The console suddenly shuddered, and a digital signal flashed past.
Ye Mo immediately put his hands on the keyboard and locked down every output port. He pulled up the data waveform and slowly replayed the last segment of information. Emma Frost stood beside him, watching the screen without a word.
"060814," Ye Mo read aloud. "This wasn't sent on its own."
He amplified the background noise and discovered that the string of numbers was hidden in an EMP pulse they had intercepted earlier. The numbers had been divided into three segments and inserted into interference waves of different frequencies, deliberately concealed like pieces of a puzzle.
"It's a stealth beacon," he said. "They knew we'd investigate, so they used an old method to pass along a new message."
Emma Frost closed her eyes and activated Telepathy. She probed along the signal's residual path, but barely made it in before she was blocked. It wasn't a wall, but a barrier designed to prevent readings by people with powers.
"There's protection," she said, opening her eyes. "The technology is familiar. It looks like a shielding protocol Hydra used before."
Ye Mo nodded. "They're afraid we'll track them, but they still want us to see this."
He opened the system's underlying layer and converted "Regenerative Phasing" into a data infiltration program. He had developed this function recently-using his self-healing ability to simulate unlimited retries, combined with its wall-phasing properties, it could force its way through firewalls on a network.
Combined with the "Phase Shift" left behind by the man in the trench coat, the entire probe could evade detection nodes.
With the probe ready, he locked onto the target: East African Plateau Station, the last contact point still operational.
He started it running. Three hours later, progress stalled at 78%. The AI reported that the data packets were too badly damaged for automatic recovery.
Ye Mo activated Thermal Vision and manually searched for fragments. In a mass of garbled data, he found several recurring entries:
Project-06
Subject-08-14
Location: Wakanda Perimeter Lab-7
"These aren't random numbers," he said. "They're file numbers."
Emma Frost leaned closer to look. "Wakanda Perimeter Experimental Station No. 7? That place blew up fifteen years ago."
"Blowing up doesn't mean nobody goes there." Ye Mo opened his private database and entered 060814. The screen flashed, and a blurry photograph appeared.
A group of people in protective suits stood at the entrance to an underground laboratory. A mark on the wall was identical to the one they had seen in Hall Zero.
"That symbol again," Emma Frost said. "Who's still using something that old?"
"Someone who wants to restart the project." Ye Mo closed the image. "Either they don't know it's defunct, or they deliberately chose somewhere nobody remembers."
The two fell silent for a few seconds.
A faint electrical hum came from the passage outside as the base entered low-power mode. All external lines were disconnected, leaving only the internal loop running.
Ye Mo stayed where he was and kept typing. He converted the numbers into coordinates, and the map placed the location on the West African border, near the Congo rainforest.
But the satellite imagery was nothing but static, as though a powerful magnetic field was interfering with it.
"We can't send drones," Emma Frost said. "We'd only be throwing them away."
"Then we won't use machines." Ye Mo opened the memory module. "We'll use what someone has seen."
He accessed the memory fragments of the man in the trench coat and reconstructed the route along which he had been taken away. Factoring in temperature changes, he worked out the terrain bit by bit.
Two hours later, the model was ready. The surface was frozen ground, with a hollow thirty meters below. Ice and snow covered the entrance, but the heat distribution showed that equipment inside had been running all along.
"Someone has the power on," Emma Frost said, studying the three-dimensional image. "This wasn't thrown together temporarily."
Ye Mo switched to the radar interface and had Emma Frost assume Diamond Form. Her body turned crystalline and connected directly to the detection system.
A low-frequency sound wave went out and returned five minutes later.
There was indeed a large space beneath the ice, around two hundred meters across, with supporting structures overhead. The electrical readings were weak but continuous, indicating that the equipment was on standby or operating at low speed.
"It doesn't look abandoned," Emma Frost said. "More like... asleep."
Ye Mo opened the Gene Tower interface. The sixth floor was still gray, but a system chime sounded: [Threat source confirmed. Composite ability activation conditions updated.]
He didn't click confirm.
It wasn't that he didn't dare; there was no need yet. He knew that activating it meant preparing for battle. Right now, they were still looking for clues.
He exited the system, walked to the communications terminal, and entered an order: "Postpone the Sector B-9 drill. Change priority to level-one reconnaissance preparations."
After sending the order, he looked at Emma Frost.
"We have two choices now," he said. "Wait for their next move, or make ours first."
Emma Frost leaned against the wall, her fingers brushing the edge of the console. "You never wait."
"But I need to think this through." Ye Mo picked up a fragment of vibranium. "Last time we went into a place like this, we barely made it out. This time is different. We're not rescuing anyone. We're looking for answers."
"What answers?"
"Who's pulling the strings," he said. "Why they're using old numbers, why they chose an abandoned station, and why they're giving us clues."
He placed the fragment in a shielded box, which immediately grew hot.
"This isn't an attack," he said. "It's an invitation."
Emma Frost frowned. "You think it's a trap?"
"It definitely is." Ye Mo smiled. "The question is, who are they trying to bait? A 'dead man' like me, or Mr. X?"
He walked to the main console and brought up the experimental station model. The image rotated, displaying entrances, exits, pipes, and wiring.
"If I were going in," he said, pointing to a maintenance passage on one side, "I'd go through here. No surveillance, no alarms, because nobody thinks it's still usable."
"How do you know?" Emma Frost asked.
"I've seen too many base blueprints," he said. "The more concealed a place is, the more they like simple escape routes. They think nobody will consider them, but those end up becoming points of entry."
Emma Frost walked over to him and watched the red dots blinking on the screen.
"You're going yourself?"
"No rush." Ye Mo shook his head. "First, let them think we haven't noticed. They'll only expose an opening once they let their guard down."
He opened an encrypted channel and sent everyone a silent notification: suspend field operations and switch to receiving information. All anomalous signals must be reported. No one was to handle them on their own.
"We're the hunters now," he said. "But first, we need to pretend to be prey."
Emma Frost watched him finish setting up the final firewall, then suddenly said, "You've changed."
Ye Mo looked up. "How so?"
"You used to say, 'The system made me do it,'" she said. "Now you don't even look for a reason."
He smiled. "Because this time, I don't want to blame anyone else."
He stood and flexed his wrists. After eight straight hours of work, his body was a little stiff. But instead of sitting down, he walked to the power distribution cabinet to check the wiring.
"We need stronger EMP shielding," he said. "The third-layer oscillator has to be installed tonight. If they set off a remote detonation, we can't afford to be paralyzed."
Emma Frost came over to help connect the wires. They worked together smoothly, with little need to talk.
A few minutes later, the chip was slotted in. The test light glowed green.
"Regenerative Phasing and Phase Shift are linked," Ye Mo said. "If anyone dares hack in, the reverse data flow will crash their system outright."
"Can you guarantee it'll work?"
"No," he said. "But it'll do for scaring them."
Emma Frost glanced at him. "That's your one talent. You make things you're not sure of sound like facts."
"This isn't bravado." Ye Mo patted the console. "It's experience. The more confident the enemy is, the more likely they are to overlook details. We only need to catch one mistake."
He returned to the main seat and reopened the experimental station model. The image stopped at the central control room.
"They're waiting for us," he said. "But they don't know we already know they're waiting."
Emma Frost stood behind him, her body glowing faintly as she remained ready for combat.
The entire base fell quiet. The sensors only received, transmitting nothing. The lights dimmed, and the air conditioning switched to silent mode.
Ye Mo stared at the screen, tapping his fingers lightly against the desk. The rhythm was steady, beat after beat.
He knew the other side was monitoring certain nodes, watching for anomalous traffic. So he did nothing and simply watched.
Waited.
Three hours later, the system chimed softly. A false signal had been triggered-a decoy they had set up a few days earlier, pointing to a fake base in South America.
The other side came online to check, stayed for forty-seven seconds, then disconnected.
"They bought it," Emma Frost said.
"Part of it." Ye Mo shook his head. "But they're still watching this side. The real target isn't in South America."
He brought up the global signal map. Eight points still surrounded the New York Bay area, but one of them had just changed position.
"They're adjusting," he said. "They might be about to make a move."
Emma Frost walked over to him. "What do we do next?"
Ye Mo looked at the experimental station model and tapped the entrance to the maintenance passage.
"We're not going looking for the snake," he said. "We'll block its hole first."