seconds before stabilizing. The camera angle was overhead, looking down into a room where several individuals were seated around a long conference table, seemingly holding a meeting.

A wave of elation washed over Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao as they looked at the screen. Seated around the table were Du She, Taber, Qin Meng, several core subordinates, a few unfamiliar bodyguards, and Jie Jie, who appeared to be answering questions from the group.

Right then, Lu's hand flashed across the camera view, holding up two fingers followed by one.

"They're on the second floor, first room of the villa. Move in!" Bai Yutang grabbed the radio to command his subordinates.

As Zhan Zhao studied the lip movements of the figures on screen, trying to decipher their conversation, he suddenly noticed Du She freeze and his eyes roll upward slightly.

"He's discovered Lu!" Zhan Zhao tensed.

"We've lost contact with him!" Jiang Ping grew anxious. "No way of knowing if he realizes it."

Bai Yutang drew his weapon. "I'm going in too."

"Bai, you're still injured..." Zhan Zhao said with rising urgency. "I'm coming with you!"

Right at that moment, Du She on the screen abruptly leapt to his feet and violently reached for the gun at his waist...

Simultaneously, the camera feed shook violently, and the signal cut to black.

Wang Chao and his team had already taken positions around all the entrances of the villa when a rapid burst of gunfire echoed from within the building.

"Execute!" Bai Yutang ordered.

The moment his voice fell, the doors and windows of the villa were smashed open as police officers swarmed inside.

Bai Yutang, Zhan Zhao, and Ouyang Chun exited the vehicle, leaving Jiang Ping behind to man the command post, and sprinted toward the villa.

Outside, sirens wailed as a convoy of vehicles pulled up—it was Zhao Hu, Ma Han, and the rest of the backup force. Another car rolled up beside the command van, disgorging Bao Zheng, Gongsun, Yangyang (who had insisted on coming along), and an additional SWAT squad.

"Where are they?!" Bao Zheng frowned.

"They've... they've all gone inside," Jiang Ping answered.

The occupants inside the villa had been completely unprepared for a sudden assault and were subdued with virtually zero resistance.

In the underground tunnels, the sound of chaotic footsteps echoed as a horde of young children fled in all directions. The pre-positioned SWAT officers moved in to intercept them, but these kids exhibited savage, feral strength, often requiring multiple officers to pin down a single child.

Once the capture operation concluded, Bai Chi efficiently rallied the scattered SWAT teams across the tunnels and led everyone back up to ground level.

Gathered together, the captured minors left everyone staring in utter dismay. There were over a dozen adolescents and young children, every single one of them displaying bizarre, aggressively violent behavioral traits.

Frowning heavily, Bao Zheng let out a sigh and barked an order: "Send them all back and call in psychiatric specialists!"

Within moments, the entire villa was completely secured by the police. All targeted suspects had been apprehended—with the sole exceptions of Taber, Jie Jie, and Du She. Moreover, bloodstains were discovered in the ventilation shaft where Lu had been hiding, but the man himself had vanished.

Zhan Zhao, Bai Yutang, and Ouyang Chun had also pressed forward in pursuit, disappearing from sight.

Accompanied by the SI team, Ma Han and Zhao Hu chased their targets toward the rear of the villa, where an abandoned private industrial warehouse stood.

Ordering all arrested personnel to be transported back to the police station, Bao Zheng personally led Gongsun, Yangyang, and a detachment of SWAT officers toward the industrial plant as well.