Chapter 162 Interrogation of Black Sparrow
Seven o'clock in the morning, the base's temporary interrogation room.
The room was small, containing one table and two chairs, with a surveillance camera mounted on the wall. The window was covered by thick curtains, making it impossible to tell if it was day or night outside.
Black Sparrow sat in the chair, her hands cuffed in front of her, her face devoid of any expression. She was still wearing the same clothes from last night, her hair was a bit messy, but her gaze remained cold, like two pieces of unmelting ice.
The door opened, and Fang Lin walked in.
She was dressed in civilian clothes, holding a cup of freshly brewed tea, her face showing no emotion. Walking to the table, she sat down, placed the tea in front of her, and then quietly looked at Black Sparrow.
The two of them stared at each other for a full minute, neither saying a word.
Finally, it was Black Sparrow who spoke first. The corners of her mouth curled up slightly into a mocking smile:
“Director Fang, I've heard much about you.”
Fang Lin picked up the teacup, blew on it gently, took a sip, and then set it down:
“Black Sparrow, real name unknown, twenty-eight years old, an agent for a certain country's intelligence agency, code-named 'Black Sparrow'. You began cyber-attack training three years ago under the tutelage of 'Ghost'. After Ghost was arrested, you took over his mission.”
Black Sparrow's smile stiffened for a moment before returning to normal:
“Since you've investigated everything so clearly, why are you still asking me?”
Fang Lin looked at her, her tone as calm as if they were chatting about family matters:
“What's been investigated is your identity, not your mission. Speak. Who sent you? What is the mission objective? Who else is there besides you?”
Black Sparrow gave a cold laugh. “Director Fang, you're in this business too; you should know that I won't talk.”
Fang Lin nodded, stood up, walked to the wall, and pulled open the curtains.
Blinding sunlight flooded in instantly, and Black Sparrow subconsciously squinted her eyes.
Outside the window, the silhouette of tokamak-3 was exceptionally clear in the sunlight. The massive device stood quietly, with people coming and going on the busy construction site.
Fang Lin pointed at the device, her voice still calm:
“Do you know what that is?”
Black Sparrow did not answer.
“That is tokamak-3, humanity's first Nuclear Fusion device,” Fang Lin said. “In eighteen days, it will be ignited. If successful, humanity will enter a new era of energy. What you are doing is trying to stop all of this.”
She turned around and looked at Black Sparrow:
“You don't have to speak. But what you have done is already written in history. In eighteen days, no matter where you are, no matter if you speak or not, history will remember—that someone tried to destroy it.”
The corner of Black Sparrow's mouth twitched.
Fang Lin walked back to the table, sat down again, picked up the teacup, and took another sip:
“Of course, you can also choose to speak. If you do, perhaps history will be a little more lenient with you.”
Silence.
A long silence.
Black Sparrow stared at the massive device outside the window, her gaze complex. There was hatred, resentment, and a trace of... awe that she herself hadn't even noticed.
Finally, she spoke:
“What do you want to know?”
Over the next two hours, Black Sparrow said a lot.
She said she was recruited three years ago and underwent a year of cyber warfare training. Ghost was her mentor, teaching her how to hack systems, hide her tracks, and plant backdoors.
She said that after Ghost was caught, she took over the mission. The mission was to sabotage the ignition of tokamak-3 at any cost.
She said that the backdoor was planted by Ghost three years ago using physical means—a chip smaller than a fingernail, soldered onto the motherboard of the Cooling Water Control System. There was a segment of code in the chip that would automatically activate during ignition, causing the cooling system to fail.
“How is that code activated?” Fang Lin asked.
Black Sparrow shook her head. “I didn't activate it. It activated itself. Ghost designed the trigger mechanism—as soon as the system detects the ignition sequence starting, the code runs automatically.”
Fang Lin frowned. “Then what happened with the two crises last night?”
Black Sparrow sneered. “You triggered those yourselves. You were running drills, the system thought ignition was beginning, and the code activated early.”
Fang Lin's heart sank.
So that was it.
It wasn't that Black Sparrow had pressed the enter key; it was their drills that had prematurely detonated that mine.
“Who else?” she asked. “Besides you, is there anyone else?”
Black Sparrow was silent for a few seconds, then said, “George.”
Fang Lin's pupils contracted slightly.
“George is my handler,” Black Sparrow said. “He's responsible for the entire operation, including Ghost's mission. After Ghost was caught, he arranged for me to take over.”
“Where is he now?”
Black Sparrow shook her head. “I don't know. The last contact was a month ago; he said he was going to South America to lie low for a while. There's been no news since then.”
Fang Lin stared at her, trying to find any trace of a lie on her face.
But there was none.
Black Sparrow's eyes were very calm, as calm as if she were talking about someone else's business.
“Why are you doing this?” Fang Lin suddenly asked.
Black Sparrow was stunned for a moment, then laughed:
“Why? For the money. Because it's exciting. Because... no reason.”
She looked at the massive device outside the window, her gaze becoming somewhat vacant:
“To be honest, I originally thought this thing couldn't be lit at all. So many countries have worked on it for decades and failed; how could you possibly light it?”
She turned her head and looked at Fang Lin:
“But now, I believe it.”
Fang Lin did not speak.
Black Sparrow suddenly smiled, a very bitter smile:
“Director Fang, do you know? Last night when I was at the computer looking at those data points, a thought suddenly occurred to me—if it really does light up, what will it be like?”
She lowered her head, looking at the cuffs on her hands:
“Now I know. It will be very bright. Brighter than anything else.”
The interrogation ended, and Fang Lin walked out of the room.
Old Han was waiting at the door. Seeing her come out, he handed her a cup of freshly brewed tea:
“Director Fang, did you get it out of her?”
Fang Lin nodded, took the tea, and had a sip:
“George has fled to South America, whereabouts unknown. The backdoor was physically planted by Ghost three years ago, and the trigger mechanism is the start of the ignition sequence. The two crises last night were prematurely triggered by our drills.”
Old Han sucked in a breath of cold air. “Then what do we do? That backdoor is still there; it will definitely act up again during the ignition.”
Fang Lin was silent for a few seconds, then said:
“Call Li Xiao here.”
Ten minutes later, Li Xiao appeared before Fang Lin.
The dark circles under her eyes were still there, but her spirit was much better than it had been at dawn. After listening to Fang Lin's recount, she was silent for a long time.
“The trigger mechanism is the start of the ignition sequence...” she murmured, repeating the phrase. “So as long as we don't ignite it, it will never act up?”
Fang Lin nodded. “Theoretically, yes. But it's impossible for us not to ignite it.”
Li Xiao bit her lip. “Then there's only one way—dig it out before the ignition.”
“Can it be done?”
Li Xiao thought for a moment, then nodded:
“It can. But it will take time. And the risk is very high—what if it activates prematurely while we're digging it out...”
Fang Lin looked at her and said, word by word:
“How long do you need?”
Li Xiao took a deep breath:
“Give me fifteen days. Three days before the ignition, I'll give you an answer.”
Fang Lin nodded:
“Good. From now on, you have full authority over this matter. If you need any resources, tell me directly.”
Li Xiao stood up and gave a somewhat non-standard salute:
“Understood!”
That afternoon, Li Xiao locked herself in the server room.
Before her lay the chip she had removed from the motherboard, which she examined repeatedly with a magnifying glass. The chip was tiny, so small that the circuits on it were almost invisible. But she knew that hidden inside was a segment of code sufficient to destroy the entire ignition.
Fifteen days.
In fifteen days, she had to find that code and then—eliminate it.
She took a deep breath and opened her analysis tools.
Outside the window, the sun gradually sank in the west, and dusk descended upon the Gobi Desert once again.
And she was only just beginning.