bad seeds - Chapter 20
The journey was smooth, except that the radiation meter readings kept rising.
With Liang Yingwu present, all passes through the gates without hindrance.
We soon saw the gamma-ray generator set up at the foot of Mount Baigong.
Baigong Mountain has changed from its earthy yellow color a few days ago to a dark brown color.
We quickly got out of the car.
“Check the watch!” Liang Yingwu said.
The timers on the three people's radiation protection suits simultaneously jumped from 10:20 am to 10:21 a.m.
We glanced at each other. The sun was shining brightly, but through the thick lead glass masks, neither of us could see the other's face clearly.
Three identical right hands, all wrapped in yellow radiation protection suits, were clasped together. Liang Yingwu pressed them down forcefully.
"May God protect us! Let's begin!"
I led the way, with Liang Yingwu carrying the box in the middle and Ye Tong bringing up the rear. We hurried into the cave.
The cave was very different from when we last visited. In order to transport the gamma ray generator, the narrow sections of the cave had been widened, and the walls had been reinforced with high-strength plastic beams to prevent collapse. The path had become very easy to walk on, and we could almost run forward the whole time.
However, the closer we got to the center of the cave, the more iron pipes blocked our way. The crisscrossing iron pipes made it difficult for me to judge the direction at first, and our speed slowed down.
I tried my best to figure out the right way as quickly as possible, and I could hear Liang Yingwu urging me on from behind in a low voice from time to time:
"Hurry! Hurry! Hurry! We're already too slow!"
Fortunately, Ye Tong and I memorized the map at the same time, and she was always able to point out the direction in time when I hesitated.
Nine minutes and twelve seconds later, we arrived at the central cave.
Fortunately, a rope ladder has been installed here, allowing us to quickly and effortlessly descend to the bottom of the cave.
That terrifying vitality once again weighed on my nerves. We listened to our increasingly heavy breathing. Ye Tong began to show slight bewilderment, and my thoughts also began to become somewhat chaotic.
Here, Liang Yingwu behaved like a specially trained intelligence agent—I believe so—rather than just a scientist. He deftly opened the box, took out the nuclear bomb, and used a rivet gun and special plastic rivets to nail the four corners of the bomb to the rock wall. As he did this, he calmly said:
"Na Duo, take Ye Tong and leave here first. I will catch up with you."
"Bullshit!" I yelled. "If we're leaving, we'll all go together. If Ye Tong and I leave, who's going to show you the way?"
He said nothing more, opened the control panel of the nuclear bomb, and began setting the time.
I kept watching the timer, my whole body drenched in cold sweat, feeling as if I were in an ice cave. The entire installation process lasted 3 minutes and 20 seconds. After a soft beep, Liang Yingwu locked the control panel and shouted:
"Quick, let's get out of here!"
I dragged Ye Tong by the hand and ran desperately through the tunnel. The map on the parchment scroll unfolded instinctively in my mind. The light on the top of my helmet illuminated the three meters in front of me. The scenery in the cave rushed past. The view through the lead glass of the helmet was like an incredibly realistic virtual illusion, a first-person escape game.
I kept looking back, and Liang Yingwu was right behind us.
10:38:50 AM.
We exited the Baigongshan cave on time.
We jumped into the jeep as fast as we could, Liang Yingwu shouted:
"Fasten your seatbelts!"
The V8 engine accelerated the car to 200 km/h in a very short time. Ye Tong and I were pressed tightly against the back of our seats by the acceleration, and the dust kicked up on both sides of the car made the scenery outside the window just a blurry shadow.
When we saw the first checkpoint, Liang Yingwu reduced the vehicle's speed.
This is already a safe area.
However, none of us had the courage to look back at Mount Baigong, which would be destroyed within ten minutes.
The Cherokee sped away.
After taking off the radiation protection suit that was making it hard for me to breathe, I suddenly felt dizzy and nauseous, while Ye Tong finally couldn't hold back and vomited up everything she had eaten before setting off.
Liang Yingwu helped us both sit down, took out three capsules from his medicine box, and gave one to each of us:
"This is an anti-radiation agent, eat it quickly."
The middle-aged scientist wearing glasses suddenly rushed in, ignoring our presence, and said anxiously:
"Dr. Liang, where have you been? We've been looking everywhere for you, waiting for you to start the meeting!"
"I went to Baigong Mountain to get a feel for the situation on the ground." Although he was covered in sweat and his face was getting paler, his tone remained steady.
"You know, the situation is out of control. We're about to hold a meeting to request support from the central government to destroy that thing!"
Liang Yingwu nodded expressionlessly.
Ye Tong and I attended the meeting as the discoverers of the prehistoric civilization's spaceship—this was the result of Liang Yingwu's repeated insistence, and of course, I suspect that my special status may also have played a role.
In fact, Ye Tong and I didn't care about what they were discussing. We were always focused on the connection between this place and the Baigongshan observation station—logically speaking, the nuclear bomb in Baigongshan should have exploded more than twenty minutes ago.
Even though it was a low-yield nuclear bomb, we should have felt the shockwave from the explosion. But why didn't we feel anything? I felt the ground very carefully, and there wasn't a single tremor.
Liang Yingwu frowned, clearly somewhat distracted from the meeting.
Does this mean the nuclear bomb didn't explode? Did Liang Yingwu's makeshift nuclear bomb fail?