The top secret appendix reached the Liaison Office; Gwen Stacy checked the certificate register first

Thin, translucent paper was pasted onto the cold-rolled steel tabletop, with slightly curled edges.

[Director's Office, Confidential One Group] Eight handwritten characters were embedded in the back of the paper, the ink deep and dark, clearly indicating that it had been there for some years.

Gwen Stacy didn't reach out to take the paper. Instead, her gaze moved three inches upward from the paper and landed on the forehead of Xiao Li, who was lying on the ground.

Xiao Li knelt on the ground, his shoulders hunched tightly, and a large patch of water was visible on the back of his uniform.

The only sound in the confidential room was the hum of the offline Mainframe cooling system, tapping against the empty steel plate sandwich panel.

Gwen Stacy pulled open the drawer in front of her and took out a hard plastic evidence folder.

"Stand up and speak."

Gwen Stacy's voice was low and so calm that it was impossible to discern her emotions.

Xiao Li braced himself on the ground with his palms, his knuckles turning bluish-white from the exertion, and his movements to get up were somewhat slow.

He straightened up, still slightly hunched over, and looked down at the crack in the floor tiles in front of him.

Gwen Stacy used tweezers to pick up the half-page of paper, placed it in the transparent evidence bag, flattened it, and sealed it.

"From which book did you tear this half-page?"

Gwen Stacy turned to look at the secure metal cabinet next to the long table.

Xiao Li's lips moved, his voice hoarse.

"Director Hui, it's the 'Supplementary Register of Unconventional Access Passes' that was sealed away in December of the year before last."

"Since it's a supplementary register, where does the main register belong?"

"The original register was handed over to the archives in Zero Storage Room that year. According to regulations, three copies should have been made: two copies to be destroyed and one copy to be kept as a record."

Gwen Stacy pulled open the third drawer of the safe, her knuckles gliding across the neatly stacked hardcover books.

"The scraped-off writing on page three of this ' Special Credential Stock Movement Register' —was that also filled in by you?"

Xiao Li Li's right hand, hanging by her side, curled up slightly, her index finger knuckle unconsciously pressing against the stitches on the outside of her thigh.

This slight pause did not escape Gwen Stacy's eyes.

Gwen Stacy pulled out the dark blue book and slammed it down in the center of the long table.

"Open it and see for yourself."

Xiao Li hesitated for a moment, then stepped forward.

His fingers trembled slightly as they touched the edge of the paper.

The page was turned to the one from forty-seven days ago, and then stopped.

The number written on the scratch is clearly visible: SEC-L-03.

Below the irregularly shaped personal seal in the processing section, there is a line of small regular script code less than two millimeters high: REC-092.

Xiao Li's gaze froze on that line of code, and his breath hitched.

"Director, this code..."

"You recognize me?"

Gwen Stacy stood with her arms crossed beside the table, the cold light falling from above, casting a light gray shadow under her eyes.

Xiao Li lowered his head and squeezed out a dry reply.

"I recognize it."

"REC is an abbreviation for the old organizational structure of a clerk, and 092 is the employee number of the subordinate when he was in charge of the files in Zero Storage Room."

"Your employee number stayed with you for five years until you were transferred to the Liaison Office, at which point it was cancelled."

Gwen Stacy glanced at the time on her terminal.

"Forty-seven days ago, someone used your old code to transfer a special access certificate from the Liaison Office."

"On the same day, this certificate was tucked into a Top Secret appendix of the Department of Technology."

"This morning, it was handed to my briefcase as the key to unlock the backup port of the Reconnaissance Satellite No. 7."

Gwen Stacy looked up, her gaze piercing straight into Xiao Li's brow.

"Xiao Li, by handing over this half-page, are you trying to tell me that the accounts you handled back then were originally meant for the Director's Office, or are you trying to tell me that you still have the private key to Confidential One Group?"

These words were spoken very softly, yet they perfectly connected the dots.

According to the Management Committee's rules, keeping a secret inventory is a capital offense, misusing old codes is a capital offense, and collusion between insiders and outsiders is an even more serious crime that leads to the confiscation of property.

Xiao Li's legs went weak and he was about to kneel down again when Gwen Stacy reached out and supported his elbows.

Gwen Stacy's fingers pinched the nerves in his forearm through the fabric, not with much force, but enough to keep him from kneeling.

"Kneeling is only done in court; the Liaison Office doesn't follow that rule."

Gwen Stacy released her grip and pulled out a wet wipe to clean her fingertips.

"Explain yourself clearly. Who told you to leave this half-page at the bottom?"

Xiao Li leaned against the edge of the table, catching his breath. Beads of sweat rolled down his forehead and hung on his chin.

"Director, please understand, I truly have no illicit dealings with outsiders."

"Shortly after the Great Purge, on the eve of the sealing of Zero Storage Room, the Internal Security and the Inspection Office went into the warehouse every day to destroy the files."

"Back then, the archives were in complete chaos. More than three thousand volumes of old files were being burned every day. Anything with the words 'Forty-Second Execution ' on it, whether public or private, was being pushed into the furnace."

"The Confidential One Group sent someone with the approval slip to retrieve the inventory list, specifically requesting the original verification forms for special vouchers."

"My subordinate was in charge of supervising the furnace at the time, and I personally watched them throw the reimbursement forms into the shredder."

"This half-page of paper was a piece of paper stuck in the gap of the shredder's rollers, and it fell into a dead corner of the tray."

Xiao Li raised his hand to wipe his face, his fingers filled with cold sweat.

"When I saw the seal of the Confidential One Group on it, I was terrified. I was afraid that if the accounts didn't match up, I'd have to use a scapegoat. That's why I mustered up the courage to pick it out and hide it in a hidden compartment."

"After being transferred to the Liaison Office, all the standard seals and spare keys under my command had already been returned in accordance with regulations, and even the old personal seal of the former record officer was melted down with copper in front of me."

Gwen Stacy listened to his account without showing the slightest emotion.

"Since the key has been handed over, the seal has been sealed, and the L-03 certificate issued 47 days ago has been released, why does your REC-092 appear in the processing column?"

Xiao Li quickly defended himself.

"This is a frame-up!"

The inventory of materials left over from Zero Storage Room has been sealed in the old document library on the fourth basement floor.

"The only people who can access my old code are the old folks who have gone into that documentation library and checked the handover list from back then!"

"He didn't use the title of an active-duty agent; he simply chose a deactivated account to fill the blank, just so that the passage could be opened without anyone noticing. Even if the records were checked later, it would just be a dead end!"

Gwen Stacy, waiting for him to finish speaking.

Words can be fabricated, but interests and consequences cannot be faked.

While Xiao Li was making his point, his eyes kept darting around that dark blue book, and his right index finger kept fidgeting.

That wasn't just a sign of being terrified.

That was a physiological habit of a seasoned file manager, subconsciously calculating the logic of the ledgers under extreme stress.

He concealed something, but he was also genuinely afraid of dying.

In this building shrouded in mystery, a nobody who knows how to protect himself and dares to hoard the tattered pages is actually easier to control than those meticulous assassins.

Gwen Stacy raised her hand and closed the dark blue book.

The hardcover closed with a dull thud.

"I've taken the original copy."

Gwen Stacy picked up the red ink pen on the table and drew a straight seal line on the handover receipt signed by Xiao Li.

"From this moment forward, the physical access to all paper documents in the Confidential Documents Office is now under the direct control of the Director's Office."

Xiao Li looked ashen-faced and lowered his head.

"Understood."

You don't understand.

Gwen Stacy put the notebook into her hand-held lead case and locked it with a click using three combination locks.

"I didn't arrest you and send you to the Inspection Office, not because I believed your testimony."

"It's because you just said something correct."

"The person who filled in the blanks with code from the dead is still walking around the building."

Gwen Stacy turned around and pushed the sealed box into a hidden compartment under the long table.

"The appendix sent by the Department of Technology has been returned to the Research and Development Office as originally planned."

"Just use the same excuse you just gave, and claim to the public that the offline verification machine's Motherboard is burnt out and needs to be disassembled and inspected for 24 hours."

"You'll have to deal with that unfamiliar clerk in the mailroom personally. Make sure your words are perfectly precise; if you give yourself away..."

Gwen Stacy glanced at him sideways.

Xiao Li straightened his back and said in a low voice, "I guarantee with my life that I will not divulge a single word."

"Go."

Gwen Stacy waved.

Xiao Li felt as if he had been granted a pardon and bowed as he retreated toward the iron gate.

The door hinges turned, emitting a faint mechanical friction sound.

Just before the door was sewn shut, Gwen Stacy's voice came through again.

"Close the door tightly. Have Xiao Zhang stand guard outside. No one is allowed to approach within ten meters of the confidential room."

"Yes."

The iron gate finally closed tightly.

The room fell into absolute silence once more.

Gwen Stacy stood in front of the long table, not in a hurry to access the system.

She reopened the hidden compartment and took out the dark blue book she had just placed inside.

When Xiao Li was flipping through this booklet, his finger lingered too long on the page from forty-seven days ago.

But Gwen Stacy saw it clearly.

As Xiao Li turned the pages of the book, an unnatural crease appeared on the bottom half of the pages due to dampness.

That crease didn't appear on the forty-seventh day.

But it appears on the very next page.

Gwen Stacy lowered her eyes and reached out to turn the thick, slightly damp, and wrinkled page.

The header of this page was originally a blank summary table of material verification.

However, in the physical handover section at the bottom of the form, a bright red square stamp was clearly affixed.

Above the stamp, a handwritten transfer batch number is printed in anti-counterfeiting ink.

[Assets transferred: Special External Liaison Certificate, Section L, twelve sets in total.]

Gwen Stacy's fingertips traced the batch number, pausing on the right-hand side in the recipient's column.

It wasn't covered by the broken sword of the Black Crow Guard, nor by the sealing wax of the Department of Technology.

Two anti-counterfeiting seals side by side are clearly visible under cool white fluorescence.

On the left is the Management Committee's standard filing confirmation stamp.

On the right side, in the recipient's column, there is a line of neat and upright small regular script handwritten in a fountain pen.

The handwriting was steady, with a touch of the crispness characteristic of official document approvals.

[Receiving Department: Director's Office]

At the very bottom of that line of small characters, there was an oval-shaped dark blue seal.

Three characters are engraved in the center of the seal face.

--Secret Confidential One.

The heavy lead door of the Liaison Office room closed behind me.

The room was devoid of any unnecessary furnishings, except for a long cold-rolled steel table and an offline data terminal on the table, completely disconnected from the external network.

Gwen Stacy pushed the dark gray data Chip, which she had just retrieved from the transceiver station, into the card reader slot.

The Chip surface is affixed with a yellow seal from the Department of Technology, and Claire's signature is pressed against the lower right corner of the seal.

The terminal screen flickered slightly, and a few lines of tightly packed code were reflected in Gwen Stacy's eyes by a pale blue glow.

[Document Category: Appendix to Department of Technology Document No. 79, Top Secret Technology for Magic Testing]

[Authorized Security Classification: Level 2 Internal Control]

[CC to: Director's Office Direct Liaison Office]

[Attachment Content: Backup Access Port Protocol for the Orbit Control Room of Satellite No. 7]

Gwen Stacy did not click to unzip the flashing protocol program.

She pulled out a chair and sat down, placing her hands on the cold steel casing of the mechanical keyboard, her knuckles steady.

Wanda delivered this item, ostensibly as handing over a knife that could counter Monk.

Monk's unauthorized lowering of the orbit of Satellite No. 7 in the T-03 Defense Zone to monitor Berth C-9 at Liaison Office liaison office is an open and obvious scheme.

With this backup port, the Liaison Office can bypass the layers of Defense Zone Command and directly access all the raw remote sensing logs recorded by Satellite No. 7 over the past 72 hours.

But that's never how the Management Committee operates.

The underlying ports of the Department of Technology are not public channels.

Once any field department connects to this dedicated line, it's equivalent to leaving a permanent acknowledgment node on the other party's firewall.

If an investigation were to be conducted afterward, the Department of Technology could easily claim that this was merely a "routine technical collaboration," while the Liaison Office had "illegally overstepped its authority by misappropriating reconnaissance assets."

When the mines in the defense zone fail to detonate, the Liaison Office office will instead be choked by a rope from the Department of Technology.

Gwen Stacy lowered her eyes and lightly tapped the edge of the keyboard twice with her fingertips.

Xiao Li, standing by the door, looked somewhat tense.

"Director, the Seventh Laboratory is pressing for a signed receipt."

"Secretary Claire said that the minister specifically instructed that there were only four hours left in the orbital descent window for Satellite No. 7. After that time, the Defense Zone Dispatch Center would perform routine data overwrite."

Gwen Stacy turned and glanced at Xiao Li.

Xiao Li immediately fell silent, lowered his head slightly, and clasped his hands together on his uniform abdomen.

"Is the person who delivered the receipt still outside?" Gwen Stacy asked.

"He's waiting at the mailroom; he's a newly transferred clerk, and he looks unfamiliar," Xiao Li replied.

"Let him wait."

Gwen Stacy looked away and brought up the system's underlying architecture self-test tool.

Instead of touching the main file of the appendix, she retrieved the hexadecimal security handshake protocol from the lowest level of the data packet.

Before any technical ports are distributed, they must rely on a root certificate approved by the Management Committee.

Without a certificate, the port is a dead code.

With a certificate, every data throughput leaves an indelible physical mark on the certificate issuing authority.

Gwen Stacy pulled down the code window and brought up the detailed properties page of the accompanying certificate.

The cursor on the screen moved, and a line of gray characters appeared.

[Certificate Number: SEC-L-03]

[Issuing Authority: Liaison Office and Confidentiality and Secrecy Office Director's Office Direct Liaison Office]

[Issuance Time: 47 days ago, 03:14 Standard Time]

[Purpose: Emergency liaison and cross-departmental technology corridor certification]

Gwen Stacy stopped typing.

The only sound in the confidential room was the low hum of the terminal cooling fans.

This root certificate, which is included in the Top Secret appendix of the Department of Technology, was neither issued by the Department of Technology nor allocated by the Director's Office.

Its issuing title was clearly stated as "Liaison Office Confidentiality and Secrecy Office".

Forty-seven days ago, Gwen Stacy herself was in the abandoned outer star system dealing with the reorganization of the Bloodfang Fleet and had not returned to the Core Zone headquarters at all.

"Xiao Li," Gwen Stacy's voice was very soft.

Xiao Li's body trembled slightly, and he took half a step forward.

"Director, I'm here."

Gwen Stacy didn't turn around; she simply pointed to the string of numbers on the screen.

"According to regulations, the authority to issue certificates for the Liaison Office is jointly managed by several people?"

A thin layer of sweat appeared on Xiao Li's forehead as his gaze swept quickly across the screen, his voice slightly hoarse.

According to the "Liaison Office Internal Control Rules," routine certificates are initially reviewed by the head of the Confidential Affairs Section, the director personally signs the paper seal usage form, and finally the system administrator enters the hardware key.

"In the event of a state of high alert, if the Confidential Affairs Section is not present, the duty recorder and the deputy director must perform a double-lock operation."

Gwen Stacy swiveled her chair to face Xiao Li.

"So, which Archive Cabinet typically issues the SEC-L-03 number?"

Xiao Li Li's fingers, which were hanging by the seam of his pants, curled up unconsciously.

"Director... phone numbers starting with L belong to the ' Special Liaison Reserve ' established two years ago."

"Those certificates were reserved in case deep space communications were cut off; they are usually sealed off, and the original copies are stored in the outer document room of Zero Storage Room."

Gwen Stacy looked at him, her eyes expressionless, revealing neither joy nor anger.

"In other words, someone used the Liaison Office's seal to issue themselves a pass when the confidential room was empty."

"Then they casually placed this pass into a Top Secret appendix of the Department of Technology and sent it back to my desk."

Xiao Li's face turned pale, and he whispered, "This... this is impossible. The hardware key has always been locked in the safe. Unless there is your biometric data, the internal security system will trigger a silent alarm."

Nothing is impossible.

Gwen Stacy stood up and casually unplugged the dark gray Chip from the offline terminal.

The screen went black instantly, with only the afterimage of the certificate code lingering on the retina for half a second.

She walked to the safe next to the long table and pressed a six-digit mechanical password.

The metal cabinet door popped open, revealing a dozen or so thick parchment ledgers neatly stacked inside.

In an era where data can be arbitrarily altered and overwritten, the Management Committee's most critical accounts still retain the century-old practice of writing them on paper with ink.

Gwen Stacy pulled out the dark blue "Special Credential Stock Movement Register" from the bottom shelf.

She turned to the page from forty-seven days ago.

The handwriting on the paper was neat, and the material requisition records were all filled out with standard official document ink.

Each line bears a neat blue stamp, indicating the person in charge, the approver, and the reviewer.

However, in the space between the third and fourth lines, where there should have been a blank space, half a millimeter of the paper's surface fibers had been scraped away with an extremely fine scraper.

Then a line of small numbers was added on top.

[Supplement: Backup image of certificate L-03 has been exported; destination: Technical Collaboration.]

No official seal was affixed at the end of the processing section.

There was only one oddly shaped personal seal, no bigger than a little fingernail, pressed on with black ink.

The imprint is somewhat blurred, with slightly hazy edges.

But Gwen Stacy recognized the pattern immediately.

That wasn't the mark Liaison Office any of the liaison office's staff.

It was a broken sword locked with chains.

The dedicated receiving and receiving mark of the confidential archives room directly under the Stability Maintenance Office and the Black Crow Guard Direct Secret Archives Office.

Gwen Stacy closed the ledger, put it back in the safe, and slammed the door shut.

She turned around and looked at Xiao Li, who was still standing there, his body stiff.

"This appendix sent by the Department of Technology cannot be signed for."

Xiao Li swallowed hard. "Then... what about the people in the mailroom outside? What if Secretary Claire asks about it..."

"Tell the person delivering the package that the offline verification machine at the Liaison Office has a burnt-out Motherboard and cannot complete the hash value verification for the appendix."

Gwen Stacy walked to the long table, put the dark gray Chip into an anti-static sealed bag, and sealed it.

According to regulations, in the event of a hardware malfunction, classified documents will be returned via the original route and resubmitted after a 24-hour delay.

"Yes," Xiao Li replied softly, reaching out to take the sealed bag.

Gwen Stacy's hand did not loosen.

The sealed bag lay between the two men, suspended under the cold light.

Gwen Stacy looked into Xiao Li's eyes, her gaze level, without any scrutiny, yet it exuded a chilling aura that made one afraid to move an inch.

"Xiao Li, how long have you been following me?"

Xiao Li's fingers froze in mid-air, and beads of sweat finally slid down his temples.

"Director... it's been exactly one year and three months since you took over the Liaison Office."

One year and three months.

Gwen Stacy repeated the time.

"Which department were you in charge of files for one year and three months prior?"

The air in the confidential room seemed to stand still.

Xiao Li's Adam's apple bobbed up and down, and his breathing was extremely low, even somewhat distorted.

"Your subordinate... Your subordinate used to work in the archives section of the Logistics Office. Because I knew some techniques for restoring old-fashioned paper documents, I was later transferred to the logistics team directly under the Director's Office."

Gwen Stacy released her grip, and the sealed bag fell onto the metal table with a thud.

"You know about paper, and so do I."

Gwen Stacy turned around, her back to him, and looked at the Star Map of the defense zone hanging on the wall.

"The scraping technique used on that last booklet was very clean; the angle of the cut was thirty degrees from the upper right to the lower left."

"This technique of removing writing without damaging the underlying anti-counterfeiting watermark was a unique skill of the archive restoration room in Zero Storage Room back then."

"Looking across the entire Liaison Office, you're the only one who possesses this carving knife."

Xiao Li fell to his knees with a thud, his knees hitting the steel plate with a dull thud.

The confidential room fell silent once more.

After a long while, Gwen Stacy turned her head slightly and looked down at the clerk kneeling at her feet.

"Take out that half of the original stub that you cut off."

Gwen Stacy's voice was completely devoid of anger, as calm as if she were giving a routine order.

"I don't want the Internal Affairs Inspection Office to search you before I even get to the Director's Office."

Xiao Li pressed his head firmly against the ground, his back completely soaked with cold sweat.

With trembling hands, he reached into his inner collar and pulled out half a sheet of thin, yellowed, translucent stiff paper from a hidden lining of his body armor.

The page unfolded, revealing the original red seal of the Liaison Office and a line of handwritten annotations.

Gwen Stacy looked down, her gaze lingering on the last annotation, signed in black ink, indicating the receiving unit.

It wasn't written on the document that it belonged to, nor was it the Department of Technology or the Stability Maintenance Office.

Instead -- [Director's Office, Confidential One Group].