The ninety-eighth floor.
Bei Huai set his teacup on the desk. The tea had been poured two hours ago and had long since gone cold. He had not taken a single sip.
"Young master," the butler's voice came from behind him, "all aerial exits have been sealed off. Troops have also moved into the underground parking garage."
Bei Huai did not turn around. He stared at the three aircraft outside the window, his lips moving slightly.
"What about Northern Sky?"
"Sealed off."
"The freight passage?"
"Also sealed off."
Bei Huai finally turned around. He looked terrible, his eyes sunken, as though he had not slept for days.
He kept twisting the ring bearing the Bei Family crest on his finger. The sound of metal rubbing against skin was gratingly loud in the quiet office.
"Prepare Plan B."
The butler froze for a moment. "Young master, Plan B requires..."
"I said prepare it."
Forty minutes later.
On the seventh basement level of the Bei Group building, inside a passage that had never appeared on any architectural blueprint.
Bei Huai had changed into an ordinary gray jacket and put on a baseball cap. He hurried along behind two personal guards.
The end of the passage connected to the underground utility network beneath the neighboring commercial complex.
The Bei Family had spent three years secretly digging this route. Even the workers who had built it were sent overseas afterward, then transported aboard a freight spacecraft to the Bei Family's secret base on the moon.
"The exit is just around the next corner," a guard said quietly.
Bei Huai nodded. His plan was simple: blend into the crowds in the neighboring complex, then leave Northern City aboard a civilian aircraft arranged in advance.
His destination was an unremarkable little island nation in the Southern