Darkstone Code

Chapter 676 - 0673 ran away

The feeling of sailing on the sea is sometimes not very good, especially for those who are prone to seasickness.

The person in charge of watching over this money was gripping the handrail of the ship’s side with a pale face, almost leaving indentations on the steel with his fingers.

After forcibly suppressing the urge to vomit again, he glanced at an officer standing not far away and approached him, "You must protect this money!"

His expression was somewhat grim, partly because the rolling waves caused his recently calmed nausea to stir restlessly again, and partly because this money must not be lost.

It seemed like everyone contributed a bit to this sum, but in reality, it was all from the Megan Consortium.

Soron contributed five million, but this money essentially equaled a prepayment for future orders, ultimately still Megan Consortium’s money.

The Federation Government also contributed three million, but this three million was originally an export subsidy for some of the Megan Consortium’s subsidiaries, and now the money was moved here. The Megan Consortium’s products that usually enjoyed fiscal subsidies would no longer receive them during customs clearance until the appropriated subsidies reached three million.

Plus the eight million they paid themselves, it can be said that almost all this money was Megan Consortium’s own money.

By juggling it this way, they were actually trying to ease the Consortium’s financial pressure in their accounts.

In the eyes of the Megan Consortium’s board of directors, it was just a group of crew members, some goods made with accumulated raw materials, not worth sixteen million at all.

They’d rather these people all died, then giving large compensations to each family, a hundred thousand each would do, then how much would it cost? Why are these people worth sixteen million now?

Before this guy came, the people on the board kept reminding him to keep an eye on the money, that at critical moments, both people and goods could be sacrificed, but the money must not be lost.

The officer glanced at him sideways and said solemnly, "We’ll try!" His expression clearly conveyed his feelings, a kind of disdain, a disdain for the coldness of human nature.

The military group, relatively speaking, is quite straightforward. It’s not that people in the military are fools, but their loves and hates are simple, and their expressions of emotion are straightforward.

They like what they like, dislike what they dislike, without showing superficial approval when they don’t actually agree, not including soldiers in the Ministry of Defense here.

At this moment, the sixteen million gathered from multiple parties were packed into eight boxes, tied together with a buoy.

They were onboard a warship far out of sight of the transaction location. If several warships sailed directly over, the bandits might tear up the tickets and leave, though that’s indeed what the board members of the Megan Consortium were thinking.

The current plan was for the person responsible for the transaction to take the money over, confirm the people were unharmed, then bring them back or return to the cargo ship and contact via radio, for the Navy to then swoop in.

For the task force, they didn’t believe this group of bandits’ ship could outrun a warship. The Navy’s analysis concluded that the pirates were unlikely to use speedboats as transportation in the open sea.

Using speedboats near shore or around the continental shelf is understandable, as the waves are relatively calm, but once they leave the continental shelf and enter open sea, the waves become especially terrifying.

Sometimes, even on a clear day, just a little stronger wind can create waves several meters high.

Speedboats lack the capacity for open sea navigation; the pirates must have a ship behind the island where they rest or some sort of base within the island, in short, they won’t escape.

To maximize safety for the hostage rescue team, someone in the task force proposed this plan.

Tie the money to a buoy and tow it with a ship. If the bandits don’t intend to play fair, planning to take the money without releasing the people, it won’t be easy to get the money right away.

This way, the safety of the personnel going to negotiate is ensured, at least they won’t be killed on the spot.

If the bandits do adhere to reason and follow the transaction rules, they just need to reel in the rope to bring the buoy and money over.

The idea was immediately agreed upon by everyone, safe, not quite a breach of contract, and quite flexible.

Soon, a small boat towing a buoy left the fleet, slowly disappearing on the distant horizon, making everyone tense up emotionally.

A while later, a lookout on a distant island spotted the small boat from atop his vantage point.

Though small, it wasn’t tiny, just relatively small compared to warships or large freighters.

The lookout blew a whistle, which quickly became a chorus. Conni, muddled by the sun’s heat, was kicked awake from a half-sleep.

He sat up, smacked his lips, dazedly looked around at the bound crew members, wiped his slightly foul-tasting mouth, and got up slackly.

The past few days had been his most relaxed during this period, as these pirates were not as terrifying as initially imagined.

They not only refrained from wanton killing of any crew member, they didn’t torture them either; in fact, they treated them well.

They gave all the crew the necessary supplies for living during this time, freshwater and food. Aside from that, they didn’t need to work and just ate and slept the whole day without any worries.

By this moment, some people talked about the arrival of the ransom deliverers with little expectation, and instead, there was a strange tone of "how the hell did you get here so fast."

Conni also sighed, yeah, how the hell did you get here so fast. But this was actually a kind of excitement after seeing hope, not really a wish for the rescue to come slower.

All the crew’s hands were locked with iron shackles, with the keys held by the pirates. Then, they were strung together with a chain, and two pirates led them towards the beach.

Unsure if it was an illusion, Conni’s eyes darted around, and after a while, he said in puzzlement to the person in front of him, "Have you noticed there are fewer pirates again?"

The sailor in front of him had known Conni for some time, and they were fairly familiar with each other. After all, Conni had an additional connection with the company. Even if he didn’t like the person, he wouldn’t offend him rashly, moreover, Conni wasn’t a person who was disliked.

The person in front of him also looked around for a while but wasn’t as alarmed as Conni, "There are indeed fewer than yesterday, maybe they are hiding, or they went to the other side?"

During the days they were held hostage, they occasionally discussed these robbers, such as their stupid move of demanding ransom.

Asking for ransom means exposing themselves. Once they are exposed, how could they possibly escape?

That’s sixteen million, enough for the company to assemble a team specifically to besiege them!

Finally, they reached a conclusion, on the back of the island, there should be a ship, a big one, that can sail far.

Hearing the person in front say this, Conni didn’t continue discussing the topic.

A group of people stood on the beach, looking at a small black dot in the distance growing larger until a ship appeared before them, a fishing boat, with a few small fish that hadn’t dried hanging from the rising fishing net, showing it came hastily.

At this time, a guy wearing a short-sleeved shirt jumped off the boat, raised both hands high, and slowly approached.

"That guy’s shirt looks nice, shouldn’t be cheap." At this moment, Conni, who was held hostage, showed no awareness of being a hostage, still critiquing the one here to rescue them.

People around him nodded as well. Short-sleeved shirts were once criticized by some as a desecration of formal wear, yet in recent years, they had become popular after all.

In the height of summer, not to mention wearing a full suit, even wearing just a long-sleeved shirt is really hot.

Two pirates went forward to negotiate for a moment, then both got on the fishing boat. Shortly after, the sound of the engine starting was heard, and at the same time, that guy in the short-sleeved shirt walked over.

"Did any of you get killed, or injured?" His genuine concern on his face made Conni hold back from criticizing him further. Everyone looked at each other and expressed that the pirates weren’t actually that bad.

Hearing this, the man breathed a sigh of relief.

Next came the process of verifying the money and releasing the hostages. Watching the pirates dragging the money boxes and quickly disappearing into the island’s less dense jungle, the person who came to pick up the crew opened the radio.

Soon after, four warships surrounded the area from four directions, but they found no traces at all. The pirates seemed to have completely vanished.

"Could they still be on the island?" The guy in charge of overseeing the money was about to go mad, tugging at his hair. Sixteen million disappeared right under his nose, and he could already imagine what the board of directors would do to him when he returned.

The officer in charge of this military action furrowed his brows and said, "We searched the entire island and found nothing unusual. There’s no port on the back of the island, no signs of anchors dragging near the shallows."

"Observation balloons also didn’t spot any enemy traces; they just seemed to have completely vanished..."

...

For some people, this was destined not to be a successful rescue because the money was lost.

Not only was the money lost, but the ship’s generators were more or less damaged and couldn’t be immediately delivered.

However, for Federation Society, this absolutely demonstrated the Federation’s superiority—life is incomparably precious. Whether people believed it before or will continue to believe it after, at least at this moment, they believed it.

The investigation surrounding the pirates soon had an unexpected finding, those pirates might have left by submarine!

And this precisely matched the description given by the rescued crew, the number of people on the island kept decreasing as a large part of them left by submarine, leaving only a few to receive the money and then leave.

And it’s precisely because this involved submarines, a "strategic" weapon currently unresolved, that the Federation top brass unprecedentedly focused on this.

Their naval war achievements against Gafura were built on the use of submarines. If now other countries could also use submarines in practical military actions, it’s definitely not good news.

After learning about this possibility, the President asked a question, "How do we counter submarines causing us harm in conflict?"