Chapter 19 Chapter Eighteen

At dawn, Brian.Gately boarded a transport plane and took off from the main airport in Port Magellan.He was strapped into the bench seat, with Will and Simon on either side.There was also a group of armed men on board, not like military people, because they didn't have identification marks on their body armor.The cabin was empty, like a factory warehouse.A red light shone through the porthole, and Brian could see that dawn was coming. Previously, Weir had asked him to be at the airport early in the morning."If we're ever faced with a situation where we need to negotiate, or any other conversation, say, a post-event investigation, we'd like you to intervene with Liz," Weir said.Adams negotiates, it's better for you to do it than someone she doesn't know.what do you think?

How does he feel?It just sucks!But he couldn't say no, maybe doing so would protect her.He certainly didn't want her to be interrogated by some hostile GS or mercenary.She's in the wrong place for the wrong reasons, but that doesn't make her a criminal.With any luck, Brian might save her from jail, or worse.Thomas.The image of Jin's dead body throbbed in his brain like a fragile aneurysm. All he said to Will was: I'll do what I can to help. Thank you.We appreciate it.I know that's not what you came to work for. Not what he came to work for.This has become a joke.He was able to work in the Department of Genetic Safety because of his administrative ability and because of the door opened for him by a cousin of his father (the director of the Department of Genetic Safety in Kansas City).He agrees with the mission of the Department of Genetic Safety, at least as far as he works with it.The department's philosophy is to preserve the biological heritage of humanity, combat black market cloning projects, illegal human transformation, and the introduction of Martian biotechnology.It all made sense to him.Most countries have similar departments, also follow the United Nations program of action established under the Stuttgart agreement.Everything is clean and above board.

Even in some bureaucratic corners, some unknown places in the top-secret hierarchy of the Ministry of Genetic Security, there are people who are planning and carrying out certain shady attacks against those who are detrimental to the genetic continuity of humanity.so what?This is not surprising.Those who should know will know.Brian was never the one to know.Ignorance was his preferred mode of conscience, at least as far as the Executive Committee thing was concerned.Of course, not everything can be done in accordance with the law and aboveboard.As an adult, Brian naturally understood this. But he didn't like it.Brian's nature favors order over chaos.The law is the gardener of human behavior. Outside the garden are cruel and bloody scenes, Simon and Weir with grim smiles on their faces, and those armed cadres.It can also be said that Thomas.Jin En's broken body.

The plane banked, climbed, and flew over the Coast Mountains.The mountains intercept much of Equatorial Africa's rainfall, turning the interior into a desert.We'll be at Kubrick's Tomb in an hour.Weir said.Brian had been to Kubrick's tomb before, when he had just arrived from the United States and stopped by on an environmental awareness tour.It was a deserted little town, full of mud-brick buildings, and it was depressing.The town's sole purpose is to provide a gas station for vehicles traveling to the Rub Al Khali oil sands, or crossing the Madi Pass back to the coast.Weir said that in the desert foothills to the north and east of Kubrick's tomb, there was a community of eccentrics in robes, actually solitary fourth-years.Aerial photography over the past few hours has shown the Turk Parker parked nearby.Finlay's little bushplane.

Now that this place is about to be captured, Brian thought to himself, will the process be violent?There were loads of weapons on board, and he hoped they were just for intimidation, to make the threat more realistic.Fourth year people are supposed to be non-violent, that technology that gives them longevity also makes them gentle.No need to kill, of course.Even if there were any killings, it wouldn't involve Liz.He will be responsible for doing this.At least in his reckoning, he was brave. ☆ It all happened so fast. The airfield at Kubrick's Tomb was not large enough to accommodate transport crew accommodation.As soon as the plane came to rest on the end of the cracked concrete runway, the rear cargo door opened and the armed men descended in groups.A few lightly armed vehicles waited in the brassy morning light.Brian got into the convertible desert vehicle that Simon and Will were in.The locals call this vehicle a rooster because it bounces around the ground like a flightless bird.They were driving behind the convoy, and it was Simon who was driving.The car was not comfortable to sit in, and the heat and sunshine made it even more unbearable.The tomb of Kubrick in front of him is just a depot and a gas station. Rusty car parts are scattered around. The transmission system of an old truck is abandoned on the gravel, like the backbone of some Jurassic era animal.Soon they turned away from the main road and rumbled down a hard dirt track that ran parallel to the mountains.

An hour passed, broken only by the roar of Simon trying to speak to someone on the field radio.Judging from what Brian heard, they were all code names and incomprehensible commands.Then the team crossed the highest point of a creek, and the fourth-year paddock loomed straight ahead.The military vehicle suddenly accelerated, and the huge tires kicked up dust and sand.Will stopped the car and turned off the engine. In the sudden silence, there was a buzzing sound in Brian's ear. Simon started yelling again, first to the radio, then to Will, as if it was too late to say anything, and gave the order to stop.

They abandoned the paddock.New car marks, Will said to Brian.There must have been more than twenty cars. Can't you at least take this location? That will have to wait until all the ordnance they may have left behind has been defused.In this case, they A burst of light in the distance interrupted him. Bryan looked out over the fourth-year paddock.A few low buildings surrounding a central courtyard just a moment ago turned into a cloud of dust spreading outward. hateful!Weier was cursing, and at this one-thousandth of a second, there was a loud bang, and a violent shock was transmitted.Brian felt his lungs expand and his entire chest ached.He closed his eyes.The second shock wave was like fiery wings, flapping and attacking head-on.

The paddock is gone.Liz wasn't inside, Brian told himself.There is no one in there. Arrangement Will is talking. What? They arranged earlier to destroy the technical equipment and not let us take the samples.We are late.The explosion stirred up dust, and Will was covered in white ash.Simon's raiding party hurried back. Alice? We have to assume she went with the others. Where are you going? They won't all be together.Judging from the car marks, it seems that dozens of cars are going in different directions.We'll hunt some down.With any luck, Lise and the other prime targets will be caught.If an alert is issued, drones can also be sent to monitor in the air.But we don't have time, and the drones in this continent are being sent far away to detect the damage to the damn oil fields in the earthquake.

Simon was still yelling into the microphone, then he turned off the radio and said to Will: The plane is gone. It should be Turk.Finlay's bushplane.gone.Ran away.Should he be happy? At least, we can track the plane.Weir said. Lise can also be tracked at the same time. Brian looked back at the remains of the paddock.Bursts of black smoke gushed out from the collapsed foundation, and many small fireballs in the surrounding desert burned intermittently.Of the brick and mudbrick houses that once stood there, nothing remains. ☆ The group spent the night in what was sort of a public hotel in Kubrick's Tomb, a tile-roofed motel.Brian shared a room with Simon and Weir, with two beds and a camp bed.Brian sleeps on a camp bed.

From afternoon to night, most of the time he was listening to Simon making or answering the phone.They often refer to the word executive committee. At night, despite a rattling antique-grade electric heater, the room remained cold, making it difficult for Brian to sleep on the camp bed.He suddenly thought, wondering if they found out about the last call Lise made to him? Was his phone tapped?He had never seen Lisi's caller number, maybe it was a disposable mobile phone that could only talk for a few minutes, so as to avoid being tracked.Even though there was nothing wrong with the call, Brian did not report it to the unit.This would show that he was not loyal enough, that he was not a trustworthy member of the Department of Genetic Safety.

He wanted to get mad at Liz, angry at her for wading into this muddy water for no reason, at her obsessive insistence on finding out why her father disappeared, at turning the story into some kind of memoir. He wanted to be angry with her, but couldn't, so he became angry with himself. ☆ Before dawn, reports of the escaped fourth-year man came in one after another.Simon yelled into the microphone while Brian hurriedly changed his clothes. Chances are half and half, he thought. Weir said: "At least half of those in the paddock are still at large.Our people stopped three vehicles, a total of 15 people, none of whom were important.good news Brian steadied himself. The good news is that one registered at Turk.Finlay's small plane had attempted to refuel at a small public airfield a few hundred kilometers west of this place.The airport manager recognized the plane. He had read in the Judicial Express that Mr. Finlay's former employer wanted to forfeit the plane to pay back rent.He notified the Provisional Government, and someone there kindly notified us.Our men detained the pilot and passengers.One man and three women, all refused to reveal their identities. Liz is among them, right?Brian asked. Maybe, but it's not confirmed yet.There may be higher value targets with her though. She's not the target person, and I don't think she is. She escapes, which makes her a target. But not high value, he thought stubbornly.can i see her If we start now, we shall be there by noon.Weir said. ☆ As Kubrick's tomb disappeared behind them, Brian thought, who is Kubrick and why is he buried in this wasteland?But no one in the car had an answer.Simon drove the car from the mountains to the flat western horizon, and the small settlement of houses disappeared behind them.The road ahead trembled in the morning heat like something out of the imagination. Simon held the steering wheel with one hand, and kept making phone calls with the other, but the phone didn't work.The convoy included this car plus three heavy-duty trucks loaded with mercenaries, and the communication between the scattered cars was sporadic.Weil said puzzled: There are six or seven aerostats here to the west bank, and none of the goddamn aerostats are doing what they're supposed to do.We were lucky to still get news from the airport.God! It wasn't just the intermittent communications that surprised Brian.He noticed a steady stream of traffic going in the opposite direction, not just oil company vehicles but more private cars.There are also some cars covered with dust and sun, which look like they are about to stop.They appear to be evacuating Rub Al Khali (the remote but still inhabited area), and maybe they are.Maybe there's a new tremor. After another hundred kilometers, the convoy stopped at the side of the gravel road.Simon and Vile went to the front and talked with the captain of the mercenary company.It looked more like an argument than a conversation, but Brian couldn't tell why.He stood on the side of the road, watching the traffic going west.How weird, he thought, how like Utah it is!The same gray blue horizon, the same lazy daytime heat.Did hypothetical intelligent beings design this desert when they assembled this planet?If so, why?But Brian doesn't believe that they will pay such attention to details. In his opinion, hypothetical intelligent creatures believe in long-term results.They plant the seed (or plant the seed of the planet) and let nature do the rest, right up to the harvest of whatever it may be. There was hardly any vegetation here, except for the weird groves that the locals called cactus grass, and even that, it seemed to Brian, was dry.Yet he noticed something brighter growing somewhere between the burnt-tan patches of cactus grass at his feet.Since there was nothing else to do, he knelt down to watch.What caught his attention was a red flower.He's no botanist, but the flower just doesn't look right in this unassuming clump of trees.He reached out to touch it.The plant is cold and succulent and seems to cringe.The stalk bends away from him, and the flower (if it is a flower) hangs its head. Is this normal? He hated this damn plant, hated this endless weirdness.So he told himself that this was a nightmare, a nightmare that made it all feel normal. ☆ The group finally arrived at the airport next to the highway. There are several prefabricated houses, two paved runways with one front and the other reverse, a gas station, and a two-story mud brick tower with a radar .Usually the airport's customers are oil company planes, carrying senior executives to and from Rub Al Khali.There was only one plane on the runway today, a Turk.Finlay's small, sturdy blue-and-white Uranus, parked in the fiery sun. The convoy of the Department of Genetic Safety stopped in front of the front building.Brian got out of the car, trembling slightly, and the fear in his heart surfaced again.Afraid both for Liz and Liz, afraid of what she might say to him, afraid of what conclusions she would draw, right or wrong, about him being around people like Simon and Will. Maybe he can help her.He clings to the thought.She's in deep trouble, deep in deep trouble, but if she doesn't say the wrong thing, denies complicity, blames someone else, and cooperates with the interrogation, she can get out.If she was willing to do so, Brian might be able to keep her out of jail.Of course she'd have to go home, forgetting about Equatoria and her little investigation hobby.After the events of the past few days, she may not be so disdainful about returning to the United States.Maybe she can learn to appreciate everything he has done for her and come back to him. He hastened to catch up with Simon and Will.The two passed through the group of airport employees, walked quickly into a temporary corridor, and came to the door of a small office.There was an airport security guard at the gate, his blue uniform covered in dust.Is the suspect in there?Simon asked. All four are there. open the door. The guard opened the door.Simon went in first, Will followed, and Bryan followed.The two members of the Genetic Security Department stopped abruptly, and Brian had to crane his neck to look over their shoulders. Hold!Simon said. At a dirty conference table in the center of the room sat three women and a man, each handcuffed to a chair. From the looks of it, the man may be sixty years old.Maybe even older because he's a fourth year guy.Gray hair, thin, dark skin but not Turk.Finlay. All three women were about the same age.None of them looked like Su Lian.Moai.Of course not Liz.Adams. bait!Weir said.His tone was exaggerated and full of disgust. Find out who they are and what they know.Simon said to the armed men waiting in the hallway. Will pulls Brian out.How are you? Just yes, Brian managed to say, I mean, I'm fine. Actually he is not good.At this moment, he took pictures of four prisoners, all of whom had their heads blown off by bullets and were covered in blood.Their bodies were shriveled and covered with a layer of gravel.It looks like they may have washed ashore on a remote beach somewhere, or simply been buried in the desert at one point, the death price they paid for their longevity.