S.C.I Mystery Series Volume 4 Chapter 123

The Murderer Who Returned From Hell 22 – Continuation of F

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In the video provided by Lou Waigua, Zhan Zhao and the others saw the real culprit... a ferocious monkey that killed those two reporters.

Just when the plot began to develop in the direction of a horror film or sci-fi film, a whistle sounded, a timely interruption of the violent monkey.

The crowd stared intently at the cell phone screen, just as Lou Waigua prompted with "The main event is coming ah!" After that, a person appeared on the screen.

It was a man in a white coat. It was not clear whether it was the angle or not, but it felt like the man was very tall, with grey hair but not old, and he looked more like he was in his forties.

After he whistled, he said in a not-so-standard English, “Stop."

The monkey, which had been as manic as a rabbit loaded with Duracells, suddenly seemed to lose power. All of its movements came to a screeching halt, and it didn't even have time to put down its raised hand.

"Back!" The man spoke again.

The crowd then saw the monkey's raised hand drop as it turned back to the man in the white coat.

The man looked at his watch, pulled a notebook and pen from the pocket of his white coat, and recorded some data.

At that moment, another man's voice came from the side, speaking Chinese very clearly, "Link's power supply seems to last longer than before, and the signal reception system is more stable than before."

"Uh-huh." That foreigner nodded and said with a smile, "Recently, there have suddenly been more opportunities for actual combat, and after more tests, the natural performance has improved."

Saying that, he reached out and gently patted that monkey's head.

That monkey stood beside that old foreigner, not moving a muscle.

"Dispose of the body, and clean its hands and feet." That geezer said again, and at that moment, it seemed that someone came to move the body, and the body looked like it was lifted up and transported away.

At that time, that reporter's hand should have been hanging down, so... the crowd saw two men in white coats leaving through the camera.

Among them, the foreigner with a laptop walked in front, and the other one with black hair and a white coat looked very young. He stretched out his hands, pressed a few times on that ferocious monkey, and then picked it up and took it away. And the strangest thing was that the monkey maintained this one position that it had just stopped in mechanically, and was taken away.

The video ended here.

Lou Waigua said, "There was a little bit more, but there was only the shaking ground, and then it seemed like his watch hit a tree or something, and there was nothing filmed after that."

Bai Yutang frowned and handed his phone to Jiang Ping, "Look into that foreigner."

Jiang Ping nodded and went to investigate.

"Do you think that monkey is very mechanical?" Gongsun asked.

Everyone nodded.

Qin Ou said, "Like a robot, the kind that is manipulated through a command?"

Everyone glanced at each other, and Zhan Zhao suddenly thought of something and asked Jiang Ping, "Jiang Ping, before, in Song Jiajia's historical research building, you hacked into that mechanical prosthetic development team, that patent applicant."

Jiang Ping scratched his head, "Just that something F..."

Xiao Bai Chi came over, "Martin F. Popescu!"

Everyone looked at Bai Chi helplessly, it was really fortunate that he still remembered.

Zhan Zhao said to Jiang Ping, "Check that person's information."

Jiang Ping had long since made an inquiry about that foreigner, "I've checked before, he's just an expert in technology."

Saying that, Jiang Ping found a copy from the pile of materials he had printed earlier and handed it over to Zhan Zhao.

The old foreigner in the material looked to be forty or fifty years old, his appearance was very stout and a little fat. He and the person in the white coat in the video on Lou Waigua's cell phone were about the same age, but he was tall and thin...

"Wait a minute!" Gongsun took the two photos and compared them, then said, "This fat guy is the one in the white coat! It's just that he has succeeded in losing weight!"

"The same person?!" The crowd was surprised.

“Wow... he upgraded from a supporting character to a villain ah." Ma Xin stroked her chin, "Sure enough, thinness is the key!"

"If it's the same person..." Ma Han said, "then the skeleton in that fake Wheel of Caleb was also created by his hands?"

Qin Ou said, "If the control system of the previous bomb was also based on the same principle, then it was also his technique?"

"But that bomb was recorded in my father's notes." Chen Mi said, "It was made by Dr. F, that is, that Dr. Stephen back then… are the two of them connected?"

"Hmm." Zhan Zhao gently stroked his chin and let out a syllable of unknown significance, as if he had an idea.

Bai Yutang looked at the video and frowned, "It kind of doesn't make sense."

Everyone looked at him.

Bai Yutang said, "It's important to keep whatever this gang is doing secret, but the Wheel of Caleb walked back to the research lab on its own, which definitely gives us clues to link the case to him."

The crowd agreed that it made sense, would any criminal give a clue to the police themselves?

"Unless..." Zhan Zhao said, "Wasn't it reported stolen before? Could it really have been stolen?"

"So the person who delivered the Wheel of Caleb isn't in league with the person who made the mechanical prosthetic limbs." Bai Yutang looked at the video, "... Could that Wheel of Caleb be aggressive as well?"

Everyone froze.

"Then who is Wheel of Caleb going to kill?" Zhao Hu asked, "Song Jiajia?"

"Song Jiajia is like a moving, living target with no defence at all, it's easy to kill her and there are plenty of chances to do so, but that Wheel of Caleb didn't make a move when it was alone with her." Bai Yutang frowned, "If we weren't there that day, the first thing Song Jiajia would have done after discovering the Wheel of Caleb would have been to get Shen Bo and his two assistants to identify the Wheel of Caleb."

The crowd nodded.

"And so, if the Wheel of Caleb is a machine being controlled by someone, would it aim to kill those two assistants, or Shen Bo, or... all of them together?” Zhan Zhao sighed with emotion, "Have we disrupted the robot's murderous plans?"

"Are robots already capable of killing people like this?" Bai Chi was puzzled, "Isn't the development of robots still subject to many limitations?"

"Actually, no." Qin Ou shook his head, "When I took apart and looked at the mechanical skeleton inside the Wheel of Caleb that day, I found a very complete device for receiving commands. When that monkey attacked the people just now, it was just a few mechanical tearing and piercing motions, and the operation was probably similar to a game console."

Everyone frowned, indeed.

"We need to find Hao Nan and that foreign teaching assistant first." Bai Yutang said.

"But we don't have evidence to arrest them both." Zhan Zhao reminded.

"There is indeed no reason to arrest." Bai Yutang raised one eyebrow, "But suspecting that they will be attacked, it's possible to protect them, right?"

Everyone nodded, so Bai Yutang sent Luo Tian and Qin Ou to find the foreign teaching assistant, while Zhao Hu and Ma Han went to find Hao Nan.

Bai Yutang called Bao Zheng, and with the video provided by Lou Waigua being used as evidence, he asked that a police team be sent to search that apple orchard and arrest that foreigner. In addition, the cooperation of the special department might be needed, Bai Yutang told Bao Zheng in detail, and Bao Zheng said he could arrange the manpower.

Jiang Ping was still looking for clues about that Martin F. Popescu.

Zhan Zhao stood behind him, holding the identity information of that Martin in one hand, gently tapping his chin with the other, and pacing slowly in place.

At this time, the elevator dinged, and Bai Jintang and Zhao Zhen walked out.

Everyone subconsciously looked at the time, time for dinner. It was assumed that these two were here to pick up their family members for dinner.

Bai Jintang saw the crowd and shook his head, "Just how many hours a day do you guys have to work? Or rather, how many days do you guys have to continue working before you can take a break?"

Seeing the two, Zhan Zhao suddenly seemed to think of something and walked over, standing beside the two and looking at them.

Bai Jintang and Zhao Zhen were a little confused and looked back at Zhan Zhao.

"Do you two... know any Romanians, or Ukrainians, or other Slavic people?" Zhan Zhao suddenly asked with great interest.

Bai Jintang and Zhao Zhen were both stunned and seemed unable to think of anything, so they looked at Zhan Zhao in a puzzled manner.

"To give you some hints." Zhan Zhao said, "Age? Probably around forty, fairly intelligent, gloomy personality, speaks sparingly, and has a sense of mystery. It's possible that the two of you might come into contact with this type of elite in your field of work. One of the ones that Brother might know might be a fairly successful businessman, but one that is low-key and works in the field of new technology development. And one that Zhao Zhen might know is probably a magician, or stuntman, very small, low-key, talented, keen on touring, but not in love with TV fame..."

"Err..."

Before Zhan Zhao finished speaking, Bai Jintang and Zhao Zhen opened their mouths at the same time, their facial expressions clearly reflecting that they had thought of something.

The others glanced at each other – Can they find clues like this?

"One by one." Zhan Zhao smiled and said to Bai Jintang, "Brother, you first."

Bai Jintang nodded, "I do know of such a businessman, and I've run into him when I was doing business in the area of medicine and new energy."

"How is that person?" Zhan Zhao asked.

"Hehe." Bai Jintang laughed dryly twice, "Definitely the shark that smells of blood type, but he is indeed very low-key, so low-key that it's not really proportional to his greed. But I've heard about him from Lin Ruo, who has had a few business dealings with him. Once when we were playing ball, we bumped into that guy, but he left when he saw me, and... it was clear that he could make money, but he refused to cooperate with me, like he was intentionally avoiding it."

Everyone looked at each other.

"Does everyone you do business with know that you have a brother in SCI?" Zhan Zhao asked curiously.

"I'm not sure about that." Bai Jintang shrugged his shoulders, then reached out and gently wrapped his arm around Gongsun, "But I have made sure that everyone I do business with knows that I have an SCI forensic doctor as my honey."

Gongsun leaned on Bai Jintang's shoulder with one hand and cupped his chin with the other.

Everyone sighed – The pair was showing their love again.

"What's that businessman's name?" Zhan Zhao asked curiously.

"Everyone calls him Roman, I'm not sure of his specific name." Bai Jintang helplessly shrugged, "As I said, he won't do business with me, so there's no chance I'll get to know him further. If it wasn't for you offering such explicit conditions, I really wouldn't have been able to recall him."

Zhan Zhao snapped his fingers at Jiang Ping who was listening with great interest not far away, Jiang Ping turned back and began to tap away on the keyboard.

"What about your side?" Zhan Zhao turned back and asked Zhao Zhen.

"Erm, there's someone who fits your description, but not a magician or a stuntman, rather an acrobat." Zhao Zhen said.

"Acrobat?"

Zhao Zhen nodded, "He has the nickname White Bat because his complexion is very white, and on top of that, he's bone-thin and short. The main show he performs is the trapeze, he is very agile and can fly like that, hence the nickname."

"Do you know anything about him?" Zhan Zhao asked.

Zhao Zhen said, "Actually, I've tried to recruit him before, wanting him to be on my team."

"Oh?" Zhan Zhao asked with great interest, "Did he agree?"

Zhao Zhen shook his head, "The acrobatics business feeds on the youth, it's rare to find someone in their thirties still performing trapeze, and it's even stranger when they're over forty. A lot of acrobats change careers to go behind the scenes or come to the magic industry. I've seen a few of his videos and thought they were outstanding... At that time, I was doing a tour and the team was short of someone with aerial experience, so I asked someone to ask him. But alas, he refused."

"Why did he decline?" Bai Yutang was puzzled, "You're considered the most famous magician at the moment, it's a good deal."

Zhao Zhen spread his hands, "Not quite sure, I asked my agent to approach him, but I heard that he just declined after asking about my connections in detail."

Zhan Zhao thought for a moment and asked, "Do you also make sure that everyone you know knows that you have a honey who works at SCI?"

"That's a must." Zhao Zhen stroked Bai Chi's head.

Everyone shook their heads – The family members were unusually high-profile!

Jiang Ping started looking for those two people based on the clues provided by Zhao Zhen and Bai Jintang.

Bai Yutang asked Zhan Zhao somewhat perplexed, "Cat, how could you suddenly think of two people like that, and be certain that they knew Brother and Zhao Zhen?"

"It's not that I'm certain that they know each other, but coincidentally the two of them should have some knowledge of the elites of those two industries." Zhan Zhao smiled, "I have a guess, if correct, these could be the other two Fs. There are more and more foreigners in the country now, luckily their names are quite recognizable..."

When Zhan Zhao finished speaking, Jiang Ping's keyboard tapping stopped, his mouth opened wide, and he looked at the computer screen, "Unbelievable!"

The crowd went over.

Jiang Ping pointed to the two names and said, "The name of that Roman who does business with Big Brother is Roman F. Husky. And that White Bat who does acrobatics is Dick F. Franski."

"Both have F in their names?” Bai Yutang frowned, "It can't be a coincidence, right?"

Zhan Zhao nodded, "Back then, Dr. Stephen abducted five children, all of whom were F's offspring."

Everyone looked at Zhan Zhao in surprise.

Gongsun counted the number of years, "That's about the right age!"

Bai Yutang asked, "Cat, you suspect that these are the five children abducted by Stephen back then?"

"There are already four Fs, so is there still one missing?" Jiang Ping asked.

"There's still one missing, but you don't need to look for them, I can provide them." Zhan Zhao smiled, "That one should be called Cormier F. Novitsky."

Everyone froze.

Jiang Ping checked and said, “He's an expert in biochemistry research, and has so many titles. He’s now in a pharmaceutical company developing new medicines... That company is Roman's. Then, the pharmaceutical company under Roman's company has research on prosthetics, which is to provide funding to support Martin. Later, it was reported that the test article was stolen, so the test was terminated.”

"That makes five!" Bai Yutang frowned, "An expert in biomedicine, an expert in mechanical research, a mega-rich businessman, a skilled acrobat and a special effects make-up artist."

Everyone glanced at each other.

"This is a super criminal gang, if they are all involved in this crime." Zhan Zhao stroked his chin, "Stephen's PTSD is quite severe. He abducted demonic children and raised them into a new generation of demons, it's simply a continuation of F."

"What about Cheng Mu and the others?" Bai Yutang asked, "And Roy's daughter that Stephen didn't abduct..."

Zhan Zhao thought for a moment, "If I'm not wrong, it's another group of Fs!"

As the crowd was discussing, Bai Yutang's phone rang.

"Hello?" Bai Yutang picked up the phone, the call was from Qin Ou, "Captain, that old foreign teaching assistant died at home."

Bai Yutang frowned, "What about Zhao Hu and the others?"

"It's not clear yet. I called just now, and Hu Zi said that he wasn't at home, he might be at the school." Qin Ou replied.

"You guys go back them up, call if you need anything." Bai Yutang said and hung up the phone.

At this time, Bao Zheng walked in, with three people by his side, one was Xiaofei, the leader of the SWAT team, and the other two, one was from the Biochemical Disease Control Centre, and the other was from the Non-Proliferation Department.

After a short briefing, Bao Zheng said “Everything is ready."

"Set off." Bai Yutang led the men outside together, "Let's go harvest the apples."

‿︵‿︵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: December 20, 2023 by Angel

Edited: January 2, 2024 by Angel