Chapter 327: Chapter 327: End of the trip
Kate finally stops the car as the car in the front runs into a dead end of an alleyway.
"Geez, do you really need to take all the shortcuts?" Xiaoyun complained, his head still feeling a little dizzy from all the turns.
"They almost get away. I had to speed up if we were to catch up... What do we do now?" Kate curiously asked as she put the car into park.
Seeing the person inside the car showed no sign of leaving, Xiaoyun took a pistol out of the glove box.
"Let's check who's inside then."
As the two got out of the car and slowly approached the car in front of them, they were surprised to see a boy who looked barely out of high school.
His leather jacket with chains around his neck clearly shows an attempt to make himself look older and tougher, but his face and pale skin show the opposite.
"Get out of the car and raise your hand into the air," Kate warned as she pointed a gun at the window.
To their surprise, the boy remained calm as he opened the door and got out, just as she had asked.
"M'lady, how can I help you?" The boy asked, staring right into Kate's eye as he tried to move closer to her.
But before he could walk one step closer, Kate moved her gun directly against his forehead.
"Didn't I tell you to raise your hand into the air? Who told you to ask a question?" Kate asked coldly.
"Woah, look like we got roses with a thorn."
The boy takes a step back as he finally raises her hand into the air, but the way he talks irritates Kate.
Still, it didn't hinder her professionalism as Xiaoyun watched her question him on the side.
"Do you know how dangerous you were driving? You were brake-checking people."
"My apology. I was just too stunned by your beauty when I saw your face in my rear window."
Hearing the boy's attempted pickup line, Xiaoyun couldn't help but laugh. But Kate ignored it as she moved on to the next part of her questioning.
"Where are you from?"
"I'm from my mom——Okay, okay, I'm from Luoping. I just moved here a few weeks ago after my dad was stationed here."
The boy quickly changed his answer after seeing Kate move her finger to the trigger as a threat.
"What's your name? Who's your dad, and where did you get the car?"
"My name is Lin Zhangfei. My dad is a major in the army, and he brought this car with his money."
The boy lifted his chin slightly as if proud of what his dad had achieved despite saying out loud that the car didn't belong to him.
"Huh, a boy with a silver spoon in his mouth... Can't even be proud of himself." Xiaoyun murmured as he started to get bored watching the two talking back and forth.
"What did you just say?" Zhangfei's face turned red as he turned towards Xiaoyun in anger.
"Where's your permit?" Kate asked, interrupting the two from interacting as she still had the gun up.
Zhangfei quickly calmed down as he reached into his pocket for his wallet and handed it over to Kate.
Out of precaution, Kate took a few steps back before lowering her gun, and she began checking his wallet for a permit.
But to her surprise, the name on the permit wasn't the boy's name. Rather, it was someone they had just interacted with yesterday.
"Your dad's name is Lin Tian?"
"Yeah, you know him?" Zhengfei asked, his face looking a little surprised that Kate could recognize the name.
Kate quickly turned towards Xiaoyun, whose face darkened for a second before returning to normal.
"Not really... Okay, since you don't have a permit to drive this car, it will be confiscated."
"Confiscated? Hell no! That's my dad's car. I can't let you guys take——Of course, you guys can take it.
I'm so sorry for driving the car without a permit. I'm really, really sorry for breaking the law."
Zhengfei quickly apologized, changing his attitude as Kate poked his head with the gun again.
"You know, if you just cooperated, this wouldn't have been so difficult... Anyway, here's my business card if you want to submit a complaint. You are free to go now."
Kate quickly waved her hand to dismiss Zhengfei, who left with a sour taste as there was nothing much he could do.
"What are the chances..." Kate murmured.
"Yeah... Speaking of confiscating, that reminded me of something I need to do after I get back."
---
After one more day at the outpost, Xiaoyun left earlier than the promised one week as he had too many things to do back in Luoping.
Before Xiaoyun even dropped off his stuff back at home, he called Renqin and Yueyue into the office.
"Good morning, Mr. Mayor?"
Renqin tried to get Xiaoyun's attention, but he remained still in his seat, looking a little zoned out. So he just took a seat and waited.
After waiting for a few minutes, the door was knocked again.
"Xiaoyun, what are you calling me for?" Yueyue asked as she stepped inside the room.
Xiaoyun finally snapped back to the moment as the two were now right in front of him.
"I want you guys to start investigating the army and the soldiers... I know I told you guys before to stay out of it, but I realized my mistake."
The two looked at each other for a second, then turned their attention back to Xiaoyun.
"Who do you want us to do it?" Yueyue asked first.
"I want the both of you to work together to solve this one. But I was thinking of having Renqin start investigating the troop's activity outside of Luoping, and Yueyue, you investigate troops that are in Luoping."
Both nodded in agreement, seeing nothing wrong with Xiaoyun's plan. But Renqin was a little concerned.
"You sure, Mr. Xiaoyun? Wouldn't this cause distrust within the military?"
"They will understand if they got nothing to hide. I should have done this from the beginning... Renqin, here's a case I want you to deal with right now regarding a corruption case in the Guangdong outpost."
Renqin accepted the document and left the room, immediately going to work, leaving Xiaoyun and Yueyue alone.
"Did something happen in Guangdong?" Yueyue curiously asked as she moved her seat next to Xiaoyun.
"Just a small corruption case... You don't have to worry about it that much——"
"If it really is that small, then why did you call the both of us? Come on, Xiaoyun, be honest with me."
After a short silence, Xiaoyun finally couldn't handle the pressure, and he only revealed the story partially.
"It's just some of them in the army carrying out policy in their ways to pocket the money for themselves."
Seeing Xiaoyun's face look a little upset, Yueyue didn't try to ask again. Instead, she tries to distract him with something else.
"Xiaoyun, you want to hear some good news?"
"What is it?"
Xiaoyun looked up at Yueyue with a confused face. He just couldn't think of anything that was going well for him.
"I was able to set up a plot to track down the secret society that you had been looking for——"
"Wait, wait, you said you found the secret society?"
Xiaoyun interrupted Yueyue to ask again, as he couldn't believe his ear hearing what she had just said out loud.
"Yeah. They're located in Longxue island, south of where we are and west of Zhongshan city."
"Are you sure it's reliable? An island that close to us?" Xiaoyun asked as he looked at the map on the wall.
The island was right in the center of all the major cities of the Pearl River Delta, and more importantly, it was only a thirty-minute drive from where they were.
"I'm certain it's at least 90% reliable...Two of the agents that we sent even brought back pictures of trucks crossing the bridge.
Here, check it yourself. It's clearly food or some sort of supplies they needed to continue with their... experiment."
As Xiaoyun looked down at the picture that Yueyue had handed over, he saw several of the trucks she had mentioned.
But more importantly, he noticed that the trucks' top right corner all had the same logo that he had seen when he was almost assassinated.
"We just need a plan to get inside... However, I had discussed it with my agents, and none of them could come up with any ideas to gather more information from the inside.
They have security at both bridge entrances and security cameras, even in some of the hidden places.
It's almost impossible to peek at what's happening inside without being caught by them... I was thinking, maybe you can come up with an idea?"
"Give me some time to think..."
Xiaoyun sat still in silence again, looking at the map as he tried his best to think of a way to get to the island without being caught.
But there were only two entrances to the island, one on the north and one on the south, with all four sides surrounded by water. It was practically almost a perfect spot in the apocalypse to defend for such easy chokepoints.