"Why did Huang He suddenly come to Europe in person? There's something fishy about this, something seriously wrong!" Professor Parkinson sat bolt upright, his eyes fixed on the information briefs that had just arrived on his terminal, upon learning of Huang He's sudden appearance in Europe.
About ten minutes later, Professor Parkinson suddenly jumped up, his face changing drastically. He immediately called his secretary and said, "This is the classic 'borrow a peach to replace a plum' tactic favored by the Chinese. Huang He probably guessed we'd tamper with the special plane, so he intends to use his own private jet to bring the specimen back home!"
"You need to find out immediately which plane the specimen is on!"
"Yes!" Even though he was forcefully pulled out of bed by his boss, the secretary immediately entered work mode and began questioning his intelligence contacts in Europe.
A few minutes later, the secretary, his face somewhat grim, reported, "The Jiangnan Group is very tight with their aircraft security. Their private jet is surrounded by their own people, making it impossible for our operatives to gather specific intelligence."
"However, through distant observation and from people on the special plane, it's confirmed that the Jiangnan Group did indeed load the coffin onto the special plane! At the same time, there were no signs of a coffin being loaded onto the private jet. After all, it would be difficult to pass Swedish security checks that way."
"It was loaded onto the special plane then?" Hearing this answer, Professor Parkinson frowned slightly. Did this mean his guess was wrong?
But Professor Parkinson was very confident in his own conjecture, believing there was definitely something amiss.
"Can our people confirm that the coffin loaded onto the special plane contains the specimen?" Professor Parkinson asked.
"Well... the lid of the coffin is actually transparent. The special plane's staff took several close looks when boarding, confirming that a corpse was inside, and it looked similar to the photos. But the problem is, in our eyes, all Chinese people look pretty much alike. So, if the body was appropriately disguised and made up, it wouldn't be difficult to fool our eyes."
"Is that so?" Professor Parkinson pondered for a moment. "Did the coffin itself have any opportunity to be out of our sight?"
"Logically, no!" the secretary shook his head. "When the coffin was being transported, from the hospital to the airport, Swedish officials accompanied them the entire way. And upon entering the airport, there were dedicated personnel for inspection. So, there should have been no opportunity for a swap during that process. The only possible window would be after leaving the boarding gate, entering the tarmac, and then boarding the plane!"
"But this entire process was conducted in the open. Many intelligence operatives were watching with binoculars. There shouldn't have been any opportunity for a trick or switcheroo!"
"Is there video footage? Complete footage from leaving the terminal, entering the tarmac, all the way to boarding!" Professor Parkinson said. The secretary quickly retrieved the video and began playing it.
Professor Parkinson stared intently at the video with narrowed eyes. It wasn't until the coffin appeared, and Boss Huang sprinted off the plane and threw himself onto the coffin, wailing uncontrollably, seemingly consumed by grief.
"What a performance!" Professor Parkinson snorted coldly, and then he noticed something seemed to be amiss.
Because as Huang He collapsed onto the coffin and cried loudly, people immediately swarmed forward to try and coax Boss Huang down. As a result, too many people rushed in, completely filling the frame and obscuring the coffin entirely.
"This is it!" Professor Parkinson couldn't help but slam his hand on the table. "I knew it! Why would Huang He put on such a pointless performance? It was all to create an excuse to cover their actions. These people deliberately crowded around to block the view of surrounding observers, completely surrounding the coffin, and then they switched the specimen in a masterful move!"
Having said that, Professor Parkinson fast-forwarded the video. When the crowd dispersed and the coffin began to be transported towards the transit plane, and Boss Huang led a large contingent back to his private jet, Professor Parkinson paused abruptly again. He pointed to two individuals in the video and said, "Look at these two. The one on the left appears drunk and is being supported by the other person as they leave."
"But the problem is, this is such a solemn occasion. How could a Jiangnan Group employee dare to get drunk under these circumstances? And still come to the welcoming ceremony while drunk?"
"Look at the way the person is supporting the other. Although it's just one person supporting the other, it seems effortless. In reality, he has one of the drunk person's arms slung over his shoulder, firmly grips that arm with his own hand, and with the other hand, he tightly holds the waist."
"This is definitely not the normal way to support a disoriented drunkard. This is more like the drunkard has completely lost mobility and is being dragged back by the other person's forceful pulling."
"But I said, how could there be a drunkard who has lost mobility in this situation? The only one who could possibly lose mobility is that immobile specimen!"
"Brilliant! Truly a brilliant plan. As expected of Huang He. This move was executed flawlessly. He deceived everyone a few days ago, but unfortunately for him, he encountered Professor Parkinson!" Professor Parkinson said, sounding rather pleased with himself.
However, the secretary's phone rang. After a few words, the secretary's face turned stiff as he said to Professor Parkinson, "Professor, something bad has happened. We just received word from the airport that Huang He's private jet has taken off, left the airport, and is returning to China."
"Damn it! How could they be so fast? Why didn't you stop them!" Professor Parkinson's eyebrows shot up in agitation upon hearing this.
"Well, without an order and authorization, our people can only gather intelligence, but we cannot directly interfere with the operation of their private jet!"
"What about the head of our action team? The government officials? Those intelligence agency guys? At such a critical juncture, why do they have no sense of responsibility!" Professor Parkinson exclaimed angrily. "To just let them leave by plane! Once the specimen reaches China, the Chinese will surpass all of us in the field of high-energy particle physics!"
Well, Professor Parkinson actually didn't care much about surpassing or not. He just couldn't stand being played for a fool by Huang He again.
"Yes, but the timing Huang He chose was rather peculiar. Their operation happened precisely during our early morning hours. Most of the responsible officials were at home sleeping, and no one dared to disturb their sleep with this information. If you hadn't unexpectedly woken up, I wouldn't have dared to wake you for these matters!" the secretary explained in a low voice.
"Impressive, Huang He! Truly impressive. Did you even calculate the time difference? Deliberately choosing this point in time, how impressive!" Professor Parkinson gritted his teeth.
But he clearly wouldn't give up so easily. After a moment of thought, Professor Parkinson immediately asked, "Where is Huang He's private jet now? Has it left European airspace?"
"No, they've only been airborne for about 10 minutes. There's no way they could have left European airspace in such a short time. Based on projections, the plane needs at least an hour and a half to leave the EU's airspace and enter China's airspace, which will take over 7 hours!" the secretary replied.
"Good, there's still time. It's not too late to mend things. You immediately wake up those who are still sleeping. Have them contact the European air traffic control immediately, call Huang He's private jet, and order him to land at the nearest airport. He absolutely cannot leave European airspace!" Professor Parkinson commanded.
"Yes!" Just then, the secretary's terminal rang again. He looked down, and his expression became strange once more.
"What happened now?" Professor Parkinson asked impatiently.
"This is a message from the special plane of the airline we cooperate with. Yang Yunhe is on that special plane. He secretly informed the crew that the body in the coffin is not Professor Zhao at all, but a Jiangnan Group staff member in disguise. The real specimen has already been taken by Huang He on his private jet and left!" the secretary reported.
"This 'after the fact' report!" Hearing this news, Professor Parkinson became furious. He exclaimed angrily, "Huang He's plane has already departed! What use is this information now? Has he been bought off by Huang He and become his man!"
"Well, according to the special plane's crew, Yang Yunhe provided the information to them immediately after boarding. At that time, Huang He's private jet had not yet taken off, and there were still about 15 minutes until takeoff." the secretary replied.
"What?" Professor Parkinson was stunned. "According to what you're saying, this information was passed on 25 minutes ago. Why didn't we know until now?"
"Yes, primarily because the external communication signal of the special plane's crew was actually jammed. This was done by Jiangnan Group staff carrying equipment to block all signals, precisely to prevent the crew from reporting information through network communications. So, they could only secretly send a crew member out of the plane to report to the airport directly. This back and forth wasted about 10 minutes."
"Also, the crew members are not our intelligence operatives, and they don't understand our methods of information transmission. They simply told the airline about this intelligence. At that time, most of the airline's personnel were also asleep. They received the message but didn't even look at it."
"If I hadn't sent someone to inquire about the coffin just now, and directly woken up a relevant person in charge, and asked them to carefully review all related intelligence, they wouldn't have discovered that such crucial information had been passed on over ten minutes ago!" the secretary explained.
"Useless! All of you are useless!" Professor Parkinson finally exploded.
"By the way, the airline also asked if we still want to change the flight path of this plane back to the United States!" the secretary asked cautiously.
"Whatever those idiots want to do. The specimen is gone, why should I care about them!" Professor Parkinson became even more furious.