Chapter Fifteen: A Deadly Bargaining Chip (2)
The receiver was for one-way listening only. She could not respond.
She did not know where Cheng Muyang was, but for now, the most urgent thing was to keep track of everything this woman did and make sure she never left her line of sight. The bathroom door was transparent, and the moment it closed, Nan Bei pushed it open again.
There was someone else inside, a young girl, washing her cheeks with clean water.
Without even looking at them, Nan Bei walked into a stall and closed the door. Through the gap, she saw the unfamiliar girl turn her gaze toward the female scientist.
At the same time, the scientists at the Moscow headquarters were still chattering away through the receiver.
Suddenly, Cheng Muyang said something in Russian. She could not understand it, but she could clearly feel that he was genuinely angry. He no longer had any trace of his usual gentlemanly demeanor. The people at the Moscow headquarters all fell silent, keeping the channel quiet.
“Kyle.” Cheng Muyang switched to English so that Nan Bei could hear his arrangements as well. “Have your people get ready. The last woman is the one we’re looking for.”
He was very clever. Nan Bei’s actions had already told him the final result.
“Cheng, we’re already ready.” Kyle’s voice was very relaxed. “I have everyone’s flight information here. This group of VIPs will be heading to Riyadh Airport in three separate batches. I’ll find a way to make this woman’s car break away temporarily, or simply stage an explosion and take her away.”
Cheng Muyang’s voice was devoid of emotion. “Whatever you do, get her out of Saudi Arabia.”
Nan Bei stared at the two women separated by a single door and quietly listened to Cheng Muyang and Kyle’s conversation.
She saw the female scientist take off her veil in the mirror, pull out the mascara she was carrying, and begin touching up her makeup. The female scientist had an Asian face.
At the same time, the girl had straightened up and pulled a dry white tissue from her pocket, wiping her cheeks. The two people reflected in the mirror looked like ordinary strangers, with no connection to each other whatsoever. If Nan Bei had not been deliberately watching them, how could she ever have thought there was any connection between them?
Soon, the girl tossed the tissue aside and left the bathroom.
The white tissue had been crumpled up and left on the edge of the sink.
When the female scientist lowered her head to look at it, Nan Bei was also watching the same spot through the gap in the door. After hearing Cheng Muyang’s arrangements just now, she gradually relaxed. As long as the female scientist listened through the entire meeting and got into the car heading for Riyadh Airport, someone would take care of everything. Nan Bei would no longer need to worry about anything.
With that thought, her hand had already reached for the door. She was about to walk out as though nothing had happened and leave the bathroom.
Unexpectedly, at that moment, the female scientist suddenly took out her phone. Looking down at the tissue, she entered a string of numbers. Nan Bei stopped in an instant.
It was a very quiet phone call.
The female scientist was extremely sparing with her words. From beginning to end, she only said one thing in a low voice: “Fahd Airport.” Her voice sounded puzzled and uncertain, as though she were repeating the words spoken by the person on the other end.
Fahd Airport?
Nan Bei remembered that Kyle had not mentioned this name through the receiver just now.
Although she was unfamiliar with Saudi Arabia, she could guess that this must be another airport in Saudi Arabia.
The woman had already hung up. She tore the crumpled tissue to pieces and threw it into the trash.
Nan Bei had no more time to think, much less verify it.
She abruptly pushed open the door, took a large step forward, and covered the woman’s mouth. Her hand came down hard against the back of the woman’s neck, silently knocking her unconscious onto the floor.
Nan Bei stood beside the mirror, looking down at the unconscious woman.
She knew that this game of cat and mouse had only just begun.
That phone call just now meant that the CIA had changed the route by which this woman would leave.
If Nan Bei openly took her out of the bathroom now, the CIA would discover it immediately. If they failed to get this scientist, they might very well turn around and bite back at Saudi Arabia, claiming that Cheng Muyang had kidnapped a nuclear scientist from the Middle East.
When that happened, let alone this woman, even Cheng Muyang and the others would have a hard time leaving Saudi Arabia.
But she could not secretly transport the woman away, either.
The moment the CIA discovered that the woman had not returned to the conference hall, they would quickly guess that the scientist had been kidnapped.
Suddenly.
Bodongha coughed again, the sound like he had choked on smoke.
This was a public bathroom, and someone could come in at any moment. Nan Bei had no time to think any further. She quickly dragged the woman into a stall and closed the door, took off her watch and removed her phone, then exchanged her black robe and shoes with the woman’s.
At the same time, she took the glasses from the woman’s pocket.
In that brief moment, she decided to place another bet.
She would leave the woman in the bathroom and have Bodongha notify Cheng Muyang, so that they could get the woman out of Saudi Arabia as quickly as possible. For the next few hours, the only thing she had to do was become this woman’s substitute.
Take the woman’s place and listen to all the remaining presentations.
Take the woman’s place and leave the conference hall by car.
Take the woman’s place and go to Fahd Airport.
Then find an opportunity to break away from the CIA’s surveillance and reunite with Cheng Muyang.
She was confident that for at least an hour, it would be difficult for the CIA to get close enough to her to recognize that she was a fake.
Nan Bei quickly tore off a piece of paper and used mascara to leave Bodongha a brief message:
Take the woman to Cheng Muyang. Get her out as quickly as possible.
After finishing all this, Nan Bei left the unconscious woman in the stall and shut the door tightly. Then she walked to the mirror, applied several thick layers of mascara to herself, and used the pointed tip of the mascara wand to roughly draw a layer of eyeliner, altering the shape of her eyes.
Finally, she put on the glasses.
The Nan Bei in the mirror was still different from the female scientist, but she had concealed the differences very well.
Looking at herself, she once again marveled at how lucky Cheng Muyang was.
Of all people, the woman he needed to find happened to have black eyes, and this particular woman had happened to remain veiled from beginning to end. Apart from her eyes, no one knew what she looked like. Besides, these scientists had only known one another for a single day, so they would not remember each other’s appearances in any great detail.
Without all these favorable conditions, Nan Bei would have had no chance of impersonating her.
Once everything was in order, Nan Bei finally walked out of the bathroom.
Bodongha had been watching from the smoking area not far away the entire time. When Nan Bei walked toward him, he did not pay attention at first. It was not until she came closer and quietly said in Burmese, “Go to the bathroom. Get the things,” that the hand holding his cigarette suddenly paused.
Nan Bei did not stop. She quickly returned to the conference hall and sat back down in the woman’s seat.
Inside the receiver, every channel had already been muted. There was no further communication.
Kyle must have thought that the Nan Bei sitting here was the female scientist.
But his real prey was lying quietly in the stall on the far right of the bathroom.
Just as Kyle had said, all the VIPs were indeed divided into three groups according to the itinerary.
A person in charge was carefully counting everyone. When it was Nan Bei’s turn, the person’s assistant suddenly said something softly. The person in charge immediately nodded and smiled at Nan Bei.
“Ms. Kana, we already know your wishes and those of the other lady. We heard that you are very interested in experiencing the train journey that crosses the desert from the capital to Dammam, so we are honored to arrange a first-class seat for you. After arriving in Dammam, you will leave Saudi Arabia from King Fahd International Airport. We wish you a pleasant journey.”
Nan Bei said nothing, merely giving a slight nod in polite response.
As expected, the CIA had indeed made a last-minute change.
Nan Bei could not help marveling at how keen Cheng Muyang’s enemy was at sensing danger. While the nuclear scientists in Moscow were still arguing, the Americans had already sensed that the female scientist’s identity might have been exposed and swiftly responded.
According to what the person in charge had said, she would first take a train across the desert before eventually arriving at Fahd Airport.
Following the arrangements, she left most of the group and, together with another female scientist, was sent to Riyadh Railway Station.
The woman responsible for receiving them quietly introduced the ancient railway station.
The oldest passenger railway route on the Arabian Peninsula stretched across the entire desert. It sounded quite interesting.
From the moment she got into the car and arrived at Riyadh Railway Station, to the moment she boarded the train and entered first class, she never once looked at her watch, yet she calculated the passage of time down to every minute and second in her mind.
“Ms. Kana, I’m also very interested in the subject you were talking about just now.”
The other woman traveling with her had been very interested in Nan Bei all along. It was probably because of the impressive presentation in the conference hall earlier, as well as the exchange of questions with Zhousheng Chen, which had left a deep impression on the woman in front of her.
Nan Bei hesitated for a moment but said nothing.
Her indifference had clearly hurt the woman in front of her.
“I’m sorry.”
The woman looked somewhat awkward. She politely stood up and moved to another seat.
There were very few people at Riyadh Railway Station, and only a handful of passengers were scattered throughout the train. After the woman sitting beside Nan Bei left, she was the only person left in her row.
The receiver remained silent.
She could not guess what had happened on Cheng Muyang’s end. She only hoped that she had not taken this risk for nothing, and that it would allow him to successfully seize the CIA by the throat...
The train began to move slowly. Sitting by the window, Nan Bei finally lowered her head and glanced at her watch.
Only half an hour had passed.
It would take roughly five hours to travel from this train’s starting station to its final destination.
People from the CIA could appear at any moment to make contact with her. If they really were on this train, how could she avoid being exposed? Stay silent and say nothing? Clearly, that would not work.
“Beibei.”
Cheng Muyang’s voice suddenly came through the receiver.
Nan Bei had been immersed in her own thoughts. When she suddenly heard his voice, her heart skipped several anxious beats.
The receiver was in her ear, making his voice sound almost like a whisper beside her.
“I’ll catch up with you soon.”
Cheng Muyang’s voice was gentle and steady. Only when speaking to Nan Bei did he use this kind of tone.
“Be careful.”
He would catch up with her soon?
How? He did not say, but it was obvious that Cheng Muyang was already very close to her.
“Excuse me,” an inquiring voice came from beside her. “Miss, would you like something to eat?”
The girl serving the meals was leaning toward her as she asked.
Just as Nan Bei was about to shake her head, Cheng Muyang’s voice came through the receiver again.
“Remember...”
She concentrated on listening, but his voice suddenly turned into a burst of static, and the connection was actually cut off in the middle of the desert.
“Would you like something to eat now?”
Someone beside her politely asked again.
Nan Bei turned her head and was about to refuse, but the face before her stunned her.
Although it had been several years since they last met, she recognized her at a glance.
In the space of a split second, they recognized each other at the same time.
The instant the girl reached for her gun, Nan Bei caught her wrist with her other hand.
Hard.
She slammed it against the back of the seat, knocking the silver pistol from the girl’s hand.
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