Five kilometers below the sea surface, a streamlined submarine floated quietly in the bottomless trench and moved slowly forward. The word “Parrot” was printed with white paint on both sides of the submarine, and the symbol of the Beluga Station was at the center of the radar cover.
There was no need to worry about being discovered by the USN destroyer because its current depth had far exceeded the maximum submersible depth of military submarines. This depth could only be reached by scientific research submarines. No sonar was capable of detecting any presence in this depth, nor could any depth charge or sonar threaten its existence.
In contrast to the quiet movement, the inside of the submarine was already filled with joy.
The two pilots high-fived each other and the observer put down his headset and whistled in excitement. At the door of the control room, the captain, with his arms crossed in front of his chest, grinned under his unshaven mustache.
They just went for a stroll and earned an easy 10,000 credits.
They had never made such easy money.
Based on the rules of the station, 70% of the commissioned income was handed to the organization, 20% of the equipment maintenance fee was paid directly to the shipyard, and the remaining 10% was the bonus for all of them.
Now they had a dilemma.
Should they follow this fleet, report the coordinates to NAC, and receive the 10,000 credits, or should they send someone up to bring Zhou Guoping back and get the 100,000 credits promised by NAC…
“The USS Obama must be heavily guarded. It’s difficult for us to get in. We should just take what we have,” a crew member hesitantly suggested.
“That’s one hundred thousand credits!” The other crew member widened his eyes, “Why don’t we try it? Or why did we bring the soldiers along? Let them share the bonus for no reason?”
“This is not as simple as trying, this is gambling! If the target has an accident…”
“Why are we afraid? NAC only asked us for the coordinates. They didn’t say we need to care for the safety of the target!”
“…”
“Listen to what he has to say first and understand the situation onboard USS Obama,” the captain interrupted the quarrel in the control room, looked at the observer who was in charge of contacting Zhou Guoping, and ordered, “If circumstance permits, we can send some people up. If it doesn’t, then forget it.”
In the end, it was the captain that ended the argument in the room.
The observer put on the headset again, entered the communication password provided by Jiang Chen on the tablet, and reconnected to Zhou Guoping’s chip. He asked Zhou Guoping for his current location and the security measures around him. At this moment, Zhou Guoping had used the excuse of going to the washroom and went to the washroom.
“There is a banquet happening on USS Obama,” Zhou Guoping, who was sitting on the toilet, confirmed that there was no one outside, then took a deep breath, bridged his consciousness with the chip and sent a message to the crew on Parrot, “Listen, you have no chance. They are watching me closely. Send this message on my behalf to Jiang Chen. These Americans have a base in Panama and all the residents of the colony were sent there!”
“Are you alone on the ship?”
“Yes,” Zhou Guoping replied.
“Okay, we will pass the message on to Jiang Chen for you. However, I personally suggest you tell him about such valuable information in person. Then for the reward… AHEM! For your safety and personal freedom, we will send a team of special force to sneak onto the USN fleet. Please wait patiently and cooperate with our rescue operation when necessary.”
“You can’t get in. Even if you get inside, you won’t be able to take me away,” Zhou Guoping smiled bitterly. “I have someone following me to the washroom. They will never allow me to stay out of their sight.”
“Is that so? Where are you now?”
Zhou Guoping was taken aback for a moment and just wanted to answer that he was on the toilet of course.
But at this moment, he suddenly realized what he just said.
It seemed that he was out of the Americans’ sight right now…
…
On the highway from California to Nevada, NAC’s convoy headed deep into the desert. On the roof of the first truck, Zhang Wei took the binoculars out of his pocket and glanced out into the endless yellow sand.
However, there was only sand and not a trace of human activity.
To locate a military facility buried hundreds of meters underground was no different than finding a needle in a haystack.
“You better hurry up before I lose my patience,” Zhang Wei said irritably as he glanced at the man who sat next to him.
Three days.
From when they set off, three full days had passed.
But along the way, they had not even seen a decent-looking house, let alone the West Coast Meteorological Monitoring Center. If his mission didn’t include that weather weapon, he wouldn’t mind wandering around in the desert, but they were in a time crunch and had to find it before the Americans could activate the weather weapon.
Every minute was precious.
“You can’t blame me,” Black Skull noticed the impatience in the eyes of the NAC officer next to him; he started to sweat profusely as he attempted to defend himself. “The information you gave me is only a map that is not useful in any way and a name I have never heard before.”
“Fu*k you. If I knew the specific location, why would I need you?”
The scolded Black Skull was afraid to look up and did not dare to respond.
Not wanting to waste saliva on this guy, Zhang Wei took out the mineral water from his backpack and took a sip, then he stopped talking.
The convoy continued to move forward.
At this moment, Black Skull suddenly noticed something. He slapped the roof of the car and shouted.
“Wait, STOP! STOP!”
The convoy stopped, and without waiting for Zhang Wei to speak, the man hurriedly jumped out of the truck, trotted two steps forward, and then squatted down by the road.
Zhang Wei watched his actions with a frown, then jumped off the truck and walked to him.
The man got down first and pressed his ears on the ground. Then he climbed up from the ground and moved his fingers back and forth on the dry concrete road.
“What are you doing?” Zhang Wei kicked this guy in the butt and frowned.
“A convoy passed by here, about two hours ago. They didn’t use the road, but moved through the middle of the road.” Black Skull’s two mung-bean-sized eyes narrowed slightly as he looked up at the sand dunes beside the road. “They’re heading north.”
“How do you know?” A hint of surprise appeared in Zhang Wei’s eyes.
The wind here was very strong. The blowing gust was enough to cover all tracks with sand within ten minutes, let alone two hours. However, this guy was not only able to spot the issue with this road with just a glance, but he could accurately pinpoint the direction as well as the time.
At least in Zhang Wei’s eyes, there was no difference between this section of the road and the section they had passed through before.
“The temperature of the highway in Nevada is very high, and the tires will still leave marks. You can still feel it with your fingers.” Black Skull clapped his hands and stood up from the ground. He touched his head, grinned proudly, and revealed his white teeth, “This is how we used to track merchants.”
Fair enough.
From when they took off until now, it was the first time Zhang Wei felt that this guy was still somewhat useful…
