novelsite Chapter 92 Cipher
Chapter 92 Cipher
Wang Zhengyang immediately retreated deeper into the alley, hiding in the shadows behind a trash can. He held his breath, minimizing his presence.
Four men walked past the alleyway. They were dressed in dark clothes and carrying flashlights, the beams of light streaking through the rain. Judging from their equipment and movements, they weren't thugs from the Iron Hand Gang, but rather more professional individuals.
Cleaning team.
Wang Zhengyang immediately made a judgment. Their search method was very systematic—checking every possible hiding place, observing ground traces, and scanning with specialized equipment. One of them was holding a thermal imager, scanning the surrounding buildings.
Fortunately, the heavy rain reduced the effectiveness of thermal imaging, and the area where Wang Zhengyang was located had many trash cans, whose heat interfered with the scanning.
The four men paused at the alley entrance for a few minutes, exchanged a few words, and then continued walking. Their destination was 27 Oranien Street—the building where Andrei's team was hiding.
Wang Zhengyang's heart skipped a beat. The cleaning team had already found this place, and faster than expected. This meant their intelligence was accurate, or... they had an inside contact.
He had to leave as soon as possible, no matter what.
A few minutes later, Li Ming's car finally arrived. Wang Zhengyang quickly helped the two wounded men into the car and then sat in the back seat himself.
"Let's go," he said.
The car drove away from the block. Through the rain-blurred car window, Wang Zhengyang saw that the four men had already entered 27 Oraning Street. They were a little late, but not too late.
"Is the safe spot safe?" Wang Zhengyang asked.
"It's safe for now," Li Ming said. "But I advise against staying too long. The Iron Hand gang is expanding their search area, and the cleanup team has reappeared. This place will soon be exposed."
Wang Zhengyang nodded. He took out his phone and sent Chen Yishang an encrypted message: "Prepare the medical room; there are seriously injured people. Notify Lin Luoer to prepare to assist."
Soon, the reply came: "The medical room is ready, and Lin Luo'er is on standby."
The car drove through the rain toward the abandoned repair shop.
At the same time, in the basement of 27 Oraning Street.
The four members of the cleaning team stood in the room that Wang Zhengyang had just evacuated. The beams of their flashlights swept across the floor, lingering on the blood-stained bandages and empty medical packaging.
"They just left not long ago." "Shadow"—the cleaning team leader—squatted down and touched the bloodstains on the ground with his fingers. "The blood isn't completely dry yet, at most half an hour."
"Thermal imaging shows there's no one else in this building," Spider reported. "But the basement temperature is higher than normal, indicating someone was here just now."
The anvil examined the discarded bandages: "The handling was very professional. The hemostatic powder and antibacterial ointment are military-grade. But the bandaging was rather hasty, suggesting it was done in an emergency."
Hawkeye stood guard at the doorway, his sniper rifle already assembled but muzzle pointing downwards: "There are fresh tire tracks outside, just left. Two vehicles, a small sedan and a slightly larger one, probably an MPV."
Ying stood up and looked around the small room. There were obvious signs of habitation—empty cans, a kettle, a blanket, and excrement in the corner. This indicated that someone had been hiding here for at least a day.
"All four of them were injured," Ying analyzed. "Judging from the distribution of blood, at least one had a gunshot wound to the abdomen, one had a broken leg, one had a head injury, and the other had an arm injury. They were waiting for rescue here, and then the rescuers came and took them away."
"Who are the rescuers?" the spider asked.
"I'm not sure," Ying said, "but judging from the tire tracks, at least two vehicles came, indicating that there was more than one person. And the fact that they were able to move four wounded in such a short time shows that they were very efficient."
He walked to the window and looked at the rain outside: "It's not the Iron Hand Gang. If it were, they would have already conducted a large-scale search. It's not the police either; the police would have called an ambulance. So, there's only one possibility left..."
"A third party," Iron Anvil said, "the group that stole Zhang Yiqiang's weapons."
Ying nodded: "Interesting. This third-party force not only dared to steal Mr. Zhou's goods, but also dared to rescue people right under the noses of the Iron Hand Gang. They're either insane, or... they really have the power."
"What do we do now?" the spider asked. "Continue tracking?"
"Keep tracking them," Shadow said, "but don't alert them. Spider, retrieve all the nearby surveillance footage and track the whereabouts of those two cars. Anvil, Eagle Eye, survey the surrounding area and see if you can find any more clues."
The three responded and sprang into action. Shadow remained alone in the room, the beam of her flashlight slowly sweeping across every corner.
Shadow crouched in the corner, tweezers in his hand holding the loose brick. The brick was carefully removed, revealing a narrow gap behind it. He shone his tactical flashlight, the beam catching sight of the folded paper cube.
"We found something," Shadow said softly.
Spiders and anvils immediately swarmed around. Shadow used tweezers to pick out the paper square, placed it on the clean evidence bag, and carefully unfolded it.
The paper doesn't contain words, but rather a complex series of symbols: dots, lines, triangles, and intersecting arcs, arranged in three rows. The first row has more symbols, the second row has fewer, and the third row has only three symbols.
"The password," the spider immediately determined. "It will take time to decipher."
Shadow didn't answer. He stared at the symbols for a full minute, then said, "I don't need to decipher them completely; I already know the general meaning."
Both the anvil and the spider looked at him.
"Look at the composition of the symbols." Ying pointed to the first line. "These symbols have obvious grouping characteristics, with three to four symbols in each group. This is typical of simplified battlefield ciphers—each symbol combination corresponds to a common phrase or word. The first line has more symbols, so it should be describing the current situation."
He moved to the second line: "This line has significantly fewer symbols and repeating patterns. Notice the symbol with a dot inside the triangle; it also appeared at the end of the first line. In battlefield codes, repeating symbols often indicate key information—it could be location, time, or operational instructions."
Finally, he pointed to the third line: "There are only three symbols. The first is an upward arrow, the second is a cross inside a circle, and the third is a simple dot. An upward arrow usually means 'leave' or 'transfer,' a cross inside a circle often represents 'medical' in military symbolism, and a dot may mean 'complete' or 'safe.'"
Ying raised her head, her eyes sharp: "So the information is roughly this: we (Andrei's team) were attacked, seriously injured, but still alive; now someone has come to rescue us and transfer us to a place with medical facilities; the operation is complete, and we are safe."
The spider quickly jotted down notes: "Can you figure out who the rescuer is?"