Speaker Long had now started to hope that Huo Shaoheng turned out to be the loyal one.
Of course, if that were the case, Hong Kangquan, the Secret Service Director who Huo Shaoheng had been monitoring and investigating, would obviously be the one who had dubious intentions.
But they couldn’t just arrest officials of the ministerial rank at will. They needed hard proof.
General Ji could no longer remain patient. He couldn’t constantly bend over backward in order to accommodate Speaker Long’s conflicting emotions anymore, and he picked up the phone with a smile. “Old Long, call Hong Kangquan quickly and order him to leave the Special Operation Forces. I’ll call Shaoheng and tell him to hand command of the central control room over to Zhou Qiyuan and then report to me. Then, I will quarantine and interrogate him. How does that sound? ”
Speaker Long nodded, saying in a grave tone, “Continue conducting the surveillance on Hong Kangquan.”
General Ji beamed, anxiously wanting to give Speaker Long a thumbs up.
He felt ecstatic as he dialed Huo Shaoheng’s number.
“Shaoheng, regarding the incident that happened today, I have reached a compromise with Speaker Long. You will hand over control of the central control room to Zhou Qiyuan. Then, you will come to me. I need to interrogate you in isolation,” General Ji said.
General Ji’s smile reached his eyes as he spoke, lighting them up.
Speaker Long, speechless and frustrated, shot him a sideways look. He turned around and dialed Hong Kangquan’s number. He spoke in an even tone, saying, “Director Hong, you are simply not high enough of a rank to receive the security authorization level required to gain access to the central control room. OK. The authorization form was an overreach in terms of what is within our jurisdiction and is, therefore, illegal. As of this moment, it is officially abolished. Please leave the Special Operation Force’s central control room immediately. Until you obtain the necessary authorization level, don’t even think about entering that room. ”
Hong Kangquan’s face contorted in shock. He couldn’t believe that his meticulously forged documents hadn’t been enough to convince President Long to trust his words against Huo Shaoheng’s.
Huo Shaoheng put the phone down, and, seeing how Hong Kangquan’s face had turned ashen, he pursed his lips, slightly lifting his head. “I will place you in charge of the central control room, and everyone here will be under your supervision. If anyone who is not authorized tries to step anywhere close to this door, kill them on sight! Don’t make the mistake I did of showing the enemy too much benevolence,” he said to Zhou Qiyuan.
Although his words were addressed to Zhou Qiyuan, his piercing eyes scanned the faces of each Secret Service agent, as if he was trying to imprint their faces firmly in his mind.
Zhou Qiyuan immediately stood up to salute him. “Please rest assured!” he said. “Any suspicious personnel who attempt to enter the central control room will only do so over my dead body!”
Zhou Qiyuan spoke as though he were giving an order. His determination to defend the central control room was clear.
Hong Kangquan put his phone down and glanced over at the Special Operation Force members, then shifted his focus towards the small pistols in the hands of his people. Finally, he stomped his foot, saying, “Let’s go!”
He led the Secret Servicemen away in the same manner they had arrived. They left the headquarters of the Special Operation Forces as swiftly as a breeze.
Huo Shaoheng nodded to Zhou Qiyuan, then turned around to face the 27 staff in the central control room. “I have some matters to sort out with General Ji and will be staying there for a few days,” he said. “I will be transferring command over to Colonel Zhou Qiyuan, and you all must obey his orders.”
“Yes, sir!” All of the staff members in the room saluted in unison, watching Huo Shaoheng leave.
Zhou Qiyuan waved to the team he had brought with him, saying, “Go check and see if the Secret Service has taken anything away. I’ll go to the central control room to deal with the procedures.”
…
Yin Shixiong didn’t find out about that night’s incident until the next morning.
He was anxious and concerned. However, his hands were tied since he couldn’t abandon his post to investigate the details concerning the crisis Huo Shaoheng had been entangled in.
Huo Shaoheng had sent Zhao Liangze to an island off the coast of the Cape of Good Hope in Africa. Even if he wanted to return, he couldn’t without a direct order authorizing him to do so.
After thinking for a while about what he should do, the only thing that came to Yin Shixiong’s mind was to call Gu Nianzhi.
“Nianzhi, where are you?” Yin Shixiong asked as soon as she picked up the phone.
Gu Nianzhi had been brought to a suite by He Zhichu.
He Zhichu knew that the suite was heavily fortified by the Special Operation Forces. Because of this, it was much safer for Gu Nianzhi to stay there than it would have been for her to stay with him at school.
Gu Nianzhi had just woken up, and in her still drowsy state, asked Yin Shixiong groggily, “I’m at home, what’s up?”
Yin Shixiong cleared his throat loudly, and with his Bluetooth headset on, he asked Gu Nianzhi, “What did you do yesterday?”
Gu Nianzhi was silent.
She thought about it for a while, but decided that she didn’t want to cause Huo Shaoheng any trouble, so she merely said, “I was asleep at home all day, what about it?”
“Oh,” Yin Shixiong replied. He wondered whether or not he should tell Gu Nianzhi about the trouble Huo Shaoheng had been mixed up in.
After all, he shouldn’t discuss Huo Shaoheng’s affairs with outsiders.
Yin Shixiong felt the words at the tip of his tongue but managed to suppress the urge to spill the entire story, albeit with great difficulty.
Yin Shixiong exchanged some good-natured banter with Gu Nianzhi for a while, then made up an excuse about being busy and hung up the phone.
Gu Nianzhi wasn’t surprised by his behavior. After all, such circumstances were quite common. She immediately nodded with understanding. “That’s alright. Remember to get a good night’s sleep and eat well, big brother Xiong. Don’t make Qiqi worry about you,” she said.
When Yin Shixiong thought about how Gu Nianzhi was still thinking about Ma Qiqi at a time like this, he softened up inside and said in a gentle voice, “I know. Same to you.”
To be entirely honest, Yin Shixiong’s phone call had actually woken Gu Nianzhi up.
Since she was unable to fall back asleep even if she had wanted to, she picked up the phone from her bedside and started scrolling through it.
…
Hong Kangquan returned to the Secret Service, locked himself in his office, and started smoking while he brooded.
Those in the Secret Service knew the reason behind their Director’s distressed mental state and refrained from disturbing him.
Hong Kangquan had chain-smoked three cigarettes in a row before he finally exhaled a long, stale breath of air.
Picking up his phone, he tried calling that unreachable number again. He found that it was the same as before. No matter how many times he tried, the call wouldn’t connect.
Hong Kangquan pondered over the meaning of the call that wouldn’t connect while playing with the phone in his hands. The person on the other end was probably trying to send a message to Hong Kangquan. It was as if the person was saying Hong Kangquan should not try to reach out to him, but instead passively wait to be contacted by him.
Fair enough.
Hong Kangquan glanced at the documents on his desk and slammed his hands down onto the desk hard.
He couldn’t believe that he still couldn’t take down Huo Shaoheng after all of his efforts!
However, the document had already been reviewed by Speaker Long. Speaker Long was someone who placed great emphasis on impartiality. He certainly would not look at Huo Shaoheng the same way General Ji did.
Hong Kangquan sneered and locked the file in a safe.
…
Huo Shaoheng arrived at general Ji’s office. He stood up straight.
“Huo Shaoheng, Special Operation Forces General, is here to report!” Huo Shaoheng said.
General Ji glanced up at him and said, “Come on in and close the door.”
Huo Shaoheng closed General Ji’s office door, walked straight to General Ji’s desk, and continued to stand at attention.
General Ji beckoned to him. “Sit, don’t be nervous,” he said.
Huo Shaoheng was silent.
He didn’t tell General Ji that the truth was, he wasn’t even the slightest bit nervous.
After he had sat down on a chair in front of General Ji’s desk, General Ji pulled out the after-action report Huo Shaoheng had written after returning from the United States and flung it towards him. “Explain yourself,” General Ji said.
Although General Ji had ardently defended Huo Shaoheng’s actions in front of Speaker Long, the nature of the documents presented by Hong Kangquan had prompted General Ji to reread Huo Shaoheng’s after-action report more carefully.
After he had reviewed the after-action report again, he also saw that it was clear that Huo Shaoheng had been hiding something and had out essential details.
In some areas, he had been deliberately vague and suspiciously neglected to elaborate on those instances.
Although that wasn’t absolute proof of treachery or betrayal, General Ji didn’t want his subordinates hiding anything from him.
Huo Shaoheng’s crisis in the United States truly was too painful to think about.
Yet it was an undeniable fact that he had concealed part of what had really occurred during that crisis.
For example, he hadn’t mentioned one word about the agreement he had struck with James, the CIA’s station chief in the Asia region.
That was their highest-ranked mole within the CIA, even higher ranked than the agent Bai Yusheng had betrayed.
Huo Shaoheng had promised James that the agreement was strictly between the two of them and that they would not betray each other.
In their profession, some things simply could not become public knowledge.
Many had taken their secrets with them to the grave.
For example, legends within their profession refused to write memoirs in their later years. They also refrained from implementing anything political that would still function after their death.
Some spymasters had developed carefully woven spy rings, and the spymasters’ death meant the death of its connection to the Huaxia Empire as well.
Because, in the end, those people weren’t people of Huaxia. They only acknowledged a connection with the ring, and their loyalties laid solely with the spy ring and its master, not the Huaxia Empire.
The relationship between Huo Shaoheng and James seemed reminiscent of that of a spymaster and his spy, like back in the old days.
He sat up straight in front of General Ji, and calmly exercised his right to silence.
