Renewed Turmoil and the Attention of the Higher-Ups

Lin Xiao stared at the screen, which had already returned to calm. The coordinates where the blue trail had vanished were branded into his mind. Wolf's fingers were still trembling faintly, and the sound of him typing seemed especially abrupt in the silence. Su Ying walked to the window, lifted one corner of the blinds, and looked out at the night sliced apart by searchlights. The base seemed to have returned to normal, but something was stirring beneath that calm. Lin Xiao slowly sat back down, his fingers unconsciously rubbing the cooled casing of the encrypted transmitter. The relay station's technological level far exceeded anything this era should possess, and the decisiveness and precision with which it tracked signals felt more like a warning. He looked up at Su Ying and Wolf, his voice calm but carrying unquestionable weight. "From today onward, raise the encryption level of all external communications by three tiers. We've been watched—not by Hydra, and not by S.H.I.E.L.D. Something else."

The atmosphere at the base had changed by the next morning.

When Lin Xiao stepped out of the squad office, the first rays of sunlight were slanting into the corridor, stretching long patches of light across the concrete floor. The air carried the mingled smell of diesel and rusted metal, the base's eternal background scent. But today, something else was mixed into it—tension.

At the end of the corridor, two base security officers in gray uniforms were inspecting the wall-mounted fire hydrants. Their movements were slow, but their sharp eyes swept over everyone who passed. One of them held a tablet and occasionally lowered his head to record something. As Lin Xiao passed, the man looked up, his gaze resting on him for two seconds before shifting away.

In those two seconds, Lin Xiao clearly saw the scrutiny in the man's eyes.

In the cafeteria, the usual clamor had been replaced by hushed voices. Soldiers sat in twos and threes, leaning forward as they spoke, their voices pressed deep in their throats. Carrying his tray, Lin Xiao walked to a seat in the corner, his ears catching fragments of conversation.

"...I heard the whole lab was destroyed..."

"...Schmidt's going to be in deep trouble..."

"...Someone from above came down..."

"...There was activity over by the communications room last night..."

He sat down and scooped up some oatmeal. It had been cooked too thick, clinging to the spoon with oats' distinctive rough texture. He ate slowly, his eyes sweeping over every corner of the cafeteria. Ivan sat alone by the window with an empty tray in front of him. The old technician sat straight-backed, his expression a mixture of anger and satisfaction—his "prophecy" had come true, but the price had been the entire laboratory.

Schmidt did not appear.

At exactly eight o'clock, the base broadcast system crackled to life. A cold female voice made the announcement once in Russian and once in English. "All personnel at squad leader rank and above, report to the command center before nine o'clock. Repeat, all personnel at squad leader rank and above..."

Lin Xiao put down his spoon.

The announcement sounded formal, but that formality carried an unquestionable pressure. He picked up his tray and walked to the return station. The metal tray struck the counter with a crisp clang. Everyone in the cafeteria briefly turned their eyes toward him, then quickly looked away.

At five minutes to nine, Lin Xiao stood in the corridor outside the command center.

The smell here was more complex—disinfectant, old paper, the heated-plastic odor of electronic equipment, and cigar smoke drifting through the crack beneath a door. Soviet-era military merit displays hung on the walls. Their glass covers were dusty, and the medals inside had dulled in color. At the end of the corridor stood a heavy oak door with a brass plaque above it: "Supreme Commander's Office."

Fletcher emerged from that door.

His expression was ugly—not angry, but dark with suppressed gloom. His deep-blue uniform was perfectly pressed, but there was a faint crease at the collar, as though it had been gripped hard. When he saw Lin Xiao, he paused, then beckoned.

"Come with me."

Lin Xiao followed. The two walked one behind the other toward Fletcher's office. Their footsteps echoed through the empty corridor. Fletcher's boots made steady clicks against the tile, while Lin Xiao's military boots were softer, though their rhythm matched.

When the office door closed, it shut out every sound from outside.

Fletcher walked behind his desk without sitting down. With his back to Lin Xiao, he looked out the window. Outside lay the base training ground, where several soldiers were dismantling obstacles with mechanical speed. Sunlight fell across Fletcher's shoulders, casting a golden halo over his dark-blue uniform.

"Sit," he said, his voice devoid of emotion.

Lin Xiao sat in the chair before the desk. It was hardwood with a thin cushion, and he could feel the sharp edges of the wood beneath him. The office held a faint lingering smell of cigars, mixed with old leather and ink. Military theory and history books were arranged neatly on the shelves, though some of the gilded lettering on their spines had peeled away.

Fletcher turned around.

His eyes fixed on Lin Xiao. His gaze was direct, as if he were measuring something. The office was silent except for the steady ticking of the wall clock. Each movement of the second hand seemed louder in the stillness.

"How much do you know about the laboratory incident?" Fletcher asked.

Lin Xiao kept his expression calm. "I heard about it yesterday morning. A power system malfunction destroyed the samples, and the experiment was suspended."

"Just a power malfunction?" Fletcher leaned forward, bracing both hands against the desk. The grain of the mahogany stood out clearly beneath his palms. "This base has operated for thirty years, and we've never had power fluctuations on this scale. Yet it happened during a critical stage of the Blood Axe experiment."

"I don't understand the technical side, sir," Lin Xiao said. "But Technician Ivan warned about the aging power system before the accident."

Fletcher stared at him for several seconds, then straightened.

"Ivan." He repeated the name with a complicated note in his voice. "That old technician submitted a detailed report yesterday, along with records of the power fluctuations over the last three months. The report was sent directly to the Supreme Commander."

He walked to the bookshelf, pulled out a file from the second shelf, and tossed it onto the desk.

The file was thin, only a few pages, but the word "Confidential" was stamped across the cover in red. Lin Xiao did not touch it.

"The Supreme Commander is furious," Fletcher said. "Not over the accident itself, but over the problems it exposed—the aging infrastructure, the negligence of technical personnel, and..." He paused. "And the rumors spreading around the base lately."

Lin Xiao raised his eyes.

"What rumors, sir?"

Fletcher smiled. It was a cold smile that never reached his eyes.

"Don't play dumb, Lin. You're a squad leader. You have your own information channels. The whole base is saying the Blood Axe experiment was playing with fire, that Schmidt ignored safety for a promotion, that someone higher up wants to use this accident to purge the radicals." He walked over and looked down at Lin Xiao. "Where did those rumors start?"

The lingering cigar smell suddenly became pungent.

Lin Xiao remained seated, his back straight and shoulders relaxed. He could feel the edge of the hard chair against his thighs, hear the clock ticking, and smell the faint cologne on Fletcher—a cheap men's fragrance with an overly heavy musk note.

"I don't know where the rumors began, sir," he said. "But I heard soldiers talking. They said there were strange noises near the backup generator room before the laboratory incident. Someone saw Technician Schmidt leaving the generator room half an hour before the accident, and he looked terrible."

That was the truth.

At least part of it was—the rumor Grey Falcon had spread did contain that detail, and it was based on the real conflict between Ivan and Schmidt.

Fletcher narrowed his eyes.

"Schmidt." He repeated the name, his tone growing colder. "He's in confinement now. The Supreme Commander has ordered the complete suspension of the Blood Axe experiment, and everyone involved is undergoing an internal investigation. Security has taken over the laboratory area. No one is allowed near it."

He walked to the window, turning his back to Lin Xiao.

"But that isn't all." Fletcher's voice came from the window, slightly muffled. "Yesterday afternoon, the communications monitoring department discovered an anomaly. An external signal attempted to access the base's encrypted channels. It wasn't a routine probe, but... a targeted infiltration attempt. The signal source couldn't be traced. It bounced through seventeen virtual nodes before vanishing over international waters."

Lin Xiao's heart gave a slight jump.

"S.H.I.E.L.D.?" he asked.

"Doesn't look like it." Fletcher turned around, his face expressionless. "We're familiar with S.H.I.E.L.D.'s infiltration patterns—their technical signatures, their routing habits, their encryption protocols... They all follow recognizable patterns. This was different. Cleaner. More professional."

The office suddenly became terrifyingly quiet.

The ticking clock struck against Lin Xiao's eardrums like a hammer. From outside came the distant, muffled shouts of soldiers training, as though they came from another world.

"Security has increased surveillance," Fletcher continued. "All internal communications, all personnel movements, all supply transfers must undergo triple inspection. They're looking for a mole."

He returned behind his desk and sat down, interlacing his fingers on the tabletop. The posture made him look more like an interrogator than a superior officer.

"Lin, you were promoted not long ago." Fletcher's voice softened, but the softness carried deeper pressure. "A lot of people are watching the squad leader position. Your performance on the night of the attack, the way you handled the warehouse incident... they've put you in certain people's sights."

Lin Xiao felt the muscles in his back tighten slightly.

"Whose sights, sir?"

Fletcher did not answer directly.

"The Supreme Commander asked about you today," he said, staring at Lin Xiao's face as if observing every subtle reaction. "He reviewed your file—that crude, nearly blank file. Then he asked me two questions."

He paused, allowing the silence to spread through the room.

"The first question: Why was this Lin Xiao able to accurately predict the enemy's ambush position on the night of the attack? According to the report, you had the squad change its route three minutes beforehand, avoiding the main firing point."

Lin Xiao kept his breathing steady.

"Instinct, sir. The terrain was complicated, and that route was too suitable for an ambush. I chose a more conservative route."

"Instinct." Fletcher repeated the word, his tone giving away neither belief nor suspicion. "Second question: Why did you personally inspect that batch of 'damaged' supplies on the day of the warehouse incident? According to procedure, that should have been the logistics department's job."

"I wanted to confirm the extent of the losses, sir. That batch included equipment my squad needed."

Fletcher looked at him for a long time.

Long enough for the chanting outside to change, long enough for the minute hand to move two marks.

"Your answers are very standard," Fletcher finally said, leaning back in his chair. "So standard they sound carefully prepared."

He took a cigar from the drawer. He did not light it, merely held it beneath his nose and inhaled its scent. The tobacco aroma was strong, carrying mixed notes of caramel and earth.

"Lin, I don't care whether you really have sharp instincts or some other... ability," Fletcher said in a low voice. "I'm only telling you one thing: if you want to survive in this base, if you want to rise, you need to know which side to stand on, when to speak, and when to keep your mouth shut."

He set down the cigar and interlaced his fingers again.

"The higher-ups are deeply dissatisfied with the laboratory accident. But they aren't dissatisfied with the accident itself. They're dissatisfied with the 'loss of control' it exposed. Hydra needs order. It needs absolute control. Anything beyond its control will be seen as a threat."

He paused.

"Right now, you are a factor that may be beyond control. Some admire your capabilities, some doubt your origins, some want to use you, and some want to get rid of you." A complicated light flashed through Fletcher's eyes. "I just came from the Supreme Commander. His exact words were: 'That newly promoted squad leader—have him keep his squad in line and stay out of trouble. But also... don't let anything happen to him.'"

Lin Xiao understood the double meaning behind those words.

Protection was also surveillance.

"I understand, sir," he said.

"Do you really?" Fletcher leaned forward, lowering his voice further. "The Supreme Commander is a conservative, but he isn't stupid. He knows undercurrents are surging through the base—the radicals want to use the Blood Axe experiment to expand their influence, the moderates want to preserve the status quo, outside forces are infiltrating, and who knows how many pairs of eyes inside are watching."

He rose, walked to Lin Xiao's side, and placed a hand on his shoulder.

The hand was heavy and warm, its heat passing through the fabric of Lin Xiao's uniform.

"Lin, you're someone I promoted." For the first time, Fletcher's voice carried something close to sincerity. "I don't want you becoming a sacrifice in this power struggle. So remember this: keep a low profile, be cautious, and do your job well. Don't touch what you shouldn't touch, and don't ask what you shouldn't ask."

He withdrew his hand.

"You may go."

Lin Xiao stood, saluted, and turned toward the door. As his hand closed around the doorknob, Fletcher's voice came from behind him.

"One more thing."

Lin Xiao stopped without turning around.

"Su Ying," Fletcher said. "That new member of your squad. Her file is even cleaner than yours—clean enough to be abnormal. The Supreme Commander asked about her too."

Lin Xiao felt the cold metal of the doorknob against his palm.

"I told him she's a capable soldier, nothing more." Fletcher's voice was calm. "But you need to understand that in this base, a file that's too clean can sometimes be more suspicious than one covered in stains."

The door opened, and Lin Xiao stepped outside.

The corridor was brighter than the office, making him squint slightly. The smell of disinfectant hit him head-on, mixed with the distant hum of machinery. He walked down the corridor with steady steps, but his heart beat heavily in his chest.

Fletcher's words echoed in his mind.

The Supreme Commander's attention, security surveillance, the external signal's infiltration attempt, and the deeper meaning behind those words: "Don't let anything happen to him"...

As he reached the corner of the corridor, a figure slipped out of the shadows.

Su Ying.

She leaned against the wall with her arms folded, her eyes directed down the hallway. Her posture looked relaxed, but Lin Xiao could see the tension in her shoulder muscles—the stance of someone ready to act at any moment. Light from the overhead lamps slanted down across her face, casting sharp shadows that made her features look even more defined.

"Finished?" she asked quietly.

Lin Xiao nodded.

The two walked side by side, their boots echoing across the empty corridor. When they rounded the second corner, Su Ying suddenly spoke.

"The base's 'nails' have been active recently."

Lin Xiao looked at her from the side.

"Nails" was agent slang for spies planted inside enemy organizations. S.H.I.E.L.D. agents, agents from other intelligence organizations, even agents from other Hydra factions.

"How active?" Lin Xiao asked.

"Yesterday afternoon, three hours before communications monitoring was tightened, I saw three of them," Su Ying said. She kept her eyes forward and lowered her voice until only the two of them could hear. "One was lingering near the archives, pretending to inspect the wiring. Another was at the garbage disposal area behind the cafeteria, like he was looking for something. And the last one..."

She paused.

"Was near the outer perimeter of the laboratory lockdown zone. He wore a security uniform, but his gait was wrong—too light, like someone trained in stealth."

Several possibilities rapidly flashed through Lin Xiao's mind.

Was S.H.I.E.L.D. investigating the laboratory incident? Were other Hydra factions gathering intelligence? Or had the force behind that unknown relay station already sent people inside?

"What are they looking for?" he asked.

Su Ying shook her head.

"I'm not sure. But it definitely wasn't routine patrol or inspection." She glanced at Lin Xiao, her eyes sharp. "I watched the one at the garbage disposal area. He was searching through yesterday's laboratory waste—the sample fragments damaged by the power fluctuations. They were supposed to be destroyed together this morning."

Lin Xiao's steps paused slightly.

Sample fragments.

If that unknown force was interested in the content of the Blood Axe experiment...

"Did he find anything?" Lin Xiao asked.

"I don't know. I was too far away. I only saw him searching for about ten minutes, then leaving empty-handed," Su Ying said. "But before he left, he scanned several fragments with some kind of device. It was small, about the size of a palm, and it gave off a faint blue light."

A faint blue light.

The blue trail from the previous night's screen instantly flashed through Lin Xiao's mind.

"Anything else?" His voice remained even.

Su Ying was silent for several seconds.

Footsteps sounded from the end of the corridor. Two soldiers walked past carrying file boxes. As they passed, they saluted Lin Xiao. Their eyes paused briefly on Su Ying before looking away. Once their footsteps faded, the corridor returned to silence.

"I have a feeling they're looking for someone," Su Ying said, lowering her voice further. "It isn't general reconnaissance. It's a targeted search. The archives, communications records, personnel duty rosters... all those places have recently shown signs of unauthorized access. Security has stepped up monitoring, but the nails are highly skilled. They've avoided most routine checkpoints."

She stopped and turned to face Lin Xiao.

The corridor lights shone down from above, hiding her eyes in shadow, but Lin Xiao could feel the weight of her gaze.

"Lin." For the first time, Su Ying's voice carried something close to concern. "I don't know what you did last night, and I don't know what that signal brought here. But I can feel it. The water in this base is starting to turn muddy."

She paused.

"And right now, you're standing at the center of the whirlpool."

Lin Xiao looked at her.

Su Ying's face was especially clear in the shadows—her tightly pressed lips, slightly furrowed brows, and the light in her eyes that mixed vigilance with resolve. She could sense the changing situation and recognize the danger, but she had chosen to stand here and tell him this intelligence.

That was not something a temporary partner would do.

That was something a companion would do.

"I know," Lin Xiao said calmly. "But I don't have a choice."

Su Ying stared at him for several seconds, then nodded.

"Neither do I."

She turned and continued forward. Lin Xiao followed, and the two silently crossed the corridor. Outside, the sun had risen higher. Its light filtered through grimy glass and cast mottled shadows across the floor. Distant gunfire came from the training ground, dense and rhythmic like background music.

When they reached the squad office door, Lin Xiao stopped.

His hand rested on the doorknob, its chill passing through his skin. The office was quiet. Wolf was probably still handling the communications encryption. The smell of heated plastic from electronic equipment drifted through the gap in the door, mixed with the bitter scent of coffee.

"Su Ying," Lin Xiao said without turning around.

"Yeah?"

"If..." He paused. "If the base really begins purging the nails, if security traces something back to you..."

"They won't find anything." Su Ying's voice came from behind him, calm and steady. "My file is clean, and my identity has been handled. As long as you say nothing, no one can prove who I am."

Lin Xiao turned around.

Su Ying stood a step behind him, her hands in her pockets and shoulders relaxed, but the light in her eyes was sharp. The corridor light shone from the side, outlining her face clearly.

"Besides." She added, the corner of her mouth lifting into a faint curve. "Even if they do find something, I can handle it."

The confidence in her tone was not empty bravado.

Lin Xiao nodded and pushed open the door.

Inside the office, Wolf was bent over the computer, his eyes fixed on the screen. Complex streams of code filled the display, green characters scrolling rapidly. Hearing the door open, he looked up. His eyes were bloodshot, but his mind was focused.

"The encryption protocol upgrade is complete," Wolf said hoarsely. "I redesigned the routing algorithm and added seventeen layers of dynamic obfuscation. Even tracking on the level of yesterday's attempt will now need at least forty minutes just to crack the first layer."

Lin Xiao walked over to his side and looked at the screen.

The stream of code was complex, but he could make out its logical structure—multiple layers of nesting, dynamic keys, timestamp verification, and several encryption modules he did not recognize.

"What are these?" He pointed at the unfamiliar modules.

"I dug them up from the dark web," Wolf said, a hint of pride in his voice. "Encryption algorithms privately circulated among several retired engineers from former Soviet intelligence agencies. They were theoretically lost, but I found incomplete versions and filled in the logic myself."

He tapped the keyboard and brought up an interface.

"I also set a trap." Wolf's eyes lit up. "If someone tries to force their way through the encryption, the system will automatically trigger a false data stream and lead the tracker to preset fake coordinates. I set the coordinates at... an abandoned weather station in Greenland."

Lin Xiao looked at the coordinate point on the screen.

76 degrees north latitude, 40 degrees west longitude. There was nothing on that ice field but snow, ice, and howling winds.

"Good work," he said.

Wolf grinned. The smile was brief, but genuine. He rubbed his eyes, yawned, then grabbed the cold coffee from the desk and gulped down a mouthful.

"Oh, right." He set down the cup. "This morning, while monitoring the base's communications, I found something strange."

Lin Xiao and Su Ying both turned to look at him.

"What kind of strange?" Lin Xiao asked.

Wolf brought up another interface. The screen displayed a real-time monitoring chart of the base's internal communications traffic. Under normal circumstances, the graph should have been a steady curve, but now there were several obvious spikes.

"These are abnormal data packets." Wolf pointed at the spikes. "They're neither routine communications nor file transfers. The data volume is tiny, but the encryption level is extremely high, and... the transmission times are very regular."

He tapped the keyboard and brought up a timeline.

"Every two hours and seventeen minutes, one of these data packets is sent from inside the base to the same external IP. The IP address goes through multiple redirects. I traced it to the end, and it points to..." He paused. "New York."

New York.

Several locations flashed through Lin Xiao's mind at once—S.H.I.E.L.D. headquarters, Stark Tower, and... those secret facilities hidden in the shadows of the bustling city, places not even fully documented in S.H.I.E.L.D.'s files.

"Can you crack the contents?" Su Ying asked.

Wolf shook his head.

"The encryption level is too high. It's not a standard S.H.I.E.L.D. protocol, and it's not Hydra's either. It's more like..." He frowned. "More like some kind of privately customized high-level encryption. I tried seventeen cracking algorithms. Every one failed."

He brought up a spectrum analysis chart for the data packets.

A pale blue waveform pulsed on the screen.

Lin Xiao stared at that waveform.

Pale blue.

It was exactly the same color as the blue trail of the tracking signal on the screen last night.