Skin - Chapter 81 PT2

Chapter 81 PT2 – The Plan Goes Wrong

　　Ten minutes later, Meng Zhao called Lin Mai. Before Lin Mai could speak, he said, “Ms. Lin, please be quiet for now. Just follow my prompts. I asked you to confirm whether there are any eavesdropping devices installed in your home. If there are, please say ‘yes’. If not, please be quiet for three seconds.”

　　On the other end of the phone, Lin Mai said “hmm”.

　　”Okay, Ms. Lin, please repeat what I’m going to say next. ‘I don’t have time today, let’s do it another day.'” Meng Zhao said.

　　Lin Mai on the opposite side repeated Meng Zhao’s words.

　　”Next, don’t say anything. Pretend you’ve hung up the phone. Go rummage around the house and listen to me finish my rescue plan.”

　　There was a sound of rummaging through something on the other side. Meng Zhao told Lin Mai a complete rescue plan. After that, he said, “At 11 o’clock, the police will go to your house to install positioning and monitoring devices for you. You must open the door one minute in advance. The sound of opening the door must be small. At the same time, you can use other sounds to cover the sound of opening the door. If you understand, you can hang up. If you don’t understand, I will say it again.”

　　A second later, the call was hung up.

　　•|•

　　For the entire afternoon, the entire Yancheng police system was busy preparing for this operation.

　　The sky outside gradually darkened, and it was almost the same time when the two left Lin Mai’s house the previous night.

　　Outside the police station, the street lights on both sides of the road gradually lit up. Meng Zhao had a hunch that the killers would choose this time period to take action.

　　Sure enough, just as the minute hand of the wall clock slowly passed the number 12, at exactly 7 o’clock, Lin Mai’s cell phone suddenly rang.

　　Everyone immediately held their breath and listened to the sound coming from the speaker, while the technician quickly began to locate the number.

　　”Hello?” Lin Mai answered the phone.

　　A voice changer came over the phone: “Did you find the item?”

　　”Found it.” Lin Mai answered according to the plan.

　　”Okay, in ten minutes, a black car will come to pick you up next to the store at the east gate of your community. I am reminding you again, do not contact the police. If we find that the police are following you, your son will die immediately. Do you understand?”

　　Lin Mai’s voice trembled a little: “I understand.”

　　After the call was disconnected, the technical detective said, “The other party has installed an anti-location device, so we can’t locate them.”

　　Meng Zhao had anticipated this situation, so he was not surprised. He stood up and said, “Let’s go, let’s get started.”

　　Meng Zhao and Lu Shichen walked quickly out of the police station, opened the car door and got in.

　　After sitting down, Meng Zhao fixed his phone to the console: “At present, the actions of these people are consistent with our predictions. Next, it depends on the cooperation of the local police station.” He turned his neck, “People from other places are not as convenient to use as our own…”

　　”Lin Mai has started to move.” Lu Shichen looked at the moving red dot on the screen and remembered, “Moving towards the east gate of the community.”

　　”Yeah.” Meng Zhao also looked at the screen and his expression became serious.

　　The bug was installed on Lin Mai’s phone, and it made a noise as she walked. A few minutes later, a rough male voice came over: “Did you bring your phone?”

　　”I brought it.” This was Lin Mai’s voice.

　　Then, after a muffled sound, the eavesdropping device fell silent.

　　”The phone was thrown away,” Meng Zhao speculated on the situation over there, “Now he should check if Lin Mai has any other devices hidden on him.”

　　A few minutes later, the red dot on the phone screen headed towards the road and began to move quickly.

　　”The locator was not discovered.” Meng Zhao breathed a sigh of relief. After watching the red dot drive for about a kilometer, he started the car and said, “Let’s go.”

　　The vehicle runs smoothly on the road.

　　Although Meng Zhao was not familiar with Yancheng, he judged from his experience and the surrounding environment that they were moving away from the city and heading northwest to the suburbs. According to the plan, after their car, there would be a car carrying Yancheng police at a certain distance.

　　The street lights on both sides of the road quickly receded, and the noise of the city gradually faded away. The road that Meng Zhao passed by became more and more remote, and there were no street lights around. Meng Zhao turned on the headlights to illuminate the way ahead.

　　In the map positioning, the speed of the red dot is getting slower and slower.

　　‘Are we reaching our destination?’ Meng Zhao was thinking this when suddenly the red dot stopped.

　　He picked up the intercom and said in a deep voice, “The target has stopped moving. All vehicles converge to the target location immediately.”

　　After Meng Zhao finished speaking, dozens of police vehicles immediately moved towards the target red dot from different directions at the fastest speed. Within just a few minutes, they formed an airtight encirclement in the night.

　　A few hundred meters away from the red dot, Meng Zhao saw several police cars parked on the roadside ahead. The first police officer to arrive had already gotten out of the car and was secretly searching for Lin Mai’s specific location. The police who arrived later did not have time to turn off the engine of their vehicles and immediately joined the search.

　　Meng Zhao parked the car on the side of the road and got out with Lu Shichen.

　　A few dozen meters ahead, several policemen were standing together, apparently discussing something.

　　The two walked over and Meng Zhao asked, “What’s wrong?”

　　At the same time, he saw the piece of clothing in one of the policemen’s hands – a maroon coat, which was exactly the one Lin Mai wore when he went out!

　　The policeman looked up at him and said, “Captain Meng, we didn’t find Lin Mai. We only found this coat on the side of the road, and a tracking device hidden in a secret pocket…”

　　Meng Zhao took the coat and his expression became extremely solemn. The kidnappers found the positioning device on Lin Mai, which meant that they found the connection between Lin Mai and the police. The mother and son must be in a very dangerous situation! How did they find the positioning device? Who leaked the whole plan?

　　”Captain Meng, what should we do now?” asked a policeman nearby.

　　Meng Zhao raised his head and made a decision in a short time: “Immediately check the surveillance of this road, find the car that took Lin Mai away, and track its location!”

　　At this moment, Meng Zhao’s cell phone began to vibrate.

　　He handed the coat to a policeman next to him and took two steps to the side. It was an unfamiliar number. Meng Zhao didn’t think much about it and picked up the phone: “Hello?”

　　”Help, help…” Although the cry for help mixed with sobs only flashed for a moment, Meng Zhao was sure that it was Lin Mai’s voice! Meng Zhao subconsciously grabbed Lu Shichen’s wrist.

　　”Officer Meng.” The cry for help was quickly replaced by a cold mechanical voice. It was the sound of a voice changer. It was the kidnapper!

　　”I think you know now that all your actions are under our surveillance. Now, please go to the woods next to you and find a place where no one can see you. Let’s have a good chat. Don’t try to tell anyone about the conversation, and don’t try to test us. Do everything I say, otherwise the mother and child you are trying to rescue may die at any time.”

　　The hand holding Lu Shichen’s wrist loosened, and Meng Zhao turned around without hesitation and walked towards the woods next to him alone.

　　Lu Shichen, who was standing by, looked at Meng Zhao and noticed something was wrong with him. He followed Meng Zhao, saying nothing and staring at him, but Meng Zhao just looked at him meaningfully, shook his head, signaling Lu Shichen not to follow him, and then walked deeper into the woods.

　　Meng Zhao walked deep into the woods. It was quiet and there was no sound of anyone around. He spoke up, “Okay, there’s no one around anymore. This phone call shouldn’t just be a provocation. What do you want to do?”

　　The voice in the receiver said, “Officer Meng, I think you must be very worried about this mother and child. You want to save their lives, right? Then do as I say.” The voice continued, “Now, find a car.”

　　Meng Zhao walked quickly towards the car he had just seen. When he opened the door, he realized that Lu Shichen’s eyes were always on him a few meters away.

　　He looked at Lu Shichen, their eyes met, and neither of them spoke.

　　Meng Zhao knew that if he went somewhere alone as the kidnappers said, he would be surrounded on all sides and in an extremely passive situation, but now he had no choice, he had to do as the kidnappers instructed.

　　As for Lu Shichen… not to mention that there was a high possibility that he was installed with a bug, just considering the current dangerous situation, it was impossible for him to drag Lu Shichen with him to go into the abyss.

　　Meng Zhao looked at Lu Shichen’s pupils. A few meters away and in the dim light, he could see that Lu Shichen’s eyes were very deep and seemed to have weight. He shook his head slowly and heavily at Lu Shichen again.

　　Then, Meng Zhao turned around, squatted down and got into the car. After locking the door, he continued the conversation with the kidnapper: “I’m already in the car, you can talk.”

　　”Listen to my orders. Start the car, put the phone away, don’t touch it again, and stay on the line.”

　　”Good.”

　　”Next, follow the route I told you and continue driving north. Let me remind you again that all your actions are under our surveillance. If we find that you are being followed by a vehicle again, this mother and son could be killed at any time.”

　　”I understand.” Meng Zhao gripped the steering wheel with both hands, stepped on the accelerator and started the car.

　　When passing by Lu Shichen, he turned his head and looked at Lu Shichen for a moment, then the car quickly left the area and headed north.