Animal Detective

Xingle Alliance City Bureau’s Digital Command Center.

Director Huang Mingjie was personally overseeing the operation, consolidating intelligence from all sides and directing the police forces of the various jurisdictions. They had cast a wide net to encircle, pursue, and intercept the criminals.

Even the helicopters had been deployed.

In all of Suihar, only the Xingle Alliance had police helicopters—three in total.

One of them was a rescue helicopter, not suited for search and capture missions.

The remaining two, both AW109s, had been dispatched.

They had a lead, but they’d only found one of the criminals.

That was far from enough.

The provincial department’s order was that not a single criminal was to escape.

Not one!

If any got away, everyone would be held responsible.

It was just after six, and the sky was already light.

The two helicopters had already returned to base twice and had just set out again.

The AW109 helicopter had a cruising speed of 250 kilometers per hour and a maximum endurance of four hours.

Its search radius of 500 kilometers was enough to cover the entire Xingle Alliance, including the border regions.

The only problem was that the Xingle Alliance spanned a massive 230,000 square kilometers!

Trying to find someone in such a vast area without knowing their location was like looking for a needle in a haystack.

So right now, the command center was focused on one main task.

They were using the timeline and the criminals’ mode of transport to calculate how far they could have traveled, define a probable area, and then deploy forces for a targeted search.

"A classic misdirection. The bastards are getting fancy with their strategy," Huang Mingjie said, tossing his pen down with a grave expression.

Beside him, Political Commissar Li He stood with his arms crossed, staring at the enormous map before them.

After a moment of contemplation, Li He said, "I think it’s a real possibility. If Sangbu is their accomplice, it would explain why our repeated searches with so many officers came up empty."

’There’s a mole, leaking information.’

"So, Sangbu’s disappearance now most likely means he’s trying to cross the border with the others. They have motorcycles, they know the terrain—they have everything they need to evade our pursuit."

Huang Mingjie remained silent, his brow deeply furrowed.

The border forces had been mobilized, implementing strict checks and locking down the area. Logically, the criminals shouldn’t be able to get through.

But what if?

The border was too long—hundreds of kilometers.

This was especially true of the northwestern part of the Xingle Alliance, a transitional zone between desert and grassland. It was a vast, uninhabited region where you could travel a hundred or two hundred kilometers without seeing a single soul.

As they were discussing this, Huang Mingjie received an update.

The criminals had been spotted, and their escape route had been roughly determined.

Huang Mingjie immediately circled the area on the map and asked how they were found.

After hearing the response, his expression turned peculiar.

"So it really is the west." Li He glanced at the location. It was indeed in the northwestern Xingle Alliance.

He eagerly asked how they were found.

Huang Mingjie quickly gave some instructions, then hung up, his expression growing even stranger.

"Director Huang, what’s the word? Which unit found them? They deserve a commendation!" Li He said, his voice filled with excitement.

The key issue right now was being unable to find them.

As long as the targets were spotted, they couldn’t possibly escape.

A flicker of confusion crossed Huang Mingjie’s eyes. He hesitated for a long moment before finally saying, "A bird!"

"A what... now?"

Li He didn’t quite process it.

Huang Mingjie knitted his brows. His mind was a jumble, and he couldn’t explain it clearly. "Let’s talk after we’ve caught them."

Li He nodded slightly, but couldn’t help but wonder to himself.

’A bird? The kind that flies in the sky?’

One of the two police helicopters, tail number 15061, received the order and immediately changed course, heading northwest.

There were six people on board.

Two crew members and four passengers, all SWAT officers.

The helicopter flew at an altitude of 200 meters.

This altitude balanced search range, naked-eye visibility, and the clarity of the optical pod.

Even the SWAT officers were scanning left and right with high-powered binoculars.

The pilot had received the latest search coordinates, which were near the border, and had been assigned a long, narrow search sector.

It extended southward from the border.

"Did the border patrol spot them?"

"Doesn’t sound right. If the border patrol found them, they’d have just nabbed them. Why call us in to search?"

"That’s true. But if we’re still searching, how do they know the criminals are over here?"

The pilot and co-pilot exchanged a look, both confused.

But orders were orders.

And soon, another order came in.

It said that during the search, they should try to look for a white Hunting Falcon.

And that they could follow this Hunting Falcon.

’A bird?’

The pilot couldn’t help but look up at the sky.

Blue sky, white clouds. Where was he supposed to find a bird in all that?

Besides, if he remembered correctly, falcons flew at altitudes of a thousand meters. At their current 200 meters, they’d barely be able to see one.

"What’s that supposed to mean?" the co-pilot muttered.

The pilot shook his head. For now, they would head straight for the border and search from north to south.

About half an hour later, after flying over a hundred kilometers, the helicopter was the first to arrive in the target border region.

This area was already a restricted zone.

Below them was the famous Danxia landform: low-lying peaks spreading out like a spiderweb into the distance, crisscrossed by ravines, all in a vast expanse of crimson red.

In the shaded parts of some ravines, patches of snow were still visible.

The helicopter circled as it flew, searching toward the south.

The land below was a vast, desolate expanse of yellow.

To put it bluntly, this was a desert gobi. As far as the eye could see, there was no sign of human life.

The helicopter flew an S-pattern search within its designated sector. After flying south like this for a dozen or so kilometers, they suddenly spotted a black dot on the distant horizon, heading their way.

"Holy shit, is that it?" the co-pilot exclaimed.