Chapter 219 Waiting Near the Trench
The cargo s.h.i.+p was called "Onimaru." It would depart from San Francisco and enter the Pacific Ocean. Following the route with a lat.i.tude of 40.17.26 N and a longitude of 127.05.00 W, it would sail towards the southwest and was expected to reach Miyako, j.a.pan, in three days" time.
The s.h.i.+p was mostly red in color, except its deck and living quarters, which were white. Its could be easily recognized by its oval-shaped front and squarish back.
"How many people are there on the s.h.i.+p?" Chen Fan asked in a deep tone.
"You, you are not really planning to hijack the s.h.i.+p, are you?" Nakagawa Emi was not stupid. From Chen Fan"s reaction, she knew that she might have just asked a redundant question.
He really planned to hijack an ammunition s.h.i.+p?
She started suspecting that Chen Fan was either insane or a member of some terrorist organization. In any case, he could not be a normal person.
"Bingo. Completely correct. Your reward: a packet of Master Kong instant noodles!" Chen Fan extended his arm and snapped his fingers. It was only a civilian cargo s.h.i.+p. Hijacking it would be as easy as pie.
"About 50 people. There are over 20 people from the Navy. I... I advise you not to take that risk, because they will use rocket launchers to bomb all of you into pieces."
Nakagawa Emi swallowed anxiously. It was not that she was kind and wanted to remind a young man who was about to commit a crime of the consequences. Instead, she was afraid that Chen Fan would kill her in anger after his team got wiped out.
"You don"t have to worry about that. Inferior human weapons such as rocket launchers can"t injure my body." Chen Fan gave out a series of wicked laughs which made Nakagawa Emi even more frightened.
Let us not talk about which group of people Nakagawa Emi cla.s.sified Chen Fan into in her heart. After he closed the door with a bang, he immediately returned to the stone tower and turned the computer on, searching the sea zones that the cargo s.h.i.+p would pa.s.s by and thinking about the most convenient place to hijack the s.h.i.+p.
The fact that it was a civilian cargo s.h.i.+p meant that the electric eel could do whatever it wanted without being detected. Chen Fan was not concerned about whether the j.a.panese military would really investigate the reasons for the s.h.i.+pwreck. Anyway, even if the most imaginative 10,000 people in j.a.pan were gathered and pondered until their brains started boiling, they would never guess that Chen Fan was behind everything.
After some research, Chen Fan decided on the location: the j.a.pan trench, located in the sea lanes east of j.a.pan.
The trench was 890 kilometers long, 100 kilometers wide and had an average depth of 6000 meters. The deepest part was at the southeast, past the Izu Islands, with a depth of 10,300 meters. Furthermore, cargo s.h.i.+ps would definitely need to pa.s.s the place. If Chen Fan carried out his plan at that location, the s.h.i.+p would sink into the trench and the j.a.panese military would be unable to even find a way to lift the wreckage.
After choosing the location, all that was left was to send the electric eel there and wait for the s.h.i.+p to arrive. As for the tools, Chen Fan chose a spear made from t.i.tanium alloy. He only had to pierce a few holes in the bottom of the s.h.i.+p.
At 9am the next day, Chen Fan woke up and rolled the eagle egg in the incubator one turn. After that, he started to control the electric eel, which took the spear and swam towards the j.a.panese sea lanes.
The electric eel"s speed had already reached 270 nautical miles per hour. After swimming continuously for three hours, it reached the trench 150 nautical miles away from Miyako.
It was still a day and a half from the time Nakagawa Emi told Chen Fan. He decided to follow the s.h.i.+p"s route to find the red cargo s.h.i.+p first, and then calculate the exact position above the trench where it would arrive. Otherwise, since the sea was so huge, after the cargo s.h.i.+p reached the j.a.panese sea lanes, the electric eel might not even be able to find it.
The s.h.i.+p"s speed was 25 nautical miles per hour, so in a day and a half it would travel 800 to 1,000 nautical miles. If the electric eel swam around this distance, it should be able to find the s.h.i.+p.
j.a.pan was a long and narrow country surrounded by sea. Just by looking at its resources, it was even worse than North Korea, which was already extremely poor. This meant that its maritime industry was very developed. By the time the electric eel swam for 800 nautical miles, it had already encountered 43 s.h.i.+ps of over 10,000 tons. Among them, seven were painted red but they were all oil tankers and bulk carriers, and none were a car carrier.
Estimating that it was about time, the electric eel simply swam back and forth along a line 50 nautical miles long.
This time, the electric eel was very lucky. By the time it swam for just two rounds, a huge red s.h.i.+p with no lifting devices on its deck sailed towards it.
The result, of course, was surprisingly delightful. The word "Onimaru" was painted on the front of the s.h.i.+p. When the electric eel moved closer, it noticed three men standing near the bow, each holding a Howa Type 89 a.s.sault Rifle.
The three burly men were wearing black jackets and each had a stone-like expression. One was standing on the bow and the other two were at the sides of the s.h.i.+p, all standing still. Although the sea was totally calm and there were no other s.h.i.+ps around, their index fingers were still held near the rifles" triggers. They had probably been soldiers for so long that such habits remained.
After confirming the target, Chen Fan pulled back his consciousness from the electric eel and quickly calculated the time the s.h.i.+p would reach the trench. Opening the satellite map, he drew out the s.h.i.+p"s course.
When all that had been settled, Chen Fan controlled the electric eel again and swam towards the trench. He wanted to find the deepest possible place where he would attack the s.h.i.+p and make it sink.
The j.a.pan trench was about 100 kilometers wide, and the closer one moved to the center, the deeper it was. After the electric eel reached the underwater cliff, it took a few deep breaths and dove abruptly into the center.
The trench was between the Pacific Plate and the Eurasian Plate. Probably due to frequent earthquakes, Chen Fan realized that there were huge fissures of varying depths everywhere. The largest one he saw was two kilometers wide, with many coral reefs and fish inside.
Scanning its surroundings briefly, the electric eel swam away for some distance only to return again and enter the fissure.
Just now he looked around in haste and did not bother about a long protrusion beside the fissure. When he thought about it again, it was obvious that the protrusion was the outline of a s.h.i.+p—a s.h.i.+p completely covered by sea sediment from at least a hundred years ago. It was very likely there would be some treasure inside!
Using its paws to remove the silt, the electric eel saw a double-decked wooden boat 40 meters long and eight meters wide.
The boat"s mast was broken and nowhere to be found, and its bow was also destroyed in the crash, exposing at least a dozen wooden boxes inside.
These wooden boxes were one meter in length and 50 centimeters in width and height. It was obvious from the coa.r.s.e patterns carved on the outside of the boxes that their contents were special.
From its style, it was not clear which country the boat was from. The electric eel used its paws and broke the already damaged wooden boat into pieces, only to realize that more such wooden boxes with patterns were in the boat"s tail.
After counting, Chen Fan discovered there were 43 such boxes.
Without hesitation, the electric eel took a box and was prepared to open it. What was actually inside?