At 3:47 a. m., Colonel Hillman received a report that the small silver key was the key to a separate safe provided by the Swiss Bank Berlin branch for VIP customers. However, the letters engraved on it were determined by the customer.
Hillman and Xia Zangsheng immediately drove to the Berlin branch of the Swiss Bank, where the president, Braid, personally received them.
Braid was a short and fat middle-aged man with a belly that could only hold a bomb. Although his attitude was very friendly, Xia Zangsheng could clearly see that the president wasn't very happy to be woken up in the middle of the night. If Hillman wasn't a colonel or the director of the National Security Bureau, this gentleman would have fallen out with him long ago.
Braid yawned twice before reaching out to take the key from Hillman. He took a look and immediately said,"That's right. This is the key to our bank's safe room.”
"Safe room? Isn't it a safe?" Hillman asked.
Braid's answer seemed humorous, but it was actually sarcastic. He replied,"It seems that our colonel doesn't usually have any valuables that he needs to be kept in the bank. The safe room had actually been popular for many years. It was specially provided by the bank for those especially distinguished guests. It could allow the guests to provide services without any influence and privacy protection, and it could also guarantee absolute safety. Mr. Colonel, with your status, you should also come to our bank to open a safe room. I can handle it for you personally, but you have to pay 200,000 US dollars a year.”
"Two hundred thousand dollars?" Xia Zang Sheng blurted out in shock. He couldn't imagine that someone like the professor, who had to rely on academic funds to conduct research every year, could pay such a high fee, just to use a safe room.
"If I have a need, I will definitely ask Mr. President to serve me. I believe that Mr. President's service must be first-class.”Hillman still had that extremely cultured look on his face, but the meaning behind his words was clear that Braid was just a guy who served the rich.
"Then we'll have to trouble Mr. Braid to bring us to the safe room.”Xia Zang Sheng hurriedly pulled the two of them back to their senses. He was afraid that these two would cause unnecessary trouble and affect their business.
Braid looked at the Chinese man who was two heads taller than him, then turned on the computer on his desk and said,"Okay, Mr. Ciel, please tell me the name of the owner of the key. I only need two seconds to know which safe room it is.”
"It's Peter Adrian."
However, Braid's reply after a few seconds was,""We don't have any accounts with this name in our database!”
Xia Zang Sheng stood up from the sofa with a whoosh and said,"This, this is impossible. How can there be none?”
Braid spread his hands and looked at him helplessly."Not to mention VIP customers, even ordinary users have never had a record of this name.”
"Then what should we do? Could it be that this key was not the key to the bank at all?”Hillman was also visibly nervous.
"No, this key is indeed the key to our bank, and it's definitely the key to the VIP safe room because this pure silver key is specially made by a professional designer.”"But our bank doesn't do real name verification for VIP customers. It's possible that the owner of the key used another name…" Braid shook his head.
Before Braid could finish, Xia Zang Sheng suddenly slapped his thigh and said,"Right, I know. Mr. President, please try the name Peter Ovschneider.”
Braid looked strangely at the two excited people, but it was not convenient for him to ask about the National Security Bureau. After he entered the name " Peter Ovschneider " into the computer, he found the safe room with this name in less than two seconds.
President Braid pointed at the silver door and said,""Our safe room is so sturdy that even a bomb can't penetrate it. It can only be opened with a key. The door lock is designed to insert the key and a rotating password plate will appear on the back door. It requires you to rotate the disk engraved with 26 letters and enter the correct eight-digit password within two minutes. At the same time, there can't be two consecutive repeated letters in the password. If the password was not entered within two minutes, or if the password was entered wrongly, the password plate would automatically retract and activate self-protection measures. Once the protection measures were activated, the safe room would be completely closed for a week without accepting any orders. Even the bank could not do anything about it. Within a week after the protective measures were activated, if the safe room was invaded by any external force, it would automatically destroy all items in the safe room to achieve true absolute protection!”
Xia Zangsheng immediately sucked in a breath of cold air after listening to Braid's introduction. He then smiled bitterly at Colonel Hillman and said,"Looks like God only gave us one chance!”
Hillman's expression wasn't too good either.
"Could the password be the S M engraved on the key?”Hillman asked.
"No, the password here is eight digits, and I don't think the professor is stupid enough to engrave the password directly on the key. I think the letters S and M should be the beginning of two words, and the password is likely to be related to these two words. As long as we can deduce the words represented by the two letters, we have a certain chance of guessing the password.”
Hillman lit a cigarette and took two deep puffs."Oh my god, there are at least tens of thousands of words that meet the requirements. Adding the combinations before and after, there are more than a million, but we only have one chance! A one in a million chance was as impossible as the resurrection of hitler!”
"But we have to guess correctly! If the key was in Heinz's hands, he might not act according to common sense. He might even use violent means to directly destroy the door of the safe.”
"We can do it too! As long as you don't enter the password and activate the self-protection system, our weapons experts can analyze it and prepare explosives that can blow through the door without destroying the things inside. Or our technicians can break through the control system of the safe room.”Hillman said as he leaned against the wall. He finished his cigarette in a few puffs.
"How much time do you need?" Xia Zang Sheng asked.
Hillman opened his mouth but didn't say anything.
Xia Zang Sheng raised his hand to look at his watch. It was 4:30. "We only have four and a half hours left. Guessing the password is our only choice, or we will lose completely.”
September 20th, 1943, Tibet, a village 15 kilometers away from Kailash.
"We'll set off in four and a half hours. Before that, take a rest. The road ahead might be harder than you think, so we have to be fully prepared. Remember to hide all your weapons, especially the large submachine guns. Lalux will disassemble them and put them in packages. You can assemble them when you reach an uninhabited area.”Heinrich Haller ordered," The most important thing is that you must remember that we are now a scientific research team, not some German soldiers.”
"Why, boss? The war didn't affect this place. Who would know that we were German soldiers?”As the youngest weapons expert in the German War Ministry, Lalux tugged at the obviously small scientific team uniform on his body and asked. Obviously, he didn't like the unsuitable clothes.
"You've put on weight, Lalux." Bader, who had been silent all this while, suddenly said this to Lalux, causing Lalux to jump in anger.
"This is to learn a lesson. It's much more convenient to conduct activities in the name of scientific research. Moreover, the most important thing is that there are British troops stationed in Tibet. If you don't want to be beaten into a hornet's nest by the British, don't pull your clothes.”The last sentence was specifically directed at Lalux.
"Why are there Englishmen here?" Andy asked.
" Because of the incompetence of the former Qing government in China, the British invaded China in the middle of the 19th century with the help of the Opium War. A unit of the British Third Army Corps was ordered to be stationed in Tibet for a long time. We also sent spies into this team, but we didn't find any substantial information, but..." Halle's expression suddenly became serious." They are likely to come for the same purpose. However, they had been stationed for nearly a hundred years and had changed countless soldiers. At least, they had not found anything useful so far.”
What Haller said next made everyone's expression change.
"Otherwise, they would have been invincible in this world war!”
Lalux swallowed and asked with his eyes wide open,""I say, boss, what exactly does Princeps want us to find?”
Heinrich Haller suddenly fell silent. He walked to the window and opened it. He looked out and saw the towering Gangdese Mountains in the distance.
"We're looking for something. For now, we can only call it the Earth's Core.”Halle finally spoke.
"Earth's core?" Peter asked," I've heard the general mention this thing before, but I never understood what it was.”The general Peter Ofschneider was talking about was the famous German general, Himmler.
"I can't tell what this thing is because no one has ever seen it. However, the head of state told me personally that as long as I get this thing, I can change time and create an incomparably powerful Undead Army.”
"The Undead Army? Do you mean that this thing can make people immortal?”Andy was so shocked that he was incoherent. This was the first time they had heard Halle talk about the goal of this mission, but they did not expect it to be such a terrifying and bizarre thing.
"It should be. Do you know the ascetic cultivation of Buddhists? Including the mountain turning ceremony that we saw earlier, it's all a way for the believers to express their hope to become Buddhas. The Arhats, Bodhisattvas, and Buddhas in Buddhism were like the angels in the Christian world, immortal and indestructible. Our troops in Europe and the Asia Pacific region are already in a tight spot. Try to imagine what it would be like if we let such a group of people who are immortal fight. Let alone winning the battle, even dominating the world would be a piece of cake!”
"Where is the core of the Earth?" Andy continued to ask. He had already begun to be interested in this thing.
" Yes..." Halle paused and suddenly stopped talking.
"What's wrong, boss?"
Halle turned around and said with a confused look,""I... I can't remember that place. I didn't pay much attention to it, but when I really tried to recall, I realized that I couldn't remember anything about us coming to Tibet five years ago.”
Peter's heart suddenly sank. He knew that Halle had led an elite troop of more than ten people to Tibet five years ago. At that time, he was just a small soldier. However, he had heard from General Himmler before this departure that only the captain Heinrich Haller was left alive from the elite team of more than ten people five years ago. Haller was also injured in the brain and could not remember part of the incident. However, it was the forgetting of that part of the incident that made everyone wonder what the team encountered in Tibet five years ago!
Time ticked by. Fifteen minutes later, Xia Zangsheng and Colonel Hillman had already eliminated countless word combinations related to the professor, including the major historical sites that the professor had discovered. But there was no combination of codes that was worth trying.
"Wait, Ciel. We seem to have forgotten the most important thing.”Hillman suddenly said.
" You mean…" Xia Zang Sheng also thought of that matter.
"Yes, Tibet. In 1943, he and the other four were ordered to go to Tibet. We should have thought about it long ago. I don't think there's anything more memorable in Professor Adrian's life than this.”
"Yes, Heins Wilhelm is a fascist. If the professor still has any connection with the Nazism after changing his name, it can only be about Tibet.”Xia Zang Sheng shouted excitedly.
"Then the words related to this matter are: "World War II, Heinrich Halle, Tibet…" Hillman paused for a moment, then said in unison with Xia Zangsheng.
"Earth's axis!"
"The word 'Middle' in the word 'axis' fits the word 'M', but the word' Earth 'and' Globe 'don't fit the word' S'.”
Hillman paced back and forth in thought. He thought for a moment and said,"It might not necessarily be Earth. If it's just a planet or a celestial body, there's a place called SPHERE that fits the criteria.”
" S M-- Maybe it was this, twelve digits, which completely met the requirements of the password.”Xia Zangsheng was very excited. Actually, he should have thought of the "Earth's core" long ago. Will had also mentioned it to him before.
"Shall we begin?" Hillman looked at Xia Zang Sheng and asked. He wasn't sure if this password would work, but it was the most logical and likely password.
Xia Zang Sheng nodded, picked up the key, and walked to the door lock. After hesitating for a moment, he inserted the key. After inserting the key, he followed what Braid had taught him. He rotated the key clockwise and then half a turn counterclockwise. Then, he pulled out the key halfway and rotated it clockwise.
After doing all this, Xia Zang Sheng took a step back. Sure enough, the metal door that didn't seem to have a single gap suddenly popped out, and the metal in front slid down to reveal the bronze password wheel inside.
Xia Zangsheng didn't have time to look at it carefully. He only took a rough look at the position of the 26 letters on the password disc and then began to twist the disc.
The disc looked like Apollo's sun, and there was a long flame pattern as a password pointer. The way to enter the password was to turn the disc and make the pointer point to a specific letter. After reaching the specific letter, press the button in the center of the disc and continue to move to the next letter until the password was entered.
Xia Zangsheng carefully turned the disk, letting the needle point to each letter. After entering the respective letters, Xia Zangsheng's hand that was spinning the disk suddenly stopped, because Xia Zangsheng suddenly remembered that President Braid had said that the password didn't allow two consecutive letters to be entered. And the D in the middle of the MIDDLE was two consecutive letters.
When Hillman saw Xia Zang Sheng's hand suddenly stop, he was stunned for a moment, but then he remembered Braid's words. In an instant, their faces turned ashen. Due to their nervousness, they had neglected the simplest details.
Xia Zang Sheng's hand and heart fell powerlessly, his lips trembling a few times before he finally said,"We lost!"
This book is provided by FunNovel Novel Book | Fan Fiction Novel [Beautiful Free Novel Book]