57: Chapter 57 The Enemy's Hidden Pawn: The Academic Broker
Inside the "Torch Dragon" safe house, Lin Mo had just sent out his proposal regarding the Xihe Base space-based energy network and was immersed in planning the future space blueprint. His internal communicator flashed with a specific frequency representing Su Xiaowan.
"Engineer Lin, there's a situation." Su Xiaowan's voice carried a hint of seriousness. "We've monitored a special signal attempting to establish indirect contact with you through an encrypted academic exchange channel."
The holographic projection switched, displaying a heavily disguised email summary. The sender signed off as "Dr. Alexander Smith," claiming to be a senior researcher at a well-known theoretical physics institute in Europa. The email was filled with "intense academic interest" and "sincere admiration" for the Dragon Kingdom's recent "breakthroughs in materials science" and "innovations in the energy field." It tactfully proposed an "unofficial, purely academic" online exchange with "young talents" in related fields of the Dragon Kingdom, even subtly mentioning opportunities for "fast-track access to top international journals" and "academic reputation enhancement."
The email was elegantly phrased, and the identity was disguised seamlessly; even the institute and Dr. Smith himself actually existed. However, in the face of the inescapable net laid by Long Zhantian and Su Xiaowan's deep data mining, it appeared riddled with holes.
"Dr. Smith does exist, but his travel and online activity logs over the past three months contain multiple contradictions with the timing of this email that cannot be reasonably explained," Su Xiaowan quickly reported the analysis results. "Recent capital flows of his institute have also been traced to a complex foundation registered in the Virgin Islands, which is suspected of having indirect links to the CIA's 'Black Budget'."
"Academic brokers..." Lin Mo immediately understood the other party's trick. This was a common, relatively mild but extremely insidious tactic used by intelligence agencies. By exploiting a scholar's natural desire for academic exchange and prestige, they establish "friendly" contact to gradually extract information or even recruit defectors. Compared to crude kidnapping or assassination, this method was more covert and had a high success rate.
"They likely can't lock down your exact location and identity, so they're trying this 'wide net' approach to lure in 'young researchers' who might be in the know," Su Xiaowan judged. "This is probably just a tentative first step of the 'Dragon Slaying' plan."
Lin Mo pondered for a moment, a cold light flashing in his eyes. He wasn't flustered at all; instead, he felt this was an opportunity.
"Reply to him," Lin Mo said calmly.
Su Xiaowan was stunned for a moment: "Reply? That's too dangerous!"
"Not as myself," Lin Mo explained. "Create a virtual 'target' that fits their expectations—a young assistant researcher who just participated in a derivative project of the 'lc-1 composite material,' someone who has talent but also craves international recognition. Set his personality as patriotic but with a yearning for international academic status, slightly hesitant and vain."
He looked at Su Xiaowan: "Can you handle all the online traces and background settings for this virtual identity?"
Su Xiaowan instantly understood Lin Mo's intention—to beat them at their own game and counter-fish!
"We can!" she answered immediately, her tone filled with excitement. "We have a mature 'Mirror' system that can perfectly construct such a virtual character and ensure all interactions are under our monitoring and control."
"Good," Lin Mo nodded. "Let this 'virtual researcher' deal with Smith. You can appropriately reveal some 'non-core' but sufficiently attractive data about material performance that we're willing to let them know. Show some intent to cooperate, but maintain enough 'vigilance' and 'wavering.' Stall them, consume their energy, and perhaps... we can even extract some information about their intelligence network in return."
"Understood!" Su Xiaowan immediately began deployment. A silent contest in the virtual world quietly unfolded.
A few days later, in a CIA safe house, the "Shadow" team responsible for the online operations of the "Dragon Slaying" plan received feedback from "Dr. Smith": "Target has taken the bait, code-named 'Green Sparrow.' Initial contact was smooth; the subject shows a strong desire for international recognition and is willing to provide some marginal data in exchange for 'guidance.' Trust is being established; continued resource investment is required."
A sinister grin appeared on the face of the "Shadow" team leader in front of the screen. As expected, no one could resist the temptation of making a name for themselves! He could already envision the beautiful prospect of using this "Green Sparrow" to dig out "Patriot X" step by step and even penetrate the core scientific research circles of the Dragon Kingdom.
He had no idea that the bait he had so carefully laid was being bitten by an invisible electronic fishing line controlled by the Dragon Kingdom's top information security team. And the "academic broker" he sent out had long since become a reverse-marked prey in Long Zhantian's net.
Inside the safe house, Lin Mo looked at the progress report sent by Su Xiaowan regarding the interactions with "Smith," his expression indifferent.
Trying to use academic sugar-coated bullets for corruption? Then let's see whose net will ultimately catch the bigger fish.
He turned around and focused his attention once again on the structural diagram of the sky patrol fighter on the holographic projection. These small interludes would not affect the process of him forging the sharp sword.