Chapter 63: The Top-Secret Intelligence Theft Case

  On an autumn morning, the sky was still a pale blue, with a cool and faint mist surrounding me. Gradually, the eastern horizon revealed an orange-yellow hue, which grew thicker and expanded as time passed. After a while, the sun showed half of its crimson face, like a dazzling agate disk, slowly rising upwards. The red sun was surrounded by a halo of light, with those gentle, rolling clouds, like maidens dressed in red, dancing gracefully.

  In a ordinary dormitory building in Beijing, people who need to get up early for work have already started their busy day. In a single apartment on the third floor of this building, Li Donghua, who was observing through a high-powered telescope, stretched his waist and rubbed his eyes, yawning loudly, another whole night had passed, and his surveillance target in a small quadrangle courtyard across a narrow street still showed no signs of movement.

  "Mom, you're really patient." He muttered softly, just thinking of calling Ding Xiaofeng who was lying on the sofa to take over, when a series of knocks suddenly came from the door.

  Ding Xiaofeng, who had been lying in bed with his clothes on, suddenly sprang up and agilely jumped to the door like a cat. He opened the door and softly called out: "Second Brother, you're here." Outside the door, a man who looked refined and elegant nodded slightly in response and quickly stepped inside, soon turning around to close the door behind him.

  The man handed the plastic bag in his hand to Ding Xiaofeng, walked to the window and bent over to observe with a high-powered telescope for a while, and asked softly: "How is it? Is there any discovery?"

  Li Donghua rubbed his eyes, took the cigarette handed over by the man and lit it, taking a deep breath before saying: "No, this guy doesn't get up until 9 o'clock every day, and even when he gets up, he's lazy and messing around with his potted plants in the courtyard. It's been a week now, not a single movement."

  "He won't let the rabbit escape without releasing the eagle." Ding Xiaofeng smiled lightly and handed a lunch box to Li Donghua from a plastic bag: "You eat and rest, I'll take over." Ding Xiaofeng was Li Donghua's brother and work partner, both were intelligence consultants at headquarters.

  Li Donghua stood up, holding his lunchbox and pacing back and forth a few steps, when he suddenly stopped in his tracks, staring at the man for a moment before asking coldly: "Second Brother, could it be that they've caught wind of something and suddenly stopped all activity?"

  The man known as Second Brother furrowed his brow and pondered for a moment, shaking his head: "It won't work. According to reliable sources, his mission is to obtain the intelligence before the end of the month and send it abroad. Although we still don't know who his contact person is, all signs indicate that he hasn't obtained the intelligence yet." He gently patted Li Donghua's shoulder and said in a low voice: "Be patient, wait a little longer."

  Li Donghua's expression was somewhat hesitant, his eyebrows furrowed into a "川" shape, and he said in a low voice: "I'm afraid our patience will be wasted, what if they cancel the transaction..."

  "It's highly unlikely. According to the mole's report, they attach great importance to this piece of intelligence over there and have urged us many times through channels, apparently determined to get it."

  Ding Xiaofeng leaned in close to the telescope, observing while asking in a low voice: "Is there any progress on your end?"

  "In the past half month, we have investigated all personnel who had contact with intelligence, but found no clues. The man stretched out his hand and pressed his temples hard, letting out a faint sigh that was almost imperceptible. "At present, we are extremely passive, not knowing when, where or with whom he will make contact, nor do we even have the most basic suspect."

  "Can they directly transmit intelligence from the internet?" Li Donghua swallowed the food in his mouth and pointed to the courtyard: "This is just a cover."

  The man shook his head slightly: "Since the first discovery of confidential information leakage, we have dispatched technical personnel to monitor the network traffic of the headquarters. They can only take the intelligence out of the country and send it in international waters."

  "Last night, I thought for a long time," Ding Xiaofeng bit his lower lip for a moment, and continued with an expression of confusion: "Top-secret intelligence has been stolen one after another in a mysterious way. We used all our skills to find clues, but we couldn't even touch the edge of it. This matter is really too strange."

  Li Donghua finished his breakfast in two mouthfuls, then poured a large cup of water into his mouth and asked the man tentatively: "Can you start the situation with the mole planted over there?"

  "The mole's status is not high over there, it's already very difficult to get such important intelligence transaction details. Continuing to pry into the news will only arouse suspicion, this is really too dangerous!" The man waved his hand and didn't continue speaking. His name was Gu Fan, a young and promising director of the National Security Bureau at just over 30 years old.

  The room fell into a brief silence, and Ding Xiaofeng leaned on the telescope with a slightly distracted expression, suddenly shouting: "Target appeared!"

  Gu Fan and Li Donghua rushed to the window, grabbed the binoculars and looked towards the small courtyard opposite. Indeed, a man in his mid-40s to 50s, slightly short and stout, wearing a plaid jacket, pushed his bicycle out of the gate. He was an extremely ordinary-looking man who would be completely lost in the crowd, with a dull, bronze-colored face that always wore a wooden, satisfied smile. He locked the gate, looked around cautiously, got on his bike and rode slowly eastward.

  "It's a show!" Li Donghua raised his wrist to look at his watch, it was not yet 8 o'clock in the morning. He excitedly whispered: "This guy never goes out so early, there must be something fishy going on!"

  Ding Xiaofeng suddenly stood up, pulled out the pistol from his waist and gently cocked it, a bullet clicking into place.

  "Dong Hua, stay behind and keep watching, Xiao Feng come with me!" Gu Fan said, throwing a pair of earpieces to Ding Xiao Feng, the two quickly rushed downstairs together.

  As soon as they arrived downstairs, Gu Fan's subordinate, who was responsible for tracking the target from outside, sent a signal to them, indicating that the target was riding his bike westward. Gu Fan took over the bicycle pushed by his subordinate and rode on it, while Ding Xiaofeng jumped onto the back seat. The bicycle started moving slowly forward. The two of them followed the target to a large supermarket, which had just opened its doors. The target entered the supermarket together with a group of elderly people who were rushing to buy cheap vegetables at the early market. Gu Fan's earpiece transmitted three knocks, indicating that his twelve subordinates had blocked all the exits of the supermarket. He took a glance around and entered the supermarket with Ding Xiaofeng.

  At this time, there were few young people shopping in the supermarket. Two people stood out among a group of elderly people with gray hair. Gu Fan secretly regretted not putting on makeup before coming in. He glanced at his target, who was walking through the shelves as if nothing was wrong, and made eye contact with Ding Xiaofeng.

  Although the two people belonged to different departments, they had grown up together since childhood and were very familiar with each other's every glance. After receiving Gu Fan's hint, Ding Xiaofeng quietly walked between the two shelves, circled around to the right front of the target, and pretended to pick up a box of milk for selection. The two people were less than ten meters away from the target, forming a pincer movement, staring closely at the target's every move, waiting for the target to start making contact.

  Suddenly, the loudspeaker in the fresh vegetable area sounded, and the limited-time purchase time arrived. The originally orderly sales floor instantly became chaotic, with people rushing to the frozen food counter, and the target was also mixed among the crowd, squeezing towards the counter.

  Gu Fan froze, his eyebrows raised high. In this situation, it was impossible to see the target's movements clearly. His mind quickly turned over various response plans, suppressing his anxious mood as he looked at Ding Xiaofeng. The corner of his eye suddenly caught sight of a man standing by the huge household goods shelf. The man had his back to him, and his silhouette was extremely familiar. He couldn't help but turn his head for a closer look, and the man suddenly flashed behind the shelf, disappearing from view.

  "My god!" When Gu Fan turned his head back to the target, he was shocked to find that the ice cream counter had suddenly become a battlefield. Two customers were fighting over a half-priced beef package, grabbing one package after another of discounted dishes and throwing them at each other. For a time, chickens, ducks, and vegetables were flying everywhere, and people were dodging all over the place to avoid being hit. The scene was completely out of control.

  At this moment, the target suddenly sprinted forward without warning, knocking down several elderly people and rushing to the daily necessities shelf. Immediately afterwards, two dull gunshots came from behind the shelf, causing the already chaotic crowd to erupt in a burst of screams.

  "Exposed!" Ding Xiaofeng and Gu Fan almost simultaneously took a step forward, but their path was blocked by panicked customers fleeing in all directions. By the time they managed to push through the crowd and rush to the shelf, the target had vanished. A man lay face down on the ground, with hot blood flowing from his back, while two sales clerks, a man and a woman, who were restocking shelves, were so frightened that their faces turned pale and they crouched motionless by the side.

  Ding Xiaofeng rushed over, his fingers placed on the man's neck. A few seconds later, he gently shook his head at Gu Fan. Both of them saw a shocked expression in each other's eyes. Ding Xiaofeng turned the body over and immediately let out a soft cry: "Isn't this the driver who used to drive for Wang Boan?"

  Gu Fan also recognized the corpse at a glance, it was the man he had just seen and felt familiar with. He let out a low "hey" and pressed the intercom: "All units be aware, target has escaped, notify the police to seal off all exits immediately, he must still be inside the supermarket!"

  In a moment, a response came from the earpiece: "All exits have been sealed off, the police will arrive in five minutes."

  Ding Xiaofeng leaned in close to the two sales clerks, pulled out his work ID and handed it over to them, saying in a low voice: "Don't be afraid, tell me, where did the person who fired the shot go?"

  The female salesperson trembled all over and couldn't utter a sound for half a day. After a while, she pointed to the passage leading to the clothing area with her trembling fingers.

  No one expected such an ordinary person to have such agility, Gu Fan and Ding Xiaofeng's faces were heavy as they drew their pistols from the holster, gripping them tightly in their hands, quickly approaching the clothing area. The two of them quickly searched around the clothing area, customers and salespeople had already fled with their heads covered due to the gunshots, they didn't find anything.

  At this time, the voice of a scout under Gu Fan came from the headphones, panting: "Gu Chu, we're up." In a moment, the empty supermarket echoed with the sound of rapid footsteps. More than 20 fully armed special police officers quickly controlled every passageway under the leadership of the scout.

  This garment district is adjacent to the supermarket's warehouse. Gu Fan silently pointed to the large door of the warehouse, which was slightly ajar. Ding Xiao Feng understood and, with guns at the ready, he and Gu Fan quickly approached the warehouse door from either side. Gu Fan crouched down beside the door and peeked inside through the half-foot wide gap. The warehouse was pitch black and silent, with no signs of life. Various garments were piled up haphazardly all over the place.

  This terrain is advantageous for defense but not for offense. Gu Fang furrowed his brow and made a hand gesture to Ding Xiaofeng, indicating that he would go in first. He used his shoulder to push the warehouse door open, creating a passageway about one foot wide, and firmly grasped his gun with both hands. He did a forward roll and landed beside a pile of clothes, quickly raising his gun to aim inside. A faint rustling sound came from behind him, and Ding Xiaofeng had arrived.

  Two people used a pile of clothes as cover, taking turns to search around the not-so-spacious warehouse. The target seemed to have vanished into thin air. Ding Xiaofeng shook his head in disappointment and was about to stand up from behind the cover when Gu Fan suddenly pointed at the air vent five meters above the ground and whispered, "He's there!" Then he raised his gun and fired.

  Bang, bang, the sound of gunfire rang out. The target's right arm fell limply to its side, blood splattering everywhere, as a Glock 7 pistol clattered to the ground. But the target's left hand had already grasped the window frame of the air vent, and with a surge of strength, its body sprang upward.

  Ding Xiaofeng raised his gun and aimed at the target, when suddenly Gu Fan shouted loudly: "Leave a way out!" Ding Xiaofeng's hand slightly lifted upwards, and two consecutive shots hit the top of the concrete wall of the target, causing cement dust and broken bricks to fall all over the ground.

  The target took advantage of the opportunity to jump up to the air window, and his slightly chubby body was exceptionally agile. With just a light leap, he disappeared from the air window. "Don't move!" Along with the sound of special police shouting outside the window, the sound of gunfire "Bang Bang Bang" and "Dadada" rang out.

  Ding Xiaofeng inserted the pistol into its holster, grasped a stack of high-piled cargo net bags, and used the momentum to jump up to the air window and look down. Outside the window was a quiet alley behind the supermarket, where several special police officers holding silenced submachine guns were vigorously pursuing their target. When Ding Xiaofeng jumped onto the windowsill, he saw the target agilely climbing up onto the roof of a residential building like a nimble monkey, disappearing from view after a few ups and downs.

  "Damn it!" Gu Fan cursed heavily, and the two returned to the body. The SWAT team had sealed off the entire supermarket, and a police officer was taking pictures of the body as evidence.

  Ding Xiaofeng stared at the corpse for a while, then suddenly said: "I think I've found the channel where the intelligence was stolen..."

  "It's not easy to jump to conclusions with just one body." Gu Fan patted his shoulder, stopping him from saying what he was about to say, and said slowly after a moment of contemplation: "First check his bank account." Both of them had smelled the strong smell of violence on each other, and the flames of anger in their hearts were already on the verge of losing control.