Around 10 p.m., the majestic Washington Capital Hotel is only dimly lit, and most of the windows are obscured by thick curtains. With the Naval Conference taking place, the curtain does more than just block the view of the peep, one can imagine how many political deals and shady things are hidden behind those curtains.

After the assassination of the Kaiser, the US authorities doubled down on the vigilance of the naval delegations of various countries, and Wilson personally ordered: "No more undesirable incidents will be allowed until the last naval representative leaves the United States!" ”

As a result, many American police and military personnel set up a tight cordon around the building—long wooden frames, rifles, bayonets, cavalry, and military trucks. Sentinels could be seen everywhere under the dim streetlights, and anyone or car attempting to enter the area would have to be subjected to extremely strict checks, even in the middle of the night.

On this cold night, a middle-aged man lingered for a long time two blocks from the Capital Hotel, but he was never able to get close to his target because he did not have the legal identity and reason to enter the area.

After throwing down 40 cigarette butts, the middle-aged man took one last look at the building and prepared to leave in desperation. At this moment, out of the darkness not far away, a man wearing a black trench coat and a round-brimmed hat came out.

"Is there a fire?" The man, who spoke fluent English, stopped two paces away from the other

"Yes!" The middle-aged man put his right hand into his pocket with some trepidation, took out a metal lighter and handed it to the other party.

The man took the lighter, and was not in a hurry to light a cigarette, but glanced at the light of the street lamp, and then asked:

"What's the weather like tomorrow?"

The middle-aged man's heart moved, it was the joint code word agreed on by the organization. So he immediately responded: "It may be good, it may be bad, in short, it is not ideal!" ”

Then he said, "How is your family?" ”

The middle-aged man replied: "Everything is fine, it's just that the cat is sick!" ”

"Follow me!" The man looked around warily, and then led the middle-aged man around the corner.

After about 5 minutes, the two entered an ordinary-looking apartment and went up to the fourth floor, which is the top floor here. The man "...... first Giggles...... Giggles" knocked on the door, heard someone inside reply, "My heart is still the same", and then took out the key to open the door.

The middle-aged man followed closely. It looks completely American, with a table, chairs, sofas, a radio, an oven, and so on. A tea set was placed on the table in the center of the living room, and a young man with blond hair sat on the sofa on one side.

"Don't worry, it's safe here!" The man took off his hat as he spoke, and a handsome face was reflected in the light, and he looked a few years older than the blonde youth.

The middle-aged man didn't see it, and poured himself a cup of hot water, "It's so cold outside!" How did you change the point of contact here? ”

"There was an accident at the Tequila Bar, and our liaison there was trying to get a batch of explosives, but he was accidentally bitten by an American!" The man explained helplessly. "We had to get a house here. In the evening, wander around to see if you can run into someone who comes to the joint, and you're the third group to reconnect with us! ”

"Oh, I see!" The middle-aged man thought there were at least two other groups. The heart is more steady.

The blond young man sitting on the sofa didn't say anything, but from time to time he opened the corner of the curtain and looked out.

"You can call me Alexey, he's my partner Valentin! By the way, how are you doing? The young man walked over to the table and poured twice as much hot water, then handed him a glass.

The middle-aged man took the water glass, "They all call me Igor!" Our group got three boxes of high explosives, which added up to about 500 pounds! By the way, and a used car! ”

"Not bad, much better than the previous two groups! One group got two boxes of low-explosive munitions, and one group bought less TNT from the black market! But. My biggest concern is the other groups that have not been heard from, and maybe someone has been arrested and confessed their identity. Did you see that the Americans have transferred a lot of armored vehicles to strengthen their vigilance in the past few days! Speaking of this, the young man looked at the middle-aged man with great concern, "You must be cautious, we can't lose any more!" ”

The middle-aged man unequivocally stated that he would give everything to the country and would do whatever it took to complete the task.

"Good!" The young man thought for a moment, "On the last day of the conference, delegates from all countries would reconvene in the main hall of the Capitol. That's when we can get our hands dirty! Your mission is to get the bomb to our pick-up location a day early! For the specifics, you will be waiting for me at 10 p.m. in three days' time! ”

"Okay!" At this point, the middle-aged man was ready to leave, and the young man named Valentin opened the curtains, and after a few seconds, he suddenly shouted in a low voice:

"There is a situation!"

Alexei walked quickly to the window, and after glancing out the window, he secretly screamed "not good".

Without waiting for Igor to ask, Alexei hurriedly walked past him and whispered, "Don't ask anything, follow me!" ”

Immediately afterward, Alexei hurried to the bathroom door, opened the door, walked to the bathtub, removed the outward-facing ventilation window, and motioned for Igor to climb out of here, "Climb up to it, hide it!" ”

Igor didn't say anything, and with the help of Alexey, he quickly climbed out of the ventilation window, which was not facing the street, and it was dark underneath. Igor grabbed the eaves with both hands, and with a single force, he silently climbed up to the roof with an inclination of about 30 degrees. Just then, he heard a knock on the door, and the ventilation window was replaced.

Igor looked up and saw that there were no attic windows on the roof except for a few chimneys, and it seemed that it could only be accessed through a special passage, but now there might have been an ambush there.

At the same time, Alexei below opened the door of the room, and five men in trench coats appeared outside the door.

"Who are you looking for?"

"Plainclothes police!" The man in the lead showed his ID, "We have received a report that there are people abducting and trafficking women and children here, please open the door and accept our inspection!" ”

"What? Trafficking ......" Alexei had a laughing and crying expression. "Mr. Policeman, do you look like me?"

The plainclothes leader was also a little helpless, "There is no way to do this, since someone reported it, we have to take a look!" ”

Alexai didn't think they would find anything, but his instincts told him that it wasn't that simple, and that refusing the plainclothes cops would only arouse their suspicions.

"Alright then, we're going to rest. Please read it and leave! ”

After opening the door, those plainclothes people walked in unhurriedly, and after looking around and making sure that there were only two big men here, they did not leave but showed their pistols, "Don't move, we are now officially arresting you for espionage and undermining national security!" ”

"Bastard!" Alexei cursed viciously at these shameless American plainclothes, it seems that the other party originally came for him, what puzzled him was that he was temporarily ordered to set up a secret contact point here three days ago, why did the Americans get the news so quickly? A terrible feeling made Alexei shiver in his heart, and he hoped that Igor on the roof would also understand this and report it to his superiors. Unfortunately, this hope is slim......

Same night. The Japanese cruise ship Myoko (the historical heavy cruiser Myoko was commissioned in 1928, so there is no problem with the name being renamed) has sailed into the Caribbean. There was a lot of wind blowing on the sea, and the temperature was quite low. Passengers and off-duty crew members mostly hid in the cabins, and the warm café was filled with a number of people playing cards, most of them oriental faces, and of course some blue-eyed and high-nosed Caucasians.

It had been two days since he left the United States, and the worries in Sino's heart had gradually faded, but the doubts in his mind were still incomprehensible, and as he thought about it, he felt more and more that he had fallen into a bad puzzle.

"It's you again! Isn't it cold? ”

Leaning on the railing, Dino turned his head and saw the Japanese crew member who had accosted him during the day. By this time he had already had a thick overcoat on board and a black crew's hat on his head. He wore a thick scarf around his neck and a long flashlight in his hand, and looked like he was on duty.

"Well, sort of! It's stuffy inside, and it comes out to breathe! Sino spoke slowly, firstly, because he was in a bad mood, and secondly, so that the other party could understand what he was talking about.

"Oh, that's it!" The Japanese crew member stopped beside Sino and pulled out a small square object from his body. "Here, try our Japanese cigarettes!"

Sino glanced at him, and then at the boxy carton in his hand, the size of which was not much different from that of American cigarettes, but without the elaborate wrapping paper and colorful drawings of camel cigarettes, which seemed to have only a few black and white lines and words on it. Sino took one out of it, put it to his nose and sniffed it, although the packaging was not good, the quality of the tobacco was still good.

"This is a Yamato brand cigarette, it's very good!" The Japanese sailor himself took one out of his mouth and put it in his mouth, and before lighting a cigarette, he said: "You invite me to smoke, I invite you to smoke, we are friends!" My name is Chikuma Koshichiro, so please take care of me in the future! ”

"Oh! Chikuma ...... "Sino thought for a few seconds, then told him that his name was Sino.

"Are you traveling to Japan alone?" Chikuma was a little curious, "I don't think I've ever seen you talk to the other people on the boat!" ”

"Oh no, I have a few other friends with me, it's just that my friends and I don't like to talk very much!" Sino explained with some reluctance.

"Then Mr. Sino, who doesn't like to talk, I'm going to patrol now, do you want to go for a walk with me?" Chikuma warmly invited Sino to go with him, because this was a civilian cruise ship, and there was nothing to keep secret from top to bottom.

Sino couldn't think of a reason why he couldn't go, so he agreed.

After walking around the foredeck, the cold made Sino take out the last pack of cigarettes on his body, and the last two cigarettes were still in it. Without hesitation, he gave Chikuma one, took one himself, and then crumpled up the empty cigarette case and threw it into the sea.

"By the way, I think I should give you a piece of advice, it's best not to ask the merchant to buy cigarettes in Japan, because the government issued a smoking ban 300 years ago, and although smoking is not punished so harshly now, shops still don't dare to put cigarettes on the shelves!" Tsukuma said as he took Sino to a sheltered place. The two lit cigarettes one after another, and Sino asked:

"Then why do you still make cigarettes in your country?"

"It is said that the owner of Yamato brand cigarettes is a wealthy and well-connected foreigner, and the relevant government departments have been opened up. Originally, the import of cigarettes was also strictly prohibited, but there are still many types of foreign cigarettes that can be bought in private, including Germany, the United Kingdom and the United States! Speaking of this, Chikuma was a little indignant. In recent years, there have been frequent bribery scandals and funding cases, which have made civilians very dissatisfied with those government officials.

"Bribery is no better in the UK, but no one dares to do it blatantly now!" After saying this, Sino suddenly realized that he had "exposed" his British identity, but fortunately Tsukuma didn't pay attention to this, so he quickly diverted the topic:

"Why is your government banning smoking? Wouldn't it be nice to increase tax revenues in this way? ”

"Who knows?" Chikuma shrugged, answering in a very American way.

"What about war?" Sinoe asked, "Your government seems to be very keen on war!" ”

"Yes, our army won a great victory every time it went out, we defeated the Chinese, defeated the Russians. Maybe we will be able to defeat the Americans in the future! Tsukuma said, a little intoxicated. But remembering that the person next to him was from the United States, he realized that he had made a mistake, so he whispered to Sino, "I'm sorry." I didn't mean that! ”

To be honest, Sino was not particularly averse to the Japanese ambition to actively defeat the United States, but he was angry that Japan had recently sent troops to occupy Singapore and Malaysia, which were formerly part of the British. It's a pity that the current British Empire has fallen into a divided situation, let alone send troops to defend the interests of a colony.

"It's nothing, Chikuma, that's just a matter for the government and the military!"

This reassured Tsukuma, and the two of them had already come down the side corridor to the stern of the boat, when the sharp-eared Sino suddenly heard some movement ahead, so he pulled Tsukuma to stop.

After concentrating. Tsukuma also heard the strange sound of the noise. He made a gesture of surprise, turned off his flashlight, and walked gently over with Sino.

After a while, the two found the place where the sound came from, and in the darkness they saw only six or seven figures, who seemed to be lowering a lifeboat.

"Tap, tap, don't let anyone hear!" One of them was still whispering to the others.

This voice surprised Chikuma, because it was none other than the ship's captain, Fukushi Matsuda. He was about to get up. Sino grabbed him and motioned for him not to go out for the time being.

Sure enough, after a while, the man spoke again: "Hurry up, do you want to be crushed with this ship?" ”

Chikuma felt bad at this time, and after continuing to observe for half a minute, he pulled Sino up and quietly got up and walked back for a distance, and then whispered:

"Oh my God, that's our captain, Mr. Matsuda, and it looks like there's a first mate, a second officer, and a few sailors!"

"What did they just say?" Sino couldn't understand the Japanese of those people, but judging by the atmosphere and Chikuma's expression, it was by no means a good thing.

"They said the ship was going to be crushed!" Chikuma told Sino in a tone of disbelief.

"Oh God! This...... How so? Despite his worst mental preparations, Sino was shocked when he heard this.

"I don't understand either!" Tsukuma said and glanced over there again, "I think I should go to the captain and ask for clarification!" ”

"Nope! You can't go! With his many years of experience as a staff officer, Sino felt that there must be an ulterior secret behind this matter, otherwise he would not have sacrificed the entire ship and many passengers and crew.

"Why not?" Chikuma Koshichiro didn't understand.

"You're just going to die!" Sino had a serious face, and in order to let the other party understand what he meant, he deliberately slowed down his speech, "Since they don't want others to know, then they won't let the people who happen to find them continue to live, understand?" ”

Chikuma thought about it, and then accepted Sino's opinion.

"So what do we do?"

To be honest, Sino didn't know what to do now, but he still had a calm expression on his face. After thinking for a while, he asked affirmatively: "All the people we saw just now are small Japanese, and there are no Americans or Europeans, right?" ”

Tsukuma nodded.

"Do you know of any special passengers on board? Like a VIP or a prisoner? ”

Chikuma thought about it for a moment and told Sino with certainty, "As far as I know, no!" ”

"So......" Sino propped his chin in his right hand, "is there anything important on board?" Could it be that they were trying to take something for themselves and then deliberately sink the ship to make people think it was an accident? ”

Chikuma thought for a moment, "Ships rarely carry anything valuable, usually only passengers' luggage and ordinary mail packages, and even if there is, it will use a safe, but I haven't seen anything like this on board in the past few days!" ”

"Then, they are targeting a certain person or certain people, compared to ......" As he spoke, Sino's eyes suddenly widened, and it seemed that they were the only ones who met this condition. If the ship explodes on this sea, then the secret of the Kaiser's assassination will sink to the bottom of the sea forever!

Just then, a loud bang came from below deck, and soon a second, and a succession of explosions began......