The wind swept across the desolate rocky hills, kicking up clouds of yellow sand. July's scorching sun blazed over the barren slopes, where not a patch of shade could be found. Below the hills, a convoy of off-road vehicles sped along a rough dirt-and-stone road. The heavy armor plating bolted onto their exteriors gave them a weight civilian vehicles could never match, yet even over the bumpy track, the ride was surprisingly smooth.
Major Saber of the Spear Bureau Special Task Force, dressed in desert camouflage, leaned against the passenger seat and glared at Xiang Qian in the back through the rearview mirror.
Even though the temperature inside the vehicle had climbed above thirty degrees, Saber still wore a gray metal tactical mask that covered most of his face. Only his eyes were visible, and they made it clear that the major was in a foul mood. The culprit was none other than Xiang Qian, who sat in the back with his eyes closed, pretending to nap.
Saber was an undisputed elite of the Spear Bureau Special Task Force, an all-around combat specialist on the battlefield. He served in the Bureau's most highly classified, best-equipped, and most powerful special operations unit. Special operations experts like him were always the spearhead of a mission, but this time, because of Xiang Qian, he had to give up frontline combat duty and take on bodyguard duty instead, with a bellyful of complaints.
Unfortunately, the man chiefly responsible for Saber's foul mood had no idea what his bodyguard was thinking. Not long after getting into the vehicle, Xiang Qian had closed his eyes and begun to doze. His tinted, nonprescription goggles hid his eyes, and the steady bob of his head suggested he was sleeping quite soundly.
Saber felt that Xiang Qian's bobbing head had drained every last ounce of patience he had in his entire life. He reached toward the back seat and rapped hard several times on the window beside Xiang Qian's head. The sharp clangs failed to wake Xiang Qian, but they startled the young woman sitting at the other end of the back seat.
"What are you doing?" The young woman, her short hair neat and practical, shot Saber an annoyed look before lowering her gaze to the stack of documents in her hands.
The knocking stopped, and only after some time did Xiang Qian slowly lift his head. He opened his eyes and looked around the cabin, then stretched lazily, as if waking from a pleasant dream. "Are we there yet?" he asked, his voice still thick with sleep.
"Not even close!" Saber replied irritably. "You're sleeping like a baby. You really can do it anywhere."
Xiang Qian didn't seem bothered by Saber's frosty expression. He replied with a detached look, "Didn't you say that a good soldier could sleep on the battlefield?"
"We're clearing out a bunch of cowards hiding in caves. What kind of real battlefield is that? They're not even worth it." Saber gave a scornful sneer. "Besides, you're only a technical consultant. You're not a soldier."
Saber's contemptuous stare and cutting tone were openly provocative, but Xiang Qian's expression didn't waver in the slightest. He spoke in the same detached tone as before. "According to you, this joint counterterrorism operation should have been wrapped up successfully twenty-six hours ago. Why are you still stuck here, and why did the higher-ups send me all this way?"
"That's not our problem!" Saber slapped the car door, drawing another annoyed glance from the driver. "The Tajik military is the one causing trouble, not us."
Xiang Qian nodded without committing himself, but his dismissive expression hardly suggested agreement. "It's a joint operation, so the Tajik forces are our allies. If our allies run into trouble they can't handle, it's bound to become our problem in the end. I'm here specifically to solve it."
Saber glared at Xiang Qian's expressionless face in the rearview mirror, his eyes turning frighteningly fierce, as if he wanted to eat him alive. Xiang Qian's detached expression, paired with his matter-of-fact tone—"You have a problem, so I'll solve it"—made the sarcasm plain even to the slowest person. It was a pointed retort to Saber's remarks, delivered lightly but right on target.
Watching Saber get so thoroughly shut down that he looked ready to explode, the young woman in the back, who had been busy with the documents, silently rolled her eyes. She was a little annoyed with both Xiang Qian and Saber.
Everyone in the Spear Bureau who had ever worked with Xiang Qian, from R&D and logistics to command and frontline operations, knew he was a living hedgehog who pricked anyone who got too close. Saber, you're a hothead who uses your hands more than your head, and you still dare to trade barbs with him? That's like grabbing a hedgehog barehanded and asking to get pricked.
As the awkward silence made the atmosphere in the cabin increasingly uncomfortable—mostly for Saber—the young female agent Vector had to speak up and shift everyone's attention. "We've got the latest from the front line. We've confirmed the Ten Rings' final hideout. They've set up an operational base in an underground cave system and dug tunnels to create an extremely complex network belowground. So far, we've confirmed that more than a hundred Ten Rings members, including affiliates, have entered the caves."
"The operation's already been delayed twenty-six hours, and that's all the intel you've managed to gather?" Xiang Qian looked at her as if to ask whether she was leaving something out, making Vector roll her eyes twice as fast.
"The underground cave system is extremely complex. Some of it formed naturally, while other parts are shelters built by locals throughout history to escape the ravages of war. On top of that, the Ten Rings have dug new tunnels. Even the locals can't describe the underground layout clearly, which makes reconnaissance difficult. More than ten local guides have already been killed or injured while helping us determine the Ten Rings' approximate location. And for various reasons, many locals are unwilling to work for the authorities. Even the local police force, which is mostly made up of locals, has refused orders several times."
Vector patiently explained a great deal to Xiang Qian, but he hadn't taken in a word of it. He already knew all this by heart. From the information he had organized on Memory Planet, he had reconstructed a fairly complete picture of the situation at the front—and in far greater detail than Vector's briefing. His attention was actually on something else.
"Have they confirmed the identity of the Ten Rings' local leader?" Xiang Qian asked casually.
"The frontline forces haven't encountered him yet, but based on descriptions from locals who've met him, there's an eighty percent chance he's Temugin, Mandarin's son."
"That's a big fish." Xiang Qian's pupils tightened slightly at the name "Mandarin," then quickly returned to normal. "Does the Bureau plan to use him to lure Mandarin out?"
"I don't know whether the Bureau has any further plans, but..." Vector hesitated. "Temugin only appeared in the Ten Rings' leadership five or six years ago. All the information we've gathered points to him being Mandarin's son, but we've never found stronger evidence to confirm it. We can't be sure what his real relationship with Mandarin is."
"It's fine. Once we catch him, we'll have plenty of time to ask." Xiang Qian spoke in his usual detached tone, though only those who knew him well could hear the thick killing intent beneath it.
The convoy sped all the way to its destination: a field camp in the mountains.
Xiang Qian got out and looked around. Suddenly noticing someone was missing, he turned to Vector, who had climbed out on the other side. "Where's your team leader?"
"Sky Team has been holding the front line. The Ten Rings have tried to break through several times, and the Tajik forces there are starting to buckle." Vector looked toward the center of the camp. Seven or eight officers in different uniforms were approaching them from the distance. "The countries participating in the joint operation have all sent people to welcome you. You've got quite a lot of clout."
Xiang Qian sneered. "What good is clout? Can I eat it? How do I make them understand that I never give discounts on weapons just to save face?"
"Face is something other people give you, and you're the one who throws it away. When people show you respect, take it, whether you want it or not." A cool voice sounded behind Xiang Qian.
At the sound, Xiang Qian stiffened involuntarily. He turned around, his neck rigid, and saw the Spear Bureau Special Task Force's team leader, known to the outside world as Weather Witch, watching him coldly from a few steps away.
Weather Witch wore a snug set of combat fatigues that showed off her tall, athletic build. A large pair of windproof goggles concealed her expression, but Xiang Qian had a feeling she wasn't pleased.
After giving Vector a perfunctory response and returning Saber's salute, Weather Witch fixed her gaze on Xiang Qian. "The orders I received said you brought new equipment designed for this situation. What is it, and where is it?"
Xiang Qian took a deep breath and tried to keep his tone light. "A drone. It's up in the sky. It had to cross the airspace of several countries, and the aviation clearances took a little longer than expected." He climbed back into the vehicle, pulled out a tablet, and quickly tapped a few times. "Oh, it'll be here any minute."
Xiang Qian showed Weather Witch the tablet screen, watching her expression carefully. But the lower half of her face showed no sign of changing. She glanced at the screen, then turned and went to meet the approaching officers from the different countries.
Watching Weather Witch walk away, Xiang Qian unconsciously let out a breath of relief. Facing her powerful presence was incredibly stressful for him—a childhood fear that had never gone away.
Vector was baffled. Why did the living hedgehog Xiang Qian seem a little nervous around their team leader? She turned to look at her teammate Saber, hoping for an explanation, but he merely shot Xiang Qian a mocking glance and followed Weather Witch, making no effort to explain anything to Vector.