142: Chapter 142 A Symphony of Technology: Luring the Enemy into the Trap

Spark Materials "Kunlun" Laboratory, December 17, 10:00 AM

Chen Zhe—or rather, "Nightingale"—stood at the entrance of the laboratory and took a deep breath.

At thirty-two, he looked like a typical academic: gold-rimmed glasses, a pristine white coat, and hair combed neatly. He held a newly signed employment document in his hand, which stated his new position: Advanced Composite Materials R&D Team 2, Senior Engineer.

"Dr. Chen, welcome, welcome!" Team Leader Zhang Ming greeted him warmly. He was in his forties, slightly plump, with a sincere smile. "We've finally been looking forward to you. Mr. Wu specifically instructed that you are the most important talent we have recruited this year."

"Team Leader Zhang, you are too kind." Chen Zhe bowed slightly, his posture humble. "It is my honor to join Spark Materials. When I was in America, I followed Spark Materials' papers. Your approach to interface optimization in metal matrix composites is very... bold."

"Hahaha, bold, that's a good word for it." Zhang Ming patted him on the shoulder. "Come, let me take you to your workstation. Our team is mainly responsible for the heat treatment process optimization of metal matrix composites. This is the core of the core!"

The two walked through the laboratory. Chen Zhe's peripheral vision swept over the surroundings: researchers in white coats were operating various precision instruments, and discussions were rising one after another. The atmosphere was tense and focused; this was a place where real scientific research was being done, not a laboratory just for show.

His workstation was in the southeast corner of the laboratory, by the window. On the desk, a computer, a notebook, an experimental logbook, and a seemingly ordinary material analyzer were already set up.

"This is the second-generation 'Spectral Probe,' which can monitor the phase transition of materials during the heat treatment process in real-time." Zhang Ming introduced. "The operation is relatively complex, but with Dr. Chen's level, it certainly won't be a problem."

Chen Zhe nodded, his fingers unconsciously touching the side of the analyzer. There was a tiny, almost invisible bump there—a pinhole camera, monitoring 360 degrees without blind spots.

He knew, of course. From the moment he stepped into the Spark Materials building, he knew he was under close surveillance. But he wasn't worried, because his mission wasn't to steal immediately, but to lie low for a long time.

"This is your work schedule for this week." Zhang Ming handed over a document. "First, familiarize yourself with the equipment and processes, then participate in the preliminary data organization for the 'Blue Bird Project'."

"Blue Bird Project?" Chen Zhe looked up, revealing just the right amount of curiosity.

"Oh, a project with a relatively high secrecy level." Zhang Ming lowered his voice. "Next-generation metamaterials, the performance target is 1.5 times that of existing materials, but the cost needs to be reduced by 30%. Specifically... you have signed a non-disclosure agreement, and the project launch meeting tomorrow will explain it in detail."

Chen Zhe nodded, but in his heart, he was analyzing rapidly: "Blue Bird Project," he hadn't heard the name, but the goal of "1.5 times performance improvement, 30% cost reduction" matched exactly with Dupont's internal predictions for Spark Materials' next-generation materials.

Is it a coincidence, or a trap?

He decided to observe first.

At the same time, Cybersecurity Center.

Li Rui stared at the sixteen split screens in front of him, each showing Chen Zhe from different angles: front, side, top, close-ups of his fingers...

"Onboarding complete." Li Rui reported. "He is now entering the laboratory."

Silent Chen stood behind him, holding Chen Zhe's complete dossier—from birth certificate to doctoral degree certificate, every document was authentic and error-free. But this was precisely what was most suspicious: it was too perfect, perfect like a meticulously designed work of art.

"Pay attention to his micro-expressions." Silent Chen said. "Especially when he comes into contact with sensitive information."

On the screen, Chen Zhe was listening to Zhang Ming introduce the "Blue Bird Project." Li Rui zoomed in on the image, focusing on his eyes and the corners of his mouth.

"Pupils dilated by 0.3 millimeters, 0.2 seconds of unnatural tightening at the corners of the mouth." The AI analysis system automatically flagged it. "Emotional characteristics: mixed tension and excitement."

"He cares about this project." Silent Chen nodded. "Continue to observe."

For the next few hours, Chen Zhe behaved like a standard new employee: diligently learning equipment operation, humbly asking colleagues for advice, and taking the initiative to buy coffee for everyone at lunch.

But the monitoring system captured three anomalies:

Anomaly 1: During the lunch break, Chen Zhe "inadvertently" walked to the entrance of the adjacent laboratory, his gaze lingering on the access control system for 3.2 seconds. That laboratory was the core "Xuanjia Materials" R&D area of Spark Materials, with the highest security level.

"He is memorizing the access control model." Li Rui pulled up the details of the access control. "German KABA system, dual-factor authentication. He wants to know the difficulty of entry."

Anomaly 2: In the cafeteria, Chen Zhe used his personal mobile phone to take a picture of the menu. But on the whiteboard next to the menu, the weekly shift schedule for each laboratory and the list of duty personnel were posted.

"Zoom in on the whiteboard." Silent Chen ordered.

The screen clearly showed: The shift schedule marked the person in charge of each laboratory, duty times, and—the storage location of the spare keys.

"He is collecting security information." Silent Chen sneered. "But it's too obvious. A professional spy wouldn't be this direct."

"Unless..." Li Rui thought. "Unless he is doing it on purpose? Wanting to test our monitoring sensitivity?"

Silent Chen fell silent. This possibility existed. If Chen Zhe knew he was being monitored, then these "anomalies" might be acting, intended to mislead the direction of monitoring.

"Ignore it for now." Silent Chen said. "Look at the third anomaly."

Anomaly 3: Before getting off work, Chen Zhe uploaded a set of "experimental data" to the laboratory server. On the surface, it was a set of heat treatment temperature curves, but an abnormal code was mixed into the data stream—it was a standard probe program used to detect firewall port opening status and filtering rules.

"He is probing our network security strategy." Li Rui got excited. "And he used a standard NSA toolkit. Look at this code structure, it's a variant of the 'Quantum' system."

"Can you reverse trace it?"

"Already doing it." Li Rui's fingers danced on the keyboard. "He sent the data through three proxy servers, and the final exit is in... Singapore. But that is a stepping stone, the real source will take time."

"No rush." Silent Chen said. "Let him probe. But we have to give him 'appropriate' feedback."

"How?"

"The firewall 'happens' to leave a 'vulnerability' in a port he is probing." Silent Chen smiled. "A vulnerability that looks exploitable but is actually completely controllable. Let him think he found a backdoor."

"A lure?"

"Yes. Then, through this vulnerability, feed him fake data for the 'Blue Bird Project'."

Li Rui understood. This was a two-way deception: Chen Zhe thought he was stealing intelligence, but in reality, he was receiving fake intelligence; Spark Materials thought they were monitoring a spy, but in reality, they were using the spy to pass on false information.

"What does Mr. Wu say?" Li Rui asked.

"He has already approved the implementation of the 'Blue Bird Project'." Silent Chen pulled up Wu Yi's reply email. "All technical documents are ready, the physical performance parameters are real, but the chemical synthesis path... has a fatal catalyst ratio error."

"How bad is the error?"

"If produced according to that formula, everything will be fine for the first three months, and the performance will even be better than the design specifications." Silent Chen explained. "But from the fourth month onwards, the material will slowly degrade, and its mechanical properties will drop by 50% within half a year. Any product manufactured with this material will fail on a large scale after one year of use."

Li Rui gasped: "Then if Dupont puts it into mass production..."

"They will lose at least one billion dollars, and more importantly, their reputation." Silent Chen's voice was devoid of emotion. "This is information warfare."

Evening 18:00, Spark Materials underground third floor secret room.

This room had no windows, the walls were thirty-centimeter-thick concrete with lead plates, and the electromagnetic shielding level could defend against a nuclear explosion. There was only one table in the room, three chairs, and a huge projection screen on the wall.

Wu Yi sat in the main seat, opposite him were Silent Chen and Li Rui.

The screen displayed Chen Zhe's complete relationship network: his parents were retired in Shanghai, his younger sister Chen Lin was a Ph.D. student in materials science at New York University, his ex-girlfriend Liu Wei worked at Dupont's Asia headquarters, and he had an uncle who worked at a research institute under the America Ministry of National Defense.

"The relationship network is very clean, abnormally clean." Wu Yi said. "His parents are ordinary retired teachers, his sister's tuition fees are $80,000 per year, where does the money come from? New York University's scholarship is at most $30,000."

"We checked the remittance records." Li Rui pulled up the data. "$5,000 is regularly remitted to Chen Lin's account from an account in the Cayman Islands every month. The account holder is an offshore company, and behind it is... a shadow fund of Dupont."

"What about the ex-girlfriend?"

"Liu Wei, 30 years old, technical intelligence analyst at Dupont's Asia headquarters. She and Chen Zhe were classmates at Cornell University, they broke up three years ago, but they still have a weekly video call after the breakup." Silent Chen added. "The call content is encrypted, we cracked a part of it, it's all daily chat, no sensitive information."

"Too clean." Wu Yi repeated. "Still having weekly calls three years after breaking up, either it's true love, or it's work contact."

He pulled up the fake technical document for the "Blue Bird Project": "This document, we 'accidentally' leaked through a European partner. Dupont's technical intelligence department should have already obtained the preliminary version. Now that Chen Zhe has joined, it is the perfect time to verify the authenticity of the document."

"What if he verifies that it's fake?" Li Rui asked.

"He won't fully verify it." Wu Yi shook his head. "Because in this document, 90% of the data is real—material performance, testing methods, application scenarios are all our real research directions. Only the core synthesis path part has been modified."

"And it's modified very cleverly." Silent Chen added. "The catalyst ratio is wrong, but it's wrong in a way that fits theoretical derivation—it looks like a trade-off we made during the optimization process. Unless long-term repetitive experiments are done, the problem cannot be discovered."

Wu Yi stood up and walked to the projection: "So, our plan is: let Chen Zhe 'successfully' steal the complete document of the 'Blue Bird Project'. Make him believe that this is the core technology of Spark Materials' next generation. Make him pass this document to Dupont."

"Then Dupont invests in R&D, invests in production, and puts it on the market." Li Rui continued. "A year later, the product fails on a large scale, Dupont suffers heavy losses, and its reputation is ruined."

"More importantly." Wu Yi turned around. "They will doubt their own intelligence capabilities, they will doubt all technical information obtained from China. This will make them more conservative and hesitant in future technical decisions."

"And we have won time." Silent Chen concluded.

The three looked at each other, seeing the determination in each other's eyes.

This is not a conspiracy, it is an open strategy—I know you know what I am doing, and you also know that I know you know, but we will still act according to this script.

Because this is war. A technological war without gunpowder, but equally cruel.

"Launch the plan." Wu Yi said finally. "Give Chen Zhe the green light, let him access the 'Blue Bird Project'. The monitoring team is on duty 24 hours a day, recording his every move. The cybersecurity team prepares fake data packets, and when he tries to transmit, 'just' let him succeed."

"What if he doesn't take the bait?" Li Rui still asked this question.

Wu Yi was silent for a few seconds.

"He will." He said. "Because the fake goal of the 'Blue Bird Project' matches exactly with Dupont's technical roadmap for the second quarter of next year—that is what we confirmed through an insider. For Dupont, this is not an optional icing on the cake, it is a necessary help in times of need."

"So, this is a temptation he cannot refuse." Silent Chen understood.

"Yes." Wu Yi nodded. "Just like fishing, the bait must match the fish's taste."

The meeting ended. Li Rui returned to the monitoring center, Silent Chen returned to the cybersecurity department, and Wu Yi remained in the secret room.

He sat alone in the dark, watching the real-time footage of Chen Zhe on the screen—the young man was diligently recording data in the laboratory, the light shining on his focused face.

Wu Yi thought of himself thirty years ago. At that time, he had just been admitted to the Department of Materials Science at Tsinghua University, spending every day in the laboratory, dreaming of one day being able to create materials that could change the world.

At that time, he and Chen Zhe now looked no different.

But fate led them down completely opposite paths.

Wu Yi turned off the screen and walked out of the secret room. The corridor lights were dazzling, and he squinted his eyes.

Sometimes, technological progress requires not only sweat in the laboratory, but also games in the shadows.

And they must win both wars at the same time.