Sebastian was holding the steering wheel but he didn"t start the car. His favorite jazz artist was coming through the stereo, but the sound seemed harsh and distracting.
19.93 seconds! That"s the result of a world champion. Since Kittell has retired, this result could bring a gold medal in the Olympic Games, or at least a medal.
Shawn Ford got 19.93 seconds, which shows that he is in a good state. If he keeps that state, even if he goes a little slower, he will pa.s.s the qualification trials of the Olympic Games. In other words, he has already reserved one seat in the 200m.
But the question is, why can he suddenly run so fast? What he has done this year to let him run so fast? Let alone within 20 seconds, even someone within 20.10 seconds could win nearly any champions.h.i.+p in America!
After that World Champions.h.i.+p, Shawn Ford didn"t perform well at all. I almost forgot him. But now he has come back without any warning. There must be something strange! There must be! If I am right, the Chinese coach is the key.
It could be viewed as luck or coincidence when Alexander returned to his former state. But now Shawn Ford is achieving again. How could it be possible that both these changes are by chance? Dai Li must be giving excitants to them, or they couldn"t improve so fast.
Thinking of this, Sebastian suddenly felt annoyed that Dai Li"s excitant must be powerful enough that even an old athlete like Shawn Ford could regain his status.
No, I need to notify Franklin"s Lab at once. I must figure out what the h*ll Dai Li is using. Sebastian took up his phone and called Franklin...
...
After a whole day training, Ford was tired and walked close to Alexander.
"Justin, could you take me to the station? My car is in the shop," Shawn Ford said apologetically.
"Sure, I"ll give you a ride." Alexander nodded. "But wait for me for five minutes, I need to go to the bathroom."
"The men"s toilet in the bathroom over there is broken. One hour ago, when I went there, workers were examining it. You"d better go to another bathroom outside," Ford said casually.
"Broken again. It"s really frequent." Alexander continued, "Not long ago, the toilet was broken and a plumber was repairing it, but that guy was gay. He stared at my d.i.c.k when I had a pee. That was really awkward."
"Was he about so tall, with thin with brown hair and a beard on his upper lip?" Ford made some gestures as he said.
"Yes, that"s him." Alexander obviously hadn"t forgotten the plumber"s appearance, and he continued to ask, "You met him too?"
"It seems like we met the same guy. D*mn it! Of course we met a gay guy right when we had to pee, and he stared at us for so long..." Ford started to talk dirty. Obviously, he didn"t like gays at all.
...
Andrew was an investigator of a research company. He had met many weird clients and also received many strange commissions. For example, he was asked to get an athlete"s urine sample not long ago.
That investigation was not as good as Andrew expected. He pretended to be a plumber and got the athlete"s urine sample successfully, but at the same time, the athlete thought he was gay.
Andrew didn"t think that he could get another similar commission. However, to his surprise, he got one again not long after to get another athlete"s urine sample.
Therefore, Andrew pretended to be a plumber again.
As a man and a temporary-urologist, it was really embarra.s.sing to watch another man peeing.
Still, he succeeded at gaining the sample, but he would never forget the athlete"s face when he looked at him.
The athlete"s face was full of irony, disdain, and disgust. There was no doubt that the athlete this time also treated Andrew as a gay.
Andrew felt that his dignity had been trampled.
D*mn it! I swear that I will never accept such a commission again!
...
Franklin was holding a detection report but his face looked serious.
"How is the result? Anything wrong?" Sebastian asked eagerly.
Franklin shook his head. "The result of Shawn Ford is as normal as that of Justin Alexander."
Both of them were silent for half a minute. Franklin spoke first. "Can you be certain that Shawn Ford used excitant?"
"What else? I can"t figure out another possibility." Sebastian continued, "Last time it could have been luck for Alexander, but could it possible that this time was luck again? Moreover, Ford was different from Alexander. Before he was suspended, Alexander was a top sprinter in the world, known as the fastest athlete of America. But how about Shawn Ford?"
"These years, he has been unknown to the public, only an average athlete. But after changing coaches, he suddenly becomes world champions.h.i.+p level. If Ford was good enough, why didn"t he perform well these years? So, the only thing I can think is that the Chinese coach let them dope excitant so that they could improve more quickly!"
Franklin sighed. "I admit it makes sense. One time could be coincidence, but two times in a row suggests a high probability that it was caused by human factors. However, we didn"t detect anything related to an excitant at all!"
"Maybe Dai Li holds more advanced technology?" Sebastian asked.
"No way! Our technology is the most advanced in the world." In terms of technology, Franklin felt very confident.
"Should it be possible that he uses a new excitant, which is beyond the seven varieties we already know, and it is very effective, just like..." Sebastian thought a while and said, "Just like the serum used by Captain America, which could strengthen bodies!"
"That only exists in cartoon and film. It"s not reality." Franklin suddenly paused as if he had thought of something. He lowered his voice and continued, "But what you said does make a certain kind of sense. It is said that the military researched the so-called "super soldier" during Cold War. It was the Soviet Union that started to use steroidal drugs, which were designed to create more powerful soldiers. However, the research was eventually applied to athletes."
"That sounds terrifying," Sebastian said. His generation experienced the Cold War, when the powerful Soviet Union could surpa.s.s the United States in military power. Therefore, hearing about the Soviet Union made Sebastian afraid, even though the Soviet Union had collapsed decades ago.
Franklin continued, "In the United States, Europe, and even j.a.pan, the process of many labs is transparent. Of course, it doesn"t mean it"s real-time, but these labs will show the public their achievements in scientific research at short intervals. Not only can they give their investors a mandate, but also, they can gain more money for research. But it is different in socialist countries. Their labs belong to the government and the government funds them. The processes of many labs are cla.s.sified. If they don"t register a patent, we don"t even know what they are studying. As far as I know, Dai Li comes from that kind of country. So, we can"t exclude the possibility that he indeed has a new excitant, not as powerful as that of Captain America, but still good enough."
"So, what can we do now?" Sebastian asked.
"The first thing we need to know is whether he really has a new type of excitant." Franklin looked at Sebastian seriously as he said, "I"ll continue to send a private investigator to investigate him, but you also need to help me."
"What can I do?" Sebastian asked.
"You will become the chief coach of the USA national track and field team soon, right? I want you to get more information with that new ident.i.ty," said Franklin.
...
The national office of the USA Track and Field in Polis, Indiana.
The CEO of the USA Track and Field, Williams, handed a letter of appointment to Sebastian personally, and said, "Coach Sebastian, congratulations! You are the new coach of our national team."
"Thank you. I will try my best to get a good result in the Olympic Games." Sebastian accepted the letter of appointment.
Williams said with a smile, "Coach Sebastian, even though the qualifiers of the Olympic Games haven"t started, I want to know your opinion on our national team, especially on which aspects we can expect breakthroughs. You know, the public concentrates on this. They want to see that we can make progress and our athletes can achieve ever greater things."
"I think in terms of men"s sprint events, we will perform better than the previous two Olympic Games, even regain the gold medal," Sebastian said. "During the last few Olympics, Jamaica has always surpa.s.sed us in sprint events. But now, Kittell has retired and he will not attend this Olympic Games. Therefore, we definitely can get gold medals in men"s 100m, 200m, and 4x100m. Next, my focus will s.h.i.+ft to these three events. I"ll get the gold medal back!"
"The a.s.sociation thought just as you said. In fact, you were chosen as the chief coach this time because you have rich experience in sprint events. We hope you can make a breakthrough in this event for the national team." Williams nodded with a smile and continued to ask, "How about the 400m? Do you have anything to say?"
"We are always excellent in the 400m event. We have dominated the 400m in Olympic Games for about thirty years, and we even got all the three medals in one Olympic Games. In this event, our athletes are all world-top, like Brown, Andrew, Francois, Stephenson... Any one of them has the strength to get the Olympic champions.h.i.+p," Sebastian said.
"How about Aylwin?" Williams continued to ask.
Sebastian was shocked. "Aylwin? You mean Jimmy Aylwin? Didn"t he retire three years ago?"
"It seems that you still don"t know. You must have missed the news this morning," Williams said with a smile.
Sebastian nodded. "Yes sir. I came here on an early flight today and didn"t have the time to check the news. What happened?"
"Indeed. Jimmy Aylwin announced that he is coming back!" Williams answered.
...
Sebastian felt conflicted about the idea of Aylwin coming back.
Aylwin was a legendary athlete, but Sebastian was not a legendary coach, which made Sebastian feel that he wasn"t good enough to train a big-name athlete. Sebastian was afraid that he couldn"t dominate Aylwin.
Aylwin was retired for three years, and he is about 35 years old now. In terms of his age, his career should have ended! Maybe I think too much. He may not pa.s.s the qualification, let alone the national team.
Thinking of this, Sebastian"s phone was ringing. It was from his a.s.sistant.
"Coach, I have checked it out. Early this morning, Jimmy Aylwin announced that he is returning on his social media, and that he would attend the qualifiers of the Olympic Games. According to the grapevine, Aylwin started his training several months ago," the a.s.sistant said.
"Several months? I didn"t expect them to keep it a secret so well. Is he training by himself or with another coach?"
"Yes, Aylwin is training in the Chinese coach"s training center in Los Angeles," answered the a.s.sistant.
"Dai Li? How could it be him again? Why is he everywhere?" Sebastian could not help shouting. His mood became much worse.