Volume 5: Bottomless Sinkhole Chapter 242 Luxurious Airship
"I have almost finished my investigation. Let's meet directly at the airport terminal." Ke Lan replied.
"OK."
After receiving the definite reply, Ke Lan raised her head and glanced at the hospital director who was waiting on the side with a respectful look on his face.
In addition to respect, Ke Lan also saw greed in his eyes. Although the other party tried his best to hide his greed, his ability to manage his expression was too poor. In Ke Lan's opinion, the greed in this guy's heart was simply exposed.
"Remember, keep today's events secret." Ke Lan said to him, and quickly swiped her finger across the screen a few times, and a "hush money" of 100,000 points was transferred into the other party's account.
"Okay, okay!" The dean took a look at the payment information, his face full of surprise that he could not hide - he knew that this mysterious and generous relic hunter in front of him might give him a "hush money" in the end, but this amount was still far beyond his original expectations.
"By the way, I have to kindly remind you that you are just an employee. If these things get out, you will be the only one in trouble." Ke Lan said, "I am not threatening you, I am just stating the facts."
"I know, I know!" the dean kept answering. He was smart and naturally understood that if this kind of thing leaked out, it would only cost him his job. If things went wrong, he would be sued by the shareholders of the hospital... and the worst possible outcome for him would be that after losing his job, he would be privately retaliated by the big hunting group that these patients had belonged to before. By then, he would not be able to decide how many of his ten fingers would be left.
Ke Lan climbed over the wall when she came in, and she climbed over the wall again when she went out. In addition to the hospital's own security guards, there was also an "emergency team" composed of mercenaries at the main gate. The employer of this emergency team was the hunting group to which those crazy hunters belonged. The purpose was to block patients' families or media workers who wanted to enter the hospital.
These mercenaries naturally couldn't stop Ke Lan, but that didn't stop them from informing their employers. They couldn't just kill all of them to silence them.
After leaving the hospital, Ke Lan casually took off his white coat and stuffed it into a trash can on the side of the road. Then he found a rental point, rented a shared air-cushion vehicle, and drove directly to the airport terminal.
…
The Phantom-class high-speed airship that was assigned to Ke Lan by the Soma Group was called "Greece". The name came from a glorious ancient civilization on Earth in the old era, but Ke Lan's only impression of this ancient civilization was the famous Olympic Games.
The "Greece" is currently anchored in the exclusive dock rented by the Soma Consortium. This airship, covered with silver-white armor and a large number of photovoltaic panels, is 330 meters long, which is very close to light main battleships such as the "Iris class". Although its weapons and armor cannot be compared with those of battleships, its cruising speed is nearly 20 percentage points higher than that of the "Iris class".
"It's really beautiful." Layton, who was carrying and a three-meter-high metal equipment box on his back, couldn't help but sigh, "It's just that there are too few weapons and equipment, which is a pity!"
"Come on, the regulations on civilian air vessels are so strict, so don't daydream about giant ships and big guns." The Hound rolled his eyes at him and complained.
"Hey, how do you know I'm itching to try my hand? I've modified a lot of conventional vehicles and mechas myself... but I've never played with an airship." Layton said with a smile.
"This thing is loaned to us. I can't afford to pay for it if it breaks." Ke Lan said. Unlike Hound and the others, he had nothing in his hands - all his equipment had already been packed up by the people from the Soma Group and sent to the airship a few hours ago.
"Let's go up first." Ke Lan called to the others, and he was the first to step onto the floating elevator to board the ship.
As soon as everyone entered the "Greece", they were instantly shocked by the luxurious decoration inside the ship - the interior of the entire spaceship, except for the energy core and engine room, was decorated according to the standards of Zofia's captain's office on the Pioneer. Not to mention anything else, the thick rose-red carpet alone was laid from the end of the main corridor to the boarding gate.
"This airship is clearly a mobile palace!" The Hound couldn't help but say, "Damn, I seem to smell the scent of incense in the air."
"A palace? What is a palace?" Leighton was confused for a moment by this term he had never heard of before.
"It's where the emperors of the old era stayed when they traveled." Ke Lan explained.
"I feel that the place where the emperors of the old era lived may not be comparable. My ancestors... even the emperors, still lived in tents." Zhuo Ligetu said.
"Alright, alright, keep your voices down. We're making it seem like we've never seen the world and are being laughed at by others." The Hound waved his hand.
"But you were the first one to speak?" Leighton reminded in a low voice.
"Shut up, you're the only one who talks too much!"
Most of the facilities on the "Greece" are fully automatic, and the entire crew has been reduced to only three people: the captain in charge of steering, the gunner in charge of controlling weapons, and the chief engineer in charge of managing energy and engine equipment.
These three people are now at their posts carrying out the final debugging before departure, so no one comes out to greet Ke Lan and the others - originally the ship was equipped with a secretary and some service personnel, but at Ke Lan's strong request, these people were removed by Zofia, leaving only a few intelligent damage control robots and a service robot for cleaning.
"Welcome aboard," the captain's voice came from the loudspeaker above. "The high-speed airship 'Greece' has completed final commissioning and is ready to take off at any time."
"Okay, I get it. We'll take off at 12 o'clock sharp." Ke Lan said. It was now 11:40, and there were exactly 20 minutes left before take-off.
Everyone walked along the corridor into the ship, selected a cabin they liked, and then gathered in the central hall at the intersection of two corridors. This is the main restaurant on the ship, and also serves as a lounge and meeting room.
Ke Lan clicked a few times on the control terminal on the wall, and a small door on one side was opened. Dozens of covered plates were lifted onto the dining table by a robotic arm.
"We don't have much time, let's finish our lunch first." Ke Lan nodded to everyone, "As for the results of my investigation at the hospital, I'll tell you on the way."
"That makes sense. I've been so busy packing my equipment that I haven't had time to eat. I'm already hungry." The Hound agreed and dragged a plate in front of him. He lifted the cover and saw a ball of pasta on the plate and a grilled steak with sauce on the side.
"Sigh...Think about the last time we went to the glacier. We were strapped to the seats of the transport plane like animals. We couldn't move at all. We had to eat compressed dry food that tasted like soap. We even had to use plastic bags to pee and poop... Damn, it's so sad just thinking about it."
