Chapter 362 - The Trans-Siberian Railway

The Trans-Siberian Railway is the 3rd longest continuous railway in the world and one of the most popular train routes for the avid traveler. The main route runs between Moscow in the west and Vladivostok in the east of Russia, but it also has two connecting routes to China.

Every Tuesday, the Trans-Mongolian train departs Beijing for Moscow via Mongolia and takes 6 nights in total to complete its journey.

The day that Dr. Li and Dr. Ren didn't turn up to work, happened to be a Tuesday!

Trisha furrowed her brows as she looked at the information about the Tran-Siberian railway. If Halia was right, then Boginya and the two doctors definitely boarded one of the Tuesday trains and would be arriving in Moscow in a couple of days. She had to quickly find evidence that they were onboard and contact Interpol in Moscow to stop them.

Of course, Boginya wasn't so stupid as to use any of their real names or passports for the train. So, there were no records of any of them leaving the country. Border security was a lot more lenient via land travel compared to air, and even easier if they had inside help. That's why smugglers and illegal immigrants often chose to travel by land.

Boginya was a founder of The Organization, so she was bound to have help around every corner. Fake passports, last-minute tickets, extradited check through immigration - it was no surprise if she had all of this.

Traveling between Beijing and Moscow without alarming the authorities was child's play for her.

Trisha sat down with a few agents and scoured through every piece of CCTV footage from Beijing Railway Station on the Tuesday that had just passed. Even the slightest sign of Dr. Li, Dr. Ren, or Boginya, was enough to get Moscow Interpol to stop them on the other side. Especially if they mentioned she was a founder of The Organization. This was a name that every Interpol Agent was now familiar with.

Looking through the CCTV was a tiring process. There were many cameras around the station and millions of people passed through Beijing station every single day. Of course, Trisha's team started by only looking at the cameras on the platform that the Trans-Mongolian departed from, but even that was extremely busy.

Adding to the difficulty was the fact that most people wore face masks. Face masks were common in China due to the heavy air pollution, especially in Beijing and in summer when the levels were extremely unhealthy. But, another reason was the compacted space on the train. Due to bad ventilation and close contact with other passengers for a long period of time, it was easy to fall sick, so many people opted to wear face masks. 

At one point, Trisha almost lost hope.

But, finally, after almost two days of looking through every single face that stepped onto the four Trans-Mongolian trains that departed that day, Trisha suddenly spotted one particular man. Like 90% of the people around him, he was wearing a mask. But, this man caught Trisha's attention because he seemed to be looking around suspiciously. Most people either looked at the ticket in their hands to find their carriage or looked ahead of them to see where they were walking, but this man was scanning his eyes across the roof and corners of the station like he was searching for something. This was extremely abnormal behavior and it caught Trisha's attention.

As she watched him, his eyes slowly panned across and he ended up staring straight into the surveillance camera that Trisha was watching the footage from. Even though he was far away, she could see the desperation in his eyes; he looked like he was calling out for help. Next to the man, there was a big burly man that looked like his travel companion. Trisha looked carefully at the two and noticed that the burly man seemed to be dragging the masked man along. Then, to her surprise, the man with the mask suddenly grabbed a bottle and removed his mask to take a drink! The burly man was also surprised. As the man drank, he purposely turned to face the camera head-on! For 5 seconds, the man's face came into view before the burly man covered him back up and quickly dragged him onto the train.

Trisha gasped. She knew she had discovered something.

She immediately rewinded the video and paused it on the moment that the man's face was clear. She then compared the face to the photos of Dr. Li and Dr. Ren.

With a smile, she jumped up and screamed, "Bingo!"

The man in the video was Dr. Eric Ren!

Halia was right, they had boarded the train to Moscow.

She quickly jumped on the phone and rang the main headquarters of Interpol. This time, she was smart. She had learned from her experience with the Philippines to escalate the matter as much as possible and contact the higher-ups first. This was the best way to prevent corruption.

The Organization had gradually climbed up Interpol's most-wanted list in the last few years, so as soon as headquarters heard about Trisha's case they immediately sent agents to stop Boginya and the two doctors in Moscow.

By that time, it was due to arrive in just 3 hours. Trisha made it just in time!

But...when the train pulled up at Moscow station and the agents checked every single passenger on board, Interpol in Moscow called back to say that the three people they described weren't found anywhere on the train...

Trisha held onto the phone in shock. If they weren't in Moscow, then where were they? They had clearly got on the train in Beijing...

But, as soon as she thought this, she hit herself on the head for being stupid. The train wasn't non-stop between Beijing and Moscow. There were stops along the way. They could have gotten off at any of the stations on the route!!

With regret, she turned to her agents and said, "Sorry guys, we have more videos to look through. Anyone want coffee?"

The only thing they could do at that point was to check the CCTV footage at every single stop along the way...