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72 Where Is The Torpedo?
The sun shone on the surface of the sea, covering it like a layer of shimmering silver dust or like crumpled green satin.

In the SH-60B Seahawk ship helicopter, two observers and pilots were scanning this area over and over again, searching for something.

”Report, Seahawk didn’t manage to locate the target, repeat, Seahawk did not manage to locate the target, over!” In the helicopter, an observer switched on the radio and talked over the microphone.

”Continue to expand the search area because it is impossible that the torpedo had been eaten by sharks.” An angry voice was heard on the other end.

An hour later...

”Report, Seahawk’s fuel has dropped to the warning level...target is still yet to be found, repeat, fuel has dropped to the warning level, but the target is still not yet to be found… Permission to return to base immediately, over!”

”... Retreat... ”

There was a pause on the other end of the microphone before a deep voice was heard.

........................

Located on the east coast of Honshu island, covering an area of about 2.3 million square meters, was the largest and most functional naval base of America at Yokosuka port.

In a white colored six-story building that was surrounded by heavily armed soldiers...

”Can anyone tell me where the torpedo went?” Admiral Carlton slapped his hand on the table. ”It’s been two days. Why is it that no sign of the torpedo has yet to be found?”

”Sir, I can assure you that when I ordered the release of the torpedo, I strictly followed the protocol of the submarine manuals, so there were absolutely no mistakes made,” said Belfort, the Seahawk nuclear-powered submarine commander, as he sat at the conference table with an innocent expression.

”So you’re saying that our military factory produced an unqualified torpedo?”

Carlton raised his eyebrows coldly. ”Each torpedo that is produced by our factory needs to pass 13 stages of safety inspections that are extremely strict. The torpedo will be rejected and reproduced even if the paint on its surface is not smooth enough, not to mention its suspension feature. Therefore, I have enough reasons to suspect that you made a mistake in controlling it!”

”Sir? Could it be possible that the torpedo got stuck in the mud? We had a case where a submarine crashed onto the coral reefs last year, not to mention that torpedoes don’t have the feature to see which direction they are headed. So I think it’s not impossible for it to get stuck in the mud.” Carnegie stood up and voiced his opinion to calm down the situation.

”The water depth in that area is only 250 meters at the most, so even if the torpedo really got stuck in the mud, what about the dye? Why didn’t the dye leak out to the surface? Or are you telling me that something could go wrong in a procedure like this where even a junior high school student in a military factory could handle it easily?”

”Maybe it got stuck too deep in the mud that blocked the opening, so the dye couldn’t leak out?”

The commander, Belfort, shrugged his shoulders and said, ”You know, the world is full of wonders. Once, a girl I knew from elementary school found out that her husband was cheating on her, so she jumped off a building to commit suicide. Coincidently at this moment, she fell on top of a man who was passing by the apartment, and he died. In the end, she only suffered from minor injuries whereas the man died. What was even more astonishing was, the man was her husband who betrayed her!”

”F**k you!” Carlton, who did not swear for many years, finally lost his temper and broke the record!

.................................

Li Bo, who was 20 years old this year was a regular sailor at the Zhongyun torpedo naval base. As the sun was setting, Li Bo was sitting alone on the dock and fishing with a fishing rod made from a clothesline. The sailor’s life was so boring because he often spent a few months at sea. If it wasn’t for fishing occasionally, he might have gone nuts due to boredom.

”Eh, what’s that?” Li Bo put down the rod and stood up to look out into the distance and saw a huge object floating on the glittering surface of the sea.

After waiting patiently for quite some time, Li Bo managed to identify what that object was. It turned out to be a five-meter long, grayish brown whale shark that had many yellow spots and vertical stripes on its back.

It was not unusual to see a large dead fish at sea. When Li Bo was undergoing military training, he even saw a blue whale which weighed more than 20 tons that had been shot by a torpedo. However, what made Li Bo feel strange, was that a long green tube with red at the tip was poked into this whale shark’s mouth.

”What is this?” Li Bo was a bit surprised to see that it looked like a torpedo that he was so familiar with!

Five minutes later...

”Brigade commander, brigade commander, there’s bad news.”

Li Bo sprinted back to the base while shouting loudly.

Cough... cough.

”Why are you panicking? Don’t tell me that you saw a ghost?” The brigade commander who was sitting on the parallel bars was choked by his smoke due to shock.

Li Bo was out of breath. ”Torpedo, there’s a… there’s a torpedo in the fish’s belly. ”

”Ah!”

The brigade commander almost fell off the parallel bars. After steadying himself by holding onto the iron bars, he said, ”Quick... take me there to have a look.”

As they rushed to the pier, Li Bo pointed to the whale shark which was gradually being washed up further on to the shore by the waves and said, ”Look, it really is a torpedo.”

”It’s a US military Mark 48 torpedo.” The brigade commander who was very familiar with the torpedo models all around the world let out a small cry, ”Hurry, go and inform the torpedo hoisting group immediately!”

The U.S. military Mark 48 torpedo was no doubt something great! Even the locals or the Russians hadn’t managed to come up with something more advanced than them, so if it’s really was Mark 48 torpedo, this would be a great stepping stone in the improvement of manufacturing a torpedo for the research team.

Half an hour later, the torpedo hoisting team from the base managed to get the big torpedo that weighed more than a ton into the warehouse.

”It really is a U.S. military Mark 48 torpedo. ”The brigade commander stroked the torpedo that was on the shelf like it was his beloved son.

”Captain, how do you think that this torpedo ended up in the belly of a whale shark?” Li Bo squatted in a corner and asked with a puzzled expression on his face.

In his impression, this type of super, high tech stuff would have needed to undergo a mission that had been planned for half a year by a few dozen special agents. It would have required the sacrifice of three to five people and the transport between five and six countries in order to be in the hands of the research center.

”How would I know?” The brigade commander rolled his eyes annoyingly at Li Bo, turned and looked at the coveted torpedo. ”I don’t care whether the torpedo was sent by someone who has an ulterior motive or that it was really just pure coincidence that the whale shark swallowed it when it was being fired. All I care about is that it’s in our hands now!”

”Oh, yes!” The brigade commander added. ”You will speak to no one regarding this matter. You will keep it a secret forever and whoever leaks out this information will face the consequences of being called to the military court when the military police manage to catch you in your house!”

”Yes, sir!” The few people next to him did the most standard salute in 0.5 seconds and said, ”We will keep it a secret even without telling our own sons!”

”Good, I trust you all!” The brigade commander nodded. ”Li Bo, follow me to the warehouse to get a gun. The rest of you keep a close eye on the torpedo before our superior sends someone to retrieve it! When this is done it would be definite that each of you will get a meritorious service medal.”

Half an hour later, the brigade commander opened the door of the underground bunker and with the aid of the dim lighting, he went into a space which was a little larger than a telephone booth where it was surrounded by lead sheets that were ten centimeters thick. The brigade commander opened the lock on the door and went in quickly, slamming the door shut. There weren’t any other decorations in the room except for an old telephone on the shelf.

Ahem. After clearing his throat, he picked up the phone and shuddered while pressing a few numbers. Five seconds later, a robotic sound was heard on the other end of the phone.

”Hello, comrade, this is the secretary of defense department...”