APTnovel Chapter 307: Unfortunate Capture
Chapter 307: Unfortunate Capture
Soon after, Jess heard Lefia's voice through his earpiece, "Colonel, there are 489268 of these tadpole-script gold nuggets. My God, this really is a 'heavenly book'! This 'heavenly book' actually records technological knowledge from the agricultural era to the information age, and the last ten thousand-plus gold nuggets are actually... Pick Cao said it's the quantum theory system!"
"Colonel, that's right. Because those quantum theory symbols and formulas are exactly the same as the ones we use now, and the further I go, the less I understand them. If this quantum knowledge were made public, I think our quantum computers, quantum communication... Colonel, the whole world would undergo earth-shattering changes. I can't even imagine it." Pick Cao seemed very excited, and his words were somewhat incoherent.
"Lefia, Pick Cao, wait a moment, we're coming right away."
When Jess and the others arrived, Lefia and Pickard were still excited.
"Colonel, I suggest you photograph these gold nuggets with their tadpole-like markings, shooting them in reverse order of their numbers. If possible, combine shooting in reverse and forward order, but be sure not to miss a single nugget."
“Professor, I understand.” Jess gave him a wink, and Ryan began taking out drone parts from his bag and starting to assemble them. Soon, four drones took to the air.
Two drones began photographing the gold nugget inscriptions in reverse numerical order, while two other drones photographed the inscriptions in sequential numerical order.
It took four drones nearly five hours to film the gold nuggets in both reverse and sequential order. Then, the four drones recorded the nuggets in the correct order, which took another hour and a half.
By the time Ryan had removed and properly stored the memory cards from the four drones, it was almost 11 p.m.
Early the next morning, everyone quickly packed their luggage and then went out one by one through the tunnel. Jess and the others did not expect that when they came out of the tunnel, there were eight people with guns waiting for them. These people were all wearing masks and their movements were very efficient. Jess knew that these people were his colleagues and were all special forces soldiers.
"Hands up, everyone, stand still!" After these people confiscated Jess and the others' weapons, a clear female voice rang out. The woman spoke in English.
Lefia noticed that the woman was about the same height as herself, and her face was not visible because she was wearing a mask, but she had a good figure. In particular, the woman seemed to be carrying a long object on her back. Although the long object was covered by a cloth cover, Lefia was almost certain that it was a long sword.
All ten men obediently raised their hands, and the other personnel handcuffed and heated their hands one by one. Then, they tied a sturdy long rope around each of them to prevent anyone from escaping.
Jess and the others were escorted by these eight people and began to walk towards the mountain peak where the Temple of Gods was located. They stopped and rested along the way and arrived at the cliff edge where the Temple of Gods was located around noon.
The two men took out two long ropes from their bags, tied one end to a huge rock in the ruins of the Pantheon, and threw the other end of the ropes down the cliff. The two men, carrying backpacks and guns, went down the ropes. About ten minutes later, the two ropes started to shake, and then two more men went down the ropes.
One of the people untied the ropes binding Jess and the others. Jess gestured to the masked woman to unlock his handcuffs, but she shook her head and refused.
Several men held Jess and five other special forces soldiers at gunpoint. The six men, handcuffed, were divided into three groups of two, and carefully lowered down by pulling on the ropes, taking about fifteen minutes each time.
The woman in charge unlocked the handcuffs of the remaining four people, then handed each of them a pair of gloves, saying, "Hold on tight to the rope, or you'll fall and be smashed to pieces."
This time, going down the cliff was different from before.
Lefia and the woman in charge went down first, followed by three special forces soldiers paired with a physicist, a biologist, and a doctor.
Lefia noticed that one of the special forces soldiers addressed the woman leading the group as "Captain of the Guard," and the woman and several other special forces soldiers assumed that Lefia couldn't understand Chinese.
The female guard captain and Lefia, who were leading the way, gripped the rope tightly and began to descend. Lefia and the guard captain moved in almost perfect unison, with the two ropes about two meters apart.
The guard captain seemed somewhat surprised by Lefia's skillful and experienced descent. Lefia smiled at the female guard captain who was leading the descent. After about five or six minutes, Lefia suddenly noticed a half-person-high opening about two meters to her right, halfway down the cliff. Lefia braced herself against the rocks, trying to move to the right, but the rope above seemed to be blocking her way; she could only move one meter to the right.
"Hey, do you want to die?" came the captain of the guard's shout.
Lefia pushed off the rocks with both feet, and her body began to swing. Just as her feet were about to touch the rocks, Lefia pushed off the sharp corner of the rock with her left foot, and her body began to move to the right. Then she pushed off the rock with her right foot at an angle, and moved to the right again. Finally, she reached the half-person-high opening of the cave. Lefia glanced at it and saw that the opening was actually very deep. Lefia tried to stand on the flat ground outside the opening, but she did not succeed. Her body began to swing to the left.
The captain of the guard suddenly pulled out a knife, and just as Lefia's rope was about to reach her, he brandished the knife as if to slash her, scaring Lefia out of her wits. "Stop!" Lefia shouted involuntarily.
"If you continue like this, you'll be smashed to pieces," the woman said viciously.
Lefia broke out in a cold sweat and had to adjust her posture again, obediently going down with the woman, no longer daring to try anything funny.
About four minutes later, the two successfully reached the foot of the cliff, where ten people were already waiting. Four special forces soldiers from Country C were guarding six special forces soldiers from Country M.
The captain of the guard and Lefia pulled on the rope and shook it four or five times to signal that the people above could come down.
About an hour later, all four groups arrived safely on the ground.
Jess and his ten men were not tied up with ropes this time, but each of them was still handcuffed.
Unexpectedly, below the cliff lay a vast plain. After walking for five minutes, the eighteen people saw the wreckage of two vehicles that had been blown up.
Lefia noticed that there were no corpses or anything among the wreckage of the two vehicles. Lefia wondered how these eight Chinese people had suddenly appeared. She couldn't help but recall the cave halfway up the cliff and finally understood that these eight people had actually taken shelter from the fighter jet bombing in the cave entrance. Then, these eight people went up the cliff and secretly followed the action team.
The captain of the guard pointed his pistol at Colonel Jess's head and ordered him to hand over the items. Jess remained silent and refused to hand them over.
The captain of the guard seemed to be angered. He pointed his gun at the demolition expert, and two men came over with guns, forced the demolition expert to kneel on the ground by the wreckage of the car, and pointed a pistol at the demolition expert's head.
The captain of the guard said in English, "I'll count to three, and you'll see what happens."
The demolition expert looked at his superior, Colonel Jess, with pleading eyes, terrified.
"Three," "two," "one," Colonel Jess closed his eyes, and Lefia involuntarily turned away to avoid looking directly at him.
With a "bang," the demolition expert's head exploded.
Several of Jess's special forces soldiers tried to rush out, but were driven back by the C country's special forces soldiers with rifle butts. Colonel Jess and his four special forces soldiers each had a pistol pressed against their heads.
Pick-Cao, John, and Henry trembled, and Lefia was terrified. After all, none of the four had ever witnessed murder, so they were naturally afraid.
The captain of the guard pointed at Ryan, who was then carried out by two men and taken to the spot where the demolition expert had been executed.
Ryan cried out, "Colonel, help me!" The C-countryman looked at him with disdain, as if he were ashamed of Ryan's cry for help.
Jess was torn. If he handed over the "Heavenly Book" recording memory card, it would be tantamount to treason. He would definitely be tried by a military court upon returning home and would probably spend the rest of his life in a military prison. But if he didn't hand it over, he would watch his men be executed one by one.
"Three," "Two," the captain of the guard's cold, merciless countdown began again. Jess really wanted to tear off this wicked woman's mask and see what kind of devil she really was, but Jess closed his eyes again, and Ryan closed his eyes hopelessly as well.
"Stop!" Suddenly, Lefia shouted. Jess and the others looked at Lefia, because they didn't know what she was saying. But the captain of the guard and her men were obviously caught off guard and were shocked.
"I didn't expect you could speak C language." The captain of the guard carefully examined Lefia, seemingly trying to extract more information from her.
"Do you feel good about killing prisoners like this?" Lefia asked indignantly.
"For forty years, you Americans have been running rampant in the world, using the banner of freedom and democracy to disrupt international order and divide sovereign states. Wherever your soldiers appear, there is war. Do you know that in these forty years, you Americans have directly and mistakenly killed four million innocent civilians? It was manslaughter!"
The captain of the guard practically shouted these words because she was speaking in C-language, which Jess and the others couldn't understand. They just looked at Lefia, who could understand, and Lefia was speechless.
"One!" The captain of the guard's voice fell, a gunshot rang out, and Ryan was killed.
"You..." Lefia huffed.
"I advise you to hand it over as soon as possible, otherwise..." After saying that, the captain of the guard pointed at the female soldier, who was then dragged away by the two men.
Lefia had already moved swiftly, putting her backpack on the ground and rummaging through it to find a memory card. At that moment, the captain of the guard started her terrifying countdown again.
"Wait!" Lefia gestured to the captain of the guard, holding the memory card in her hand.
The captain of the guard beckoned to one of her men, who took out a small curved-screen laptop from his backpack, inserted a memory card, and began to examine the files on the card. The man walked up to the captain and whispered something in her ear for a minute. The captain nodded, then her gaze toward Lefia turned fierce. Lefia knew she was in trouble; she had given them the sequentially filmed contents of the "heavenly book," but the memory card containing the other portion of the content hadn't been given to them.
The captain of the guard came to Lefia's side and stretched out his hand. Lefia had no choice but to take out the memory card from her bag again, which contained photos of the "heavenly book" taken in reverse order.
The captain of the guard took the memory card and handed it to his subordinate, who inserted it into the computer, examined it carefully, and then nodded to the captain. The captain gave a charming smile, characteristic of women.
Lefia noticed that one of the special forces soldiers was setting up communication equipment. The captain of the guard called out, "Falcon, Falcon, this is Predator. Mission accomplished. Please land."
"Predator, Falcon received. Emergency landing in four minutes!"
Jess and the others exchanged bewildered glances. Several men began to unlock Jess and the others' handcuffs. Six men, holding guns, gestured for Jess and the others to put their hands on their heads and walk towards the cliff. Lefia's heart pounded wildly. She thought that this mission was a complete failure, and that all the team members would die in this Asgardian realm.
"Hey, come back!" the captain of the guard called out, then strode forward and grabbed Lefia. Jess and the others turned around, glanced at Lefia, and continued to hold their heads in their hands as they headed towards the cliff.
When Jess, Pick Cao, and the other six reached the edge of the cliff, they did not turn back, but closed their eyes, prayed silently, and waited to be executed by the other side.
Jess and the others seemed to hear a faint buzzing sound, which sounded like an airplane. Jess quietly turned around and saw a silver-white plane landing vertically on the flat ground. The captain of the guard and others escorted Lefia into the plane, and then the plane took off vertically.
When Pick Cao and the others looked back, there was no one in front of them; the eight guards and Lefia had all disappeared.
Jess turned around, put down his backpack, and took out two memory cards. He was stunned because he remembered that in the United States, only Lefia seemed to recognize those "heavenly" tadpole-like characters.