Crossing the River in Secret

When the morning light finally pierced the night, the base's daily operations began.

Lin Xiao sat in a chair in the squad office, watching soldiers outside form up and head toward the training grounds. Their footsteps were perfectly synchronized, boots rustling over the gravel path, mixed with sporadic gunshots from the distant range. The air carried the greasy scent of breakfast—fried bacon and instant coffee, with the cloying tang unique to cheap artificial fat.

Three documents lay spread out before him.

The first was a copy of the base's infrastructure files, containing every non-classified section accessible within his clearance level. The yellowed pages had greasy stains around the edges and bore mixed Russian and English markings for pipeline routes, electrical distribution, and ventilation system diagrams. The second was a supplemental page from Anna Koch's oral testimony, covered in scrawled notes about the laboratory's likely supply cycles and peak energy consumption times. The third was blank, waiting to be filled.

Su Ying pushed open the door, carrying two metal trays.

"Eat." She placed one tray in front of Lin Xiao. On it were charred strips of bacon, two boiled eggs, and a slice of dry, hard bread. Coffee steamed from a tin cup, its smell sharp and unpleasant.

Lin Xiao picked up the bread, tore off a piece, and chewed it. Crumbs stuck to his tongue, carrying the sour taste of stale flour.

"The ventilation shaft is at the northeast corner of the warehouse district." Su Ying sat across from him, lowering her voice. "The entrance is sealed with an iron grate, with a rusted padlock hanging from it. Behind the grate is a vertical passage leading downward, about 1.2 meters in diameter. The inner walls have old concrete lining, with water stains and mold visible."

She paused, pulled a crumpled piece of paper from her pocket, and spread it out.

A rough but accurate pencil sketch covered the page—the warehouse district layout, the ventilation shaft's location, the coverage angles of two security cameras, and the patrol soldiers' routes and intervals.

"The cameras are old models from ten years ago. Their infrared range is limited, and they have blind spots." Su Ying tapped the two red circles on the map with her fingertip. "A patrol passes every forty-five minutes. Two men each time, carrying AK-74s. They stop near the ventilation shaft for about thirty seconds to check whether the lock is intact."

Lin Xiao studied the drawing carefully.

"Can you open the lock on the grate?"

"Yes," Su Ying said. "But it will leave traces. The lock cylinder is badly rusted. Forcing it open will leave fresh scratches on the metal. And the grate itself is slightly warped. It will make a metal scraping sound when pushed open."

"How long?"

"From picking the lock to entering the passage, then locking it again and leaving, we need at least two minutes." Su Ying calculated. "That's under perfect conditions between patrols. If we're discovered..."

She did not finish.

Lin Xiao nodded, folded up the drawing, and slipped it into his pocket.

"We won't go in yet. Today, we only need to confirm the location and security arrangements. You did well."

Su Ying glanced at him without speaking, then lowered her head and began eating her breakfast. She tore the bacon into thin strips, sandwiched them in bread, and chewed slowly, staring at her tray as though deep in thought.

The door opened again.

Wolf walked in, pale-faced and dark-eyed. He held a sandwich wrapped in wax paper but had not eaten it. He gripped it so tightly that the paper had wrinkled.

"Ivan..." he began, his voice dry. "Old electrician Ivan. I found him."

Lin Xiao set down his coffee cup.

"Talk."

"He's in the backup generator room on the west side of the warehouse district." Wolf walked to the desk without sitting down, leaning forward slightly as though ready to flee at any time. "Fifty-six years old, Ukrainian, worked at the base for twelve years. He maintains the old diesel generators and some of the aging electrical systems. He... he's very unhappy with the current technical supervisor."

"Why?"

"The supervisor is a thirty-year-old German named Schmidt." Wolf licked his lips. "Formally trained. He worships fully digital control systems. Ivan thinks those 'electronic toys' are unreliable, and Schmidt often ignores his maintenance recommendations. He's even cut Ivan's staffing."

Lin Xiao lightly tapped his fingers against the tabletop.

"You made contact with him?"

"Yeah." Wolf nodded. "I went to see him under the pretense of inspecting aging circuits. He was repairing an old generator, with grease all over his hands. He was wary when he saw me. But I... I told him my father was also an electrician and took part in emergency repairs after the Chernobyl disaster."

He paused, his gaze drifting.

"That wasn't true. My father was an accountant. But Ivan believed me. He started talking and complained for a full twenty minutes—about young people not understanding technology, digital systems being vulnerable to interference, and the base's power grid being 'full of hidden dangers.'"

"You steered him?"

"I asked what the most likely cause would be if the power system fluctuated." Wolf said. "He immediately said it would definitely be those 'damned digital voltage regulators,' along with the 'high-power equipment' in the laboratory on the second underground level. Those machines consume a shocking amount of electricity, and they hit the entire grid whenever they start up."

Lin Xiao's eyes narrowed slightly.

"He mentioned the laboratory?"

"Indirectly." Wolf said. "He said, 'Those lunatics downstairs run power-hungry monsters all day,' and that there had been a brief voltage drop last week that nearly burned out his backup generator. He reported it to Schmidt, but Schmidt said, 'The system will regulate itself. Stop worrying about it.'"

The office fell silent for several seconds.

Faint, distant chants drifted over from the training grounds.

Lin Xiao rose and walked to the hand-drawn terrain map hanging on the wall. The scale was crude, but it marked the base's major buildings and functional zones. His finger traced downward from the warehouse district and stopped over a faintly penciled square.

Second underground level.

According to the infrastructure files, it had originally been a nuclear shelter built during the Cold War. It was later converted into storage space, then sealed off for renovation three years ago. The files listed "equipment upgrades," but gave no further details.

But Anna Koch's testimony provided more information.

The laboratory received supplies once a week, always between ten at night and two in the morning on Tuesdays. Supply trucks entered through the rear gate, drove directly into the underground garage, and transported the materials down through a dedicated elevator. Its energy supply was independent—there was a backup diesel generator set—but its main electricity still came from the base's primary grid.

The most important part was the ventilation system.

When the old nuclear shelter had been designed, an emergency ventilation duct had been built to reach the surface in order to ensure air circulation. The duct was eighty centimeters in diameter, and its outlet was at the northeast corner of the warehouse district—the same ventilation shaft Su Ying had found. But according to the files, the duct had "theoretically" been sealed during the renovation.

"Theoretically." Lin Xiao repeated the word quietly.

He turned around.

"Wolf, how much do you know about the base's network system?"

Wolf froze for a moment, then nodded. "Some. The backbone network is fiber optic, but many terminal devices still use old copper cables. The security system runs on 'Hydra Internal General Version 3.2,' deployed three years ago. It has... some known vulnerabilities."

"Be specific."

"The most obvious one is a buffer overflow vulnerability." Wolf spoke faster, as though returning to familiar territory. "It's in the power monitoring subsystem. If an abnormal data packet of a specific length is sent to a specific port, the system will briefly crash. After rebooting, it enters 'safe mode' for about thirty seconds—during that time, all non-core functions are suspended, including power stabilization regulation in some areas."

Lin Xiao stared at him.

"Can you do it?"

"Yes," Wolf said. "But I need physical access to a network node. And... if it gets traced..."

"I won't have you do it directly." Lin Xiao returned to the desk and sat down. "Ivan said the laboratory equipment impacts the grid when it starts. What if... the system suffers a 'brief malfunction' at exactly the moment of that impact, causing the voltage regulation to fail?"

Wolf's eyes lit up.

"In that case, the voltage fluctuation would be amplified. The laboratory's highly sensitive equipment could..."

"Be damaged," Lin Xiao finished. "Or at the very least, the experimental data would be affected."

He picked up a pen and began writing on the blank sheet.

The plan had three steps.

First: Have Wolf make further contact with Ivan and imply that "system vulnerabilities could cause a serious accident," guiding Ivan to "happen" to discover anomalies in the power monitoring system while the laboratory conducted a high-energy experiment. Ivan would report it, and Schmidt would most likely ignore him again. That way, when the accident actually happened, Ivan would become the witness who had "warned them all along," while Schmidt would bear the blame.

Second: Through Grey Falcon—the old cook working in the cafeteria, an informant Lin Xiao had bought with two packs of cigarettes a few days ago—spread rumors among the base's rank-and-file soldiers. The message was simple: "The underground laboratory's energy supply is unstable; the last voltage fluctuation nearly caused an explosion," and "They say the higher-ups are secretly conducting dangerous experiments. If something leaks, everyone in the lower part of the base is finished."

Rumors needed no evidence. They only needed fear.

Third: an anonymous report.

Lin Xiao took an old digital recorder from the drawer. It was one of the pieces of equipment his former self had been issued as a S.H.I.E.L.D. undercover agent, and it had not been used in three years. He pressed the record button and spoke in a calm tone:

"Hydra peripheral base, coordinates east longitude XXX, north latitude XXX, is conducting high-risk biological experiments. The experiments involve unstable genetic modification technology. Multiple incidents have occurred recently, creating a risk of leakage. Reconnaissance recommended."

It lasted only thirty-seven seconds.

He stopped recording, removed the memory card, and inserted it into a matchbox-sized encrypted transmitter. This transmitter was also one of his former self's belongings, designed for single use and automatic self-destruction after sending its signal.

"This dead drop..." Wolf looked at the transmitter, his voice hesitant. "Are you sure it still works?"

"Not sure," Lin Xiao said. "But it's worth trying. If the signal is intercepted, S.H.I.E.L.D. will at least place these coordinates on its watch list. If it isn't intercepted... we lose nothing."

Su Ying had listened in silence the entire time, but she suddenly spoke.

"What about the timing?"

Lin Xiao glanced at the clock on the wall.

Nine seventeen in the morning.

"Today is Tuesday." He said, "According to Anna, the laboratory conducts 'sample viability testing' every Tuesday night. That's when its power consumption peaks. We have to finish all preparations before ten tonight."

He looked at Wolf.

"Go see Ivan and 'accidentally' let the vulnerability slip. Remember, don't tell him directly. Let him 'discover' it himself."

Wolf nodded and turned to leave.

Lin Xiao looked at Su Ying.

"Go to the warehouse district and conduct one final reconnaissance near the ventilation shaft. Confirm whether tonight's patrol schedule has changed."

Su Ying stood, cleared away the trays, and walked out of the office.

The door shut.

Lin Xiao sat alone in the room, looking at the three documents on the desk. Sunlight slanted in through the window, casting a bright patch across the tabletop as dust slowly drifted through the beam. He could hear his own heartbeat, steady and powerful.

Memories from his previous life surged through his mind.

He remembered this base's end—two years later, an experimental accident had caused a massive leak. One-third of the soldiers were infected with a mutated prion and slaughtered one another in madness. Hydra headquarters ordered the base sealed off and burned the entire area to bare earth with napalm.

There were no survivors.

Except for the "important personnel" who had been transferred away beforehand.

Lin Xiao's fingers tightened.

This time, it would not happen.

At three in the afternoon, Wolf returned.

A trace of suppressed excitement showed on his face, and he even forgot to knock when entering.

"Ivan took the bait." He lowered his voice. "I 'casually' mentioned that the network system had recently received some abnormal data packets, possibly from an external attack test. He immediately connected it to the power monitoring subsystem and said he was going to check the logs. I 'advised' him not to go, saying Schmidt would be unhappy. That only made him angrier. He said, 'I've worked here for twelve years, and some wet-behind-the-ears brat knows more about technology than I do?'"

"And then?"

"He said the laboratory would be making a 'big move' tonight, with power consumption triple the usual amount. He plans to watch the monitoring room, and if anything goes wrong with the system, he'll 'take the evidence to the commander.'" Wolf caught his breath. "I hinted that the anomaly might be very brief and that he should record it in real time. He said he had a way—an old analog recorder, not connected to the network, outside Schmidt's control."

Lin Xiao nodded.

Excellent.

At five in the afternoon, Su Ying returned as well.

She brought new information: tonight's patrol schedule had changed. Instead of every forty-five minutes, patrols would come every thirty minutes, and the number of night patrol personnel had increased. The camera near the ventilation shaft had not been replaced, but one of them had been slightly adjusted, expanding its coverage by around fifteen degrees.

"They've strengthened security," Su Ying said. "But it may not be aimed at us. It could be a routine security upgrade."

"Or they may have caught wind of something," Lin Xiao said.

He walked to the window and looked at the darkening sky outside. The sunset stained the clouds a deep red, like coagulated blood. Searchlights around the base came on one after another, their blinding beams sweeping across the barbed wire and watchtowers through the twilight.

The time had come.

At eight that night, Lin Xiao had Wolf wait near the network node. The node was in a small room at the base of the communications tower, a place rarely visited. Wolf carried a modified laptop and several signal repeaters, disguised as "maintenance equipment."

At nine that night, Su Ying infiltrated the warehouse district and lay hidden in the shadows near the ventilation shaft. She wore dark combat gear, camouflage paint smeared across her face. Her breathing was slow and even, like a stone.

At nine forty, Lin Xiao left the squad office and headed for the base's public recreation area. An old television stood there, and every night soldiers gathered around it to watch satellite broadcasts of football matches. He needed an alibi.

At nine fifty-five, the football match went into extra time. The recreation room was packed with people, filled with the mingled smells of sweat, beer, and tobacco. Light from the television flickered over the soldiers' faces while cheers and curses thundered through the room.

Lin Xiao sat in a corner, holding a can of beer without drinking it.

He counted down in his mind.

Ten o'clock sharp.

The base lights suddenly flickered.

It was slight, only half a second, and many people did not notice. But Lin Xiao saw it—the television screen went dark for an instant, and the speakers gave off a piercing burst of electrical static.

Several complaints rose from the recreation room.

"The voltage is fucking unstable again!"

"What the hell is Schmidt doing?"

The lights returned to normal. The television picture stabilized, and the commentator's voice continued.

But Lin Xiao knew what was happening on the second underground level.

At ten oh seven, the base alarm sounded.

It was not the shrill air raid siren, but a low, intermittent buzzing from underground. The soldiers in the recreation room froze and exchanged glances. The television was switched off, and officers began shouting orders, telling everyone to return to their posts and stand by.

Lin Xiao followed the crowd out of the recreation room and encountered Wolf hurrying down the corridor.

Wolf was pale, but his eyes were shining.

"It worked." He leaned close to Lin Xiao's ear, his voice extremely low. "The voltage fluctuation was amplified threefold and lasted 4.5 seconds. The laboratory's temperature control system failed. The temperature in Petri dish Number Seven spiraled out of control, causing a small-scale leak. They triggered the alarm themselves to evacuate internal personnel."

"Casualties?"

"None. But at least one-third of the samples were destroyed." Wolf said. "And... Ivan really recorded the data. He took the recorder to find the commander, ran into Schmidt on the way, and the two had a huge argument."

Lin Xiao nodded.

The first step was complete.

At eleven that night, the rumors began to ferment.

On his way back to the squad office, Lin Xiao heard two patrolling soldiers speaking in low voices:

"Did you hear? It almost blew up down there."

"They say the energy system is unstable. There was already a problem last time."

"Fuck, we sleep right above it. What if it really blows..."

"Keep it down! Don't talk nonsense!"

Fear spread like a virus. It needed no evidence, only one "what if." By midnight, an oppressive tension had spread throughout the base. The officers tried to maintain order, but suspicion and unease had appeared in the soldiers' eyes.

At one in the morning, Lin Xiao returned to the squad office.

Su Ying was already waiting there, still carrying the damp chill of night dew.

"The patrols have been reinforced," she said. "But their attention is all focused on the underground entrance and the command center. Security around the ventilation shaft has actually loosened—they think the threat came from inside, not from external infiltration."

Lin Xiao walked to the desk and took out the encrypted transmitter.

The memory card was already inserted. He pressed the switch. The transmitter emitted a faint hum, and its indicator began flashing red. Three seconds later, the red light turned green, then went dark.

The signal had been sent.

"Wolf," Lin Xiao said. "Track the signal route."

Wolf had already opened his laptop. Complex waveform graphs and spectrum analysis filled the screen. His fingers flew across the keyboard while his eyes remained fixed on the display.

"The signal is out... hopping now... first node, Moscow... second, London... third, New York... fourth..."

He suddenly stopped.

"What is it?" Lin Xiao asked.

"The signal was intercepted." Wolf's voice trembled slightly. "But not by one of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s standard relay stations. This node's encryption protocol... I've never seen anything like it. Its level is extremely high, and... it's actively tracking the signal source."

The waveform graphs on the screen fluctuated violently, as though some force were forcibly twisting them.

"It's reverse-engineering the relay path." Sweat appeared on Wolf's forehead. "It's fast... too fast... this isn't civilian or conventional military technology at all..."

Lin Xiao walked behind him and looked at the screen.

On the signal path map, the red point representing the signal they had transmitted was being closely pursued by a blue trail. With every hop, the blue trail drew closer to the red point.

"Cut it off," Lin Xiao said.

Wolf pressed the hotkey.

The red dot on the screen suddenly vanished.

But the blue trail did not stop. It continued forward, circling the spot where the red dot had last disappeared for three seconds before... beginning to trace back in reverse.

"It's looking for us." Wolf's voice was almost inaudible.

The blue trail retraced the signal's route, backing up node by node. New York, London, Moscow... With every step back, it drew closer to the base's physical location.

Lin Xiao stared at the screen, his heart pounding heavily in his chest.

There had been nothing like this in his memories of his previous life.

S.H.I.E.L.D.'s technology could not possibly have reached this level. Hydra? That was impossible too—if they had possessed signal-tracking capabilities of this caliber, the original owner of this body would have been exposed as a spy long ago.

Then... who was it?

The blue trail stopped at the third-to-last node.

It circled there, as if hesitating, or perhaps waiting for something. Spectrum analysis on the screen showed that the node was receiving a massive stream of encrypted data, source unknown, destination unknown.

Then the blue trail suddenly changed direction and jumped toward an entirely unfamiliar set of coordinates.

It vanished.

The screen returned to calm, leaving only the faint fluctuations of background noise.

The office fell into dead silence.

Only the hum of the computer fan and the suppressed breathing of the three men remained.

Outside the window, the base's searchlights slowly swept past, casting shifting shadows across the walls. In the distance came the low, continuous roar of diesel generators, like the heartbeat of some enormous beast.

Lin Xiao slowly let out a breath.

The plan had succeeded—the laboratory accident, the spreading rumors, the external pressure that was about to arrive.

But that unknown relay station... that tracker with its terrifyingly high level of encryption...

What was that?