Chapter 79 Suspicion

Dawn, at the secret base…

All the agents were busy packing their equipment as it was time for them to evacuate.

"Brother Xiao, Brother Xiao! Where are you?" Lin Yao slapped on the door of the truck's container. He looked frustrated. He had been trying to find Han Xiao for the past fifteen minutes, but his efforts had been futile. The rest of the agents from Division 13 were running out of patience.

"He is not in the truck. Where could he possibly have gone?" Li Ya Lin was puzzled.

Everyone looked at one another and did not have a single clue.

Last night, Han Xiao had mentioned that he wanted to stay on the truck, but now, he was not there. What exactly did he do last night?

"What is your team's plan?" Qi Bai Jia said to Zhang Wei's team.

"We are going to stay back to wait for his return," Zhang Wei replied.

"Is there a need to do so?" Di Su Su was rather surprised.

"Because the truck key is with him!" Zhang Wei was gnashing his teeth in great anger, and the vein on his forehead was about to pop at any moment.

Everyone was rendered speechless, not sure whether they were lucky or unlucky to have such a member on their team.

Qi Bai Jia was very displeased as he hated any unexpected changes during a mission. Just when he thought Han Xiao had a clear understanding of the big picture, he caused trouble like this.

I must be blind! Any team member who acts on their own accord without following any order is a rascal!

If something went haywire, Qi Bai Jia would have to assume the responsibility! 

Han Xiao was such a jackass!

…

The Hesla agents stationed on the other side discovered Division 13's unusual behavior, and they started discussing secretly. 

"Some of the Division 13's agents are intending to stay behind."

"I thought we agreed to move together?" Ye Fan frowned. He went to find Qi Bai Jia to get an answer on this. After which, he came back and explained the reason to the Hesla agents.

"Who is the agent missing?"

"It was the agent that was wearing the mask; his name is Han Xiao."

"It's him." Winna's face suddenly tensed up, and said, "Last night, when we received the intel, Han Xiao rejected it without any supporting evidence, and then he was gone for the whole night without leaving a message. This seems quite suspicious. Is it possible that he is a… spy?"

All the Hesla agents startled.

"Be careful of your words." Ye Fan frowned. He did not buy that deduction, but Han Xiao's actions definitely aroused his suspicion. "We will report all the facts to the commanding officer when we get back to the army camp."

….

After all the other agents left, Zhang Wei and the other three teammates stayed back at the base.

Lin Yao could not help asking, "Where did Han Xiao go and what is he going to do exactly?"

"How would I know? He did not say anything to me last night." Li Ya Lin rolled her eyes.

Zhang Wei shook his head as he felt irritated; that guy had zero respect for his team leader!

…

The other agents arrived at the border several hours later.

Winna and Ye Fan went to report to Colonel Carl immediately.

"A Division 13 agent was missing for the entire night?" Colonel Carl walked back and forth, and his brows furrowed.

"Is this 100% true?" he asked.

Winna nodded. "He left last night without telling anyone, and it was right after we uncovered the intel about the Dark Crow Valley base."

"Although it seems suspicious, this does not mean that he is a spy," Ye Fan added.

Colonel Carl nodded slowly. "I will go and clarify this with Stardragon a while later. Now, tell me more about the intel."

"The captive that we brought in passed our lie detector test, which means that everything he said was true. Furthermore, Ye Fan personally hacked their network to gather all this intel. We can guarantee its authenticity!" said Winna.

Colonel Carl's eyes turned sharp as he said decisively, "Then let's attack immediately before anything changes!" 

Ye Fan was hesitant. "The Division 13 agents left at the secret base will be in danger if the army attacks now."

"To achieve our strategic objective, it is reasonable to sacrifice one or two people from Stardragon. Since they are not from our country, we need not care so much." Colonel Carl did not give it a second thought.

At the same time, after taking a long, indirect route, Han Xiao finally brought the two captives to where he had hidden his toolbox, bypassing all the detectors and sentry posts. The whole journey had been arduous and onerous; he was so tired by then that he almost wanted to puke blood. The captives were not wearing camouflage suits, so he'd had to spend hours to bypass the alert areas.

Fortunately, they were the technical staff in charge of the testing detectors and landmines, so they provided much valuable information. Otherwise, he would not have left without alerting anyone.

However, the captives had tried to lure him into a high-alert area to expose him once, but he'd realized immediately. He had punished them harshly before they cooperated fully with him.

The Sun was shining brightly above the sky. Han Xiao calculated the time and sighed. "Crap, I went beyond the stipulated time. I guess all the other agents have already left."

He dug out his toolbox and took out his radio equipment to contact Zhang Wei.

"Hello. Hello. Yangtze River. Yangtze River. This is Yellow River. Please reply if you can hear me."

"Yellow your head!" Zhang Wei's fury could be heard through the earpiece. "Where exactly did you go? You were missing for the whole night, and all the other agents left. We could only stay at the base and wait for you!"

"That's right. You'd better make up for this. I want new equipment!" Li Ya Lin chimed in on the radio channel. One could hear the annoyance in her voice and imagine her pouting; it was actually a little cute.

Han Xiao shook his head and started acting more seriously. "I infiltrated the Dark Crow Valley base and discovered top-classified intel!"

"Let me get Officer Qi for you," Zhang Wei said with a look of solemnity.

…

Qi Bai Jia received the radio message at the border army camp.

"Zhang Wei, what are you calling me for? Is Han Xiao back?" he asked.

"He wants to speak with you."

"He'd better cook up a good explanation for his actions." Qi Bai Jia was clearly displeased.

After Han Xiao was connected to the channel, he said, "I just received the intel saying that the Dark Crow Valley base has two sectors: the outer sector and the inner sector. The outer sector is where all the low-ranking personnel work, while the inner sector is where the core members stationed themselves. The inner sector is hidden deeper in the mountainous valley, and the low-ranking personnel outside are not even aware of its existence. The information about the inner sector is classified for all the low-ranking personnel, and the path connecting the two sectors is always blocked…"

The two captives had told him that the base was divided into two sectors. The inner sector was hidden deeper in the mountains, where all the important supplies were stored. It was the real core of the base. The higher ups in the base did not tell the periphery personnel anything about the inner base. So, it was a secret to many of the Germinal Organization personnel. In their previous lives, the 'real' players did not even know the existence of the inner base.

The inner base had many evacuation routes. The core members could leave without leaving a trace. They were very cunning in the sense that each of these roads was classified. Nobody knew which path they would take before the actual evacuation was decided by the top leadership of the base.

Qi Bai Jia understood the importance of this information immediately. If Hesla did not know about the existence of the inner sector of the base and the army went ahead to attack the outer base, they would simply retreat when they took down the outer base, declaring it a military success. In that case, the core force of the enemy would be entirely unharmed, and the inner base would remain safe. The enemy could move back secretly in the future, ensuring that hideout was secure from the enemies.

Qi Bai Jia was dumbfounded. He could not believe that Han Xiao's solo act could bear such critical intel!

"Cough, cough. Even though it was a move well played, I still have to emphasize that it is unacceptable to act on your own without any orders.

"Hold on for a while. I will report this to the commanding officer immediately!"

Qi Bai Jia was stopped by the deputy officer when he requested to meet Colonel Carl. He waited anxiously for five minutes before was allowed to go into the office. He realized Ye Fan and Winna were there too.

Colonel Carl looked at Qi Bai Jia and asked, "What do you have for me?"

"One of my team members just discovered some critical information that needs to be reported to you."

"Han Xiao?"

"Yes."

Qi Bai Jia nodded, but he did not realize that the other three started having a weird look.

Colonel Carl's eyes flickered. "Speak."

Han Xiao repeated what he said before, and at the end, he added, "If we attack brashly, we will only take down an empty shell. I hope we can pause the operation until our guys get hold of the enemy's evacuation time, evacuation route, and the detailed structure of the inner base. By doing so, we can directly kill their evacuating troops and prevent a direct attack against their fortification. This will greatly reduce our casualties."

Colonel Carl was expressionless after he heard everything.

"Where did you get this intel from?" he suddenly asked.

"I infiltrated the base by disguising my face, and I managed to capture two personnel from the inner base…"

All of a sudden, Colonel Carl yelled, "You are lying!"

To Colonel Carl, it was impossible for Han Xiao to infiltrate, even if he said he could disguise his face. It would take at least tens of minutes to make a legitimate face mask. During that time frame, Han Xiao would have faced all kinds of danger. At the same time, he could not predict which enemy he would encounter next, so it was impossible for him to make the face mask beforehand. So, it was an impossible situation that Han Xiao could never achieve.

Han Xiao was startled. He realized that these people did not know the capability of his Facial Simulator.

The function of the Facial Simulator was his trump card. He would not divulge such information. However, without exposing it, he could not explain the details of his infiltration.

"I have the capability to do so." Han Xiao had to give an ambiguous answer.

"Unless you can demonstrate, there is no way we can believe you."

Colonel Carl was still expressionless, but he was more untrusting of Han Xiao's words. 

This person… is really suspicious!