Chapter 1126 The Lone Ranger driving the "Blackbird"
"It seems that the method of murder of Julio Salazar is somewhat similar to the first two victims. Both necks were cut with a scythe, and the eyeballs were The removal seemed to have the same ritual meaning as the severing of the second victim's arm.
But the second victim's arm was left at the scene. And we searched around and couldn't find any gouged eyeballs.
And the paint on the dead body, why wasn't our wizard's body even removed? , the blood stains on the ground showed that this was the first scene."
Clay asked a series of questions, causing the other three people to frown.
Jack sighed and pointed to the occult symbols with mixed meanings in the room, "You have seen everything here. It is almost impossible to understand the specific content of the ritual."
This thing It was no different from the sects he had heard of in his previous life, which were once popular in the country. They were all made up of various religious rituals.
If you let a serious expert in religion or mysticism design a oblique religious ceremony, no matter how much he borrows from the Buddhist Water and Land Dharma Assembly, the Taoist fasting ceremony, or the Christian Mass The elements are all traceable.
The problem is that whether it is the local wizard who had his eyeballs taken out in front of him or the murderer who caused all this, the Voodoo, Satanism or Holy Spirit Death they believe in are all composed of a group of people. Semi-literate or even illiterate, tossing around unorthodox beliefs through word of mouth.
This is like the Bagua flag of the great power of the universe. The Yin-Yang fish was changed to look similar to Pepsi-Cola, and the Bagua became the Four Trigrams.
According to the people of Seris, the original suzerain country, this is the opposition between heaven and earth, the universe is in different positions, wind and thunder are invisible, mountains and rivers are blocked, Tai Chi has no eyes, yin and yang are in conflict, water and fire are incompatible, and it is rare to have a good ending, Bagua is missing four or half of the country, and the five elements are short of trees and no trees. A root of duckweed is a sure sign of great misfortune.
“No, maybe there is a way.” Lopez showed a proud smile on his face.
“Although most shrines and altars of the Holy Spirit of Death are hidden in homes, out of the need to promote doctrines, believers will still design them in a form that can be easily borrowed and display them on the streets.
I can contact the local police to find out Find some believers who do this and learn from them whether there are similar blood sacrifice rituals in the local area."
"This may be a good idea." Clay also remembered that Lopez had mentioned it before. I was ordered to destroy the mobile altars displayed on the streets.
Jack paused as he walked towards the door, showing a thoughtful expression, "How are those mobile shrines and altars usually displayed?"
"Place them in the bed of a pickup truck or the compartment of a van. Ah, I understand what you mean." Lopez suddenly realized.
"As a fanatic believer in the Holy Spirit of Death, the murderer is probably one of those guys who often drive and display the altar."
"Yes." Jack nodded, "We still have one in our hands The clues of biodiesel should help to distinguish.”
When the local police came to deal with the aftermath, the three Jacks and Lopez said goodbye for the time being.
The FBI returned to the hotel to continue their investigation, while Lopez went to the Tijuana Police Department to arrange a search.
After listening to Jiejie’s account of the horrors of the murder scene, Alice rubbed the goosebumps on her arms and showed them the progress of the investigation here.
“There are many theories about the color of the wedding dress worn by the Holy Spirit of Death. One of them is that white prays for loyalty, blue prays for health, red prays for love, and black prays for witchcraft and superpowers.”
Aubrey took it and continued, "This is obviously the same as the color on the bodies of the first two deceased people. The color does not match, but as Jack judged, there are many kinds of similar sacrificial rituals.
Even in Tijuana itself, there are dozens or hundreds of blood sacrificial rituals, and we even found out that many people died. A case where the remains were dismembered and then spliced together to look like the Holy Spirit of Death.”
This was probably inspired by the Aztec human sacrifice ceremony. Jack curled his lips and looked at Hannah, "Do you have any analysis results for those biodiesel samples?"
Hannah nodded, "The laboratory report stated that the main components of these samples were peanut oil and peanut oil. Soybean oil, which is a first-generation technology, should have been eliminated long ago because using this biodiesel as fuel requires additional engine modifications."
"Such modified vehicles should be registered. Will there be any additional notes?" Jack asked.
“Yes, given that the United States has completely phased out this technology, we searched in the local DMV database in Tijuana and found that there were less than 20 vehicles in the local area that had undergone similar modifications. Cars.
However, these cars have supposedly been scrapped. Jubal and I are contacting the previous owners of those vehicles one by one, but there is no further progress yet.”
"Wait a minute." Jubal, who had just gone to the next room to answer the phone, suddenly appeared and interrupted Hannah's report with a serious look.
"Jack, you are required to go to the San Diego Naval Base immediately. There is a plane waiting for you there. They need you to go to Washington as soon as possible."
"What mission?" Jack asked The question mark on my forehead, "Our plane is not Just park it at San Diego International Airport?”
The cruising speed of the Bombardier Challenger 850 is Mach 0.8, which is 850 kilometers per hour, which is already second only to BAU’s Gulfstream G650, which is as high as 0.9 among civil aircraft. Mach's top speed.
What mission is so urgent that it would be too slow for Jack to fly in a Bombardier? Even military transport planes don't have models that are faster than this speed. Is it possible that they plan to let him ride a rocket?
I haven’t heard that the Americans are so awesome now that they start building prisons in space (the movie "Space One" is not bad and worth watching). With this question in mind, Jack hurriedly bid farewell to his friends and drove back to San Diego.
The unusualness of this emergency mission can be felt from the speed of crossing the border. CBP has reserved a separate channel at the checkpoint. Jack did not even loosen the accelerator and was envied by the long queue of vehicles. Pass at full speed while watching.
A Black Hawk helicopter was waiting in an open space less than 2 kilometers away from the border checkpoint. The entire journey from takeoff to landing took less than ten minutes and directly sent Jack to a certain flight path at the Naval Base in San Diego Bay. On the runway.
“Wow~~~” Seeing the big black guy on the runway, Jack’s mouth opened wide and he didn’t close it for a long time.
“Am I hallucinating, or someone above is crazy? Are you planning to let me take this old guy to Washington?”
Facing the dozen ground crews who appeared in front of him, dragging a pile of things like space suits on small carts, with very clear intentions, Jack couldn't help but be stunned.
"Sir, we actually don't know what's going on, but we are required to deliver it to Washington within two hours. This is the only way."
A man in a suit The dirty ground crew uniform was covered in oil stains. Even the fat old man with a big beard was not spared and winked at Jack.
“But this thing is probably older than you, can it really still fly?” Jack felt his voice tremble a little.
The SR-71 strategic reconnaissance aircraft, also known as the "Blackbird", is a high-altitude reconnaissance aircraft that was once mythical and claimed to have never been shot down. It can fly at an altitude of more than 20,000 meters at Mach 3 or above. Flying at cruising speed. The key is that this aircraft was developed in the 1960s and was announced to be permanently retired before the arrival of the 21st century. Jack had seen the prototype of this aircraft, the Lockheed A-12, at the Intrepid Aircraft Museum. (Chapter 634: A rare vacation).
"Swear first, isn't this thing really a display piece pulled out of a museum?" While being helped by the help of the big men to put on a special pressurized flight suit, Jack still He looked at the Blackbird that was refueling with a worried look on his face.
"Don't worry, young man." A slightly hoarse voice sounded behind Jack.
"You just need to close your eyes and count from 1 to 100. When you open your eyes again, we will have arrived at Andrews Air Force Base."
Jack turned around in shock and found that behind him There stood a pilot who had put on a flight suit.
He wears a round helmet that looks like a space suit on his head. The helmet is half open, revealing a handsome face that is exactly the same as Tom Cruise. Even the location of the mole on the right cheek is exactly the same.
Although the khaki full-pressure flight suit this man is wearing is extremely ugly, and his forehead is full of wrinkles when he smiles, he still can't hide the unruly temperament that belongs to elite pilots.
Jack had watched "Top Gun". Although "Top Gun 2" had not been released before he traveled through time, he had already roughly guessed who the person in front of him was.
"Hello, Jack Tavole." He took the initiative to extend his right hand to the man in front of him.
"Pete Mitchell, you can also call me 'Lone Walker'." The pilot shook hands with Jack and looked at the "Blackbird" next to him that was leaking oil while refueling.
"Don't worry, although most of the 'Blackbirds' have gone into museums, NASA still retains this No. 831 aircraft for various flight tests. It has always been in good condition, just like me."
Now that they have met this legend, Jack has no nonsense. With the help of a group of ground staff, he puts on his flight suit and prepares for this top-secret flight.
This "Blackbird" is slightly different from the A-12 prototype Jack once saw. The rear cockpit is slightly higher than the front cockpit, and there are two more small fixings under the engine nacelle. ventral fin.
According to the fat old man in the lead, the sergeant major among the more than ten leading mechanics, the actual model of the "Blackbird" numbered 831 is SR-71B.
The extra letter B indicates that this is a trainer aircraft, and the rear cockpit, which is slightly higher than the front cockpit, is actually the instructor's cabin.
A total of two "Blackbirds" of this type were produced. The No. 2 aircraft crashed due to a flight accident as early as 1968, and the No. 1 aircraft is still in use today.
As for the problem of oil leaking while refueling, Jack has heard about it. This is a common problem of high-altitude and high-speed aircraft.
The "Blackbird" has no external fuel tanks. All fuel is installed in integrated fuel tanks within the wings. The fuel tank wall panels are the titanium alloy skin of the aircraft itself.
You must know that even at an altitude of more than 20,000 meters where the air is extremely thin, when the aircraft flies at Mach 3, which is three times the speed of sound, the heat generated by friction will still cause the skin to deform.
Therefore, part of the fuselage skin of the "Blackbird" is not only made into a special corrugated shape, but also leaves a considerable gap. Therefore, the aircraft will not only leak oil while refueling, but also leak oil during takeoff. There will still be constant oil leakage during low-speed flight.
Only after entering high speed, the heat will cause the specially structured skin to begin to expand regularly, and the ripples will become more bizarre. Even the fuselage will be stretched by seven to eight centimeters, but the gaps at the joints will automatically close.
After being sent to the back cockpit of the "Blackbird", Jack began to breathe 100% pure oxygen after connecting the oxygen tube to the flight suit. He looked just like Tom Cruise and called himself " The pilots of the "Lone Ranger" are constantly conducting various pre-flight inspections.
The tractor started slowly. The fat old man, the sergeant major, washed the oil on his hands with Coke while waving goodbye to the two of them.
The aircraft engine started, emitting a six-meter-long tail flame. A few minutes later, Jack was pinned to the seat by an acceleration of more than 8 G, and ascended to an altitude of 20,000 meters.
Although we are already in the 21st century, being able to easily break through the "sound barrier" and cruise at supersonic speeds has become a basic skill of sixth-generation aircraft.
But what is less known is that after the "sound barrier" of Mach 1, there is also a "thermal barrier" in the speed range of Mach 2.5.
From the Cold War to the present, there are only two types of manned aircraft that can break through the "thermal barrier" and be used in actual combat. One is the "Blackbird" that cannot carry weapons and can only conduct reconnaissance operations, while the other The model is the MiG-25 "Foxbat" produced by the former Soviet Union.
The former is a titanium alloy fuselage, but because the welding process has never been able to break through, the whole body has to be filled with rivets, resulting in poor strength of the fuselage. It cannot even complete the most basic maneuvers, so it can only be planned in advance. The route flies straight.
The latter has a stainless steel body and has unparalleled high-altitude performance, but the electronic system is relatively backward, and the mid- and low-altitude performance and maneuverability are also extremely poor.
However, both of them are products of "black technology" during the Cold War, and they are both simple and crude. Although the latter was developed to intercept the former, it has never really Hands on.
Peter Mitchell's previous statement that he could reach his destination by counting from 1 to 100 was obviously an exaggeration, but it did not take much time to reach an altitude of 24,000 meters with a climbing rate of more than 60 meters per second.
This is probably the closest Jack has ever been to space. It is more than 20 kilometers away from the earth. You must know that the orbital altitude of the Tiangong Space Station is only 400 kilometers.
Well, this comparison is really nothing special, but looking out the thick quartz glass window, the paint on the wings of the "Blackbird" gradually changed from black to blue, and Jack couldn't bear to blink.
"What? Are you okay?" Pete Mitchell, who calls himself "The Lone Walker," suddenly asked, obviously not remembering someone's name.
"It's good. I really envy you elite pilots who can often see this kind of scenery." Although Jack didn't mind, he didn't mean to introduce himself again.
Peter Mitchell was obviously a little shocked by Jack's relaxed tone, but his character was obviously the taciturn type. After confirming that Jack's relaxed tone was not fake, he didn't say anything more and just replied lightly. Just enjoy it.
At this altitude, there is no longer any concept of the horizon. You can observe the curvature of the earth. The atmosphere forms a faint halo at the end of the line of sight. The color suddenly transitions from white, light blue, and dark blue to almost black. Dark blue.
Jack just raised his head slightly and could see the beautiful starry sky in space. Even the planets no longer twinkled in the high altitude where the atmosphere was thin.
Just by gazing for a moment, this beautiful starry sky gives you the illusion of falling into it. It seems that in just a moment, the earth under your feet has flipped over with the deep space.
Some regrets that he did not put his mobile phone outside the flight suit in advance. Jack could only try to use his brain to remember this magnificent scene, and he might be able to describe it all in words in the future.
But at the same time, he was vaguely worried that he could be sent to Washington in such an unconventional way. How big would this matter be? Could it be that he really had to rely on him to save the world this time?
(End of this chapter)