On Saturday morning Li arrived in Dobrich. Bulgaria. He wanted to experience personally the Bulgarian State Railways (BDZ) trains and that's why the previous night seemed so long to him. He had caught the night train from the capital, Sofia, to Dobrich, a little town in north-east Bulgaria. Soon he regretted having made this step of his journey but it was too late. Getting off the train, full of hope, he wanted to have a rest, probably a long nap and to explore the town the next day. "做这些事都之前,我得去看我住在这里的朋友们。他们来接我了没有…" [translation - "But before all these things, I must see my friends here. Have they come to pick me up..."], he was thinking. When he got off the little greenish train, he saw a dozen of people on the platform, which was big enough for a hundred. He then recognised three of them - a decent-looking young Bulgarian boy, a beautiful Chinese woman and a little child.
- Hey, Asen! 阿森![translation - Asen] - shouted the Chinese officer.
- Li! You have finally arrived! I'm glad you've come! - Asen responded.
- I'm glad to see you to. The journey was very long. Oh, Lili, hello!
- 你好![Hello] - she greeted him showing the only phrase in Chinese she knew. (which was still good for a little child)
- You may need a rest. Let's go to our house. - suggested Asen.
...
Let me tell you more about the characters and the situation here. Li Tienming (李天明) is a Chinese police officer, working for the Hong Kong Royal Police Force (HKRPF). He has been there for more than 15 years. Now you would think that he's old - bullsh*t. He joined the HKRPF at the age of 16, following the example of his father, one of the best policemen in Hong Kong history. He's on a little vacation now in Bulgaria. Why Bulgaria? Because he wanted to see his friends, which had lived in Hong Kong earlier, but have now returned to the hometown of the husband. They are married and even have a little child, as you could have already read. The family and the officer have been known each other for a lot of years, and that's why Li likes Bulgaria. Now this is his first visit in that country, though it may have not started quite well. The only thing he wants is to have some rest from work.
Li woke up in his friends' house in the late afternoon of the day, having slept for 8 hours. They spent the rest of the day hanging out in the park and city centre and in the local Chinese Restaurant, which is held by a Vietnamese and doesn't have any Chinese people working in it. Despite the service, everyone enjoyed the meals and the athmosphere.
The next day they went for a walk in the town but unfortunately almost everything was closed beacuse it was Sunday. Then they played some table tennis and went to a restaurant, this time an Italian one.
Everything was going on just fine until the next day when Li Tienming received a phone call from Hong Kong. At first he didn't answer and let it ring until it stopped. It rang again, and he did the same again. But when it rang for the third time, he thought that something important was happening. Answering the phone, he heard one of his bosses speaking. His voice was low and quiet. He explained that he was sorry for interrupting his holiday but something of supreme importance was happening (of "priority level: black", as he said).
- Quick, find a laptop with an internet connection and skype to send you some data and to call you there.
- What if they're tracing you, sir? - he asked his English boss, who controls the foreign relations of the HKRPF.
- It can't be possible, I'm currently at an Internet Cafe. Do as I say. - he ordered the Chinese.
- 当然,先生。[Of course, sir.]
Li apologised to the family for the inconvenience and grabbed Asen's laptop. He connected it to the Wireless Internet in their home and loaded Skype. As soon as he logged in, he received a file, which he downloaded within a few seconds. He opened it. It was a text file, showing a train schedule. He scanned it carefully. The first station was Kishineu in Moldova and the last - Varna, 50~60 kilometres down the line from Dobrich, the third biggest city in Bulgaria. He looked confusingly through the schedule one more time. He noticed that the train would stop at Dobrich station at exactly 14:25. Why should it stop? There isn't any international passanger train going through Dorich. Maybe it wasn't a passenger one? Maybe it was a cargo train? The chat suddenly made a beep tone. A second file was ready to download. He opened it. This time there was a shcedule of the passenger trains stopping at Dobrich. But why the heck was all that for? His boss called.
- Hi, officer Li. I'm afraid you can't realise how dangerous the situation is. Let me try to explain you. The first file shows the schedule of a train which is already on its way to Varna. It's carrying materials which are believed to be used together when crafting a bomb. These materials are of big quantity on that train and are extremely dangerous!
- I can't believe, sir. But I still don't understand one thing.
- What is it?
- What all this has to do with the Hong Kong Police Force?
- On the train with two or three carriages, there are also weapons. These waepons are several hundred and are all illegal. We need them, because they belong to us. They belong to Hong Kong - the government and the security police. They've been stolen and sold for China, Russia, and probably Moldova.
- I see, sir. So... what are my orders?
- You don't have any particular orders from us, officer. I'm just obliged to tell you these facts in case that you're extremely close to the event. Whether you'll act or no - whatever you do - you decide. But one thing is for sure - if the carriages aren't stopped, it can be a lot worse than just an illegal cargo. As you see, they have a whole train. They have messed into the schedule of several countries to transport this. How have they done this, we don't know for sure - the only thing we know is that they're pretending to be testing new wagons and use this track as a test track, i.e. nobody knows for the real cargo.
- Amazing... if I should act, what can I do, sir?
- You can try to delay them or even stop them. An internation top secret crew is being gathered and will be sent to the place as soon as possible, so time is of essence. But as I said, you can choose not to do anything.
- Understood.
- Good luck. And try to keep thing secret.
- 多谢。再见。[Thanks. Goodbye.]
- Goodbye, officer Li.
Li Tienming needed to realise what's going on after this shocking conversation. "This can't be true", he thought. "I just wanted a peaceful vacation...", he added with a sigh.
What should he do now? Should he do something or should he "just stay at home and watch the world end"? He couldn't have resisted the second one. He thought he had no choice. At least he had to go to the station and see if there really was a cargo train, passing Dobrich by that schedule.
To be continued in part 2 of the story. Be sure not to miss it.
