Counter-Surveillance

Hill's room was crammed with all kinds of equipment, and the black curtains looked rather heavy.

Song Zhi gently closed the door. The thin door panel blocked out the light from the lounge, plunging the room into darkness. Only the computer in front of Hill gave off a faint blue glow, reflected on his unusually serious face.

"Come here." His daytime swagger was gone. His face was cold and solemn, with the efficiency and severity typical of a professional mercenary.

Song Zhi walked over. As soon as she got close to Hill, he grabbed her wrist. He rose, giving her the chair, then wrapped his arms around her from behind.

"Here's a set of data. Try to work out this person's sex, height, build, habits, occupation... You have half an hour. Starting now."

Hill raised his wrist and noted the time on his watch.

The data on the computer was a mess: repeated shopping lists, gas receipts, browsing history, call records, travel routes, and so on.

These were all traces of a person's life.

Song Zhi had to use them to work out the target's identity and characteristics.

Song Zhi put on a pair of headphones and decided to start with the call recordings. The target's calls were always short. Sometimes he chatted about the weather; other times he exchanged brief greetings. From the sound of his voice, he was a man with a deep voice.

To check her guess, she opened the web pages the target had browsed.

As soon as she opened them, a blush-inducing image popped up on the screen. Two pale bodies were entwined like snakes. The scene changed, and other people joined in. Sultry sounds also came through the headphones, grating on her ears.

Song Zhi: "..."

How awkward!

Panicking, she tried to close the pages, but Hill stopped her hand from behind and snorted. "Don't close them. Watch them through. This is all intel!"

Intel?

Your intel is porn videos of group sex? Screw your intel!

Song Zhi counted roughly forty or fifty "action videos." Before the nuclear blast, in China, this would have been suspected of constituting the crime of distributing obscene material, punishable by up to two years' imprisonment, detention, or restriction.

"Are you nervous?" Hill chuckled.

"This is your computer..." Song Zhi snorted.

"Keep going... Don't stop... Time is short!" Hill instructed.

Song Zhi could only steel herself and watch the hardcore porn clips through. At first she had trouble adjusting, but she gradually grew numb to them. By the end, she even wondered whether Hill had learned all his tricks from watching too much porn, putting what he'd just seen into practice!

Song Zhi and Hill hurried through dozens of videos, featuring people of every skin color. There were also a few adult anime films from the island nation.

Clearly, the target had "wide-ranging tastes." How depraved his interests were!

Just as Song Zhi was about to close the videos, a flash of inspiration crossed her mind, but she failed to grasp it. She opened those adult anime videos from the island nation again and watched them once more.

"Haven't seen enough?" Hill's teasing voice sounded above her again.

"As a Latino, what kind of films do you like?" Song Zhi didn't turn around. Instead, she picked up a pen and scribbled in her notebook. She was writing in Chinese, which Hill couldn't read.

"Trying to get something out of me? I don't like violence. I like it when the lady takes the initiative..." Hill scoffed softly.

"Mm-hmm. People watch videos like these to satisfy their own base, twisted tastes... The style of these adult animations from the island nation is different from those live-action videos. They involve coercion and force, which shows the target has that kind of base, twisted taste. He either longs to be the one doing the forcing or the one being forced..."

Song Zhi closed the videos and pulled up the shopping lists. Her slender fingers flew over the keyboard as she made a spreadsheet and sorted the items on the lists one by one. They were all men's products and lethal quantities of desserts. Every sign suggested that the target was a fat male otaku with a head full of sex.

Song Zhi didn't rush to a conclusion. She went through the other fragments of intelligence.

"Five minutes left..." Hill checked his watch and urged her on.

Song Zhi ignored him and continued writing and sketching rapidly in her notebook.

"Three minutes."

Song Zhi tapped lightly on the keyboard, removing every item with an obviously male characteristic from the spreadsheet and leaving only those whose intended gender was unclear or that could be used by either sex: chamomile wipes, soft facial tissues, lily-scented cleaning products, and so on.

"One minute, fifty seconds... thirty seconds... ten, nine, eight, seven..." Hill stared at his watch and began counting down.

"The target is a white woman, around forty, of average height and slightly overweight. She wears glasses and has short hair..." Song Zhi circled the conclusion she had written down and said it aloud.

"A woman? Are you sure?" Hill took out his tactical tablet and photographed Song Zhi's writing. After translating it, he had the clues.

"She's a woman, and one who wouldn't stand out much in a crowd. Her shopping lists are full of men's products, and they're cheap and poor-quality, which means they aren't for his own use, so he chose them carelessly. If you remove all the men's products, the remaining items can be used by either sex, but their quality, texture, and packaging design all lean more toward women's tastes. The target is a woman who's living disguised as a man." Song Zhi was certain.

Hill sent Song Zhi's analysis to Group A's encrypted messaging channel. Lai'en, handling official business in a room, and Kelante, far away on a special assignment, received the data at the same time.

Lai'en pressed his lips together as he stared at the tablet, his gaze still cold and somber.

Dressed in casual clothes, Kelante sat in a café on an unnamed street. His amber eyes focused slightly behind his gold-rimmed glasses, and then he saw a slightly overweight woman with short hair come out of the residence he was watching.

"Copy. Target in sight. White woman, slightly overweight, short hair..." Kelante's voice sounded through the wireless earpiece.

"The lieutenant's little kitty really is clever." Hill's teasing voice sounded rather punchable.

"Oh! Good girl... Thanks to the little kitty, once I finish the mission, I can go back and enjoy the beach and the waves." Kelante's voice was soft, and a hint of a smile touched the corners of his eyes as he mentioned the "little kitty."

He finished the coffee on the table, rose, and followed the short-haired woman. When they reached a deserted alley, he raised his silenced pistol and pulled the trigger without hesitation. One shot to the head, and the target was dead.

He walked over and searched the target, finding a specially made military pistol and a mercenary ring.

The little kitty had actually been right.

"Target eliminated!" Kelante's voice carried a hint of cheer.

After receiving Kelante's report in his room, Lai'en's lips twitched slightly in what passed for a smile. Then he tensed every nerve again, grim, calm, and rational, as though that barely perceptible smile had been an illusion.

Hearing in his room that Kelante had completed the mission, Hill's lips curved into a smug smile. Then he asked, "Little kitty is good at surveillance... Let's play a counter-surveillance game. If you were the target, how would you evade an enemy's surveillance?"

Song Zhi took off the headphones, rubbed her aching wrist, and thought carefully about the question.

As a person lived in the world, he would always leave traces of his life without realizing it. Even if he deliberately erased or concealed them, his long-standing habits would give him away.

If the traces of a person's life were clear and regular, they would give him away. But if they were too chaotic or obviously contrived, they would also arouse suspicion.

Song Zhi frowned. She couldn't think of an answer. It seemed very difficult.

"Think hard about that question. That's all for today's lesson. Class dismissed." Hill shut down the computer.

Relieved, Song Zhi loosened her shoulders and got up from the chair, ready to leave.

She had barely stood when Hill grabbed her wrist. He grinned wickedly. "I only said class was dismissed. I didn't say you could leave. We have something else to do... Go lie facedown on my bed..."

Song Zhi: "?"

"Hurry up... I don't want to use force at a time like this..."

Hill released Song Zhi and walked to the door. He pressed one hand against the lock, and with a click, the door was locked from the inside.

Locking the door again? Song Zhi's heart jumped.