Chapter 77 (1/2)

Huo Peng stealthily followed behind an European. He mentally prepared himself each time the European so much as quivered. Half an hour ago, he almost lost track of the man. He managed to catch up with him again purely because he was familiar with the streets. No matter what, he could not make the same mistake again.

Just like his colleagues, Huo Peng was originally uninterested in the operation. According to their leader, they had received orders out of nowhere. This was no small matter – he was helping other departments with their work.

He typically only helped others when he felt like it. What’s more, he heard from the previous group how foolish these foreigners were. They couldn’t differentiate one Chinese from the next – just like the Chinese couldn’t differentiate one Caucasian from the next.

Yet, this man in front of him was different.

Whether consciously or subconsciously, he had superb anti-tracking skills. Huo Peng was thankful to have had such a skillful teacher. Otherwise, he would have lost the man a long time ago, and he would have thought it was accidental.

At that moment, his target was entering a cab. Huo Peng waited for a moment before he hailed one for himself. “Follow that car in front.”

The driver fantasized about being in a car chase, just like the ones in American films. An hour later, Huo Peng found himself looking back at the diminis.h.i.+ng buildings. He asked the driver, “Sir, where does this road lead to?”

“The airport, I suppose. Or perhaps the suburbs.”

Huo Peng repeated the target’s information in his head. He was 48 years old; born in Sao Paulo, Brazil; a baker by profession. He was here for a vacation.

A vacation? He counted one round around Nanjing’s streets as a vacation? He immediately reported back to his department, “Frog, help me look Smith up. Did this Bruce book a flight for today?”

“He just booked one. He’s bound for Shanghai at 3 pm today.”

“Impossible.” Huo Peng shook his head. Something was not right. There were many places of interest around Nanjing. A foreigner on vacation would not merely walk one round around Nanjing before flying to Shanghai. This wasn’t typical of a visitor to China.

Maybe this Mr. Bruce was just unfamiliar with China. Huo Peng tried to convince himself of this, but said, “Please inform our colleagues at the airport to keep their eyes on this Bruce Smith.”

Rolin used a portion of his resources to track these hundred-odd foreigners. However, he was mainly reliant on the conversations from the police network to make a judgment. His attention was captured when Huo Peng said the word “airport”.

It was impossible to use energy to retain this Mr. Bruce. The base could only work within a specific area around the base. Outside the area, the energy chain only worked to minimize the energy loss. It could not expend energy. To put it more accurately, the energy chain could transport pure energy, while the base was less capable of transforming energy. This explained why the base could use crude oil while the energy chain could only transport power.

In fact, Huang Xuan had no intention to capture Bruce. He sat quietly in his house. Through the airport’s surveillance cameras, he saw Bruce calmly board the airplane with everything prepared.

…

Just as planned, the time traveler disguising as Bruce took out the last of his high-energy biological bombs. He planted one of them beside the control tower of the terminal. He planted the other in the terminal near the hangar.

The airplane was due for take-off soon. Bruce knocked Huo Peng unconscious and left him in the restroom near the first bomb that he planted. He did not care where Huo Peng came from. As long as he could control the base, he would be able to contact his own s.p.a.ce base. When he did, he would be back on track again.

Bruce leaned comfortably against the seat. Once the two bombs, which originated from higher-level time and s.p.a.ce, were detonated, half of the airport would burst into flames. Then, the airplane would lose contact with the control tower. n.o.body would care where the airplane was headed for two hours.

Two hours was more than enough.

Before Bruce boarded the plane, Rolin had already informed Huang Xuan. However, Huang Xuan did not inform his older uncle, even as the plane took off.

He was not confident of persuading his older uncle to arrest the lawful foreigner. Moreover, it was highly likely that the traveler would be able to escape from the clueless policemen.

Everything was much simpler on the plane.

Huang Xuan rushed down to the airport. The first thing he did on arriving was to remove the two bombs that the traveler planted. He was a complete novice at this. While he did tremble, he successfully removed the bombs.

They were two yellow objects, each as big as a fingernail. According to Rolin, they were standard biological bombs designed by the management. They were capable of blowing half of the airport’s terminal into pieces. This way, not only would he be able to take control of the base, but he would also be able to create a vigorous oscillation which would grant him access to the pa.s.sage.

It was a pity that his plan was bound to fail.

It is said that one strong man can defeat ten skillful men. The traveler did not have the benefit of time, location or people. He was in another plane and possessed far less energy than others. He wasn’t going to succeed, especially after losing his supplies. If he did, he would probably be featured in the new spatial and temporal management teaching materials.

As it was, the only people who featured in the teaching materials were excellent victors and foolish failures.

There was no room for the suspense of war.

Maybe it was unfair to put it that way. In actual fact, Bruce did have a chance to escape. When the bombs in the airport didn’t explode, he already had a premonition. However, he was over-confident.