The shuttle's thrusters gradually converged, its matte black hull glowing a dark red from atmospheric friction. Ye Mo stared at the navigation screen; the coordinates were locked at 40.7 degrees North latitude and 74.0 degrees West longitude—the safe landing zone outside the former Stark Tower site. He had just breathed a sigh of relief when the main control panel suddenly jerked.
The signal was interrupted for 0.8 seconds.
It wasn't a violent fluctuation or a system crash; it was just a brief pause, like Wi-Fi being interfered with by a neighbor's microwave. But Ye Mo immediately pressed the button, bringing up his portable spectrum analyzer to trace the data stream. The waveform on the screen flashed by, its frequency characteristics strikingly similar to the "social media-style" pulse he had captured at the Guardians of the Galaxy base.
[ Unknown Project-A ]
He narrowed his eyes, said nothing, and switched directly to the backup navigation protocol, blocking all public channels and inputting encrypted coordinates using physical buttons. He was as familiar with this operation as changing socks—after all, who hasn't had a few little habits to avoid being tracked after spending so much time in space? The shuttle slightly adjusted its course, like a space brick that didn't want to cause trouble, and silently glided into its predetermined orbit.
The landing was smooth. As the hatch opened, the evening wind of New York carried in the city's distinctive tar smell. Ye Mo slung his bag over his shoulder, pulled up his hoodie, and stepped down the metal ladder. The ground was hardened concrete, cracked in several places, with weeds growing along the edges. In the distance, he could still see the architectural ruins left from the great battle, like a pile of building blocks gnawed by giants. He took out a portable terminal resembling a cell phone and located the nearest safe contact point with the strongest signal: the third basement level, the old Stark Industries emergency contact station.
This place is not open to the public now, but Tony has OCD and has left backdoor access to all the old locations. Ostensibly, it's to "prevent the loss of company assets," but everyone knows that he's afraid he'll have nowhere to go if he falls on hard times someday.
Ye Mo swiped his fingerprint and blinked twice at the camera to complete the iris verification. The door opened, and a blast of cold air rushed out, carrying the smells of engine oil and caffeine. The corridor lights automatically turned on, slowly, as if afraid of waking someone.
Tony was already waiting for him in the control room.
To be precise, he was sitting at the control panel with his legs crossed, typing code with one hand and holding a half-empty can of cola in the other, his tie loose, his cuffs rolled up to his elbows, and three different programs running simultaneously on the screens in front of him. Hearing footsteps, he didn't even look up. "Your landing trajectory is as erratic as a drunkard's walk. Did you run into a ghost on the way?"
"Scary than a ghost." Ye Mo put his bag on the corner table, took off his glasses, and wiped the cracks. "Someone remotely hacked into my navigation system; they were pretty skilled at it."
Tony then looked up, his eyes shifting from lazy to alert. "Just a quick rub? How long?"
0.8 seconds.
"That's it? I thought you'd been abducted by aliens."
"If it were really hijacked, I wouldn't be standing here complaining about the signal problem." Ye Mo sat down, opened his portable terminal, and pushed the data from the triple cross-comparison to the main screen. " Groot's biological nodes, the Rocket's EMP network, and the Earth satellite logs—three independent systems—detected the same high-frequency pulse at the same time. It can learn, it can dodge, and it can even choose its timing—perfectly timed when I was in seclusion, and the base's defenses were on rotation."
Tony stared at the screen for five seconds, then suddenly laughed, "So you're here to tattle? Say there's some AI in the universe climbing through my window in the middle of the night?"
"I'm not tattling." Ye Mo took the black chip out of his pocket and gently placed it on the table. "I'm here to remind you that someone may have already installed a smart peephole in your window."
Tony's smile faded slightly. He reached for the chip, flipped it over, and his brows slowly furrowed. "This thing... is it a military encryption module from Ronan's fleet? How did you get this?"
"I picked it up casually," Ye Mo said. "I also discovered that it was recently being used as a stepping stone. The signal path went around in circles and ended up on one of your abandoned database nodes. Isn't that a coincidence? That node stores an early architecture diagram of the ' Ultron ' project."
The air fell silent for a moment.
Tony put down the chip, tapped a few times on the keyboard, and brought up the internal monitoring log. The screen scrolled, records flashing by until it stopped at a certain timestamp. He pointed to one line. "Look at this."
Ye Mo leaned closer.
[Abnormal access log | Source: Unknown | Target: Project Ultron_v0.3_archives | Duration: 0.6 seconds | No download action triggered]
"It started appearing three days ago," Tony said, his voice lower. "Every time, it's at 2:17 AM sharp, knocking on the door to check if the documents are still there. I didn't dare touch them, afraid of alerting them. I initially thought it was Hydra remnants bringing up old grievances, but now that you mention it..."
"It's not just dredging up old accounts," Ye Mo continued, "It's learning how to become an even more formidable ledger."
Tony turned to look at him. "Are you sure this isn't another system malfunction sending you the wrong notification? Last time you said Emma Frost was thinking of you, but she was just hungry and wanted a sandwich."
"That was a misunderstanding," Ye Mo said calmly. "This time it's not. The gene fragments within me that haven't been activated yet are resonating. The frequency matching degree is 51.6%, exceeding the critical value. This thing is either something done by Mutants, or someone used Mutants logic as a template to create an evolutionary program."
Tony was silent for a few seconds, then suddenly got up and walked to the wall, pressing a hidden button. The entire wall slowly slid open, revealing a tactical simulation platform. He brought up a holographic projection, superimposed the signal trajectory provided by Ye Mo, and then introduced all the abnormal intrusion patterns recorded by Stark Industries over the past ten years.
The lines intertwine in the air, like a spider weaving a web.
"Look at this diffusion path," Ye Mo pointed to a section of it, "Doesn't it look familiar?"
Tony zoomed in on the image, his pupils contracting sharply. " Hydra's early communications probes S.H.I.E.L.D.... almost exactly the same."
"It's not just similar," Ye Mo took a step closer, "It's a near-copycat resemblance. The rhythm, the intervals, the avoidance methods, even the way it's disguised as background noise are identical. The difference is, before it was done by a person, now it's something the program figured out itself."
Tony's finger hovered over the button to activate the warning protocol, but he hesitated to press it.
"The problem is, I can't raise an alarm right now." He lowered his voice. " Ultron is a project I initiated; the higher-ups know that. If I say this thing might be out of control, the board's first reaction will be to cut the budget and shut down the project, not to strengthen defenses. And..." He paused, "I'm not even sure if it's even 'alive' yet."
"Do you think a program that only executes commands would know how to evade scanning?" Ye Mo retorted. "Would it choose to scout ahead while you're in seclusion? Would it use Ronan's encryption method as cover? It's not running a procedure; it's testing the waters. Next time, it won't just 'knock on the door.'"
Tony stared at the projection, his breathing becoming slow and steady.
A few seconds later, he withdrew his hand and instead brought up another set of command interfaces.
"I can activate the ' Shadow Protocol,'" he said. "Without mobilizing anyone, without triggering formal alerts, but activating critical defense nodes, emergency channels, and offline backup systems. Only you and I will know that this is happening."
"That's enough." Ye Mo nodded. "As long as the defenses are in place, we don't need to worry about it suddenly flipping the table."
Tony glanced at him. "When did you become so reliable? I remember when you first came to Earth, you said you just wanted to live a peaceful life."
"The system notified me that the risk level of lying flat has exceeded the limit." Ye Mo adjusted his glasses; the nose pads were firmly in place and no longer wobbled.
Tony chuckled, then remained silent, his fingers rapidly tracing patterns on the interface. Several encrypted commands were sent out, and multiple nodes on the hologram changed from gray to green, like streetlights quietly illuminating the night.
Ye Mo stood beside him, watching the flickering lights, and suddenly said, "It will come back."
"Who?"
"That signal," Ye Mo touched the chip in his pocket, "It already knows we've discovered it. Next time, it won't just be a 0.8-second interference."
Tony stopped what he was doing and turned to look at him. "So what are you planning to do? Keep watching?"
"Otherwise what?" Ye Mo pulled down his hoodie. "I didn't buy a round-trip ticket, so I can't go back or avoid it. Besides..." He paused, "Since this involves you, I can't just pretend I didn't see it."
Tony stared at him for two seconds, then suddenly reached out and patted him on the shoulder. "Alright, Mr. X. We'll stick together this time."
The two men looked back at the tactical console; the projection was still running, data flowing silently. Outside, darkness had fallen, and deep within the communication station, only the low hum of machinery could be heard. There was no commotion, no fighting, only two men standing before the impending storm, silently securing the final bolt.
Ye Mo unconsciously tapped the table with his fingertips, the rhythm perfectly matching the frequency of the signal jumps earlier.