RBCT Chapter 171 Shattering the Night, the Wild Route of Siberia
Chapter 171 Shattering the Night, the Wild Route of Siberia
On the winding mountain road, the night wind blew down the ridge, stirring up fine sand that crackled against the steel panels of the car.
Chen Yan sat in the passenger seat, his gaze passing over the steel mesh welded to the windshield and landing on the bend in front of him, cut open by the headlights.
Two beams of light pierced the darkness, illuminating less than thirty meters of the road ahead before being swallowed up by the mountain mist and night.
Wu Gang gripped the steering wheel with both hands, the sweat on his palms absorbed by the leather, and he never let go of the accelerator.
The modified pickup truck slid along the mountainside through a series of hairpin bends, its tires screeching as they rolled over the asphalt, the sound echoing back and forth through the valley, making one's back teeth clench.
With each bend, the front bumper would drag the entire car outwards, the seatbelt digging into her chest, and Su Wan's shoulder blades slammed against the seat back, leaving her unable to catch her breath for a long time.
Chen Yan stared at the navigation device, the red dot on the screen flashing at the end of the mountain road. He raised his hand to hold the aluminum alloy constant temperature box in his arms, and each word he spoke was slurred by the sound of the engine.
"The nose of the King of Hell is right ahead, get ready to crash into it."
Wu Gang didn't reply. He slapped the gear lever down with his right hand, and the gear lever was pulled into a lower gear. The moment he pressed the accelerator, the engine speed needle went straight to the redline, and the car lurched forward again amidst violent vibrations.
The bend is right in front of us.
As the light swept across, the road fifty meters ahead was covered with triangular nails, and rows of steel spikes reflected a cold light, lying across the middle of the mountain road, leaving no gaps even along the guardrails.
"pay close attention!"
Wu Gang roared, but instead of stopping the accelerator, he slammed his foot down on it.
The pickup truck sped into the nail array at a speed of over 90 kilometers per hour.
Before the sound of a tire being punctured could be heard, the thick, 60-degree angled bumper under the front of the vehicle pressed down first, pushing along the road surface. Hundreds of triangular nails, along with the surface asphalt, were scooped up and flipped to both sides.
The steel spikes clattered against the mountainside and guardrails, making a loud clanging sound. The car body bounced up and down, and sparks flew from the front of the vehicle, illuminating the mountain road ahead in a few seconds.
After breaking through the nail array, two Caterpillar loaders blocked the end of the light, their massive yellow and black bodies blocking the entire road, their buckets pressed extremely low, half a meter off the ground, already poised to overturn oncoming vehicles.
Inside the driver's seat, Snake Brother stared at the pickup truck that had forced its way out of the nail array, and his face twitched.
He had expected the other car to brake, skid, or roll down into the ditch, but instead, the car sped out with sparks flying everywhere, showing no sign of backing down.
"court death!"
Snake pushed the control lever down.
The loader roared with a dull mechanical sound as its massive bucket slammed down on the pickup truck's cab, while another loader simultaneously rolled over, the two steel behemoths clamping the narrow road into a barely closed gap.
We'll collide in less than two seconds.
Wu Gang's eyes were bloodshot. He turned the steering wheel all the way with his left hand and pulled up the handbrake with his right.
The pickup truck veered sideways on the highway, its left wheel rolling directly onto the slope below the mountainside, causing the entire vehicle to tilt nearly halfway up. The right wheel left the ground, and everything inside the truck bed crashed to one side.
At this dangerous angle, the pickup truck cut through the less than two-meter gap between the buckets of the two loaders.
The sound of metal being forcibly pulled apart pierced the night.
The welded protective steel plate on the right side of the pickup truck grazed past the loader's bucket, tearing a long gash in the thick steel plate. Sparks flew down from the car window, illuminating Su Wan's tense face and making it appear deathly pale.
The right-side window couldn't withstand the pressure and shattered completely, with shards splashing into the car and covering Su Wan.
Chen Yan held the incubator close to his chest. His hand was cut by broken glass, and blood seeped out between his fingers, but he didn't even glance at it.
"past!"
Wu Gang released the handbrake and pressed the accelerator to the floor again.
The four-wheel drive system gripped the ground with a scream, and the pickup truck squeezed between the two loaders. When the vehicle landed back on the road, the suspension system made a dull groan as if it were about to die, but the wheels did not lose power and it continued to drag its battered body toward the end of the mountain road.
Behind him, Snake pushed the lever too far, and the pickup truck grazed his vision, causing the loader's tracks to run over gravel and spikes, and the loader lost its grip.
The massive vehicle veered towards the inner side of the mountain wall, its inertia propelling it into the rock formation.
Gravel fell from above, squeezing and deforming the cab. Snake Brother's forehead hit the steering wheel, and blood blurred his vision.
He frantically tried to shift into reverse, but the hydraulic system had malfunctioned, and the control lever was stuck limply in place. He could only watch helplessly as the dilapidated pickup truck disappeared at the end of the winding mountain road.
When the first light illuminated the airport's exterior, it was already six in the morning.
At the entrance of Datong Airport, Chen Yan pushed open the deformed car door. His shoes touched the ground, his knees went weak for a moment, but he forced them back in.
His down jacket was stained with shards of glass and dried blood, and he was still clutching the aluminum alloy incubator in his arms, his arms tightly wrapped around it, the corner of the incubator pressed into his ribs without loosening.
Su Wan and Wu Gang followed behind. Wu Gang's sleeve was torn in half, and his elbow was scraped. There were small shards of glass stuck in Su Wan's hair, but no one stopped to deal with them.
Lin Qingqiu stayed in the car to guard the supplies and also kept an eye on the parking lot entrance.
The waiting hall was empty. The floor had just been mopped, and the smell of cleaning agents mixed with the cold wind filled my nostrils. In the distance, several cleaning staff pushed buckets of water, their mops leaving wet, shiny marks on the tiles.
Chen Yan went straight to the check-in counter and placed his ID card and ticket information on the counter.
"Check in your luggage, take an early morning flight to Beijing, transfer in Beijing to Paris, and then transfer in Venice."
The ground staff looked up and saw the bloodstains and torn clothes on his body. His fingers paused on the keyboard for half a beat before his professional smile returned to his face.
She tapped a few keys on the keyboard, the screen light reflecting on her face, her expression gradually tightening.
"I'm sorry, sir, we have just received an urgent notification from the air traffic control bureau that the airspace around Datong Airport is under temporary air traffic control, and all departing flights will be delayed indefinitely."
Chen Yan lowered his eyelids.
"Indefinitely? The weather's not bad, and there aren't any military exercises, so where does the control come from?"
"This is an order from higher command; we cannot find the specific reason here."
The ground staff pointed to the flight information screen in the center of the hall.
Chen Yan turned his head.
On the huge electronic screen, the flight statuses to domestic hub airports flashed red line by line, with the word "delayed" appearing one after another, making one's eyes dry.
Su Wan's expression changed. She took out her phone and walked to the side, her fingers quickly swiping through her contacts.
She made several transoceanic calls, switching between English and French, her sentences short and urgent. Occasionally she would pause to listen to the other person say a few words, her brow furrowing even deeper.
Ten minutes later, she returned to Chen Yan's side, the veins on the back of her hand holding the phone bulging.
"Found it, it's Harvey."
Chen Yan looked at her without saying a word.
"He used his connections with the Delta Air Lines board of directors."
Su Wan turned off her phone screen and spoke quickly, "Delta has deep code-sharing agreements with several domestic airlines. Using abnormal weather warning data as an excuse, he made Delta temporarily freeze all code-sharing routes involving airports in northern China. Domestic airlines don't want to take risks with international air rights, so they have no choice but to follow suit."
She glanced at her watch and swallowed hard.
"The Venice organizing committee gave us only fourteen hours left to make the deadline. With the civil aviation route cut off, we can't even go to Beijing now, let alone Italy."
Chen Yan stood still, staring at the screen full of red text.
Harvey didn't need to send anyone to rob them, nor did he need to block them at the airport entrance.
Sitting in his Los Angeles office, he could make a few phone calls and, by exploiting the loopholes in the equity relationships and rules of multinational corporations, pin a Chinese director's film crew to the Datong Airport in the early morning.
Wu Gang slowly clenched his fist, his knuckles cracking softly.
He can dismantle roadblocks, ram loaders, and drive a car down a mountain road like a cannonball, but when faced with this invisible net, he throws a punch and can't even find the landing point.
Chen Yan neither cursed nor threw anything.
His gaze shifted from the flight information screen to the incubator in his arms, and then to the gradually brightening sky outside the airport window.
Regular routes are blocked, and civil aviation is unable to operate.
Harvey has extended his reach into commercial shipping routes, so he has no choice but to find a way to disregard these commercial rules.
Chen Yan took out his phone and dialed an encrypted number.
The phone rang three times before being answered.
"Sister Lin."
As he spoke, his breath caught in his throat by the seatbelt around his chest, but he still managed to finish, despite the pain, "Find out that Russian shipping route you used to smuggle pirated films in Suifenhe back then. I want to charter a cargo plane."
On the other end of the phone, Lin Shufen sounded like she had just been pulled out of bed, her voice still lingering sleepiness.
"Director Chen, what kind of international joke are you making so early in the morning? That line has been dormant for almost ten years, and now they're investigating it so thoroughly..."
"Lu Haiming's men blocked my way in the mountains, and Harvey cut off my civil aviation route."
Chen Yan interrupted her, "I'm holding the negative of 'Thunder,' stuck at Datong Airport, with thirteen and a half hours left before the Venice ultimatum."
There was a two-second silence on the other end of the phone.
With her drowsiness completely gone, when Lin Shufen spoke again, her tone was cold, like a businessman before settling accounts.
Where are you flying to?
"I don't care where it is, as long as it can land in Europe, the sooner the better."
Give me ten minutes.
The phone hangs up.
Chen Yan put away his phone and turned to look at Su Wan and Wu Gang.
"Go get something to eat to replenish your energy."
He gazed at the edge of the clouds outside the French windows, illuminated by the morning sun, and pressed his finger on the latch of the incubator.
"The road ahead won't be easy."