The World of American Drama: From the Los Angeles Patrol

Chapter 1126: The Lone Ranger Driving the Blackbird

"It appears that Julio Salazar was murdered in a similar manner to the first two victims, with the neck being cut with a sickle, and the removal of the eyeballs seemingly in the same ritualistic way as the second victim's arms were cut off.

However, the second victim's arm was left at the scene, and we searched around but could not find the gouged eyeballs anywhere nearby.

And the paint on the body of the deceased, why wasn't our wizard painted with pigment or paint? His body wasn't even removed, and the bloodstains on the ground showed that this was the first scene. "

Clay asked a series of questions, causing the other three to frown.

Jack sighed and pointed at the mystical symbols with various meanings in the house. "You have seen everything here. It is almost impossible to figure out the specific content of the ritual."

This thing was no different from the cults he had heard of in his previous life, which had once been popular in the country. They were all pieced together using various religious rituals.

If a serious expert in religion or mysticism were to design a religious ceremony, no matter how many elements he borrowed from Buddhist water and land ceremonies, Taoist fasting and offering rituals, or Christian mass, there would be traces to follow.

The problem is that no matter whether it is the local wizard whose eyes have been gouged out, or the murderer who caused all this, the voodoo, Satanism or Holy Death they believe in are all unorthodox beliefs spread by word of mouth by a group of semi-literate or even illiterate people.

This is like the Bagua flag of the great cosmic power, which forcibly changed the Yin-Yang fish into a shape similar to Pepsi, and the Bagua became four trigrams.

According to the people of the former suzerain state, the Seris, this is a sign of opposition between heaven and earth, the displacement of Qian and Kun, the disappearance of wind and thunder, the blockage of mountains and swamps, Tai Chi without eyes, the conflict between Yin and Yang, water and fire not coexisting, and a good ending is hard to come by. Four of the Eight Trigrams are missing, and half of the country is occupied. There is a lack of wood in the Five Elements, and it is like duckweed without roots. It is a definite sign of great misfortune.

"No, maybe there is another way." Lopez showed a smug smile on his face.

“Although most of the shrines and altars of the Holy Death are hidden in the home, some believers still design them in a form that is easy to dismantle and display them on the streets in order to spread the doctrine.

I can contact the local police, find some believers who do this, and learn from them whether there are similar blood sacrifice rituals in the area. "

"This might be a good idea." Clay also remembered that Lopez had mentioned before that he had been ordered more than once to destroy the mobile altars displayed on the streets.

Jack paused as he walked toward the door, a thoughtful expression on his face. "How are those mobile shrines and altars usually displayed?"

"Put it in the bed of a pickup truck or the compartment of a van. I see what you mean." Lopez suddenly realized.

"As a fanatic believer of the Holy Spirit of Death, the murderer is likely one of those guys who often displays altars in their cars."

"That's right." Jack nodded. "We have another clue about biodiesel in our hands, which should help to identify it."

Jack and his two companions said goodbye to Lopez temporarily while the local police arrived to deal with the aftermath.

The FBI returned to the hotel to continue their investigation, while Lopez went to the Tijuana Police Department to arrange the search.

After listening to Jiejie's description of the horrific murder scene, Alice rubbed the goose bumps on her arms and showed them the progress of the investigation.

"There are many theories about the color of the wedding dress worn by the Holy Death. One of them is that white prays for fidelity, blue prays for health, red prays for love, and black prays for witchcraft and supernatural powers."

Aubrey took over and continued, "This obviously doesn't match the color of the bodies of the first two victims, but as Jack has judged, similar sacrificial rituals are of various kinds.

Even in Tijuana, there are dozens or even hundreds of blood sacrifice rituals, and we even found a case where the remains of multiple dead bodies were dismembered and pieced together to look like the Holy Spirit of Death. "

This was probably inspired by the Aztec ritual of human sacrifice. Jack curled his lips and looked at Hannah, "Are there any analysis results for those biodiesel samples?"

Hannah nodded. "The lab report says that the main components of these samples are peanut oil and soybean oil. They are first-generation technologies and should have been eliminated long ago because using this biodiesel as fuel requires additional modifications to the engine."

"There should be additional notes when registering such modified vehicles, right?" Jack asked.

“Yes, given that this technology has been completely phased out in the United States, we searched the local DMV database in Tijuana and found that there were less than 20 cars that had been similarly modified.

However, these cars are supposed to have been scrapped, and Jubal and I are contacting the former owners of those vehicles one by one, but there is no further progress for the time being."

"Wait a moment." Jubal, who had just gone to the next room to answer the phone, suddenly appeared and interrupted Hannah's report with a serious face.

"Jack, you are asked 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 with a puzzled look on his face. "Isn't our plane parked at San Diego International Airport?"

庞巴迪挑战者850的巡航速度是0.8马赫，也就是850公里/小时，这在民用飞机中已经是仅次于BAU那架湾流G650高达0.9马赫的极速了。

What mission could be so urgent that even sending Jack on a Bombardier was too slow? Even military transport planes were not faster than this. Could it be that they were planning to send him on a rocket?

I haven't heard that Americans are so awesome nowadays that they have started building prisons in space (the movie "Space One" is pretty good and worth watching). With this question, Jack hurriedly said goodbye to his friends and drove back to San Diego.

The speed of crossing the border showed that this emergency mission was unusual. CBP had reserved a separate channel at the checkpoint. Jack passed through at full speed without even releasing the accelerator under the envious gaze of a long line of vehicles.

A Black Hawk helicopter was waiting in an open space less than 2 kilometers away from the border checkpoint. The entire process from takeoff to landing took less than ten minutes, and it directly took Jack to a runway at a naval base in San Diego Bay.

"Wow~~~" When Jack saw the big black thing on the runway, his mouth opened wide and he didn't close it for a long time.

"Am I hallucinating, or is someone up there crazy? Are you planning to let me take this old thing to Washington?"

Jack was dumbfounded when he saw more than a dozen ground crew members in front of him pulling a pile of things that looked like space suits on a cart with very clear intentions.

"Sir, we don't know what's going on, but we are told to deliver it to Washington within two hours. This is the only way."

A fat old man wearing a dirty ground crew uniform, his whole body was covered with grease, even his beard was not spared, and he winked at Jack mischievously.

"But this thing is probably older than you. Can it really fly?" Jack felt his voice trembling.

The SR-71 strategic reconnaissance aircraft, also known as the "Blackbird", was once a mythical high-altitude reconnaissance aircraft that was said to have never been shot down. It could fly at a cruising speed of more than Mach 3 at an altitude of more than 60 meters. The key point is that this aircraft was developed in the 21s and was announced to be permanently retired before the arrival of the 12st century. Jack had seen the prototype of this aircraft, the Lockheed A-, at the Intrepid Aircraft Museum (Chapter : A Rare Holiday).

"Swear first, is this thing really not an exhibit dragged out of a museum?" While being helped by the men to put on a special pressurized flight suit, Jack looked at the Blackbird that was being refueled with a worried look on his face.

"Don't worry, young man." A slightly hoarse voice sounded behind Jack.

"Just close your eyes and count to 1. When you open your eyes again, we will be at Andrews Air Force Base."

Jack turned around in surprise and found a pilot wearing a flight suit standing behind him.

He wore a round helmet that looked like a space suit. The helmet was half open, revealing a handsome face that was exactly the same as Tom Cruise's. Even the position of the mole on his right cheek was exactly the same.

Although the khaki full-pressure flight suit he was wearing was extremely ugly and his forehead was full of wrinkles when he smiled, it still couldn't hide the unruly temperament that is unique to elite pilots.

Jack had seen "Top Gun", and 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 Tawalla." He took the initiative to extend his right hand to the person 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 entered museums, NASA still retains this 831 aircraft for various flight tests. It has always been in good condition, just like me."

Now that he had met this legend, Jack didn't waste any time. He put on his flight suit with the help of a group of ground crew and prepared for this top-secret flight.

This "Blackbird" is slightly different from the A-12 prototype that Jack had seen before. The rear cockpit is slightly higher than the front cockpit, and there are two small fixed ventral fins under the engine nacelle.

According to the fat old man who was in the lead, who was also the sergeant major among the dozen or so leading mechanics, the actual model of the "Blackbird" numbered 831 was the SR-71B.

The extra letter B indicates that this is a trainer aircraft. The rear cockpit, which is slightly higher than the front cockpit, is actually the instructor's cabin.

Only two of this model of "Blackbird" were produced. The No. 2 aircraft crashed in a flight accident as early as 1968, while the No. 1 aircraft is still in use today.

As for the problem of oil leakage while refueling, Jack had heard of it. This is a common problem of this type of high-altitude, high-speed aircraft.

The "Blackbird" has no external fuel tanks. All fuel is stored in integral fuel tanks inside the wings. The tank siding is the titanium alloy skin of the aircraft itself.

You should know that even at an altitude of more than 2 meters where the air is extremely thin, when the aircraft is flying at Mach 3, which is 3 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 has considerable gaps reserved. As a result, the aircraft will not only leak oil while refueling, but will also continue to leak oil during the low-speed flight phase of takeoff.

Only when reaching high speed will the heat cause the specially structured skin to begin to expand regularly, the ripples will become more bizarre, and even the fuselage will be stretched by seven or eight centimeters, but the gaps at the joints will automatically close.

After being sent to the rear cockpit of the "Blackbird", Jack began to breathe 100% pure oxygen after the oxygen tube was connected to his flight suit. He looked exactly like Tom Cruise. The pilot who called himself "Lone Ranger" kept performing various pre-flight checks.

The tractor started slowly. The fat old sergeant washed the oil off his hands with Coke while waving goodbye to the two men.

The plane's engine started, spewing out a six-meter-long tail flame. A few minutes later, Jack was pressed firmly into his seat by an acceleration of more than 8G and rose to an altitude of 2 meters.

Although it is already the 21st century, being able to easily break the "sound barrier" and cruise at supersonic speeds has become a basic operation for sixth-generation aircraft.

But what is little known is that after the "sound barrier" of Mach 1, there is a "thermal barrier" in the speed range of Mach 2.5.

Since the Cold War, there have been only two manned aircraft that can break through the "heat barrier" and be used in actual combat. One is the "Blackbird", which cannot carry weapons and can only conduct reconnaissance operations, and the other is the MiG-25 "Foxbat" produced by the former Soviet Union.

The former has a titanium alloy fuselage, but because the welding technology has never been able to make a breakthrough, it has to be filled with rivets all over the body, resulting in poor fuselage strength. Even the most basic maneuvers cannot be completed, resulting in it only being able to fly in a straight line according to a pre-planned route.

The latter has a stainless steel fuselage and unparalleled high-altitude performance, but its electronic system is relatively backward, and its mid- and low-altitude performance and maneuverability are also extremely poor.

However, both are products of the "black technology" of the Cold War era, and both adopt a simple and crude approach of powerful and powerful weapons. Although the latter was developed to intercept the former, they have never really fought each other.

Pete 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 too much time to reach an altitude of 60 meters at a climbing rate of more than 2.4 meters per second.

This is probably the closest Jack has ever been to space in his two lives. It is more than 20 kilometers away from the earth. You should know that the orbital altitude of the Tiangong Space Station is only 400 kilometers.

Well, it wasn't much compared to that, but Jack couldn't bear to blink as he watched through the thick quartz glass window the paint on the Blackbird's wings gradually change from black to blue.

"Um, what...are you okay?" Pete Mitchell, who calls himself "The Lone Walker," suddenly asked, apparently not remembering someone's name.

"That's great. I 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.

Pete Mitchell was obviously a little shocked by Jack's relaxed tone, but he was obviously the taciturn type. After confirming that Jack's relaxation was not pretended, he didn't say anything more, but just replied lightly, "Enjoy it."

At this altitude, the concept of horizon no longer exists. The curvature of the earth can be observed, and the atmosphere forms a faint halo at the end of sight. The color suddenly transitions from white, light blue, and dark blue to ink blue that is close to black.

Jack only had to look up slightly to see the beautiful starry sky. In the high altitude where the atmosphere was thin, even the planets no longer twinkled.

Just a brief gaze at this beautiful starry sky will give you the illusion of falling into it, as if in just a moment, the earth under your feet and the deep space have flipped over.

Regretting not having put his cell phone outside his flight suit in advance, Jack could only try to memorize this magnificent sight with his brain, perhaps he would be able to describe it all in words in the future.

But at the same time, he was vaguely worried. How big of a deal must this be to have the higher-ups send him to Washington in such an unconventional way? Could it be that he really had to save the world this time?

(End of this chapter)