Volume 9: Molten Mine Chapter 427: Time Difference
The reconnaissance team was lucky. After walking less than a kilometer along the new route, they found an overturned heavy truck on the edge of a cliff.
The truck bed had rolled off the cliff, leaving only the trailer head lying there alone.
Compared to the guy in the tracked armored patrol car who didn't even have time to put on his shoes, the truck driver 's situation was slightly better - at least he was wearing a full set of high-temperature resistant protective equipment, but a broken metal frame pierced through his abdomen and nailed him to the seat.
Although the improved airbag can protect the driver's head, it cannot block sharp metal sections.
A fully armed soldier sat in the passenger seat of the truck. From the logo on his armband, it could be seen that he was an escort soldier belonging to the third transport squadron of the garrison base. His legs were stuck in the completely deformed control console . The blood oozing from his thighs dyed the fabric under the rubber layer of the insulation suit purple-black, and there were a lot of scratches on the fabric of his pants. He had tried many times to pull his legs out from under the control console, but obviously, he failed.
The visor of his helmet was open, and all the moisture in his facial tissue had evaporated. His twisted and shriveled face looked somewhat horrifying. A small amount of blood overflowed from his nostrils and solidified into a dark brown lump .
The escort soldier died of a bullet that entered his mouth and penetrated his upper palate and skull. A 9mm self-defense pistol fell into the cab, with the muzzle stained with a few strands of oral tissue carbonized by the high temperature. The deceased's right hand was dangling in the air less than ten centimeters above the pistol.
"It was suicide," Ivan said.
"I can see that." Ke Lan nodded.
The crowd was unable to find any valuable clues on the truck - the truck received the "emergency evacuation notice" while on a transport mission, and they had no idea what had happened at the garrison base.
However, it can be seen from the driving records that after receiving this notice, the truck first turned around and drove towards the base, but after driving less than two kilometers, it turned back again and started running at full speed on the road.
"They were obviously skeptical about the emergency evacuation notice at first, otherwise they would not have turned to the base... But they realized the seriousness of the problem not long after they drove away, and began to flee outside the mining area as required by the notice. I think they must have seen some horrifying scene..." Ke Lan analyzed.
"Was it an earthquake?" asked the Hound.
"It's possible ..."
As soon as he said the word "possible", Ke Lan's brows suddenly frowned. He slapped his helmet hard as if he had thought of something and said, "No! We missed a very critical element! This mistake is too low-level, we shouldn't have made it!"
"What?" The Hound looked at Ke Lan in confusion.
"Time difference! We overlooked the time difference between this emergency evacuation notice and the earthquake!" Ke Lan said quickly, "According to the data observed by the Ark, the earthquake deep in the Molten Mine Area occurred at 9:30 a.m. on the same day, but this emergency evacuation notice was sent at 9:22 a.m., a full eight minutes earlier than the earthquake. Even if the transmission of seismic waves takes a certain amount of time, the error in the monitoring data cannot be this large."
"You mean to say that the garrison base predicted the earthquake in advance?" Aya Breya confirmed to Ke Lan in a very serious tone.
"It can be understood literally, but my subconscious has been telling me that things may not be that simple." Ke Lan shook her head.
"Is there something wrong with this?"
"The earthquake was predicted eight minutes in advance, and then an emergency evacuation notice was issued to all personnel and units in the Molten Mine Area. Logically, there is nothing wrong...but the problem lies in the time difference - eight minutes. The emergency evacuation notice was issued eight minutes in advance!" Ke Lan said.
"Ke Lan, when will you ever stop keeping people in suspense when you speak? Can't you just make the point clear in one go? Tell me, is there anything wrong with these eight minutes?" the Hound complained.
"I was just talking about this, wasn't it you who interrupted me?" Ke Lan complained, and continued with the previous topic. "The problem lies in these eight minutes. Although eight minutes is not a lot of time, it is not that tight. But the entire emergency evacuation notice only has two words. Didn't the person who sent the notice have the time to type an extra line of text for explanation?"
After Ke Lan said this, everyone else in the team, including Aya, fell into a brief contemplation.
Indeed, the content of this emergency evacuation notice is completely inconsistent with the regulations. Even if the person responsible for sending the notice is in a hurry to escape, the entire notice should not contain only the two words "Run quickly".
As the Hound had said earlier, this was a gross dereliction of duty.
It doesn't take too much time to explain the cause and effect, just two sentences, and for people who type fast, it takes less than ten seconds... Even if there is really no time to input text, using voice input or simply calling the emergency command template is much more reliable than this mindless sentence "escape".
Just like the "Emergency 039" and "Emergency 000" that Ke Lan had asked Layton to send in the Leviathan incident, although these codes were equally simple, at least by comparing them with the code book, one could immediately understand their meaning.
Ke Lan and the others also saw the result of editing the emergency evacuation notice in violation of regulations. After receiving the notice, the truck not only did not evacuate outside the mining area immediately, but turned around and wanted to return to the garrison base for verification... This kind of notice that was not edited according to regulations is completely unconvincing!
Even if the person who edited this emergency evacuation notice escaped from the mining area alive afterwards, he would probably be convicted of dereliction of duty...
"There is another place where the timeline doesn't match. Look at this driving record. At 9:22:03, the truck received an emergency evacuation notice and the driver stopped the car. At 9:23:15, the truck began to turn and headed towards the garrison base. At 9:25:40, the truck turned around for the second time and increased its speed to the limit." Ke Lan continued, "At this time, there were still nearly five minutes before the earthquake. After that, the truck ran on the road at a speed of more than 100 kilometers per hour for more than ten kilometers before it was caught up by the earthquake... Before that, what did the truck driver see that made him change his mind and return to the base?"
