Flash Drive Connected
"Half-Sweet Coffee, zoom in on the north warehouse area, I need to see the terrain around the sewage pipe inlet," Yun Jingheng said in a low voice.
"Enlarged." Half-Sweet Coffee's voice came softly from the headphones.
The camera then focused on the warehouse area on the north side, where the sewage pipe entrance was hidden among a row of abandoned red brick bungalows, surrounded by weathered debris and waist-high weeds.
After leaving the communications station, you have to cross an open area of about sixty meters to enter the warehouse area. This sixty-meter stretch has no cover and is the most dangerous part of the evacuation route.
"Project the coordinates of Terminal One onto the map," he continued.
On the right-hand terminal panel, Tang Wulin's coordinates lit up on the map as a pale golden dot, moving north along a narrow street on the east side of Heaven Dou City.
His pace wasn't fast, his stride was even, and he blended in with the other pedestrians, so there was nothing unusual about him.
He was proceeding as planned to detour to the warehouse area north of the communications station.
"Terminal 2 coordinate projection."
Ye Xinglan's light appeared on another street, a little further west, and slowly walked eastward along the main street.
She moved slightly slower than Tang Wulin, pausing occasionally, as if she were genuinely strolling through a morning market.
Yun Jingheng watched as the point of light paused for seventeen seconds in front of a general store and then for six seconds in front of a fruit stand, and suddenly felt like laughing.
He pressed the communication button, his voice low. "Xing Lan, you're too good at disguising yourself. From the satellite imagery, you look like someone just coming back from grocery shopping."
Two seconds passed before Ye Xinglan's very soft reply came through the earpiece, "I've already bought two pears."
Yun Jingheng's lips curled into a smile, "What kind of pears? Local tribute pears from Heaven Dou City, or green-skinned snow pears?"
"... What business is it of mine what kind of pears I buy? You're staring at the screen and looking at this?" Ye Xinglan's tone was light, but there was a faint hint of annoyance in the last syllable.
Yun Jingheng said unhurriedly, "Alright, alright, remember to bring some for me to try."
Ye Xinglan did not reply, but after a while, the light stopped in front of a fruit stand for a while.
Yun Jingheng smiled softly in front of the screen.
"Terminal One reporting."
Tang Wulin's voice suddenly came in, extremely low, with a faint electrical hum.
"You two should be mindful of the occasion when you're flirting. I've already entered the north warehouse area and can see the watchtower north of the communications station."
"There are two people on the watchtower, one smoking and the other cleaning his gun. I'm currently pressed against the wall of the third bungalow on the east side, waiting for the next move."
Yun Jingheng pressed Enter, and Half-Sweet Coffee quickly zoomed in on the live feed of Tang Wulin's location.
In the slumbering warehouse area, at the corner of an old wall, a figure dressed in a loader's shorts was squatting against the wall, almost blending in with the old sacks and scrap metal piled up next to him.
If you don't zoom in on the image, you won't be able to tell it's a person at all.
"Good location."
Yun Jingheng said, "Don't move yet. Let me check the line of sight of those two people on the watchtower."
"Half-Sweet Coffee, hacked into the public network area of Heaven Dou City, using a virtual IP address to access nearby surveillance footage."
"Okay, calculating line-of-sight coverage and patrol gaps," Half-Sweet Coffee replied.
A moment later, "Two people were on the north watchtower; one was facing 17 degrees east of due north, smoking, with a line of sight of about 90 meters."
"The other person was facing northwest, cleaning his gun, his gaze focused on the weapon, and he was less sensitive to his surroundings."
"The two will scan the area on average every four minutes, and the next scan is expected to begin in forty-seven seconds."
"Calculation accuracy is 87%."
"Forty-seven seconds."
Yun Jingheng repeated, "Wulin, after their next scan, you have about three and a half minutes to move from the base of the wall to the sewage pipe inlet."
"That place is twenty meters away from you as the crow flies. You have to cross a two-meter-wide gravel road in between. There's a pile of scrap metal on the road that can provide some cover. Is that enough?"
"Enough." Tang Wulin answered without hesitation, his voice low, as if it were being ground out from his throat.
"Xing Lan, have you arrived?" Yun Jingheng asked.
"We're almost there."
Ye Xinglan's voice was so soft it was almost swallowed by the wind, "There's a sentry post ahead. I'll pretend to ask for directions first."
She paused for two seconds, then added, "The money spent on the pears was well spent; we can't let them go to waste."
Yun Jingheng stared at the glowing dot on Terminal 2 on the screen and slowly moved towards the main entrance of the East Suburban Communications Station.
He took a deep breath, his fingers landing on the keyboard, and suddenly said to Half-Sweet Coffee, "Add a layer of passive interference to Terminal Two to reduce the clarity of facial recognition for her from the surveillance devices within a 15-meter radius. Don't completely obscure her face; that would only make her more visible."
Passive interference has been added.
Half-Sweet Coffee responded immediately, its mechanical voice carrying a faint hint of amusement, "The facial recognition accuracy of Terminal Two has dropped to 63%, which is unaffected by visual observation from the watchtower."
Yun Jingheng leaned back in his chair, his gaze shifting back and forth between the three screens.
At the main entrance, Ye Xinglan's figure had already appeared at the edge of the satellite image, carrying a vegetable basket, and slowly walking towards the sentry post.
On the north side, Tang Wulin was still clinging to the base of that old wall, like a stone scorched by the sun.
The satellites above Heaven Dou City were silently recording everything, while countless data streams from the Skynet were surging, intertwining, and completely unguarded in the encrypted channel in front of him.
He glanced down at the coordinates on the USB drive.
The point of light had stopped 160 meters northeast of the communications station.
That was in Tang Wulin's arms.
"Half-Sweet Coffee."
He whispered, "Start the countdown."
"Clear."
The voice of artificial intelligence is as soft as a piece of sugar falling into water.
"It is now 10:47 AM. The countdown to the start of the operation has begun. All hardware is in good condition and ready."
"Terminal One reporting."
Tang Wulin's voice came through the earpiece, extremely low, like a thin sheet of metal rolling across the ground, "Next scan complete. Begin movement."
Yun Jingheng switched the screen to the real-time view of Terminal One.
Tang Wulin pressed himself against the wall, like a gray-brown gecko, first sticking out half of his body, his gaze sweeping over the watchtower on the north side.
The two sentries had just finished their scan; one was turning around to stub out his cigarette, and the other was bending down to put a dust cover on his gun barrel.
In that brief moment, less than half a second later, Tang Wulin moved.
He tapped the ground almost silently four times, each time landing on the spot with the fewest pebbles and the softest ground.
As he crossed the two-meter-wide gravel road, his figure briefly disappeared behind the pile of scrap metal, and when he reappeared, he was already at the corner of the red brick bungalows to the north.
From the moment they started moving to the moment they went into hiding, it took less than three seconds.
Seeing the slight bulge in Tang Wulin's sleeve, Yun Jingheng knew that Tang Wulin had already gripped the USB drive again.
"Ready to connect." Tang Wulin's voice was even softer, like a breath squeezed out of his throat.
"Connect." Yun Jingheng only said two words.
At the same time, his fingers struck the keyboard in a rapid series of clicks, like hail hitting a metal plate.
The Half-Sweet Coffee was running simultaneously behind the screen, instantly triggering more than a dozen encrypted data streams.
Tang Wulin slipped through a rusty iron door on the side of the bungalow and entered a half-collapsed short corridor.
At the end of the short corridor, beneath several lifted sheet metal panels, a dark, upright cable tray was visible in the corner.
Without hesitation, he squatted down, aligned the USB flash drive with the slot, and inserted it.
Click.
"USB drive connected."
The voice of the man with Half-Sweet Coffee rang out almost simultaneously with the click, his tone slightly more tense for the first time. "Signal uploaded, data stream hijacking initiated. Estimated time for pursuer location sequence activation: seven seconds."
"Activate Stealth Unit One," Yun Jingheng decided immediately.
"Stealth Unit One activated. Target visual wavelength shift, acoustic phase cancellation. Estimated duration: 3 minutes and 59 seconds."
Tang Wulin did not ask any questions.
He turned around, slipped out of the short corridor, and quickly retreated towards the warehouse area on the north side.
As he passed the edge of the warehouse area, he seemed to be brushed by the morning breeze; his silhouette swayed for a moment before he blended completely into the dusty walls and scrap metal.
The two soldiers on the north watchtower didn't even glance in that direction.
Yun Jingheng didn't look at the satellite images; the Skynet data map in the center of the screen was pulsating violently.
Ripples began to appear in the data flow of the Heaven Dou City node, like a gate being pried open from the inside.
His fingers flew across the keyboard, lines of characters flowing like a stream against the current towards the heart of the Skynet.
"Terminal One has been evacuated from the communications station and moved into the north warehouse area," Half-Sweet Coffee reported.