Chapter 118
Nangong Iren
Iren and Tsaehorng looked at each other. Tsaehorng's face was full of questions. Iren felt a little embarrassed because he, being much older, should be able to determine what they should do next. In reality, it was Tsaehorng who emerged as the leader.
This kid is still so young. Ten or fifteen years from now, I have no doubt that he will cross over as a very influential figure.
Suddenly, they heard a loud voice that broke the silence. Tsaehorng's pager beeped again.
"Do you often receive messages at this early in the morning?"
"Sometimes, Uncle." With a swift movement, Tsaehorng took out a pager from his pocket. He immediately read the message displayed on its screen.
Iren watched Tsaehorng's movements. In such a situation, it was only natural that anyone would act agitated. So far, though, the young man seemed to be in control of himself.
"Huh? How did they know my pager number? And how did they know I was the one who answered their call earlier?"
"A message from the kidnapper?" Iren raised his eyebrows.
Soon the sun will appear. I don't think there's any way they'd tell us to go somewhere else again.
Tsaehorng nodded. He looked around the roof. It was obvious he was looking for something. Iren could not guess what was going through the young man's mind.
"They probably saw that you were often in our house. Therefore, they believed you would be implicated in everything we were going through. Tonight, they must have also seen that you were out with me. So when they heard that the voice on the phone earlier was not mine, then they must have guessed that it must be your voice."
Tsaehorng nodded. But he didn't look at Iren. His eyes were still sweeping in all directions around them.
Iren continued his words. "As for pager numbers, I don't think it's too hard to find out. You can pay people to look up information on people you suspect, then other people can do the same."
"Uncle's words are quite reasonable. That means uncles' house is under their monitoring."
"Maybe not like that." Iren shook his head. "I think it's possible they weren't watching our house, but the entrances to and exits from the compound. So they know who's coming and going. Also knows who's been in whose car."
The young man just nodded, hearing Iren's explanation.
"Come on, let's check this place carefully," said Iren. One second later, he felt the sentence was a bit stupid. From the first second Tsaehorng set foot on the roof, it was clear that he had been looking for something.
Tsaehorng nodded again for the umpteenth time. He raised his wrist. "What time is it? I don't know why my watch is off."
Before Iren could answer that question, Tsaehorng was already moving towards the pile of red bricks piled up in one corner of the roof.
While walking after Tsaehorng, Iren glanced at the watch on his wrist. "Four thirty-five minutes. Did they tell us to do something at a certain hour?"
The young man did not answer Iren's question. Maybe his attention was so devoted to the pile of red bricks that looked normal in Iren's view. The red bricks were piled up in an orderly manner. Someone had deliberately piled them in there.
Tsaehorng started taking one by one the bricks on top of the pile and placed them in an empty space right next to the pile. Iren followed what Tsaehorng was doing, even though he didn't understand what the young man was doing.
After moving a few bricks, Tsaehorng shouted. "Here it is!" He pulled out a key chain that had been buried under a brick he had removed. There are two keys attached to the keychain.
"They hid the key here?"
"There are still other things, Uncle!" Tsaehorng was still removing the red bricks from the pile. This time, Iren helped enthusiastically because he already understood what they were doing. After a while, under the pile, they found some other things that Tsaehorng was referring to.
"What does this mean?" Iren saw that there was a wooden ladder and a wooden box in the shape of a cube. The sides of the cube measured about twenty-five centimeters.
"I don't know yet, Uncle. They just asked us to find these things in this pile of bricks."
Iren just nodded. He didn't know what kind of comment to make.
"Uncle, wait here first, okay? I'll have a look around for a bit."
"Okay." Iren felt a little tired. He sat down on some of the bricks there.
Tsaehorng walked around the rooftops of the building. He looked away at the other buildings around the place. Then, just as he was approaching Iren again, Tsaehorng's pager rang again.
How did they know we had managed to find the things they had hidden?
"The kidnapper asked us to take these things to the front of the small building where we came earlier. After that, we have to lock the door in the small building."
The door in the small building is where we came out just now. Locking the door must have been so the cops couldn't get to the roof quickly.
"Eh? Lock the door from outside here?" Iren felt that this was very dangerous. "That means we're locked out here. The police can't rush in here right away if anything happens to this place."
"Yes, Uncle. But we have no other choice. It is a risk we must take."
The two of them then did what the kidnappers had ordered.
"So the kidnappers will meet us here?" Iren looked around him.
We just locked the door. Then, how will the kidnappers get up here?
Tsaehorng's pager beeped again. Tsaehorng's face changed after reading the writing on his pager screen.
"Now, what else do they want?"
"They want us to climb this small structure using this wooden ladder. We also have to carry this wooden box up. Once we are on the roof, we have to lie down this wooden ladder. Then they will give us our next clue."
So tricky! What exactly have they planned?
The two of them climbed onto the roof of the small building. Then, did exactly what the kidnappers wanted. Tsaehorng pushed the wooden ladder they had just used. The wooden ladder fell onto the roof of the building, right next to the wall of the small building they climbed.
"Anyone can't get up here quickly, neither can we get down from here," said Iren. "How can they be sure that we will actually carry out their orders?"
Tsaehorng pointed east. About two hundred meters away, there was a building that was slightly taller than the one they were currently in. There was a flash of light from one window in the building. Meaning, someone was using binoculars to keep an eye on them.
Suddenly, they heard a faint sound. Like a shot, but from such a long distance. After the sound, they saw a bright flame that was a line. After that, it was seen that there was a thin layer of smoke around the line.
"Looks like it was a shot from a flare gun, Uncle."
"It doesn't seem too far from here."
"That's right, Uncle. The sound just now must have been the gunshot."
Once again, they heard the same sound, followed by a flash of light as before.
"There is more!" Iren widened his eyes.
"Maybe they were celebrating something," Tsaehorng said.
It wasn't over yet. They still heard one more shot. Iren shook his head. "Who's been shooting games so early in the morning? Don't they have anything else to do?"
Tsaehorng laughed at Iren's words. Before he could answer Iren's question, his pager rang again. The message asked them to place the Songfei's bag in the large basket that was right in the middle of the roof of the small building. They then tied the bag to the basket with the rope that was already there. After that, they had to open a wooden box with a second key attached to the key ring they had found under a pile of bricks.
"Huh? They want us to play firecrackers in here?" Iren exclaimed loudly when he saw that there were three rocket firecrackers inside the wooden box. Apart from the firecrackers, there were also the tools needed to launch and light the rocket firecrackers. What was even more surprising were the other objects, namely three pairs of iron handcuffs. Those iron handcuffs were not equipped with the keys.
After the next order came, Iren and Tsaehorng lit one of the rocket fireworks. The rocket quickly shot into the sky and exploded about fifty meters above their heads. They saw an exquisite flash of light.
"Uncle Nangong." Tsaehorng's voice sounded slightly different. "All this looks more beautiful when we see it in the middle of the dark night." The young man looked fascinated when he looked up at the explosion of the rocket firecrackers.
"There's still two more. Do you want to light them, too?" Asked Iren with a laugh.
"No need, Uncle. Those two are just a backup. Just in case the first firecracker doesn't explode."
"Then, now what?" No further instructions have yet come to the Tsaehorng's pager.
As soon as Iren said that, another order appeared.
"I've been expecting it!" Tsaehorng shook his head as he read the message.
The kidnapper asked them to handcuff themselves in one corner of the roof of the small building. In that corner was an iron pillar. Those bad guys told them to handcuff themselves to the iron post.
"I hope this isn't an iron rod for lightning," said Iren shortly after the two of them were handcuffed to the iron pole.
Tsaehorng laughed at Iren's words. He looked like he wanted to say something, but no words came out.
"Just say what's on your mind!"
"Uncle was right! We should have lit all those rocket firecrackers earlier."
They both then laughed out loud.
Faintly, they heard noises below them. There were the sounds of people hitting metal plates. In addition, there were voices that were like human screams. As time went on, the voices and sounds grew louder.
"The police must be trying to break down the door that you locked earlier," said Iren.
"How do you think the kidnappers will get the bag, Uncle?"
"Frankly, I can't answer that. I was still thinking that there was a slight possibility this was just a pretense. They didn't really want to take this bag. But after arriving here, I was sure that even though the contents of this bag weren't original, but they would have taken this bag too."
Dawn was already breaking. Even though the sun had not yet risen, the sky was already quite bright. They could clearly see the circumstances around them.
There was a buzzing sound approaching. Turning around to find the source of the sound, Iren saw a Radio Controlled Aircraft flying towards them. The rather large toy airplane then stopped right above the large basket containing Songfei's bag. The plane's engine was still running. From the fuselage that was flying about five meters from the basket, three steel wires stretched down, with hooks at the ends.
"I didn't know a Radio Controlled Aircraft could stop in midair like that." Iren looked at the plane in awe.
"That's not a Radio Controlled Aircraft, Uncle. It's a drone," said Tsaehorng.
"But it's the shape of an airplane."
"Drones come in many shapes, Uncle. This one just happens to be shaped like an airplane."
Iren nodded. He still didn't understand what the difference was between the two objects.
The three hooks at the end of the steel wire then touched the handle of the basket. The plane descended a little so that the hooks caught the handle of the basket. After a sound similar to a click was heard, the shape of the hooks changed. Now they saw that the hooks had become metal rings that tightly held the handle of the basket.
"This is definitely a new technology that not many people are familiar with." Iren was amazed.
"Maybe this is why they delayed it for a few hours. It could be that there were previously problems related to this drone," said Tsaehorng.
As the plane rose vertically, the basket slowly rose upwards. Once the plane was about thirty meters above them, it then sped up horizontally as it came. Iren and Tsaehorng could only watch as it flew away from them. In less than five minutes, it had disappeared from sight.
"What an interesting show." Iren laughed.
"Now what, Uncle?"
"It's obvious that we have to wait for the police to get up here and release us from these handcuffs."
"Did Uncle not feel anything strange?"
"What strange thing? We've experienced strange things since Shinnshiow was kidnapped? So, which strange thing are you referring to?"
"This bag is just a decoy. Why should they bother like this?"
Iren smiled. "Sometimes things just don't look like they should. It's possible that this bag we're carrying isn't just a decoy."
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