Chapter Eight Hundred and Fiftieth Eighth
Welder Zhao was careless and could provide very little useful information. He repeatedly lamented that he was unlucky, and coupled with his lack of sanity, Che Jilu kept talking over and over again.
Zhang Zian found an excuse to end the call with Welder Zhao.
Summarizing the information he has so far, he suspects that some kind of creature in the fish tank caused the large-scale poisoning incident, but he is only 20 to 30 percent sure, so he is not sure if this should be the case. If he is wrong, it doesn't matter if he is looked down upon by others , the point is that it will waste precious time.
Seeing his pensive look, Sheng Ke asked, "Did you find anything?"
"Xiao Zhang, if you find anything, just say it straight, and don't let go of any doubts now." Chief Chen encouraged. It was clearly a bright spring in March, and the weather was not too hot or cold, but he and Sheng Ke were sweating on their foreheads.
Ordinary police officers are checking the surrounding residents to see if there are any suspicious persons in recent days, and call the monitoring of the community; the biochemical special police team wears heavy protective clothing and enters Wang Carpenter's house in turn to conduct a carpet search; the police with dogs executes the blockade of the scene If the biochemical special police team can't find the source of the poison for a long time, it may be necessary to send police dogs into the room to search for suspicious objects.
The most troublesome thing is that the toxins that cause the damage are not common toxins, and the various test strips, reagents, and detectors carried by the biochemical special police team are difficult to exert their effects.
People kept talking to Director Chen through the walkie-talkie. The pressure from his superiors made Director Chen almost burnt out. Although he was extremely depressed, at least he remained friendly on the surface.
Zhang Zian put his mind to one side, and said to Director Chen: "Director Chen, I suspect that there is something wrong with the fish tank in Wang Carpenter's house."
The faces of Sheng Ke and Director Chen froze at the same time.
"Zhang Zian! You can't joke around at this time!" Sheng Ke said seriously.
Director Chen thought more, and asked back: "You mean, someone put the poison source into the fish tank?"
"No, that's not the case." Zhang Zian shook his head, "The fish tank itself is the source of the poison."
Sheng Ke and Director Chen looked at each other with suspicion in their eyes. If Zhang Zian hadn't helped the police in several cases, they would have driven him aside a long time ago, and they were not in the mood to listen to his nonsense.
Zhang Zian also knows that the general public does not understand aquatic creatures, even veteran players of seawater fish may not really understand them. What he said sounds like fantasy to ordinary people, but in fact some aquatic creatures can really cause such serious consequences.
Under the deep blue ocean,
So far, there are still hidden countless strange creatures that human beings cannot imagine.
"You mean, some kind of fish in the fish tank is poisonous?" Chief Chen confirmed.
"It might be a fish, or it might be something else. I don't know for now. Unless I can see it with my own eyes, I can't be sure." Zhang Zian said.
But it is not easy to see it with your own eyes, because the fish tank is full of water and is very heavy, so it is not easy to carry it downstairs. Besides, if the fish tank is really a source of poison, it may be dangerous to lift it out hastily.
Director Chen frowned, staring at the closed windows of Wang Carpenter's house, weighing the pros and cons repeatedly in his mind.
Both Sheng Ke and Zhang Zian wisely did not disturb him.
"How sure is it?"
After a while, Director Chen asked with a tense face.
Zhang Zian stretched out three fingers.
The 30% certainty seems to be very low, but in the current situation where there is no clue, I already have the capital to gamble.
Director Chen was silent for a moment, then waved his hand violently, "Get him a gas mask and protective clothing."
"Director Chen, this..." Sheng Ke wanted to express his objection, it was too dangerous to involve an inexperienced ordinary person.
"Xiao Zhang, would you like to go in and have a try? Of course it must be dangerous." Director Chen confirmed to Zhang Zian.
Zhang Zian glanced at the police with dogs on standby. If he refused, the police dogs would probably be dispatched next. Police dogs are far less tolerant to toxins than humans, so they may not be able to get out if they go in.
"Okay, come on." He nodded in agreement.
Seeing that he was determined to do it, Sheng Ke sighed and stopped objecting.
The biochemical special police team brought a full set of spare protective equipment, put Zhang Zian on protective clothing, a gas mask, and an oxygen cylinder on his back, and then explained to him some things to pay attention to, and warned him not to run around after entering the house .
It was originally a very cool weather, but after putting on the heavy protective clothing, his whole body seemed to be wrapped in a silkworm cocoon. It was stuffy and hot, and his joint movements were greatly restricted. , the surrounding sounds seemed to be blocked and became indistinct.
The special police checked the air pressure for him and made sure there was no air leakage, so they gestured to him and asked him to follow them into the unit building.
Zhang Zian moved his steps awkwardly, turned his body and glanced at Director Chen and Sheng Ke again, they waved at him with expectations and anxiety in their eyes.
There is no elevator in the old residential building, and every time you go up the steps, it is very strenuous, and your ears are full of gasping and slight hissing, which is the sound of the slow release of high-pressure gas in the oxygen cylinder.
By the time they reached the third floor where Wang Carpenter lived, Zhang Zian's body was already sweating. Beads of sweat rolled down his forehead, rolled down his cheeks, or stained his eyebrows. It was very itchy, but he couldn't scratch it. I feel itchy badly.
He forcibly diverted his attention and looked at Wang Carpenter's house.
There are a lot of shiny instruments piled up at the door, and the biochemical special police are busy on-site testing and moving things. When they saw Zhang Zian's unfamiliar face, they couldn't help but startled, and asked through the headset: "Who is this? of?"
"No, he's not a policeman, he's... Chief Chen came to help." The person who brought Zhang Zian over explained.
"Help?" The SWAT leader's tone was full of doubts, but since it was Chief Chen who found him, it was inconvenient for him to say anything more, maybe this person has something unique, "Do you have any suggestions?"
Zhang Zian saw the fish tank in the corner of the living room at a glance.
It should be said that Wang Carpenter’s fish breeding level is much better than that of Zhao Welder and Wu Diangong in terms of the location alone. The location is shady and dark, no matter whether the sun rises or sunsets, the fish tank is placed about 30 cm above the fish tank. There is a high-brightness metal halide lamp, and there are LED lights for balancing the spectrum next to it, relying entirely on artificial lighting.
"I'll go to the fish tank to have a look." He pointed to the fish tank and said, "I think the source of the poison is in the fish tank."
"In the fish tank? We checked the fish tank visually, and there are no foreign objects." The SWAT leader shook his head.
Because the toxin is rare and its nature is unknown, common test strips, reagents, and detectors are useless. The biochemical special police have to consider all possibilities, even considering the strong radioactive elements hidden somewhere in the room.
"Maybe it's just that you can't see it." Zhang Zian said, seeing that no one else objected, he moved slowly and came to the side of the fish tank.
The water in the tank is very clear, and objects in the water can be seen at a glance. There are a few dead fish floating on the water, and the beautiful corals are attached to the jagged living rocks. Both the setting and the breeding of corals are worthwhile.
It stands to reason that you should not be able to release fish and coral immediately after turning over the tank. Maybe Wang Carpenter stopped feeling uncomfortable when he was halfway through the tank, and casually gave Zhao Welder a few fish to send him away.
The SWAT team leader didn't dare to let him out of his sight. He didn't know if he would mess with things. He came over and asked, "Do you think there is something wrong with these fish? Even if they are poisonous fish, they won't poison you to death, right?"
Obviously, there is nothing moving in the aquarium except the fish. And in common sense, no fish is so poisonous.
Zhang Zian said: "Come on, help me, pour out some of the water in the fish tank, and then take out all the stones in it to be careful! The water in the fish tank may be very poisonous, so don't pour it into the sewer!"
Since everyone was wearing bulky protective clothing, the fish tank was so big that it was difficult to remove the stones without scooping out the water.
The special police officers were not very willing to follow his command from a commoner. After asking Director Chen for instructions, they reluctantly helped, using all the containers they could find in the house to pour out about half of the water in the fish tank.
Immediately afterwards, the stones in the fish tank were also taken out one by one and placed on the water cloth.
Every time a piece was taken out, Zhang Zian would carefully inspect the corals attached to the live rocks, but these corals were relatively common species, so they should not be the culprit.
The special police responsible for taking pictures took pictures of these stones seriously and responsibly.
Someone else is in charge of videotaping.
The fish tank was empty, and there was nothing else but the stirred-up bottom sand.
Everyone looked at Zhang Zian, meaning: what about now? Let's just say there are no foreign objects in the fish tank.
Zhang Zian fixed his eyes on the last piece of live rock that was taken out. There were some brown, unremarkable umbrella-shaped corals attached to it. There were radial stripes distributed on the umbrella cover, and a circle of slightly wriggling tentacles evenly grew on the umbrella. Cover the edges.
Since the fish tank is placed against the wall, the living rocks attached to these brown corals are located on the side against the wall, which cannot be seen from the front and are easily overlooked.
Wang is almost certainly unaware of these brown corals creeping up in his tank because they are ugly and no one buys them on purpose.
Zhang Zian couldn't guess whether Wang Carpenter saw this group of hidden corals when he turned over the tank last night, and whether he tried to clean them up, anyway, they went berserk.
He breathed a sigh of relief, pointed to these brown corals and said, "The source of the poison you want is them."
In the common sense of ordinary people, the more colorful things are, the more poisonous they are, and the less striking things are often the safer.
"What is this? Coral?" The special police said suspiciously: "Are you sure?"
Zhang Zian nodded, "These are sand group sea anemone corals, don't underestimate them, the toxin they release is called rock sand sea anemone toxin, which ranks 8th in the world's ranking of toxins, higher than it It is botulinum toxin, radioactive element polonium-210, diphtheria toxin and the like. Only 21 micrograms can kill a 70-kg adult with 21 micrograms. The unit of measurement is not grams, not milligrams, but micrograms, which is 0.000021 grams .”
He pointed to the metal halide lamp with strong light and strong heat above the fish tank, "These corals sensed the danger and released toxins in the water, which first poisoned other creatures in the fish tank, and the poisonous seawater was then absorbed by the halogen lamp. It evaporated into the air and was inhaled by Wang Carpenter's family, Zhao Welder and firefighters, resulting in poisoning."
In the list of highly toxic creatures commonly found on the Internet, there has never been a figure of sand group sea anemone coral, but the toxicity of the rock sand sea anemone toxin released by them is more toxic than that of the notorious blue-ringed octopus or cone snails Dozens of times stronger, and there is no cure, even slight inhalation can cause acute poisoning.
In fact, the poisoning of marine fish players by rock sand sea anemone toxins is not unique. These dangerous corals often sneak into people's fish tanks by attaching to live rocks, grow up slowly, and release toxins once they feel life-threatening.
If the lights used by Wang Carpenter were not metal halide lamps, the evaporation rate of seawater would be slower and the degree of poisoning would be less. After all, this kind of lamp is too hot, like a small sun.
Although the special police officers had rich experience in handling dangerous goods, it was the first time they heard of such terrible corals, and they were all speechless.
"Report! Director Chen, the source of the poison has been found, it's..." The team leader reported to Director Chen by radio, and he glanced at Zhang Zian, "It's the coral in the fish tank."
"What? Repeat it again!" Director Chen couldn't believe his ears, thinking he heard it wrong. With such a big commotion, the culprit is coral?
"It's not an ordinary coral, it's a very poisonous coral called sand group sea anemone coral." The team leader tried his best to explain.
Director Chen was surprised, but at the same time he breathed a sigh of relief. No matter what, he finally found the source of the poison, allowing the experts sent by the provincial department to go home. At the same time, the nature of this incident has also fundamentally changed.
He then asked: "Is there a possibility of deliberate poisoning?"
The team leader couldn't answer this question, and signaled for Zhang Zian to answer.
"Report to Director Chen, I don't think the poison was intentional." Zhang Zian said, "It should have been accidentally brought in from the live rock that Wang Carpenter bought."
"Live rocks? Where did you buy the live rocks?" Director Chen sternly instructed: "Check where he bought the live rocks from, and then search the store. How can such a dangerous thing be traded at will!"
Zhang Zian secretly regretted that the aquarium that sold the live rocks to Wang Carpenter would be in trouble. It would be difficult to continue to open the store after such a big event happened for no reason.
"Director Chen, how to deal with these corals?" asked the team leader.
Director Chen pondered for a moment, then said: "Seal it up and bring it back to the bureau, pay attention to safety."
The special policemen carefully sealed the live rocks and corals for storage.
There was nothing about Zhang Zian here anymore, he went downstairs on his own, walked out of the unit door, took off his gas mask, and let the breeze blow his sweaty cheeks.
"Amazing, Xiao Zhang!" Sheng Ke walked over excitedly.
"Fortunately, I didn't disgrace my life." Zhang Zian said with a smile.