Mercenary’s War

Chapter 2174 - 2151: Triangulation

Fatino was dragged out from the trunk.

Because of the fear that once their location was identified, any sudden changes could lead to an attack, Fatino was taken away from the car. As the interrogation began by the side of the highway, everyone except Yake was on high alert.

Fatino was tied tightly, and his mouth was firmly sealed with tape. Although he was still wearing his clothes, he had been searched inside and out numerous times with no signal-emitting device found. However, since they had been tracked down twice already without other explanations, they had to check if Fatino was somehow responsible.

Yake tore off the tape from Fatino’s mouth. Fatino, who had been dragged around frantically, was in extreme terror, yet no one interrogated or tortured him. Over the past few days, Fatino had scared himself into a mental breakdown. So when taken out of the car, his first reaction was thinking he was going to die.

With the tape off, Fatino gasped for a few breaths, pursed his lips, choked back a few sobs, and then suddenly opened his mouth and started wailing loudly.

Yake slapped Fatino hard and said coldly, "We won’t kill you, don’t cry, or I’ll make you learn a lesson right now."

Fatino immediately stopped his loud crying. He dared not cry loudly anymore, but suppressing his sobs caused him to start hiccupping, and he couldn’t stop.

"We’re in Rome now, but Mario’s people can always find us. Tell me, why is that?"

After Yake spoke coldly, Fatino hiccupped several times before responding with fear, "I don’t know, I haven’t done anything, I really don’t know, I can’t do anything."

Yake looked at Gao Yang and shook his head slowly.

Gao Yang spread his hands helplessly, meaning, are we really going to leave it at that?

Yake shook his head again, saying, "He’s already scared stiff; whatever you ask him, he’ll say. If he says he doesn’t know, then he really doesn’t know. Plus, we’ve already taken everything from his body, he has no chance to send any information out."

Gao Yang sighed, "Alright, let’s assume he has nothing to do with it for now. Looks like we have to find a hospital or some equipment to detect electronic signals. What now? We must leave here first, take what we can, let’s go."

Yake pointed at Fatino lying on the ground, "What about him? Get rid of him? Taking him along is quite cumbersome."

Gao Yang shook his head, "No, take him along. As cumbersome as he is, we have to. He can’t die until he’s suffered enough. By the way, did you find anything on him? I want to find all his family, or I won’t feel satisfied."

Yake looked at the others, "Who searched him?"

After rescuing Gao Yang and others, Gao Yang fell asleep immediately, and Yake soon passed out too. So someone else must have searched Fatino. Li Jinfang raised his hand and said, "Frey and I searched thoroughly. Just a phone, two packs of gum, a lighter, half a pack of cigarettes, and a pen. That’s all, I remember."

Yake immediately asked, "Where are those things then?"

Li Jinfang waved his hand, "I threw them away. I put the items in a bag and casually tossed it aside, should be where I threw it."

Frey said surprised, "Threw them away? I didn’t throw them away, I thought they might be useful, so I stored them in the car."

Li Jinfang shouted, "Ah, I thought you threw them away. Those things were useless, in a hurry to retreat, I didn’t go back to get them."

Frey urgently said, "I turned off his phone, put it in a bag, and then placed it in the trunk of the car I was sitting in."

Yake clapped his hands loudly, "Found the problem! Get his phone, hurry!"

Frey immediately turned and ran toward the car abandoned on the highway. Gao Yang curiously said, "Shouldn’t be? Wasn’t the phone shut off?"

Yake shook his head, "Turning it off doesn’t work, there’s mobile phone signals even when off. Italian phones are GSM standard, the GSM network uses time difference positioning technology, requiring three phone signal base stations to receive signals, then utilizing the time difference in signal reception by three base stations to calculate position. This is also a triangulation method. In areas with dense base stations, the precision can be very high, easily locating the phone."

Gao Yang curiously asked, "It doesn’t add up, I also know about phone triangulation, but if the location precision is high, Mario’s people could directly find us. Why were they driving around looking for our whereabouts then?"

Yake habitually frowned, the action tugging at his eye wound and causing him to shiver in pain before shaking his head, "Don’t know yet why they were searching. I think, maybe there’s some technical issue somewhere, but it’s definitely Fatino’s phone attracting Mario’s people, no other explanation. This technology’s been used long ago, I’ve often used it in my previous work."

After a while, Frey returned, panting heavily, holding a greasy plastic bag, and shouted, "All here, I randomly found a bag to pack it in."

Yake took the bag, pulled out a phone, checked it over, and nodded, "That’s right, turned off, but it doesn’t matter. Frey, where was the phone placed?"

Frey immediately replied, "In the trunk, car trunk."

Yake displayed an expression of sudden realization, "That explains it, the trunk shields the phone signal. Did you use the phone at our stop in the small town?"

"Nope, oh we did stop before entering the town, I opened the trunk to take some rifle magazines, then, again when we left the town, I opened the trunk to restock ammo. After that, I haven’t touched it."

Yake shrugged at Gao Yang, "The truth is sometimes laughably simple, it’s like this. Phone in the trunk blocks signals, open the trunk and it has signals. Mario’s been tracking the phone signal, he must have this capability. We stayed long enough in that small town for Mario’s people to come after us. After the signal tracked us, they arrived at the town to search, until encountering us. After that, without changing cars, even without signals, Mario could easily track us via monitoring, so drop this phone and switch cars, and we won’t have this problem."

Gao Yang laughed, "Can’t throw this phone away, we can use it to set some traps, it’s quite the treasure."