Tokyo: Rabbit Police and Her Evil Partner

Chapter 489 Yellow Lines and Blue Lines

The walls in the basement where the bomb was hidden were cylindrical, with the exposed part being oval, and there were also partitioned walls that enclosed it.

Japanese architecture is quite distinctive. Due to frequent earthquakes, high-rise buildings are constructed using very 'light' building materials. This 'light' refers to their relative lightness compared to ordinary building materials. For example, Japan once developed a special resin screw that has similar material properties to steel screws but is twenty times lighter.

The only heavy part is the 'load-bearing part'.

Take Yango Group as an example. In the early stages of design, it adopted a single pile foundation for load-bearing, combined with the "shell vibration damping structure" technology, which not only achieved top-notch seismic performance, but also ensured the flexibility and openness of the internal column-free space.

If I had to describe it, Japanese architecture would be like a pillar stuck in the ground, with cardboard draped around it.

It can effectively resist earthquakes and typhoons, but once the load-bearing column has a problem, it has to be demolished by explosives, and there is no way to repair it. Therefore, the load-bearing columns of high-rise buildings are generally made as semi-permanent works.

Kujo rushed to the front line, transferred several engineers, and also brought over the commercial management manager of the real estate development company, instructing them to chisel open the load-bearing column before midnight no matter what.

The engineer looked at the drawings and said only one thing:

"Impossible. Chiseling it open would cause the wall to crack, and it would collapse soon. If we're unlucky, it might even collapse immediately."

Kujou Yui lowered her head to light a cigarette and asked in return, "How did the terrorists manage to put the bomb in there?"

"This..." The engineer had a clue, but couldn't say it outright: "It's probably just a small hole that wasn't damaged..."

Terrorists aren't afraid of the building collapsing, so they can dig it up however they want.

However, the management of Sunshine City is quite lax. How could an ordinary person possibly break through a load-bearing structure without tools? It would require an entire construction team with heavy equipment to do so.

Kujou waved his hand, then turned back to signal the construction team waiting in the side to start work: "Break it open, I'll take responsibility if it collapses."

"No way!" the property management officer shouted. "This is company property. At the very least, we need a permit—and even if we have to chisel it, we need to use a lever system!"

The so-called lever system is mostly used for high-rise demolition. Before construction, a three-story external frame is built and enclosed. Then, jacks are used to support the roof, and ceiling cranes are used to dismantle the floor slabs and walls section by section.

The general idea is to temporarily support it with something else to prevent irreparable damage from the weight.

“If we break it open now, there’s still a chance to repair it; if we don’t, Sunshine City will be reduced to ruins after midnight.”

Kujou glanced sideways and said, "You choose."

The business manager remained silent, sitting dejectedly to the side, completely oblivious to the dust covering his expensive custom-made suit.

The construction team used hydraulic breakers to chisel through the wall, large chunks of concrete crumbling away with deafening crashes. Normally, this would have drawn complaints about noise pollution, but now they couldn't afford to worry about such minor details; they were racing against time to demolish the structure.

"stop!"

Kujou suddenly gave the order.

The construction workers were taken aback and stopped operating the equipment. The others turned around in surprise to look at Kujo Yui. She was smoking a cigarette, her head slightly tilted, as if listening to something.

"There seems to be a dog barking inside."

Kujou Yui frowned, walked around the load-bearing wall, pressed her ear against the wall, and listened for a long time: "Here, start chiseling from here."

The others exchanged bewildered glances. The business manager looked at the engineer and asked in a low voice, "Did you hear that?"

The engineer quietly shook his head, but he dared not disobey Jiu Tiaowei's orders, so he could only lead the construction team to adjust the direction and start digging again.

The rumbling sound rang out again, making the internal organs of those around tremble slightly.

The cement fell in a rustling sound, and this time the others heard it too. In the intervals between the mechanical hammering of the wall, the faint whimpering of a puppy could be heard from inside the wall.

There's a dog?

How come there's a dog here?
Everyone was puzzled until the outer cement wall was broken open, revealing a small hollow layer on the outside of the load-bearing wall, separated by steel bars and insulation materials.

"Why is this place empty?" Kujo Yui turned around and asked.

The business management staff didn't understand either, so they could only turn to the engineers.

But the engineers weren't the construction workers who did the work, so they didn't know why reality was different from what was marked on the blueprints.

Based on past experience, he could only lean close to Kujou's ear and whisper, "They might have cut corners..."

"They dared to cut corners here?" Kujo Yui didn't blame her. Her tone was gentle and her voice was soft. She just asked out of curiosity.

The engineer, being an insider, knew that this kind of thing was not uncommon, and that even load-bearing columns could be replaced with cheaper alternatives.

The presence of hollow layers like this is likely due to the use of some 'new technology' or 'new material' during construction.

"Uh, I'm not too sure either," the engineer said, not wanting to give a definitive answer.

Kujo knocked on the special material behind the wall, and an echo came from within, making the puppy whimper even louder. She ordered the construction team to continue, and the equipment pounded against the wall, causing a hideous crack to spread upwards.

Soon, a hole was punched in the hollow layer material.

The construction team turned on their searchlights and looked inside. The hollow layer wasn't very large; it was like bamboo, with small sections connected by holes in the middle.

In one of the hollow sections, they saw a Border Collie and C4 stuck to the wall.

Upon seeing the light, the Border Collie immediately began barking wildly and cowered in a corner in fear.

Mobile patrol officers and bomb disposal experts immediately took over the scene. They pulled aside the construction crew, approached to assess the situation, and hurriedly reported:
"Explosives found! Five kilograms! And a dog with a yellow wire tied around its neck, connected to the explosives, possibly a fuse!"

Kujo Yui, standing some distance away, directed operations from the site: "Check the wiring! Is there any electronic equipment at the end?"

Her standing here is no different from standing at the very front. If five kilograms of C4 explode, and it explodes inside a load-bearing column, the entire building will be reduced to dust in an instant.

The patrol team observed for a moment, trying to calm the dog down: "No! It's just a yellow line wrapped around the dog's neck!"

"Shoot it down immediately," Kujo Yui ordered. "Kill the dog to prevent it from causing trouble."

Without hesitation, the mobile team members immediately raised their guns and released the safety. Before they could pull the trigger, Ah Jun seemed to realize something. He twisted his neck, his head popped out from under the yellow coil, and his body shrank into the hollow layer on the other side.

"The dog broke free of the yellow line and ran away," the mobile team member reported.

"Initiate bomb disposal!"

Kujo Yui began to back away. She got into the police car, held a walkie-talkie, and signaled to the officer to drive away so she could direct operations from the scene.

"Yes, sir!" The mobile team evacuated the crowd again, clearing out the business management staff, engineers, and construction crew. A bomb disposal expert, dressed in a bulky bomb suit and carrying specialized equipment, prepared to operate alone.

Another bomb disposal expert pulled the camera signal transmission cable and ran it to the square outside Sunshine City. The police set up a temporary command center, and everyone stared at the screen, watching the entire bomb disposal process with tension.

The bomb disposal expert carefully used tweezers to peel off the crude tape covering the explosive device, exposing the circuit board and fuse.

After observing it carefully for a while, he said, "It's a band-based bomb. If the signal is lost, it may explode automatically. We can't interfere with the signal, we can't move it, we can only defuse it on-site."

"Continue," Kujo Yui commanded.

"Yes."

Sweat beaded on the bomb disposal expert's forehead. He knew perfectly well that with this remote-controlled bomb, everything depended on whether the terrorists would press the detonator. If they broke their promise and detonated it before midnight, there was nothing he could do but condemn them for their dishonesty from beyond the grave.

"The detonation method is remote-controlled..."

The bomb disposal expert paused, noticing what appeared to be a small note tucked under the intricate circuit boards. He pulled it out and read it under the spotlight.

"The remote control signal is Ah Jun's heartbeat. It has a signal detector inside its body. If it dies, the bomb will detonate."

"This is a double bomb. There's a remote-controlled bomb on top of a trigger-activated bomb. The switch is wrapped around Ah Jun with yellow and blue wires. Don't even think about disarming the remote-controlled bomb until you deactivate the trigger-activated bomb."

"Furthermore, Ah Jun has ingested a slow-acting poison and will die before midnight."

……

"Who is Ah Jun?" the police officer asked, having seen the contents of the note on the monitor screen.

"Idiot! It's that dog!"

Kujou Yui, her face grim, snapped, "Two more people go in and subdue that dog!"

The detectives looked at each other, none of them moving. In the end, the officer in charge personally led a CT officer back to the basement.

They pressed Ah Jun down in the hollow layer on the other side and found almost transparent blue lines on Ah Jun's body.

The blue line was particularly inconspicuous in the darkness.

"Remove the wires!" Kujo Yui ordered.

The clerk's trembling voice came through the walkie-talkie: "No, the blue thread is inside the dog... There's blood on the side of the dog's abdomen, and there's a suture. The blue thread is inside the suture!"

Kujo Yui's expression turned even uglier.

If the blue line is forcibly pulled out, the dog might die, and the remote-controlled bomb, unable to receive the heartbeat signal, will explode.

"Can we just cut it off?" Kujo asked.

"There might be other electronic circuits at the end of the blue wire, or there might be nothing at all..." The bomb disposal expert swallowed hard, cold sweat pouring down his face: "Cutting it might cause an explosion."

"What are the odds?" Kujou Yui guessed what trick the other party was up to.

"Fifty percent, either the yellow wire or the blue wire, there's definitely one of them being the fuse wire," the bomb disposal expert said.

In most movies, the scene where you choose between the red and blue lines to defuse a bomb is an artistic embellishment to create tension and suspense; it is neither scientifically accurate nor realistic.

In real explosive devices, whether military or homemade, the colors of the wiring are chosen randomly by the maker, with no uniform standard.

Bomb disposal personnel never rely on color to determine critical circuits. Instead, they analyze circuit connections, detect current and voltage, and identify component functions such as detonators, batteries, and sensors to pinpoint the critical circuits.

The problem now is that some of the wiring is buried inside the animal's body, so the specific circuits are not visible. What if there's an electronic board at the other end of the blue wire? What if there's a sensor hidden under the second layer of bombs along the yellow wire?
If the blue wire can be pulled out, the bomb disposal expert will be confident in defusing the bomb.

The other party devised a very ingenious risk-gambling problem, leaving the police at a loss and unable to make a decision.

Kujo Yui paced back and forth at the command post, finishing a cigarette in two minutes. She flicked the cigarette butt away and ordered, "Call the veterinarian over for on-site surgery!"

The deputy commander, a detective, froze for a second, not reacting in time. Kujou Yui slapped him across the face: "What are you spacing out for?! Do you think this is a spring outing? Concentrate! Bring the vet here within half an hour!"

The deputy commander quickly bowed his head in apology and turned to ask everyone if anyone owned a pet and where the nearest veterinary hospital was.

One of the young officers raised his hand and said that the nearest veterinary hospital was just around the corner on East Street, about a kilometer away.

The deputy commander quickly led a team to the veterinary hospital and brought over a professional veterinarian.

At first, the veterinarian didn't understand what was going on until Kujo asked him to go to the bomb disposal site to remove the fuse from the dog's stomach. Only then did he understand what was going on and immediately shook his head in refusal, refusing to go no matter what.

"This is for the Japanese people, for the hundreds of innocent lives!" Kujo Yui pleaded, bowing earnestly, "Please! Please lend the police a hand!"

She couldn't hide the existence of the remote-controlled bomb from the veterinarian. If the veterinarian didn't take it seriously and thought it didn't matter if the dog died, the entire mall would be destroyed in a flash.

The veterinarian shook his head, wiped his sweat with his sleeve, and said, "It really won't work. If no preoperative examination is done, the risk of anesthesia for pets is very high... The dog might die right after the anesthesia is administered, before the surgery even begins."

Kujou had never owned a pet and wasn't sure, so she could only turn her gaze to the young police officer, who nodded in agreement: "That's right. Too deep anesthesia can cause respiratory failure, while too shallow anesthesia can cause massive bleeding if the patient wakes up during surgery. Even if the dosage is just right, different pets' liver and kidney functions may not be able to withstand it."

Upon hearing this, the command center fell into a deathly silence.

No one spoke; the pressure was immense.

The one under the most pressure was Commander-in-Chief Kujo Yui.

She lit another cigarette, took a deep drag, flicked the ash, and asked, "What if we don't use anesthesia?"

"How can we perform surgery without anesthesia? The puppy will definitely move around!" the veterinarian said.

"Are you sure? That dog is smart; it can understand some words. Can't we find a way to make it endure it?" Kujo Yui persisted.

The veterinarian shook his head repeatedly, only wanting to get rid of the job as soon as possible.

The young officer said it was possible; his friend's pet dog was allergic to anesthetics and later broke its leg in an accident. The dog endured the entire surgery.

"But it was restrained by a harness, and the pet owner was with it. The owner's presence can reduce the pet's fear and anxiety, so it didn't struggle..."

Before the young officer could finish speaking, Kujo Yui turned around, surveyed the area, and roared, "Where's Fushimi Shika?! Where's that guy? Tell him to get over here!!"

(End of this chapter)