Animal Detective

Chapter 158: Is That an AK?

"So, you’re saying it’ll transmit a live feed from inside using a micro-camera."

Zhang Ning squatted nearby, watching Shen Xin equip Da Mei.

Shen Xin nodded, picked up a tablet, and adjusted the camera lens.

Just like before, everything was working fine.

"Great idea." Zhang Ning gave a thumbs-up. "But will she listen to you? What if she just runs off everywhere as soon as you let her go?"

He then mentioned his own two "little monsters," who were particularly unruly. The moment he opened the door, they’d seize the chance to bolt outside.

One of them got lost once, and it took a huge effort to find it.

And it still didn’t learn its lesson, always trying to run out.

Even getting it fixed didn’t help.

"It’s fine, she’s very obedient," Shen Xin said with a smile, then added that they were ready on his end and asked when to release her.

"Let’s do it now. The sooner we get a clear picture of the situation inside, the better. We’ll make our move before dawn," Tang Youkun said.

"I’ll go release the cat then."

Shen Xin picked up Da Mei and prepared to leave.

Chen Guanglin hurriedly followed, saying he would go with him.

"I have to keep an eye on you, otherwise your Captain Sun will be giving me grief later."

Chen Guanglin pulled out his pistol, loaded it, and tucked it away securely.

"Captain Chen, you’re making me nervous," Shen Xin joked as he headed out the door and toward the building across the street.

On the way, Shen Xin quickly briefed Da Mei on her mission.

This wasn’t like last time, which just involved a single ventilation duct.

So Shen Xin gave her some key information, trying his best to make Da Mei understand exactly what she needed to do.

For example, she was to stay within the courtyard.

She had to wander around and check out every place she could see.

And she had to hide if she encountered any people.

"Got it?" Shen Xin asked finally.

Da Mei tilted her head.

[Understood]

The thought surfaced in his mind.

Chen Guanglin watched with curiosity. He felt as if Shen Xin was actually having a conversation with Da Mei.

It was as if Da Mei had become some kind of spirit, able to understand human speech.

They approached the shoe factory on foot.

"Let’s go around the side. There’s a camera at the entrance," Chen Guanglin said, pulling on Shen Xin.

He wanted Shen Xin to go to the outer wall and just toss the cat into the courtyard.

But to his surprise, Shen Xin said that wasn’t necessary.

They were already very close. He just had to tell Da Mei which courtyard it was, and she could figure out how to get in herself.

"This is it."

Shen Xin pointed at the shoe factory. After hearing the mental confirmation that she understood, he put Da Mei down and pulled Chen Guanglin away.

Chen Guanglin was still a bit dazed, wanting to ask if this would even work.

But in the time it took him to turn his head, Da Mei was already gone, making a beeline for the factory building across the way.

It was as if she truly knew what she was supposed to do.

The two returned to the printing factory.

Back on the third floor.

Tang Youkun and the others were huddled around the tablet, watching the live feed.

As Shen Xin and Chen Guanglin came upstairs, they heard Zhang Ning exclaim in surprise.

"Wow, she actually got in."

It turned out that Da Mei had circled the shoe factory’s outer wall, then used a broken tire leaning against it as a stepping stone to gracefully leap onto the wall.

There was broken glass on top of the wall, but it didn’t bother Da Mei in the slightest.

"Shen Xin, your cat is amazing!" As expected of a cat lover, Zhang Ning was very excited.

Shen Xin came over to look at the tablet screen as well.

Da Mei landed on top of the wall, paused for a moment, and looked into the courtyard.

The drone had already surveyed this area before; there was nothing special about the yard.

Da Mei, extremely sensitive to sound, turned her head toward the guardhouse.

The light was still on, and the inner door was open, revealing a young man inside, hunched over a desk playing on his phone.

The computer in front of him was on, its screen displaying a grid of images.

Without a doubt, that was the security monitor.

Tang Youkun had already confirmed this from afar with the drone. The shoe factory had cameras on all sides, making a direct assault difficult.

Da Mei continued walking along the wall, then suddenly froze.

She turned her head and looked down at the ground.

From the shadows under a corrugated steel awning, a dog emerged.

Pricked ears, a slender body—it was a Doberman.

"Just as I thought, a dog," Tang Youkun grunted softly.

Zhang Ning nodded. "Good thing it’s a cat. If a person had gone over, that dog would have started barking long ago."

On the screen, the Doberman tilted its head, staring at Da Mei, but it didn’t bark or make any further moves.

Da Mei stared back at it for a full minute, then jumped straight down.

A wall over two meters high was nothing to her.

Shen Xin’s heart skipped a beat.

’Don’t tell me Da Mei’s getting worked up again. Is she going to fight this Doberman?’

Sure enough, the next moment, they heard Da Mei’s low growl.

The camera tilted down slightly. She must have arched her back, ready for a fight.

The Doberman was quite fierce too. With a loud WOOF, it charged forward.

SWOOSH!

The camera moved extremely fast, so fast that it left afterimages.

Da Mei must have been fleeing.

Then she kept changing direction, making the camera shake violently.

The Doberman barked "WOOF, WOOF!" behind her.

The next instant, Da Mei leaped onto an electric scooter under the awning, and with another jump, landed on a nearby barrel of raw materials.

CRASH!

A piercing alarm blared.

The faces of everyone watching paled.

Da Mei stood on her high perch and turned to look.

The Doberman behind her must have been unable to stop in time and crashed into the electric scooter.

The yard was too small; the Doberman had no room to maneuver.

The scooter’s alarm immediately alerted people.

The young man from the guardhouse rushed out.

From a few low, single-story buildings deeper under the awning, nestled against the factory and the wall, people also came out immediately.

"Lao Liu, what’s going on?"

Someone shouted vigilantly.

The one he called Lao Liu, who seemed to be the young man from the guardhouse, replied, "Brother Xu, it’s nothing! The scooter alarm went off. The dog must have set it off... Holy shit, where did this stray cat come from?"

He had just noticed Da Mei standing on the barrel of raw materials, with the Doberman barking incessantly below, unable to get up.

Da Mei’s camera panned, looking to the other side.

The one who had shouted was a young man in a black leather jacket.

One of the four single-story buildings had its lights on. They were probably playing cards inside. Two more people followed the first one out.

The man in the black leather jacket also saw Da Mei but paid her no mind. He walked up, kicked the Doberman to shut it up, and then locked it directly into a nearby cage.

Meanwhile, the young man from the guardhouse turned off the scooter’s alarm.

The man in the black leather jacket was vigilant enough to go to the guardhouse and check the security monitors. Only after confirming there was nothing else unusual did he return to the bungalow, grabbing a walkie-talkie to say a few words.

He was probably confirming with the people inside the main factory building that everything was clear.

He was completely unaware that his every move was being recorded by Da Mei.

"Impressive."

Zhang Ning gave another thumbs-up. "That’s the element of surprise, right there. Who would ever suspect a cat could be a problem?"

Tang Youkun nodded in agreement.

It was a cat. Even if it wandered right in front of you, you wouldn’t think anything of it.

Da Mei clearly hadn’t forgotten her mission. She hopped nimbly off the barrel.

She even went up to the cage and strutted around it twice, gloating.

The Doberman whimpered, looking utterly dejected.

Satisfied, Da Mei sauntered over to the bungalow and leaped directly onto the windowsill.

Through the window, the camera captured a clear view of the situation inside.

"Holy shit, is that a fucking AK?!"

Zhang Ning cried out in shock.

Inside, three men were gathered around a small square table playing cards. In a corner against the wall was a bed.

And right now, at the foot of the bed, sat an extremely conspicuous assault rifle.

The reddish-brown stock made it instantly recognizable as an AK.

The expressions on Tang Youkun and the others instantly became extremely grim and serious.

No one had expected this group of drug traffickers to possess a weapon on the level of an assault rifle.

If they were to rush in recklessly, the risk would be immense, even for a SWAT team.

Tang Youkun looked up at Shen Xin, a wave of fear washing over him in hindsight.

With their available reconnaissance methods, it would have been nearly impossible to uncover this situation.

One of the men inside even saw Da Mei.

But he barely reacted, simply continuing with the card game.

Da Mei jumped down from the window, looked left and right, and headed for the main factory building.

The factory had a separate rolling shutter door, which was closed.

Da Mei looked around and went to a window on the side.

It was an old-fashioned, outward-opening window, cracked open just ten centimeters or so.

But for Da Mei, that was more than enough.

She hopped onto the windowsill and slipped effortlessly through the opening.

Once inside, she surveyed the entire factory floor.

It wasn’t huge, maybe five or six hundred square meters.

There were some idle die-cutting machines, sole injection molding equipment, conveyor belts, and so on.

And there were piles of raw materials.

In the middle of the factory floor, there was a large piece of equipment.

It was connected to pipes that led to a room in the back of the factory.

The lights were on in there.

"This must be the drug lab," Tang Youkun said after a careful look. "It’s not a small-scale operation. It looks like pure chemical synthesis. That’s equipment for purifying waste gas."

Then, outside the workshop at the very back, there were several folding beds set up.

Next to them were more barrels of raw materials.

At this moment, some people were resting on the beds, while another was on duty, looking at his phone.

Da Mei approached silently, taking in the entire scene.

"Are they making explosives?"

Zhang Ning took the tablet, rewound the footage, and zoomed in.

Next to the barrels of raw materials was a table covered with various electronic devices, a soldering gun, wires, PCB boards, and the like.

Most importantly, he saw some block-shaped objects.

He felt that if he wasn’t mistaken, these had to be explosives.

Tang Youkun’s expression changed again.

The situation was getting more and more complicated!