Chapter 458

Chapter 458: Signal Flag Interception

When Lin Mo arrived with the Sukhoi team, he saw many large vehicles loading planes to prepare for transport, and he could even see some helicopters being taken to the designated launch area, flying off towards one direction. It seemed that the direct route was not only for the Russians.

“Oh! Oh! We’ve arrived! Look, Chinese kid, this is our aircraft!” Senior engineer Sergei Sulotov pointed to the area guarded by the Signal Flag special forces, where various domestic manufacturers stationed their products. In addition to Sukhoi, there were also Irkut, Ilyushin, Tupolev, Yakovlev, Slinysbe, Kamov, and Mil Moscow Helicopter Plant, and of course, Mikoyan-Gurevich and the Moscow United Aviation Corporation were not missing.

Sergei Sulotov called Lin Mo "Chinese kid" because Lin Mo hadn’t told him his name or code name. This old white-haired Russian understood, as it was normal to keep such confidentiality between individuals from different countries.

For a professional intelligence analyst, every word, action, and tone can convey a wealth of information. Important terms like names and code names are crucial, so Lin Mo wisely kept silent; the more he remained tight-lipped, the better.

“Hmm, very nice aircraft!”

Lin Mo nodded as he looked at these planes. As an Air Knight who treats aircraft as lifelines, he was captivated by the advanced fighter jets before him. He saw the Su-27 that Sergei Sulotov mentioned, the Su-30, and even a Su-47 “Golden Eagle.”

The Su-47 “Golden Eagle,” a forward-swept wing technology validation aircraft, is a multi-purpose fighter developed by the Sukhoi Experimental Design Bureau and is a testbed for Russia’s fifth-generation fighters. The Russians publicly announced that only two “Golden Eagles” were produced, and this one looked like the number one prototype, as it had no weapon mounting devices.

However, contrary to rumors, it appeared to be equipped with a two-dimensional vector thrust nozzle, suggesting that Sukhoi had further improved this prototype.

Lin Mo felt a natural fondness for the “monstrous” aircraft within the forward-swept wing family and unconsciously walked towards the Sukhoi’s hidden treasure, the Su-47 “Golden Eagle.”

“Hey, stop! You can’t get close!”

The Russian Signal Flag soldiers guarding the fighter jets blocked Lin Mo as he approached, expressionless, pulling back the bolt of their AK-74 rifles.

Using an AK-74 for guarding duties here was sufficient.

In an instant, two nearby Signal Flag soldiers quietly closed in, positioning themselves to form a triangular formation with the soldier blocking Lin Mo, intentionally aiming their guns at him, with the tip of the triangle pointing directly at Lin Mo.

No matter who approached, they would respond this way. Unauthorized individuals risked being shot on the spot. Compared to the wildness and determination of the action, Russian soldiers are often more ferocious than Chinese soldiers.

The choice of a triangular attack formation rather than an inverted triangular defense or ambush relates to the operational style of the Signal Flag special forces, striving for high-efficiency strikes rather than defense.

While such a decisive combat style has its strengths, it is not without drawbacks; when faced with a tough opponent, casualties can be significant.

For instance, during the Beslan school siege on September 1, 2004, the Signal Flag special forces faced fierce Chechen terrorists in a direct assault, resulting in heavy casualties among both the action team and hostages.

Seeing the Signal Flag soldiers intercept Lin Mo, blocking him from approaching the “Golden Eagle,” Sergei Sulotov quickly stepped in to rescue him, addressing the special forces soldier: “It’s okay, it’s okay; he doesn’t have a detector on him. He can go and take a look.”

To avoid misunderstanding, Sergei Sulotov switched to English to stop Lin Mo from advancing, raising his hands to signal: “Wait a moment, Chinese kid. You can’t go over there just yet. We might need to check. Just hold on, everything is fine, very good. Don’t act impulsively.”

While Lin Mo wanted to walk towards the Su-47 for a closer look, Sergei Sulotov didn’t believe that visual inspection alone would reveal the secrets of the “Golden Eagle.” If that were the case, what secrets could this regularly exhibited Su-47 possibly hold? Photos and videos of it were already countless in circulation; some so-called “secrets” were no longer secret.

Moreover, Sukhoi’s true hidden treasure, the T-50, remains within the design bureau and has not been brought out. The Su-47 “Golden Eagle” was intended for display; if people couldn’t even touch it, it would be better not to display it at all.

The “Golden Eagle” had been around for a while. Despite its excellent performance, especially its unparalleled super-maneuverability at subsonic and transonic speeds, it faced serious challenges. Due to material issues, stringent pilot handling requirements, unsatisfactory supersonic cruising performance, outdated avionics, and stealth deficiencies, the Russian military had not considered integrating this plane into their inventory development process.

As a developer, Sukhoi regarded the Su-47 “Golden Eagle” merely as an experimental model for validating fifth-generation fighter technology.

Although Lin Mo couldn’t understand the Russian Signal Flag soldier’s language, he could clearly see the deep mistrust and vigilance in the soldier’s eyes.

With just one more step forward, they might pull the trigger and turn him into a porcupine.

Even though it was French territory, no matter how much assurance the French military provided, no country would trust their aircraft to be guarded by the French military. That’s why they dispatched their own special forces for protection. If it came to gunfire, those cold-blooded special forces would show no mercy.

America and the United Kingdom might be close, but would America trust the British to guard an F-35 on UK soil without personnel watching over it? The answer is no! Even the British wouldn’t guarantee that they wouldn’t stray.

Perhaps hearing Sergei Sulotov switch to English, the Signal Flag soldier blocking Lin Mo immediately deduced that this black-haired, black-eyed young man, who wore his country’s uniform but had no rank insignia or ID badge, could only understand Russian. He quickly switched to English and ordered, “Stop! Check!”

“OK! OK!” Lin Mo realized that being impatient wouldn’t help, so he took a step back, raising his hands to indicate he posed no threat.

Glimpsing at Sergei Sulotov, the Signal Flag soldier first verified the IDs of everyone from Sukhoi. They checked badges, fingerprints, and appearances, using pre-recorded data; their security measures were meticulous and careful.

As for Lin Mo, the unregistered individual, since he had a Sukhoi employee vouching for him and was inspecting Sukhoi’s own products, the Signal Flag soldier had no reason to refuse him.

The soldier blocking Lin Mo didn’t budge an inch. After checking the others, he pulled out a scanning device from his leg bag and began scanning Lin Mo.

Lin Mo’s bag lay discarded nearby, so there was no need to worry about it.

His feet were fine, his legs posed no issues.

When the scanner reached Lin Mo’s left wrist, it suddenly emitted an alarm.

“What’s this?”

The Signal Flag soldier pointed at Lin Mo’s left wrist, where he noticed a metallic sheen and outline under the sleeve.

It looked too bulky to be a watch, more like a wide bracelet, shining silver with no visible seams, displaying the time, as well as the date, temperature, and heart rate.

The gold giant dragon’s seamless flexible metal was a unique material in the world, but still metallic, which meant it wouldn’t evade scanning devices, not even civilian ones.

“Watch!”

Lin Mo shrugged. He had encountered this situation countless times; nearly every airport security check brought up similar results. Thankfully, in X-ray checks, any device would just show a translucent outline with no details inside.

A solid object naturally posed no threat, but without X-ray detection equipment here, the highly vigilant Russian soldiers preferred to err on the side of caution.

The Signal Flag soldier looked at Lin Mo with suspicion, pointed to his left wrist, and said brusquely, “Take it off!”

What a thorough inspection!

Lin Mo was quite surprised, but without hesitation, he nodded.

“Alright!”

He then removed the watch and handed it over.

Everyone overlooked that as Lin Mo used his right hand to take off the watch, a hair-thin metal wire slipped out from its surface, snaking its way into Lin Mo’s fingers with a speed quicker than a blink, unnoticed by anyone.

As the watch exchanged hands, the Signal Flag soldier used the scanning device on Lin Mo’s left wrist again, and this time no alarm sounded. He scanned Lin Mo’s forehead; the world quieted down.

Due to human perception errors and theories about shadows under light, the soldier didn’t scan Lin Mo’s right hand again; otherwise, he would have discovered something. After all, what secrets could there be in an empty right hand? Common sense led this Signal Flag soldier to make a mistake.