Chapter 380: Tailoring the Tailing: A Technical Skill of Its Own

After receiving replies from Team Four's officers, Yu Dazhang continued to order:

"The rest of the teams follow behind Team Four. Keep your distance."

At his command, each team sprang into action.

Yu Dazhang, however, stayed put. After the van drove off, he checked the direction, then said to Qi Fang in the driver's seat:

"Let's go. Just bring up the rear."

Vehicle surveillance doesn't have any particularly clever tricks—the most common method is to switch cars frequently.

Counting his SUV, there are now eight private vehicles in total.

With that many, even repeated tailing won't be noticed by the target.

Because each car only needs to follow for at least fifteen minutes, once all eight cars have taken a turn, two hours will have passed.

By then the first car reappears, and the people up ahead will have long forgotten that such a car ever existed.

And with other vehicles on the road, it becomes even harder to tell apart.

Before the operation, Yu Dazhang had considered installing a GPS tracker on Zhang Sen.

After discussion among the group, the proposal was rejected.

A GPS locator needs to receive and transmit signals, so while in operation it emits a specific frequency.

A signal detector can pick up these frequencies to pinpoint the GPS's location.

And these people very likely have such equipment, so for safety's sake, the final decision was to use only the most primitive method: tailing.

Yu Dazhang's current state is one of both worry and excitement.

What worries him is Zhang Sen's safety.

Zhang Sen is now completely out of contact. All they know is that he's in the target's van—everything else is unknown.

If the other side decides to play dirty at this point, there's simply nothing our side can do about it.

What excites him is that they've successfully drawn out the criminals who had been lurking at the train station.

Until now he hadn't been sure whether Zhang Chao and the others had pulled their people out. Now, at last, he could set his mind at ease.

For the entire case, this was undoubtedly a major breakthrough.

If all goes well, they can follow the thread and head straight to that underground prison.

Two and a half hours later.

"The target vehicle has pulled into a farmhouse compound in the suburbs."

Hearing the report over the walkie-talkie, Yu Dazhang deliberated for a moment, then ordered:

"Keep observing. Stay concealed. Report any developments immediately."

This matched exactly what Fang Peng had described.

Five years ago, after Fang Peng was abducted, they drove for over two hours, then switched him to a cargo truck midway.

Judging by the travel time, they hadn't changed the transfer location in these five years.

Or they had, but the new spot wasn't far from the old one.

"Let's grab them."

Captain Hua could no longer sit still. He clapped Yu Dazhang on the shoulder and said:

"First secure the suspects, then interrogate them on the spot. We should be able to get them to tell us where the next handoff is."

In truth, he was worried about Zhang Sen's safety.

In his view, the current operation was gambling with an officer's life.

Yu Dazhang knew perfectly well how serious this was.

Only he had no other options at the moment.

"What if they refuse to talk?" Yu Dazhang said, frowning:

"That possibility isn't out of the question."

"Also, if we storm in now, the people inside will very likely alert Zhang Chao and the others right away."

He paused briefly, then added:

"And their methods for guarding against the police aren't limited to phone calls."

He then recounted how Qi Fang had raided Zhang Chao's residence in Liancheng.

"Using a linked surveillance network to set a trap for the police?" Captain Hua's expression grew heavy and solemn after hearing this.

"We definitely have to grab them." Yu Dazhang went on:

"If I see signs that things are slipping out of control, I'll order the arrest immediately. I know Zhang Sen—he certainly wouldn't want us to give up halfway."

He trusted Captain Hua to understand the stakes involved.

The reason Captain Hua was so eager to arrest was also out of concern for Zhang Sen's safety.

Anyone capable of becoming deputy chief naturally puts officers' lives first.

A broken lead can be picked up again, but if an officer's life is lost, there'll be no making up for it.

So Captain Hua's urgency was entirely understandable.

Yu Dazhang, however, had calculated that nothing would happen to Zhang Sen.

Those people's goal was to use intellectually disabled individuals to make money—they wouldn't easily harm the people they'd abducted.

Besides, Zhang Sen had nothing on him; even his phone was a secondhand Nokia bought in another city.

It didn't even have a camera. Run any check on it—guaranteed to come up squeaky clean.

"Alright." Captain Hua was silent for a moment, then nodded in agreement.

He knew in his heart that the investigation had indeed reached a critical juncture.

Such an opportunity couldn't be missed. If they let this one pass, finding another chance like it would be nearly impossible.

Twenty minutes later.

"The van just came out. Looks like it's heading back."

Hearing the report over the walkie-talkie, Yu Dazhang hesitated briefly, then picked up the radio:

"Unit Five, follow them. The local police will contact you shortly. Remember—no acting alone."

"Understood." Unit Five's officer quickly replied.

Setting down the walkie-talkie, Yu Dazhang looked at Captain Hua:

"Our manpower is limited. Contact the local police to assist with the arrest."

The three perpetrators of the hijacking certainly couldn't be let off, but to ensure the arrest operation was foolproof, bringing in the local police was also necessary.

Captain Hua had already been in contact with the local police when he borrowed the car earlier, so naturally the job fell to him.

What followed was a long wait.

Yu Dazhang leaned back in his chair, seemingly resting his eyes, but in fact estimating the situations that might arise next.

According to Fang Peng's confession, when he was seized, there were six or seven people packed into the box truck including himself.

In other words, they needed to gather enough people before sending them down to the underground prison.

There was another possibility: timing.

They would choose a relatively safe time to send people out.

Or only when both conditions were met would they send people out.

Regardless of which it was, all Yu Dazhang and his team could do now was wait.

Criminal police work, on the surface, looks tense and thrilling—constantly matching wits with criminals—but in reality, the vast majority of the time it's dull and tedious.

Stakeouts like this one were the true norm of the job.

Time ticked by, second by second. In the blink of an eye, another three hours had passed, and by now the sky had completely darkened.

Yu Dazhang took out his phone and checked the time.

7:10 p. m.

By now he was getting anxious too—the longer the night, the more things could go wrong; they couldn't keep dragging this out indefinitely.

If too much time passed, Zhang Sen would truly be in danger.

Just as he was considering whether to go ahead with the arrest, the walkie-talkie suddenly crackled.

"A box truck just pulled out of the compound. Visually estimated to be a 4.2-meter model."

Hearing this, Yu Dazhang immediately picked up the radio:

"Don't tail them right away. Keep some distance. Best to wait until they're on the main road before following."

What luck… A surge of excitement welled up inside Yu Dazhang.

If he hadn't held his nerve just now, all their previous efforts would have been wasted.

When Fang Peng gave his statement earlier, Yu Dazhang had calculated that the cargo bed of this truck model was 4.2 meters long and 1.8 meters wide—perfectly fitting six or seven people.

So he could now basically confirm that this truck was the one used to transport people.

And the next stop was very likely the underground prison.

Fang Peng had once said that when he was hijacked, the vehicle was only switched once along the way, and later he fell asleep because the journey was too long.

Looking at it this way, he had been taken straight from the transit point to the destination.

"Unit Six stays behind and keeps watching that farmhouse compound."

Yu Dazhang spoke rapidly into the walkie-talkie:

"Once the local police arrive, move in for the arrest immediately."

(End of chapter)