Chapter 328: Chapter 161: A Strange Coincidence (Part 2)

Soon, as the formation continued to advance deeper.

The 14th team began to detach from the main fleet of boats, and the shouting of the surrounding disaster victims grew less frequent, replaced only by the furious roar of the flood and torrential rain.

“Report to commander, we are about to reach the first search and rescue point ahead: the Geological Bureau. The site is relatively open, with metal swaying on the right side, appearing to be a football goal stuck by the wall!”

“Follow my command, switch to T-shaped formation and conduct a grid search on the spot!”

Gu Ji shouted.

After the previous two rounds of command and control, all rescuers of the 14th team were completely convinced, strictly obeying orders. As soon as the words fell, the column transformed into a “T” shape.

This formation is mainly used for large-scale water surface rescue. The so-called grid search involves marking specific grid areas within the target region and systematically searching these grid areas in sequence. Compared to the line-by-line search, this method is more efficient and has a relatively high success rate.

“Help… help…”

“Report! 15 meters to the right, on the utility pole, there are three people hanging!”

At this moment, as the high-power flashlight in the front row scanned a few spots on the water surface, they finally found three weakened Indian men on a utility pole near the research center building. They were estimated to be government officials or technical workers.

In the transfer strategy, the government had long prioritized evacuating related technical personnel from the disaster area.

However, there were still some important detection materials stored within the monitoring bureau. Many government officials remained in the building to securely seal and transfer these materials, so when the flood broke out, many did not react in time and were trapped inside.

“Be careful, the surrounding currents are very turbulent!”

Fatima, acting as the deputy team leader, reminded the others.

Several rubber boats immediately surrounded the utility pole, extending rescue poles for the trapped three officers to grab onto and pull them up.

But, perhaps due to being trapped for too long, as one of the older men was being pulled aboard mid-way, he suddenly lost his grip and let go of the rescue pole, instantly getting swept away by the raging current.

Fatima’s eyes widened instantly.

“Someone fell into the water! Quick!”

“Quick, stop him!”

The rescuer in charge shouted in urgency, hoping for companions behind to help pull him back, but it was a step too slow. Plus, the current was extremely fast, and within just a breath, the person was already swept fifteen or sixteen meters away!

“Emergency rescue team! Arc formation, quick, cast the net!!”

Gu Ji shouted, and several quick-reacting rescue team members immediately threw out a net, with those on another rubber boat catching it. Two people supported it horizontally, forming a three-meter-wide net, enough to catch an adult man.

But the flow of the floodwater was not constant; it often swayed unpredictably left and right.

Gu Ji decisively patted the rubber boat’s driver.

“Do you know O-shaped driving?”

“Yes, commander!”

The driver was a young, energetic Indian firefighter, and immediately understood that Gu Ji was preparing to use centrifugal rescue, a quick rescue technique widely applied in crisis water surface duty rescue and firefighters’ diving rescue operations. O-shaped driving is the basic maneuver for fast rescue, a necessary subject of their daily water rescue training.

With the roar of the rubber boat’s throttle, the boat made a sharp turn, accelerating towards the target.

As it was following the flood current, combined with the boat’s fluid dynamics, the rubber boat surged forward by more than ten meters swiftly, closing in on the man who fell overboard. Gu Ji gripped the rubber handlebar of the kayak tightly with one hand, while the rest of his body leaned out, his hand naturally hanging over the water surface.

Just as the rubber boat was about to collide head-on with the target, the driver made a sharp turn of the rudder.

The boat spun like a car drifting in place, with the tail swiping around and raising a spray of water. At that moment, Gu Ji roared, “Reach out!” His entire body practically leaped out of the boat, with his right arm changing suddenly, like an eagle swooping for a rabbit, shooting out in mid-air, and his right hand, in an instant, pierced into the water amid the torrential rain.

Next moment, splash, a shadow was pulled from the water.

“Hold onto me!!”

With one last shout, the rubber boat completed most of the tail-swing maneuver. Gu Ji, leveraging the significant centrifugal force from the boat’s movement, forcefully swung the figure into the boat.

Success!

Fatima, who had been holding her breath, finally let out a sigh of relief.

“Phew…”

“Mr. Vidi! You were amazing!”

“My God! This truly is the most standard and impressive quick rescue technique I’ve ever seen!”

“Thank you so much, Mr. Vidi!”

Rescue personnel arriving on the scene cheered excitedly, having witnessed this maneuver, and looking at Gu Ji with newfound respect.

It’s important to note that quick rescue, while appearing simple, actually heavily relies on the collaboration of the driver and rescue personnel. First, the boat must quickly reach the person overboard. More importantly, the rescue personnel’s operation involves precise observation to catch the person overboard and utilizing the centrifugal force generated by the boat’s “O” shaped driving to quickly pull the person into the boat.

Due to the continued rapid movement of the boat, it is often difficult for the average person to react in time during this process.

Gu Ji waved his hand, indicating that it wasn’t time to celebrate yet. He gathered the three trapped government officials onto one boat and inquired whether there were other trapped disaster victims, particularly the Chief Minister.

That’s right.

According to reports from government staff, the Chief Minister had headed to the Geological Monitoring Bureau with his accompanying secretary to verify information before the torrential rain and unfortunately went missing.

Half an hour after losing contact, the state government’s police and rescue teams had also come to search but found nothing.

The first two young men both shook their heads, leaving only the middle-aged man, who was rescued last, coughing a couple of times to weakly speak:

“Cough cough… I had seen the Chief Minister. He originally came to review historical geological data of the Himalayas, to check for any recent geological activity in the mountains or abnormal glaciers that could affect the safety of the dam on the river. He encountered the Water Minister, who seemed to come for the same reason, and they had a heated discussion in the office. Little did we expect, it ended…”

“The Water Minister was there too?”

Gu Ji raised an eyebrow, feeling that something was odd about this situation.

He initially thought the guy had “fled out of guilt”, but didn’t expect him to come to the Geological Monitoring Bureau.

As the saying goes, “It’s only when the child dies that one knows to come for milk,” with the dam reservoir already exceeding alert levels, to now care about abnormal seismic activity, and coincidentally disappearing alongside the Chief Minister, didn’t it seem a bit too coincidental?

Fatima was concerned about another point. The Geological Monitoring Bureau, as a branch under the Ministry of Natural Resources, often had dealings with the Disaster Management Department due to geological surveys and earthquake disasters, so she was very familiar with it.

“The meeting room of the Geological Monitoring Bureau is on the third floor of the building. Normally, when the flood hit initially, the Chief Minister and Water Minister should have had the reaction time to escape to the roof and wait for rescue. How could they both go missing?”

“This, I don’t know. Before the flood, we were in the monitoring center and heard a roaring noise from the equipment, discovering local abnormal vibrations in the Himalayas, but it was not seismic activity, so we quickly reported the situation to the Disaster Management Department Control Center. Unexpectedly, the water quickly poured into the building, submerging the first and second floors instantly. Due to the heavy water pressure, we couldn’t open the doors and had to escape through the windows, getting swept away by the current. Luckily, we grabbed onto a utility pole to survive, but we don’t know about others…”

It turned out that the information Mr. Anurag and his team received was transmitted by these technical personnel at the risk of their lives.

Gu Ji couldn’t help but sigh and subsequently dispatched two teams of rubber boats to take the three away first, while the others remained to continue searching the area.

But after searching around, they found nothing new.

Gu Ji squinted, “Prepare for underwater diving rescue!”

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep