43: Chapter 43 The Stalker

There were so many people that it was no wonder Chen Zhi had started letting him use his "metaphysical" skills.

Lin Ning's gaze swept across face after face like a scanner.

Green, green, green... occasionally flashing with a faint yellow or two.

He didn't stop until he reached the entrance of Laboratory 021.

Through the glass, he saw a man around forty years old with thinning hair, hunched over as he adjusted the parameters of a spectrometer.

The color above that man's head—[Liu Mingdong, Senior Analyst]—was red.

Although it wasn't as deep purple as Senior Engineer Gao Yayin's, it was definitely a dull, dark red, like congealed blood.

Lin Ning quickly circled Liu Mingdong on the tablet using the image captured by his glasses, whispered "1," and then followed the team as if nothing had happened.

The inspection lasted for a full two hours.

Lin Ning discovered two more red auras—

One was in the Administration Department, a female supervisor in her thirties. The red was very faint, but Lin Ning still sent it to Chen Zhi.

The other was in the security warehouse, a security guard in charge of equipment in his fifties, whose red was slightly deeper.

[Li Feng, Security Guard]—this was also one of the security team members Chen Zhi had mentioned and that Lin Ning was focusing on.

After the inspection ended, Lin Ning returned to the temporary command vehicle outside the building.

While unloading his equipment, Lin Ning said, "Three targets. Sun Li in Administration, Li Feng in Security, and Zheng Dongming in the technical position. Zheng Dongming is the worst, followed by Officer Li Feng and Sun Li."

Chen Zhi stared at the frozen video of Zheng Dongming, his eyes icy.

"Zheng Dongming... a third-party data reviewer for Senior Engineer Gao Yayin's project team, with authorization to access the original experimental data records." He looked at the technician beside him. "Investigate all his information! Communications, finances, travel records, family relationships—dig three feet deep."

"What about the other two?" Lin Ning asked.

"We checked the transaction records of Sun Li and her family. They overlap with the procurement times handled by Senior Engineer Gao Yayin's project team, suggesting corruption, but it's likely unrelated to the espionage case. Li Feng..." Chen Zhi paused. "His son is studying in Australia, and the source of his tuition fees is questionable. He may have been bought off, but his level is too low to have access to the core."

He picked up the walkie-talkie. "Action team, secure Zheng Dongming. Bring him to Safe House No. 3 under the pretext of 'issues found during security inspection requiring cooperation.' Be careful not to alert anyone else."

Lin Ning stood by, frowning in thought.

Chen Zhi looked at Lin Ning. "You did well today. But internal screening alone isn't enough—Senior Engineer Gao Yayin has fled, and she must have an external support network. We are pursuing that 'man in the grey jacket,' Zhao Xiaoqiang, whom you mentioned earlier, but he is very cunning and the trail has gone cold."

Lin Ning thought for a moment. "Brother Chen, if it's an external support network, it might not be a lone operator like Zhao Xiaoqiang. Is it possible... it's the kind of organized 'errand-running network'? Like unlicensed taxi drivers, motorcycle taxi riders, or middlemen who specialize in grey-market work?"

Chen Zhi's eyes flickered. He hadn't expected a young man like Lin Ning to know about the situation in the underground grey market. They had relevant files on it, but they needed to use every available resource now.

"Do you have connections?"

"I know a few friends," Lin Ning said. "They get around in the underworld and are well-informed. I'll ask them to help me inquire. This area is close to Juma Bridge, so it stands to reason that the personnel are connected."

"Are they reliable?"

"They're reliable. I recently reported three criminal gangs, and they were the ones who helped me gather the information."

Chen Zhi pondered for a moment and nodded. "Fine. But you must be careful. Don't reveal our objective, and don't alert the enemy."

Meanwhile, at Old Yang BBQ by Juma Bridge.

Jin Er, Xu San, and Zhang Shitou were drinking beer with kebabs, passing around the photo Lin Ning had sent.

Lin Ning had briefly explained the situation: "I think he's part of an 'errand-running network' or a 'grey-market middleman.'"

Jin Er swallowed what was in his mouth and asked, "Trying to find someone, huh? What's the situation? What color is he?"

Lin Ning briefly explained the situation: "I think he's part of an 'errand-running network' or a 'grey-market middleman'... At the time, he was holding his phone in his left hand, and his right index finger was swiping the screen with a specific rhythm... but he's unemployed, so it's suspicious for him to be appearing in that vicinity..."

Jin Er listened with narrowed eyes, then scoffed, "Isn't this just a 'tail'? Swiping the screen waiting for news? He's reporting to the 'boss' that there's nothing unusual and is standing by. When there's an anomaly, he contacts the 'driver.'"

"The lowest level?" Lin Ning asked over the phone.

Jin Er said, "This is actually skilled work! The core of every job. This is a big job; usually, you don't see such professional setups anymore!"

Lin Ning thought that having a standout point was good; it was better than looking for a needle in a haystack. He asked with some urgency, "Can you help me inquire? At least find out which team he belongs to!"

Xu San chimed in, "There are a lot of people like that around the Science Park. Among the unlicensed taxi drivers waiting for passengers, three out of ten do this kind of work on the side. They pay quickly and leave no traces."

Zhang Shitou peeled a peanut slowly. "To find someone like that, you have to go to their usual gathering spots. There's an 'Old Wang Repair Shop' at the East Gate of the Science Park, which is actually an information station for unlicensed taxi drivers. In the small alley behind the West Gate subway station, there's a bunch of motorcycle taxi riders squatting and waiting for jobs at night; they also take these kinds of gigs."

Jin Er took a sip of beer. "It's not a hard task. But Lin Zi, this sounds like it might be deep water. It's the Science Park, and there's tailing involved... Don't get yourself dragged into anything life-threatening."

"I know, Brother Er," Lin Ning said. "I'm just doing a friend a favor. Be very careful when asking around. Don't force it, and don't spook anyone important."

"Got it."

Hanging up the phone, Jin Er finished the last of his beer and wiped his mouth. "Let's go, time to work. It's time to stir up some old connections."

"Now?" Xu San glanced at the sky, which was still bright outside.

"For this kind of work, you have to find out before they go out at night," Jin Er stood up. "If it's too late, everyone will have scattered, or they'll have already taken jobs and gone out, and then we won't be able to find out anything."

The three of them paid the bill, got on two beat-up electric scooters, and wobbled their way toward the Science Park.

Safe House No. 3.

Zheng Dongming had been "invited" here for two hours. There was no so-called security inspection cooperation; he had just been left alone in this cold place that looked like an interrogation room.

Sitting on the cold metal chair, his face grew paler and paler, and his forehead was covered in sweat.

"Click!" The door opened, and several men with upright postures entered one after another. They glanced at him with icy eyes and sat down opposite him.

The young man holding a stack of documents spoke first. "Zheng Dongming, male, 48 years old, native of XX City, Henan Province, PhD from XX University in the Northwest..."

He recited his resume and family situation.

Zheng Dongming felt a cold numbness creeping up his spine.

The man opposite him, with eyes like a hawk, began to ask the first question:

"Engineer Zheng, your son's high school tuition in the United States is sixty thousand US dollars a year. Your and your wife's combined annual income is less than eighty thousand US dollars. In the last six months, your son's account has received a total of two hundred and eighty thousand US dollars in remittances. Can you explain the source of this money?"

Zheng Dongming's hands began to shake.

"It, it was funded by my older sister..."

"Your older sister, Zheng Xiulan, is an elementary school teacher with a monthly pension of three thousand two hundred." Chen Zhi pushed a bank statement in front of him.

"The largest single expenditure from her account in the past few years was a laptop she bought for your son, worth twelve hundred US dollars. Do you need me to call her to verify?"

Zheng Dongming slumped in the chair.

"I... I... Who exactly are you people?"

Chen Zhi got straight to the point. "How much money did Senior Engineer Gao Yayin give you?"

Ignoring his instantly pale face, he questioned him repeatedly. "Did she ask you to help her forge data review records? Or modify experimental logs? Or... secretly copy the original data?"

Zheng Dongming trembled all over. "I didn't copy the data! I only... only when she needed it, I adjusted the submission time of the review report forward by a few days, or marked some abnormal data as 'instrument error'..." He said incoherently, "She said it was for the project schedule, to make the report look better before the review... I didn't think she would... that she would steal things and run away!"

"When did she contact you to make you do these things?"

"It started a year ago... At first, it was just changing dates, then later she would gradually make me ignore some data anomalies..."

Chen Zhi asked, "What about in the last few days?"

Zheng Dongming covered his face. "The night before last, she suddenly found me and gave me fifty thousand US dollars in cash, saying she wanted me to do her a favor..."

Chen Zhi perked up. "What did she ask you to do?"

Zheng Dongming said with regret, "Yesterday, yesterday afternoon between 16:15 and 16:20, find a way to make the R-0 area laboratory buzzer alarm go off, and then restart the security program according to the error report."

Chen Zhi and the recording clerk beside him exchanged glances.

Restarting the security program could not only make the encrypted hard drive disappear silently but also cut off the surveillance video; this was the exact time period during which they had previously been unable to determine their movement trajectory.

All of this happened within those five minutes.

Chen Zhi was so angry that he slammed his fist on the table, making a dull "thud" sound.

"And then what! What else did you do?"

Zheng Dongming curled up in fear and said tremblingly, "She asked me to give a hard drive to Auntie Wang, the cleaner."

Zheng Dongming's voice was tearful. "I really didn't know she was going to steal experimental secrets!"

The eyes of Chen Zhi and the others were full of disdain. "How did you know it was experimental secrets? With your intelligence and experience, how could you not know what it meant when she gave you money to do those things?"

Upon hearing this, Zheng Dongming completely lost his strength. Regret, remorse, and fear overwhelmed him, and he slumped down like a dead dog.

"What else did Senior Engineer Gao Yayin ask you to do? Did she reveal where she was going afterwards? How she was going to leave?"

Zheng Dongming shook his head blankly. "No! I don't know anything. I was deceived and used!"

The lead was broken. Chen Zhi looked at Zheng Dongming, who was starting to become hysterical, and got up to leave.

Walking out of the interrogation room, his face was gloomy.

Zheng Dongming provided the operational details of Senior Engineer Gao Yayin and confirmed that Wang Xiumei was the courier, but the whereabouts of Senior Engineer Gao Yayin herself remained a mystery.

Just then, Lin Ning's call came in.

"Brother Chen, there's news from my friends."