Animal Detective

Chapter 522: Chapter 426: The Trinity Pursuit

The live feed was visible on the big screen.

Teddy shot into the sky in an instant, then flew straight for Dashun.

On camera, his speed was incredible. Dashun grew from a black dot, getting larger and larger.

In a flash, he was right on top of him.

Dashun had obviously spotted Teddy in the air ahead of time and decisively turned to flee.

He was no match for Teddy.

Teddy had disciplined him before. The falcon could actually attack him mid-air, force him to land, and then pin his head down, asking if he’d submit.

On the screen, Dashun panicked, turning to escape and flying straight south.

If his speech were any clearer at that moment, he would have been squawking, "My bad, my bad!"

Teddy whistled past Dashun.

It wasn’t that he’d missed.

With a Hunting Falcon’s dynamic vision and flying skills, not even a rabbit that could make a ninety-degree turn on the ground could escape his hunt, let alone a magpie in the air.

He knew exactly what Shen Xin meant by "discipline"—it was just a scare tactic.

’I have the ability to rip your head off, I’m just letting you off the hook this time.’

On camera, Dashun flapped his wings frantically, flying erratically. He was so anxious he managed to speak.

"South!"

He immediately flew south.

Birds can naturally sense the Earth’s magnetic field to distinguish north, south, east, and west, so Dashun could clearly understand Shen Xin’s command.

On the big screen, the red dot representing Dashun quickly merged with Plane and the others.

From Dashun’s active microphone, Plane’s mocking voice could be heard: "Serves you right!"

Dashun squawked twice to express his displeasure.

’I can’t beat Teddy, but you think I can’t handle a lousy parrot?’

A parrot’s flying ability was far inferior to that of a falcon or a crow.

Looking up, one could see that Teddy had also approached and was now flying alongside them in the sky.

In reality, he was supervising.

In the conference room, everyone had just watched a classic case of a fox borrowing the tiger’s might.

Zhao Hongjie chuckled and clapped Shen Xin on the shoulder. "Not bad. This is a good method."

If you don’t work, there’s someone to supervise you.

Shen Xin secretly wiped away a bead of nervous sweat and quickly began coordinating. Using the topographic map and location data, he continuously issued remote commands, telling them to spread out, cover as much area as possible, and search for the targets.

The crows flew just above the treetops; a height of several dozen meters was already quite high.

Meanwhile, Teddy supervised from several hundred meters up.

Through his camera, the ground was laid bare. It was such an expansive view that even Zhao Hongjie felt his spirits lift, and he started chatting with Zhang Hancheng beside him.

He knew that Zhang Hancheng had conducted a test before.

Now he intuitively understood why Teddy could pinpoint the casino in the mountains from high above, and why he’d been able to find the poachers on the grasslands previously.

’This is true high-altitude reconnaissance. Nothing can hide.’

Xu Xinyao said, "Director Zhao, this is incredibly efficient. Much better than drones."

He offered a compliment.

Because just over two minutes after they had spread out to search, Four Seasons found a target.

Four Seasons was the red-billed chough, the smaller one.

He could not only fly above the treetops but also weave nimbly through the mountain forest.

His flight pattern far surpassed the small FPV drones that were becoming popular.

He must have spotted something unusual from a distance, because he immediately lowered his altitude, wove through the trees, and caught up to the target in an instant.

After passing the target, he didn’t linger. He just flew over the person’s head, turning to get a good look.

On camera, the person could be seen wearing an army-green windbreaker, black pants, and a short, choppy haircut. With a well-proportioned build, he was just an ordinary young man.

He was walking through the mountains, wandering aimlessly. There was no clear path, so he couldn’t run.

Focused on walking, he didn’t even notice Four Seasons’s appearance.

When people walk in the mountains, their attention is on their feet; it’s nearly impossible to notice a silent bird in flight.

Four Seasons glanced back to identify him, then quickly flew away.

He had already confirmed it wasn’t the target.

It’s not uncommon for people in the country to keep red-billed choughs. They’re smart, their calls aren’t loud, and they don’t bother the neighbors.

They can talk and are affectionate with people.

They’re known as the most beginner-friendly type of crow.

Because they are so attached to people, they are exceptionally good at recognizing individuals. That’s why one look was all it took for him to determine this wasn’t the target.

And it was this process that surprised Xu Xinyao and made him feel it was so fast.

Zhao Hongjie nodded in deep agreement.

He thought back on the whole process and fully agreed with Xu Xinyao’s point: it was more efficient than a drone.

Starting this year, police departments everywhere had noticed the important role of drones and began to deploy them on a large scale.

But in practice, there were many problems.

A drone is just a piece of equipment. When searching for a target, the actual identification still requires a person.

A drone’s identification capability is only as good as the person operating it.

Moreover, drones are noisy. In a situation like the one just now, skimming the treetops would have been enough to alert the suspect.

Not to mention, they can only fly above the canopy, unlike a bird that can weave between branches and approach silently.

And then there was battery life.

A handful of bugs for a full day of flight. They completely outclassed drones in every aspect.

Over here, Shen Xin marked the individual they had found.

Soon, at the same time, Wufu found a target on the other side.

Wufu was the "black charcoal" crow that had passed messages at the casino.

Like Four Seasons, he spotted the target from the air and then quickly descended to get closer.

He landed directly on a branch across from the person and studied them carefully.

Confirmed. Not the target.

Then, he actually let out a laugh.

He had mocked and teased Teddy before. Now, not only was his laugh clearer, but he had also learned to say "idiot" from Plane.

"Idiot! You’re an idiot!"

He laughed twice, mocking him out loud.

The "target" below suddenly heard someone laughing and flinched in surprise. He looked around, heard someone call him an idiot, and only then noticed Wufu on the branch in front of him.

When he was roped in to be a target, he knew what he had to do.

But no one told him the crow could curse at people!

"You, get down here!"

The man shouted, pointing at the camera.

Through the camera and microphone, Shen Xin and the others heard his voice in real time.

The camera was shaking; Wufu was probably hopping back and forth on the branch.

"Nope."

Everyone clearly heard Wufu’s cheeky reply.

Then, something seemed to fall, and the target below dodged out of the way.

"Holy shit, you actually pooped on me!"

The target shrieked, looking at the white glob on his arm.

’It’s bad enough he insulted me, but he had to poop on me too!’

Before he could retaliate, Wufu had already flapped his wings and flown away.

Back in the conference room, Zhao Hongjie and the others had strange expressions on their faces.

Shen Xin silently buried his face in his hand.

First Dashun, now Wufu. It was one incident after another.

"Director Zhao, that was an accident. You know how it is, birds have no self-control," Shen Xin explained.

’They still need more training.’

Zhao Hongjie, not knowing whether to laugh or cry, waved his hand, gesturing for Shen Xin to continue.

The more he watched, the more interesting he found it.

Shitang Mountain covered a large area.

Searching it with drones would take half a day at least.

But with these birds, not only were they fast, their identification skills were also top-notch.

Animals surviving in the wild would have long ago become food for their predators if they didn’t have this ability.

Therefore, for animals, detecting potential dangers in a complex jungle environment is an instinct.

And a human walking through the mountain forest was a "potential danger."

That’s why the search was going so quickly.

Shen Xin didn’t know the exact locations of the seven individuals; they had just set off from different locations two hours earlier.

Whether they were walking through the forest or hiding was entirely up to them.

But they had been told they couldn’t just find a hole and hide in it.

They had to be at least visible from the air.

Even if a person was just sitting and resting, they would still move, and under a bird’s ultraviolet vision, they would stand out from their surroundings.

Take Teddy, for example. When a mouse runs by, he can track the urine trail it leaves on the ground from high in the sky using his ultraviolet vision.

Thus, the targets were found one by one.

And just fourteen minutes after they flew out—counting the time Dashun threw his tantrum—the real target was found.

It was Plane who found him.

He was in the middle section of Shitang Mountain.

Plane used the same search method, flying above the treetops and looking for the target.

They not only had sight, but also super hearing and a super sense of smell.

And the sense of smell of the best among them was just a tiny bit stronger than a dog’s.

This was all backed by scientific research.

After Shen Xin got in touch with Chen Wanbin, he had really learned a lot about ornithology from him.

When it came to birds’ sense of smell, zoologists had studied it long ago.

They use their sense of smell not only to identify mates and their own kind but also to find food.

There were specific examples.

For instance, the white stork.

When grass is cut, it releases a unique "fresh-cut grass" smell. Experiments have shown that white storks can smell this from as far as 25 kilometers away and will flock to the source.

Because after the grass is cut, insects are exposed, providing them with a feast.

That’s smelling someone cutting grass from 25 kilometers away.

Then there were crows.

In ancient times, crows were called birds of mourning, a bad omen.

The reason was their superior sense of smell, which allowed them to detect the scent of decay and death. When a person was dying, they would gather.

Some carrion-eating birds have this ability; even if they can’t see the rotting food from the air, they can smell it.

So with this three-pronged search method, Plane quickly found the target.

This guy had the same cheeky personality as Wufu.

He flew through the dense treetops, getting very close. After getting the target to look up at him, he immediately confirmed the find.

"Found him, found him!"

He didn’t land, just circled and shouted.

Shen Xin’s training dictated that once they found the target, they should call out loudly to signal it.

Because his equipment was on, he could hear them.

And since Plane and Er Long were very fluent speakers, they could give alerts in the form of direct conversation.

"Got it, stop shouting," Shen Xin said, reminding him.

On camera, the target stopped moving and stared up in surprise at the talking parrot.

Telling a chatterbox like Plane to be quiet was a fool’s errand.

He was still flying, shouting as he flew, "Idiot, run!"

There were pauses and a certain intonation, so the target understood he was being told to run.

This was a drill. He waved at Plane and shouted, "You think I’ll run just because you tell me to?"

Plane didn’t land, just kept shouting, "Idiot, run."

The target said, "Can you stop calling me an idiot? I’m gonna get mad if you say it again."

’I’m actually being looked down on by a bird.’

Plane landed lightly on a small tree next to him and let out a cackle. "Idiot. You are an idiot."

After another couple of insults, he said, "If you don’t run, the dogs will chase you."

The target froze. He slapped his forehead as he finally remembered the second phase of the drill: pursuit by police dogs.

"Holy shit!"

The target exclaimed and quickly started moving away.

Being discovered wasn’t a failure; getting caught by the dogs was.

The moment he moved, Plane immediately followed, calling out as he flew, "Idiot, don’t run away."

He taunted him once, but he didn’t stop there.

"Run faster!"

"The dogs are coming."

"Gonna bite you."

The sheer level of his motormouth trash-talking made the target so angry he wanted to stop and find a rock to throw at him.

Back at the base, once the target was confirmed, Shen Xin immediately looked toward Tian Kui, who was on standby.

"Tian Kui!"

With that command, Tian Kui immediately bolted out of the conference room.

Behind him, Tian Ying and the other ten police dogs followed in a surging pack.

On the big screen, they were marked as green dots. Their smart helmets were activated, and their movements could be tracked in real-time through their cameras.

Tian Kui was seen leading the charge out of the base, heading straight up the mountain along the concrete path.

Shen Xin issued remote commands, guiding their direction. When he said left, they went left; when he said turn, they turned.

The eleven police dogs tore through the mountain forest, perfectly recreating the chase from when they had captured Fan Lei.

Zhao Hongjie had seen this process before.

But watching it again, especially seeing the eleven green dots clustered tightly together on the big screen, moving rapidly toward the target’s position, still made his scalp tingle and gave him goosebumps.

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