Conan: Science Cartoonist Kudo Yuji

Chapter 630 Self-rescue
"Damn it, I have to soak in the water after coming in!"

Rena Mizunoshi was extremely angry after taking off her diving mask, and there was a hint of resentment in her eyes as she looked at Machiko.

"Boss, don't you have anything to say?"

The three were now on the 18th floor of the ocean buoy, and the seawater was still falling from the 17th floor. Because of the increased weight inside the base, through the glass windows on the 18th floor, it could be seen that the entire ocean buoy seemed to sink a little.

"How did you choose the location of this base? The seabed here is so soft that it has already sunk after only three layers of water."

Kiel clung to the window. There was no light in the dark deep sea, which proved that Vodka and his men had driven the submarine far away. Even if they wanted to return to the boat, they probably had no chance.

"Water ingress may not be a bad thing."

Kicking the unconscious Indian man lying on the ground, Machiko raised her hand to check the time and found that it had not been more than three hours since she got off the submarine.

"Our goal is to install a remote control system at the bottom of the ocean buoy after the Japanese police hand over the surveillance rights, and then kidnap the woman named Naomi. Isn't there a better way now?"

"A better way? You mean..."

The two men looked down in the direction Machiko was looking and noticed the Indian man lying on the ground with his face almost completely submerged in water and bubbles starting to come out of his nose. They hurriedly helped him up, one on each side.

"Naomi is the most important part of the cross-age system. We can't replace her until she manually connects to Japan's monitoring rights, but it's okay for others."

"You want to change your appearance."

Rena Mizunoshi hesitated for a moment. Her character in the organization was just an ordinary code-named member and thug. Before this, she had never shown any talent in computers or other areas.

But in fact, the CIA had trained her before she was sent out undercover, so if she just cooperated with others, there should be no problem.

"Then I will temporarily assign tasks now."

Machiko pinched the Indian's face and forced him to make a sound. After capturing his voice, she patted him on the body, took out the waterproof communicator, and after checking that there was no problem, she motioned Fujiwara to go to the stairs, while she ran to the end of the corridor on the 18th floor.

At this time, the water on the 18th floor had completely reached the knees of the three people. Machiko gestured to Fujiwara to walk slowly towards her. She pretended to be terrified, pressed the communication button and shouted.

"Ah! Ah!"

On the first floor, three people in the command room and Leonhardt, who was in the equipment room wearing his equipment and ready to set off, immediately heard Ed's scream of fear.

"Ed-kun! What happened? Are you hurt?!"

As the director, Makino immediately pressed the communication button on the console in front of him, hoping that the Indian could report the situation over there.

"Don't come over here! Don't come over here!"

【What do you mean don't come over? 】

"Do you have anyone else over there? Ed-kun, has someone invaded the ocean buoy? Don't worry, tell me the situation and I'll ask Naomi to seek help!"

Makino was ecstatic at the moment. If the ocean buoy malfunctioned because of a problem with the four of them at the maintenance base, the International Police Headquarters would not give him any juice. But if someone invaded, it would be a very different matter.

"Ed, did you hear what the director said!" Naomi also looked at the display screen anxiously.

Hearing the voice coming from the communicator, Machiko paused and stammered, "Director..."

The combat uniform on her arm flashed blue light, and then Machiko crushed the communicator.

"There aren't many people in this base right now, not even one person who can be called a defensive force. It seems that the original plan was to have the Japanese police take charge of the security work."

Machiko felt the numbness in her hands caused by the combat uniform and guessed the identity of the maker. "You are going to replace them, what if the director asks for help?" Fujiwara frowned, not knowing what Machiko was up to.

"He probably won't call outside, at least before he determines whether it is a mechanical failure or a human intrusion."

Mizuno Reina came over with the Indian man and looked at Machiko: "You just wanted them to send someone down to confirm, so you crushed the communicator at that time, right?"

"The road leading up to the 16th floor is blocked." Machiko tilted her head helplessly, feeling that the water in her ears had not yet been drained. She said embarrassedly, "This is beyond my expectation."

Originally, she wanted to cause a power short circuit and shut down all the power systems on the 16th floor to prevent the camera from capturing the faces of the three people. However, she did not expect that the power was indeed cut off after the dagger was stabbed, but not only did the inner mechanical door loosen, but the outer mechanical door that isolated the sea water also popped out automatically.

"Who designed this base? Even though I don't know much about architecture, I know that the outermost doors need to be separated from the electricity."

Machiko complained and wondered, "Do they have any backup plans?"

The three people before tried their best but failed to close the inner mechanical door, otherwise why would they have to run downstairs.

"Instead of thinking about that, why not focus on the water level first!"

Mizuno Reina slapped the water that had reached her thighs and reminded the two: "We may not have enough oxygen to last until the people up there come down."

"I checked these three floors before when I was running down. They were all research laboratories. Unfortunately, there were no oxygen cylinders. However, there was a scrap document in an office that said that the lower floors had not been built yet, so only some mechanical equipment was placed there, and even surveillance cameras had not been installed yet."

Fujiwara couldn't help glancing at the oxygen tank behind the Indian, but when he noticed that the other two had no intention of snatching the man's oxygen tank, he suppressed his thoughts.

"If it doesn't work, we'll find a way to move on."

Machiko's words were immediately refuted.

"It's blocked from top to bottom. How can we get down? We can't open the steel mechanical door with our hands."

Mizunashi Rena also began to look behind the Indian.

"It's true that the power to the floor is off, but the mechanical door is not."

Machiko led everyone to retreat to the mechanical door leading downstairs. "I've observed that each floor drives a mechanical door leading to the next floor. The short circuit caused by the sea water should only be between the 16th and 17th floors, and the power suddenly went out between the 18th floor."

Otherwise, it would be impossible for three people to run to the 18th floor.

"You mean, the real problems are on the 16th and 17th floors, and the 18th floor just failed due to the paralysis of the floors above, so there is actually no problem."

Fujiwara, who was slightly familiar with the mechanical industry, reacted immediately, so he lay on the mechanical door and checked everywhere.

"It's the most common interlocking mechanical door. As long as we cut off the power on the 18th floor, this door will open automatically!"

Fujiwara thought of something and immediately took out the cube battery that came with the oxygen bottle from the waterproof backpack on his back.

"The power supply line of this door seems to be at the upper right hinge position. This place is also very fragile. After smashing it open, pull out the wires. When we use the same method to damage the power grid system on the 18th floor, and then fix both ends of the wires to the battery, the mechanical door will not fail after the 18th floor is flooded."

“But what if the battery runs out?”

Mizuno Rena also removed her battery.

"So once we got down to the lower level, one of us watched the Indian, one stayed at the mechanical door, and one went to look for a large battery or generator if possible."

(End of this chapter)