178: Chapter 178 The passenger is now in control of the driver's seat.

Snowden.

Li Li stared at this face for three seconds.

Brown short hair, black-rimmed glasses, on the thin side, poor complexion.

The name that blew up the global internet in his past life. Prism. Global surveillance. The king of CIA defectors.

Does this world have someone like this too?

But that Snowden's surname is Snowden. This is Snowden, where 'den' is the surname.

Li Li set the knife down beside the control stick and leaned back into the chair.

"Fine. Snow."

He didn't press for the truth of his identity. It was useless to ask, and he couldn't run a DNA test on the spot.

"How did they catch you?"

Snow sat on the folding stool behind the co-pilot, hands resting on his knees. The two red marks on his wrists were clear under the cabin lights.

His Mandarin had a distinct accent, and he enunciated every word with great effort, but the grammar was barely passable.

"I worked at the CIA for three years."

"A programmer. Responsible for internal network maintenance and data analysis systems."

He paused.

"Then I saw the Prism program."

Li Li remained silent.

Snow continued.

"They monitor the whole world. Not just hostile countries. They monitor allies too. And civilians. Emails, calls, social media, search history—all captured in real-time."

"The backdoors of the nine major tech companies are all wide open. Google, Apple, Microsoft, Facebook... to the CIA, user data is just a tray in a cafeteria, ready to be picked up at will."

Li Li listened without interrupting.

The script from his past life.

Exactly the same.

Snow pushed his glasses up.

"I copied all the files. Backups on hard drives, encrypted USB drives, and the cloud. Then I requested annual leave for a trip, bought a ticket to Tokyo, intending to fly from Hong Kong to the capital, and then from the capital to the Russian capital."

The Goose.

Moscow.

Li Li translated it in his mind.

"Didn't make the flight?"

Snow shook his head.

"When I arrived at the departure hall, I realized the atmosphere was wrong."

He rubbed his wrists, subconsciously touching the two red marks.

"Your country's national security department also got wind of it. They were conducting large-scale screenings at the Hong Kong airport, searching all foreigners flying overseas. They didn't check flights to your mainland, perhaps because they were short-staffed."

Li Li raised an eyebrow.

"So the CIA changed their plan."

Snow nodded.

"Their people controlled me right in the departure hall. No violence, no commotion. Just two people, one on each side, escorting me to a VIP room, holding me for twenty minutes."

"Then they received orders from above that they couldn't take their original route to Okinawa."

"So they chose flight CX890 to the capital."

Li Li continued.

"A flight to the capital, then hijack it after takeoff and divert to Vietnam."

"Yes."

Snow took off his glasses and held them in his hand. There was a crack on the lens.

"They didn't hesitate to expose four agents, didn't hesitate to hijack a commercial airliner. All just to bring me back."

He looked up at Li Li.

"Because what I have in my hands could collapse one-third of the United States' global intelligence network."

The cockpit was silent for two seconds.

The engines hummed, and the heading numbers on the dashboard were still veering southwest.

Li Li looked at him.

"So you recognized me in the departure hall."

Snow put his glasses back on.

"The Prism system has your file."

Li Li's eyelid twitched.

"CIA sub-high-level intelligence target. Codename 'Alpha-7'."

Snow spoke this sentence calmly, but Li Li heard the subtext.

Sub-high-level.

He knew a bit about CIA intelligence classification. Sub-high-level meant this target wasn't the most urgent, but if an opportunity arose, it had to be prioritized.

Three levels above 'can be ignored'.

One level below 'kill immediately'.

Simply put, they wouldn't touch you for now, but they were ready to act at any moment.

Li Li thought of Dubai. Thought of the F18. Thought of the 001 Aircraft Carrier.

Only the military knew about those things.

But the CIA clearly knew too.

He suppressed this information, not dwelling on it.

"So when you saw me in the departure hall, you decided to ask for help."

"Yes," Snow nodded. "You are the only person I was sure had the ability to help me."

He paused.

"And you are definitely not with the CIA."

Li Li almost laughed.

Not with the CIA.

That assessment was accurate enough.

He really wasn't.

He was an orphanage director. A firefighter variety show guest. A TikTok blogger with 100 million followers. A single young man who hadn't officially gotten together with his girlfriend yet.

And, by the way, the strict father of a terrorist.

Snow pulled something out of the hidden pocket inside his Gray Hoodie.

A black portable hard drive. A circle smaller than his palm, less than a centimeter thick. The casing was heavily worn, with dents on the corners.

He handed it to Li Li.

"This is one of the backups."

Li Li didn't take it immediately.

"They didn't find it?"

Snow shook his head.

"They searched me three times. They found another backup; they turned my phone, backpack, shoe soles, and underwear inside out. Once they found one, they stopped searching, figuring they'd search me again upon arrival."

He pointed to the back of the hard drive.

"This was stuck to the inside of my belt buckle. The metal detector would only scan the belt buckle."

Li Li took the hard drive and flipped it over. No brand logo, the interface was Type-C.

"What's inside?"

"The complete technical architecture of the Prism program. Documentation on the backdoor interfaces of the nine major tech companies. The distribution of surveillance nodes in forty-seven countries worldwide. Three thousand six hundred internal memos."

Snow paused.

"And the list of the CIA's agent network within the East. Partially."

Li Li put the hard drive into his pants pocket.

"What if I have an accident?"

Snow looked at him.

"At least you could find a way to let the world know."

Li Li laughed, looking down.

"Brother, look at the state of this plane right now."

He reached out and pointed to the dashboard.

The heading was off by more than forty degrees. Altitude at thirty-six thousand. Fuel levels were slowly dropping. Below was nothing but ocean.

"In this situation, if I have an accident, we all die together. Your hard drive will sink to the bottom of the South China Sea with me."

"Even the fish won't be able to understand the Prism program."

Snow was stunned for two seconds.

Then he actually laughed.

Laughing and coughing at the same time.

"You are different from what is written in your file."

"What does the file say about me?"

"Calm. Dangerous. Unpredictable."

Li Li thought for a moment.

"That's not wrong. It just left one thing out."

"What?"

"Poor."

Snow didn't understand.

It didn't matter.

At this moment, the cockpit door was knocked on twice.

The Chief Flight Attendant's voice came from outside, kept very low.

"Mr. Li, I've brought Xiao Qin."

Li Li stood up to open the door.

The Chief Flight Attendant stood at the door, followed by a young flight attendant in her early twenties. Ponytail, round face, uniform buttoned very neatly.

Xiao Qin first glanced at the co-pilot tied up on the cockpit floor.

Then she glanced at Snow squatting in the corner.

Then she glanced at Li Li, who was covered in blood spots.

She froze for half a second.

Then her pupils dilated.

"Holy crap! Li Li?!"

The Chief Flight Attendant quickly covered her mouth.

"Quiet!"

Xiao Qin pulled the Chief Flight Attendant's hand away, jumping in place with excitement.

"Brother Li! It really is you! When I saw the boarding list, I thought it was just the same name, after all, you were filming the Brave Blue Friends and Roommate variety show! I've been following you for two months! I've watched those Dubai episodes seventeen times!"

Li Li glanced at the Chief Flight Attendant.

The Chief Flight Attendant squeezed out a helpless expression; she said she had seen dead people, but she didn't say she would stop being a fan after seeing her idol.

Xiao Qin had already taken out her phone.

"Brother Li, can we take a picture together?"

Li Li looked down at himself. There were three huge bloodstains on his hoodie, and a patch on the cuff had dried and turned black. The knife was still stuck in the cup holder slot next to the control stick.

"Now?"

"Yes! Right now! With the blood, it has more of a story feel!"

The Chief Flight Attendant closed her eyes in the back.

Li Li raised his hand, took the knife out of the cup holder, and set it aside.

"Fine. Make it quick."

Xiao Qin immediately leaned over, holding up her phone in selfie mode.

Click.

In the frame, Li Li still had a gray smudge on his face, his eyes calm. Next to him, Xiao Qin was smiling with eight teeth showing. The background was the boeing 777 cockpit dashboard.

Further back, the co-pilot was tied to the floor with tape over his mouth.

The composition was nothing short of magical.

"One more request!" Xiao Qin put away her phone and raised a hand. "Can you help me get an autograph from Jiang Rumu? I'm a fan of Mumu too!"

Li Li was silent for two seconds.

"Fine. I'll get it for you when we arrive."

"Really?"

"Really. Go now."

Xiao Qin's eyes lit up, and she turned to walk out. She stopped at the door, looked back at the co-pilot on the floor, then looked at Li Li, and gave a thumbs up.

"Brother Li, you are really amazing."

Then she pulled the door shut and went out.

From down the aisle came her muffled, yet irrepressible cheers.

The Chief Flight Attendant stood there, fine beads of sweat on her forehead.

"She... isn't usually like this."

"It's fine." Li Li turned to the Chief Flight Attendant. "You and Snow sit here and watch him."

He pointed to the co-pilot on the floor.

"Snow understands Chinese, so if anything happens, he can help you communicate."

The Chief Flight Attendant looked at Snow. Snow nodded at her.

The Chief Flight Attendant hesitated for a moment.

"Is he safe?"

Li Li thought about it.

"Safer than that one."

He was referring to the co-pilot on the floor.

The Chief Flight Attendant didn't ask again and found a seat.

Li Li walked back to the captain's seat.

Sat down.

Adjusted the seat height. Fastened the four-point safety harness. Placed his left hand on the control stick and his right hand on the throttle lever.

Subconsciously, he scanned the twelve main instruments.

Primary Flight Display. Navigation Display. Engine Indication. Fuel Status. Hydraulic System. Electrical System. Barometric Altitude. Airspeed. Vertical Speed. Heading. Autopilot Panel. Communications Panel.

All green.

Except for the heading.

Current heading 210. The target should be between 015 and 020. It was off by nearly 180 degrees.

The co-pilot had made quite a thorough change. All waypoints were deleted, leaving only one—Hanoi Noi Bai Airport.

Li Li disconnected the autopilot and manually took over the control stick. The aircraft wobbled slightly, then stabilized.

Snow poked his head out from behind.

"You... know how to fly a plane?"

Li Li didn't turn around.

"Global vehicles. Sea, land, and air. Proficient."

Snow opened his mouth, then closed it.

He looked down at the tag on his CIA intelligence file: "Unpredictable."

Truly unpredictable.

Li Li reached his right hand toward the transponder panel and dialed the code from 1200 to 7700.

7700. Emergency state.

Every radar station in the world that sees this code will mark it in red.

Then he dialed the communication frequency back to 121.5. The international emergency frequency.

Pressed the transmit button.

A faint hiss of static noise sounded in the cockpit.

The frequency connected.

The Guangzhou air traffic control must have been anxious for quite a while.

Li Li cleared his throat.

"Hello World."

The frequency was silent for a second.

Snow was stunned in the back.

Hello World.

The first line of code every programmer writes. The first sentence when every system starts up.

He looked at the back of Li Li's head.

The cuffs of his Gray Hoodie were wrinkled from being rubbed by himself.

Under the brown short hair, he hadn't even noticed the curve of his own mouth.

On the other end of the frequency, an air traffic controller, anxious to the point of smoking, almost threw themselves onto the microphone.

"CX890! Guangzhou Area Control receives you! Please report the situation on board!"

Li Li leaned back into the chair, his left hand holding the control stick steadily.

"Guangzhou Area Control, CX890 emergency, the captain is dead, the co-pilot has been controlled."

He paused.

"The passenger is now taking control of the flight."

The frequency was silent for three seconds.

Then, a sound of a chair falling over came from the other side.