Case Files 013

Chapter 106: Meet the Kidnappers

Once Gu Chen landed inside the compound, he assumed a squatting position. He looked around and ensured no one was around before he began to move. "There's no need to hurry." Mary said through the mic. "Look around at the layout and the geography. I'll come up with the 3D image on my computer, so that we can get a better handle of things." I stood beside Mary and saw the left side of her laptop screen was a series of cameras, while the right side was a spinning 3D building, it was a virtual construction of what Gu Chen saw. No wonder she was one of our country's best computer experts. 3D modelling at such speed was amazing.

Through Gu Chen's video, we saw that beyond the gate, there was a small garage to the left which was empty, suggesting that this place had been abandoned for some time already. To the right was the shutter door that led to the actual factory building but currently the door was down and so we couldn't see inside it. Gu Chen kept close to the outer wall and moved like a cat. It didn't take long for him to reach the shutter door. Since there was no idea what was inside, instead of barging in, Gu Chen leaned his ears against the door, attempting to pick up the sound. After staying there for a while, Gu Chen slunk to the other side of the building and soon came upon a barred window. Gu Jun didn't poke his head up to look in but instead tossed one of the camera balls inside. The ball rolled twice before it stopped. Throughout this process, we didn't see anyone. The camera was on the ground so we could only see about 10 cm off the ground. In other words, if someone was there, we'd only be able to see their calves.

Mary whispered, "Gu Chen, it looks like there's no one inside. But we still don't know how many floors there are in this building. Be careful." Gu Chen made an okay sign before the camera. He stood up and looked through the barred window. Through the camera, we confirmed that there was indeed no one inside the factory. The inner space was huge, there were some rotten tables, broken boxes, iron racks and so on. From the tracks on the floor, this space used to be an assembly line but after it was abandoned, the factory owner probably sold all the machinery already. To the side of the spacious room was a staircase that led to the second floor.

The second floor was hollowed out in the middle. There were several doors that lined the walls. Some of the doors were closed and there were some windows too but we were unable to see what was beyond the window from our vantage point. The factory compound was quite large but its location was secluded. Looks like transportation and ease of access were its biggest problem. No wonder the owner had to build an individual garage.

After a quick look around, we concluded this garage was most suspicious. But the strangest thing was there was no security, this was not what we expected. Were the kidnappers so confident that we wouldn't find this place? Gu Chen dropped a few more balls, some of them he tossed onto the roof, that way we would have a full sight of this compound. Mary's software kept calculating the actual modelling of the factory compound. The outside had been fully constructed but the inside was still mostly a mystery. The garage was the most likely location where Liu Yinyan and Liu Fei'er would be kept, it was also most likely where the kidnappers would hide. Gu Chen continued to move forward until he encountered a small shack in the yard. As if sensing something, Gu Chen stopped to assess the situation. No one came out and there was no sound. Gu Chen unholstered his gun and put on the silencer as he slowly approached the shack. Gu Chen gestured before the camera but since I didn't know tactical sign language, I had no idea what he was trying to say. He stopped where he was close enough to toss a camera ball through an open window.

"There's no one inside!" Mary informed Gu Chen after she checked the video. Then Gu Chen walked in. From the camera, we saw that this place was a kitchen. There was an induction cooker and a large pot. The pot lid was left sitting to the side and there were some leftover fish and soup inside the pot. Looks like the kidnappers did have seafood for lunch. Next to the induction cooker was a rice cooker. Gu Chen pinched the leftover rice inside. The rice hadn't completely hardened up, that meant that they had their lunch not that long ago. At the corner of the kitchen was a large water vat. The vat was half filled with water. That was a sign that people had been living here for quite some time already. Above the vat was a faucet. Gu Chen twisted the faucet but no water came out.

Since this place had been abandoned, there would not be electricity and water supply. However, the kidnappers could have wired electricity from the voltage transformer. It was dangerous but doable. But the kidnappers wouldn't have been able to dig out a clean water pipe within a month. This proved that among the kidnappers, there was someone extremely proficient with these technical stuff.

Not far from the kitchen was another shack. Gu Chen walked over but before he got close, he made a sign for the toilet. He probably smelled refuse. He moved further and came upon a rectangular brick house. It had doors on both sides and windows in the middle, but all the glass had been shattered. Gu Chen sneaked over and tossed a camera ball inside. Through the camera, we realized that this was a communal bedroom. There were more than 10 kangs or Chinese brick beds covered with straws and mattresses. Looks like this was the place the kidnappers had been sleeping for the past few months. Gu Chen was about to proceed when we saw someone come out from the toilet and another person was coming from the other side through the cameras left behind by Gu Chen. We couldn't see their faces but we did see their legs walking.

"Gu Chen!" Mary quickly warned. "There are two people coming your way from different directions. Find a place to hide, maybe sneak into the building and hide under the bed!" Gu Chen was about to do that when Captain Zhao ordered, "No, go up the roof! Quick!" Mary came from a rich background, she probably hadn't seen a traditional brick bed in her life. The underside of the bed filled with smoke flues, there would be no space for a grown man to hide. If Gu Chen heeded her advice, he would be caught instantly. Gu Chen decided to follow Captain Zhao's order. He stepped on the window ledge and with a kick, leaped up onto the roof. When his both legs disappeared from view, the man turned from the corner.

Gu Chen placed a camera ball at the edge of the roof and thus we were given the actual view of this man's face. This man was none other than Ol' Zhang who had managed to evade us for so long!

Ol' Zhang's lips mumbled like he was singing. At that moment, another person came from the corner. We had not seen this man before. He had long hair and a chubby face. A long scar cut from his left eye to his right lips. There was a large mole with a single hair on his left lip. After Ol' Zhang greeted the man, he entered the bedroom. Ol' Zhang immediately crawled into bed, but the moment he did, our heart squeezed because Ol' Zhang happened to lie down on the camera ball that Gu Chen dropped inside the building.

Ol' Zhang sprung up immediately as he rubbed his back. Even though the camera couldn't pick up the audio, we could easily imagine Ol' Zhang yelping as his body made contact with the foreign object. He grabbed at the camera and the screen went black immediately. Soon, the screen was dominated by Ol' Zhang's face. He was studying this camera ball. The expression on our faces was serious. Even though the camera was well disguised, if Ol' Zhang peeled off the surface and saw the circuit inside, he would immediately know what this was. But now we didn't even know where the hostages were kept yet. At that moment, Ol' Zhang suddenly turned to the side, probably the scar face had walked in. Ol' Zhang shrugged and tossed the ball to the side. Unfortunately, the camera landed facing the wall, so other than the yellow paint, we saw nothing. We sighed in relief, looks like we had fooled Ol' Zhang. Gu Chen stayed on the roof and remained motionlessly lest he was discovered.

5 minutes later.

"Gu Chen, find a spot where there is no window and slowly climb down." Captain Zhao said. Gu Chen made an okay sign but right after he moved, he immediately crawled back into his hiding space. Turns out 2 more people were coming this way. One of them wore a hat and carried a backpack. The person looked young, like someone in his teens. The other wore a mask. The mask painted black had a red gash of a mouth and a painted bloody tear dripping down the left eye. We waited for some time and there was no more new arrival.

Gu Chen leaped down the roof and headed towards the kitchen. He found a cloth inside the kitchen and doused it in the water vat. Then he headed towards the barred window of the garage. There wouldn't be that many kidnappers, and 4 men were already gathered in the bedroom. So there shouldn't be too many left at the garage.

Liu Fei'er and Liu Yinyan might be kept there so Gu Chen was planning to go take a look.