Skin - Chapter 81 PT1

Chapter 81 PT1 – “I’ll Jump into the Abyss with You.”

　　After listening to Lin Mai’s story, Meng Zhao frowned. There were three people, two of them lured him away and tried to kill him, and the other one was responsible for holding people hostage in the house, and maybe he also wanted to take the opportunity to get rid of Lu Shichen!

　　This group of people really planned it out… they didn’t even take any precautions in advance. It seems that Wu Jiayi is more difficult to deal with than they had previously thought.

　　He looked at Lin Mai in front of him and continued to ask: “So after we left, that person kidnapped your son?”

　　Lin Mai wiped her tears and nodded: “After you left, I kept looking for the box until now. I searched the whole house…”

　　”How’s it going? Did you find it?”

　　Lin Mai was silent for a moment and lowered her head: “No.” She looked at Meng Zhao with red eyes, “Officer Meng, you must save my son’s life, please…”

　　This pleading sound was a bit heartbreaking. Meng Zhao comforted him, “Don’t worry. Since you haven’t found the box, they won’t do anything to your son for the time being. Let’s think of a solution.”

　　Lin Mai nodded.

　　Meng Zhao and Lu Shichen fell into deep thought.

　　After a moment, Lin Mai on the opposite side spoke again, tears welling up in his eyes: “Officer Meng, can I go back first? I’ve been out for so long, I’m worried that if that person knows I’m not at home, something will happen to my son…”

　　”Okay, you go back first.” Meng Zhao watched her stand up, and suddenly remembered something, so he called her, “By the way, Ms. Lin, there is one more thing. Think back, did the kidnappers install any electronic equipment in your home last night?”

　　”Electronic equipment?” Lin Mai thought carefully about what happened last night. “I remember he was standing by the closet, staring at me. When I looked at my son, I accidentally noticed that he seemed to have put something behind the closet in the bedroom…”

　　”How about this, you go back and confirm whether there is really a bug,” Meng Zhao flipped a photo from his phone and handed it to Lin Mai, “It usually looks like this. If there is, next time I call you, don’t speak after you answer the phone. Just follow my instructions. I will teach you what to do. If you need to contact me urgently, go out and find a safe place to call.”

　　”Yeah.” The woman nodded.

　　After Lin Mai left, only Meng Zhao and Lu Shichen were left in the meeting room.

　　Meng Zhao sighed, a little annoyed: “We went back too hastily last night. I only confirmed the woman’s safety, but I didn’t expect that her son was being coerced in the house at that time…”

　　Lu Shichen still looked calm: “In the situation last night, if you had entered the room, the other party might have fought for his life in the closed and desperate situation. In that case, not only would her son’s life be in danger, but we might not be able to escape unscathed. Think about it calmly. It might not be a bad thing that we didn’t find anything unusual at the time. There is no point in saying more. Let’s think about the countermeasures first.”

　　”Yeah,” Meng Zhao responded. Lu Shichen’s words quickly calmed him down. “We have to put the matter of finding evidence aside for now. The most important thing now is to rescue the people.”

　　”Let’s catch the killers.” Lu Shichen said.

　　”There are at least three professional killers holding hostages. It’s impossible for the two of us to solve this matter alone.” After thinking for a moment, Meng Zhao made a decision, “We must seek help from the local police.”

　　”Didn’t you say you don’t have any acquaintances in Yancheng?” Lu Shichen turned his head to look at him, “Do you want to call the police?”

　　”No one from our class works in Yancheng, but it should be possible to find someone to introduce us.” Meng Zhao said, took out his phone, opened the his police academy’s class group, typed a line of words and sent it to the group:

　　“Who knows anyone in the Rong City police system?”

　　He was quite popular when he was in the University, and this popularity has continued even now, seven years after graduation. As soon as the message was sent out, several people in the group immediately responded to him.

　　The classmate was reliable and quickly built a bridge for Meng Zhao. Zhao Yi, currently the captain of the Criminal Investigation Brigade of Yancheng City Public Security Bureau, was Meng Zhao’s senior by several years.

　　Meng Zhao and Lu Shichen drove to Yancheng City Bureau. When they got out of the car, Zhao Yi was already waiting at the gate of the Bureau.

　　”Captain Zhao, right?” Meng Zhao walked up to him and extended his hand. “Hello, I’m Meng Zhao.”

　　”Hello, Captain Meng. I’ve heard of your name for a long time.” Captain Zhao shook hands with him and looked at Lu Shichen standing beside him. “Who is this?”

　　”He is the consultant hired by Mingtan Public Security Bureau for the Dark Cage Task Force,” Meng Zhao introduced, “Lu Shichen.”

　　”To be introduced as a technical consultant, you must be a rare talent.” Captain Zhao shook hands with Lu Shichen again, and then led the way, “Let’s go in and talk. From what you said on the phone, I vaguely know the situation. Before you came just now, I informed our Director Li of the situation of the case and your intentions. But Captain Meng, your identity is special after all. Whether Director Li can agree to your assistance in handling the case depends on his decision. Come, I’ll take you to his office.”

　　As they spoke, the three of them came to the director’s office. Captain Zhao opened the door, and Meng Zhao and Lu Shichen followed him in.

　　Director Li was sitting behind the desk making a phone call. When he heard someone coming in, he turned his swivel chair around and motioned for them to wait.

　　”Okay, okay,” Director Li said into the phone, “Let’s arrange it this way.”

　　After hanging up the phone, Director Li looked at the two of them and said, “Meng Zhao, Lu Shichen, right? I have a general understanding of your situation, so I won’t say anything more. The current situation is extremely urgent, and we must act as soon as possible to rescue Lin Mai’s son. I have already arranged some of the preparatory work. Next, you will cooperate with Captain Zhao and be responsible for the deployment and execution of this rescue operation.”

　　Hearing this, Meng Zhao raised his hand and saluted Director Li: “Thank you, Director Li.”

　　”Okay, you two go out first. I need to explain something to Captain Zhao.”

　　Captain Zhao was left in Director Li’s office, while Meng Zhao and Lu Shichen came out first.

　　After going out, the two stood by the window in the corridor. Lu Shichen lowered his voice and asked, “Have you ever met this Director Li before?”

　　”No.”

　　”Don’t you think it’s strange to easily allow a suspended police officer to be involved in such an important case?”

　　Meng Zhao did not respond immediately.

　　”Also, why does he know my name? No one should have introduced me to him.”

　　After a moment of silence, Meng Zhao said, “I understand what you mean. I have thought about what you said, but now I don’t have the time and energy to care about it. It’s meaningless in the face of human life. From the current situation, it is the best outcome for us to participate in this case.”

　　Lu Shichen frowned slightly and said, “I don’t want you to be in danger again.”

　　”Do you really want to support me?” Meng Zhao laughed and shook his head. After a moment, the smile in his eyes faded and his voice became deeper. “When I chose the profession of police, I was destined to not be able to stay away from the abyss forever.”

　　”Abyss,” Lu Shichen repeated, and after a pause, he said, “Okay, I’ll jump with you.”

　　At this moment, Captain Zhao walked out of Director Li’s office and looked at the two people in the corridor: “Let’s go to the conference room to talk.”

　　The three of them walked into the conference room and without further ado, began to discuss and formulate an action plan.

　　Captain Zhao pulled out a chair and sat down, looking at Meng Zhao: “Captain Meng, Consultant Lu, you guys have a better grasp of the details of the entire case. Tell us what you think.”

　　Meng Zhao also sat down: “Before coming here, Consultant Lu and I have already discussed a plan. Please listen to it and feel free to add any deficiencies.”

　　”According to the information provided by Ms. Lin, the criminals will definitely call again. Our idea is to have the technical personnel monitor Ms. Lin’s phone first to keep track of the kidnappers’ movements. Since the criminals don’t know what the evidence actually looks like, whether Ms. Lin has found the evidence or not, we can ask her to tell the kidnappers that she has found it, thereby luring the kidnappers out. At this time, the technical personnel will immediately locate the kidnapper’s phone.”

　　Captain Zhao nodded as he listened, and then asked, “There is no problem with positioning, but Captain Meng, you also said before that the kidnappers’ modus operandi is very professional. Have you ever thought about what you would do if they installed an anti-positioning device?”

　　”Of course I have thought about it, and the possibility of this happening is very high. Once this happens, we need to predict the actions that criminals may take next.”

　　”The first possibility is that the criminals provide Ms. Lin with an address and ask her to go to the designated location to exchange her son. We will then disguise ourselves as taxi drivers and accompany Ms. Lin to the location. At the same time, the person in charge of the police station closest to the destination will immediately take action and lead people to the vicinity of the destination to form a tight encirclement from all sides.”

　　”The second possibility is that the kidnappers do not provide the address in advance, but send someone to pick up Ms. Lin. If this happens, we must install a micro-positioning device on Ms. Lin in advance to determine the kidnappers’ lair based on the direction of Ms. Lin’s movement. With the criminals’ technical means, they should not be able to detect our equipment.

　　“After Ms. Lin is picked up, the technical investigation team must send the real-time location of the vehicle to the mobile phones of all the operatives. I, Consultant Lu, and some city police officers will follow the location and move in the direction of the target while keeping a certain distance so as not to be noticed by the criminals.

　　”At the same time, the police stations in each jurisdiction must also be on high alert. Every time the car passes through a jurisdiction, the police station in that jurisdiction must immediately dispatch vehicles to track the target vehicle from a long distance. Eventually, all the police stations in the jurisdictions they have passed will converge on the target vehicle from all directions, thus forming a huge encirclement net. Once the vehicle stops, this net will quickly close in, closing the exit, and the kidnappers will have no way to escape.”

　　Captain Zhao on the side nodded and said, “Captain Meng is indeed very thoughtful. I think there is no problem with this plan. Let’s do as you say. I will be responsible for conveying the message to the heads of the police stations in each jurisdiction. As for Ms. Lin…”

　　Meng Zhao continued, “Consultant Lu and I will be in charge. We will inform her of all the plans in advance and teach her a set of words to use when meeting the criminals, so as to buy more time for the police to act.”

　　”Okay,” Captain Zhao nodded, “Then let’s get started.”