Chapter 124

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Chapter 124: The Demon’s Tracking Technique

In simple terms, soon after the advent of internet technology, it quickly caught the attention of countries around the world, including intelligence agencies that rely on information. While others were still praising its magic and convenience, MI6 worried that if this technology wasn’t controlled by Britain, it could create huge gaps in their intelligence efforts.

At the beginning of the documents, the plan’s creators even compared this technological disadvantage to Japan’s cipher machine leaks during World War II. They believed that given enough time, the internet would completely replace mail, telegrams, and wired phone calls. Even if it was invented by an ally, there was no guarantee they wouldn’t steal secrets.

That’s how the Sunflower Project was born.

MI6 planned to train a group of people who possessed completely different real-life identities. These people were different from those who joined halfway through and also different from regular employee nor were they the same as official employees. When MI6 did not activate them, they lived normal lives just like anyone else. Unless there was a special situation, the intelligence department wouldn’t contact or summon them because this could expose their identities. Only when these people themselves felt they needed to contact MI6 would they instantly change from ordinary citizens into an intelligence operative.

According to the plan, they would be pure white Sleepers operating in the information age.

Diade Flynn was one of the first people to suggest this idea.

So, the question that arose was, If these people had no connection to intelligence agencies since childhood, how could they become hidden agents for MI6 and even guarantee loyalty to it?

Sunflower Project’s solution was simple, it was to train them in family units. So instead of recruiting orphans like other agencies, they chose people who already worked in the field—retired veterans and high-ranking volunteers from within the intelligence agencies. Their children were divided into two groups, one for basic intelligence work and the other for high-level operations. The first group had about 2,600 people, and the rest were in the second group.

Reading up to this point, Chaoyang couldn’t help but admire the creativity of this plan. The veterans and agents could train their children themselves and instill loyalty education in  them. There was no need for MI6 to get involved. These children would grow up just like normal people… going to school, graduating, getting jobs, and getting married. The only difference was that in their free time, they would learn everything they needed to become intelligence operative and they all knew they had a special mission to fulfill.

Their parents, on the other hand, lived in an era before the internet became widespread. They might not have been added to the system until long after they left their military service. Unless they told people themselves about their past, few would know that an old carpenter or farmer in town had once been a veteran.

There was also a good reason for dividing people into two groups.

People from lower social strata found it hard to infiltrate the upper circles. They naturally couldn’t get access to high-level information. Besides, intelligence workers can’t do their job blindfolded; they always need to know what kind of information the organization wants. This means MI6 has to share some of their secrets to them. The advantage of having different groups is that it keeps the prevents a low-level operative from knowing the most top-secret intelligence.

George Flynn clearly joined as his father’s successor. Judging by his age, Chaoyang could guess he was already in his thirties when the plan started. He couldn’t have been a pure white sleeper. Also, as a high-ranking officer in MI6, his retirement was also very early so early it seemed as if he had been kicked out.

Chaoyang looked at the ages of the three individuals sequentially and noticed that Tyler’s age matched the time when George Flynn retired.

If Tyler was a seed of the Sunflower Project, it was logical and made sense he wouldn’t be on any official lists.

This also explained the reason why Chaoyang couldn’t find any flaws about him through online information.

To confirm this, he turned around and hacked into Britain’s central Statistical Office server and pulled up Tyler’s family registration records. The data was public and linked to their ID cards, but there was only one piece of information about his father: Edmock Tyler, listed as a factory owner, with no photo records.

This made Chaoyang even more determined.

He found the elementary and middle schools Tyler attended, then went back to his childhood years. He began searching through dusty old records, not giving up.

There were old yellowed color photos and seemed totally messy and incomplete.

In 1990, schools didn’t have digital archives, and mobile phones or the internet weren’t common among students. The information Chaoyang found mostly came from kids who accidentally discovered blurry photos from their school days, and scanned these pictures into personal spaces or social sites as a memento, thus allowing Chaoyang’s search engine to find them.

This search took the better part of the day.

Until the early morning hours, after searching thoroughly, Chaoyang’s eyes finally stopped on a nearly faded yellowed photo.

It was a celebratory scene after a primary school students’ ball game had ended, one of the team was from Tyler’s class. The children were running toward their parents. The photo was a bit blurry because it was taken during an active movement. Chaoyang didn’t see Tyler’s face, but he recognized a familiar looking man. He wore a suit and stood straight like an old gentleman waiting for his child to embrace him.

Even without using comparison software, Chaoyang could recognize that this person was precisely George Flynn.

Kyles opened the base’s level-four security door as usual to perform a routine inspection of the machines in the room.

This was the heart of the Vauxhall Cross Building (1), a place outsiders could never enter. The main thing he had to watch out for was rats— this was absolutely not joke, there are records of rats causing more damage to the wiring than people ever did. But ever since they installed infrared rat repellent in the building’s ventilation system, this task of the job became almost pointless.

Of course, the checks also included making sure all cables were secure, the machines weren’t overheating, and that the surveillance and air conditioning systems were working properly. But Kyles suspected these machines would never have any problems, even until he retired or got fired.

After all, they were much more durable than people.

It was 7 PM now, almost time to switch shifts. This was considered his last task before leaving work, so he wasn’t being very thorough as he performed it somewhat absent-mindedly. After walking around and not finding anything wrong, he decided to sign off on the inspection report.

Just then, Kyles suddenly noticed a data collector device by the wall flash a green light.

What’s going on?

He remembered that this device, which didn’t connect to the mainframe system, was used to count how many times secret files were accessed. Every time an agent needed to see top-secret information; they had to get approval from their superior. The data collector recorded exactly how many times an agent looked at the files, to make sure everything was proper. To stop anyone from falsification, the device wasn’t connected to the mainframe computer. Instead, it monitored the digital signals going through the hard drive port.

Compared to the computers in the server room, it looked more like an old-fashioned punch card machine – ancient and outdated. Every time it detected a file access; its counter went up by one. There was no way to reset it from the outside, or to change the numbers.

And the green light flashing meant electronic signals were passing through.

But there wasn’t a single agent in the room right now.

Kyles rubbed his eyes, thinking he might be seeing things wrong.

He waited a few seconds, and then saw the machine flash its green light again.

Someone was accessing the most secure database in the building? What kind of joke is this! These machines were all in a physically isolated state. One could only connect to the central database if they bring in the special equipment and came to this room!

Clearly, the collection device was broken.

Kyles turned on his radio and called his office colleague, “Hey, Aike, check the Data collector’s counter reading for me.”

But there was no response. All he heard was static in his earpiece.

“Damn it, no signal again,” he cursed, deciding to check himself.

The device covered with an EMP-proof case that needed to be unlocked manually. He popped open the latch, lifted the cover, and checked the display. This simple task took less than ten seconds. He planned to write down the number and compare it with past records later.

But the moment he saw the number, Kyles felt his back breaking out in a cold sweat!

Although he didn’t remember the exact number, but the last record had been a four-digit number starting with 6. That first “6” hadn’t changed for ages.

Now the display showed 12316.

The four-digit number had become five digits!

Note : (1 )Walkso Cross -> Vauxhall Cross  ( Vauxhall Cross Building is the headquarters of MI6.)