Mania.

CSS Base, Jiangsu Branch.

Tai Zhong entered the building with Alex in tow.

"Chief, you are back."

A man wearing glasses called out to him.

"Wang Tao, do we have any new leads?"

"Not yet. There hasn't been any suspicious activity related to the materials required for the project."

Wang Tao looked at Alex and asked,

"Is he from the Zhao family?"

"He is. Zhao Lei endorsed him personally."

Wang Tao was impressed but not surprised. He was familiar with Jin.

"Well, Let's go to the control room."

Alex followed them into an elevator. The building looked only one floor high from the outside, but it had several underground floors.

The door opened, and they walked into a room filled with people working on computers. Tao guided them towards an empty system, and he sat on the chair.

"Up until now, we were taking this slowly. The blueprints were not viable anyway, and a sound weapon was deemed useless by the higher-ups."

He accessed the national database and selected a file that was classified.

"Day before yesterday, one of our sources diverted our attention towards a pressing matter. The philippine research team had lost some blueprints related to a similar project. Sonic weapons are nothing new, but after our intelligence got a hold of their project file, things started to get serious."

He tapped enter. Two separate blueprint designs appeared on the screen.

"On the left, we have our design. The weapon could neutralize many people at once. Extremely costly."

He zoomed into the design.

"The intensity of the sound emitted exceeds the 170 Decibel threshold. The intensity is controllable, and the shockwave can tear through a person's lungs and ears like paper."

He zoomed out of the design and clicked on the next one.

"This one is a cost-effective version. 120-135 Decibel limit, and it can be used to induce long-term effects like incessive mania and trauma-induced schizophrenia. The most important factor is that you can build it quickly. And with proper design progression and time, one can improve on it and make it more portable."

'System, you getting any of this?'

'I am recording his findings.'

Alex stared at the drawing and asked,

"What about the person behind this design? Where is he?"

Wang Tao frowned.

"Unfortunately, we can't bring him here."

"He is dead, isn't he?"

Tao didn't respond.

"Fine. Is everyone here working on this case?"

He looked around and asked.

"Most of them are."

Alex looked back at Tao and said,

"Track down every single person connected to the project. If it was government-approved, then it had to have passed through many people for approval. We need to interrogate everyone immediately."

Zhong looked at him and said,

"We already did that. Right after the blueprints were stolen, we interrogated 7 out of the 10 people associated with the designing process."

"I am guessing one of those three people that you didn't interrogate was the head that died. What about the other two?"

Tao interrupted and said,

"Missing. We are trying our level best to track them down."

Alex sighed.

"If you are doing everything, then why are you people overlooking such a simple problem?"

"Problem?"

Tao looked at him skeptically.

"Just a hunch, but how long has it been since the designs had been stolen?"

"4 days."

"Assuming they are trying to merge the two designs, the designs stolen from the Philippines should have been perfected. Don't you think?"

"Even if that was the case, merging those designs could take months."

"What if they have someone that has previously worked on them to provide insights?"

Tao froze.

"You mean..."

"Track those engineers down as soon as possible. We need to find that weapon before they can use it."

Tao started to run his brain as fast as he could.

"Everybody! Focus on locations that can be used for large-scale manufacturing. They might have procured the materials beforehand. Look into everything!"

Tao sat in front of his system and started to scour through the database for any information.

Alex looked at Zhong and said,

"I will be on the couch. Call me when you find something."

-------------------------------------------

Down on the ground, a man was pulling his hair out. He constantly muttered,

"END IT!"

He was rolling on the floor. The pain was unbearable.

"The dial works pretty well. But It vibrates too much."

He looked at the gun and said.

"It takes time to stabilize. The sound is created in a very compact space."

"Fix it. You have 3 days."

He handed the engineer the gun and said.

"Only one day has passed. Give me a week, and I am sure that I can perfect it."

"You used to work with that man, right?"

He looked towards the subject that had torn some of his skin from the skull.

"Do you want to join him in his mania as well?"

The engineer remained silent.

"Then get on with it. 3 days."

He passed the gun onto one of his men, and two other people escorted the engineer back into the lab.

The man giving all the commands walked out of the factory. Dressed in a nice suit, he looked at his watch and said,

"Contact the buyer. The weapon is almost complete."

He got into his Rolls Royce and left.