combustion
"Attention all units! Target vessel has entered the interception zone! Boarding team, prepare! Repeat, boarding team, prepare! The enemy may be armed; maintain maximum alert!"
The torrential rain lashed against the bulletproof vest, sending up plumes of white mist. Jesse put down his binoculars: "Where is Milo's location?"
"The locator shows it's right ahead, very close." The technician tapped on the satellite map.
Under the blue light of the screen, the red dot representing Milos remained at a distance of three nautical miles from the Bethlehem.
Searchlights swept across the distant sea, the sea fog dissipated, and the cruise ship's deck ahead was deserted, except for the blood-red emergency lights in the bridge. Jesse grabbed his binoculars and, through the downpour, could vaguely make out the black iron crates hanging from the stern of the cargo ship, their hinges gleaming with fresh welding light.
"What's going on?" Jesse's Adam's apple bobbed as he gave the order, "Be careful, there's something in the metal box."
The bomb disposal team carefully disembarked, and a report of something unusual came from below. Jesse followed them onto the ship.
The captain, huddled behind a container at the dock, his uniform soaked and stained with fresh blood, was terrified. He clutched a CD in his hand and, upon seeing Jesse in his police uniform, handed it over as if granted a pardon: "Please save me!"
Jesse glanced at the CD: "What's this? Who gave it to you?"
“It’s Mr. Joshua, no, it’s Milo, no… I don’t know his identity, I only know that he used to be Mr. Dale’s lover.” The captain replied in a confused state, “He forced us to disembark… Mr. Dale, Mr. Dale has been kidnapped.”
Jesse froze: "What did you say?"
The terrified crew member stammered, "That man had a gun and forced Mr. Daller onto the ship. He was going to kill Mr. Daller. And the priest! The priest is still on the ship!"
The technician had already processed the chip urgently, and the result shocked him.
An extremely complete chain of evidence, from the death of Richard Green's family seven years ago to the beginning and end of the cooperation with Shengyuansu twenty-five years ago, black market organ trading, private organ transplantation, and pornography shows, has laid out a transnational criminal trade chain.
"What ship! What kind of ship is Milos on?" Jesse roared uncontrollably.
The captain said nervously, "Yes, it is the Bethlehem."
Jesse stood frozen in place. He should have known, he should have realized it sooner. The Bethlehem—that ship was the starting point of all the sin. If he hadn't boarded that ship, Milo wouldn't have slid step by step into the abyss of revenge and crime. Not to mention, Steven had scattered the Greens' ashes from that ship into the sea. If there was truly a place where Milo could carry out his revenge, there was no more suitable place than the Bethlehem.
Jesse whirled around and shouted, “Quick! Contact the Customs Service! Top priority! Use every means to track all speedboats that entered or left the port during the Bethlehem’s previous anchorage, especially those heading towards the high seas! Now!”
The torrential rain pounded the sea, turning it into a chaotic mess, and a deafening roar echoed from not far away.
Jesse's alarm bells rang. He abruptly turned his binoculars and saw a much larger cargo ship cutting through the rain and waves. What made his hair stand on end was that the cargo ship's deck was deserted, and the bridge was deathly silent, like a steel coffin floating on the sea.
Jesse squinted. That was a Dale Group ship, a gray cargo ship carrying GanGu's new drug.
Police announcements blared across the sea through loudspeakers: "This is the Lanman Maritime Police! Stop immediately! Submit for inspection! Repeat, stop immediately!"
The cargo ship remained unresponsive, silently and resolutely cutting through the waves. Jesse's intuition told him something was amiss. He raised his binoculars and saw an unmarked black helicopter hovering ghost-like above the cargo ship, its rotors churning the rain.
Jesse's pupils constricted sharply: "Something's wrong, get the boarding crew to evacuate immediately—" Before he could finish the word "evacuate," Boom! A muffled, loud bang, the bottom of the unmanned cargo ship suddenly arched upwards, and a blinding white fireball, carrying tons of seawater and steel fragments, exploded into the sky. The shockwave from the explosion instantly tore the hull apart.
Jesse gripped the cold railing tightly, his knuckles white, his pupils reflecting a hellish scene.
Burning wreckage, billowing smoke, and floating oil slicks.
Under the cover of the explosion, the black helicopter disappeared silently into the depths of the rainy night.
"Block the sea!" Jesse's voice was hoarse and distorted, filled with disbelief, shock, and anger.
Tengbang's goal was not to receive the goods or to resist, but to destroy them completely at any cost.
Jesse immediately grabbed the communicator and frantically dialed Milo's number, but all he heard was a piercing busy tone; the signal was completely jammed.
*
The black helicopter hovered over the rainforest three kilometers away from Aplin. The cabin door slowly opened, and a violent gust of air rushed into the cabin.
Blaise leaned half his body out of the cabin, his gaze piercing through the layers of dark green tree canopy with his binoculars, precisely locking onto the guards below.
The night wind carried the unique, damp scent of the rainforest. He tilted his head slightly, sensing the direction and intensity of the wind, and subtly adjusted the angle of his special sniper rifle with his right hand.
A few seconds later, he decisively pulled the trigger.
After a muffled thud, almost swallowed by the rotor noise, the specially designed bullet precisely struck the trunk of a giant tree at the edge of the target area. There was no flash, only a deep, blank-like explosion. In an instant, a shockwave, barely perceptible to the naked eye, spread across the bark, instantly agitating countless tiny white powder particles, sending the resulting dust drifting towards the designated area.
These fine, almost completely transparent white powders silently sank downwards under the airflow generated by the helicopter rotor, quickly merging into the humid, sultry rainforest air below and disappearing without a trace.
A vigilant soldier touched his face, rubbed his fingertips together, and looked up as if he had sensed something.
The instant he looked up, Blaise put away his equipment, gave a hand signal to the people in the cockpit, and began preparing for an emergency landing.
Hissing sounds echoed through the rainforest. A giant white python, as thick as an adult's thigh, darted down from the treetops like lightning, biting the leg bone of the alert soldier with his gun at the ready. It tightened its grip and began to constrict. As the soldier screamed in agony, a second and a third brown python emerged from the decaying leaves and shadows, attacking the chaotic crowd with frenzied fury.
The screams rose and fell. These people, accustomed to assassination in the civilized world, were no match for the attack of this primitive creature. They could only frantically turn around and pound on the door for help.
The factory's tightly closed iron gate could not be pushed open.
Only when the screams outside gradually subsided did Chatchai leisurely finish his cigarette, then came out with a few of his men, asking with a worried expression, "What happened?"
The enormous white python was dragging a guard with a broken leg across the open space in front of the gate, the blood staining the soil red. Its tail trembled as it slithered back into the jungle.
"Didn't General Zowin tell you? Aplin has always been a region prone to python plagues. This is not a place for you."
After saying that, Hesai, who came out from the back of the factory, put down the fuel tank and nodded to Chatchai: "It's all done."
Chachai nodded, squinting to look at Blaise as he approached, removing all his equipment. Only when Blaise stood right in front of him did Chachai see his cold, stern face.
With a "click," Chatchai opened the lighter and handed it to Blaise: "This is something you should do."
Blaise took it and looked at everything before him.
The factory, though shut down, gleamed as new, its mountains of medicine packaging boxes the fruits of the workers' tireless labor. The rules of this world are so unreasonable: to start anew, everything must be destroyed.
Boom! Flames shot into the sky, thick smoke billowed, turning the sky an eerie orange-red, and tongues of fire licked the factory buildings, crackling and popping continuously.
Blaze stood at a safe distance, expressionless, watching as everything turned to ashes in the flames. The heat distorted the air and reflected on his face.
Chatchai walked up to him: "Now that the cargo ships at sea have been destroyed and Ponglasong has been arrested, we've done a clean job. Everything is over, and of course, everything can start anew."
Blaise nodded slightly.
"Blaze." A woman's voice suddenly became clear amidst the crackling of the fire.
Blaze turned to the side at the sound, and upon seeing who was speaking, his previously calm face suddenly contorted with bulging veins.
Chatchai and Hesai were also shocked: "Nonai? Why are you back at this time?"
Their eyes met, and there seemed to be a struggle in Nona's eyes.
Blaze seemed to realize something; his expression changed, and his rage erupted instantly. He strode towards Nona, and Hersey, who was standing nearby, tried to stop Blaze, but was knocked down by a single punch.
"Blairs!" Hersey shouted, "What are you doing!"
In the end, Chatchai stepped in front of Nonae, unloaded his gun, and simply used his body to separate the two: "Let's talk this out. Nonae won't hurt Milo. There must be a reason she's back now. Nonae, say something!"
Blaise barely contained his rage as he used sign language: Where is he!
“I saw him, and as you said, I followed him and protected him. But have you ever considered the possibility that it's not that I don't want to stay and protect him, but that he doesn't want to live anymore? If I stay there, I can only watch him die.”
Hersey exclaimed in surprise: "Nonai!"
Nonai, however, remained completely unfazed, calmly stating, "The reason he approached you and became entangled with you was to clear his family's name. From the initial simple desire to overturn the verdict to the later goal of blood for blood, he had already made his plans. He was determined to kill Miles. When that time came, the police in Lanman would arrest him, and he would go to jail. Of course, you have ways to hide him, but would he really go on the run and follow you around for the rest of his life? If he wanted to live a clean life, there are a million ways. Reaching this point simply means he wants to die."
Blaze's face was frighteningly pale, and he asked again: Where is he!
Nonai shook his head: "All I know is that Miles boarded the Bethlehem with him. I really don't know where that ship was going. He has always lived a painful life. At least this ending was his own choice, and I just respect his choice."
Blaise shoved Nonay's shoulder and walked away.
Hersey stood up abruptly, staring at Blaise's retreating figure, then at Chatchai and Nonay beside him, and asked uncertainly, "Is he planning to give up?"
Chacchai frowned: "Is that possible?"
Nonai gazed at the helicopters constantly moving in and out of the sky.
It wasn't a military model, but that's precisely what makes it troublesome. Today's ship-selling incident at sea will soon be in the newspapers, becoming a tool for the politicians sitting in the Taran government hall to play their games. Zowin probably realized he'd been tricked; the helicopters that had come out to chase him were most likely there to assassinate him, and Milo, who was with Miles, was probably Zowin's last chance to turn things around.
Hessé hesitated before asking, "Should we... go with Blaise?"
“No.” Nonai shook his head calmly. “If he goes, at least in his own name. If we act together, it will be Gan Valley’s official statement, and the whole of Gan Valley will be in trouble. Blaise knows this better than we do.”
Hersey was dumbfounded: "What do we do then?"
Nonai gazed at the distant sea and frowned, saying, "I hope he doesn't find that ship."
Hersey asked hesitantly, "What if we find it?"
Nonai shook his head: "I don't know."
Blaise was willing to risk his life to save someone who was determined to die, but the reality was that even if Blaise managed to find the ship, the most likely outcome was that he would find a corpse.
No one can bear the pain of losing and regaining a lover, only to lose them again.
By then, Blaise might go crazy, right?
The crackling of the flames grew louder and louder, signaling the arrival of a hot and humid night.
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