Spy-x-War Showdown -
Chapter 297 - 296 Disappearance
Chapter 297: Chapter 296 Disappearance
Yang Yi and his team arrived at the location.
A fairly large building with a quadrangle structure, surrounded on all sides by buildings enveloping a smaller construction in the middle. It was not very tall, with only six floors. In Paris, there are many old buildings with a bit of history and structures similar to this one.
To block someone, one must first understand the building’s structure. It doesn’t feel particularly striking in photos, but upon arriving on the scene, Yang Yi realized it would be impossible to seal off all exits and catch someone inside like trapping a turtle in a jar.
The building was too large, and they had too few people; they could only search slowly.
Moreover, the trouble with such a building is the numerous exits since storefronts with their own entrance doors lined the streets on all sides of the building. If they were to search slowly, there’s no telling how long it would take.
Kate followed close to Yang Yi’s side, while Brian and the other two maintained some distance from Yang Yi. Zhang Yong was to the left of Yang Yi, while Xiao Ran stayed in the car and did not get out.
Yang Yi pressed his forehead with a somewhat pained expression.
If he had to choose a hideout, or say, find a place in Paris to stay for a long time, he would also pick such a location, because if anything were to happen, it would be very convenient to escape. However, now that Bass had picked such a place, it made things difficult for those like him who intended to make trouble.
The first step would be to use the process of elimination.
Yang Yi didn’t rush inside; he also didn’t know where to start searching in such a big building. It wouldn’t work to rely on luck alone. If he had to search each shop carefully and then the areas beyond the stores, such as residential units on the third or fourth floors, it would take days to complete the search of the entire building.
Yang Yi started walking circles around the building, while Brian and the other two split up into groups. Brian moved closer to Yang Yi, and Paul and Charles went in the opposite direction.
About five minutes later, Yang Yi met up with Paul on another street at the other side of the building.
"There are three restaurants: French, Italian, Turkish, a cafe, a shoe shop, a clothing store, a liquor store, and a flower shop," Yang Yi said, sharing his observations. In a low voice, Paul added, "Two French restaurants, a beauty salon, a bar, and a gym. The gym is very large, taking up all the internal building space."
In a low voice, Yang Yi said, "It’s noon now, I think we should start with the restaurants."
After checking his watch, Brian whispered, "Okay."
After a brief meeting, the group split up again, with Yang Yi heading towards the side Paul had observed.
Yang Yi walked a short distance to a restaurant. He gave Kate a signal with his eyes to not follow him, while Zhang Yong quickly walked a few steps to catch up with Yang Yi.
Not far down the road was Xiao Ran’s car.
Xiao Ran was driving the car by herself, but on the passenger seat beside her lay the rifle she would need. For this operation, the likelihood of needing sniper support was almost nil, and hence Xiao Ran was equipped with an HK416 automatic rifle outfitted with just a red dot sight.
Yang Yi pushed open the door, and the two of them walked into the entrance of a French restaurant.
French restaurants have a feature unfamiliar to Huaxia people: almost all dining establishments lack private rooms, regardless of whether they are upscale or ordinary. However, this characteristic made it easier for Yang Yi and his team to search for people.
During the lunch hour, the restaurant wasn’t full but had a fair number of patrons. After Yang Yi and Zhang Yong walked in, a waiter immediately came up to them, speaking rapidly in French.
Yang Yi really didn’t understand French; during his short time in France, he hadn’t managed to learn it, not even the most commonly used everyday phrases.
So Yang Yi genuinely didn’t understand what the waiter was saying, whereas Zhang Yong rattled off a few sentences in response.
Just by scanning the room quickly, Yang Yi knew that Bass, the person he was looking for, wasn’t among the restaurant’s patrons—not all identifications require seeing a face; figures and hairstyles can also reveal a person.
With just a glance, Yang Yi apologized in English and then immediately turned to walk back out the door.
Once outside the restaurant, Yang Yi couldn’t help but whisper, "Brother Yong, you know French?"
Zhang Yong whispered back, "A little. I used to know a couple of guys from France; picked up a few phrases after spending time with them. You’re the same, now you know Spanish and Portuguese, right? It’s all the same; if you stay somewhere long enough, you’ll learn a few phrases. It’s like how those who spend enough time with me will learn how to curse in Chinese."
The two laughed and continued walking, bypassing other storefronts, and quickly entered another restaurant.
This one was much fancier than the last, much larger in size and significantly pricier, which explained the fewer patrons. After a brief exchange with the waiter and a quick look around, Yang Yi and Zhang Yong left again.
Brian and his two companions followed at a discreet distance, with Kate trailing behind them. Seeing Yang Yi and his companion emerging once more, the group showed no particular reaction; without a better approach, they simply had to continue the search.
Actually, there was a simpler way to find Bass—if the Organization of Water had someone who knew how to use phone company towers for triangulating positions, it would greatly improve the precision of the search, narrowing it down to tens or even a few meters.
But right now, the Organization of Water lacked such talent. No one is a master of all skills, and even if they were, such people wouldn’t likely be among the small group present; such talent is a national treasure, figures of national importance.
Alternatively, Yang Yi could buy intelligence, purchasing all information on the Destroyer, all information on Bass, which would be much easier, voiding the need for the act they’d performed in London. But Yang Yi didn’t have the money.
Short on manpower and cash, they had no choice but to do everything themselves.
The consequence of having to do everything themselves was that things were very inefficient.
And the consequence of inefficiency was that it took Yang Yi and his team almost twenty minutes to quickly finish with the second to last restaurant, when Mike suddenly called with some very unsettling news.
"The mobile signal has vanished, just now."
Yang Yi was momentarily stunned and asked, "Vanished, where to?"
Mike replied gravely, "Not moved, disappeared, just suddenly gone."
Yang Yi instinctively thought that their recent actions had exposed them, causing Bass to go into hiding, but after giving it some thought, he felt it wasn’t right; they shouldn’t have been exposed so easily.
Yang Yi looked around and whispered, "Suddenly disappeared, not moved, just vanished out of nowhere. That means the mobile signal was jammed. If he didn’t purposely ditch or destroy his phone, then there must be a place that can block mobile signals, or perhaps, a place that requires turning off one’s phone..."
Stopping there, Yang Yi suddenly brightened up and said, "I’ve got it!"
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