Chapter 79 Just Partners 24
Ren Yi never expected that Duan Rui would go back on his word just before the operation was about to take place.
He couldn't help but show a surprised look, but Duan Rui turned his face away, avoiding eye contact with Ren Yi.
Duan Rui recalled the previous exercise, and he remembered Ren Yi lying covered in blood in the wreckage of the mecha.
That period of time, which had been forcibly forgotten and remained blank for a long time, suddenly swept back. He couldn't even protect his own partner, so how could he talk about protecting others?!
Hadn't the consequences of that incident taught him a lesson? He thought he could do it, that he was capable, but in reality, he did nothing right and ruined his partner.
Ren Yi was taken aback for a moment, but quickly realized what Duan Rui was thinking.
But this was definitely not the time to slowly untangle his knots. Ren Yi tugged hard at his arm, but couldn't budge it. However, the commotion attracted the attention of the kidnappers who were selecting hostages. Just as Ren Yi had initially thought, he did indeed fit the hostage selection criteria. After being noticed, the man immediately spoke, "You, come here."
The moment the other person spoke, Duan Rui tensed up completely. Ren Yi even wondered if he was about to attack. For a moment, his heart was pounding in his throat. Fortunately, the chosen one is the chosen one after all. In a critical moment, he could still distinguish between what was important and what was urgent. Ren Yi noticed that after a moment of pain from the tightening of his wrist, the tension gradually eased. He quickly took the opportunity to pull his hand away.
Although leaving directly would be fine, Ren Yi hesitated for a moment, then gently squeezed Duan Rui's still-empty hand and silently mouthed: (This) is yours.
Ren Yi only gave it a light squeeze before quickly withdrawing it. He then shrank back and half-bowed, blending into the other hostages who had been called out. Apart from his exceptionally good looks, he didn't stand out much. After all, he had done so many missions; this kind of acting was just a piece of cake for him.
Duan Rui stared intently at the departing figure until it disappeared into the deepest part of the corridor. His hand, which was hanging in the air, was clenched into a fist, and his palm was painfully pricked by his nails.
*
The bandits did indeed contact the alliance.
On the screen, the alliance's negotiation expert was trying to calm the hostage-taker: "I have conveyed your demands to my superiors, and the alliance is discussing them, but you must guarantee the safety of the hostages..."
The number of hostages was simply too large. To avoid putting psychological pressure on the hijackers and causing them to act rashly and harm the hostages, the projection screen only showed the image of a negotiation expert. However, in reality, countless people were analyzing the images and sounds from inside the ship's cabin frame by frame, trying to glean more useful information.
Rogge wasn't stupid; he was still hoping to escape this and live a carefree life. Of course, he didn't appear in communications with the Alliance. The people appearing on the Alliance's screen were all hostages, which was enough to demonstrate the threat. But for Ren Yi, that was also enough.
While trying to decipher the disguised voiceprint, the police searched the screen for reflective areas to reconstruct the cockpit. Suddenly, someone pointed to a spot in the image and exclaimed, "There, that kid! Is he typing out a code?!"
Among a group of hostages cowering and weeping in fear, he was inconspicuous with his head bowed low, but a closer look at his convulsing, trembling fingers revealed a very fixed rhythm as they fell to the ground.
This sudden discovery caused a brief moment of chaos in the room.
"Zoom in!" "Playback!!"
"Go to the decoding department and find someone!"
...
At the same time, a new order came through the negotiation expert's earpiece: "Delay! No matter what demands he makes, delay as much as possible while ensuring the safety of the hostages."
*
Ren Yi was held in a relatively far-back cabin. On the way to the cockpit, he had seen most of the bandits' setup, and could guess the rest based on his deductions. The problem was, the message had been sent out, but he didn't know when the other side would notice. If they remained unnoticed, he'd probably have to think of some riskier methods.
Fortunately, the situation was much better than Ren Yi had expected.
When the negotiating expert on the screen seemed slightly tired from the prolonged stalemate, she leaned back a little, her upper body, including her arms, appearing on the screen projection. Ren Yi immediately noticed the subtle movement of her fingers: the other party had agreed to his "cooperation".
Ren Yi typed "Received," put his hands behind his back, and sent a message to Duan Rui with trembling hands.
—This time my hands were really shaking a bit. The series of taps I made to explain the situation and ask for cooperation had taken a lot of my energy.
As early as after the first person who wanted to report the news was killed, all of their personal computers were confiscated. However, this group of people were obviously not very professional in hijacking starships. Although they were confiscated, they were not guarded tightly. Ren Yi took the opportunity to sneak back on the way to the cockpit.
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Although Duan Rui's personal computer wasn't with him, it didn't matter; in fact, it was just right.
Meanwhile, inside the cabin, which was still under guard.
The vibration of the quantum computer was particularly noticeable in the quiet cabin where only faint sobs could be heard, and the three guards looked over almost simultaneously.
After Ren Yi left, Duan Rui focused intently, constantly rehearsing the scene in his mind, so his reaction was naturally extremely swift. He got up and knocked out the guard closest to him, then ran straight towards the second person along the path he had already planned. By the time the third person noticed the blurry figure and tried to turn back, Duan Rui, having already dealt with the first two, had covered his mouth.
The process was indeed a bit thrilling, but for an S-class aircraft so coveted by military academies, the difficulty was far less than expected. However, to the surrounding passengers, it was a completely different story; it seemed as if in the blink of an eye, all the guards had been released.
A brief silence fell over the cabin; even the sobbing had ceased. Everyone stared blankly at Duan Rui, as if a wolf had suddenly infiltrated a flock of sheep. The feeling of being an outsider evoked fear in everyone. After a moment, someone seemed to finally react, letting out a small gasp, but the rest of the sound was swallowed back down by Duan Rui's sudden turn and stare.
Duan Rui glanced around with a warning look in his eyes before taking a few steps forward to open the safety door inside the cabin.
The starship is still sailing in the sea of stars. Opening the door without any protective measures would be tantamount to suicide. However, because of the warning just now, no one dares to make any rash moves. It's to the point that even Ren Yi would sigh that the protagonist has mistakenly taken the villain's script.
However, the terrifying scene the passengers had anticipated did not occur. A small aircraft was already docking outside the emergency exit. After Duan Rui opened the door, several Star Police officers in Alliance uniforms entered. Instantly, several unrestrained soft sobs echoed inside the cabin, this time tears of joy.
*
Actually, it wasn't just the league that was intentionally stalling for time; Rogge was also deliberately delaying things.
The negotiations dragged on for an extremely long time, deliberately by both sides, until Rogge realized something was wrong.
—Lando never showed up.
But why did he show up? Did he say he would come?
Roger recalled his conversation with Lando word by word, his face gradually turning ashen.
Regardless of the possibility that Lando might change his mind, he never even said he would go to this coordinate.
Rogge seemed to see that smiling face before his eyes, but he felt a chill run down his spine as if he had been thrown into an ice cave.
They've been tricked!
Realizing this, Roger had long lost the composure he had maintained before. He charged into the group of hostages, grabbed the nearest one, pressed a pneumatic gun against the hostage's head, and hissed, "Get me the airship! Now!!"
The unlucky guy who got caught was, of course, Ren Yi.
It can't be called "bad luck." Being in the same driver's seat, Ren Yi naturally noticed Rogge's emotional changes. When Rogge showed signs of moving towards the hostages, Ren Yi quickly adjusted his position so that Rogge could easily grab them. This was truly a "two-way run."
The woman who was negotiating didn't expect the robber to suddenly lose his temper, but she was highly professional. Although all sorts of bad thoughts flashed through her mind, she calmed down immediately after her emotions were exposed for only a moment. She decisively abandoned her previous slow haggling and agreed very quickly, "Okay!"
"The Alliance has dispatched a spaceship to your location. Sir, please calm down and put down the people you are holding."
Her voice was steady but her pace was extremely fast, as if it carried some kind of calming power, but Roger couldn't hear a word she said. He tightened his grip on Ren Yi's arm and shouted impatiently, "When? How long?!"
After a slight pause, the negotiating woman gave a precise time, roughly the normal time required to move a spaceship from the nearest star system to their coordinates.
However, this timeframe was clearly insufficient to meet Roger's demands. He pointed his energy gun at Ren Yi and shouted, "Five minutes! I need to see it within five minutes!!!"
"Sir, please calm down. The nearest habitable planet to your coordinates is Lein in the EV542 system. The journey from there to your current coordinates is XX, and it will take at least..."
Faced with this series of accurate data, Rogge finally calmed down. However, calmness did not mean accepting the Alliance's conditions. He said coldly, "Eight minutes. Send the airship here within eight minutes. After eight minutes, I will kill one hostage for every ten seconds that exceeds eight minutes. We have enough people here. If these are not enough, there are more in the ship's cabin."
The negotiator's face darkened, but his words also provoked a reaction from the hostages in the driver's cab. The shadow of death loomed over them; the group, who had been huddled together trembling, cried and ran away. Roger, having already given up all hope, randomly picked a direction and prepared to fire.
Ren Yi's pupils contracted, and with all his might, he struggled to pull Rogge in one direction. The gun veered off course, grazing a girl's arm and leaving a burn mark. Realizing she had just narrowly escaped death, the young girl seemed stunned, slumping to the ground, her pupils dilating unnaturally in fear. The hostages' commotion abruptly fell silent.
Roger roared, "All of you, get back here!!"
Even so, he didn't fire again. The first step was to deter, and the next step would be to provoke the alliance. He just wanted to escape, not to die, and he was also afraid of completely angering the alliance.
However, Ren Yi's actions just now made him frown. Roger realized that he had chosen a hostage who was not so easy to control.
He had originally intended to change, but when he turned his head and saw Ren Yi's face, he paused for a moment, then noticed the latter's pale and unhealthy complexion. In the end, he simply tightened his grip on Ren Yi's neck, threateningly warning, "Behave yourself!"
Ren Yi, who was initially worried, was speechless.
Unexpectedly, this face came in handy at this moment.
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