S.C.I Mystery Series Volume 5 Chapter 64

Misplaced of the Three Murderers 11 – N

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Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang went to the special prison, found "base number three", and at the same time seized Zhou Chen.

Zhan Zhao explained to everyone in the car and finally came to the conclusion that Zhou Chen is Zhou Guang and Zhou Anming, though everyone, including Bai Yutang, didn't understand it very well and couldn't understand why a person could be one person while being two other people at the same time, yet not be a case of split personality. But since Zhan Zhao had said it, there was naturally a good reason for it, and when they returned to the SCI office and interrogated Zhou Chen, they could study it again.

Entering the elevator, Bai Yutang saw that Zhan Zhao had been keeping his head down, looking at the screen of his phone.

Zhan Zhao had been in this state for quite a long time. On the screen of his cell phone was the satellite positioning monitoring screen, with the red dot that was moving and stopping. Zhan Zhao picked it up every few seconds to look at it.

With a ding, the elevator doors opened.

Walking out of the elevator, Bai Yutang wanted to ask Zhan Zhao why he was so concerned about Zhao Jue's whereabouts.

But before he could say anything, Zhan Zhao dialled a phone number.

Zhan Zhao turned on speakerphone and headed for the office.

When the call connected, it was Lan Qi on the other end, which surprised Bai Yutang a little.

"Lan Qi," Zhan Zhao asked, "you teamed up with G and the others previously to go to the Amazon and find that cave with the mummies, do you still remember the exact location?"

Lan Qi said that he had some documents recording the contents of that operation, both maps and coordinates, and he had handed these documents to the twins previously. It was because Zhan Zhao had asked the twins to help get a 3D holographic projection of that cave.

Zhan Zhao also remembers that the twins seemed to be looking for grave robbers and other "professional" people to go into the jungle to look for it. It had been a month or two since then, right, so how come there was no further information?

Zhan Zhao asked Jiang Ping, "Did the twins get a holographic projection?"

Jiang Ping shook his head, "No, Gongsun asked before, but the twins said it was hopeless."

Zhan Zhao called the twins and asked them about it. When they answered the phone, the twins cursed, saying that the map and the coordinates were not right at all and that they had hired three groups of people in total, two professional exploration teams and a team of grave robbers, and as a result, they had gone in and not to mention the ancient tomb, they didn't even find a pit. There was also an expedition member who was bitten by a snake and almost lost his life.

Zhan Zhao hung up the phone, thought about it, and asked Bai Yutang, "Has Zhao Jue interrogated G alone?"

Bai Yutang frowned, "Probably..."

Captain Bai did want to say "not", but Zhao Jue had been hanging around SCI for a while, if he really went to interrogate G quietly, no one would be able to stop him. As long as he picks a day when they were all out in the field, he could hypnotise a few guards, go in and come out, and then erase the memories of the police officers, so that no one would know what was going on.

Zhan Zhao recalled several points in time before Zhao Jue and Bai Ye left and asked Jiang Ping to check the surveillance.

Jiang Ping pulled out the surveillance and checked, sure enough, Zhao Jue went to see G alone. There were two police officers accompanying him, and his access was unobstructed. Before leaving, Zhao Jue also made a face at the surveillance camera.

"It was calculated!" Zhan Zhao was furious, banging on the table, "That was the purpose of that guy's visit! He must have known that the coordinates were fake when he looked at the photos at Lan Qi's house. That damn long hair is looking for that ancient tomb in the jungle, he fooled us into catching the G for him, once with the eyewitness, once with the inheritors, he's looking for death!"

Bai Yutang saw that Zhan Zhao was so angry that he was spewing black words and was somewhat helpless, "If he can get it out, can't you get it out as well? Why don't you just go ask G?"

Zhan Zhao grumbled and walked out, "I can't ask! He must have erased this part from G!"

Zhan Zhao ran to the detention room to ask G. Through the surveillance, Bai Yutang and the others watched Zhan Zhao go in for a while before coming out and kicking the door in anger.

Bai Yutang asked Jiang Ping if he could take satellite photos based on the positioning on Zhan Zhao's phone.

Jiang Ping spread his hands, "Captain, it's a tropical rainforest there, you can only see the tops of the trees from above."

......

At this time, somewhere in the Amazon rainforest.

Zhao Jue and Bai Ye took Zhang Rui with a team of mercenaries and walked to a small waterfall.

Bai Ye told the crowd to take a break. A few mercenaries squatted by the creek and washed their faces, and asked Eddie, who still had a dumbfounded look on his face, how much longer they had to walk.

Eddie turned back to look at Zhao Jue.

At this moment, Zhao Jue was sitting on a shiny black rock and was laughing at his cell phone, muttering to himself, "Are you angry... hahaha!"

Bai Ye walked over and observed his surroundings while handing him a water bottle, "Almost there, right?"

"Just go round the waterfall." Zhao Jue pressed his phone a few times and seemed to send a message out.

Bai Ye gently touched Zhao Jue's shoulder.

Zhao Jue looked up, and Bai Ye signalled for him to look at a young mercenary not far away who was washing his face by the stream.

Zhao Jue glanced at him but didn't say anything. It wasn't clear if he had understood or not, he just raised his hand and showed Bai Ye his cell phone.

Bai Ye lowered his head and saw that on his phone, a red cross appeared at the location of base number three.

Bai Ye froze for a moment, a little surprised, "Base number three has been destroyed? That fast? Didn't they break in by mistake?"

"It means that they didn't encounter any resistance at all."

Bai Ye frowned, "Was it a deliberate attempt to infiltrate SCI? To get close to I?"

"Do they have any idea what they've caught? It's going to be a head-on confrontation." Zhao Jue smiled slightly, some anticipation in his eyes, "The little kitten and the tiger cub."

At this time, a few mercenaries in front of them urged them to move on.

Zhao Jue jumped down from the rock and walked straight towards the young mercenary that Bai Ye had just signalled him to look at.

That man's hands were in his pockets at this moment, and as soon as he looked up, his shoulders were grabbed by Zhao Jue.

Zhao Jue wrapped his arm around his shoulder, leaned in next to his face, and whispered a few words in his ear.

The mercenary turned to look at Zhao Jue. He took his hand out of his coat pocket and was holding a signal transmitter that had already been activated, which had a red dot that was blinking.

After saying a few words, Zhao Jue reached out and patted him on the shoulder.

The mercenary then dropped the signal transmitter, pulled out his gun and turned towards the jungle behind him.

Zhao Jue tilted his head to Eddie on the side, and Eddie called up his men and followed that mercenary towards the jungle. Not long after, gunshots rang out in the jungle.

Zhang Rui shivered in fear as Bai Ye yanked him up by his collar, "Let's go."

The three of them went around the waterfall and a tunnel-like cave appeared in front of them.

Through the tunnel was a small basin, and in the middle of it, there was a huge tree. It wasn't known what kind of tree it was, it could only be described as huge. The root system exposed from the soil under the trunk of the tree was more than a person high, spreading upwards with teeth and claws. The branches and leaves were thick and spreading, and every branch was twisted.

Zhao Jue took out his cell phone and found the photo of the family tree that Zhan Zhao had found when they investigated the hunting family before to compare. It was almost exactly the same.

Zhao Jue smiled, "Found it."

Bai Ye grabbed Zhang Rui, who was trying to slip away, and pushed him forward, "Go open the door!"

......

In the SCI office, Zhan Zhao returned to his office with a demoralised expression, telling Bai Yutang that that part of G's memory had been erased by Zhao Jue.

As he was talking, Jiang Ping suddenly said, "Captain, I received a message."

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang moved over and saw that it was a string of numbers.

Zhan Zhao thought about it, grabbed a post-it note and wrote a set of letters and symbols, it was a web address.

Jiang Ping opened the URL and saw a map with several yellow marks on it, and next to each mark was written base "XX". Most of the bases had a red cross on their names, and the special prison they went to before was clearly labelled "Base Number Three", which also had a red cross on it.

"This is the location of all the bases!" Jiang Ping searched for the several addresses that hadn't been marked with a red cross yet, "Awesome!"

Zhan Zhao was also a bit surprised, "Zhao Jue actually gave us the addresses of all the bases?"

"Is it considered compensation for screwing us over?" Bai Yutang saw that Zhan Zhao seemed to be in a better mood, so he patted him, "Let's not worry about that first, Zhou Chen ah, Zhou Chen."

Zhan Zhao nodded and whispered to Bai Yutang.

Bai Yutang froze and looked at Zhan Zhao, "Really?"

Zhan Zhao nodded.

Bai Yutang was even more puzzled and followed Zhan Zhao to the interrogation room.

The rest of SCI had long been waiting, they all ran to the outside of the interrogation room to watch.

In the interrogation room, Zhou Chen was wearing a straightjacket, handcuffs and shackles. As an extreme felon with several lives on his back, he was naturally under the highest level of surveillance.

However, from his appearance, Zhou Chen looked more like a clerical staff member engaged in academic research. There are two types of serial killers, those with high IQ and those with high levels of violence. SCI has arrested many murderers, and this was the first time they had seen a serial killer with both qualities.

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang walked into the interrogation room.

The interrogation table was very long. Zhou Chen's hands were fastened to the table and his feet were fastened to the floor. He raised his head and looked at the two men who walked in with a calm demeanour.

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang both sat down opposite him.

Bai Yutang observed Zhou Chen, with many questions in his mind.

Zhan Zhao placed the document in his hand on the table, raised his head to lock eyes with Zhou Chen for a moment, and opened his mouth to address him, "N."

The SCI members who were "listening" through the window were all a little confused for a moment, unable to figure out whether Zhan Zhao had just made a random sound or said "N".

Zhou Chen looked at Zhan Zhao with some interest, seemingly also feeling surprised.

Bai Yutang was already mentally prepared. The words Zhan Zhao had just said to him were "Zhou Chen is the N that G is looking for!"

According to the previous investigation, N was the misplaced person and the person they had been waiting for after capturing I. The misplaced person should be aggressive, and an extremely dangerous existence. Although Zhou Chen's ferocity was very consistent with this identity... his life experience seems to be too "simple".

Moreover, according to Zhan Zhao's previous conclusion, the reason why G wants to find N is that N has solved the problem of ageing. And the reason why N wants to find I is because I has the ability to be "invisible". But after they caught Lin Hai, they discovered that his so-called "invisibility" was more akin to a genetic disease. By constantly changing biological information to achieve the effect of "invisibility", it's somewhat opportunistic... Then what about N? This person that Zhao Jue called a dangerous rebel, why would he be a juvenile delinquent who has been in prison for thirty years?

Zhou Chen observed Zhan Zhao for a while, then looked at Bai Yutang for a while and said, "It seems like I underestimated you guys."

Zhan Zhao waved his hand, "Cut the crap, everything is going according to your plan, right?"

Zhou Chen smiled and asked, "I heard that you guys caught G and I with your own power?"

Bai Yutang looked at Zhan Zhao. Sure enough, Zhan Zhao was upset again about it, they were more or less relying on Zhao Jue's help here.

"What about Zhao Jue?" Zhou Chen asked, "Since G was captured, he should be able to find K, right?"

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang glanced at each other – Sure enough, Zhao Jue was going to look for K!

"He might have made a trip for nothing." Zhou Chen shook his head, "K should already be dead."

"How did he die?" Zhan Zhao asked curiously.

Zhou Chen smiled, "Like most people, died of old age."

Zhan Zhao's brain spun quickly, "G should also know that he died, right?"

Zhou Chen froze slightly.

"G also went to great lengths to search everywhere for you... indicating that whether K is dead or not doesn't matter at all." Zhan Zhao pointed at Zhou Chen, "Just like you, this is what you call, a solution to ageing."

Zhou Chen suddenly laughed and nodded, "Awesome! Awesome!"

......

In the faraway rainforest.

Zhao Jue and Bai Ye walked into an underground cave with Zhang Rui leading the way.

Opening a few doors, there was a small modern laboratory underground.

Passing through a corridor, the door to a room was opened... Inside, a medical chamber was stored.

Zhang Rui pressed a certain password for the medical chamber. The chamber door opened and a coldness hit him.

In the medical chamber, there was a freezer, in which a shrivelled old man was frozen. This person looked almost like a dehydrated corpse, so old that he couldn't be any older.

Zhao Jue couldn't help but let out a "pfft" as he pointed at the freezer and asked Zhang Rui, "Did you sell this refrigerator to him?"

Zhang Rui was embarrassed, "This... is the latest technology..."

Zhao Jue was amused, "Then can he still come back to life after thawing? Or maybe you could slit your wrist and try releasing a few drops of your blood into his mouth?"

Zhang Rui looked at Zhao Jue breathlessly, "I told you that K has been dead for years."

Bai Ye sneered, "Your master has been dead for several years and you're still here? Paying respects to his grave?"

"I came to get something." Zhang Rui was just about to continue when Bai Ye suddenly took a step back.

Zhao Jue noticed Zhang Rui wiping his sweat.

Bai Ye asked, "Is there anyone else here?"

"Uh..." Zhang Rui shook his head, "Aren't those the mercenaries..."

"Without you opening the door, no one could come in." Zhao Jue reached out and pinched Zhang Rui's cheeks, asking with a smile, "Do you keep any pets here?"

Bai Ye took another step back and jerked his head to look at the corridor to his right, only to see a white figure shimmering at the end of the dark corridor.

‿︵‿︵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: February 27, 2024 by Angel

Edited: June 6, 2024 by Angel