Free Web NovelChapter 92: The Bait and the Wire
The heavy door of the auxiliary server room remained slightly askew, its bent hinges a stark reminder of the sheer physical power Han Zheng now casually wielded.
Inside, the dim light of the terminal screens cast long, flickering shadows over the two unconscious traitors slump-shouldered against the metal racks. Lin Qing stood before the blinking short-wave radio console, her eyes bright with a sharp, predatory calculation.
"We aren’t smashing it," Lin Qing said, her voice cutting through the hum of the server fans with absolute clarity. She looked over at Han Zheng, whose tall frame seemed to absorb the ambient light of the room, radiating a cold, unyielding weight. "Gao Feng thinks we are blind, deaf, and completely isolated up here. He thinks these two cowards are his golden ticket into the sanctuary. We are going to feed him exactly what he wants to hear."
Han Zheng’s eyes narrowed, a slow, dangerous comprehension dawning within his dark irises. "A controlled lure," he murmured, "We dictate the entry point."
"Exactly," Lin Qing replied, a cool smile playing at the corners of her lips. "But we can’t use Morse. Not with that massive indicator of a blunt-force trauma swelling on his forehead. If his voice shakes from a concussion, Gao Feng will smell a trap instantly. We use Chen Wei."
She turned her gaze toward Dr. Zhou, who was still adjusting her crooked glasses and breathing a bit heavily from her earlier sprint. "Dr. Zhou, the sedative you used is incredibly potent. Can you override it? We need him awake, alert, and capable of delivering a flawless performance under extreme duress."
Dr. Zhou nodded rapidly, her initial panic completely replaced by the sharp, clinical efficiency of a professional researcher. "Yes, The veterinary agent I administered has a rapid-acting chemical counter-agent stored in the primary medical cabinet. It’s a specialized neuro-stimulant. It won’t clear the drug from his system entirely, but it will forcefully shake his consciousness awake within ninety seconds. It will be unpleasant, but he will be coherent enough to speak."
"Get it," Han Zheng commanded quietly.
Within a matter of minutes, Dr. Zhou returned with a small, pressurized silver vial. Kneeling beside the tangled mess of extension cords, she efficiently cleared a patch of skin on Dr. Chen Wei’s neck and pressed the injector against his carotid artery.
The reaction was almost instantaneous. Dr. Chen Wei’s torso convulsed violently against the thick black cords binding him to Dr. Morse. His eyes snapped open, bloodshot and wide with a disoriented, animalistic terror.
He gasped for air, his jaw working soundlessly as his gaze darted frantically around the room, finally locking onto the towering, terrifyingly vitalized form of Commander Han Zheng standing directly over him. The cold muzzle of Han Zheng’s sidearm was already unholstered, resting casually but purposefully against the side of his own knee, angled directly toward the researcher’s chest.
"Listen to me very carefully, Dr. Chen," Lin Qing said, kneeling down so her sharp, unblinking eyes were level with his shivering frame. Her voice was an icy channel of pure pragmatic authority. "You are going to speak into this radio. You are going to contact Gao Feng’s flagship. And you are going to tell him exactly what I dictate to you. If your voice trembles, if you attempt to signal a distress code, or if you hesitate for even a single microsecond, the Commander will ensure you never leave this mountain alive. Do you understand your situation?"
Dr. Chen Wei swallowed hard, his throat clicking as he stared down the barrel of Han Zheng’s weapon. The sheer pressure radiating from the Commander’s newly advanced core was suffocating, filling the small room with an invisible weight that made it hard to draw a full breath. Chen Wei nodded frantically, tears of pure terror welling at the corners of his eyes. "I... I understand. Please. Just don’t shoot."
Lin Qing reached up, flicking the heavy toggle switch on the modified short-wave radio. The green light flared to a solid, aggressive hue, indicating an open, encrypted channel punching directly through the mercenary jammers down below. She pointed a finger at the receiver, nodding sharply at the trembling scientist.
Chen Wei took a ragged breath, forcing his voice to stabilize through sheer, unadulterated fear for his life. "Leader Gao Feng, this... this is Chen Wei inside the sanctuary. Do you copy? Over."
A long, agonizing second of static filled the room, clicking rhythmically before a deep, arrogant, and smooth voice cut through the speaker. Gao Feng.
"Doctor Chen," Gao Feng’s voice crackled, laced with a smug, self-assured satisfaction that made Lin Qing’s jaw tighten. "I was beginning to think you and Morse had lost your nerve. Report. Is the command structure neutralized?"
"N-no, we couldn’t get the blast doors to open without attracting unwanted attention from Han Zheng and his team," Chen Wei lied, reading the cold, precise script Lin Qing had quickly written on a piece of paper. "But Dr. Morse and I managed to access the auxiliary substation during the breakfast rotation. We succeeded in completely disabling the high-voltage electric fence grid at the very top of the primary security walls. The perimeter ramparts are completely unpowered right now."
There was a brief pause on the other end of the line, the sound of papers rustling or maps being shifted. "Excellent work," Gao Feng praised, his tone dripping with an insufferable condescension. "The walls were our primary concern. Can you drop the lower blast gates from your position?"
"No," Chen Wei said, his voice tightening realistically as Han Zheng subtly shifted his weight, the leather of his holster creaking slightly. "The blast gates require a dual-authentication physical keycard from the Commander’s security deck. If we attempt to override it from here, the main security rooms will trigger a facility-wide lockdown. This is the only opening we can give you without blowing our cover."
"It’s more than enough, Doctor," Gao Feng replied, a dark amusement evident in his tone. "My men can scale those walls in minutes once the wire is dead. You and Dr. Morse have secured your future. I will personally ensure you are integrated into our core members with full privileges once the mountain is secured. Stand by. We will initiate the assault tonight. The cover of darkness will provide the necessary visual concealment for our vanguard units to cross the open valley floor."
"Understood," Dr. Chen Wei whispered. "We will be waiting in the lower research decks."
"Out," Gao Feng commanded, and the line cut into a clean, dead hiss.
The moment the connection severed, Lin Qing flicked the power switch, shutting down the terminal. The tension in the room snapped like a rubber band.
"Lieutenant Chen, Old Wang, secure them," Lin Qing ordered, her tone turning brisk and completely operational. "Use military-grade zip-ties. Strip them of any remaining access badges, pens, or tools, and lock them in the deep isolation sector under the maximum security protocol. I want no variables left unchecked."
"With pleasure, Sister-in-law," Lieutenant Chen replied, his hands glowing with a brief, ominous spark of thermal heat as he stepped forward alongside Old Wang. Together, they effortlessly hoisted the bound, shivering forms of Chen Wei and Morse off the floor, dragging them out of the server room like sacks of useless cargo to be locked away where they could do no further damage.
With the immediate threat neutralized, the team gathered in the main briefing area. Since Dr. Zhou had interrupted them right after breakfast, they had the luxury of a full day ahead of them to systematically transform the entire sanctuary into a meticulously engineered kill zone.
Lin Qing laid her hands flat against the main digital map table, looking around at the formidable men surrounding her.
"Gao Feng gave us his timeline," Lin Qing began, her voice sharp and authoritative. "He is waiting for nightfall because he believes our automated defenses are blind and our fences are dead. He is going to send his teams straight over the top of the security walls. We are going to let them get halfway up before we turn that entire perimeter into a massive, high-voltage oven."
She turned her gaze directly toward Sun Hao. "Sun Hao, your priority right now is the security architecture. From this moment forward, the primary and secondary security rooms must never be vacant. I want a strict, rotating twenty-four-hour surveillance watch. Always two soldiers stationed in the monitoring bunkers—one soldier per room—maintaining absolute, overlapping visual and thermal coverage of the valley and the outer walls. Change shifts every four hours to keep eyes fresh."
Sun Hao nodded instantly, his fingers already tapping commands into his handheld terminal. "On it. I’ll sync the dead-zone alerts to everyone’s earpieces so there’s zero delay if a sensor trips."
"Good," Lin Qing nodded, her eyes shifting to the formidable, silent form of the Commander. "Han Zheng, your newly advanced kinetic core is running at a higher evolutionary tier now. Your sensitivity to physical vibrations and raw energy displacement has doubled. I want you to keep your senses actively flared across the entire mountain structure. If Gao Feng’s vanguard attempts to test the perimeter or arrive ahead of schedule under the afternoon shadows, you should be able to physically feel the structural tremors of their climbing gear long before our cameras even register them."
Han Zheng offered a grim, slow nod of agreement. "I can already feel the baseline resonance of the lower generators through the floorboards. If anything touches the outer rock face, I will know exactly where they are clicking their pitons."
"Excellent," Lin Qing continued, mapping out the final layer of the net. "When night falls, the true danger begins. Even with the cameras and Han Zheng’s senses, we cannot afford to rely entirely on automated systems. I want four heavily armed soldiers stationed directly along the ramparts of the security wall itself, hidden in the defensive alcoves. If any of Gao Feng’s elite fighters possess stealth capabilities or somehow manage to slip through the electronic blind spots, they need to be met with a wall of lead the moment their heads clear the parapet."
She looked around the room, her gaze locking with Ah Hua’s heavy stature, Xiao Li’s impenetrable molecular frame, Old Wang’s weathered sniper eyes, and Da Yong’s calloused hands. The strategy was airtight, transforming their isolated prison into a deliberate, lethal funnel.
Hearing the sheer precision of the trap, a fierce, electric energy swept through the hardened soldiers. The despair of the previous day was completely gone, replaced by the cold, vengeful hunger of a team that had been pushed too far and was finally ready to strike back.
Old Wang slammed his calloused hand down against the edge of the table, a wild, sharp grin breaking across his features as he raised his rifle toward the ceiling. The rest of the men followed suit, their voices uniting in a fierce, booming roar of anticipation that rattled the very light fixtures of the bunker.
"Let’s go fry them!"
