A few seconds after emptying their contents, Caitlin slumped into Xia Lei’s chest while Jack dropped to the floor. Similarly, Xia Lei was out cold for about two minutes before waking up from the tablet’s influence all thanks to his incredible immune system.
He had drugged an entire bottle of whiskey and allowed himself to consume a portion of it. It was only natural for him to face the same effect as them. Jack was too cautious. Xia Lei wouldn’t want to raise his suspicion by drinking different alcohol.
He blinked his heavy eyelids open, then shook his head vehemently to chase out the remaining bits of drowsiness. The man placed Caitlin carefully on the couch. Following that, he shook her shoulders a little and probed her.
“Caitlin? Caitlin?”
The woman gave no response.
Xia Lei then came over to Jack’s side to deliver a few pats to the unconscious man’s cheek.
“Jack? Jack?”
Jack was unresponsive as well.
Confirming that the siblings wouldn’t wake up any time soon, Xia Lei made a beeline to Jack’s study. He shut the door behind him.
In the study were a simple computer desk and a massive book rack. There was an abundance of professional academic books that seemed to follow a theme. Most of them were relevant to aerospace engineering, electrical engineering and programming. It wasn’t hard to tell that Jack was studious and doing his best. The brother was determined to change their lives through his hands.
His situation was fairly common in China. Many children from regular homes study hard in hopes that academics would change their fate. Sadly, only a few have ever succeeded in their challenge against luck. Even so, this path still had a fierce competition that could destroy someone completely.
Xia Lei activated his X-ray vision and ran a scan around Jack’s study. He found no hidden space and no safes to speak of.
Xia Lei’s gaze immediately landed on the Apple computer on the desk. People of modern times like Jack wouldn’t have the habit of printing their secrets on paper and then storing them in safes. Jack’s secrets would most possibly be on his computer.
The man sat down at the desk and booted Jack’s computer. The device had only required a password to log in, which was nothing for a hacker of Xia Lei’s level. Xia Lei had only used two minutes to crack his password and helped himself to its content.
Xia Lei was genuinely surprised in a good way. Jack’s database was like a treasure field.
Jack was only an engineer working under Lockheed Martin’s drone production line. Though his salary was only a tad bit higher than a labourer, the man was a diligent and intelligent man who wished to improve his life through slaving himself off. There were heaps and heaps of information on drones stored in his database. There were design plans drawn in great detail and it even included dimensions, measurements and even material information on its parts. There were even some entries that depicted his unique interpretation and opinions on drone technology along with some estimations of future drone development. Digging deeper, Xia Lei found some work logbooks and records on the production of the R-170 sentry and the Global Eagle. Lastly, Xia Lei found a file of maintenance records that were skin to Jack’s accumulation of experience. All of this information was precious.
It was a true treasure trove, especially for a man like Xia Lei who was preparing to dive into drone research and production. However, Xia Lei felt a teensy bit of disappointment as there were no higher-level confidential regarding Lockheed Martin’s fighter jets and precision-guided missiles inside Jack’s storage.
It was a shame but not unexpected. After all, Jack was just a normal engineer in Lockheed Martin. His occupation status was at near the bottom of the hierarchy and he worked on the drone production line, it was only natural for him to not come in contact with the jets and missiles.
Lastly, Xia Lei found an encrypted file.
Soon enough, Xia Lei hacked into the file and was presented with its contents.
To his delight, the encrypted file was priceless information on the untagged Predator B drone’s assembly. The signee at the bottom of the document was the man Jack had mentioned, Thompson.
The contents had mentioned that all parts would be provided by General Dynamics but the missile shall be prepared specifically by Lockheed Martin alone. The precision-guided missile was going to be powerful. Lockheed Martin’s Predator B was set to carry two precision-guided missiles, one named ‘Skunk Surprise’ and the other named ‘Key to Hell’. According to the numerical figures stated, the missiles had enough power to level the entire Thunder Horse Organization.
Due to the added weights of the missile, some alterations were required to increase Predator B’s load. This, in turn, would require corresponding modifications to the launching device.
When Caitlin and Jack talked about the drone project earlier, Xia Lei found himself questioning something. The Predator drone series was not a product of Lockheed Martin but that of General Dynamics. Lockheed Martin’s drones were more high-end. Those were the most advanced unmanned aircraft of the American army. However, as far as the R-170 sentry was concerned, its wingspan had reached twenty metres and its take-off weight had reached an impressive four tonnes. It was a behemoth. There was no way it could sneak into China and avoid its air defence system then attack Thunder Horse Organization. It had now occurred to him that the four military aces had formed an alliance to share their resources!
“Skunk Surprise? Key to Hell?” Xia Lei snorted. “Let’s see what would happen after your creation. When the time comes, I’d love to see if you can blast my Thunder Horse apart and kill me.”
Xia Lei took another look at the documents and exited the encrypted file. He made sure to scan through everything twice, memorizing every single detail completely in his mind. The man imprinted everything Jack had entered securely in his brain. For him, there was no need for printing or USB sticks.
After memorizing its contents, Xia Lei searched through all the pictures in Jack’s folders to gauge who this man was associated with.
The number of photos was surprisingly many. There were childhood pictures of Jack and Caitlin, a few scrolls down showed Jack’s graduation photos and some that were taken with his colleagues. Jack had no girlfriend as Xia Lei had failed to find any intimate photos with any opposite sex.
In the end, Xia Lei’s attention was piqued by a particular photo. In front of an incomplete F35 fighter jet stood Jack and an oddly familiar man. Jack was dressed in his overalls while Ton was dressed in a sleek suit. There was a corner of a card peeking through the edge of the suit collar.
“Isn’t that Ton?!” Xia Lei immediately recognized the Caucasian man. He was the one who had befriended Xia Lei at The Flaming Skeleton. Earlier, Ton had proved himself to be a man of justice, offering to accompany Xia Lei to help Caitlin out. He had also mentioned that he was friends with the sheriff too.
Xia Lei could clearly recall the man telling him that he worked at Lockheed Martin, but had indicated that he was in the lower-income group of society. In this picture, Jack’s overalls were messily stained while Ton’s suit was smooth and creaseless. The sight of them together in this get-up seemed off-balanced.
Suddenly, Xia Lei thought of something. He looked at the card at the collar of Ton’s suit. The edge of the card was dark blue, it seemed to have a white logo printed in its middle but the pixels of the photo had limited further inspection.
Xia Lei activated his X-ray vision and zoomed-in onto the white logo. Immediately, everything seemed much clearer.
It was the linework of a bald eagle.
Upon recognition, Xia Lei could only gape in shock. “He works for the CIA! No wonder Jack was crazy cautious and had a certain level of anti-spy skills. It’s got to do with Ton! Jack must be his source of intel in town. Perhaps Jack’s doing this for some quick cash.”
Out of the blue, Xia Lei began to cackle. So what if he was involved with the CIA? So what if Jack was an intel source for the CIA? This place was known as the forbidden land among spies and Xia Lei still managed to get what he wanted!
Deciding to call it a day, Xia Lei erased his tracks and shut the computer down. Before he turned and left the room, he made sure to wipe down everything he had touched twice.
Caitlin and Jack were still blissfully unconscious in their living room. There was no sign of stirring or awareness.
Xia Lei poured the remnants in their glasses into the basin, remembering to flush it with tap water down the drain. He cleaned the glassware and bottles thoroughly to remove any trace of chemicals. After that, he retrieved another bottle of whisky from the rack and poured some part of it into the clean bottle. Then, Xia Lei returned the whiskey bottle onto the coffee table.
Done with the alcohol, it was now time for him to create a plausible scene. He moved Caitlin back into her room, proceeding to strip her and himself. Then, he scattered their clothes strategically around the house, leaving two in the living room, two along the corridor and their underwear around her bed.
After that, he moved to the kitchen to steal a carton of milk. Returning to Caitlin’s room, he dropped a few beads of milk on a corner of her body then poured a few drops on the sheets and floor, creating an intense lovemaking session.
Making sure everything was in place, Xia Lei finally allowed himself to climb under the covers with her. All that was left now was for Jack and Caitlin to wake up.
Time passed in silence.
Xia Lei laid stark naked on an unfamiliar bed, unable to control his mind from wandering astray.
“Zhu Xuanyue is missing. Should I contact the Chinese Zodiac Battle Team and have them come over? No, I can’t do that. It’s too risky…” There was no definite answer to this question but now his mind had found itself a new focus. “The R-170 sentry, the Global Eagle and Predator. This is the closest I have ever been to America’s best drones. Well, what perspective shall I begin my study to create Thunder Horse Organization’s very own drone?”
This was a question to himself that required much careful consideration.