S.C.I Mystery Series Volume 1 Chapter 89

The Murderer Is Not Human 21 – Catch Everything In One Net

---

At three o'clock in the morning, a huge container transport truck slowly drove into the K City car recycling station on the outskirts of S City.

Without the lights on, the truck looked like a huge monster on the move in the darkness.

The SCI team, who had been standing guard at the scrapyard since 11am, was immediately alert – it was coming!

Ma Han, who was watching from the highest sniper position, as usual, alerted Bai Yutang through the intercom, "Chief, there's a convoy behind them."

Bai Yutang, Zhan Zhao and Jiang Ping were together in a surveillance vehicle hidden deep in the yard, watching the scene through electronic eyes from all angles.

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

"Six cars." Ma Han said, "All small cars, presumably the buyers."

Sure enough, not long after the transport truck entered the depot and parked, a small convoy of six black cars also entered the depot.

At that moment, a man got out of the cab of the transport truck. He went to the parking space with a clatter, pulled open the door of the container and, after climbing into it, switched on a light. The light came out of the truck and illuminated the area where the first cart was located.

With the light, the crowd could see the man, who was none other than lawyer Hu Lie.

Bai Yutang looked at Zhan Zhao with some surprise, "How come it's him? Shang Luo didn't come?"

Zhan Zhao frowned and pondered a little, picking up his walkie-talkie and asking Ma Han, "Can you see the situation inside the transport truck? Is there anyone else inside?"

Ma Han looked through the high-powered scope for a moment and said, "There's no one in the cab, and we can't see inside the container."

At that moment, several people got out of the small car, one of whom Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao both knew – Fu Yishan. The others were foreigners, and one of them was carrying a small case in his hand which looked like a laptop.

"Hehe..." Bai Yutang smiled, "This old man seems to be the one who contacted the seller, a total hypocrite."

Zhan Zhao faintly stared, "They're not dealing in cash?"

"It seems likely that Shang Luo didn't come." Jiang Ping said, “For a direct transaction online, if it was wired to an overseas account, Shang Luo wouldn't have to show up, it's safer than a cash transaction."

Bai Yutang nodded and picked up the walkie-talkie, instructing the various departments ambushed around to pay attention and wait for his orders to act.

After watching Hu Lie turn on the lights again, he jumped out of the car and shook hands with the few people walking up to him.

Jiang Ping caught their conversation through the listening device that had been set up.

He heard Hu Lie say: "There are a total of 34 boxed corpses in the truck, each of which can have a market value reaching five million dollars and will inevitably continue to appreciate in value with the publicity of the mysterious Tu Xi civilisation."

"Five million dollars a piece?" Bai Yutang was surprised, "Didn't you say three million last time? Has the price gone up?"

Zhan Zhao laughed: "It's gone up during this period of time. The publicity is enormous, it's even more mysterious than the Pharaoh's mummy, a curse that kills people."

"Five million for one, 34 would be one hundred and seventy million." Bai Yutang shook his head, "These people are crazy for money!"

The two sides of the deal didn't talk much. Fu Yishan was acting like an introducer for this seller, and he enthusiastically whispered to the foreigner in a low voice, which they couldn't really hear because of the limited discrimination of the monitors. Meanwhile, the other side had sent a few people to the car to check the condition of the boxed corpses.

After staring at the monitor for a while, Zhan Zhao asked Bai Yutang, "Xiao Bai, does that foreigner look familiar?"

Jiang Ping zoomed in and took a close-up of his face, and after locating the five facial features, he searched... and the results of the search took Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang by surprise.

The foreigner was none other than the second in command of the famous Colombian drug cartel, the 'Athletic Club', Taber Terrence.

Jiang Ping's eyes almost popped out, "Boss, a big fish! This one's a whale."

"They say Shang Luo started out selling guns, no wonder..." Zhan Zhao pondered for a moment and said, "They say that this Taber and Leonard, the head of the Italian mafia, are deadly rivals... Could Shang Luo's expulsion from Italy be related to him?"

"Heh..." Bai Yutang smiled faintly, "This kid is really ambitious, but this Taber just came empty-handed? It's too risky..."

At that moment, they saw the few men who had examined the box corpses come out of the container, go to Taber's ear and whisper a few words. Taber nodded and signalled for his men to take out their laptop.

Jiang Ping zoomed the camera in, capturing pictures on the computer monitor and keeping them as evidence.

Bai Yutang picked up the walkie-talkie.

Seeing the transaction amount of twenty million displayed on the computer, Taber entered a string of numbers, pressed OK and the interface showed a successful transfer.

"Turn on the lights!"

Four spotlights suddenly lit up on all sides of the scrapyard, and strong beams of light shone into the middle of the yard. The people in the yard raised their hands to shield themselves from the bright light, but did not panic, and Taber's men hurriedly shielded him behind them.

Zhan Zhao frowned slightly at how it didn't feel natural.

Bai Yutang picked up the walkie-talkie and was just about to give the order when he saw Taber and two of his men leap into the container, and Hu Lie also went back to the cab – something wasn't right.

Zhan Zhao shouted furiously, "Don't come out!"

The SCI men who were in ambush just outside the four walls were about to make their move. When they heard Zhan Zhao's shout, they all froze, and Bai Yutang immediately ordered, "Don't come out, and turn off the lights upstairs"

At the same time, the roofs of the four cars were opened and several men sprang out, all holding shoulder-mounted grenade launchers, and the four spotlights on all sides were extinguished in an instant.

Bai Yutang gritted his teeth, "How worthy of an international level drug trafficker, even the bazooka was brought out."

Hu Lie started the transport truck and the few small cars backed up to either side, ready to clear the road and let the transport truck pass.

"Head, should we move?" From a distant high building, Ma Han aimed his gun at Hu Lie in the driver's seat of the transport truck.

"Don't rush, wait until I tell you to shoot!" Bai Yutang stopped Ma Han and looked at Zhan Zhao, "Cat, we don't have enough firepower."

Zhan Zhao nodded, "We can't have a fire fight… it's not worth it." With that, he told Jiang Ping to connect to the microphone set at the top of the depot.

"Can you close that door to the depot?" Zhan Zhao asked.

“Yes! I've connected to the depot's security system in case there was a change." After saying that, Jiang Ping pressed the button and the huge iron gate of the depot... slowly closed.

The door closed with a ‘boom’. Looking at the expressions of the armed men, they seemed a bit surprised.

Zhan Zhao thought about it, smiled slightly, and asked Bai Yutang: "Xiao Bai, do you want to bet?"

Bai Yutang reached out and handed the microphone to Zhan Zhao, saying, "Of course!"

Taking the microphone, Zhan Zhao greeted Taber in Spanish and introduced himself as the police interpreter.

The official language of Colombia is Spanish, and after Zhan Zhao finished speaking, he then observed the crowd's expressions of obvious panic through the camera – something was up!

When Taber heard the greeting in the container, he froze slightly and looked at Fu Yishan beside him in some confusion.

Fu Yishan was also surprised, thinking to himself, "Did this police force expect this or what? The police team had a translator with them for the raid?"

After a slight pause, Zhan Zhao continued, "Are you surprised that Mr. Shang Luo clearly said he would deal with you personally yet didn't come in person?"

Taber frowned once, rolled his eyes in thought and asked Fu Yishan, "How could he know? Why would the police bring an interpreter? They knew I would come?"

Fu Yishan shook his head repeatedly, he was also very puzzled, how could he have imagined that there would be monsters who were skilled in seven languages?

Zhan Zhao continued, "Did he tell you that this batch of box corpses was collected by him from many sources, and that in order to enhance the mystery of the Tu Xi civilization, he also made a subtle arrangement to make the box corpses increase in value rapidly within a short period of time?"

Taber's eyes widened as he heard Zhan Zhao continue, "But do you know that what you bought for twenty million dollars was just a pile of fake decaying corpses, worthless."

Hearing this, Taber waved his hand at the cars that were moving out of the way to either side and the cars immediately came to a halt. Hu Lie, who was looking ready to dash out, was gripping the steering wheel, his palms sweating with tension.

At that moment, he saw one of Taber's men take a loudspeaker and shout to the sky above, "What do you mean?"

Zhan Zhao let out a laugh and said, "Crack open a box corpse and take a look. Don’t look at the waxed dry corpse on the outside, the internal organs inside are probably still fresh."

Taber nodded to one of his men, who brought down a dry corpse, took out a dagger and poked it violently into the hard shell of the box corpse, and when he cracked it open, it was covered with blood...

He checked another one, and it was the same... Taber grabbed Fu Yishan who was beside him, "You guys tricked me?!"

Zhan Zhao smiled slightly and continued, "Has Mr. Taber ever heard of the expression of abandoning a pawn to protect a soldier?"

Taber took the speaker in his men's hands and said coldly, "Are you saying that Shang Luo failed and used me to deal with you guys and exploit a loophole to escape himself?"

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang looked at each other and said, "As expected of a whale, his brain is fast enough."

"Shang Luo can't run away because we have long since received a tip-off, we know all about his plans and your preparations." There was a hint of smugness in Zhan Zhao's tone, "That's why we arranged for the police force that eliminates international terrorists to await Mr. Taber's arrival."

Taber gritted his teeth, took a breath and shook Fu Yishan off, saying angrily, "You're scaring me?"

Zhan Zhao smiled, "I'm not scaring you, I just want to make a deal with you."

"What kind of deal?"

"Mr. Taber is not selling drugs in our country and is considered an indirect victim this time... but if you resist by force, that is of a different nature."

Taber hesitated a little and his men looked at him one after another, as if to say that it was not worth selling his life for that boy Shang Luo.

Sensing that Taber was wavering a little, Zhan Zhao added, "Simply put, if you don't resist, you're just persona non grata and we'll deport you back to Colombia. But if you resist by force, you are committing a crime, you are breaking the laws of our country... If you go to jail in Colombia, at least there is no danger to your life. If you go to jail here, as far as I know, there are many people who want Mr. Taber's life."

"Heh..." Taber gave a dry laugh, "You know me well." After a moment of contemplation, he nodded to his men.

The men got out of the car, dropped their weapons and raised their hands – surrendering.

"We agree to your terms." Taber also got out of the car.

Just then, they saw Hu Lie start the truck violently and turn around, ready to rush in the direction of the gate, and Bai Yutang said to Ma Han, who had been aiming for half a day at the other end of the intercom, "Fire."

Ma Han, who had been waiting for a long time, opened fire in response... and the powerful penetrating power of the SVD sniper rifle caused the bullet to enter the car window from the side. It penetrated Hu Lie's head – killing him instantly.

Bai Yutang instructed the SWAT team to apprehend Taber's gang, and the SCI crowd led the men out and handcuffed everyone without much effort.

Zhang Long and others went up and pulled open the car door and gulped together; the car contained rocket launchers, grenades, AK47s, and tear gas...

The police officers all opened their mouths wide and said in their hearts: Boy, if we had fought just now, our side would have only had a few AKs and assault weapons…

It was the first time that Bai Chi had been in the field and encountered such a thrilling scene, and he was flushed with excitement.

After the scene was cleared, Wang Chao made a clear gesture to the monitor.

The officers present were in disbelief that not a single shot had been fired and that Taber had been caught just like that.

Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao were relieved and gave each other a gentle high five before realising that the other's palms were sweaty.

Jiang Ping took off his headset and let out a long breath, "Gosh, this is kind of a white wolf with an empty glove ~~ Taber's big ship didn't capsize in the Pacific Ocean, but today it capsized in the scrapyard." Then there was some regret, "It's just a pity we let this kid Shang Luo get away."

"Hehe..." Bai Yutang suddenly smiled, "I don't think so."

Zhan Zhao was slightly stunned, "Xiao Bai, you also think..."

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

Taber sat in the car, looking at the busy police officers going in and out, somewhat puzzled.

At that moment, the door of the depot also slowly opened, and Taber looked outside, where were the aircraft cannons and anti-terrorist troops?

"How many of you are there, anyway?" Taber frowned and asked the officer in charge of the guard by the police car in English.

A familiar voice was heard saying, "A total of thirty men between plainclothes and SWAT."

"What?" Taber looked up and saw two men walking towards him.

The one in front was dressed in a short white leather jacket, and just by looking at his figure, Taber could conclude that he was definitely a master of his craft, and, crucially, looked somewhat familiar.

The one walking behind him, the one who had just spoken to him in Spanish, was wearing an indigo suit, and was very handsome ~~ Taber looked a little dumbfounded, gazed at him for a long time, and asked, "Are you really an interpreter?"

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

... Taber seemed to understand and nodded slowly, "So that's it... looks like what just happened was all psychological warfare. You are really cunning."

"A soldier never tires of deceit." Bai Yutang replied lightly.

"You..." Taber stared at Bai Yutang for a moment and asked, "Is your surname Bai?"

Bai Yutang gave him a somewhat surprised look, and then nodded with a smile, "That's right."

"Oh~~ no wonder..." Taber seemed a little surprised and said, "You look more pleasant than your brother, but you still feel just as annoying."

Bai Yutang shrugged, ignoring Taber and turning towards the open container at the rear of the transport truck.

"If what you just said was a lie..." Taber said with a slight pause, "that means you didn't catch Shang Luo."

Zhan Zhao smiled slightly, "That's not necessarily true."

"Oh?" Taber suspiciously followed his line of sight to where the transport truck was, and saw Bai Yutang leap onto the truck with a clean and beautiful movement, causing Taber to whistle softly, "Really looks like a leopard, I really do hate people with the surname Bai the most."

Bai Yutang got into the car and after sweeping his gaze around, he smiled knowingly and said in a cold voice, "Come out, Shang Luo."

‿︵‿︵ʚ˚̣̣̣͙ɞ・❉・ ʚ˚̣̣̣͙ɞ‿︵‿︵

Previous Chapter | TOC | Next Chapter

Translator Notes

Translated: August 16, 2022 by Angel

Edited: August 18, 2022 by Angel