S.C.I Mystery Series Volume 4 Chapter 112

The Murderer Who Returned From Hell 12 – Insider

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Gongsun's scalpel was already up, and he was excitedly preparing to cut into the weird Wheel of Caleb.

But before he had time to make a cut, he heard someone shouting, preventing him from taking action.

Gongsun raised his eyes, stopping me from examining the corpse?!

Ma Xin also glanced dissatisfiedly in the direction of the doorway – which one of them was so desperate to stop her lord from dissecting the corpse?

Everyone around them instantly felt that the two of them were exuding a killing aura!

The crowd turned around and saw a grey-haired, pot-bellied old man gasping for breath rushing in from the doorway, looking at the crowd in horror, "What are you doing? This is a national treasure!"

Zhao Hu whispered to Ma Han and grumbled, "Isn't the national treasure a panda?"

Ma Han looked at the sky, and everyone subconsciously looked at Bao Zheng, meaning – what should we do?

Bao Zheng was quite calm. Gongsun and Ma Xin were still standing next to the corpse with their scalpels, obviously refusing to give up.

Bao Zheng raised an eyebrow at Zhan Zhao, which meant – Go! Get rid of him by playing smart!

Zhan Zhao blinked and turned back to look at the group of people who had already rushed in front of him.

Rushing in were three people, led by this fat old man. It was estimated that he was in his sixties, with grey hair and balding. He wore a pair of small glasses and was quite educated.

Because his appearance was relatively typical and recognisable, Zhan Zhao knew him – He had seen him in a magazine, he was a professor at the university, a well-known archaeologist in China and an authority in the study of the history of Eastern Europe. His surname was Shen, and he was called Shen Bo.

The two behind him were both young men, presumably scholars in their thirties. One looked to be a foreigner, and probably couldn't understand Chinese, so he was a bit bewildered. The other looked like a typical nerd, wooden brained with deep myopia. Zhan Zhao recognised this person, he used to teach in a university and he bumped into him when he was coming and going, he was called Hao Nan. Because he was very strict, the questions he gave each time were very difficult and students often failed the course, so everyone called him a difficult teacher.

Zhan Zhao quickly analysed the psychological condition of the crowd, and then smiled slightly.

Only just as he smiled, he saw Bao Zheng glaring at him – Normal means! No hypnosis allowed!

Zhan Zhao flattened his mouth.

On the side, Jiang Ping brought the computer over and put it in front of Shen Bo, "Hey, Professor, are you sure that this Wheel of Caleb is a dry corpse?"

Shen Bo and the others all looked at the video on the computer, and after seeing the Wheel of Caleb walk behind Song Jiajia, climb onto the bed by itself and cover itself with a white cloth, all three of them opened their mouths wide.

"Professor." Song Jiajia also ran over.

"This..." Shen Bo pushed the glasses on the bridge of his nose and looked at the crowd, "how..."

"I say, Professor." Zhan Zhao reached out and gently tapped Shen Bo's shoulder.

Shen Bo jumped in shock, hurriedly backed away two steps, reached out and touched his glasses, "You... didn't do anything to me, did you?"

Everyone subconsciously glanced at that professor. He was quite insightful, and it seemed that he had some knowledge of Zhan Zhao.

"In short... you are not allowed to touch the Wheel of Caleb without permission." Shen Bo was a little agitated, "Destroying the cultural relics can be either major or minor."

The crowd frowned, not reasonable ah...

Zhan Zhao gently waved his hand and asked Shen Bo, "You are saying that this is the Wheel of Caleb?"

"Yes!" Shen Bo nodded.

"That means it's a dry corpse?" Zhan Zhao asked.

"Right!" Doctor Shen nodded.

"Then a dry corpse won't move, right?" Zhan Zhao then asked.

Shen Bo, "Of course..."

"Then the one that moved isn't a dry corpse?" Zhan Zhao asked again.

"That..."

"Then if it's not a dry corpse, it's not the Wheel of Caleb?" Zhan Zhao finished his speech.

The corner of Shen Bo's mouth twitched, "It's not..."

"Then if it's not the Wheel of Caleb, we don't need your consent to dissect it?"

"Er..." Shen Bo was helpless, "If it's not the Wheel of Caleb, we naturally won't interfere."

"Good!"Zhan Zhao snapped his fingers, signalling to Gongsun – continue!

Gongsun happily prepared to lower his blade.

"Wait!" Shen Bo and Hao Nan rushed over, but the dissecting table was blocked by Luo Tian and the others.

"You... you guys can't be this brutal! It's going to cause a diplomatic dispute if you destroy a precious national treasure!" Shen Bo protested, "We can choose a more compromising method to verify if this corpse is a forgery! At least not cutting it open all at once."

"A compromise?" Bai Yutang frowned.

"Such as?" Ma Han asked, "Sticking a needle where the heart is?"

"Cut off a hand and try it." Luo Tian said.

Qin Ou nodded, "You can poke a needle where the eye is."

"Try cutting the back of the neck?" Bai Chi asked.

The crowd spoke in unison.

Shen Bo was so angry that his face turned blue and he stomped his feet, "Why are you cops so violent! I mean a milder approach!"

The crowd looked at him with raised eyebrows.

Shen Bo asked Hao Nan to get a stethoscope.

Shen Bo handed the stethoscope to Gongsun, which meant – listen to the heartbeat first!

The crowd looked at the stethoscope, this was a good idea.

Gongsun looked at Bao Zheng with dissatisfaction, meaning – he wants an autopsy not a stethoscope!

Seeing the few scholars staring intently at the scalpel in Gongsun's hand, Bao Zheng was also a bit helpless, he took the stethoscope and handed it over to Gongsun.

Gongsun glanced at Bao Zheng, reluctantly put it on, and pressed the stethoscope on the chest of the Wheel of Caleb.

After pausing for a moment, Gongsun frowned, carefully finding a few more places to listen to, and exchanged glances with Ma Xin.

Ma Xin took the stethoscope and carefully listened again, then raised her head and shook her head at Gongsun.

The crowd looked at each other in disbelief – no heartbeat?

At this moment, Song Jiajia's face went white. As much as she wanted the Wheel of Caleb to be recovered, if it came back in this state, it would probably give her a mental shadow for the rest of her life.

"A living person will definitely have internal organs! Visceral activity has a sound, which means..." Hao Nan's words were not finished when Bai Yutang suddenly asked, "Your archaeological team has a metal detector, right?"

Everyone froze.

Zhan Zhao clapped his hands, "Oh! Mechanical control, huh?"

Shen Bo nodded to Hao Nan.

Hao Nan then ran away.

Not long after, Hao Nan came back with a metal detector. He turned on the instrument and swept it over the body of the Wheel of Caleb, and immediately, they heard the metal detector continuously emitting a "didididi" alarm sound.

"There's metal inside the ancient corpse?!" Song Jiajia also came over and turned on the scanner.

Bai Yutang had Ma Han and Zhao Hu move the Wheel of Caleb onto the scanner.

As soon as they lifted it, Ma Han and Zhao Hu looked at each other – It was so light! Was it because it was dehydrated or something? Why was it so light?

After scanning, it was discovered that inside the Wheel of Caleb, there was a simple skeleton.

"No wonder it can bend into a circle." Zhao Hu looked at the scan, "Dare I say there's a robot inside?"

"Impossible!" Shen Bo shook his head vigorously, "We tested the dry body before sending it here, and it didn't have these..."

"That means it's a forgery." Bao Zheng raised one eyebrow.

Shen Bo looked at Song Jiajia.

Song Jiajia wore glasses and walked over with a bunch of instruments. She removed part of the bandages from the body of the Wheel of Caleb and found that underneath the outer layer of bandages, there were brand new bandages. She didn't get close enough to take a good look earlier, but this time, she got closer, took a magnifying glass and studied the skin of the dry corpse, and opened her mouth wide, "Professor, this Wheel of Caleb is a fake. "

"Fake?!" Shen Bo and Hao Nan were horrified.

The few scholars studied it for half a day, then all sighed somewhat dejectedly and said to Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao, "You can dissect it, it is indeed a forgery."

"Only the bandage wrapped on the outermost layer is real." Song Jiajia was helpless.

However, after finding out that the interior of the dry corpse was mechanical, Gongsun and Ma Xin's interest was gone.

Cutting open the dry corpse's skin, they saw that inside was a mechanical skeleton with a fairly simple structure, just like the kind of remote-controlled robots that children play with. However, these mechanical limbs looked like they were made of some kind of new material, and they felt very tough but very light.

Qin Ou was more knowledgeable. After studying that mechanical skeleton, he found that there were a lot of sensing and receiving devices on it, so he whispered to Bai Yutang, "Captain, this sensor needs to be operated in close proximity."

"Close range?" Bai Yutang frowned.

Zhan Zhao also came over, "How close?"

"Within thirty metres." Qin Ou said.

Bai Yutang frowned, and the rest of the SCI immediately dispersed to search the entire building.

Bao Zheng called in the SWAT team and surrounded the entire academic building.

In fact, there were originally a lot of police officers in the outer perimeter, and the monitoring equipment was also ready – If someone entered and exited in the vicinity, they would definitely be noticed by the crowd... Could it be that the staff inside this research institute were the ones who did it?

Qin Ou has almost dismantled the internal mechanical skeleton of the Wheel of Caleb, and found that although the structure was simple, the sensor device was quite advanced, and the material was very high-end, not like those for common civilian use.

Qin Ou took a receiving device and a transmission induction device and studied it, "This thing is quite high-end."

"The research institute behind this building is the research institute of electronic machinery." At this time, Song Jiajia walked up to talk to the crowd, while pointing to a group of red brick buildings not far away, "There are experimental buildings for the physics department, the mechanical department and the electronic engineering department there. I walk by sometimes and I often see some students from the research institute researching some kind of robotic arms and robotic feet."

Hao Nan also nodded, "That's right, there seems to be another research group over there working on a prosthetic limb project invested by a large company, and it's pretty impressive. I've seen them experimenting with a new type of prosthetic limb, it's somewhat similar to this one."

Bai Yutang asked Jiang Ping to look into it, and Jiang Ping called the heads of these research institutes to find out the situation.

After that, Jiang Ping hung up the phone and told Bai Yutang, "Captain, there is indeed a physics department of a research institute near here, and there is a medical device company working on a very large prosthetic limb development project. But half a month ago, that company reported a theft, several finished prosthetic limbs were stolen from their hands. Because it involves trade secrets and some patent issues, it has been reported to the police and made quite a mess, that's why they installed so many cameras and improved security systems in the neighbourhood."

As he spoke, Ma Han and the others returned, all shaking their heads at Bai Yutang – Almost every floor of the research institute had a different research room, as well as staff on duty. And after all, there had just been a delay in examining the body, so it was possible that it had already escaped.

Gongsun looked at Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang, which meant – if they had dissected the body as soon as they got their hands on it just now, they would have immediately discovered that it had mechanical limbs. When these scholars and doctorates came in, they didn't help, rather, they looked like they were here to stall for time.

Out of police instinct, everyone looked at the few scholars who were gathering to discuss.

"Where do these people live there?" Zhan Zhao leaned over and asked Jiang Ping in a low voice.

Jiang Ping quickly checked, "They all live inside the dormitory of the research institute, it's far away from here and you need to take a car."

"But from the time Song Jiajia called them to the time they rushed over, it was no more than ten minutes!" Bai Chi expressed doubt.

"That means they happened to be nearby when the call was made?" Zhan Zhao stroked his chin, "In the middle of the night..."

At this moment, Bai Yutang felt Qin Ou gently touch his arm.

Bai Yutang turned his face.

Qin Ou lowered his voice, "Captain, there's something strange."

Everyone looked at Qin Ou.

Qin Ou placed a few parts and some sensing devices from inside the already disassembled skeleton onto the table and said to Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao, "These technologies, they're the same as the sensing and transmission devices inside that bomb from the Xu Sun bombing case."

Everyone was stunned.

Zhan Zhao slapped Jiang Ping, "Get a copy of the researcher information of this research and development team."

Jiang Ping raised an eyebrow, "Their development team is a commercial secret that is kept confidential, if you want it immediately, you can only hack into it..."

Everyone blinked and subconsciously looked at Bao Zheng.

"Ahem." Bao Zheng muttered as he walked out the door with his hands behind his back, "It's really dark."

As he said that, he walked over to chat with those few researchers to enquire about the situation.

Bai Yutang smiled and nodded to Jiang Ping.

Jiang Ping stretched his muscles and started hacking into the company's server.

As a first-rate hacker, Jiang Ping quickly obtained a list of researchers, and finally, he pulled out a piece of information to show to Zhan Zhao and the others, "The sensor-receiving equipment is where the features of this prosthetic limb are located, and it is also the most confidential and protected information. There are quite a few researchers, the one leading the research group and the one who applied for the patent is an old foreigner, his name is Martin F. Popescu."

After reading the information, the crowd looked at each other in dismay, and at the same time thought of the sentence written inside the note left by Chen Mi's father – Beware of F!

‿︵‿︵ʚ˚̣̣̣͙ɞ・❉・ ʚ˚̣̣̣͙ɞ‿︵‿︵

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Translator Notes

Please feel free to comment any mistakes I made so I can improve and do better as I go through the book.

Translated: November 27, 2023 by Angel

Edited: November 30, 2023 by Angel