bioinnovel Chapter 398 Unidentified Armed Forces!
Chapter 398 Unidentified Armed Forces!
Qin Xiao is very efficient.
Six hours later, half of the details about the armed convoy had been uncovered.
Zhang Yan was examining the joint components of the white tiger in the underground laboratory when he received the call.
The White Tiger suffered significant damage in the battle of Yokosuka. After repairs, its overall performance recovered to 90%, but the energy transfer efficiency of its right forelimb remained one percentage point lower.
"Found it." Qin Xiao's voice carried a subtle meaning. "A private military contractor, registered in Liechtenstein. The company is called 'Polaris Security.' The team consists of forty-two people, heavily armed, equipped with deep drilling equipment and portable energy detection devices."
"Energy detection device?"
"It's not a standard model. The intelligence officers said that the equipment has a very narrow detection frequency band, specifically designed for a certain type of energy waveform. The specifications are not in any known military or civilian catalog."
Zhang Yan stopped what he was doing.
A detection device for a specific energy waveform. Not listed in any known catalog.
This is not something that money can buy.
"Where is the employer?"
"Tracing back through the five shell companies, the first three are standard offshore shells, the fourth is registered in Switzerland. The fifth—" Qin Xiao paused. "...the end of the financial chain points to the Helios Group."
Zhang Yan's fingers paused slightly.
Helios.
It's the Helios Group that kept the Sahara meteorites.
It owns the Prometheus Laboratory.
Zhang Yangang cut 72 grams of Stardust from their fifth-floor underground warehouse.
He went through the information in his mind.
Nie Qingcheng was the first to react. Her voice came from the study, indicating that she had been eavesdropping on Qin Xiao's call.
"They discovered that the meteorite had been disturbed."
Zhang Yan shook his head.
He skillfully smoothed out the cutting marks when taking samples, making them undetectable to the naked eye and conventional equipment.
Moreover, the security system did not trigger any abnormalities when he left.
If Helios discovered that the samples had been tampered with, his reaction should not have been to send armed forces to Siberia—it should have been to seal off the laboratory and track down the intruders.
The logic is flawed.
"It's not because of the meteorite," Zhang Yan said.
Nie Qingcheng came out of the study and stood at the laboratory door. "Why is that?"
Zhang Yan closed the joint cover on the white tiger.
"Because they already knew where the door was."
Nie Qingcheng's expression remained unchanged, but she gently tapped the door frame with her fingers.
Zhang Yan continued, "Helios was in charge of the Sahara meteorite, which served as the calibration anchor for the third gate. It's impossible that they didn't know what they were safeguarding. This wasn't a coincidence; it was their duty."
"you mean--"
"Helios is the gatekeeper's shell. Or at least related to the gatekeeper. They have the coordinates of the gate, specialized detection equipment, and they sent people over the moment the sixth gate malfunctioned."
Nie Qingcheng leaned against the door frame, her arms crossed over her chest.
"If that's the case, you might run into them if you go."
"Highly likely."
"So what do you plan to do?"
Zhang Yan thought for two seconds. "I carry the Heart of Heavenly Craftsmanship. The Heart of Heavenly Craftsmanship is the key, and they hold the lock. Key and lock are a natural match. If they are truly the gatekeepers, they should be able to recognize each other."
"What if they don't recognize it?"
"That was a misjudgment." Zhang Yan's tone remained unchanged. "Forty-two people. White Tiger plus Black Scorpion."
Nie Qingcheng didn't respond to that.
She turned and went back to her study, emerging a few minutes later with a tablet in her hand.
“I looked up the history of Helios,” she said, handing over the screen. “Founded in 1947, the founding team consisted of a group of European archaeologists and physicists. World War II had just ended. The source of initial funding is unknown; there are no records of bank loans, government grants, or any public financing.”
Zhang Yan glanced at it.
"Its subsidiaries," Nie Qingcheng scrolled down. "Mining, materials science, deep geological exploration. Branch offices are located on six continents, but laboratories and warehouses are only set up in remote, uninhabited areas. They never conduct business in city centers."
All of them point to areas related to "doors".
Nie Qingcheng put the tablet away. "Furthermore, Helios has never changed its ultimate controller since 1947. Seventy-seven years, the same family. There is almost no public information about this family—no social media, no interview records, and no record of attending any public events."
Zhang Yan's brows furrowed.
It's been kept so well hidden; it doesn't seem like a business transaction. It seems like a mission.
"Stargazing." He took out his phone and dialed.
The stargazing was answered very quickly.
"Besides the Heavenly View Pavilion, are there any other organizations actively protecting the gate?"
Guan Xing remained silent for a long time. At least ten seconds.
"Guan Tian Ge (Observatory for the Heavens) never maintains its gates. We only observe. This has been the case for three hundred years."
"I asked someone else."
Another silence.
"The gatekeeper mentioned in the manuscript," Guan Xing's voice was low, "existed before the founding of Guantian Pavilion. Our founder left that system and established Guantian Pavilion. The two organizations parted ways from then on."
"Why did we part ways?"
"Different philosophies. The gatekeeper believes the door must be locked, and any attempt to understand what's outside is dangerous. The founder of Guantiange believes that the real danger lies in not observing and understanding."
"So you two broke up."
"They parted ways. There was no further contact. I don't know if the gatekeepers still exist. If they are the force behind Helios—" The Stargazer's tone changed. "Then they've been hiding for at least eighty years."
Zhang Yan digested this information.
"One last question. What is the 'lock' in the gatekeeper's hand?"
"I don't know. It's not mentioned in the manuscript. All I know is that it corresponds to the Heart of the Heavenly Craftsman—a key and a lock."
Zhang Yan hung up the phone.
Nie Qingcheng listened the whole time.
What do you think?
Zhang Yan leaned against the control panel. "The gatekeepers aren't enemies, and most likely they're not allies either. They have their own system and rules. 'Don't cross the line'—my appearance at the sixth gate with the Heart of Heavenly Craft might be considered crossing that line by them."
"So you may be facing pressure from outside the door and rejection from the gatekeeper inside the door at the same time."
"That's possible."
Nie Qingcheng looked at him. Her expression was very calm.
But Zhang Yan knew her. At that moment, she wasn't thinking about whether or not to go, but rather how to get him back in the worst-case scenario.
"Old Liu and Zhao Hong are on standby in Vladivostok," she said. "I'll also have Qin Xiao arrange for a military transport plane to be on standby in Yakutsk, in case you need to evacuate urgently, just head north."
Zhang Yan nodded.
"I'll prepare the food tonight." Nie Qingcheng was already heading towards the kitchen. "Finish repairing the White Tiger. We'll leave first thing tomorrow morning."
She took two steps, then stopped.
"Zhang Yan".
"Um."
"Forty-two people isn't the problem." She didn't turn around. "The problem is the 'lock' they're holding—you don't know what it is."
She went into the kitchen.
Zhang Yan reopened the joint cover of the white tiger and continued to repair the right forelimb.
His hands were steady. His mind was working.
Keys and locks are a natural pair. This statement can be interpreted as cooperation or opposition.
A key is needed to open the lock.
But the purpose of a lock is to prevent a key from opening it unnecessarily.
The phone vibrated. It was a encrypted message from Qin Xiao.
"Brother Yan, the convoy's latest satellite positioning has been updated. They're not stopped 80 kilometers away. They're moving. Direction—directly towards the coordinates of the sixth gate. Current distance: 47 kilometers. Based on their speed, they'll arrive directly above the gate in about two days."
Two days.
Zhang Yan will depart early tomorrow morning, fly to Vladivostok, change cars and head north. It will take at least three days to reach the Sixth Gate.
They arrived before him.