Chapter 95 Marine Corps, Xie Chen
"You know?" Xie Chen was taken aback and looked at He Qingyun in front of him with some surprise.
He Qingyun smiled and said, "How can a son keep his thoughts from his mother? I didn't tell you because I was afraid Xiao Fan would be embarrassed. He's of age now, it's time for him to get married and have children."
Early in the morning, Xie Chen hurriedly found her and said he had something important to tell her, and told her to be mentally prepared. She was on tenterhooks the whole way, but she didn't expect that it was just about He Fan having a boyfriend.
Xie Chengjun didn't care enough about these children. Xie Chen, who was six years older, had always taken good care of his younger brother He Fan, but this was just too much of a threat.
It's just a relationship. He Fan is already twenty-two years old, not twelve.
Compared to He Qingyun, Xie Chen seemed somewhat unnatural, and it took him a long time to speak again.
“Aunt He, I think Xiao Fan and his current... lover, they can’t be together.”
"Why?" He Qingyun asked subconsciously. She had someone check the child's background herself. Although his family was not well-off, he was definitely a good child.
“You know about Xiao Fan’s situation,” He Qingyun rarely objected to any of Xie Chen’s decisions, but this time, she wanted to fight for He Fan. “He has a bad personality and rarely shows genuine sincerity to people. It’s rare for him to fall in love with someone, and the other person is also interested in him. I’ve looked into that child; he’s a very smart and ambitious kid, even though his family isn’t well-off…”
Xie Chen was not good with words to begin with, and now, looking into He Qingyun's eyes, he was speechless.
"...It's not for that reason."
He Qingyun stared at him blankly, somewhat puzzled. Xie Chen wouldn't be unreasonable, but apart from his poor family background, what else could that child possibly have to complain about?
Just then, Xie Chen's phone suddenly rang.
“It’s me,” he answered the phone, his face immediately darkening. “Okay, I’ll be right there.”
"Weren't you on vacation?" He Qingyun stood up as well. "What, is there trouble at the base again? You've only been back for a day..."
Xie Chen had already walked quickly to the door. Hearing her say this, he turned back and smiled apologetically at her.
"Be careful," He Qingyun reminded her.
...
"Sir, the hostages have been identified as passengers from flight AZ7009, totaling 59 people. The hostage-taker is armed, extremely unstable, and has specifically requested your assistance. Preliminary assessment suggests that the hostage-taker may have chosen his targets impromptu. One of the hostages has been shot."
Xie Chen's identity was no secret in the base. The Xie family's rise to power was not honorable and they had many enemies, but no one had ever seen anyone dare to take such a risk to threaten Xie Chen and even trample on the dignity of the military.
The driver drove silently toward the city's dual-use military and civilian airport. Xie Chen answered the phone with a serious expression.
"The negotiating team has already started a remote meeting. Can you hear them?"
The voice of the negotiation team member came through the earpiece: "Colonel, can you hear me? Don't be nervous. We will analyze the criminal's psychology and give the best response. You just need to follow our instructions."
"I can hear you. Okay, thank you everyone," Xie Chen replied.
Xie Chen's voice was surprisingly calm, which surprised the negotiation team. Generally speaking, people like them are not afraid of death, but when faced with negotiations involving the lives of hostages, they often face immense psychological pressure.
"Okay, I'll transfer you now..."
“I don’t have much patience,” Xie Rong said coldly, his gaze sweeping over everyone in the room. “Can he answer the phone now?”
Before Xie Rong could finish speaking, a hissing sound came from the other end of the phone, followed by a mechanical female voice saying, "Transferring you."
After the mechanical female voice and the rustling background noise, a calm and cold voice rang out.
"...Marine Corps, Colonel Xie Chen. What are the demands for the release of the hostages?"
The man's unusually calm voice came through the hands-free phone, giving the listener a brief sense of reassurance.
The nausea and dizziness seemed to have subsided somewhat. Mu Yan listened intently to the phone call, trying to glean how much longer it would take before he was rescued.
Will he really survive, or will he become the next Walsh?
Walsh... He did nothing wrong. He just boarded the plane early to attend a taekwondo competition and bravely tried to call the police when he was in jail. That's all.
He was so young, and his family was still waiting for news of his safe landing.
“…Bury my father back in the Dobin family cemetery, and let Xie Fan come here to see me alone.”
Upon hearing the message from the other end of the phone, Xie Chen paused for a moment. He then frowned slightly upon hearing the negotiation expert's prompt in his earpiece.
"...I don't know what you're talking about. Mr. Leo Dobing is currently at the Seaside Sanatorium in North Carolina and is in stable condition."
"He's dead!" the other person suddenly roared in fury. "Someone told me he had a depressive episode and committed suicide! You and Xie Chengjun... you must be feeling guilty to keep his death a secret and suppress the news! Give him a proper burial, and bring that beast Xie Fan to me, or I'll kill another person! There are many people here; if you don't bring them, I'll kill them one by one, dozens of them, it'll take me a long time..."
“Establish communication with him and keep the dialogue open,” the negotiation expert advised. “Soothe his emotions and don’t give direct answers.”
Where no one could see him, Xie Chen gave a wry smile.
A key condition for psychological tactics is leveraging information asymmetry. An inherent inequality often exists between the military and the operational target, and this inequality is crucial for negotiators to employ psychological tactics.
However, by changing the negotiating partner from the unknown "military" to the specific and vulnerable Xie Chen, this information gap is minimized.
Moreover, the person on the other end of the phone was his half-brother, Xie Rong.
It wouldn't be accurate to say that the two had a deep friendship, but Xie Rong's understanding of Xie Chen gave him a natural advantage in this kidnapping.
“Your father really is not dead,” Xie Chen said slowly. “You know that Xie Chengjun’s guards are with him 24 hours a day. Even if he were dead, it would never have been suicide. I can prove to you in any way that he is not dead. This should be much more credible than the one-sided statement of the person who told you he was dead.”
Xie Chengjun has an extremely strong desire for control. If he wants Leo to die, then Leo should die at his hands.
He didn't want Leo to die, so Leo would never commit suicide.
"Who told you about Leo's death? Maybe someone deliberately wanted to provoke you," Xie Chen paused, then heard the hesitant but appreciative voice from the negotiation team in his earpiece. "He's not dead yet, Xie Rong. You don't need to take such a risk. There's still time. I can assure you with my reputation that after Xie Chengjun dies, I will reunite you and your son."
"...It's Xie Fan," Xie Rong finally realized belatedly, "That bitch, that beast...I should have killed him and his ugly cat back then..."
To prevent the two from conspiring to poison each other again, Xie Chengjun arranged for Leo and Xie Rong to be in two completely isolated sanatoriums in the north and south. Leo was in a sanatorium in North Carolina, while He Fan was in Shipton Island in southern Country A. All communications had to be reviewed by secretaries at every level.
Letters that need to be reviewed naturally don't contain much information. As long as Xie Rong believes Leo is dead, any letter handed to him will be considered a forgery by Xie Chengjun.
He Fan easily deceived Xie Rong by taking advantage of this information gap, and created an opportunity for him to contact his confidants, allowing him to escape from the sanatorium and seek revenge.
He Fan couldn't bring himself to do it in the sanatorium, but outside of it, it was a matter of each person having their own skills.
But He Fan never expected that Xie Rong was so stupid. After escaping, he searched for five whole days but still couldn't find He Fan's whereabouts. In the end, he was so desperate that he took a risk and tried to bribe mercenaries to kidnap ordinary people to threaten Xie Chen and force him to deliver He Fan to him.
His choice of this particular bus was purely coincidental. Without a bus carrying over fifty people, his destination might have been a school, supermarket, shopping mall, or any other crowded place.
"You're lying to me... You're all lying to me..." Xie Rong's voice became increasingly erratic on the other end of the phone. He muttered to himself like a madman, "...My father isn't dead, but I have no other way to go."
He has already killed people and kidnapped so many as the mastermind. Even if Xie Chen is willing to protect him, according to the laws of Country A, his best outcome is to spend the rest of his life in prison.
He muttered repeatedly, his voice growing faster and faster: "I have no other way to go. I'm going to drag Xie Fan down with me... I'm going to drag him down with me. Get him to me now, or I'll kill even more people!"
He fired several shots haphazardly into the crowd, who screamed and scattered. Because his hand was shaking and he hadn't aimed properly, the bullets all hit the open ground in front of the hostages.
Before the negotiation team could issue any instructions, Xie Chen immediately agreed.
"Okay, I'll bring him to you."
"But you must guarantee that all hostages are safe now."
“Don’t forget that your father is still alive, in a nursing home in North Carolina,” Xie Chen said calmly, ignoring the repeated warnings from the negotiation expert in his earpiece. “I’m sorry, I’m nearing retirement age, and I don’t care about military disciplinary action. The military’s moral constraints have no effect on me.”
“I won’t kill them, I won’t kill them,” Xie Rong murmured repeatedly. “Why would I kill them? They’re a bunch of lowly people, ants. Whether I crush them or not makes no difference to me.”
"Okay, please keep that in mind. Mr. Leo's live video feed will also be sent to you every half hour."
Just as Xie Rong hung up the phone, the car pulled into the airport.
It takes about forty minutes to get to Shipton Island by helicopter from here, which is not much different from the time it takes to get to Shipton Island from the Marine Corps base.
"Immediately mobilize the special operations team, blockade the surrounding sea and airspace, and send unmanned reconnaissance aircraft to conduct advance reconnaissance."
Besides the captain who had arrived in advance, the helicopter also carried some basic military supplies and weapons. Xie Chen quickly inspected the supplies and ordered the captain to take off immediately.
"Retrieve the complete passenger list for flight AZ7009 in advance and prepare for the worst."
In the worst-case scenario of terrorist incidents occurring at sea and along the coast, terrorists may dump the victims' bodies at sea, making it very likely that the victims' identities will never be confirmed.
Xie Chen believed that he and his Marine Corps colleagues could rescue all the hostages safely, but he had to prepare for the worst.
If the person really cannot be saved, they must give the family an explanation.
As the helicopter began to penetrate the clouds, Xie Chen received all the available mercenary information from his subordinates. He quickly read through it and got a general idea of what was going on.
"Please urge me to expedite my retirement application," Xie Chen instructed his subordinate on the other end of the communicator, rubbing his temples.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
