127: Chapter 127 Agents Enter the Country: "Ghosts" and "Vipers"
The fortress-1 van drove smoothly along the city's suburban ring road late at night. The windows, specially treated, offered a clear view of the shimmering lights outside and the distant city skyline from within, but from the outside, they appeared as opaque, dark film.
Inside the working area of the van, Lin Mo had reconnected to the system's encrypted data stream. On the holographic projection, the complex structural diagram of the planetary defense system slowly rotated. He occasionally looked up, glancing at the surveillance footage on the surrounding screens—real-time road conditions from various angles, thermal imaging signals, and markers representing allied forces and potential threats. Everything was calm.
"Engineer Lin, we've bypassed three regular checkpoints and the fixed surveillance clusters on major thoroughfares," reported the person in charge, codenamed "Mandrill," in a low voice from the driving control area, without turning his head. "The system has planned seventeen alternative routes, and we will switch between them irregularly. You can rest in the lounge area for a bit."
"No need, this is fine," Lin Mo shook his head, his gaze returning to the design blueprint. "Give me the latest summary of external intelligence, especially regarding the pursuit of the source."
"Understood." Mandrill quickly clicked on the console, and a concise report appeared on the screen beside Lin Mo.
The report showed that Long Zhantian's internal cleanup operation of the Scavenger was largely complete, with Wang Lei and his directly associated personnel fully controlled. However, a red-fonted assessment conclusion was noted at the end of the report: "Based on the timing and content specificity of Wang Lei's leaked information, external forces have obtained critical clues. The target (Lin Mo)'s exposure risk threshold has exceeded the critical point. It is recommended to continue executing the mobile protection plan at the highest threat level ('Extinction' level)."
Lin Mo quietly read the red text, his face expressionless, only lightly tapping the virtual keyboard a few times to bring up another set of data—a surveillance summary of recent abnormal overseas communications and personnel movements, obtained from the system via his personal quantum terminal.
Almost simultaneously, the system interface in his mind subtly lit up, not to issue a new mission, but to more intuitively compare several suspicious signal streams captured by the system with the virtual signals generated by his previously designed "Digital Footprint Confusion Algorithm." The result was shocking: three sets of data packets from different jump points, but ultimately pointing to the same overseas server, exhibited behavioral patterns highly similar to the "smokescreens" generated by his algorithm. This meant that the opponent was not only tracking but had likely identified and begun attempting to reverse-engineer the maze he had intentionally laid.
"The opponent has experts, and they've deployed very professional analytical tools," Lin Mo murmured, his eyes sharpening slightly. "This isn't standard intelligence agency assembly-line work."
"What did you find?" Mandrill keenly noticed the change in Lin Mo's tone.
"Someone is using AI for large-scale screening, and... they might have already found a 'loose thread' I deliberately left," Lin Mo quickly tagged several sets of data and sent them to Long Zhantian and Su Xiaowan via a quantum encrypted channel, along with a brief explanation. "Remind Director Long and Engineer Su that the opponent's tracking methods have escalated, possibly involving top-tier artificial intelligence data mining. The interference information we've deployed needs immediate secondary dynamic obfuscation to increase non-deterministic variables."
Less than ten seconds after the message was sent, Su Xiaowan's reply came, just two words: "Received." Immediately afterward, on the monitoring screen in front of Lin Mo, the ripples in the area representing network data flow monitoring began to change dramatically, indicating that the Weaving Net AI was rapidly adjusting its strategy based on his suggestions.
Almost at the same time Long Zhantian received Lin Mo's warning, on the distant other side of the ocean, in the secret safe house that once belonged to James Craig and was now urgently taken over by his remaining forces, a decisive dispatch was being issued.
The safe house was dimly lit, and two dossiers were displayed on a large electronic screen. The left dossier photo showed an ordinary-looking, middle-aged Asian man who would be hard to find in a crowd, with calm, placid eyes, codenamed: "Ghost." The right showed a lean, sharp-eyed white man with a faint scar at the corner of his mouth, codenamed: "Viper."
An electronically altered voice echoed in the room, coming from the last valid contact layer pre-set by Craig before he was controlled.
"The final screening list has been narrowed down to 472 individuals, with the top three targets exceeding historical suspicion thresholds. The Prometheus system, combined with the latest 'directional clues,' has raised the threat correlation probability for Target Number One, Lin Mo, to 59.7%. However, decisive physical evidence is still lacking."
On the screen, "Ghost"'s dossier was highlighted.
"Ghost, your mission is to infiltrate the target area and use your expertise to conduct on-site verification and deep intelligence gathering on Target Number One, Lin Mo, and all his social connections and recent activities. I need to know if he is 'that shadow' we are looking for. If necessary, you may activate minimal support from the 'Sleeper' network."
A green [Confirm] icon appeared below "Ghost"'s image.
The electronic voice continued: "Viper, you are Ghost's shadow and insurance. Once Ghost confirms the target's value, or if the target shows signs of movement or escape, I authorize you to take all necessary measures to ensure the target cannot be effectively utilized or moved by the opposition. Remember, priority: Prevent target from falling under complete enemy control > Acquire target > Eliminate target."
Below "Viper"'s image, a green [Confirm] icon also appeared, but his eyes seemed even colder.
"Mission duration: seventy-two hours. After seventy-two hours, regardless of the outcome, you must withdraw. The Dragon Country's reaction speed has exceeded expectations; our window of opportunity is very short after losing the 'mole'," the electronic voice concluded. "Good luck, Gentlemen. For..."
The voice stopped abruptly, the communication line physically cut.
On the screen, the dossiers of "Ghost" and "Viper" slowly faded, replaced by limited information about Lin Mo: graduation photos, blurred screenshots of purchase records, and a map of the neighborhood where his early rental house was located...
Half an hour later, at an international airport on the southeastern coast of Dragon Country, two flights, departing from different countries and different airlines, landed successively. An Asian man, "Ghost," carrying an old laptop bag and looking like an ordinary IT engineer on a business trip, and a white man, "Viper," carrying a sports duffel bag and appearing to be a tourist-explorer, silently stepped onto the soil of Dragon Country with the flow of people.
Their passports and identities were flawless, at least at the current level of technical verification. Upon entry, the two did not contact each other, nor did they even glance at each other, but each merged into the vast crowd, heading towards the same predetermined destination—the city where Lin Mo had briefly resided, now empty.
Their arrival did not trigger any regular alarms. But just as "Ghost" opened his specially modified laptop and attempted to connect to a local public Wi-Fi node for his first covert communication test—
Far away in the mobile fortress, on Lin Mo's screen, a blinking point representing an anomalous, low-intensity, but extremely peculiar encrypted signal, faintly lit up on the edge of the system's real-time national surveillance map, then immediately faded.
Almost simultaneously, in Lin Mo's mind's system interface, the progress bar for the mission [Create information fog, interfere with enemy tracking] subtly advanced a small notch, from 0% to 1%.
Lin Mo looked up, gazing at the seemingly calm night scene continuously rushing past in the surveillance footage.
"They're here," he said softly.
Inside the compartment, only the faint hum of equipment responded. Mandrill's hand silently tightened on the steering wheel, his eyes sharp as a blade.
The tendrils of the storm had quietly penetrated the national borders.