Chapter Thirty-Two: The First Conversation
The "Dark Bureau" command center was shrouded in a tension so heavy it felt like an ice sheet about to fracture. The sudden arrival of Wang Zhe, an uninvited guest, and the explosive proof he brought with him, struck the team like a boulder cast into a deep pool, stirring up tempestuous waves in everyone’s hearts.
Trust him, or don’t trust him? Use him, or don’t use him? This deadly dilemma confronted each person present.
Within moments, the team was split into two opposing camps.
“We can’t trust him!” declared the deputy leader of the operations squad, stepping forward with unwavering resolve. “This is Anderson’s trap, without a doubt! Wang Zhe is his Trojan horse, smuggled into our ranks. Bringing him along is like carrying a bomb ready to explode at any moment!”
“I agree!” Old K chimed in immediately. “His evidence may be genuine, but that only shows how ruthless Anderson is. To make us believe, he’s willing to sacrifice even the crucial asset of Skynet. We can’t afford to gamble with someone like that!”
The conservative faction’s opinions nearly dominated the room.
“No! Absolutely not!!”
Lin Feng’s holographic projection, after a brief moment of contemplation, erupted like a detonated bomb. He sprang from his chair, his eyes blazing with undisguised, furious murder intent.
Pointing at the surveillance screen showing Wang Zhe sobbing bitterly, he roared at Xiao Ran with hysterical rage.
“Xiao Ran! Are you insane?! Or have you been fooled by this guy’s pathetic acting?!”
“Letting a traitor who was just serving the enemy join our most core and confidential operation?! This isn’t a token of loyalty—it’s Anderson handing us a death warrant!”
“I’m telling you! If he joins, I—Zhurong—will not participate in this operation!”
His voice, hoarse from intense fury, tore through the air.
“You can all go get yourselves killed!”
He didn’t even give Xiao Ran a chance to retort. With a sharp gesture—
A soft snap. His angry and resolute holographic projection dissolved instantly into a heap of shattered blue data streams, vanishing into the air.
He unilaterally severed the communication.
His words left everyone in silence.
Indeed, this was a devil’s temptation—a lure they knew was poisonous, yet could not help but touch.
All eyes finally converged on the only person who could make the decision.
Xiao Ran.
Inside her, a storm raged unlike any she’d ever faced.
Lin Feng’s warnings echoed madly in her mind. Moments ago, through remote connection, he had used his almost superhuman technical skills to outline the “three uncontrollable risks” of including Wang Zhe in the operation.
First, Wang Zhe could very well be carrying a nano-level signal transmitter undetectable by them. If he entered the site, all their deployments would be exposed to Anderson.
Second, his so-called “paralysis method” could be a trap. It might not paralyze, but instead… trigger the self-destruct command for “that thing.”
Third, and most deadly, at the critical moment, he could suddenly turn and deliver a fatal blow from behind.
Every risk could mean total annihilation.
Technically, logically, professionally—bringing Wang Zhe was a suicide gamble, with a success rate of less than ten percent.
No one understood this better than Xiao Ran.
She slowly stood.
“Bring him here,” she told the guard at her side. “I’ll talk to him myself.”
In the National Security Bureau’s oppressive “Contemplation Room,” Xiao Ran and Wang Zhe sat face-to-face.
No interrogation lights, no handcuffs, only a table and two glasses of water.
Wang Zhe looked even more haggard than before, his gaze filled with fear, anxiety, and a faint plea for redemption.
“Why did you betray Anderson?” Xiao Ran went straight to the point, her voice devoid of emotion. “Was it just fear of death?”
“Yes… and no.” Wang Zhe’s lips trembled. “Li Jianguo treated me as a discard. Anderson’s people contacted me the night before last. They gave me two choices: either keep my mouth shut forever, or…”
“Or become the scapegoat for all their crimes.”
His words, half-true and half-false, betrayed no flaw that Xiao Ran could detect.
She didn’t pursue the topic further.
Instead, she slowly drew something from her pocket—her phone.
She slid it across the table to Wang Zhe.
On the screen was a photograph—a slightly yellowed work portrait of Lu Hongsheng in his cybersecurity center uniform, looking spirited and heroic.
Lu’s familiar, gentle, and confident smile was captured in the image.
The instant Wang Zhe saw the photo, his body convulsed violently!
His composed facade drained of all color.
“And what about him?” Xiao Ran’s voice was soft, yet it struck Wang Zhe’s soul like a sledgehammer.
“Five years ago, at Skynet, when you all betrayed him…”
“Were you afraid?”
Boom—
This question, like a lightning bolt five years in the making, split open the defenses of Wang Zhe’s heart—already riddled by lies and greed.
He stared blankly at the man in the photo, who had once guided him hand-in-hand through his first lines of code like an elder brother.
He remembered, five years ago, at the meeting where they decided whether to cut support, casting that decisive vote for “Chief Architect.”
He remembered Lu’s eyes in their last communication—full of disappointment and sorrow.
“I…”
He opened his mouth, but could not utter a word.
In the end, this man, shrewd in both business and technology, collapsed completely before his former mentor’s gentle smile, just like a lost child.
He buried his face in his hands, sobbing in suppressed agony like a trapped beast.
“I failed him… I failed Old Lu…”
“I didn’t want to… Li Jianguo forced me! Anderson forced me!”
“I don’t want to die… I don’t want to become the next ‘Lu Hongsheng’…”
He broke down utterly.
The conversation ended.
Xiao Ran returned to the command center.
Everyone watched her, waiting for her final decision.
Xiao Ran made a choice none of them anticipated.
She didn’t contact Lin Feng to persuade or compromise.
She bypassed him entirely.
She directly connected to the encrypted line of Director Wang, the supreme commander.
And pressed the “speaker” button.
She knew that madman Lin Feng was still watching everything here, through some backdoor he’d left.
“Director Wang, it’s Xiao Ran,” her voice calm yet imbued with a tragic resolve never before seen.
“Regarding the [Frame] operation in two days, I request final decision confirmation.”
Director Wang responded with a grunt.
“Advisor Lin Feng’s risk assessment is correct.” Xiao Ran’s gaze seemed to pierce the walls, seeing the man brooding in his studio. “Based on his judgment, if we include Wang Zhe, our failure rate jumps from ten percent to over ninety.”
This statement drew sharp breaths from everyone in the command center.
But Xiao Ran’s next words made their hearts nearly leap from their throats.
“However…”
“I still request to bring Wang Zhe.”
“Why?” Director Wang’s voice carried a rare severity.
“One reason only.” Xiao Ran’s eyes were unwavering. “He is currently our only known—physically possible—antidote to ‘that thing’.”
“This is a one-in-ten-thousand hope, even if it’s wrapped in poison.”
“I must… bet.”
She drew a deep breath, and in a tone almost like swearing an oath, she spoke, word by word:
“If this operation fails due to my decision…”
“All responsibility will fall entirely on me, Xiao Ran.”
“It has nothing to do with Advisor Lin Feng, or any other member of the ‘Dark Bureau’ task force.”
Inside the “Singularity Security” studio,
Lin Feng sat grim-faced, watching the surveillance screen—watching the woman who stood straight-backed and spoke those words to the highest authority.
He hadn’t expected this.
He truly hadn’t.
That this woman would choose such a nearly self-destructive path, shouldering all responsibility herself, to… force his hand.
He could refuse to trust the traitor Wang Zhe.
But he could not refuse this woman, who was willing to risk her career, freedom, even life, to believe in the possibility of human redemption.
The radiant Xiao Ran.
Damn it!
He cursed fiercely in his mind.
……
On the other end, Director Wang was silent.
After a long pause, he sighed.
“Xiao Ran, oh Xiao Ran…”
“You’re just like your teacher, Lu Hongsheng, all those years ago…”
“…I approve.”
When Xiao Ran hung up and reconnected with Lin Feng, his holographic projection had already reappeared in the command center.
His expression was still one of disgruntled annoyance.
“Fine.” He shrugged, defeated. “Since you, madwoman, have decided to drag everyone off a cliff…”
“I’ll go mad with you to the end.”
Xiao Ran walked slowly to the operations whiteboard.
She gazed at the huge electronic calendar on the wall, its red circle marking the closing date of the International Fintech Summit.
Her expression was unwavering.
“Operation [Frame],” her voice rang clearly to every ear, “will be executed in two days, at the charity auction on the summit’s closing night.”
“In these last forty-eight hours,” her eyes swept across the room like blades, “we must not wait. We must use every resource at our disposal, uproot every nail we can pull!”
She turned her gaze to Old K, the technical team leader.
“Old K.”
“Here, Chief!”
“It’s time… to shake up that old dog at ‘Skynet.’”
A cold curve appeared at her lips.
“Send out the first ‘gift’ that Wang Zhe gave us, exactly as it came.”
……
Half an hour later.
Wang Zhe was brought out of the “Contemplation Room.”
He had changed into the same pure black tactical gear as the operations squad.
But he was about to be fitted with his own unique “shackles.”
Lin Feng’s holographic projection appeared before him, wearing a devilish grin.
“Chief Architect Wang, welcome to the team.”
“Let me introduce your new equipment.” He pointed to a pair of electronic handcuffs glowing with a faint blue light.
“This device will immediately inject ten milliliters of high-pressure neural tranquilizer into your carotid artery if your heart rate or blood pressure show any abnormal spikes, or if you make any move outside our planned actions. It’ll guarantee you sleep like a newborn baby.”
He paused, smiling even wider.
“Oh, and I forgot to mention—the manual detonator is physically linked in real time to my own heart rate.”
“If, due to some ‘accident,’ say, being betrayed by a certain traitor, my heart stops…”
He tilted his head, eyes fixed on Wang Zhe.
“…What do you think will happen?”
Wang Zhe looked at Lin Feng’s smiling face, feeling an indescribable chill rush from his feet straight up to the crown of his head.
He knew.
Starting tonight, he wore two shackles.
One was Anderson’s death threat.
The other was this madman’s custom-made… “burial device.”
Xiao Ran stood by, watching these two “technical geniuses”—one symbolizing renewal, the other regret.
She knew.
In forty-eight hours, she would be carrying two ticking bombs, each ready to obliterate them from within.
To attend a devil’s banquet.
Yet her gaze was more resolute than ever.