Chapter 77: A Major Blackout in Cape Town
The sky slowly dimmed.
Time pa.s.sed by like sand flowing through one’s fingers. The day was entering dusk.
In Dlamini’s private estate in Cape Town, at a luxurious dining table made of pink ivory, Dlamini was holding a bowl of hot soup and sipping it carefully.
Currently, his face was pale, and there was a frail light in his expression. Even his hands, holding the bowl, were trembling slightly.
Although Dlamini was fifty-eight years old, his body had always been strong and st.u.r.dy like a puma at its peak. There was no sign that he was someone about to enter his later years.
However, since yesterday, after he left the manor with a group of men and vanished for a day and night, he had acted this way when he returned.
Everyone knew that he had been conspired against, but no one knew what he had seen or what had happened to him...
Still, at least he came back safely in one piece. In a country like the Rainbow Nation where crime flourished everywhere, this was worth celebrating.
Just then, a subordinate walked in from outside, holding a red invitation letter inlaid with gold. “Boss, the Cape Chamber of Commerce has sent you an invitation to partic.i.p.ate in the international trade fair next week...”
“Get out!”
Dlamini did not even look up as he said tonelessly.
“Um...” This subordinate went blank for a moment, unsure if he had heard correctly.
“I said, get out!” Dlamini said with more emphasis, slamming the bowl onto the table.
“Right!” The guy hurriedly exited and the room fell into silence again.
Dlamini sighed. He touched the wound on the back of his neck with a defiant glint in his eyes.
“D*mn it, what do I do to get rid of this thing... Uh...”
However, just as that defiance flashed in his eyes, he was overcome by a sense of suffocation as if a pair of invisible hands was gripping his throat!
Dlamini hurriedly touched his neck but in the next instant, his entire body tingled and turned numb...
As if he had suffered a stroke, Dlamini immediately fell from his dining chair, curling up and convulsing on the floor!
“Boss!”
“Mr. Dlamini!”
The bodyguard at the door, hearing this commotion, rushed in quickly. “Oh no, it must be epilepsy. Go get a doctor!”
“No need for that...”
Nonetheless, before the other bodyguard could rush out, he was held back by Dlamini. “There’s no need for a doctor. I’m fine...”
“Boss, your body...”
“It’s nothing. Wait outside.”
As Dlamini spoke, he clambered up feebly, terror flashed in his eyes. “Don’t call a doctor, not by any means...”
The bodyguards left him with skeptical expressions.
At this point, Dlamini sat down heavily on a nearby sofa. His eyes were dully fixed upon the ceiling and he did not move for a long time.
“Beep, notification of task!”
However, a cold mechanical female voice suddenly invaded Dlamini’s ears.
Dlamini shuddered all over, alarm flashing in his eyes. Even so, he was not surprised by this voice that appeared out of nowhere.
“Number Delta 20220001, you have received an order from Sigma05. Please check!”
The voice seemed to be right next to his ear, yet he could not pinpoint where it came from. Dlamini knew that this voice came from his brain...
“Sigm05 issued the order: Number Delta 2022001, please begin the plan as discussed!”
“Repeat!”
“Sigma05 issued the order: Number Delta... Please begin...”
“Repeat!”
“Sigma05 issued the order...”
The voice repeated itself tirelessly, precise and mechanical without a trace of emotion. It seemed to be a computer-synthesized voice.
“Understood...”
Dlamini wriggled his lips and replied with some difficulty.
He knew that if he ignored the voice, it would keep ringing in his mind. Not only that, but also the other party might punish him physically just like before...
Dlamini no longer dared to consider resistance. He simply stood up quietly, packed his messy clothes, and dialed a number.
“Leyton?”
“Yes, your family has already boarded the plane to Washington, North America. You may begin.”
After he had completed the order, Dlamini turned off his phone and sat dazedly on the sofa, falling into a stupor...
A few minutes later, among the transmission towers on the outskirts of Cape Town, which connected the high-voltage grid over dozens of kilometers, the ground abruptly exploded without warning. A series of towers collapsed and the high-voltage wires were cut off as well!
At the same time, in a step-down substation on the edge of Cape Town, a fierce fire suddenly erupted. Thick, billowing smoke rose into the sky, which became stained red by the fire, forming a second scenery of flaming clouds.
Through this chain of explosions, the electricity network of Cape Town was destroyed. The city that was originally brightly lit, the second-largest city in the Rainbow Nation, was plunged into the darkness of eternal night.
...
All this was what Chen Chen and Dlamini had agreed upon.
In the agreement, no matter what method Dlamini adopted, he must come up with five days for Chen Chen to use the Eiffel Power Plant. Within these five days, the Eiffel Power Plant would not send a single watt of electricity toward Cape Town.
At first, this seemed impossible, even for Dlamini who had so many powerful connections.
He would not have been able to stand up to City Hall, along with the entire city. Thus, he came up with this compromise.
Using the forces he had cultivated in Cape Town for many years, he directly imitated the methods of the resistance groups. He buried explosives in the soil and blew up the transmission towers that transported high-voltage power, thereby cutting off the power channel from the power plant to the city.
Still, he was not a.s.sured, so he also destroyed the city’s step-down substation.
After all, if only the power towers were destroyed, City Hall would react more quickly. Power could be restored within 24 hours. However, if even the substation was destroyed, that was more difficult to predict...
Regardless of the subsequent inspection and renovation carried out by the City Hall, the entire Cape Town would enter a most primitive state, one without electricity, for three to five days at least.
Who knew how much economic loss this terrorist-like attack would bring to Cape Town?
This sort of loss would not only harm the interests of City Hall but also Dlamini where he had suffered heavy losses. He was even at the risk of being tracked down.
Even so, he had no other option.
Of course, none of this concerned Chen Chen at all.
While the city was thrown into chaos, the Eiffel Power Plant was still working normally. However, at the moment, no one was paying attention to whether a power station was still operating.
It was even less likely that anyone would care where the produced electricity was going.