Thompson’s office.
“Mister James, you need to get this done as soon as possible and start moving out.” Thompson was positively pleading at this point. If Xia Lei was found here, Thompson would be punished to the full extent of the law. Not even his money could help him escape.
Despite that, Thompson’s pleas seemed to have fallen on deaf ears. Xia Lei continued to manipulate his computer, quickly pulling out surveillance footage of the AE Research Centre. However, the only scenery he could access were those of its exterior. There was nothing on its interior.
Thompson too immediately understood what Xia Lei was trying to achieve. “It’s useless. The insides of the AE Research Centre has an independent surveillance system. Even I can’t see what’s going on inside.”
Xia Lei replied, “Independent? So that means whatever happens inside won’t be noticed from the outside?”
Thompson nodded. “In theory, yes.”
“Bring me there.”
“Huh?” Thompson was in a pinch, visibly reluctant to do so.
Nonchalantly, Xia Lei uttered, “Don’t forget that we’re stuck on the same boat. If I move alone, I might be found out easily. When that happens, do you think you can run away? I will be safer with your protection.”
“But…” Thompson felt his scalp go numb. “While the AE centre is within the confines of Area 51, it has always been an independent facility. I have no authority to help you get inside and if we attempt to force our way in, the White House and the Pentagon would be informed right away.”
“You just need an excuse to enter and that excuse is in front of you.”
“Huh? What do you mean?”
Xia Lei explained, “Aren’t Lockheed Martin’s employees here? They’ve only shown a permission letter. Documents are forged regularly. All you need to do is nitpick on the details and have someone rectify their documents. Even if the Pentagon finds out about it, you can brush it off as just doing your part of the job.”
Thompson weighed that thought a little. “Alright then. You’ll drive and I’ll nitpick on the way.”
Just as Xia Lei was about to stand, a familiar Asian face appeared in one of the surveillance tabs. It was a female soldier. While the live feedback was pixelated, it was not an issue for Xia Lei to identify her. It was no one else but Zhu Xuanyue!
Xia Lei was shocked. His mind screeched, “I wasted so much effort just to gain access into Area 51 and she just walked in like it was no big deal. I know she’s able to control minds but there’s no way she can control computer programmes, right? Not to mention the Tenshin system installed to the whole of Area 51’s system. How did she get in?”
At that moment, Xia Lei’s attention was caught by a map of Area 51 on the desk. He peeked at it and tried to match it with the environment behind Zhu Xuanyue. The realization hit him and Xia Lei was floored. Zhu Xuanyue had come in through the helicopter pad.
Thompson too quickly rushed over, noticing the female Asian soldier too. He muttered, “What is she trying to do?”
Xia Lei merely replied, “Just ignore her. We’re cancelling the plan now.”
“Cancel?” Thompson was surprised. Though he wished to go on an adventure trying to barge into the AE Research Centre, he was worried that Xia Lei would pull something outrageous and get themselves caught.
In the surveillance feedback, Zhu Xuanyue was headed straight to the alloy doors of the facility. No one had come forward to ask her anything and one of them even welcomed her in. The doors were opened and Zhu Xuanyue entered the AE Research Centre smoothly.
“Who… Who is she?” Thompson stared at the screen with wide eyes.
Xia Lei instructed instead, “Wait for me here and be ready. I’ll be exiting this place in an hour.”
“You’re going to the AE Research Centre yourself?”
“Yes. Alone.” Xia Lei strode to the door without offering any explanation.
Thompson could only shrug his shoulders at that. “Fine by me. I’ll just start preparing now.”
Exiting Thompson’s office, Xia Lei utilized the mental map he created to guide himself towards the AE Research Centre. He skilfully avoided all surveillance cameras and every patrolling soldier. With his eyes and ears, he had complete control over everything within a two-kilometre radius. No one would be able to spot him.
Ten minutes later, Xia Lei arrived at a spherical building where the AE Research Centre was based.
Four armed guards were stationed at the front entrance. Their gazes were concentrated and piercing.
Xia Lei’s eyes zoomed in on one of them and he activated his trusty X-ray vision and scanning mode. In a flash, his brain supplied a row of data. Pulse rate: 50bpm, Brain activity: 1%.
The slow pulse rate was typical of someone asleep. It was weird to learn as these guards looked like they were very focused on their duty. This phenomenon should not be possible under normal circumstances. Plus, their brain activities were only at one per cent. They weren’t asleep, they were now brain dead.
This was obviously Zhu Xuanyue’s doing.
Xia Lei peeled his eyes away and walked over. He pried out an access card off one of the guards, opened the doors and helped himself in.
Behind the alloy doors was a hollow lobby. The only things that occupied the mass space were a simple line of chairs and a reception counter. Due to the late hours, all the employees had left work for home.
Beyond the lobby was a long corridor lined with offices on both sides. Xia Lei’s eyes quickly completed a scan of his surroundings. The offices along the corridor were normal cubicles. There was no one inside working the late-night shift.
There was a surveillance room right beside the office area. But when Xia Lei’s eyes had gotten to that corner, he had found a few motionless bodies sprawled around the space. Their faces were ghastly and he could not detect any pulse. They were dead. Zhu Xuanyue had obviously graced them with her presence and took out all the guards inside the surveillance room for supper.
Zhu Xuanyue really was the Grim Reaper herself!
Xia Lei turned away from the surveillance room to continue his investigation.
At the mouth of the corridor was a lift that required iris, fingerprint and access card recognition to function. He let his vision pierce through the cold metal doors of the lift. At one glance, he found out that the lifts led downwards. It was evident that there was an underground space beneath the spherical building. It made sense for all top-secret experiments to be conducted underground.
“Does Zhu Xuanyue have an access card? There’s no way she could control the Tenshin system to access the lift service. She must’ve used another way.” Xia Lei let his gaze trail downwards, finally noticing a trail of footprints against the ceramic tiles.
Zhu Xuanyue had entered through the helicopter pad, which meant that her soles were stained with dirt and dust. Without a doubt, these would serve as Xia Lei’s compass to find her. Xia Lei had only managed to notice this minute detail using his microscopic vision so it was safe to say that no one else could’ve picked up on it.
Zhu Xuanyue’s trail was stretched into the office area. Xia Lei followed her tracks, finally reaching a room on the end. From her footprints, Zhu Xuanyue had entered this space so Xia Lei too did the same.
This was Eric’s office, judging by his nameplate on the desk. There were pictures of him and the last American president plastered across the wall too.
Zhu Xuanyue’s trail came to a stop in front of a bookshelf.
Xia Lei came over, noticing a woman’s handprint on one side of the bookshelf. Xia Lei carefully hovered his palm over the same spot and began to push. The furniture began to move away slowly and finally revealed a stairway behind it.
Without the need for passcode input, access card reading and all that jazz, this simple stairway had granted easy access to the underground space.
Xia Lei was perplexed. “In such a heavily-guarded place and in Eric’s office nonetheless. What is the rationale behind this design? Is this supposed to be an emergency escape route or what?”
The man had not noticed any stairway at the lobby earlier. It was a mystery why such a state of the art research facility had not thought of having stairways. In the case of electricity disruptions or fire, how are the employees stationed underground going to escape? It made some sense for the hidden stairway to be an emergency route in the case of a disaster. Perhaps that was an adequate explanation to why the security construct was close to non-existent. In dire situations, how would those in panic afford to spend time keying in passcodes or waiting for approval to their iris and fingerprint scans?
Also, how did Zhu Xuanyue even find out about this secret stairway?
Two possibilities came to mind.
One, someone had told her.
Two, it was that her X-ray vision evolution had achieved heights so great that it was terrifying. To be able to notice this hidden stairway in the middle of an unassuming office was a feat Xia Lei could not even achieve.
Both possibilities were equally plausible but Xia Lei refused to dwell on it. He quickly entered the stairway and lightened his steps. He began to descend quietly. The stairway was lit, making Zhu Xuanyue’s footprints visible under the illumination.
After descending what felt like two to three storeys worth of stairs, the exit came into view.
Two corpses of armed guards were sprawled around the exit. Zhu Xuanyue had made a feast out of their brains.
The two armed guards were obviously stationed here. Their existence had explained that this was indeed an emergency escape route. While it did not require any identification and passcodes, usage was prohibited normally.
Xia Lei stepped out of the stairway and found himself on a hanging aluminium walkway that lined the edges of the spherical space. Beneath him was a massive underground chamber. The six faceless warrior statues were all deposited in different spots around the lab to form a hexagram. Beside these statues was research equipment. Some were in the middle of a run cycle while some were dormant.
But of course, Xia Lei noticed these through his X-ray vision. The man wasn’t brave enough to not move with stealth.
In the process, Xia Lei found Eric, Kestin and his female bodyguards Eva and Charlotte. The Israeli high-ranking intelligence officer, Kerns, was here too.
And lastly, he finally noticed the one he did not wish to see here. Zhu Xuanyue.
Disguised as a female soldier, Zhu Xuanyue had started to descend the walkway. She swerved through the laboratory area towards the group of people. No one seemed to have noticed her approaching presence, still occupied with their discussion on Project Shepherd.
Xia Lei could hear their voices crystal clear despite the distance.
“Those six statues are made of materials that do not exist on the face of this world. We have compared all materials in existence and none of them has provided a good match. Therefore, I can confirm that they are not made of composite material,” reported Eric.
Kestin questioned pointedly, “Mister Eric, I’m sure we’ve suggested melting it down. Why are you so reluctant to execute our proposal?”
Eric replied, “We’re fully aware of Lockheed Martin’s proposal but to melt them will be our last resort. There’s no need to melt them yet. They’re able to disrupt signals and that is something worth looking into. If we melt them down before finding out why perhaps the question would never be answered.”
Suddenly, Kerns shouted, “Who are you? What are you doing here?!”
Zhu Xuanyue had finally revealed herself.