außer Kontrolle

Kapitel 18

Seeing the doctor's growing impatience, I wisely took my leave. Ouyang Cheng was ruined; even if he were exonerated and released from prison one day, he would never be able to return to his former life. Without exception, medications for mental illness have strong side effects, often turning people into mindless zombies.

I never imagined that searching for Kou Yun's runaway brother would eventually connect to my own case. My experiences have been nothing short of bizarre, but I increasingly feel that all the chance encounters and coincidences in this world are somehow connected by invisible threads.

Ouyang Cheng's experience is almost a carbon copy of mine. Oh no, in terms of time, I should say I'm a carbon copy of him.

Kou Feng's "telekinesis," a magic trick that no one could see through, was far too easy to make connections with. When performing this trick, no matter where an object was hidden, he could make it instantly reappear in his hand. And the key to both my and Ouyang Cheng's murder cases was that an object appeared in our hands in an instant.

According to Ouyang Cheng's account, Kou Feng stood at the door the whole time without taking a step forward, while Huang Yun, with a fruit knife stuck in her skin, collapsed beside Ouyang Cheng. There was definitely no third person in the room. I had analyzed my own situation before, and one possibility was that there was a third person on the deck besides Yang Hongmin and me who used extremely quick and skillful means to pull the dagger from Yang Hongmin's body and put it in my hand. Now it seems that if Ouyang Cheng's case and my experience were caused by the same reason, then this analysis can be ruled out.

It was as if an invisible hand had pulled the murder weapon from the victim's body and shoved it into our hands when we weren't paying attention.

Is this a secret magic trick that Kou Feng keeps hidden, or is it not magic at all? Are there invisible magical spirits in this world, or has Kou Feng raised an invisible creature?

If Kou Feng killed Huang Yun, could it also have been Kou Feng who killed Yang Hongmin, or was it someone else who mastered the same technique? Is there any connection between him and Kou Feng?

The Yang Hongmin case now seems like a turtle shell with no way to crack it. If Kou Feng is connected to it, following this line of investigation might lead to the crack that can break the turtle shell.

Of course, another possibility is that Ouyang Cheng is a complete madman, and his words are not to be trusted at all.

Kou Yun walked silently beside me.

I really wanted to ask her what kind of person her brother Kou Feng was, and what exactly that magic trick was all about, but seeing her current depressed state, I swallowed the words that were on the tip of my tongue.

Hearing the news that her own brother might be a murderer, Kou Yun would probably rather never find her brother or know any news about him at all.

It would be too cruel to ask her these questions now.

In a flash, I decided to ignore Kou Feng and take Kou Yun to Shanghai for a few days to cheer her up.

Just as I was about to tell Kou Yun that I would take her to the carnival to ride the roller coaster that night, my phone suddenly rang.

It's Guo Dong.

"You can go to Jiuquan now. Prepare your password. I hope you don't embarrass me. I'll take responsibility," he said.

“Let’s go to Jiuquan,” I said to Kou Yun after hanging up the phone.

"Let me show you how rockets soar into the sky."

8. The two ends of 380,000 kilometers (1)

The plane accelerated on the runway and then took off. I've been on many delayed flights, but this is the first time I've ever been on a plane that departs before its scheduled takeoff time.

This is a dedicated flight to the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center; as long as all passengers have arrived, it can take off. It's 9:45 AM now, 15 minutes earlier than the scheduled departure time.

There are no flights from Shanghai to Jiuquan base, so Guo Dong booked me a train ticket from Shanghai to Beijing last night. I arrived in Beijing just after 7 a.m. this morning, had breakfast, and came directly to Nanyuan Airport.

Besides Guo Dong, there were dozens of other passengers flying to Jiuquan like me. Some were wearing military uniforms, and some were wearing aerospace work clothes. After half a century of development, the Jiuquan base has become a satellite city, housing not only military personnel but also a large number of scientific researchers. To meet the needs, there are several flights between Beijing and Jiuquan bases every month.

The distance from Beijing to our destination, Dingxin Airport, is about 1,600 kilometers. At 11:50, the plane began its descent. Looking down from the window, a vast expanse of yellowish-brown Gobi Desert undulated gently in the boundless expanse, while the airport appeared to be just a tiny, insignificant part of it.

The plane landed smoothly. Stepping down the stairs, the sun shone brightly outside. There was none of the dust and sand of the Gobi Desert I had imagined; in fact, the air was fresher than in Beijing or Shanghai. Walking on the tarmac, the view stretched out to an endless expanse. Kou Yun, sitting next to me, seemed much better after his nap on the train than when he left the Shanghai Mental Health Center yesterday. Now, he was completely back to his old self, hiding his brother's problems deep inside. He skipped and hopped ahead of Guo Dong and me.

She ran a few steps, then suddenly jumped back and blocked my way.

"Brother, take a picture of me."

She spread her arms wide, as if to embrace all the magnificent beauty behind her.

I was rummaging through my bag for my camera when Guo Dong patted me on the shoulder.

"what?"

He pointed with his hand.

A huge sign not far away reads: Military restricted area. Filming and recording are strictly prohibited!

Kou Yun let out a shriek, a sound that sounded terrifying, but he didn't take it to heart at all and continued hopping forward.

"Is this your assistant?" Guo Dong shook his head and asked me softly.

When Kou Yun met Guo Dong again in Beijing, she took the initiative to introduce herself to him: "I'm your assistant. You take me with you wherever you go. I won't cause any trouble."

I really don't know if she was saying this to Guo Dong, to me, or to herself.

Actually, I had already called Guo Dong specifically to explain Kou Yun's situation in detail. Even before they got their ID cards, he knew this girl had escaped from the Guangzhou detention center with me. He was quite surprised when I told him her brother might be involved in Yang Hongsheng's murder. Because Kou Yun was actually at the heart of Yang Hongsheng's case, and her background was quite clean, she was able to come to Jiuquan with me to observe the moonlight under the guise of being my assistant; otherwise, it wouldn't have been so easy.

There weren't many passengers disembarking, and even fewer people were there to pick them up. It was easy to spot the person holding a sign with Guo Dong's name on it. This was a young man wearing an aerospace work uniform, with an identity card with a rocket pattern pinned to his chest. He had a very illustrious name from more than two thousand years ago—Wang Jian.

Wang Jian was a man of few words, efficient and decisive, displaying the demeanor of a soldier. After confirming our identities, he led us to a Santana sedan with military license plates outside the airport, which then headed towards the Jiuquan base.

The Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, despite its name, is actually nearly 300 kilometers away from Jiuquan City in Gansu Province. It gets its name from Jiuquan, the most famous major city in the vicinity. To be precise, the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center is located in Inner Mongolia. The distance from Dingxin Airport to the Jiuquan base is also nearly 80 kilometers.

This road, built out of the Gobi Desert, is lined with thick windbreak trees. It is narrower than many small roads in Shanghai, only wide enough for two vehicles to pass each other. If two large buses were to pass each other, they would have to slow down and be very careful to avoid a collision.

An hour later, the Santana entered the central area of the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center. It passed through several security checkpoints along the way, but the car only slowed down slightly and drove through without any hindrance.

The roads within the base are mostly four-lane, with few pedestrians and vehicles. Very few people are seen in civilian clothes; military uniforms are the majority. The buildings and streets resemble Shanghai in the 1980s and 90s, possessing a rustic charm, although some aerospace-themed sculptures are undeniably modern. The roads are extremely clean; one would expect that in this predominantly military satellite city, there wouldn't be anyone littering.

Wang Jian first led us to the aerospace restaurant for lunch. It was four dishes and a soup, not particularly delicious, just enough to fill us up. But what truly delighted me was the whole watermelon served after lunch. It was absolutely the best watermelon I'd ever eaten—crisp and refreshing, with honey-like juice bursting onto my tongue with every bite. Kou Yun's face was flushed red from eating it, and I wasn't much better off. Only the unique climate and geographical environment of the Gobi Desert could produce such a delicacy. Enjoying it in such dry and hot weather was truly a wonderful experience.

The command center was a very ordinary building, completely unlike the space center I had imagined. I suppose that's because I've watched too many science fiction movies, I reflected.

There were two armed guards standing watch at the main gate. The car drove straight in and parked in the courtyard. There were also guards at the entrance of the building. Kou Yun and I showed our ID cards, filled out an entry and exit registration form, and then received three visitor passes.

I was puzzled. It was just like the registration process for entering and exiting government offices in Shanghai. It wasn't as strict as I had imagined.

The corridors are neat and unremarkable, just like any other office building. If you have to point out a difference, most office buildings in Shanghai are more beautiful and modern than this one.

"Please follow me." Wang Jian walked ahead with his back straight, following the corridor into the depths of the building.

His figure disappeared around the corner, and when I turned around, I found that he had stopped.

A heavy steel door blocked the way. In front of the door, two soldiers stood guard, two on the left and two on the right, with their rifles at the ready. Next to the four soldiers was a guardhouse. Wang Jian stood by the window of the guardhouse, where someone was making a phone call. Looking through the glass window, he could see many instruments in the room, with three or four flashing screens.

"Okay," I heard him say, then he hung up the phone and went outside.

He used a scanner similar to those used by airport security personnel to thoroughly check the three of us from head to toe, not even letting Kou Yun off the hook. After the check, he made us hand over the visitor passes we had just received and gave us three more temporary work passes in exchange.

8. The two ends of 380,000 kilometers (2)

"Wear this around your neck," Wang Jian specifically instructed.

This temporary work pass felt completely different from the previous visitor pass. Seated inside the transparent plastic was more than just the piece of paper with the word "Work Pass" printed on it; there was also a hard card. I guessed it was some kind of automatic identification card; if I hadn't brought this, the alarm would probably have gone off inside.

With a deep rumble, the steel door slowly slid open. To my surprise, it led to an elevator lobby.

There were five elevator doors on each of the two rows. Wang Jian gestured for them to enter, and an elevator door next to him was opening.

The elevator was several sizes larger than a typical freight elevator, lacking ornate decorations, with blue metal walls on all sides and white light shining down from the ceiling. I specifically checked and found that this elevator wasn't manufactured by one of the usual elevator factories, but by a brand I'd never heard of before; the manufacturer's name was a string of numbers. It was an elevator produced by a military factory.

Wang Jian pressed the button for the fourth floor, then the elevator doors closed, gave a slight jolt, and started moving.

The elevator was moving very fast, and I felt a moment of weightlessness. When I regained my sense of gravity, I realized that the elevator was descending rapidly.

I glanced at the floor buttons. There were seven buttons for floors one through seven, represented by Arabic numerals. The second floor above was the basement level, and our destination was the third basement level.

After a long time, the floor indicator light finally jumped to "2". I don't know how fast the elevator travels per second, but an ordinary bunker-buster missile certainly couldn't penetrate to the first underground floor.

As I was pondering this, the indicator light jumped to "4".

"You've finally arrived. I am Zhang Hongjian." An elderly man stood outside the elevator door, dressed impeccably with his hair neatly combed.

"Commander-in-Chief Zhang." Wang Jian stood at attention solemnly.

He shook hands with each of us; his palms were rough and strong.

“I’m all set up here, just waiting for the password,” he said to Guo Dong.

Guo Dong nodded, while glancing at me out of the corner of his eye.

The three underground levels are surrounded by corridors, like a maze. The ceiling is more than four meters above the ground, giving it a very spacious feel. I wonder how big this level actually is; it must be much larger than what you see from the surface.

The off-white corridor was brightly lit, with wall lamps every few steps along both sides and diamond-shaped ceiling lights overhead. The corridor was empty; I didn't encounter a single person. All the room doors were closed, and each door had at least one card reader; I also saw keypads next to some doors.

"How deep is it here?" Kou Yun asked Commander Zhang curiously.

“It’s very deep,” Zhang Hongjian said, glancing at Kou Yun.

"It will take a long time to dig this deep."

"Yes."

The commander answered as he walked, his tone undisguisedly perfunctory. Kou Yun's usually charming demeanor seemed to have no effect on him. Everything here was highly classified; the fact that we few were even allowed in was already an exception, so why would they reveal too much information to us?

We didn't wander around the maze for long before we stopped in front of a door. Zhang Hongjian swiped his work card at the door and then pushed it open.

This is a large hall of about 500 to 600 square meters, where dozens of staff members are working at computer terminals. Unlike typical companies, most of the seats here are interconnected without partitions. At the very front is a large screen of about 10 square meters, which is currently black.

We filed in, and some staff members glanced over before returning to their work without greeting their commander.

We walked through these people to the front of the hall. There was a row of crescent-shaped seats, each one quite large, with a control panel in front of each seat displaying two screens and numerous buttons of unknown function, along with a microphone.

Zhang Hongjian stopped, looked at one of the seats, sighed, and turned to us, saying, "When there's an important launch, this is where the deputy commander and key experts sit. Yang Hongmin sits here." He shook his head, paused for a moment, and said heavily, "We can't let Old Yang die without knowing why."

"Don't worry, we will definitely find out," Guo Dong said with a serious expression, then looked at me.

“Our investigators found the program he used to activate the backdoor on Vebri’s laptop. It had already been sent to Commander Zhang for testing. As long as we have the password, this program can connect to that probe module. Nado, tell us the password.”

Even Kou Yun stared at me wide-eyed at this moment. Because I had been keeping the secret all along, not even telling her, it was just a sudden outburst of my stubborn temper. The little girl had tried every method to pry the code out of me but hadn't succeeded, and she was already itching to find out.

"Do you remember what I told you, what Yang Hongmin said to me before he died?" I asked Guo Dong.

“He told you that Vebri was involved in this matter, otherwise we wouldn’t have been able to find out to this extent.”

I shook my head: "He meant 'Eagle.' We found Vebri through those two words and pieced the whole story together, so we no longer doubted that those two words actually meant something else. However, 'Eagle' was Vebri's nickname, a joking term used in the circle. If Yang Hongmin wanted to tell us about Vebri before he died, he would most likely have said his name directly, not his nickname. Furthermore, in that situation, a person would most likely reveal what he considered the most important information. Obviously, there was a message more important than Vebri, which was the code."

"So, the password is an eagle?" Guo Dong asked me incredulously.

I shook my head: "It's related to eagles, but not eagles. Vebri wasn't a cryptography expert. The password he set must have been meaningful to him and easy to remember. What Yang Hongmin told me before he died was not just the word 'eagle'."

“But you told me it was an eagle. If there was something else, why didn’t you say so earlier!” Guo Dong frowned, a hint of displeasure in his eyes as he looked at me.

"Don't get angry yet. Actually, I always thought he was talking about an eagle when he said that. He kept saying, 'Eagle, eagle, old.' Then he stopped breathing, so I naturally assumed that he was saying 'eagle, eagle, eagle.' He was repeatedly emphasizing the eagle."

"Eagle, eagle, eagle..." Guo Dong repeated it several times, nodding repeatedly: "Yes, it is very likely that this is the password."

"Eagle is EAGLE in English, and ELGAE is also called 'Eagle Old Man'. I think putting them together makes up a code."