Chapter 1443: Secrets Buried by Time
“He jumped?! Was there really only one person?!” Huo Shaoheng was worried as he continued to ask with a frown.
This place was so vast, and he was all alone. It was impossible for him to conduct a blanket search, and hence, he could only rely on the Nandou satellite’s communication and navigation system which had been tracking him all this time.
The pictures taken by the Nandou satellite were high definition images.
Even though he could not obtain a picture of the person’s face from 10,000 meters above the ground, he could still appreciate his height and figure clearly.
Zhao Liangze understood what Huo Shaoheng was thinking and quickly explained, “There was only one person, and it looks like a man…”
It couldn’t have been Nianzhi, and that person definitely couldn’t have pulled Nianzhi along and jumped down with her.
Huo Shaoheng heaved a sigh of relief, but he didn’t feel relieved.
Even though they were almost a day and a night late in their pursuit, travelling by plane was still faster than driving. They had to hurry and catch up to them.
However, they hadn’t expected the other party to jump into a sinkhole.
Huo Shaoheng knew exactly what was down there.
He had been down there before.
“Did he come back up after jumping in?” Huo Shaoheng spoke to Zhao Liangze through his bluetooth headset.
As he asked, he raised his gun and walked towards the black SUV parked by the sinkhole.
“No. Our satellites have been keeping an eye on this place. No one would be able to escape our satellite tracking if they climbed up.” Zhao Liangze replied firmly.
He was also extremely worried. He kept his eyes fixed on the monitor so that he would not miss a single frame.
Huo Shaoheng held his breath. Just as he was about to approach the car, he suddenly raised his gun and aimed. The silent pistol’s conical bullets pierced into the black SUV’s tires.
The tires immediately deflated like a deflated balloon.
After walking over, he opened the car door and inspected the interior and exterior once more.
He even looked under the car, but there was no one there.
Was there only one person who jumped in?
Huo Shaoheng walked to the side of the car and poked his head into the sinkhole. He was considering whether he should head down to take a look.
If he was alive, he wanted to see the person; and if he was dead, he wanted to see the corpse.
He understood such logic extremely well.
He climbed onto a large rock at the edge of the sinkhole and tried to stand on it.
The bottom of his feet stood above the soft soil at the edge of the sinkhole. It was dark and gloomy, and a dark and deep pool lay underneath it.
Just then, the black SUV suddenly shook a few times.
Huo Shaoheng subconsciously turned his head, but he soon realized that apart from the car, he was also shaking.
Could it be an earthquake?!
Before he could turn around, the edge of the sinkhole suddenly cracked. It turned out that the sinkhole had started to collapse!
Huo Shaoheng’s heart skipped a beat. He quickly held the gun in one hand to protect himself, and with the other hand, he grabbed a large rock and fell back.
But it was too late. The last time the scientists had observed the sinkhole, half of it had already collapsed.
This time, for some unknown reason, the entire sinkhole had started to shake!
The black SUV had been parked at the edge of the sinkhole. At this time, the sinkhole began to collapse. It tilted to the side and slid down along with rolling debris towards the sinkhole.
The SUV almost crashed toward Huo Shaoheng!
Huo Shaoheng quickly stepped to the side and brushed past the SUV that was sliding towards the bottom of the sinkhole.
After an unknown period of time, it was completely buried by the mudslide and could no longer be seen.
Huo Shaoheng tried his best to stabilize himself and clung on tightly to the big rock at the edge. Just as he was about to get up, he realized that the ground beneath him was also beginning to crack and become soft, just like a landslide.
He tried his best to control his body and attempted to climb forward.
However, the sinkhole had already extended beneath him. The big rock in front of him was also beginning to loosen up and it could no longer support his weight.
Could this have been another one of their tricks?!
Huo Shaoheng’s mind raced. He could not believe how meticulous they were!
Had these people already foreseen that someone from the special operations forces would come over to take a look at the car?
And the special operations force had the support of the Nandou satellite. In such a situation, there would definitely be satellite tracking.
Hence, even if the Nandou satellite caught someone jumping down, the other party would still take it into consideration in their plan?
Since they saw someone jump down, and since they had fallen into the sinkhole before, the special operations forces tracking personnel would definitely go down to the sinkhole to take a look.
Just before they descended, the sinkhole would collapse at the right time.
This was because such a large-scale collapse of the mountain could not have been triggered by chance. Someone must have already done something to it.
Perhaps the trap had been triggered when the strange magnetic field appeared here?
Huo Shaoheng did not know this sudden clarity was associated with him tottering on the brink of death. He instantly thought of a lot of things that he could not understand before.
These suspicious points connected to form a line, which then formed a net. He was stuck in the middle of the net, so he could see more clearly than before.
But how would things change?
He didn’t the chance to trace the source anymore, did he?
Although many people in their line of work ended up dying in the line of duty, and although Huo Shaoheng had long been prepared to die in the line of duty, he still felt regret when the day arrived.
He still had a lot of things to accomplish. And most importantly, he still hadn’t found his little boy…
Zhao Liangze witnessed this scene on the surveillance camera thousands of miles away and almost went crazy.
All the surveillance personnel in the central control room were going crazy.
They could only watch their most respected and honored chief, who was about to be buried in the mudslide.
On the monitor screen, the scene was recorded from ten thousand meters away.
What they saw was a dark blue abyss that was expanding continuously like a prehistoric monster that was devouring everything around it.
At the edge of the abyss, the handsome man who had once led them to achieve great things was struggling on the line of life and death.
However, no matter how powerful a person was, how could he be able to withstand the power of nature?!
At this time, who could save him?
Zhao Liangze remembered seeing an agent who had followed Huo Shaoheng in. However, the car hadn’t driven in and had only stopped by the side of the road.
He frantically searched for the person on the screen, but couldn’t find him again.
Perhaps he had seen something strange in the sinkhole ahead and had escaped?
In the central control room of the Special Operations Forces’ headquarters, all the tough men who believed in blood and not tears were crying in front of the surveillance cameras.
“Where are they?! How can we let the chief take the risk alone?!”
“I’m going to kill those field agents! What are they doing?!”
“Huo Shao!”
“Chief!”
Huo Shaoheng smiled helplessly as his subordinates’ heart-wrenching cries that could be heard through the earpiece.
He spoke into his bluetooth earpiece, “Stop howling and don’t send anyone here to die. I failed my mission, so you have to take this as a warning.”
He paused for a moment before continuing, “I don’t have any last words. If possible, I hope you can help me find Nianzhi.”
It didn’t matter that he was dead. As long as they didn’t give up, Nianzhi would be found one day.
However, he might not be able to see that day.
The rocks around him tumbled down, and large chunks of the mountain collapsed. The trees fell down one by one, and soon, they would reach the land below him.
The large rock he was holding on to was on the verge of collapsing.
Just as his arm could barely hold on and just as he was about to be buried by the landslide, a long rope was thrown over. “Pull!”
The man was speaking English.
Huo Shaoheng grabbed the long rope without hesitation and tied it around his waist.
The man used all his strength and finally pulled Huo Shaoheng out of the crater that was about to collapse.
“Ah?! Someone’s coming!”
“The chief has been saved!”
There was a burst of cheers in the central control room. Many people knelt down and beat their heads as they cried, venting out all their nervousness and joy.
Zhao Liangze’s eyes were blurred with tears as he watched Huo Shaoheng being pulled forward on the grass.
The ground behind him fell inch by inch into the bottomless abyss.
Huo Shaoheng relaxed his entire body and didn’t put any pressure on the rope on his body so that the other party wouldn’t have to pull too hard.
It wasn’t until he saw his car parked by the side of the road that he felt that the ground under him become solid. The ground no longer felt loose and on the brink of collapse.
The collapse of the sinkhole hadn’t eroded this place.
A pair of long legs wearing Russian military boots appeared in front of him. A hand reached out to pull him up.
Huo Shaoheng grabbed his hand without hesitation and jumped up.
The Committee of State Security’s Peter stood in front of him.
He stood in front of him and looked down at him. He was chewing gum in his mouth while holding the rope with one hand. He still looked like he would never wake up.
Huo Shaoheng raised his eyebrows and untied the long rope around his waist. “Peter? Why are you here?”
“Major General Huo, Ivan mentioned that you’re here on a road trip with your fiancée. Where’s your fiancée?” Peter took back the long rope and looked around. “There has been too much of a commotion here. I’ve already notified Vladimir. They’ll be here soon.”
Huo Shaoheng turned around. Under the long sky, dust and smoke lingered in the air. The sky was gray, and he couldn’t see the blue sky or the white clouds.
The dark blue sinkhole had expanded in size, but it was already filled with mud and rocks. Who knew how many secrets had been buried.
The water in the sinkhole was gone, and so was the secret passage that connected to other places.
Huo Shaoheng dusted himself and stared in the direction of the sinkhole with a complicated expression on his face.
“Did you see the black SUV just now?” Huo Shaoheng asked, lost in thought. “It was parked at the edge of the sinkhole.”
Peter nodded. “I saw it. What’s wrong? Was that your car?”
“No, I was chasing after this car.” Huo Shaoheng had just experienced a life-and-death experience, and his mind was exceptionally clear.
The Committee of State Security (KGB) had nothing to do with this.
…
Peter brought him back to a resort villa in Tunguska, Siberia.
Last time, Huo Shaoheng and Gu Nianzhi had stayed here.
Now that he saw the room they had once stayed in, it was indescribably heart-wrenching.
Huo Shaoheng tried his best to bear it. He went in to take a shower and wash the dirt off his body.
He asked Peter to carry his suitcase from the car. He only brought some underwear and two sets of expedition gear to change into.
After taking a shower and changing his clothes, he came out and went to the restaurant with Peter to eat.
He had not tasted food for four or five days.
That day, he drank the red vegetable soup mechanically.
The Committee of State Security (KGB) did not finish their meal. Vladimir brought the middle-aged driver to the resort in a KGB plane.