Although Jay had long been mentally prepared for how terrifying the mysterious enemy he might face could be, seeing that missile streak toward The Daily Planet building's window with a blazing trail still forced him to reassess the enemy's strength.
In broad daylight, they just casually fired a missile into someone's window from afar? Could they get any crazier?
Well, maybe he had been a little careless as a rookie. Bringing an unknown USB drive to The Daily Planet was probably only slightly less stupid than bringing it home. If Helena found out, he would definitely get another lecture. But that was something to reflect on later. Right now, he had far more urgent problems to deal with.
By the time he snapped out of his shock, less than a second remained before the missile flew through the window. Its burning trail shattered the glass as it burst into the room with unparalleled momentum. Jay's pupils contracted sharply. He sprang to his feet and, the instant the metal warhead entered, raised one hand and caught it.
The supersonic missile was forcibly brought to a halt in an instant. Its rear engine spewed flames like crazy, spiraling streams of scorching air blasting backward as a searing gale swept through the entire room. Every unweighted sheet of paper and document on the desks was sucked into the air, spinning violently in the airflow like clothes tossed into a washing machine. White pages filled the sky like a snowstorm.
The missile hanging motionless in midair was like a restrained bull, stubbornly and powerfully struggling to break free. Jay's five fingers sank deeply into the warhead's casing, crushing it badly out of shape.
After roughly a dozen seconds of deadlock, the weapon's propellant finally seemed to have spent its last trace of energy. Jay felt the force against his palm gradually weaken. The engine flame slowly died out, and the missile, having exhausted all its strength, went limp in his hand like a deflated ball.
Jay had just wanted to breathe a sigh of relief when he realized it was not over yet. Beneath the pale gray casing of the weapon in his hand, something was still stirring, emitting radiation invisible to the naked eye like a dam desperately in need of releasing a flood.
Without much time to think, Jay became an afterimage and shot out through the shattered window. He rushed into the sky at the fastest speed he could achieve in an instant, then hurled the toy in his hand with all his strength. The missile, its metal casing already twisted and deformed, spun through the air like a thrown stick and soared high into the sky, vanishing into the heavens in the blink of an eye. A brilliant burst of fire erupted at a height of several hundred meters, and the muffled thunderous boom reached Jay's ears a moment later.
It looked pretty powerful.
He hovered in the air, wiped his completely sweatless forehead with his sleeve, and took two deep breaths. It was not that the missile itself could hurt him. He was tense because he had never encountered anything this absurd before. For a moment, his mind had gone blank, and he struggled to force his wildly pounding heart back into place.
How was anyone supposed to stay calm? Someone had just thrown a missile powerful enough to blow away an entire floor through his window!
Jay spent around ten seconds cooling down his overheated brain. For someone experiencing this for the first time, he felt that was fairly efficient. He flew back into the office and pulled the USB drive from the old desktop tower. The red indicator light on its casing had finally stopped flashing. There was likely a tracking system hidden inside it, the culprit behind that remote strike.
But it had to be said that this made the contents of the USB drive, as well as the entire incident, seem even more mysterious. The sudden missile from outside had stirred Jay's curiosity, making it impossible for him not to wonder what exactly this "S.D.E. Project" was that someone considered worth such drastic measures.
After that, the remaining question rested on General Simon Gilson.
Hopefully, he could provide at least some answers.
As for how to find General Simon Gilson? Well, naturally, that was a job for a professional.
"Gilson? That's his name?" Helena answered Jay's call while sitting before a computer in a certain base, already searching for the name in her system. "Let me see... Found him. Retired officer, fifty-seven years old. I'll send his information to your phone now."
"Thanks," Jay said. "You're a huge help."
"But why do you need to find this man?" Helena asked. "Is there something noteworthy about him?"
"Yeah, a little. I'm still following up on some leads. I'll contact you again when I get results."
He hung up after saying that. He had sounded rather urgent, and Helena guessed he must have made an unusual discovery. She put away her phone and turned her attention back to the screen in front of her, pulling up the page she had been browsing before Jay interrupted her.
S.D.E. Project.
When Helena began investigating through the internal network here, using Kairi International Creative Company as her starting point, a whole mess of electronic locks requiring high-level clearance popped up on her screen. After spending several hours bypassing that heap of messy and troublesome security protocols, the project above appeared on her display.
Her instincts told her she had found the right place. Helena double-clicked to open the project, but another warning box marked in glaring red popped up before her. A password prompt appeared in the center, with a note beneath it: "Warning! Top secret! Any access attempt requires Level One authorization!"
Theoretically, she should have stopped the moment that prompt appeared. Otherwise, the consequences could be extremely serious—and serious did not merely mean an ordinary disciplinary punishment from the organization. But the more it warned her away, the more it stirred her urge to climb over the wall and explore the forbidden zone. After checking that no one nearby was paying attention, she secretly pulled a portable hacking device from her utility belt.
Most of her equipment had been provided by government agencies, but not this one. This device had been personally programmed and designed by a world-class hacker friend of hers. It could crack most firewalls in the world within a minute, practically the master key of the information age.
She connected the device to the organization's computer terminal, and the words "Cracking in Progress" quickly appeared on the monitor. The green progress bar crawled forward at an agonizingly slow pace, sometimes freezing for over ten seconds at a time. The opponent clearly was not easy to deal with.
The green progress bar took nearly two minutes to finally crawl close to the end. Success was almost within reach. Helena held her breath, waiting for the words "Cracking Complete" to appear on the screen, unable to suppress her anticipation. But it never happened. At the instant when less than a millimeter seemed to remain, the entire green progress bar abruptly vanished from her screen.
Helena froze. She had never encountered anything like this before.
The monitor seemed to flicker. A new warning appeared on the bright red alert box, reading: "Warning! Unauthorized sensitive operation detected! Information has been automatically uploaded. Remain where you are and await instructions!"
Helena stood stunned for several seconds before cursing under her breath. "Damn it!"
She shut down the computer at top speed, sprang to her feet, and headed for the door without a second thought. She hurried through the bustling corridors of the base, heading straight for the exit, only to unexpectedly run into her superior at the corner of the last corridor.
Victor Sage was a well-dressed, upright middle-aged man. His pomaded red hair gleamed beneath the fluorescent lights, and his hairline was absurdly high. The corner of his mouth was curved into just the right smile, warm and reassuring.
He was the highest-ranking person here.
The instant Helena spotted him from the corner of her eye, she silently cursed her luck. She lowered her head and pretended not to see him, trying to ignore him and walk straight past. But that plan died completely when Victor called out, "Huntress."
Helena stopped. When she turned around, her face had already become as cold as ice. "Yes, sir."
"You look like you're in a hurry." Victor approached with a smile and patted her shoulder. "Mind telling me where you're rushing off to?"
Victor stood half a head taller than her. At such close range, she had no choice but to tilt her head up slightly to look at him. "I found some leads on an old case. I'm going to verify them."
Helena believed she had not revealed the slightest flaw. Even her heartbeat had not changed in the slightest. Victor seemed to accept her explanation and nodded faintly in approval. "You've always worked very hard. I appreciate that, Huntress. You're one of the best agents under my command."
As he spoke, he casually circled half a step around her and stopped directly behind her. He gently placed both hands on her shoulders, leaned close to her ear, and whispered so quietly that only she could hear, "But perhaps you're a little too good. Perhaps you've gone too far."
Helena felt her heart skip a beat, a brief flicker breaking through her composure.
"You're sure," Victor continued in that mosquito-soft voice, "there's nothing you're hiding from me, right?"
"Yes, sir," Helena said evenly.
"Good." Victor nodded slightly, stepped back, and returned to his normal volume. "Good girl."
"Then, sir, if there are no further instructions—"
"Oh, of course." Victor nodded. "Go take care of your business. Sorry for holding you up."
"It's fine."
Helena walked away without changing expression, but the instant her back was turned to Victor, she clenched her teeth. She made herself walk calmly through the rest of the corridor, then broke into a sprint the moment she entered the stairwell.
She had seven floors to descend, but she did not take the elevator. That little electric box could be remotely controlled, and it would be easier to trap her there. Her caution proved correct. The instant she had descended one floor, two armed agents rushed into the stairwell side by side and opened fire on her without warning.
Helena planted one hand on the stair rail and vaulted into the air, evading the bullets as she landed between the two agents like a professional gymnast. They reacted quickly enough, but that still could not change the fact that Helena subdued them within three moves. One had his leg bone broken by her kick, while the other was thrown over her shoulder and sent rolling down the stairs.
"Sorry," Helena said to the two of them as she caught her breath, "but this isn't personal."
Before you continue