Special District 9 Chapter 28: Gears of Fate

Seven in the evening, in Platoon 1’s working space, the five squad leaders, including Qin Yu, were currently sitting around a table, chatting cheerfully.

Roughly ten minutes later, Yuan Ke walked over with large strides, and everyone quickly rose to their feet.

“Sit down,” Yuan Ke said as he poured himself a cup of water. “The Publicity Committee is using the meeting room at the moment, so we don’t have any rooms to use at the moment. I guess we have no choice but to discuss the details of the operation here. Suu Ang, brief everyone on the current situation.”

Suu Ang was the leader of Squad 4, and he was from Myanmar. He had a slightly darker skin tone and a shorter physique. That being said, he was extremely muscular all over. “Klaude has argued thrice with the intermediary before the latter finally admitted that the person they are sending off is Ah Long. They have agreed on the price; Klaude will be taking 15,000 dollars in order to guarantee Ah Long safe passageway into the Development District.”

Yuan Ke took a sip of water before asking, “Has Old Ma not personally made a move to negotiate with Klaude yet?”

“That old fellow is very sly. He knows that the entire law enforcement branch of Songjiang is determined to get Ah Long, so he wouldn’t appear unless he has absolute confidence,” Suu Ang replied. “I think that he isn’t confident about entrusting things to Klaude either, but he has no other choice now. It’s only a matter of time before Ah Long is caught at this rate. To protect his supply route, Old Ma can only take the risk.”

“Tomorrow night, is it?” Yuan Ke asked contemplatively. “Do you have a detailed arrest plan yet?”

“My suggestion is to make a move after Ah Long is out of the Special District. He’s more likely to put down his guard that way. Furthermore, there are no civilians there, so we don’t have to restrain ourselves too much during the operation,” Suu Ang replied.

The group fell silent as they began to consider the plausibility of the idea.

“Platoon Commander Yuan, may I say a few words?” Qin Yu suddenly spoke up at this moment.

Yuan Ke replied with a smile, “There are no outsiders here. Say whatever that’s on your mind.”

“Brother Suu Ang, pardon me. I’m making this suggestion for the sake of the operation,” Qin Yu turned his head over to explain to Suu Ang first.

“It’s fine, you’re the one in charge of this case. We’re all here to help out, but the discussion should still be centered around you.” Suu Ang knew that Yuan Ke intended to raise Qin Yu up too, so his tone was very polite.

Qin Yu nodded in response before explaining his point to view to everyone with a clear flow of logic, “I don’t recommend making a move of Ah Long after he’s out of the Special District. I have two main considerations for saying this. Firstly, I am from the Development District, so I am more or less aware of the situation over there. Beyond the Special District, there are large swathes of high radiation areas, a boundless desert, and many other complicated geographical terrains that would be difficult for our policemen to navigate in. We have already experience how vicious and tenacious Ah Long and his gang are back at Three Rings Road, and it would be much more difficult for our policemen to deal with them in that sort of terrain. There are simply too many uncontrollable factors at play if we were to make an arrest there. We won’t know whether they have receivers outside the Special District, and if so, what kinds of weapons they would have on hand. Furthermore, the moment that we make a mistake and lose our eye on him, it’ll be hard for us to salvage the situation. As far as I know, our Police Bureau doesn’t have the ability to maneuver freely in the Development District.

“Secondly, I remember hearing from Suu Ang that Klaude will be pulling his connections with the military to get Ah Long out, and our relations with them is only so-so. It’ll be hard for us to liaise with them for the arrest, especially since there’s a good chance that the news might leak from them. If so, our efforts would have all been in vain. However, if we don’t keep the military in the loop, it might cause some conflicts between us…”

Hearing Qin Yu’s analysis, Yuan Ke pondered for a moment before replying, “Your considerations are valid. What do you propose we do?”

Qin Yu replied, “This is my plan…”

The meeting continued for around twenty minutes before Yuan Ke finally stood up and made the final call, “We’ll be proceeding according to Qin Yu’s plan then.”

“Yes, sir!”

“Yes, sir!”

“…!”

Everyone stood up and saluted. Yuan Ke continued instructing a few more things before patting Qin Yu’s shoulder. “You’ll be responsible for bringing the target back, and I’ll make sure that you rise through the ranks in the Police Bureau.”

“Haha, I won’t let you down,” Qin Yu replied with a smile.

…

The following day, nine-thirty at night.

Holding onto the documents for the borrowing of equipment required for the operation, Qin Yu headed straight for the Logistics Department, but to his surprise, the person he saw upon entering was Qi Lin.

“You are on night shift?” Qin Yu asked with a smile.

Qi Lin stood up from the chair and replied leisurely, “I also don’t know why, but I feel like my luck has improved ever since I got married. Over the past week, those above kept assigning me to additional shifts, so I have been staying here overnight frequently.”

“What the heck? Shouldn’t a newlywed like you be going home to till the fields at home instead of squatting down here?” Qin Yu asked teasingly.

“Well, I can till the fields whenever I want to, but opportunities to earn money don’t come as and when I like,” Qi Lin replied with a shrug. “I’m also want to take on more shifts to earn a bit more so that I can repay you and Old Cat as soon as I can.”

“Don’t worry, I’m not in urgent need of money.”

“Those are separate matters. I don’t feel too comfortable owing others money. Besides, with one more person in the house, our expenditure is bound to go up,” Qi Lin replied with a slightly fatigued sigh. Then, he changed the topic and asked, “Speaking of which, what are you doing at the Logistics Department?”

“There’s a mission, so I came here to request equipment.”

“What mission?” Qi Lin asked casually.

At this moment, Zhu Wei suddenly ran over and shouted, “Squad Leader Qin, hurry up. They are starting to take attendance over there!”

Knowing that Qin Yu was in a rush, Qi Lin said, “Give your document to me, I’ll take a look.”

“You go grab the items, I’ll read out the list,” Qin Yu said. He began reading the items out loud, “One set of bomb suit, three sets of police batons, one strategic…”

Qi Lin quickly walked over to the shelves in the storage room and grabbed the equipment one after another as per Qin Yu’s words. At the same time, Zhu Wei also called two other people over to carry the items out.

Five minutes later, Qin Yu said with a smile, “That’s all. I’ll call you out for supper later on.”

“Sounds good,” Qi Lin replied with a nod.

Qin Yu quickly left the storage room with hurried footsteps after that. Watching as Qin Yu replied, Qi Lin’s face slowly turned pale as his heart began beating quickly.

What kind of operation would require even a bomb suit? Qin Yu hadn’t taken on any new cases recently, so there was a good chance that the operation concerned the medicine smugglers.

Qi Lin felt a little uneasy. He fell deep in thoughts for a long while before abruptly picking his phone up. He walked out of the areas covered by the CCTV before calling the number of an acquaintance in Platoon 1.

“Hey, Old Zhang. Are you busy? If you’re free, shall we hang out at the Logistics Department?” Qi Lin asked cheerily.

“There’s a mission.”

“At this timing? What is it? Must be something major for them to call in someone off-duty too,” Qi Lin asked casually.

“We’re cooperating with the military to nab some criminals.”

“Ah!” Hearing those words, Qi Lin immediately heaved a sigh of relief. “When will you be done? I’m waiting for you to listen to the internet radio broadcast together…”

“Not sure. I’ll look for you after I’m back.”

“Sure thing!”

The two of them swiftly ended their call. Standing beside his desk, Qi Lin muttered to himself, “It has already been half a month since then. He should be out by now…”

…

At the gathering spot.

Yuan Ke had Qin Yu collect everyone’s phone before addressing everyone with a loud and clear voice, “I’ll reiterate our mission again. We aren’t moving alongside the military but to capture the medicine smuggler. In order to ensure the highest level of confidentiality for this mission, everyone must hand over their communication devices, and the walkie talkie must be set to the frequency that we have already adjusted. If I were to find anyone changing the channels during the operation, I’ll deal with it as a case of breach of responsibility…”

Over the next two minutes, the forty or so people received their equipment before leaving the Police Bureau under the lead of the squad leaders.

…

Half an hour later, Songnan Sector, an intersection along New Epoch Road.

Ah Long, wrapped in a thick fur coat, stood together with four other brothers. He quickly scanned his surroundings before lowering his back to get into a hybrid pickup truck’s passenger seat. Meanwhile, the other four squeezed into the back seat.

“Aren’t we going through the connections of the military? Why are you the only one here?” Ah Long asked.

“You think that you are the mayor of the city?” The driver rolled his eyes. “How could the military possibly fetch you personally?”

Ah Long dug his nose as he replied, “Bro, did you eat a hand grenade? Or did we not pay you enough?”

“My wife’s going into labor, but I still have to work extra to send you out. Say, why do you have to leave today of all days?” the driver muttered in dissatisfaction as he began driving the car.

Ah Long shot a look at the driver before taking out a half-eaten rye bread wrapped in plastic and began munching on it quietly.

At the back of the pickup truck, Shrimp’s hands were tucked in his pocket. He was holding onto a military hand grenade tightly, and his thumb was stuck in the pin. He was prepared to pull it as soon as anything happened.

The car traveled for roughly 15 minutes, passing through a frozen river that spanned over a distance of 1.5 kilometers. Soon, they arrived near the perimeter of the Songnan Sector.

There was hardly anyone to be seen anymore, and there were completely no pedestrians along the road. There were only a few stores that still had their lights on.

“How long more before we’re out of the city walls?” Ah Long asked.

“Soon,” the driver replied as he stepped on the accelerator. The car passed by a bump by the side of the river when it suddenly shook violently.

“What’s wrong?” Ah Long asked with a frown.

The driver immediately pulled the brake and said, “The front left tire seems to have punctured.”

“Are you toying with me?” Ah Long asked with a cold face. “You are in this line of work. You didn’t check properly before coming here?”

The driver’s temper was also quite bad. He turned to look at Ah Long and began berating, “Like you know shit! It’s below forty degrees Celsius here! Even the engine of the car will freeze under such a temperature! How the heck do you want me to check? Check with a flamethrower?”

Ah Long also knew how terrible the weather was, so he could only rein in his displeasure and say, “Go down and take a look, see whether the tire is punctured or what.”

The driver went down with a dark look on his face. He bent down in front of the tire to assess it for a moment before returning back to the car. “The tire has been frozen for too long, and I drove too quickly earlier. The difference in temperature caused it to crack.”

“What to do then?” Shrimp asked with a displeased bellow.

“No problem. There’s an auto repair shop up ahead. I’ll get the fellow to heat up the tire and stitch things up,” the driver replied as he glanced at his watch. “There’s still time, it won’t delay our schedule.”

Ah Long took a look around him as he felt a bad omen in his heart. However, he knew he couldn’t afford to continue dragging things out either. So, he gestured impatiently to tell the driver to do whatever that was needed before turning around to tell Shrimp, “Prepare the stuff in your pocket. Don’t lose it.”

“I’m holding it tightly,” Shrimp replied with a nod.

The car drove along the road beside the frozen river. It was a bumpy ride for around two kilometers before they finally arrived at a particularly dimly lit auto repair shop.

…

On both sides of the street.

Zhu Wei picked up his walkie talkie and shouted, “All teams take note, the target has entered our line of sight.”

On the frozen land opposite the auto repair shop, Qin Yu was wearing a bomb suit that was at least 30 kilograms heavy as he ordered with a lowered voice, “We’ll move as soon as they get off the car. I’ll deal with Target 1.”

Shortly after those words were said, Ah Long pushed the door open and leaped out from the passenger seat. The first thing he did was to scan his surroundings.

Sou!

Qin Yu rose up and shouted, “Off the lights!”

Shua!

The entire auto repair shop was plunged into darkness.

Ah Long immediately turned around and bellowed, “Bloody hell, that driver is a rat…”

Before he could finish his words, Ah Long saw the fully armored Qin Yu rushing toward him furiously.

Padah!

The pin of the grenade fell out as Shrimp howled with widened eyes, “Shit! Ready your weapons and get them!”

Hybrid pick-up truck refers to a pick-up truck that uses two types of energy sources, which in this case, are petrol and electricity.