Chapter 1126: The lone ranger driving the
"It seems that the method of murder of Julio Salazar is similar to that of the first two victims. The neck was cut with a sickle, and the removal of the eyeballs seems to have the same ritual meaning as the second victim's arm was cut off. .
But the arm of the second victim was left at the scene, and we couldn’t find the gouged eyeball anywhere around.
And the paint on the dead, why wasn't our wizard painted or painted? His body had not even been removed, and the blood stains on the ground showed that this was the first scene. "
Clay asked a series of questions, causing the other three people to frown.
Jack sighed and pointed to the occult symbols with mixed meanings in the room, "You have seen everything here. It is almost impossible to understand the specific content of the ritual."
This thing is no different from the sects he had heard of in his previous life, which were once popular in the country. They are all made up of various religious rituals.
If a serious expert in religion or mysticism is asked to design a oblique religious ceremony, no matter how many elements he borrows from the Buddhist Water and Land Dharma Assembly, the Taoist fasting ceremony, or the Christian Mass, there will be traces. Followable.
The problem is that whether it is the local wizard who had his eyeballs taken out in front of him or the murderer who caused all this, the Voodoo, Satanism or Holy Spirit Death they believe in are all caused by a group of semi-literate or even illiterate people who use the word of mouth. Unorthodox beliefs spread through word of mouth.
This is like the Bagua flag of the great power of the universe. The Yin-Yang fish was abruptly changed to look like Pepsi-Cola, and the Bagua became the Four Trigrams.
According to the people of Seris, the original sovereign state, this is the opposition between heaven and earth, the universe is in different positions, wind and thunder are invisible, mountains and rivers are blocked, Tai Chi has no eyes, yin and yang are in conflict, water and fire are incompatible, and it is rare to have a good ending, Bagua is missing four or half of the country, and the five elements are few trees and no trees. A root of duckweed is a sure sign of great misfortune.
"No, maybe there is a way." Lopez said with a proud smile on his face.
“Although most shrines and altars of the Holy Spirit of Death are hidden in homes, out of the need to promote doctrines, believers will still design them in a form that can be easily borrowed and display them on the streets.
I can contact the local police to find some believers who do this and learn from them whether there are similar blood sacrifice rituals in the local area. "
"This might be a good idea." Clay also remembered that Lopez had mentioned before that he had been ordered to destroy mobile altars displayed on the street more than once.
Jack paused as he walked towards the door, showing a thoughtful expression, "How are those mobile shrines and altars usually displayed?"
"Put it in the bed of a pickup truck or the compartment of a van. I understand what you mean." Lopez suddenly realized.
"As a fanatical believer in the Holy Spirit of Death, the murderer is probably one of those guys who often drive and display altars."
"That's right." Jack nodded, "We also have a clue about biodiesel, which should help to distinguish it."
When the local police came to deal with the aftermath, the three Jacks and Lopez said goodbye for the time being.
The FBI returned to the hotel to continue their investigation, while Lopez went to the Tijuana Police Department to arrange a search.
After listening to Jiejie's account of the horrific murder scene, Alice rubbed the goosebumps on her arms and showed them the progress of the investigation.
"There are many theories about the color of the wedding dress worn by the Holy Spirit of Death. One of them is that white prays for loyalty, blue prays for health, red prays for love, and black prays for witchcraft and superpowers."
Aubrey took over and continued, "This obviously does not match the colors on the bodies of the first two deceased, but as Jack judged, there are many kinds of similar sacrificial rituals.
Even in Tijuana itself, there are dozens or hundreds of blood sacrifice rituals. We have even found cases where the remains of multiple deceased people were dismembered and then spliced together to look like the Holy Spirit of Death. "
This was probably inspired by the Aztec human sacrifice ceremony. Jack curled his lips and looked at Hannah, "Do you have any analysis results for those biodiesel samples?"
Hannah nodded, "The laboratory report said that the main components of these samples are peanut oil and soybean oil. They belong to the first generation technology and should have been eliminated long ago because using this biodiesel as fuel requires additional engine modifications." ”
"There should be additional notes when registering such a modified vehicle, right?" Jack asked.
“Yes, given that this technology has been completely phased out in the United States, we searched in the local DMV database in Tijuana and found that there were less than 20 cars in total that had undergone similar modifications.
However, these cars have supposedly been scrapped, and Jubal and I are contacting the previous owners of those vehicles one by one, but there is no further progress yet."
"Wait a minute." Jubal, who had just gone to the next room to answer the phone, suddenly appeared and interrupted Hannah's report with a serious look.
"Jack, you are required to go to the San Diego Naval Base immediately. There is a plane waiting for you there. They need you to go to Washington as soon as possible."
"What mission?" Jack asked with a question mark on his forehead, "Isn't our plane parked at the San Diego International Airport?"
The cruising speed of the Bombardier Challenger 850 is Mach 0.8, which is 850 kilometers per hour. Among civil aircraft, this is second only to BAU's Gulfstream G650, which has a top speed of Mach 0.9.
What mission is so urgent that it would be too slow for Jack to fly in a Bombardier? Even military transport planes don't have models that are faster than this speed. Is it possible that they plan to let him ride a rocket?
I haven’t heard that the Americans are so awesome now that they start building prisons in space (the movie "Space One" is not bad and worth watching). With this question in mind, Jack hurriedly bid farewell to his friends and drove back to San Diego.
The unusualness of this emergency mission can be felt from the speed of crossing the border. CBP has reserved a separate channel at the checkpoint. Jack did not even loosen the accelerator and passed at full speed under the envious gaze of a long line of vehicles queuing up.
A Black Hawk helicopter was waiting in an open space less than 2 kilometers away from the border checkpoint. The whole journey from takeoff to landing took less than ten minutes, and directly sent Jack to a flight runway at the Naval Base in San Diego Bay.
"Wow~~~" Seeing the big black guy on the runway, Jack's mouth opened wide and he didn't close it for a long time.
"Am I hallucinating or someone above is crazy? Are you planning to let me take this old guy to Washington?"
Facing the dozen ground crews who appeared in front of him, dragging a pile of things like space suits on small carts, with very clear intentions, Jack couldn't help but be stunned.
"Sir, we actually don't know what's going on, but we are required to send it to Washington within two hours. This is the only way."
A fat old man wearing a dirty ground crew uniform, with oil stains all over his body, and even his beard was not spared, winked at Jack narrowly.
"But this thing is probably older than you. Can it really still fly?" Jack felt his voice trembling.
The SR-71 strategic reconnaissance aircraft, also known as the "Blackbird", is a high-altitude reconnaissance aircraft that was once mythical and claimed to have never been shot down. It can fly at an altitude of more than 20,000 meters at a cruising speed of Mach 3 or above.
The key is that this aircraft was developed in the 1960s and was announced to be permanently retired before the arrival of the 21st century. Jack had seen the prototype of this aircraft, the Lockheed A-12, at the Intrepid Aircraft Museum. (Chapter 634: A rare vacation).
"You guys swear first, isn't this thing really a display piece that was pulled out of a museum?" While being helped by the help of big men to put on a special pressurized flight suit, Jack looked at him with a worried look. The Blackbird being refueled.
"Don't worry, young man." A slightly hoarse voice sounded behind Jack.
"You just need to close your eyes and count from 1 to 100. When you open your eyes again, we will have arrived at Andrews Air Force Base."
Jack turned around in shock and found a pilot who had put on a flight suit standing behind him.
He wears a round helmet that looks like a space suit on his head. The helmet is half open, revealing a handsome face that is exactly the same as Tom Cruise. Even the location of the mole on the right cheek is exactly the same.
Although the khaki full-pressure flight suit he was wearing was extremely ugly, and his forehead was full of wrinkles when he smiled, he still couldn't hide the unruly temperament that belongs to elite pilots.
Jack had watched "Top Gun". Although "Top Gun 2" hadn't been released before he traveled through time, he had already roughly guessed who the person in front of him was.
"Hello, Jack Tavole." He took the initiative to extend his right hand to the man in front of him.
"Pete Mitchell, you can also call me 'Lone Walker.'" The pilot shook hands with Jack and looked at the "Blackbird" next to him that was leaking oil while refueling.
"Don't worry, although most of the 'Blackbirds' have gone into museums, NASA still retains this No. 831 aircraft for various flight tests. It has always been in good condition, just like me."
Now that he has met this legend, Jack has no nonsense. With the help of a group of ground staff, he puts on his flight suit and prepares for this top-secret flight.
This "Blackbird" is slightly different from the A-12 prototype Jack had seen before. The rear cockpit is slightly higher than the front cockpit, and there are two small fixed ventral fins under the engine nacelle.
According to the fat old man in the lead, the sergeant major among the more than ten leading mechanics, the actual model of the "Blackbird" numbered 831 is SR-71B.
The extra letter B indicates that this is a trainer aircraft, and the rear cockpit, which is slightly higher than the front cockpit, is actually the instructor's cabin.
A total of two "Blackbirds" of this type were produced. The No. 2 aircraft crashed due to a flight accident as early as 1968, and the No. 1 aircraft is still in use today.
As for the problem of oil leaking while refueling, Jack has heard about it. This is a common problem of high-altitude and high-speed aircraft like this.
The "Blackbird" has no external fuel tanks. All fuel is installed in integrated fuel tanks within the wings. The fuel tank wall panels are the titanium alloy skin of the aircraft itself.
You must know that even at an altitude of more than 20,000 meters where the air is extremely thin, when the aircraft flies at Mach 3, which is three times the speed of sound, the skin will still deform due to the heat generated by friction.
Therefore, part of the fuselage skin of the "Blackbird" is not only made into a special corrugated shape, but also leaves a considerable gap. Therefore, the aircraft will not only leak oil while refueling, but will still leak during the low-speed flight phase of takeoff. Stopped oil leakage.
Only when entering high speed will the heat make the skin of the special structure begin to expand regularly, the ripples will become more bizarre, and even the fuselage will be stretched by seven or eight centimeters, but the gaps at the joints will automatically close.
After being sent to the rear cockpit of the "Blackbird", Jack began to breathe 100% pure oxygen after the flight suit was connected to the oxygen tube. He looked exactly like Tom Cruise, and the pilot who called himself "Lone Ranger" kept doing various pre-flight inspections.
The tractor started slowly, and the fat old sergeant washed the oil on his hands with Coke, and waved goodbye to the two.
The aircraft engine started, spraying a six-meter tail flame. A few minutes later, Jack was pressed tightly on the seat by an acceleration of more than 8G and rose to an altitude of 20,000 meters.
Although it is already the 21st century, being able to easily break the "sound barrier" and cruise at supersonic speed has become the basic operation of the sixth-generation aircraft.
But what is less known is that after the "sound barrier" of Mach 1, there is also a "thermal barrier" in the speed range of Mach 2.5.
Since the Cold War, there are only two manned aircraft that can break through the "thermal barrier" and be used in actual combat. One is the "Blackbird" that cannot carry weapons and can only perform reconnaissance operations, and the other is the MiG-25 "Foxbat" produced by the former Soviet Union.
The former is a titanium alloy fuselage, but because the welding process has never been broken through, it has to be full of rivets, resulting in poor fuselage strength, and even the most basic maneuvers cannot be completed, resulting in only flying in a straight line according to the pre-planned route.
The latter is a stainless steel fuselage with unparalleled high-altitude performance, but the electronic system is relatively backward, and the medium and low-altitude performance and maneuverability are also extremely poor.
However, both are "black technology" products of the Cold War, and they are both simple and rough ways of flying with great strength. Although the latter was developed to intercept the former, they have never really fought.
Pete Mitchell's previous statement that he could reach his destination by counting from 1 to 100 was obviously extremely exaggerated, but it did not take too much time to reach an altitude of 24,000 meters at a climbing rate of more than 60 meters per second.
This was probably the closest Jack had ever been to space in his two lives. It was more than 20 kilometers away from the earth. You should know that the orbital altitude of the Tiangong Space Station is only 400 kilometers.
Well, it was really nothing compared to this, but looking at the thick quartz glass window, the paint on the wings of the "Blackbird" gradually changed from black to blue, and Jack couldn't even bear to blink.
"Um, what. Are you okay?" Pete Mitchell, who called himself a "lone traveler", suddenly asked aloud. He obviously didn't remember someone's name.
"It's good. I really envy you elite pilots who can often see this kind of scenery." Although Jack didn't mind, he didn't mean to introduce himself again.
Pete Mitchell was obviously slightly shocked by Jack's relaxed tone, but his personality was obviously the type of silence. After confirming that Jack's relaxed tone was not fake, he didn't say anything more, but just replied lightly, "Enjoy it."
At this altitude, there is no concept of horizon. The curvature of the earth can be observed. The atmosphere forms a faint halo at the end of the sight, and the color changes from white, light blue, and dark blue to a dark blue close to black.
Jack just raised his head slightly and could see the beautiful starry sky in space. In the high altitude with thin atmosphere, even those planets no longer flickered.
Just a slight gaze, this beautiful starry sky has the illusion of falling into it, as if in just a moment, the earth under your feet has turned over with this deep space.
Some regrets not putting the mobile phone outside the flight suit in advance. Jack can only try to remember this magnificent wonder with his brain, and maybe he can describe it all in words in the future.
But at the same time, he was vaguely worried. How big of a deal must this be to have the higher-ups send him to Washington in such an unconventional way? Could it be that he really had to save the world this time?