Chapter 397

Chapter 397: The Kitten Catches Fish

If Nong Lan and Bayu still didn’t understand why they ended up in such a mess, they would be even more foolish than pigs. The reason they had fallen into their current predicament was all thanks to the young man just a few meters away.

The pilot, codenamed "Dragon Knight," was like a cursed star for Nong Lan and Bayu. They had no idea of his terrifying background, but the moment they got involved with him, they immediately attracted a massive crackdown from the intelligence agencies of both China and Thailand.

They were initially working comfortably, earning a good salary, but overnight, their operations unit crumbled, and soon they found themselves in deep trouble, ultimately captured with ease by the Chinese using directional shockwave weapons.

“Damn it, we need to get out of here!”

Without hesitation, Bayu tossed his mineral water bottle into a nearby trash can and pulled Nong Lan away, fearing that if they moved too slowly, someone might see their faces.

“Quick, let’s go!” Nong Lan’s fear became almost instinctive; she dreaded ever seeing the pilot codenamed "Dragon Knight" again. She and Bayu were already unlucky enough, and she didn’t know if they would ever escape this nightmare. If they got tangled up with him again, who knew how bad it could get?

She didn’t hesitate either and followed Bayu as they squeezed into the crowd, walking as far away as possible.

“Red beans grow in the southern country!”

“Spring brings two branches! Do you have any Vietnamese dong?”

“Only one hundred and sixteen yuan.”

“Forget it, do you change for dollars?”

“No, I only change for Peruvian currency.”

After a series of coded exchanges, a middle-aged woman in her fifties, wearing a short-sleeved blue floral shirt and white knee-length pants, let out a sigh and cautiously asked, “Nong Lan? Bayu?”

Clearly, this was one of her few assignments, and she felt a twinge of nervousness, but each assignment came with substantial funding, which was one of the perks of working for an intelligence agency.

“Yes, I’m Nong Lan!”

“I’m Bayu.”

The two who had fled from Thailand to China finally made contact with “Eden’s” hidden network in Guangzhou at the train station exit, feeling a sense of relief as well.

To shake off the Chinese agents tracking them, the “Eden” intelligence agency had put significant effort into planning the escape routes for these two employees from the Thai operations unit. The train station, bustling with people, had numerous outgoing trains every day, making it the perfect choice for fleeing.

Aside from the agency’s backers, every country despised this kind of broker-like intelligence agency. “Eden” had often clashed with China’s intelligence departments as they reached into Chinese territory but had learned their lesson. While their hidden networks developed slowly, they excelled in discretion, making it impossible for government departments to check every single person individually.

As Bayu had marveled, while China’s vast population was a double-edged sword—it could provide immense labor resources but could also be penetrated easily by external forces.

This war, shrouded in shadows, had never truly ceased since before liberation.

“Here are your train tickets and ten thousand yuan in cash. Don’t forget to take your IDs; there will be security checks on the train, and don’t deposit the cash in a bank.”

The middle-aged woman was extremely cautious, revealing no information about herself as she handed over two named train tickets and a thick envelope. In her bag, she had several other spare train tickets to different destinations but didn’t show them.

While meticulously arranging for contacts and escape routes, the “Eden” agency also kept an eye on the tracking situation of the Chinese agents, quietly verifying the loyalty of the two employees.

After all those years operating in the shadows, the intelligence agency’s level of caution was no less than that of any national intelligence department.

The Chinese IDs prepared for the two fugitives by “Eden” were genuine and legitimate.

“Thank you!” Nong Lan said as she received the train tickets, which were headed to Changsha. She expressed her gratitude but felt a twinge of guilt deep down; I’m sorry, you have been exposed.

By now, the nearby Chinese intelligence personnel had probably already added this middle-aged woman to their surveillance list.

However, Nong Lan kept her guilt hidden deep inside, showing no signs of it on the surface.

Bayu suddenly asked, “Does the agency know that our previous target in Songkhla is also at the train station?”

He certainly didn’t want to run into that terrifying person again on the train.

“Ha! If you don’t ask, I have to consider you,” the middle-aged woman suddenly smiled, the crow’s feet at the corners of her eyes nearly able to crush a fly. She continued, “You both need to be careful. The news just came from the company that people from the ‘Black’ Company have also arrived in Guangzhou, possibly looking for that pilot. You two shouldn’t get involved; otherwise, the company won’t be able to protect you.”

“Ah, uh! Yes!” Though Guangzhou was hot, Bayu couldn’t help but shiver.

Six hundred meters south of Guangzhou Train Station, deep in the bus terminal parking lot, a luxury bus bound from Guangzhou to Jiangmen sported a small retractable antenna on its roof that continuously sent and received signals. But inside the bus, it was a different world altogether.

Filled with various electronics, two listening agents wearing headphones paused their recording to exchange glances.

They had caught a big fish!

However, the next words from the middle-aged woman made their faces change.

‘Black’? What company is that?

The pilot?

Damn, it seemed like something bad was about to happen.

One of the surveillance agents immediately picked up the communication device and sent this important information through a secure channel.

The implanted listening and tracking device, as small as a broad bean, transmitted every sound of Bayu and Nong Lan’s conversations without omission via radio. With its small battery and biological energy storage, it could operate for a long time.

He quickly made a heavy mark on the coded number designated for the middle-aged woman.

“Attention passengers, the K1168 train from Haikou to Xi’an will depart at 8:57…”

Listening to the automatic announcement system at the train station, Lin Mo dragged his suitcase to the train car indicated on his ticket. He checked his watch—it was 8:50; the train would leave in seven minutes.

This time he was leaving the “Night” base, not to avoid trouble but because a week ago, Lin Mo had received an invitation from the Aerospace Department to attend the second round of astronaut selection in Jiuquan.

The Intelligence Group arranged a secret route for Lin Mo—he took a special car from the “Night” base to Chongqing, flew to Kunming, stayed for one day, and then caught a red-eye flight to Guangzhou. As soon as he landed, he headed straight for Guangzhou Train Station to buy a ticket to Xi’an.

This journey covered at least a few thousand kilometers—a long and rushed route to take.

If it were someone else, they might not have gone to such lengths, but Lin Mo had frequented the base too often. To ensure the secrecy of the “Night” base’s location, the Intelligence Group had to plan such a complicated route.

“We’re here, this is it!”

“Quick, get your things settled; the train is about to leave.”

A man and a woman squeezed into the hard sleeper compartment, following the crowd. Just as the couple was about to find their bunks by matching the numbers on their tickets, they locked eyes with Lin Mo, who had already sat on the lower bunk after placing his luggage.

All three of them froze in place.

“It’s you!” Nong Lan’s expression was a mixture of surprise, fear, anger, and confusion.

“It’s you!” Lin Mo’s shock lasted only two seconds before his face turned expressionless, and a chilling aura enveloped him.

“It’s you!” Bayu felt an urge to pull out a gun and end it right there, wishing he could avoid this bad luck that had landed him directly opposite this disaster personified.

No matter the coincidence, it shouldn’t have been this outrageous.

He felt betrayed by those above him!

Bayu’s heart burned with uncontainable anger; neither the Chinese side nor “Eden” could stop his deep resentment.

“What a coincidence!” Nong Lan was the first to break the tense standoff. Given the situation, evasion was useless, and she resolved to accept it, no longer expecting to escape with Bayu.

The guy who could punch a large water buffalo to death could easily squash the two of them with a single finger.

Just then, the train jolted; it started to move, leaving them with no chance to escape.

“Hmph! Quite the coincidence!” Lin Mo clearly did not understand why these two were here, showing considerable hostility instead. He began to think about notifying the police to have these two controlled.

“Sit down, Bayu!” The woman’s natural friendliness also worked to break the deadlock. Nong Lan pulled the terrified Bayu down to the lower bunk across from Lin Mo.

Removing his watch from his left wrist, Lin Mo didn’t worry about the two resisting or escaping. Unarmed in front of the Dragon Knight, everything was trivial; if he wanted, he could turn them into pulp in seconds.

Even on land, the ACE of the “Night” base remained undefeated.

“Cough, cough! Dragon Knight! Please hold on a moment.” Having noticed the other side was about to make a call, Nong Lan cleared her throat, interrupting, and said, “Dragon Knight, we mean no harm; this is purely a coincidence. We didn’t intend this, but please rest assured, we are currently working for China.”

Nong Lan had mustered the courage; she wasn’t sure if this sleeper compartment contained any listening devices. She was the first to reveal her identity.

“What? Working for China?” Lin Mo stopped dialing, clearly skeptical. After a moment of surprise, he said, “Sit tight and don’t move, or I’ll blow you both away with one punch. Hmph, I believe you know how powerful my fist is.”

Lin Mo’s ferocious demeanor exposed itself fully as his threat made Nong Lan and Bayu shiver in fear.