Kiana and the Captain's Bizarre Adventure

Chapter 352 Cat and Mouse

"Zhu Yuan has a new report—"

The conference room door was pushed open, and Qingyi walked in. She had come because the intelligence department had a new report to submit.

However, it seems that her timing is not right.

After apologizing, he stood in the crowd, and Zhu Yuan continued the meeting upon seeing this.

In short, the goal of this meeting is to launch a raid on the core forces of the criminal organization [Mountain Lion], thereby thwarting the Mountain Lion's power.

Among the crowd, a silver-haired, cat-like man named Seth Lowell, a newcomer who had recently become an inspector, voiced his question.

Although he is a newcomer, Seth's abilities are not bad. He is a righteous person, and although he often gets carried away with his passion, he is an excellent sheriff overall.

Getting back to the main point, he believes that no matter how much Mountain Lion admires martial prowess or how elite his forces are, he is ultimately just a brute in the face of the police, and no matter how strong he is, he can never be stronger than the police.

Why didn't the police choose to destroy their base directly, but instead raided their middle ranks?

Zhu Yuan was stumped by his question, because although the Mountain Lions revered force, they were also extremely cunning. After each crime, they always managed to disappear without a trace through the hollow, thus evading the police's pursuit several times.

The Public Security Bureau has also conducted numerous comprehensive searches, including systematic, door-to-door investigations targeting areas where the suspects have been operating.

But to no avail, which is why a brilliant criminal psychologist like Jane is needed to infiltrate their ranks and find their true hiding place.

However, Jane's infiltration has not been as smooth as she had imagined recently. As mentioned earlier, this criminal organization called Mountain Lions is very cunning, and its leader, Raiza, is extremely cautious. Without exception, anyone who can get close to him and know his hiding place is a trusted confidant.

Therefore, even though a long time had passed since Jane infiltrated the Mountain Lions gang and he had risen to a mid-level position, he still had no way of meeting the leader, Riza, let alone knowing their true hiding place.

This operation was a plan devised by the Security Bureau after Jane explained her predicament—to find a way to strike at the Mountain Lions' mid-level forces, while simultaneously allowing Jane to demonstrate outstanding abilities in this operation so that she could be promoted to a higher level and gain access to Leader Riza.

All of this was kept secret, and only a few people in the police department knew about it. Seth wasn't among them, because he was too much of a believer in justice and didn't have a high tolerance for such behavior. After all, infiltrating as an undercover agent is no child's play; in order to gain the trust of their targets, undercover agents often have to work with them and commit various crimes.

Most importantly, he is prone to getting carried away and easily says the wrong thing. Zhu Yuan, who knows the whole picture of the plan, is very worried that if Seth gets excited and reveals things he shouldn't say, the whole plan will fall apart.

But Zhu Yuan herself isn't exactly a liar. She might be able to keep a secret, but getting her to lie to her friends isn't so easy. Her expressions alone are enough to give away something to those who know her.

Fortunately, the senior figure who knew the whole plan sat to the side and came to Zhu Yuan's rescue at this moment. He first put down his teacup, calmly said the predicament that the Public Security Bureau was facing and concealed the fact that the Public Security Bureau had sent someone to infiltrate. Finally, he turned the topic to Qingyi, who had just come in to report intelligence.

Qingyi naturally recounted the intelligence she had gathered. In short, her colleagues in the intelligence department had captured members of the Mountain Lion Gang in the empty area of ​​the old construction site, and now was the perfect time to launch a raid.

Meanwhile, Qingyi also brought good news: in order to increase the success rate of this operation, the Security Bureau specially requested support from the Sixth Anti-Air Section and borrowed the captain.

The approval has been granted, and the personnel have arrived at the designated location. After hearing this good news, the senior colleague put the lid on his teacup and issued the order to carry out the operation, while Zhu Yuan was given full command of the on-site operations.

Thus, the doomed operation, codenamed Operation Decoy, officially began.

Following the intelligence provided by the intelligence department, the captain quickly calculated the fastest route to the destination. Zhu Yuan led the elites, including Qingyi and Seth, to the gate of a construction site.

With a bang, the door was kicked open by Zhu Yuan, who then led the group in a fierce attack.

The henchmen guarding the main gate were quickly dealt with. After leaving a few people to guard the captured henchmen, Zhu Yuan led the team deeper inside and soon discovered the elite force led by Jian.

Upon seeing their target appear before them, Seth was the first to rush forward and engage in a fight with Jane. Zhu Yuan and Qingyi had no choice but to deal with the others first, while Jane was left to Seth to hold off.

However, just as Seth said at the meeting, the Mountain Lions are ultimately just a group of criminals who can't be brought to the table. No matter how strong their force is, it can't compare to the greater force of the Sheriff's Department.

So after dodging one of Seth's attacks, Jane confronted Seth while secretly preparing a smoke grenade with the pin pulled behind her back.

Jane originally planned to drop the smoke bomb unexpectedly and then lead her team away, but at that moment a group of citizens appeared out of nowhere at the scene.

The appearance of the citizens instantly drew everyone's attention. Seeing this, another captain from the Mountain Lions rushed over to the citizens, preparing to grab them as hostages. Meanwhile, Jane flashed in front of the sheriffs and threw the smoke bomb that had already been deactivated.

In an instant, the entire scene was enveloped in thick smoke. Qingyi even detected some ethereal substances in the smoke. For the safety of the other sheriffs, Zhu Yuan issued an order to remain on guard.

After all, their protective suits were enough to resist the corrosive effects of these ethereal substances, but who can guarantee that the mountain lions were definitely using the thick smoke to escape?

Meanwhile, on the other side of the thick smoke, another squad leader of the Mountain Lions had captured a civilian and intended to take him hostage. Seeing this, Jane suggested that the squad leader release the civilian as soon as possible, as it would slow down their retreat.

However, the squad leader said that the citizen would definitely be useful. Just then, Seth rushed out of the thick smoke. Hearing the commotion, the squad leader immediately grabbed the hostage by the neck and threatened Seth.

"You despicable scoundrels, release that citizen at once!"

Seth pointed his riot baton directly at the company commander, who was startled by Seth's imposing demeanor, but then realized that he still had a hostage in his hands.

"If you tell me to release him, I'll just release him. Wouldn't that make me lose face? Unless you're offered in exchange!"

"it is good!"

Without a moment's hesitation, Seth agreed to the squad leader's request, forcefully throwing his weapons to the ground and letting the Mountain Lions tie him up.

Jian was alarmed as she watched, thinking that this part was not in the plan. Could it be that Zhu Yuan and the others did not have time to inform her that the plan had changed?

However, now is not the time to think about these things. Jane caught up with the main force and quickly lost track of Jane and the others when the smoke cleared. Seth's whereabouts also disappeared along with Jane.

Following their memories, Zhu Yuan and the others quickly found three citizens huddled in a corner. The good news was that the three citizens were safe and sound, but the bad news was that there were more than just these three citizens.

According to surviving citizens, Seth volunteered to become a hostage of the Mountain Lion in order to protect them, but the Mountain Lion broke his promise and did not completely release everyone, still kidnapping several citizens.

The reason given was the fear that it was a trap, and that Seth might attack and injure people once they returned to the base. The civilians were arrested to prevent this from happening.

After learning the details, Zhu Yuan sighed. She had known this would happen, which was why she hadn't advised Seth to travel with the team from the beginning.

Seth's sense of responsibility is too strong, and no amount of persuasion can dissuade him. In addition, if there were a sheriff with Seth's genuine personality in this operation, the chances of the other party becoming suspicious would be greatly reduced.

Having no other choice, Zhu Yuan agreed to Seth's request and allowed him to join the operation. Fortunately, to prevent any accidents, Zhu Yuan had the captain install a locator on Seth's equipment beforehand.

Or rather, Seth's entire suit is a launcher; yes, the protective suit Seth is wearing is not an ordinary protective suit.

It is a protective suit designed by Otto, a suit that encapsulates a great deal of Otto's technology, and here, apart from Seth, no one is worthy of wearing it.

Well, actually, the captain had a premonition that Seth, this hothead, was too prone to acting impulsively, so after obtaining Zhu Yuan's consent, he secretly replaced Seth's usual protective suit with Otto's specially made protective suit.

This protective suit not only automatically adjusts to fit the wearer's body shape for greater comfort, but also utilizes Soul-like Steel technology, significantly enhancing its defensive capabilities while remaining remarkably lightweight.

Furthermore, it can absorb free etheric energy within the cavity based on the wearer's etheric adaptability to enhance the wearer's combat power. Most importantly, the protective suit can automatically activate its positioning function when necessary.

It continuously emits signals at a specific frequency, signals that are so concealed they require specialized equipment to detect. Furthermore, this protective suit can transmit real-time intelligence about the wearer's surroundings.

Of course, this function can also be turned on manually. The captain has already turned on the function and quickly located the area where Seth is located.

However, according to the information transmitted back from Seth, it seems to be just a safe house for the Mountain Lions.

There are many more mountain lions like that in safe houses, so Zhu Yuan determined that now is not a good time to attack.

Moreover, with Seth as a hostage of sufficient importance, Jane is believed to quickly gain the favor of the Mountain Lions leader, thus still being able to find out the Mountain Lions' true hiding place, so the plan remains unchanged.

However, Seth's protective suit is indeed very useful. Another reason for replacing Seth's protective suit this time is to take the opportunity to test its performance. If there are no problems, this protective suit will be fully adapted to every sheriff.

After this test, Zhu Yuan believed that day would return soon.

So Zhu Yuan and the others retreated first and began a "post-mortem" of the failed operation. At that moment, Zhe and Ling were chatting happily with Kiana in the office building of the Guangying Branch of the Public Security Bureau.

It turns out that the Public Security Bureau sent a message today reminding Zhe and Ling that their business licenses are about to expire and they need to go to the Public Security Bureau soon to renew their electronic licenses.

After they finished completing the necessary procedures, they ran into Kiana, who had come to pick up the captain, and the three of them started chatting in front of the police station.

Kiana told Tetsuya and Rinya about the operation, but she didn't mention the specifics, only that it had failed.

The reason given was that several workers who got lost while working in the cave accidentally wandered into the site during the clearing operation, which led to the failure of the operation—a very official explanation.

Zhe had also heard of the Mountain Lion criminal group. After all, the Mountain Lion's power had risen rapidly recently, and they used the Void to evade the police. Therefore, the rope net had mentioned this organization to some extent.

The net even hinted that the Security Bureau would be launching an operation against Mountain Lions soon, and there were even rumors that the Security Bureau had already planted spies within Mountain Lions a long time ago, just waiting for the leader to appear so that they could take them all down at once.

However, this conjecture was quickly disproven. An account claiming to be from the Mountain Lions denied the hypothesis on the rope net, stating that everyone who joined the Mountain Lions was personally selected by their leader.

Although the leader never appears during the entire process, the final decision is still made by that mysterious leader.

"Is that mountain lion really that powerful?" Zhe couldn't help but ask.

"You can't really say they're that powerful," Kiana shook her head and said. "After all, Mountain Lions is still just a criminal organization, and it's far inferior to the police department with TOPS support. The only reason we haven't brought them to justice yet is because we can't find their stronghold and take them down in one fell swoop."

“I see. But if this operation fails, won’t the enemy become even more cautious? Should we…” Ling carefully looked around and then suggested in a low voice.

"No need for that," the captain's voice came from behind.

Kiana quickly came to the captain's side after hearing his voice, and when she returned to Tetsuya and Rin's side, their hands were already clasped together.

After ignoring the couple's apparent display of affection, Zhe asked, "Are you sure you don't need our help?"

"Of course not. The failure of this operation was expected. Besides, we have already taken control of one of their strongholds and are now preparing to play the long game."

After understanding the captain's meaning, Zhe felt relieved. It made sense; no matter how stupid the security bureau was, they wouldn't leave without sending any undercover agents if they couldn't find the enemy's stronghold.

Based on this, it seems very likely that the person who refuted the rumors on the rope net was from the Public Security Bureau.

So this operation must have been deliberately thwarted in order to allow the undercover agent to successfully locate the Mountain Lion's true stronghold.

Since that's the case, then they don't need to get involved in this matter. Anyway, with the captain and Kiana backing them up, I believe Mountain Lion will be caught soon.

After figuring this out, Zhe called out to Ling, said goodbye to Kiana and the captain, and then drove home.