Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
“Mike, did any Chinese people come in to rent cars today?” A CIA agent was communicating with his colleague over his headset. “You’ve waited there all day now. Any news?”
“There were a few tall Chinese men coming in to rent cars, but their fingerprints didn’t match records.”
“Then what about their IDs? Did you check carefully?”
“Yes, they were all legal immigrants. They’ve been here for many years now.”
Huo Shaoheng took the keys from the car rental employee. As he was signing his forged English signature on the rental agreement, he happened to overhear someone on the phone asking to check the IDs of Chinese people renting cars. A sly smile appeared on his face as he threw down the pen and strode off with the car keys. No one had suspected him the entire time, let alone the uniformed police officers guarding the door or the plainclothes detective inside the rental company. Although he had the same height as the “kidnapper,” his blue eyes, high aquiline nose, pale skin, and authentic Oxford accent meant no one could link him to the “Huaxia spy boss.” Also, his driver’s license was an authentic one that could be found in the New York DMV license database.
Huo Shaoheng was in a much more relaxed mood when he got inside the car. He first drove several circles around the terribly congested New York streets before heading back to the motel he was staying at to take his things and check out. He didn’t plan to live in New York but rented a high-end apartment in the neighboring New Jersey, which was only a short drive away. After settling in, Huo Shaoheng looked at the time and saw that it was almost noon, so it was about midnight in the Huaxia Empire. Huo Shaoheng’s eyes flickered and found the town library near his apartment.
After signing up for a temporary library card, he went online using a public computer. This time, he continued to use various VPs and consistently deleted his login data to finally loop all the way to Europe, where he used a German library’s server and easily cracked the external password. Using the German library’s server, he connected to an IP phone. By this time, he had been out of contact with the Huaxia military for 36 hours, so he was 12 hours away from the 48-hour cautionary time limit. He planned to make two calls—one to his father Huo Guanchen and the other to General Ji.
Regardless of who wanted him dead in the Huaxia Empire, he felt it was quite unlikely that both these two men wanted him dead at the same time. He didn’t know who the culprit was and couldn’t rule out the possibility that perhaps one of these men wanted him dead, but the low likelihood of it being them both was incredibly low, so it was negligible enough for him to ignore.
His first call was to his father, Huo Guanchen. The older man picked up after three rings.
Huo Shaoheng waited a moment before saying, “Father.”
Huo Guanchen stood up suddenly, his voice trembling with shock. “Shaoheng? Shaoheng, is that you? Are you ok? Where are you right now?”
Huo Shaoheng detected the concern in Huo Guanchen’s voice but didn’t want to entertain his questions. After another pause, he finally answered, “I just wanted to confirm my safety to you. I’m fine. No need to worry.” He paused before adding, “Don’t tell anyone I called.”
Huo Guanchen composed himself and nodded quickly. “I know, I know. You be careful. I’ll report your situation to General Ji.”
Huo Shaoheng replied, “I’ll call General Ji myself. Father, remember to keep this confidential. Danger is by our side.”
He hung up. Because he’d timed the conversation very accurately, the enemy couldn’t track his exact location with a call under two minutes—even if they were tracking him. Thanks to all the IP switching, it would be a miracle for even the German library server to be tracked.
He made the second call to General Ji. “General Ji, it’s me.”
Huo Shaoheng’s voice was steady and deep, steadying General Ji’s heart like a great anchor in the quiet of midnight. “You finally called back. You were just 12 hours away from our 48-hour cautionary time limit.” General Ji was extremely emotional. “How are you? Are you ok?”
“I’m fine, but I still have things to deal with,” Hu Shaoheng said succinctly. “Please take care of yourself. I only called you and my father. Also, B2 must die. You must take care of it immediately.”
B2 was their code name, and with a simple search, General Ji would know that it was for the spy Huo Shaoheng had personally captured years ago, “Yin Youqin.” This was who the kidnappers had demanded be freed in exchange for the hostage. Although he had ulterior motives, Huo Shaoheng couldn’t tolerate Yin Youqin bringing them more trouble by merely remaining alive.
General Ji understood his intention. “No problem, I’ll make the order right away and will be sure to give you justice.”
Huo Shaoheng hung up the phone and sighed deeply. Although he ended the call on time, he was certain that the person trying to kill him already knew about it. But he’d still had to call back, even if that person learned about it. If he lost contact for over 48 hours, he would be subject to the most severe review, even if he did safely return. His career would basically be at an indefinite standstill, and he might have even be requested to hand over the Special Operations Forces and change careers.
This enemy had truly planned meticulously against him—even if Huo Shaoheng survived, this enemy would make sure to destroy his reputation, make him lose the confidence of the military, and ruin his career. If it wasn’t for Huo Shaoheng’s surprising computer skills, the enemy would have succeeded.
Who had Huo Shaoheng crossed? He contemplated it the whole drive back to his apartment and went downstairs to the restaurant for lunch, then went back upstairs to rest. Lying on the bed, he couldn’t sleep and tossed on the bed considering the situation. He finally decided that this person wouldn’t know him particularly well, so he could eliminate anyone close. Anyone who knew him well would be aware of his computer talent and would have given the Americans more hints so there would have been no way for him to forge an identity so successfully.
After eliminating the possibility of someone close betraying him, Huo Shaoheng secretly sighed in relief. If he was betrayed by someone close, then it meant he really had failed as the Chief of the Special Operations Forces. Luckily, that wasn’t the case. As long as it wasn’t someone close, he absolutely had a chance to turn the tables. When he thought about it, Huo Shaoheng perked up and didn’t want to sleep anymore.
He went through his wallet and found that he had spent too much in the last two days. After renting the apartment, he’d spent nearly all his cash, so he needed to get more. After locking his things in the safe, he looked online to find an Atlantic City casino closest to the apartment. It was only a half-hour drive to the seaside city famous for its casino.
He went directly to the largest Caesars Casino there and threw his car keys to the valet with a devil-may-care smile on his face as he strode inside. All American casinos were similar, with slot machines, poker, roulette, Texas Hold’em, as well as sic bo.
Huo Shaoheng merely glanced around the casino, and several glamorous women surrounded him.
“Hey handsome, what do you want to play? We’ll join you…”
They winked so hard their eyelids nearly twitched, but Huo Shaoheng remained unperturbed. He spoke some Spanish to indicate he didn’t understand English. The women instantly lost all interest in him and sauntered off to their next targets with a pout. Huo Shaoheng spread his palms helplessly at their backs, then exchanged for chips and sat at the sic bo table.
After observing from the side for a while, he figured out the rules and played according to the popular bets. In order to not attract attention, he couldn’t keep winning or losing. He was there to make money… After making careful calculations, he established the target of winning and losing 7:3 in order to make the most money in the shortest amount of time without attracting attention. The casino was huge, and someone starting out with a few hundred USD at the sic bo table would never garner a second look from the casino. Even though he ended up winning $50,000 USD in the end, the casino didn’t notice anything peculiar. Of course, he couldn’t take all his winnings home in cash, so the casino wrote him a bank check.
He took the check to an Atlantic City branch of a major bank to open an account to deposit the check in, then also applied for a credit card with a $10,000 limit. With a driver’s license, car, and credit card, he could basically travel freely in the United States now.
Huo Shaoheng was very cautious while doing these things and went around several full loops before driving back to his apartment. In the end, he almost ran out of gas and had to turn into the neighborhood gas station to refill. It was already evening when he returned to his apartment, so he went downstairs for dinner before going home.
As soon as he walked in and turned on the TV, a local New York network happened to be interviewing CIA and FBI agents to ask if they had caught the criminal at large. The FBI agent being interviewed stated solemnly, “We’ve already secured the entire area and have asked the public to support us. Please call the toll-free line if you see any suspicious people…”
Huo Shaoheng leaned against the sofa with a cup of coffee. He smiled wryly at the interview and memorized every word they spoke.
