Chapter 1047: First Arrival (Double is still available, please give me a monthly ticket)

Dar es Salaam is the largest city in Tanzania and the country's former capital, with a population of less than 500 million, accounting for about one-tenth of the country's population.

The country's nominal capital is the small inland city of Dodoma, with a population of only 40. Except for Tanzanians, almost all countries and regions regard Dar es Salaam as the country's real capital.

The story begins in the 20s, when a certain Eastern power found some friendly black brothers in Africa and told them that as they were all third world countries, they should sympathize with each other.

Everyone knows what happened afterwards. The University of Tokyo and some African countries naturally came together to keep each other warm.

It was the first time that the Prime Minister of East Asia visited Tanzania. When talking about some war issues, he casually mentioned that Dar es Salaam was close to the Indian Ocean and the terrain was not very good. It was almost impossible to defend and was prone to invasion by foreign enemies.

Taking into account various other factors, in 1973, the country decided to move its capital to the inland city of Dodoma. However, after a major war with Uganda, although it won, Tanzania also exhausted its limited vitality.

What followed was the oil crisis of 1979, which completely depleted the country's foreign exchange reserves. Coupled with the lazy and casual nature of the black people, the plan to move the capital was delayed for nearly half a century.

Until now, although some administrative departments have moved to Dodoma, due to problems such as imperfect infrastructure, almost all foreign diplomatic missions in Tanzania still remain in Dar es Salaam.

There are no direct flights from New York to Dar es Salaam, and the fastest flight requires a transfer in Dubai, which takes nearly 20 hours.

As usual, the FBI arranged a military C-17 Globemaster transport plane for everyone, but it took quite a few twists and turns before it finally landed at Kilimanjaro International Airport.

By the time everyone arrived at the Arusha train station where the missing American tourists were supposed to have arrived, a day and a half had passed since the incident.

Arusha is the third largest city in Tanzania and the most famous tourist attraction in Africa. Most people's stereotypes about Africa come from here.

Here you can see wildebeests crossing the Crocodile River during the great animal migration, African elephants that can crush a car with one foot, tribal warriors with only a piece of blue cloth tied around their waists and holding spears, and the majestic Uhuru Peak, the highest peak of Mount Kilimanjaro.

Jack and his group were received by a local police officer who was wearing a black beret, a brown khaki uniform and looked a little bloated.

"I'm Detective Pollino."

Detective Pollino spoke very good English, and his attitude was neither arrogant nor flattering, but for some reason, his temperament made Jack feel inexplicably familiar.

He and Jubal looked at each other and secretly breathed a sigh of relief. After all, this was a good start. In such an unfamiliar place, having a local police officer with whom he could communicate smoothly and who was willing to cooperate was better than anything else.

Jubal first introduced himself, and then briefly introduced the identities of several people who got off the two Hummers.

There were a total of five people on this trip to Africa. Jiejie and Alice stayed in New York. When the transport plane that Jack and his friends were on left New York, the BAU team led by Hotchner had just stepped into the office in Long Island.

Time is tight and the task is heavy, so Rossi not only sent Jack and his team, but also called in the BAU team. They are responsible for comforting and questioning the families of the missing tourists.

There are 23 missing persons in total, which means there may be multiple family members here. This work is both tedious and very important. Even if Jiejie is very capable, she is unable to handle it all.

Although Tanzania is considered a middle-income country in Africa, its infrastructure does conform to the public's stereotype of backward areas in Africa. When people go there, not to mention the internet, the cell phone signals are intermittent.

Therefore, Alice was also left in New York to investigate the background information of the missing persons.

Although some aspects of the local area are more advanced than those in the United States, and the ticket window in Dar es Salaam, the starting station of the train, even has electronic payment, because these American tourists used cash to buy their tickets, the specific identities of more than half of them cannot be determined to this day.

Information about the number of missing persons and the identities of some tourists was provided by the pastor of the town church where they had previously volunteered.

"Detectives, please follow me." After a brief greeting, Detective Pollino went straight to the point and waved his hand to signal everyone to follow him to a train car parked on a branch track.

"My subordinates checked the carriage and found no signs of forced entry. I also noticed that it looked like the luggage of the passengers had been left on the train."

Jack took a look at the gray carriage and a familiar sense of déjà vu came over him again. He had ridden on this kind of train when he was a child, not in this world, but in his childhood in his previous life.

This is a typical green-skinned hard-seat carriage with a 3+2 seating layout, which is somewhat different from what Jack remembered, mainly in the interior color scheme. The upper half of the carriage is fixed, so only the lower half of the window can be opened, which makes him smile knowingly.

The interior of the carriage was cleaner than Jack had imagined, and there was no strange smell, but it was a little messy.

An old standard green hard-seat carriage can accommodate 118 passengers. According to information provided by the Tanzanian side, this carriage is considered a private room and there are only 23 American passengers, so it is very spacious for them.

In addition to the more than 20 suitcases stuffed on the overhead luggage rack, there were travel bags, handbags, various travel souvenirs and even things like water cups left on the seats.

Since Detective Pollino said he and his men had already checked the place, and they shouldn't expect to use any modern criminal investigation technology in a place like this, everyone simply didn't wear gloves. Clay reached out and took a box from the luggage rack and opened it.

Passports, laptops, tablets, cameras, and even some valuables. Everyone opened several suitcases and frowned when they saw these.

"What kind of kidnappers would leave valuables behind, not even taking passports that could prove the identity of the hostages?"

As a former member of the special forces, Clay has participated in many overseas operations involving hostage rescue missions and is quite familiar with similar kidnapping procedures.

"Kidnappers with a certain degree of organization? Maybe what the conductor said is true. The train did not stop on the way, so the limited window period did not allow them to waste too much time?" Aubrey guessed.

"Maybe. The benefit of taking one more hostage is much greater than keeping these properties." Jack did not comment.

"Or maybe the kidnappers are experienced enough." Hannah pulled out a bunch of mobile phones from under a seat, 23 in total, not one less.

"That way we can't rely on tracking via GPS."