Animal Detective

Chapter 161: Stun Grenade, Not for Ordinary People

At the mouth of the small road leading to the shoe factory.

On one side was the shoe factory; on the other, a rice paddy.

At this time of year, the rice had already been harvested.

But the paddy was low-lying, about thirty to forty centimeters below the road. If someone were to lie down in it, a person driving by in a sedan, with its low line of sight, probably wouldn’t see them.

"It’s December. How are there still mosquitoes?"

Zhang Ning, lying prone in the rice paddy, gently slapped his own face and grumbled.

"Captain Zhang, it could be worse. Take a look over there. Captain Qian and his team have it rougher than us." A team member beside him jutted his chin towards the other side.

Across the way, Deputy Captain Qian was hiding with a portion of the team in a patch of grass.

In a patch of weeds half a man’s height, there were bound to be countless mosquitoes.

Zhang Ning blinked, his sense of fairness restored. He continued to chat idly, "Xiaoli, how do you think that cat got so smart? It’s like it’s gained sentience or something."

’Just think about Da Mei.’

’Then I think about the two dummies I have at home. It’s like their brains were traded in for good looks.’

’But the thing is, Da Mei is good-looking too.’

"Captain Zhang, forget how smart the cat is for a second. I just think this reconnaissance method is incredible. I mean, think about it. The suspect sees a cat and won’t think twice."

If you fly a drone and the suspect spots it, he’ll immediately look for a rock to knock it out of the sky.

But if he sees a cat, not only will he ignore it, he might even call out ’Here, kitty, kitty,’ and try to give it a few pets.

At this, the team member suggested, "Captain Zhang, we should get a cat for our team."

The suggestion struck a chord with Zhang Ning.

’If we got a cat, wouldn’t that solve the problem of not being able to pet one during work hours?’

Just then, Tang Youkun’s voice came through the earpiece.

"Zhang Ning, we might have a target. S-Class, Anzhou plates."

They were watching via the traffic cameras.

Zhang Ning immediately waved his hand, signaling his team to get ready.

He tightened his grip on his rifle, pulled a flashbang from his tactical vest, and handed it to the team member beside him.

This was high-end equipment, not something just anyone was allowed to use.

Soon, car headlights appeared in the distance.

Then, a two-tone S-Class approached. As it reached the intersection, its brake lights flared. It slowed and turned leisurely onto the small road.

"One person. It has to be him!"

Tang Youkun shouted through the earpiece.

At this hour, in this kind of car, it was almost certainly Brother K.

And if they were wrong...

...then so be it. They would just have to apologize.

"Move!"

Zhang Ning shouted, vaulting onto the road.

The instant he moved, a sedan shot out from a grassy area thirty meters from the intersection, just outside the wall of a machine processing plant. It stopped broadside, completely blocking the road ahead.

Meanwhile, back at the mouth of the road, another team member rushed out. With a flick of his wrists, he instantly deployed a spike strip, sealing the escape route.

"Stop!"

Zhang Ning raised his rifle with both hands, shouted, and activated the tactical flashlight mounted on it.

The inside of the car was instantly flooded with light.

The driver, startled by the sudden turn of events, instinctively slammed on the brakes.

In that brief moment, he got a clear look at the driver.

He was a dark-skinned man in his thirties or forties, with a side-part and a pockmarked face.

A teammate next to Zhang Ning immediately moved to pull open the car door.

Just then, the driver reacted with lightning speed. He slammed the car into reverse and stomped on the gas, sending the car lurching backward.

The SWAT officers at the rear immediately scrambled out of the way.

With a loud TEARING sound, the contorting spike strip did its job.

The S-Class is equipped with high-performance tires, not run-flats.

But even run-flats wouldn’t stand a chance against a professional-grade spike strip.

The man wrenched the steering wheel. Amid a sharp squeal of tires, the car’s rear end swung around violently, leaving it sideways across the road.

In the distance, more cars lit up, racing over to cut him off.

But the team on the ground was faster.

Stomping on the gas like that all but confirmed he was Brother K.

Zhang Ning shouted, "Go!"

An officer beside him grabbed a professional, police-issue glass breaker, rushed forward, and smashed it hard against the rear window.

Even with the S-Class’s double-paned glass, a large hole was instantly punched through.

The team member who had been lying next to Zhang Ning strode forward, the flashbang already clutched in his hand. He took aim and shoved it through the jagged hole in the window.

The next moment, before the car could move again, the flashbang detonated.

It went off in the back seat.

But inside the enclosed space of the car, its effect was amplified to epic proportions.

Through the deafening ROAR and rising smoke, Zhang Ning saw it clearly: the man screamed, clutched his head, and collapsed.

He’d been knocked out cold.

The surrounding SWAT officers swarmed in, yanked open the door, and immediately dragged the man out.

Knocked unconscious by the blast, the man lay on the ground like a limp ragdoll.

The ambush car drove up, and Tang Youkun scrambled out. He breathed a sigh of relief only after seeing the suspect was in custody.

"His phone."

The officer holding the man down fished a phone out from his inside pocket.

At 11:37, Chen Liangxi had called Brother K.

If this man’s phone had a matching call log, and they cross-referenced it with the cell tower data, it would prove without a doubt that he was their target.

But that was no longer necessary.

Just then, Zhang Ning, who had opened the car door and was searching the smoke-filled interior, pulled a handgun from the center console.

"This is our guy."

Zhang Ning held up the handgun.

Tang Youkun was overjoyed. It meant they had caught the leader of the drug ring with minimal effort.

Zhang Ning then found the driver’s license.

"Gong Baocun!"

Now they had a name.

Tang Youkun walked over, took the driver’s license, and couldn’t help but marvel at how smoothly everything had gone.

Before this, his biggest headache had been figuring out how to arrest Brother K.

"It’s all thanks to that cat," Zhang Ning added.

’I’m going to have a serious talk with my wife when I get home,’ he thought.

’Who says owning a cat is a frivolous distraction? Who says cats are useless lumps that just eat and sleep? Look at this! This cat provided real, tangible help in taking down a major drug trafficking ring. It performed a great service.’

Just then, a convoy of vehicles suddenly appeared on the road in the distance.

An A6 led the way, followed by more than a dozen other vehicles, including three large green trucks in their midst.

"Director Lin is here."

Tang Youkun said urgently.

’Perfect timing. He gets to see that we’ve caught Gong Baocun.’

Zhang Ning’s attention, however, was on the three large trucks. He muttered, "Damn, they even deployed the armed police."

That was a whole other level of response.

But considering the situation inside the shoe factory, deploying armed police was a reasonable precaution.

The lead sedan pulled over and stopped.

A stern-faced, middle-aged man stepped out briskly.

"Director Lin!"

Tang Youkun and Zhang Ning hurried forward to salute.

Lin Weinian, director of the Ningshan City Public Security Bureau.

Lin Weinian had short hair, thick eyebrows, and sharp, piercing eyes. "Did you get him?" he asked. "Is it our man?"

Tang Youkun replied hurriedly, "We believe so. We found a handgun in his car."

With a wave of his hand, he had his men drag Gong Baocun over.

He was still unconscious, completely out of it.

When Lin Weinian heard they had found a handgun, he knew they had the right man.

"Gong Baocun."

He took the driver’s license, glanced at it, and ordered, "Contact the command center. Confirm his home address and dispatch a team to search the premises."

After giving the order, he asked about the current situation inside.

"Inside?"

Tang Youkun wore an odd expression. "Inside? Right now... I think they’re still trying to catch the cat."

Given Da Mei’s skills, it probably hadn’t been caught yet.