Night Flight

"Have you finished copying what we just recorded?"

The moment the drone crashed, Liu Lei threw down the remote and asked whether his younger brother had finished copying the data.

Because he had thrown the remote away, he missed the drone's self-destruction. Otherwise, it would have scared the piss out of him.

He had no idea the thing could explode. He had held it in his arms the entire way there!

"Finished!"

"Let's go! If we get out, we'll be rich. The money we get this time will be enough for the two of us to spend as we please!"

With high-definition footage of the Dragon Country Air Force's attack and intelligence on the base's approximate location, he was sure he could sell it for a good price.

If the area for hundreds of kilometers around them hadn't been uninhabited and completely without signal, and if they hadn't left their satellite communications equipment behind to avoid being discovered, he would have contacted a buyer already!

That was also why Xu Feng still had a chance to make up for his mistake. Once the information leaked, the consequences would be serious!

The footage of the Eighth Master's attack was secondary. After all, it was a fighter that would soon be retired. The key was the base's location!

As an undisclosed base, its exact location being exposed would be fatal, stripping it of its strategic and deterrent value.

It could even force them to relocate the base!

Liu Lei and Liu Xin also knew the situation they were in, so they took the hard drive containing the copied data and ran, abandoning all the remaining equipment.

But they had clearly underestimated Lei Hu's determination. The severity of such a major leak was beyond the two brothers' expectations.

A capture force of more than two thousand men entered the forest in less than half an hour.

Guided by the glow of the fire caused by the drone's self-destruction, they surrounded the area for fifty kilometers in every direction!

The ground troops were in no hurry to make the capture, focusing instead on completing the encirclement. As long as the men were still inside, they would be caught sooner or later. The troops were highly experienced in this kind of operation.

For fear that the men would transmit intelligence to the outside world, they immediately jammed signals throughout the area and used helicopters to put out the fire.

The brothers had no idea they were already surrounded. They were still fleeing cautiously, and had shrewdly chosen to head in the opposite direction rather than retrace their route.

Li Zhi joined the search as well, but dense forest covered the ground below him. Spotting two people who looked smaller than ants was unlikely.

'Fuel remaining: 500'

This was already the third fuel warning, so Li Zhi had no choice but to return to base.

"Li Zhi, we have you to thank for this. Go get some rest first. There may be another mission later!"

As soon as Li Zhi got out of the plane, Xu Feng called him over to ask about the situation. When he had finished, Xu Feng patted Li Zhi on the shoulder and spoke.

They really did have Li Zhi to thank this time. Otherwise, they wouldn't even have known about the leak.

"Captain Xu, I was going to apologize to you. I didn't become suspicious right away!"

Li Zhi blushed a little at the praise. If not for his conversation with Xu Feng, he would still have thought the other party was one of their own.

"Don't dwell on it. You deserve credit for this, not blame!"

There was no way Li Zhi could be held responsible for this, but Xu Feng was sure to receive an official reprimand.

Meanwhile, the helicopters that occasionally flew overhead made the Liu brothers realize that things had gone terribly wrong.

It wasn't as though they had never sold intelligence before, but because it had all been relatively unimportant, and because they had been lucky, they had never been discovered.

They had never faced anything like this. As their eyes, blinded by money, gradually cleared, they began to realize how serious the situation was.

At best, they had stolen classified information. At worst, it was treason. In ancient times, their entire family would have been executed, with punishment extending to nine generations!

"Brother, will they shoot us if we're caught? I don't want to die!"

The younger brother, Liu Xin, was also very timid. The helicopters that roared overhead from time to time had scared him out of his wits.

"Shut up. In this society, you have to take risks if you want to get rich!"

Liu Lei was actually having some regrets too. If he had known this would happen, he would rather have kept making small deals, gathering information online and selling it to the other party without knowing whether it was true.

"Can we get out?"

Liu Xin was timid, but he wasn't stupid.

"What else can we do? Turn ourselves in? Even if we do, we have to get out first."

If they really could get out, there was no way they would turn themselves in.

"This forest is huge. They can't keep searching forever just for the two of us. We just have to hold out for a few days!"

Liu Lei didn't believe his own words, but all he could do was comfort his brother that way, and comfort himself at the same time.

Once the encirclement was complete, the other soldiers formed small teams and began the search in earnest.

The brothers were lucky. They evaded two searches, and on one occasion, the searching soldiers came within less than five meters of them.

The two hid among the dead leaves and escaped detection.

As night approached, the two seemed blessed by fortune. Their luck was unbelievable. For one reason or another, they always spotted the approaching search teams in advance.

Five hours had passed, and they still hadn't caught the men. They didn't even know how many there were or whether they had weapons.

The longer it dragged on, the greater the chance of the intelligence leaking. After all, they couldn't keep the area sealed off forever.

Mobilizing one or two thousand men was no small operation. If it went on too long, word could easily get out, and outsiders would be able to piece together the base's approximate location from the clues!

This made Lei Hu, who was overseeing the operation from Yuzhou, furious. One or two thousand soldiers hadn't even caught a glimpse of the men. If word got out, wouldn't the other military regions laugh at them?

"Xiao Zhang, tell Xu Feng to send someone to Old Geng to borrow a set of high-altitude night-vision equipment for a fighter. They must catch those men tonight!"

The capture operation absolutely could not be allowed to drag on until tomorrow. If it did, even if the whole world didn't know about it, it would be close enough.

"Li Zhi, can you handle flying at night?"

Li Zhi had never flown at night before, and Xu Feng was a little worried.

Xu Feng had already received Lei Hu's order to borrow the equipment. The base's other two fighters were still on border patrol, and even with something like this happening, the patrols couldn't stop.

Xu Feng had to stay at the base to report the progress to his superiors and share intelligence with the ground troops. Neither task could be done without him.

Li Zhi was now the only available pilot left at the entire base!

"No problem!"

"Good. I need you to pick something up. I'll send the location to the fighter shortly!"

"Yes, sir!"