The Blacklist

Chapter 147 The real killing comes at the end

Five hours later, Carey and Gibbs boarded a military plane and flew to an aircraft carrier of a cruise squadron of the Atlantic Fleet. Then they took a helicopter to a destroyer that had moved forward, and then changed to an inflatable speedboat, and finally boarded the surfaced Philadelphia nuclear submarine!

The squadron was conducting an ASW - anti-submarine warfare exercise: an enemy submarine tried to sneak into the carrier battle group, intercept and destroy it. The Philadelphia was its own escort boat, and another submarine, the Augusta, played the enemy boat.

After the two men boarded the boat, the Philadelphia resumed its dive to 250 feet and entered exercise status.

They met the submarine's captain, Lieutenant Colonel Peters, and deputy captain, Major Akerlund, in the submarine's command room.

The two submarine commanders, who had received orders from the Navy Department and the Submarine Brigade Command, were dissatisfied with the investigation of the crew at this time, but they still obeyed the orders and expressed their full cooperation. However, they were reserved about the possibility that their crew members might have been replaced by someone else, and refused to believe it was true.

Before setting out on board, NCIS had already investigated and found that the crew of the Philadelphia submarine was a full complement of 133 people, 15 of whom were recently transferred in. According to the medical examination records before sailing, four of them were excluded as suspects through dental records, six were excluded based on race and body shape, and five were still suspects who needed to be identified one by one.

In subsequent separate interrogations, Gibbs and Carey confirmed that all five people had lied, with various deceptions or falsifications ranging from academic qualifications to marital status, but they could not determine who the impostor was, and none of these people looked like the person being replaced.

During this process, the Philadelphia was also participating in the fleet exercise. The atmosphere was serious and tense because the captain made a bet with the captain of the Augusta submarine, who played the enemy role - the bet was a bottle of 25-year-old vodka!

Just when Gibbs was having a headache, Carey put forward a new idea: if the enemy had accomplices in the personnel department of Norfolk, then the personnel information they had obtained now might have been forged. In other words, the information of the five suspects they had identified now might be false, and the authenticity could not be confirmed by questioning.

Gibbs accepted this view and immediately found the captain and asked him to release the long-wave communication buoy so that he could contact the NCIS headquarters! Faced with his strong will, the captain had to interrupt the exercise and execute this order.

Gibbs contacted Tony and McGee who were still at the Norfolk base, and ordered them to go to the base's personnel department to investigate suspicious people who could have tampered with the Philadelphia personnel files...

Carrie contacted SLR and asked Abby to contact NCIS's forensic doctor Dark to try to determine the original appearance of the body as soon as possible!

What followed was an agonizing wait, and finally, more than two hours later, an emergency communication was received from the long-wave radio station: an employee in the Norfolk Human Resources Department had suddenly resigned three days ago. After a search of his residence, it was discovered that he was a member of an extremist organization that claimed to protect whales. The purpose of planning this action was to use a metal container the size of a film roll to release sarin gas in the submarine's air-conditioning system and kill everyone on the submarine!

The captain was shocked when he saw this communication. He ordered the air conditioning system in the submarine to be deactivated at the same time, the emergency breathing mask system to be activated, and the submarine to surface urgently!
Following the captain's order, the submarine entered an emergency state. Everyone thought it was part of the exercise and was not surprised. They just tried their best to obey orders and fulfill their duties. However, Sergeant Drew, the sonar soldier who had lied when questioned before, was sweating profusely. After setting up the automatic system, he reported that he wanted to go to the toilet and got up and left his seat in the command cabin!

A few minutes later, the second emergency communication came: The SLR Technical Department confirmed that the Philadelphia submarine sonar soldier Sergeant Drew Travis was a fake identity...

While notifying Gibbs and Carrie, the captain ordered the combat team on the boat to arm themselves and capture Drew, but in the end they found Drew on a crew member's berth, having suffocated himself with a plastic bag over his head!

When they saw this scene, everyone felt a little horrified, but they were relieved, thinking that the threat had been eliminated. Captain Peterson even thanked Gibbs and Carey. Gibbs also relaxed, saying something like "We are all in the Navy, this is as it should be", but Carey was the only one who was not smiling, saying that the matter was not over yet and that they could not let down their guard, which made everyone unhappy.

The reason for this is that Carrey can't remember the plot of the drama from thirty years ago, and he really forgot whether the story ended there, but the "early warning" talent he now possesses has been bothering his brain - needless to say, this means that the story is not over yet!

Gibbs was very happy that he had solved the problem. He took Carrie to the officers' lounge to drink coffee. As soon as they sat down, the quartermaster on the boat personally brought a large tray with five or six cups of ice cream!
"So generous?" Carrie couldn't help asking.

"No, Agent Kerry," the quartermaster said, "The captain has ordered the air conditioning system to be disabled, so these ice creams can no longer be stored. We can only distribute them to everyone and eat them as soon as possible!"

"Hmm?" Kerry said after a pause, "So, the ice storage on the boat will also stop operating?"

"That's not the case..." The quartermaster said half a sentence, but didn't know whether to continue.

Gibbs, who was also enjoying ice cream nearby, then explained, "Okay, Kerry, don't ask any more questions. We need to clear space in the ice storage to store Drew's body... Do you understand what I mean?"

"Oh." Kerry nodded, and understood why the ice cream had to be cleaned up, but then he asked, "Have you found the device that released the sarin gas?"

The quartermaster curled his lips and said, "It's not that easy! I heard it's a thing the size of a film roll. It's hard to find it anywhere in the submarine... The captain said that he would return to the Norfolk base as soon as possible, and then he would find this harmful thing even if he had to search the submarine thoroughly!"

"How can we do it as quickly as possible?" Carrie's heart skipped a beat and he remembered something.

"What else? Sneak. That way we'll be 15 knots faster!" The logistics director understood and said immediately.

"What about the ice storage?" Kerry put down the spoon in his hand and asked with wide eyes.

At this moment, the long-wave communicator in the command room "spitted out" a new communication: After the joint inspection of the samples found by the SLR and SER technical departments, it can be confirmed that the poison gas release device will automatically release at an ambient temperature of -5 degrees Celsius and +45 degrees Celsius...

Seeing this, Kerry immediately said, "Corpse, freezer!"

Gibbs reacted the fastest and immediately ran out of the command room screaming...

(End of this chapter)