Kai and Jusskind were both hung upside down from the ceiling, their ankles bound by chains, swaying back and forth like pendulums.
The corridor was filled with police officers carrying buckets, their leather shoes making a chaotic sound.
Each officer who entered the cells would, in turn, pour two buckets of water onto the two human pendulums – one bucket of hot water and the other of ice-cold water.
The two terrorists screamed incessantly, repeatedly losing consciousness.
Water flowed abundantly in the cells, steaming with white vapor, comparable to a steamer.
In the adjacent cell, Qin, handcuffed and shackled, sat quietly at the interrogation table, her face pale.
Several officers were interrogating her, writing furiously in their notebooks. Two cameras and a monitor were recording. Jiang Ye and Shao Wan sat to the side, watching silently.
"What is your real name? Gender? Place of birth?"
"Qin, female, from the Royal City of the Pleiades."
"When did you join the Galactic Secession Alliance?"
"At the age of nine."
"Why did you join this organization? Do you know this organization is a terrorist group?"
"I wasn't very clear at the time, but my parents were members of this organization, so they had me join, and I joined."
"Are your parents on Jiang Ye Star?"
"They were arrested and executed several years ago."
"What is your relationship with Kai and Jusskind?"
"We are all members of the Galactic Secession Organization. We contact each other when we arrive at a new place. We meet every Saturday to discuss matters, otherwise, we have no relationship. Oh, Jusskind wanted to book a room with me, and I refused."
"Are there other members of the organization on Jiang Ye Star? Have you developed new members here?"
"No, there are only the three of us as official members. We tried to develop a few new members, but they haven't undergone the formal tattooing yet, and they have all agreed privately. A restaurant owner in Petrograd City, named Shen Zuo, and two students, Xiang Yuanzhou and Jamie Curtis."
Shao Wan quietly took out his phone and issued an arrest warrant.
Jiang Ye glanced at it, remaining silent.
"What methods do you primarily use to develop new members?"
"We use all sorts of methods. Coercion, temptation, and propaganda indoctrination. We have some books that contain the theories of the Galactic Secession Alliance, and many people believe them after reading them. Our theory can be summarized in one sentence: the more people I know, the more I like dogs."
"Is your organization's goal to destroy humanity?"
"Not exactly. Our goal is to divide humanity and stop the endless external conquests. To dismember the Galactic Empire, allowing each planet to live independently, retaining only basic trade and living behind closed doors."
"Do alien accounts provide you with operational funds?"
"Yes."
"In what form is the funding provided?"
"We have our own dedicated network line. We send messages to report mission status, then request money."
"How much can you request?"
"It varies. From tens of thousands of yuan to hundreds of millions or even more. It depends on what we are doing. Headquarters will assess the feasibility of our actions and the required funds."
Jiang Ye suddenly spoke, "Where is headquarters?"
Qin turned to look at him, her eyes filled with fear. "I don't know. I really don't know. We only communicate through the network. I heard my parents say that headquarters moves around, changing locations every so often."
Jiang Ye stared at her for a long time.
"I really don't know," Qin said softly, sweating profusely.
Jiang Ye spoke, "You have a laptop at home, do you use that to contact headquarters?"
Qin nodded. "That computer has a spatial network communication module, which can only contact headquarters. The signal delay is half an hour. Meaning, I send a message, headquarters receives it half an hour later, and then someone replies, which I receive another half hour later. It takes an hour round trip. If headquarters doesn't reply, the message will arrive even slower."
"I order you to conceal your capture and continue to contact headquarters," Jiang Ye said, looking directly at her. "Fabricate excuses and ask your headquarters for money, as much as you can. At the same time, try to extract as much intelligence as possible."
Qin's face turned pale. "If I'm exposed, headquarters will send assassins to eliminate me..."
"If you don't do it, I will eliminate you right now," Jiang Ye said. "You don't need to worry about security. I will assign people to protect you, with 24-hour comprehensive protection. I don't know if you have any secret codes or anything, but do not attempt to send any secret codes to your headquarters. If headquarters stops contacting you one day, I will execute you immediately. Do you understand? So, you had better be careful and not reveal any clues."
"Understood," Qin said, her face ashen.
Jiang Ye stood up and walked out of the interrogation room.
Shao Wan immediately followed.
"Send someone to retrieve her computer and watch her work," Jiang Ye whispered to Shao Wan outside the door. "Find a few subordinates you trust to monitor her 24 hours a day. She absolutely cannot have any accidents. I need to use her as bait."
"Understood!" Shao Wan nodded.
Jiang Ye turned back and looked at the other two terrorists hanging in the cell. They were still being doused with water.
"What do we do with these two?" Shao Wan asked.
"Torture them until they are willing to cooperate. If they refuse to cooperate in the end, throw them into the sea to feed the sharks," Jiang Ye said.
"Yes!" Shao Wan nodded.
Jiang Ye left the prison and drove home.
He took out his phone from his pocket and clicked on the link sent by Li Nannan.
It was a download package for an App called the Galactic Stability Association.
He clicked to download, but a prompt appeared: "Your current location lacks interstellar network, download unavailable."
Jiang Ye paused, then shrugged. It seemed this App was on an alien network. The method to connect to an alien network was actually very simple: wait for the star station to be completed. The star station was a hub integrating communication and transportation. Once built, it would be able to connect to the entire galaxy.
"That expensive?" Jiang Ye was shocked. "I'll pay for the ticket."
"It's not that expensive. It's a very large spaceship, and the energy consumed just for takeoff and landing is worth over a million," Xu Yan explained. "It can carry 30 kilograms of luggage. Prepare yourself. The flight is the day after tomorrow at 11 AM sharp."
"Okay, thank you, thank you!" Jiang Ye replied.
For the next two days, Jiang Ye was busy arranging various affairs and allocating personnel. He didn't know how long he would be gone this time to the nexus star. If it was difficult to buy a return ticket, it could be delayed for half a month or more. While he was away, the entire planet still had to operate.
Looking back years later, Jiang Ye was very grateful that he had made these arrangements in advance.
Because this journey turned out to be much longer than he had imagined.