novelsite Chapter 10 Li Ming
Chapter 10 Li Ming
At exactly four o'clock in the afternoon, in the back room of that Asian grocery store in the Kreuzberg district.
Li Ming was even more tense than before. He didn't sit at the table, but stood in the shadows of the room, leaning against a shelf piled with cardboard boxes, holding a black device the size of a cigarette box in his hand—Wang Zhengyang recognized it as the most powerful civilian signal jammer available on the market, capable of blocking all wireless communications within a ten-meter radius when activated.
Seeing Wang Zhengyang enter, Li Ming pointed to the door, indicating that he should lock it, before pressing the switch on the jammer. A slight buzzing sound rang out, and Wang Zhengyang felt the cell phone signal indicator in his pocket instantly disappear.
"Mr. Wang, time is short, so I'll get to the point." Li Ming's voice was low, and his speech was faster than usual. "Two things. First, the seller agrees to meet to trade the 'goods' you requested. Time: Tomorrow night at 11 PM sharp. Location: A former abandoned railway freight station from the East German era, on the southern outskirts of Potsdam. I'll send you the exact coordinates later. The seller requires that you go alone, with all the payment in cash. He will bring all the original documents and a backup hard drive. You will inspect the goods on-site, settle the payment, and then go your separate ways, never to be contacted again."
Wang Zhengyang didn't speak, but simply nodded, signaling to continue.
"Secondly, regarding Zhang Yiqiang." Li Ming pulled a thin file folder from his pocket, took out a few photos, and placed them on the table. The photos were somewhat blurry, clearly taken from a distance, but the content was still legible: Zhang Yiqiang (a short, stocky, bald, middle-aged Chinese man wearing a flashy shirt) was talking to several burly Eastern European men in leather jackets in a parking lot; another photo showed several black SUVs with diplomatic license plates driving into a warehouse compound late at night; and a close-up of a bald, muscular man with a menacing face and ferocious tattoos on his neck.
"This bald man is 'Butcher Hans,' whose real name is Hans Gruber. He's a German-Russian who's notorious for his ruthlessness in Berlin's underground lending circles. Zhang Yiqiang owes him a huge sum of money, and the interest is skyrocketing. His final ultimatum is to pay off the first installment of 300,000 euros within a week, or he'll use his No. 1 warehouse as collateral—but what Hans really wants is the 'things' in the warehouse, not the warehouse itself."
"What exactly is in Warehouse Number One?" Wang Zhengyang asked.
"On the surface, it's building materials, but my men staked out for three nights and noticed some unusual comings and goings." Li Ming pointed to the photos of the SUVs. "These cars appear once or twice a week, always late at night, and stay for very short periods. Once, they photographed unloading goods; the boxes weren't big, but the people moving them were very careful, using handcarts with shock absorbers. I suspect... it might be weapons or high-value electronic equipment. Zhang Yiqiang's business has long since expanded beyond building materials."
Wang Zhengyang frowned slightly. If Zhang Yiqiang was not only a local tyrant but also involved in arms smuggling, then the risk level of contacting him needed to be reassessed.
"Keep an eye on him, especially the details of his interactions with those 'freight drivers,' as well as the personnel and security patterns at Warehouse No. 1." Wang Zhengyang took out an envelope thicker than the last one from his bag and placed it on the table. "The electromagnetic armor transaction must be handled flawlessly. I need to be on-site four hours before the transaction to scout the environment."
"Understood. I'll send the map and precautions to your disposable email address in encryption." Li Ming put away the envelope, paused, and added, "One last reminder, Mr. Wang. That abandoned freight station in Potsdam... isn't on any police station's regular patrol routes, and there are no residents within three kilometers. It's very dark and quiet at night. You're alone, carrying so much cash..."
"I know," Wang Zhengyang interrupted him, his voice calm. "Just do your job."
By the time he left the grocery store, it was already dark. The evening breeze was getting chilly, and the shops lining the street lit up with warm lights. Wang Zhengyang walked among the crowd, outwardly no different from any other office worker heading home, but his brain was processing the information he had just received at high speed:
The transaction the night after tomorrow is extremely risky, but it's a must. The electromagnetic reactive armor technology is too crucial to fail. He needs to develop a detailed contingency plan: route reconnaissance, evacuation plan, emergency measures…
The Zhang Yiqiang line has become complicated and dangerous. Tomorrow's contact must be handled with extreme caution; if possible, we should avoid revealing our true needs and capabilities. But if the other side is indeed involved in arms dealing… perhaps, danger hides opportunity?
He needed more information, he needed faster progress. Time was ticking away.
7:20 PM, Oberhausen marshalling yard.
The sun had completely sunk below the horizon, leaving only a dark red afterglow on the sky. The high-mast lights in the marshalling yard gradually came on, casting long, distorted shadows on the massive cars and the crisscrossing switches.
Chen Yishang and his apprentices had already transported the first batch of components they had processed during the day to the EIS-7 site, neatly stacking them on a waterproof tarpaulin. They were doing the final cleanup: tidying up tools, sweeping away metal shavings, and checking the bolts and washers needed for tomorrow's installation. Everyone's work clothes were soaked with sweat and oil, but their faces showed a sense of satisfaction in completing their work.
"Dr. Wang, that's about it for today." Chen Yishang walked over, wiping the oil stains off his hands with cotton yarn. "The first batch of twelve connectors have all been processed, and the dimensions have been checked again; they're all within tolerance. We can start on-site installation first thing tomorrow morning, beginning with the bumper beam support on the lower left side of the front of the vehicle."
"Very good." Wang Zhengyang nodded. "Everyone has worked hard today. Go back and rest early. We'll meet at eight o'clock tomorrow."
As everyone gradually left, the engine noise faded into the distance, and the marshalling yard fell silent once more. Wang Zhengyang stayed behind; he climbed alone into the driver's cab of the EIS-7.
With the door closed, the sounds from the outside world were blocked out by the thick steel plates, leaving only the sound of his own breathing. The driver's cab was pitch black, with only a few standby indicator lights emitting a faint red glow, like the eyes of a beast in the dark.
He opened his tablet and pulled up a partial schematic of the "Thunder Barrier" system that Li Ming had just sent him—this was a "sample" before the transaction, used to verify the authenticity of the information.
The blueprints unfolded on the screen, their complexity astonishing. The electromagnetic reactive armor wasn't a simple plate, but a sophisticated system integrating materials science, high-power electronics, sensor networks, and control algorithms. His gaze quickly swept over several key components:
Energy storage unit: A supercapacitor array employing novel carbon nanotube-graphene composite electrodes, with a nominal capacity of 3000 farads per module, an operating voltage of 450 volts, and an instantaneous discharge current of up to 20000 amperes. The array consists of 36 modules, with a total energy storage of approximately 2.7 megajoules—equivalent to 0.75 kilowatt-hours of electricity—which can be released entirely within milliseconds.
High-speed discharge trigger circuit: The core consists of sixteen parallel-connected insulated gate bipolar transistors (IGBTs), each with a rated current of 1200 amperes and a switching time of less than 50 nanoseconds. The circuit uses a multilayer ceramic substrate and embeds an internal fiber optic signal transmission channel to avoid electromagnetic interference.
The reaction matrix consists of a 4-millimeter-thick interlayer containing hundreds of millions of aluminum-magnesium alloy particles with diameters of 5-20 micrometers, each coated with a nano-scale oxidant layer. When a high-voltage current passes through, the particles vaporize within a millionth of a second, forming a metallic plasma with a temperature exceeding 5000 degrees Celsius.
Sensor network: Hundreds of miniature piezoelectric sensors and electromagnetic probes distributed on the surface of the armor plate can monitor the pressure distribution, jet velocity, and material properties at the impact point in real time, and transmit the data to the central processor to make a response decision within 100 microseconds.