107: Chapter 107 Taking the Initiative to Counterattack

October 11, 3:00 AM, Shenzhen, Xingchen Academy of Sciences.

The conference room was filled with smoke—even though it was a non-smoking area, Li Weimin had lit a cigarette, and Zhang Wei had also made an exception and smoked one. Leng Feng, the head of the security team, stood in front of the whiteboard, which was covered in a complex operational diagram.

"This is a typical state-level intelligence operation." Leng Feng pointed to the photo of "Zhang Yawen." "We checked, and Longteng Capital is indeed a legitimate entity, but this Zhang Yawen is a partner who parachuted in three months ago. Her previous background is very vague. The Stanford MBA is real, but her work history at Goldman Sachs is suspicious—we contacted Goldman Sachs Hong Kong, and personnel records show she only worked there for eight months before resigning for unknown reasons."

Su Chen sat at the head of the table, his face gloomy: "Her real identity?"

"Most likely a CIA agent, codenamed 'Nightingale'." Leng Feng pulled up another file. "We monitored her communication patterns and found she used an encryption protocol developed by the NSA. Although it was disguised as ordinary business communication, the traffic characteristics match by 87%."

"What is her goal?"

"It's not just technology theft." Leng Feng said, "Judging from her conversation with Lin Haoran, she is more concerned about the 'source of technology'—why Spark can achieve breakthroughs in such a short time. The CIA suspects we have 'external help'."

The conference room went silent for a few seconds. Everyone knew what "external help" referred to—every breakthrough of Spark did indeed have the support of the system. But this secret must never be leaked.

"So, we have to fight back." Su Chen said, "But we can't do it head-on. We need a plan—one that can protect the real technology, mislead the other side, and buy us time."

Li Weimin stubbed out his cigarette: "Make a fake one."

"A fake technical plan." Zhang Wei took over, "It needs to be tempting enough, look reasonable, but contain fatal flaws. That way, after they get it, they will either research in the wrong direction and waste resources, or after discovering the flaws, they will think Spark's technology isn't that amazing and lower their guard."

Leng Feng nodded: "In intelligence warfare, this is called a 'Honeypot'—using sweet bait to attract the enemy, then trapping or misleading them."

"How exactly do we do it?" Su Chen asked.

Li Weimin started drawing on the whiteboard: "We need to create a complete '14nm chip technical plan.' Including: architecture design, process flow, material formula, and testing methods. But we need to plant traps in key areas."

He wrote a line:

Trap 1: Ring Bus Design

"The real optimal solution is a Mesh bus, but a ring bus looks simpler. In reality, a ring bus will become severely congested when the core count exceeds sixteen, increasing latency by more than 20%."

Trap 2: Graphene-doped Silicon

"Theoretically, graphene can improve electron mobility, but the lattice constants of graphene and silicon do not match, which will cause interface defects and significantly increase leakage current. The academic community gave up on this direction five years ago."

Trap 3: Double Exposure Self-Aligned Process

"We'll invent a process name, claiming it can significantly improve yield. But in reality, this process requires non-existent equipment, and the principle has fundamental contradictions—anyone familiar with semiconductor manufacturing will see it's fake at a glance."

Zhang Wei added: "We also need to add a lure—in the references, cite a few 'confidential Japanese semiconductor papers.' Imply that these technologies come from Japan's research legacy."

"Why Japan?" Su Chen asked.

"Because Japan does have a deep semiconductor foundation, but it has fallen behind in recent years. If the CIA believes this clue, they will spend a lot of resources investigating the non-existent 'Japanese technology leak,' distracting them." Leng Feng explained.

"This plan must be made to look real enough." Su Chen said, "It must be able to fool professional technical analysts."

Li Weimin laughed: "Su Chen, you have to trust our professional level. Doing real things is hard, doing fake things... as long as you know where it should be fake, it's even harder than doing real things. We need three days."

"Three days." Su Chen agreed, "Also, on Lin Haoran's side, we need to coordinate a performance."

October 12th, evening, Singapore, Sentosa Island.

This was a private villa, backed by hills, facing the sea, in an extremely secluded location. The owner of the villa was a certain Southeast Asian wealthy businessman who was away all year round, and it had been rented by "Zhang Yawen" for one night.

When Lin Haoran arrived by car, it was already nine o'clock in the evening. He was carrying an encrypted hard drive, his heart pounding like a drum.

There were two bodyguards in black suits at the entrance of the villa, who checked his car and belongings before letting him in.

In the living room, Zhang Yawen was already waiting there. She was wearing a simple black pantsuit tonight, looking serious. There were also two men beside her, one in his fifties, wearing glasses, a typical engineer look; the other was younger, in his early thirties, with sharp eyes.

"Mr. Lin, welcome." Zhang Yawen stood up, "These two are my technical consultants, responsible for verifying the materials."

The older man nodded: "Mr. Lin, I am Dr. Chen, I worked at TSMC for fifteen years. This is Mr. Liu, a chip architecture expert."

Lin Haoran could tell that these two were definitely not ordinary technical consultants—their posture, their eyes, and that attitude of scrutinizing everything looked more like analysts from an intelligence agency.

"I brought the things." Lin Haoran put the encrypted hard drive on the table.

Zhang Yawen pushed over a bank cashier's check—not a copy, but the original. UBS, twenty million US dollars, with the payee line blank.

"This is a sign of sincerity." She said, "Now, show me your sincerity."

Lin Haoran entered the password and opened the hard drive. Inside were three folders: 1. 14nm process roadmap; 2. Detailed design of the Flint architecture; 3. Academician research direction and progress.

Dr. Chen immediately sat down at the computer and quickly browsed the files. He looked very carefully, stopping from time to time to think.

"Ring bus design..." He muttered to himself, "Very bold. Theoretically, it can reduce wiring length, but inter-core communication might become a bottleneck."

Mr. Liu looked at the architecture part: "This instruction set extension is very interesting... the cache hierarchy design is also very aggressive."

The two discussed for ten minutes, exchanging quickly using technical jargon. Lin Haoran stood on the side, his palms sweating—he didn't know if this fake plan could fool real experts.

"The document's creation timestamp is June 2017." Dr. Chen suddenly said, "This means you finished the basic design half a year ago."

"Yes." Lin Haoran answered according to the security team's script, "In fact, some key technological breakthroughs were even earlier, starting at the end of 2016."

This was a deliberately buried clue—to let the CIA think Spark's technology accumulation was earlier than what the outside world saw.

"References..." Mr. Liu opened a document, "You cited unpublished research reports from Japan's NEC and Mitsubishi? We haven't seen any of these reports."

"The Academicians have some special channels." Lin Haoran said vaguely, "Although Japan's semiconductor industry has declined, basic research is still continuing. Some old researchers are willing to share some of their research results from back then after they retire."

This explanation was very clever—it both explained the source of the technology and left a trail for the CIA to follow.

Dr. Chen and Mr. Liu exchanged a look. Zhang Yawen caught this detail.

"Conclusion?" She asked.

"The plan looks very complete, and there are technical innovations." Dr. Chen said cautiously, "But some places are too aggressive and have risks. For example, this graphene doping... Japan did study it, but later abandoned it because the leakage problem could not be solved."

"In other words, Spark's plan might have flaws?" Zhang Yawen pressed.

"There may be theoretical flaws, or problems will be encountered in actual manufacturing." Mr. Liu said, "But that doesn't prevent this from being a complete technical plan. At least, it proves that Spark is indeed conducting independent research and development, and has a certain depth."

Zhang Yawen thought for a moment and turned to Lin Haoran: "Mr. Lin, we want more than just this. We need continuous information—process improvements, test data, practical problems encountered. Can you provide it?"

Lin Haoran showed hesitation: "Mr. Zhang, I've already taken a huge risk this time. I need to ensure the safety of my family—my wife and child want to go to the European Union, and I can only continue after arriving in France."

"Understandable." Zhang Yawen nodded, "How about this, you take this money first and arrange for your family to leave. We will contact you in a month and ask for the second batch of materials."

She pushed the bank cashier's check over.

Lin Haoran took the check, his hands trembling. This wasn't acting; it was real nervousness—he knew that from this moment on, he had officially become a double agent.

"You can copy the hard drive, but I must take the original." He said, "The company has records, and if the hard drive is lost, it will arouse suspicion."

"Okay."

The copy took twenty minutes. During this time, Lin Haoran stood by the window, looking at the seascape outside. The sea under the moonlight was sparkling, beautiful enough to be intoxicating, but also enough to be unsettling.

The copy was finished, he took back the hard drive, turned, and left.

"Mr. Lin." Zhang Yawen called out to him from behind, "Remember, you are our person now. If you betray... you know the consequences."

Lin Haoran did not look back, just nodded.

He drove away from the villa, and after driving two kilometers, stopped in a quiet spot. He took out another phone from the glove box—the encrypted device provided by the security team.

"Transaction completed. They copied the data. Dr. Chen and Mr. Liu should be CIA technical analysts, very professional, but seem to believe the authenticity of the plan. Zhang Yawen requested a second transaction in a month."

Send.

Five minutes later, reply: "Received. Evacuate Singapore as planned. Flight back to Shenzhen tomorrow morning, the security team will protect you throughout. Bring the hard drive back for technical processing."

Lin Haoran let out a long breath, leaned back in his seat, and felt as if all his strength had been drained.

At the same time, in the villa.

Zhang Yawen looked at the data on the computer and asked the two "consultants": "How much authenticity?"

Dr. Chen (whose real identity is CIA technical analyst Tom) said: "60%. The plan is very complete, but there are obvious theoretical flaws. This has two possibilities: First, Spark's technology does have weaknesses; Second, this is deliberately given fake data."

Mr. Liu (analyst David) added: "But the timestamp and references are very interesting. If these Japanese research reports really exist, it means Spark may have obtained the technical legacy of Japan's old semiconductor enterprises. This clue is worth digging into."

Zhang Yawen pondered: "So your suggestion?"

"Send the data back to headquarters and let more senior experts analyze it." Tom said, "At the same time, launch an investigation into the Japanese semiconductor industry—especially those retired old researchers, to see if anyone has been working with Spark privately."

"As for Lin Haoran," David said, "Continue to contact him, but strengthen surveillance. He was very nervous today, maybe because it was his first time doing such a thing. But if he is a double agent... we must be careful."

Zhang Yawen nodded: "I will arrange for someone to monitor his whereabouts. Also, launch an investigation into the Spark Materials team—since the chip technology may have a Japanese source, what about the material technology?"

What she didn't say was—deep down, she vaguely felt something was wrong. Everything was too smooth. A top chip expert, so easily turned?

But the temptation of twenty million US dollars, very few people can truly resist.

On the morning of October 13th, Lin Haoran and his family boarded the flight to Shenzhen. They only brought carry-on luggage, saying it was an emergency work transfer. The apartment in Singapore was kept, creating the illusion that he would return.

When the plane took off, Lisa asked: "Will we come back?"

Lin Haoran held his wife's hand: "Probably not. We are going back to Shenzhen, where it's... safer."

What he didn't know was that in a corner of the airport, Zhang Yawen was watching the plane take off through binoculars. She said to the invisible headset: "The target has left Singapore, flying to Shenzhen. Request headquarters to coordinate and continue surveillance in Shenzhen."

A response came from the headset: "Received. Shenzhen station has been notified. But a reminder: 'Nightingale', Spark headquarters has tight security, do not attempt to infiltrate easily. Your next target is the materials team."

"Understood." Zhang Yawen watched the plane flying away, "But I have a feeling... Lin Haoran may have already betrayed us."

"Why?"

"Intuition." She said, "A person who truly betrays wouldn't be that nervous, nor would they be that... clean. He fits the template of a 'turned scientist' too well, as if it had been rehearsed."

"Continue to observe. If there is evidence, action can be taken."

"Yes."

Zhang Yawen turned and left the airport. Her mission had just begun, but in the first round of the exchange, she vaguely felt that she might have lost.

And the winner was, at this moment, at thirty thousand feet, flying towards the motherland.

Shenzhen, Spark headquarters.

Su Chen received Wang Lei's report: "Phase one of the bird-catching plan was successful. The fake data has been sent out, and Lin Haoran has safely withdrawn. But 'Nightingale' is very vigilant and may have already become suspicious."

"As expected." Su Chen replied, "Start the second phase: Let her 'verify' the things we want her to verify. Contact the collaborators in Japan and prepare some 'clues'."

"It's already being arranged." Leng Feng said, "We leaked information to the CIA through a third party: A certain retired Japanese semiconductor expert visited Shenzhen secretly three years ago. Coordinate with some forged meeting records and emails."

Su Chen walked to the window and looked at this vibrant city.

"This game has just begun." He said softly, "But this time, we are in the dark, and they are in the light."

Outside the window, Shenzhen was sunny. But under the sunlight, shadows were also quietly growing.

And the real game is never just a contest of technology, but a duel of wisdom and will.