312: Chapter 311 Follow-up

Ten-plus minutes later, the silent night was shattered by the shrill sound of police sirens.

Police, fire trucks, and ambulances arrived one after another.

By the time Zheng Yi received the news and arrived at the scene, the entire area was completely cordoned off.

Without a word, Zheng Yi walked straight to the police line, grabbed a young police officer, and said: "Take me to see your leader."

The young police officer looked at the credentials Zheng Yi handed over, did not hesitate, immediately lifted the cordon, and let Zheng Yi enter.

Soon, Zheng Yi met the police officer in charge of the scene, who turned out to be an acquaintance.

"Senior Colonel Zheng?"

Deputy Chief Li Mingwei looked at Zheng Yi in front of him with some surprise: "What are you doing here?"

Zheng Yi said indifferently: "I heard there was an explosion here, so I came to take a look. How is the situation?"

"It should just be a simple burglary case."

Deputy Chief Li Mingwei replied: "The thief must have thought there were valuables in this factory, so they cut through the main door overnight using thermal cutting and entered the factory."

Zheng Yi looked at the molten hole in the steel door and frowned slightly.

"Thermal cutting?"

Zheng Yi glanced at Deputy Chief Li Mingwei as if looking at an idiot, didn't expose him, and walked straight into the factory.

The factory was in a mess.

Not far from the entrance, a deep pit the size of a washbasin was very conspicuous, and the outward radiating marks around it indicated that this was the center of the explosion.

"High-grade explosive, the amount of explosives..."

Zheng Yi calculated silently, her eyes narrowing slightly.

To cause such massive destruction on a solid concrete floor, regardless of what exploded, the power was definitely not low.

"Have the surrounding surveillance cameras been retrieved?"

Zheng Yi asked.

"I've already sent people to retrieve them."

Deputy Chief Li Mingwei replied, then felt a bit strange; he was a Deputy Chief after all, yet he was being overshadowed by the woman in front of him. He shook his head slightly, dispelling the strange feeling in his heart, and said: "According to interviews with people nearby, they did hear a violent explosion, but there was no flash of fire and no heavy destruction."

"Hmm."

Zheng Yi nodded slightly and cast her gaze deep into the factory.

On the ground, five or six meters away from them, a pile of black clothing lay quietly.

Her instinct told her that this item was very important.

She walked a few steps to the black clothing, carefully examined the style of the clothing, and the powdery substance around it caught her attention.

She pointed at it and said to Deputy Chief Li Mingwei: "Collect some and analyze the composition."

"It has already been collected."

Deputy Chief Li Mingwei felt a bit helpless.

He was from a criminal investigation background after all; he had that much awareness, right? Did she really think the Deputy Chief was just a mascot?

Zheng Yi didn't look up, nodded slightly, reached out a finger to pick up some powder, and rubbed it gently. The texture felt slightly rough, with a hint of grittiness.

She stood up again, straightened her clothes, and continued to ask: "Have you notified Wang Shuo?"

"He has been notified."

After saying this, Deputy Chief Li Mingwei realized and asked in surprise: "How did you know this is Wang Shuo's property?"

Zheng Yi did not answer him and said indifferently: "It's good that he was notified."

Immediately, she took out a credential from her pocket and extended it toward Deputy Chief Li Mingwei.

Snap, the credential opened.

"Chinese Government Special Secret Task Force."

"From now on, everything here is handed over to the Special Task Force. All personnel from your unit must cease operations and evacuate in an orderly manner. During the evacuation, be careful not to disturb the evidence at the scene."

"Additionally, once the analysis report is out, I want to be informed immediately."

Zheng Yi looked at the bewildered Deputy Chief Li Mingwei and said pointedly: "Deputy Chief Li, everything here is just a simple burglary."

"Understood."

Deputy Chief Li Mingwei nodded solemnly.

Regardless of the reason, it was a good thing that the Special Task Force was taking over, so they wouldn't be blamed by their superiors for incompetence.

A few minutes later, police cars, fire trucks, and ambulances outside roared away, and the night plunged into silence again.

Zheng Yi watched quietly, frowning in thought.

"Team Leader."

young man reported: "We have checked all the traces and can confirm that it was caused by a violent fight. Judging by the traces, there should have been two intruders."

"Hmm."

Zheng Yi nodded slightly: "How is the surveillance retrieval going?"

young man's expression remained unchanged as he replied: "After investigation, all the equipment in the factory experienced overload. The hard drives were partially damaged by high-current surges, making it impossible to extract data."

"We suspect that the other party used an EMP pulse, most likely a portable EMP grenade."

This meant they could not reconstruct what happened.

Zheng Yi was not surprised by this situation.

Since the intruders could break into the factory so blatantly, they must have had a backup plan to avoid being tracked.

Now it seemed their backup plan was the pulse bomb, directly destroying the surveillance system and storage devices, so no matter what methods you had, you couldn't use them.

This was a demonstration.

A demonstration aimed at them.

She lifted her wrist and checked the time on her watch.

More than half an hour had passed, and the time was already 3:20 AM, but Wang Shuo was still nowhere to be seen.

"Send a few people to guard this place. No one is allowed to enter without my order."

Zheng Yi said in a flat tone, walked out of the factory, and got directly into the car.

"Team Leader, where are we going?"

"Go to the Software Park."

...

Hanzhong City, an inconspicuous small building outside the Third Ring Road.

A figure stumbled to the front door of the building and knocked on the door gently, the rhythm of the sound being peculiar.

The door opened quickly.

The person who opened the door was a Middle-aged man. The moment he saw The Figure, his expression changed slightly. He scanned outside vigilantly, and finding no traces of being followed, he helped The Figure inside.

As soon as the door closed, the Middle-aged man's expression turned gloomy.

"Hans, what happened? Didn't you go to investigate the target? Why are you injured? Where is Jack?"

The Figure sitting on the floor was Hans.

At this moment, his originally tall body looked very weak, his face was pale, and if one looked closely, there were traces of blood.

"He is dead."

Hans's voice was low, without any emotion.

"The intelligence you gave was not accurate. There was an ambush inside. If I hadn't run fast, I would have had to stay there too."

"That's impossible!"

The Middle-aged man's expression was ugly, and he said sternly: "The intelligence I gave you is absolutely accurate, and there couldn't be any ambush! If there was, from the day you arrived in Hanzhong City, we would have already been wiped out!"

Hans was silent for a moment. The Middle-aged man spoke the truth; an ambush meant their identities were exposed, and once their identities were exposed, they would face endless pursuit by the Chinese Government.

"But we did encounter trouble..."

Hans recounted the incident briefly, and finally said: "If I hadn't stayed back to check the computer data instead of going deeper, and if I hadn't decisively activated the EMP grenade when I heard Jack's scream, I wouldn't have been able to return."

The Middle-aged man's expression was gloomy: "Did you see who attacked you?"

"No, only a dark shadow, very fast."

Hans shook his head slightly. When he was checking the computer, he had already taken off his night-vision goggles. The light from the screen caused him to have temporary night blindness, making it impossible to distinguish who the attacker was.

The Middle-aged man was unwilling, but helpless.

Even Hans could only barely cope; if he went, it would just be serving himself up on a platter.

It was just that the operation hadn't officially started, yet they had already lost one person; it really couldn't be called successful.

Thinking that other equipment on Jack might have fallen into the hands of the Chinese police, the Middle-aged man gnashed his teeth in hatred.

"Don't move around for these two days. The assassination operation is temporarily canceled."

The Middle-aged man suppressed his anger and said as calmly as possible: "I will arrange for someone to rescue the target as soon as possible. We need to replenish our manpower, so let's use this mission as an organizational assessment."

Hans did not object. In fact, besides the mission, they didn't care about anything else.

"What are you planning to do?"

Hans asked.

"Wang Shuo cannot be touched for the time being, but we can still move against others."

A fierce light flashed in the Middle-aged man's eyes: "I want to..."

"Kill."