Chapter 25 Interrogation and Investigation

At 2:00 AM, the lights in the interrogation room were still blinding.

Zhang Jianguo sat in the chair, his hands cuffed behind his back, his whole demeanor wilted like a frosted eggplant.

Over the past four hours, he had confessed everything he could—from the first time he met that "Boss George" at the restaurant, to the last time he handed over that envelope.

Fang Lin sat opposite him, her notebook in front of her densely packed with clues.

"Say it again," her voice was calm but carried an inherent authority, "what he looked like."

Zhang Jianguo swallowed a mouthful of saliva and tried hard to recall: "About forty years old, medium height, neither fat nor thin. His skin was quite fair; he looked like a city dweller. His hair was very short, a bit curly. His eyes... his eyes weren't big, but they were exceptionally bright. They were a bit eerie when he looked at you."

"Accent?"

"He spoke Mandarin quite well, but the pronunciation of some words was strange. Once he said 'tomorrow,' but it sounded like 'ming-tie.' It sounded like someone from the South."

Fang Lin wrote in her notebook: Southern accent, possibly lived in the South for a long time.

"What was he wearing?"

"The first time I saw him, he wore a jacket, dark-colored. The next few times he wore shirts, and sometimes casual wear. He was quite particular about his clothes, unlike people here who just throw on a uniform and head out."

"Any distinguishing features? Scars, moles, tattoos?"

Zhang Jianguo thought for a long time and shook his head: "No. He was just... a very ordinary person, the kind you wouldn't be able to pick out in a crowd."

Fang Lin frowned. This kind of "ordinariness" was precisely what made him hardest to track.

"Contact information?"

"Just a mobile number," Zhang Jianguo said. "Every time, he called me. Whenever I called back, it never went through."

Fang Lin signaled to the technician nearby. The person nodded and pulled up the call logs. The number's origin showed—a virtual operator, no real-name authentication required. It had been deactivated three days ago.

A classic professional tactic.

"Meeting locations?"

"In the county town, we changed locations three times. First at a restaurant, second at an abandoned factory on the outskirts, third at a teahouse next to the bus station. Each time was different, and he always chose them."

Fang Lin drew three locations on her notebook, quickly sketching out the other party's movement trajectory in her mind—a cunning rabbit with three burrows, extremely strong anti-reconnaissance awareness.

"What did he have you deliver?"

"Just letters," Zhang Jianguo said. "They were in envelopes, sealed. I didn't dare to look, and I didn't know what was written inside."

"How many times did you deliver?"

"Five times. The first time was a test; he had me deliver an empty envelope, claiming it was a test. The next four times, they contained things. He said it was just some business intelligence, nothing harmful..."

Fang Lin sneered: "Business intelligence? Do you know how much the things you delivered are worth?"

Zhang Jianguo was stunned.

"The R&D progress of Room-Temperature Superconductivity materials, pilot test parameters, team composition," Fang Lin said, word by word, "if these things fell into the hands of foreign forces, the resulting damage would be enough to keep you in prison for the rest of your life."

Zhang Jianguo's face turned completely pale.

"I really didn't know..." his voice trembled, "I just wanted to make some extra money... My son needs to go to school, my mom is sick in the hospital, money is needed everywhere..."

Fang Lin stood up, walked over to him, and looked down at him from her height.

"Master Zhang, you've worked here for six years; you should know the rules here. The consequences of leaking secrets were explained during your onboarding training."

Zhang Jianguo hung his head, not daring to look at her.

Fang Lin turned to leave, stopped at the door, and without looking back, said: "Take him away. Hand him over to the relevant departments tomorrow."

The door to the interrogation room closed.

In the hallway, Zhao Gang leaned against the wall with a cigarette in his hand.

"How did it go?" he asked.

Fang Lin rubbed her temples, a hint of exhaustion appearing on her face: "Professional. The contact method was virtual, the meeting locations were random, leaving no traces. A peripheral pawn like Zhang Jianguo is discarded after use; he has no idea where his handler is."

Zhao Gang was silent for a few seconds, then said: "Can we track him?"

Fang Lin shook her head: "The phone number has been deactivated. The meeting locations were all public places, and there were no blind spots in the surveillance. This person either has an intelligence background or has received professional training."

She handed the notebook to Zhao Gang: "These are the physical characteristics he confessed. Have your people watch the surveillance in the county town and see if we can find a match."

Zhao Gang took the notebook, glanced at it, and frowned.

"That's it?"

"That's it," Fang Lin said. "About forty, Southern accent, well-dressed, ordinary-looking. There are at least eight to ten million people in all of China who fit this description."

Zhao Gang didn't speak, but his gaze turned cold.

Meanwhile, at the provincial capital train station three hundred kilometers away.

George carried an ordinary travel bag and walked into the waiting hall with the crowd.

He was wearing a gray jacket and a baseball cap, the brim pulled very low. From entering the station to security, he never once raised his head to look at any camera.

The waiting hall at 2:00 AM was empty, with only a few passengers dozing on the chairs. George found a corner to sit down and pulled a new mobile phone out of his pocket—it had been bought this afternoon and didn't have a SIM card yet.

He turned it on, entered an encryption app, and sent a message: "Messenger lost contact. Have withdrawn."

Three minutes later, a reply came: "Loss assessment?"

George's fingers danced rapidly on the screen: "Peripheral personnel, does not know handler. No risk of traceability."

"Next step?"

"Await instructions. Recommend silence for three months."

Reply: "Agreed. Maintain silence, stand by."

George finished reading, deleted the message, took out the SIM card, and snapped it in half. He got up and walked to the restroom, threw the broken card into the toilet, and flushed it.

Returning to his seat, he looked at the pitch-black night outside the window, a faint, imperceptible smile appearing at the corner of his mouth.

Lost contact, so be it. That cook was merely a pawn that could be discarded at any time. The important thing was that he had already confirmed the target's exact location and confirmed the project's real progress.

Three months of silence would be just enough to let this storm pass.

The announcement for the train's arrival sounded. George stood up and followed the sparse crowd toward the platform.

At 3:00 AM, he boarded the train heading south and disappeared into the vast darkness.

The next morning at 8:00 AM, in the base conference room.

Fang Lin, Zhao Gang, Chen Qingshan, and several core personnel sat together. The atmosphere was heavy.

"He ran," Fang Lin said straight to the point. "Early this morning, we tried to locate his mobile signal and found it was turned off. We pulled the surveillance from the main intersections in the county town and couldn't find anyone matching the characteristics."

Chen Qingshan frowned: "So cunning?"

"Professional," Zhao Gang said. "This kind of person won't stay in one place for too long. He probably left yesterday afternoon."

There was silence in the conference room for a few seconds.

Fang Lin looked at Chen Qingshan: "Academician Chen, I suggest strengthening internal controls. Since the other party has already infiltrated the periphery, their next step might be to find a way to dig deeper."

Chen Qingshan nodded: "Agreed. What are your thoughts?"

"First, re-verify the backgrounds of all personnel entering and leaving the base, regardless of whether they are internal or external. Second, increase the frequency of security checks in core areas. Third, establish a coordination mechanism with local public security to report suspicious persons immediately upon discovery."

She paused and looked at Zhao Gang: "Captain Zhao, do you have any suggestions from your side?"

Zhao Gang was silent for a few seconds, then said: "This matter with the cook was discovered by that girl surnamed Li. Her observation skills are good; we could consider letting her participate in peripheral surveillance."

Fang Lin raised an eyebrow slightly: "Li Xiao?"

"Yes," Zhao Gang said. "She is a computer science major and is sensitive to data analysis. Being able to detect the anomaly this time wasn't just luck."

Fang Lin thought for a moment and nodded: "Fine. Have her assist the security department with data screening."

The meeting lasted for an hour. After the meeting adjourned, Fang Lin asked Zhao Gang to stay behind.

"You said earlier that Li Xiao didn't rely on luck?" she asked.

Zhao Gang nodded: "She goes to the monitoring room every night to chat with Liu Yang and watches the screens while she's at it. The cook appeared at the same location at the same time for five consecutive days; others didn't notice, but she did. This shows she is observant."

Fang Lin was silent for a few seconds, then suddenly smiled.

"You, as the head of security, are quite observant yourself."

Zhao Gang's face remained expressionless, but a flash of imperceptible fluctuation passed through his eyes: "In this line of work, you have to watch people."

At noon, in the cafeteria.

Li Xiao carried her tray to find Lin Mo and sat down, her expression complex—both excited and nervous.

"Teacher Lin, Teacher Lin!" she lowered her voice, "I heard! Director Fang is letting me participate in peripheral surveillance! Helping the security department with data screening!"

Lin Mo looked up and watched her: "You?"

"Yes!" Li Xiao nodded vigorously, "Captain Zhao recommended me! He said my observation skills are good and I can be useful!"

Lin Mo was stunned for a moment, then smiled.

"Congratulations," he said, "this is a good thing."

Li Xiao blinked: "But... if I go, who will process the data here?"

Lin Mo thought for a moment: "You can handle both for now. If there's a task on the security side, go; if there's no task, come back. We'll see once the formal arrangements are made."

Li Xiao nodded, then suddenly leaned in a bit closer and asked in a low voice: "Teacher Lin, do you think that guy surnamed George will come back?"

The chopsticks in Lin Mo's hand paused.

He remembered George's gentle smiling face and those eyes that were a bit eerie when looking at someone.

"I don't know," he said, "but regardless of whether he comes back or not, we have to do what we need to do."

Li Xiao nodded thoughtfully, then suddenly smiled: "Right! Our material is the real deal! His little tricks can't turn the sky over!"

In the afternoon, Lin Mo returned to the laboratory.

Zhang Zhe was looking at data. Seeing him come in, he said without looking up: "I heard the matter with the cook has been resolved?"

Lin Mo nodded: "Temporarily resolved. But the person ran away."

Zhang Zhe was silent for a few seconds, then said: "He ran away, but he will come back."

Lin Mo looked at him.

Zhang Zhe finally looked up and pushed up his glasses: "This kind of person won't give up until he achieves his goal. He failed this time, but next time he will be more covert."

Lin Mo didn't speak, but he knew Zhang Zhe was right.

Outside the window, the sunlight was perfect. The mountains rolled on, a stretch of verdant green.

Lin Mo stood in front of the window, looking at those peaks, and suddenly remembered the day he first arrived at the base, the mountain path leading to the viewing platform that Fang Lin had shown him.

"You can come out for walks often in the future," she had said. "Many researchers go sit there when they are under a lot of stress."

He took a deep breath, turned around, and returned to the control console.

The matter of George was in the hands of Zhao Gang, Fang Lin, and the entire security system.

His battlefield was here.

At 8:00 PM, Li Xiao appeared in the monitoring room on time.

Seeing her, Liu Yang was stunned for a moment: "Sister Li, why are you here?"

Li Xiao shook the milk tea in her hand: "Director Fang sent me. From now on, I'm an official peripheral surveillance officer!"

Liu Yang's eyes lit up: "Really?"

"Of course!" Li Xiao sat down next to him and pointed at the screen: "Come, tell me, how do you look at all these things?"

Liu Yang became excited and started talking incessantly, introducing the locations, coverage areas, and key zones of each monitoring point.

Li Xiao listened while silently memorizing everything in her heart.

She didn't know if George would come back, nor did she know if she could be of help.

But she knew that this time, she was no longer that little assistant who only knew how to chatter.

Outside the window, the night deepened.

In a small town three hundred kilometers away, George walked out of the train station and merged into the vast crowd of people.

He took off his hat, changed into a coat, and hailed a taxi.

"To the bus station," he said.

The taxi disappeared into the night.

In the base, the lights turned on one by one.

Lin Mo was still in the laboratory, staring at the data curves on the screen. Zhang Zhe was operating the instrument nearby, Academician was organizing data, and Su Qing was conducting tests.

Everything was as usual.

But everyone knew that beneath those seemingly calm appearances, undercurrents had never stopped surging.