Planning Ahead

Lin Xiao turned off the computer screen, leaving only the faint moonlight filtering in through the window. Nightingale sat on the edge of the folding bed, absently rubbing her knee with her fingers. Su Ying walked over from the door and stood behind Lin Xiao, her shadow cast upon the wall like a silent barrier. "Seventy-two hours," Lin Xiao said, his voice unusually clear in the silence. "We need a plan." He went to the wall, took down the base layout, and spread it across the table. The paper had yellowed under the desk lamp, its lines and markings resembling a spiderweb, with them standing at its center.

The edges of the map were worn, and several tears along its creases had been barely held together with transparent tape. Lin Xiao pressed his finger onto the Third Action Squad's section at the center, where a small square had been circled in red ink. His fingertip moved along several dotted lines—the base's underground pipeline system, marked with years and maintenance records, the writing already blurred.

"Wolf." Lin Xiao did not look up. "Go get Grey Falcon. Avoid the patrol routes. Use the entrance to Ventilation Duct Three."

Wolf nodded and disappeared through the door. The sound of his footsteps faded down the corridor, absorbed by the walls into dull echoes.

Su Ying walked to the window and lifted one corner of the blinds. Outside lay the base's nighttime training grounds. Several searchlights swept across the empty sand, their beams carving through the darkness and stirring faint dust. In the distance, the command tower loomed like a tombstone against the night, a few lights glowing in its upper windows like sleepless eyes.

"Where will they strike?" Su Ying asked in a low voice.

Lin Xiao's finger stopped at a point on the map—the armory. It was a semi-underground structure marked: "Zone A-7, Level Two Clearance Required." Next to it, several words had been written in pencil: Inventory updated last week. Assault rifles ×120. Pistols ×80. Ammunition crates ×300.

"Here," Lin Xiao said. "Control the armory, and you control the base's firepower distribution. And here—" His finger shifted to another location. "The command communications center. Cut this off, and the base becomes deaf and blind."

On the map, the command communications center had been drawn as a hexagon, surrounded by the note: "Electromagnetic shielding layer, thickness 30 cm." Beside it was a handwritten remark: Backup generator on Underground Level Two. Fuel reserve: 72 hours.

Nightingale rose from the folding bed and walked to the table. Her face looked pale beneath the desk lamp, but her eyes were bright. "I can try to infiltrate the security system," she said, "but I need a physical access point. The base's main server is on the third underground level of the command center. It has independent power and cooling systems."

"How risky?" Su Ying asked.

"Very," Nightingale answered honestly. "The system has intrusion detection. Once an alarm is triggered, they'll immediately pinpoint my location. But I can try getting in through peripheral devices—like the network nodes for the surveillance cameras. Those devices usually have weaker security protocols."

Lin Xiao nodded. "Start with that. We need to know the Radical Faction's personnel movements, especially the movements of the Special Elimination Squad."

A soft knock came from outside—three short taps and one long one, their agreed signal.

Su Ying opened the door, and Wolf slipped inside with another figure. It was Grey Falcon, a man around thirty with a scar stretching from his brow bone to the chin, making his expression perpetually grim. He wore the base's combat uniform, but the cuffs and knees were visibly worn, as if they had repeatedly scraped against rough surfaces.

Grey Falcon's gaze swept through the room, lingering on Nightingale for a second before turning to Lin Xiao. "Captain."

"Sit," Lin Xiao said. "We don't have much time, so I'll keep it short."

The five of them gathered around the table, the circle of desk-lamp light barely covering the map. Lin Xiao could smell several different scents—Su Ying's faint sweat mixed with gun oil and leather; the ozone smell peculiar to electronic equipment clinging to Wolf; disinfectant and old paper on Nightingale; and earth and rust emanating from Grey Falcon's combat uniform, as though he had just crawled out of some forgotten corner.

"We've been put on the purge list," Lin Xiao said bluntly. "It'll be carried out within seventy-two hours. The Special Elimination Squad is handling it."

Grey Falcon's pupils contracted, though his face remained expressionless. Wolf's fingers tapped lightly against the table, fast and restless. Nightingale's breathing grew so faint it was almost inaudible.

"Waiting passively leaves us only one road—death," Lin Xiao continued. "So we need a plan."

His finger tapped the map, his nail scraping across the paper with a faint rustle.

"First, Nightingale will handle technical infiltration." Lin Xiao looked at Nightingale. "You need to monitor the base security system, with emphasis on the Radical Faction's communications and movement logs. The Special Elimination Squad's roster, equipment configuration, operation schedule—any relevant information, get it immediately."

Nightingale nodded. "I need a better computer and network access equipment. The backup machine Wolf gave me before has a processor that's too old. It can't run deep-scan programs."

"Wolf," Lin Xiao said, "assist Nightingale. Dismantle that encrypted communications terminal in the warehouse and use its parts to assemble a temporary workstation. Keep it concealed. Don't leave traces."

Wolf licked his chapped lips. "That terminal was issued just last month. They'll notice if it's missing."

"Replace the parts with old components," Lin Xiao said. "Put the removed parts back in and make it look like a malfunction. Write a maintenance report saying water got into it and caused a short circuit, so it needs to be returned to the manufacturer."

"Understood."

"Second." Lin Xiao's finger moved to another part of the map. "Wolf and Grey Falcon, you're responsible for spreading information."

Grey Falcon raised his head, his scar looking deeper beneath the light. "What information?"

"News that the Radical Faction is about to make a move," Lin Xiao said. "But be careful how you do it. Don't directly mention a 'purge list.' Just say the atmosphere has been strange lately, that someone saw the Special Elimination Squad secretly gathering and equipping live ammunition. Target the Conservative Faction and neutral soldiers, especially those with family outside the base."

Wolf frowned. "Wouldn't that alert them?"

"That's exactly the point," Lin Xiao said. "We need to create panic and vigilance. If the Conservative Faction and neutral soldiers start getting wary, the Radical Faction's actions will be constrained. They can't deal with everyone at once."

Grey Falcon fell silent for several seconds before speaking. "I can reach out to a few people. Old Jack in logistics—his son studies in New York. And Marianne, a nurse in the infirmary—her husband is a major in the Conservative Faction. If these people learn their families might be in danger, they'll act."

"But be careful," Lin Xiao warned. "Don't expose the source of the information. Use phrases like 'I heard' and 'there are rumors,' create the impression that everyone is talking about it. If someone presses you, say it was gossip you heard in the cafeteria or the showers."

Grey Falcon nodded, his fingers absently rubbing the scar on his face. He had received that scar during a mission two years earlier, when he had covered his teammates' retreat and an enemy knife had slashed his face. Since then, he had become taciturn, but Lin Xiao knew this man's loyalty and execution were beyond reproach.

"Third." Lin Xiao looked at Su Ying. "You'll assess our combat strength and prepare equipment."

Su Ying leaned forward slightly, the muscles in her arms tightening like a cheetah ready to pounce. "What do we need?"

"Emergency weapons," Lin Xiao said. "Pistols, knives, smoke grenades, flashbangs—portable, concealable equipment that can quickly neutralize enemies at close range. Also, prepare several sets of civilian clothes and fake IDs. If we need to evacuate, we can't leave in base uniforms."

"The armory has stock," Su Ying said. "But it requires clearance."

"Use my squad captain clearance." Lin Xiao took a magnetic card from his pocket and placed it on the table. "Every afternoon at four, the armory does routine inventory and cleaning. That's when there are the fewest guards. Go in under the name of claiming training equipment. Take only one or two items each time, over multiple trips. Avoid the surveillance blind spots. I've already marked several locations."

Lin Xiao tapped several points on the map, each marked in small letters: Surveillance blind spot. Duration approximately 3–5 minutes.

Su Ying picked up the magnetic card. Its metal surface reflected the desk lamp, leaving a bright streak across her palm. "Where do we store the equipment?"

"Here." Lin Xiao pointed to a location on the map—the base's abandoned Wastewater Treatment Plant, located on Underground Level Four and unused for years. "The entrance is through the maintenance shaft behind the boiler room. The ladder is badly rusted, but it can still be used. There's a dry pipe room below, with enough space to hide the equipment."

Wolf cut in. "I inspected that place last year. The ventilation system is broken, and the air doesn't circulate. You'll run out of oxygen if you stay too long."

"It's only a temporary storage point," Lin Xiao said. "We won't remain there long. Also, Su Ying, you need to assess the squad's current strength. How many people can we trust? How many have combat experience? How many will break under pressure?"

Su Ying closed her eyes, then opened them several seconds later. "Including the five of us, there are eight people we can trust completely. That includes Old Gun—the sniper. He has a strange temper, but he shoots straight and has stable nerves. There's also Anvil, a close-combat specialist, though he lacks tactical awareness. The remaining three are ordinary soldiers. Their training is average, but their loyalty isn't a problem."

"Eight people," Lin Xiao repeated, his fingers tapping the table. "Against the Special Elimination Squad, and possibly the entire Radical Faction."

A brief silence settled over the room. The desk-lamp bulb gave off a soft buzz. The current was unstable, making the light flicker faintly. Outside, the engine of a distant patrol vehicle rumbled low and steadily, like the breathing of some beast.

"Fourth," Lin Xiao said, breaking the silence. "I'll contact Fletcher."

Everyone's eyes focused on him.

Grey Falcon spoke first. "Too risky. Fletcher is senior Conservative Faction leadership, but no one can guarantee he isn't part of the purge plan. If he chooses to protect himself and hands us over—"

"Then we're dead," Lin Xiao said calmly. "But if we don't fight for allies, we're dead anyway."

He stood and walked to the window. A thread of cold wind slipped through the blinds, stirring the hair over his forehead. The searchlight outside swept past, briefly illuminating the side of his face before darkness swallowed it again.

"Fletcher isn't a fool," Lin Xiao said. "He got where he is today not through loyalty, but instinct. He must have sensed the change in atmosphere at the base. What I need to do isn't tell him directly about the purge plan, but give him a warning—a warning vague enough, yet enough to make him cautious."

"What will you say?" Su Ying asked.

"I'll say I've heard some rumors lately." Lin Xiao turned, leaning his back against the windowsill. "The Special Elimination Squad has been training in secret and has nonstandard weapons. Several Radical Faction officers have been meeting frequently, discussing 'disciplinary rectification' and 'resource redistribution.' I don't need him to believe it immediately. I only need to make him suspicious and start investigating."

Wolf frowned. "What if he investigates and discovers we spread the rumors?"

"Then it means he's on our side," Lin Xiao said. "Because if he chose to report us, he wouldn't need to investigate. He could just bring people here and arrest us."

The logic was brutal, but flawless.

Nightingale suddenly spoke. Her voice was soft, yet exceptionally clear in the silence. "There's another problem."

Everyone looked at her.

Nightingale slid her fingers across the laptop touchpad. The screen lit up, displaying a string of complex code and waveform graphs. "While I was trying to infiltrate the base system," she said, "I found something... abnormal."

She turned the screen toward the others.

On the waveform graph, several green data streams ran smoothly, representing the base's normal network activity. Yet deep beneath those green lines was a red line, so fine it was nearly drowned out by background noise. It flickered at a regular rhythm, sending a tiny data packet every thirty seconds.

"What is that?" Su Ying asked.

"An independent subnet," Nightingale said. "It's isolated by multiple layers of encryption and hidden in the base system's underlying architecture. Its signal signature... is unusual."

She enlarged a section of the waveform. The red data packet broke down into smaller components, each bearing a unique encryption identifier. Nightingale pointed to one of them—a hexadecimal string: 0x48, 0x59, 0x44, 0x52, 0x41.

"HYDRA," Wolf murmured. "Hydra."

"There's more," Nightingale said. "The style of this encryption protocol is very similar to the data packet from that intercepted report I analyzed before. The same layered structure, the same routing algorithm, the same... aggression."

She pulled up another file: the record from several days ago when she had analyzed Lin Xiao's anonymous report being intercepted. The two waveform graphs appeared side by side, their red data streams nearly overlapping.

"You mean," Grey Falcon's voice deepened, "the force that hijacked the captain's report planted a backdoor in the base system?"

"More like a surveillance node," Nightingale corrected. "This independent subnet is actively scanning all data traffic inside the base. Including—" She paused. "Including our local communications just now."

The room suddenly seemed colder.

Lin Xiao could feel his heartbeat quickening, blood rushing against his eardrums with a buzzing sound. He looked at the map on the table. Its lines and markings seemed to come alive, becoming a real spiderweb. They were not only standing at its center—they were covered by another, larger web.

"Scan range?" Lin Xiao asked, keeping his voice steady.

"Not certain," Nightingale said. "Judging by packet size and frequency alone, it covers at least seventy percent of the base's network nodes. Possibly communications logs, surveillance footage, access records... even radio calls over encrypted frequencies."

Su Ying's hand rested at her waist, the hilt of a knife peeking from her sleeve. "Could they hear what we just said?"

"If our communications passed through the base network, then it's possible," Nightingale said. "But I used the encrypted equipment Wolf assembled. The signal went through multiple hops and disguises. In theory, they can only detect encrypted communications, not crack the content."

"In theory," Grey Falcon repeated, his tone edged with sarcasm.

Wolf suddenly stood and went to the corner of the room, where several electronic devices had been piled up. He crouched down and began rapidly dismantling an old radio terminal, deftly unplugging cables and exposing the circuit board beneath.

"What are you doing?" Su Ying asked.

"Checking." Wolf did not look up. "If there's a surveillance node in the system, all our equipment may have backdoors planted in it. This terminal, Nightingale's computer, even—" His movements suddenly stopped.

From a gap in the circuit board, he pinched out an extremely tiny black particle.

It was only the size of a grain of rice, smooth on the surface and reflecting a metallic glint beneath the light. Wolf placed it in his palm and examined it closely with a magnifying glass. At one end were faint traces of a connector, as though it had been soldered in place.

"What is it?" Lin Xiao asked.

Wolf's face darkened. "A miniature signal transmitter. Its operating frequency... is outside the base's surveillance bands. It's been transmitting all along, but our equipment couldn't detect that frequency."

He went to the window and raised the transmitter toward the night sky outside. A few seconds later, he lowered his hand, his voice dry. "The signal is pointing... northeast. New York."

The room fell deathly silent.

The desk lamp seemed to grow dimmer, its buzzing harsher. The searchlight outside swept past again, its beam slicing through gaps in the blinds and casting alternating stripes of brightness and darkness across the floor like prison bars.

Lin Xiao stared at the black particle in Wolf's palm, feeling a chill rise from the soles of his feet and crawl up his spine to the top of his head. Several images flashed through his mind: the anonymous report being intercepted, its encryption style pointing to a private project within S.H.I.E.L.D.; the purge list Nightingale had cracked, its order source marked "direct authorization from senior leadership"; and now, the independent subnet deep in the base system, along with this transmitter hidden inside their equipment.

All the clues began to connect, like puzzle pieces slowly forming a complete image.

But that image was more complicated, and more dangerous, than he had imagined.

"They know we're here," Grey Falcon said, uncertainty appearing in his voice for the first time. "They've been watching us all along."

"More than watching." Nightingale stared at the transmitter. "They're guiding them. This transmitter's signal is like a beacon, telling those outside our exact location."

Su Ying clenched the knife, her knuckles turning white. "Who planted it?"

Wolf shook his head. "I don't know. This terminal came from the warehouse last month, brand-new in sealed packaging. But if someone tampered with it before it left the factory..."

"Then that means," Lin Xiao took over, "we've been on someone else's chessboard since the day we entered this base."

He walked to the table and pressed his fingers onto the map. The paper was cold and rough beneath his touch. His eyes swept over the markings—the armory, command center, laboratory, evacuation routes. Every plan, every arrangement, every preparation for the worst suddenly seemed so fragile.

But fragile did not mean useless.

Lin Xiao raised his head, his gaze passing over everyone in the room. Su Ying's eyes were steady, like tempered steel. Wolf's brow was tightly furrowed, but his fingers had stopped trembling. Grey Falcon's scar looked like a medal beneath the light. Nightingale's breathing was even, her eyes fixed on the screen as her mind raced.

"The plan remains unchanged," Lin Xiao said, his voice clear and firm. "But move the timetable up. Nightingale, how long will it take you to infiltrate that independent subnet?"

Nightingale calculated. "If I go all out and bypass the encryption layers, probably... six to eight hours. But it's very risky. If they trace me back—"

"Do it," Lin Xiao cut her off. "We need to know what they're looking for, who they're watching, and what their ultimate objective is. Wolf, assist Nightingale. At the same time, check all our equipment and find out whether there are any more transmitters. Grey Falcon, start the information-spreading plan tonight. Don't wait until tomorrow. Su Ying, move up the equipment preparations as well. Complete the first round of collection within two hours."

He paused and drew a deep breath.

"As for me," he said, "I'm going to find Fletcher now."

Su Ying seemed about to say something, but Lin Xiao raised a hand to stop her.

"There's no time to hesitate," he said. "If that independent subnet is really scanning all communications, the purge operation may be closer than we thought. We need allies, clearance, everything that can increase our chances of survival."

He picked up the magnetic card from the table and slipped it into his pocket. Its metal edge pressed against his thigh, giving him a tangible sensation of reality.

"Remember," Lin Xiao said, looking at everyone. "The seventy-two-hour countdown has already begun. But the real battle may have started before we even realized it."

He walked toward the door, his hand resting on the handle. The metal was cold, like some kind of warning.

Then he pulled open the door and stepped into the darkness of the corridor.