Li Zhou felt like he was trapped in a huge maze made up of countless flashing 0s and 1s.
The dim blue light from the screen reflected his sunken eye sockets and the blue stubble on his chin. He had been up all night for three consecutive days, and the coffee cups piled up like a small mountain on the corner of the table.
The direction provided by Gu Yuxiao - "Hongyuan Fisheries" and the abandoned cold storage, are like a stone thrown into the deep sea of data, but the ripples it stirs up are extremely complex.
The public information of "Hongyuan Fisheries" is as clean as if it has just been rinsed: the registration is legal, the business statements are mediocre, there are several offshore fishing vessels, and there are no major problems on the accounts.
But Li Zhou's father, Li Zhengyang, was once a top data analyst at the Narcotics Enforcement Administration. He was exposed to how to smell that abnormal "smell" under a perfect disguise.
He gave up the frontal attack and instead cut into those seemingly unrelated capillaries - the dusty old database access records of the Jiangcheng Port Authority (the temporary key obtained by Chen Yanbai through special channels).
Abnormal storage footage from the past six months from several civilian surveillance cameras covering the edge of the dock area ("physically obtained" by Acheng's people); and even the backend logs of the financial systems of several small chemical raw material sales companies in Jiangcheng (Li Zhou used some not-so-glorious technical means).
The vast, chaotic data stream was roughly sorted, cleaned, and cross-checked by the special algorithm he wrote. Time passed slowly, and the code on the screen refreshed like a waterfall.
Fatigue entangled his nerves like damp and cold vines. Just when his consciousness was about to be dragged into the brink of chaos, the algorithm suddenly popped up a glaring red mark box!
Li Zhou sat up straight abruptly, his bloodshot eyes fixed on the screen.
The tag is associated with a temporary cache record fragment from the Port Authority's old database that should have been overwritten and deleted! Timestamp: eight months ago, 2:17 am. The record content is extremely brief, only one line:
`[WARNING] Chem_Sensor_Zone7 (Temp_ColdStore_West): Volatile Organic Compound Spike - Threshold Exceeded (Class: Ketone Deriv. / Suspect Precursor?)`
Chemical sensor! Area 7 (West Cold Storage)! Volatile organic compound peak exceeds standards! Ketone derivatives? Suspected precursors?
My heart pounded in my chest, pounding against my ribs. It wasn't fish! It was chemicals! And a very specific type of chemical, with a very strong specificity!
This fragmented record, like a match lit in the dark, instantly illuminated the "strange chemical smell" in Li Qiang's mouth!
His fingers flew, and he immediately superimposed this key clue with the vehicle entry and exit records of "Hongyuan Fisheries" that he had previously sorted out in time and space.
The time window was locked! A black van with a fake license plate entered the West District cold storage area 23 minutes before the sensor alarm sounded, stayed there for 1 hour and 48 minutes, and then left. Its trajectory disappeared into the peripheral surveillance blind spot.
Found it!
He took a deep breath, suppressed the excitement that was about to burst through his throat, and with slight tremors in his fingertips, he typed in the special link code for Gu Yuxiao's encrypted communication.
A simple input box popped up on the screen. Li Zhou typed in just one line:
"West of the cold storage. Smell confirmed. Time anchor locked. Vehicle tracks point to Area B of the Northern Suburbs Logistics Park."
The message was sent successfully. He slumped back in his chair, a mixture of immense fatigue and near-exhaustion excitement washing over him.
The "medicine" that my father had been tracking down finally revealed its toxic nature.
In the northern suburbs of Jiangcheng, in Area B of Shunda Logistics Park, far from the hustle and bustle, huge warehouses stand like silent gray building blocks, neatly and coldly arranged in the cold night.
The air was filled with the mixed smell of tire rubber, diesel exhaust, and dust.
A heavily modified command vehicle, painted a nondescript gray, quietly parked in the shadows of a pile of abandoned shipping containers on the outskirts of Area B. Inside, the cold light of the screen illuminated several tense faces.
Chen Yanbai leaned back in his chair, his signature silver hair gleaming with a cool sheen under the screen light. He held an unlit lollipop in his mouth, his eyes sharp as a hawk as he stared intently at a large warehouse deep within Area B through the surveillance split screen inside the car.
According to the analysis of the vehicle tracks provided by Li Zhou and the subsequent infiltration investigations by the "Dark River" team in disguise over the next few days, it was discovered that the place was rented by a shell company called "Hengxin Packaging Materials", which was the final destination of the mysterious truck.
"The peripheral electronic eyes have been covered and the signal interference is ready." A technical police officer in plain clothes reported in a low voice, his fingers tapping quickly on the keyboard.
On the screen, the surveillance footage representing the target warehouse and surrounding areas was replaced with a static image that played in a loop.
"Group one, group two, arrive at the designated location." A low confirmation voice came from the communicator.
On the screen, green spots of light representing the action team members quietly lit up near several key entrances and exits in front and behind the warehouse, hidden in the shadows of the loading and unloading platforms or on the roof of the warehouse next door.
Gu Yuxiao sat in the inner seat of the command vehicle, dressed in dark casual clothes. Behind his gold-rimmed glasses, his gaze swept calmly across all the screens. Ah Cheng stood half a step behind him, like a silent statue.
The operation is led by Shen Yanbai, but Gu Yuxiao must be present. This is not only about clues, but also about explaining the hard work of the "Dark River" team members and Li Zhou.
"Infrared data shows that there are at least fifteen heat sources in the warehouse, scattered and with no fixed patrol routes. The temperature in the southeast corner is abnormally high," the technical police officer added.
My dear, there is more to this chapter. Please click on the next page to continue reading. It will be even more exciting later!
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