At once, the two of them hurried down the metal spiral staircase—Shawn Young supporting Ken Fu with one hand and clutching the all-important black suitcase with the other. In no time, they reached a massive room packed with tangled wiring and all sorts of electronic gear.
The huge room actually had no door. Thick, heavy cables ran from machine to machine, stretching out in all directions beyond the walls. The machines buzzed with electric current, sounding like a power substation. Outside the room, the cables snaked through numerous tunnels—each big enough for a person to crawl through. Only the room itself was lit; those tunnels were pitch black, leading who knows where.
Shawn Young spotted a row of toolboxes inside, clearly left behind by the maintenance crew. He grabbed a flashlight from one of them. Ken Fu’s right shoulder was still bleeding steadily—he’d lost a lot of blood, and his face had gone pale. As Shawn led him down into the room, Ken’s once-strong body was now hunched and exhausted, all his strength drained.
"We’ll have to follow one of these cable tunnels and pass through another department’s lab. It’s about a kilometer ahead—can you handle it?" Shawn asked, worried about Ken’s condition.
"No problem! I’ll fight to the end, no matter what! If I pull off this mission, I can finally transfer back home and live easy! Damn, I’ve been stuck down here for over five years—haven’t seen the sun for three! This is my big chance to finally make a name for myself, and I’m not letting it slip away!" Ken Fu growled.
"Wait—five years?! You’ve been undercover in this secret base for five years?!" Shawn exclaimed in shock.
"That’s right! We’re the nation’s hidden front line—soldiers doing our duty where nobody can see. The day I joined intelligence, I knew what I was signing up for! Our country’s got plenty of enemies, all scheming to take us down. Without people like us, China would’ve been in deep trouble countless times!" Ken Fu grimaced in pain, but his face took on a look of pride.
Only now did Shawn Young truly understand. As a great nation, China naturally attracted the envy and schemes of others. Without these covert intelligence agents risking everything behind the scenes, there was no way China could stay prosperous and peaceful for long.
Looking at Ken Fu’s pale face, Shawn felt a surge of respect and admiration. He declared, "Alright, brother—no matter what, even if the sky falls, we’ll finish this mission. And you and I will see the sunrise tomorrow! Don’t worry, I’ll take care of your wounds."
Ken Fu nodded fiercely and grinned. "Hell yeah! For those words, I swear I’ll see the sunrise tomorrow! When I get out, I’m asking the chief for a promotion!"
"Oh! You work for Director Tyler Cui of the Intelligence Bureau?" Shawn Young was a bit surprised.
"That's right! You know our boss Tyler Cui too?" Ken Fu was shocked that Shawn knew the Intelligence Bureau chief. After all, the Military Abilities Task Force and the Intelligence Bureau were totally separate secret units. They interacted sometimes, but neither side really knew much about the other.
"Yeah, sort of. I guess we’re half colleagues. Actually, I’ve even got one of your Bureau’s ID cards—ha!" Shawn Young remembered how Tyler Cui had tried to recruit him into the Intelligence Bureau after he got back from Afghanistan.
Worried Ken Fu might lose consciousness from blood loss, Shawn kept chatting with him as they walked. Flashlights in hand, they followed a tunnel to the right. Shawn wasn’t sure where it led, but from memories he’d pulled out of Ryosuke Eguchi’s mind, as long as they followed the cables, they’d reach another department’s lab.
After about ten minutes, they suddenly stepped onto a metal plate. It echoed underneath, sounding hollow—there was clearly empty space below. Ken Fu’s senses sharpened, and he quickly asked, "Hey, it feels hollow down there. Any idea what’s underneath?"
Shawn immediately activated his Heavenly Eye Technique to scan below. To his shock, he realized they were standing on the roof of a metal shed—and inside, a bunch of living creatures were locked up.
Shawn scanned the shed carefully with his Heavenly Eye Technique. He saw rows of iron cages inside, each packed with animals—cats, dogs, monkeys, even a few horses. The craziest part? There were actual bears down there too.
Shawn had no idea what this place was, so he quickly told Ken Fu what he’d seen. Ken thought it over, then shook his head. "It’s probably some weird experiment by the Japanese. No clue what they’re testing, but they’re using big animals like horses and bears—must’ve smuggled them in through secret subway tunnels. If we can reach the secret subway station, we’ve got a shot at escaping. Come on, let’s find a way into that metal shed below."
With that, Ken Fu shrugged off Shawn’s help, crouched down, and started searching the ground for any way into the shed below. After a bit of poking around, he said, "Heh, over here—there’s a vent! If we open it, we can get down. But looks like it’s locked from below."
Shawn shone his flashlight over and sure enough, there was a vent about fifty centimeters wide. Ken Fu tugged at the cover, but it wouldn’t budge—the vent was locked from the inside.
Ken Fu unbuckled his belt and pulled out a long, thin wire hidden inside. With one hand, he slid the wire into the vent’s crack, fiddled around for a bit, then said, "Brother, my hand’s injured—can you pull up hard here? That should open the vent."
Shawn hurried over and grabbed the wire, pulling with all his strength. With a loud snap, the lock beneath the vent broke clean off. Shawn was stunned—he hadn’t expected such a thin wire to bust a lock like that. It was almost unbelievable.
Ken Fu seemed to know what he was thinking. He took the wire back and grinned, "Heh, this is one of our special agent tools—the 'Master Lockpick.' Not totally universal, though. It won’t open military electronic locks, but for regular padlocks, it’s no problem. Made from a special Belgian alloy, it’s super tough—strong enough to lift an elephant! This thing’s saved my life more than once."
With that, Ken Fu popped open the vent cover and he and Shawn climbed down into the metal shed. Sure enough, it was a huge space down there.
The shed was dimly lit. Shawn switched on his flashlight, and the two saw rows of iron cages—each packed with cats, dogs, monkeys, and in two especially large cages, a pair of bears.
As they moved around, the dogs in the cages started barking like crazy. The two froze, not daring to move. Soon, besides the animals’ cries, they heard voices and footsteps approaching—the sounds of people heading their way.
Shawn quickly switched off his flashlight. Ken Fu whispered, "Crap, patrol’s coming—they’ll be armed. We’d better be careful!"
Just as he finished speaking, the door to the shed swung open. Ken Fu grabbed Shawn and they dove behind a cage. No sooner had they hidden than beams of light swept over, and two Japan Self-Defense Force commandos, armed with Type 89 Assault Rifles and flashlights, began their patrol. They scanned the area nervously, muttering complaints in Japanese.
The two commandos passed right by Shawn, but didn’t spot him at first. Then their flashlights landed on Ken Fu. Before they could react, Shawn sprang forward like lightning—grabbing both commandos’ heads and smashing them together with a thunderous crack.
The commandos’ heads collided with a sound like exploding watermelons, spraying blood everywhere. Shawn’s raw power was immense—several thousand pounds of force. Their skulls couldn’t take the impact; their faces twisted grotesquely and both bodies toppled forward like logs.
Shawn quickly caught the commandos’ bodies, easing them to the ground so they wouldn’t make a noise. Ken Fu let out a breath and gave Shawn a big thumbs-up. "Damn! Instant kill on commandos! You’re seriously badass, brother! Amazing! We’d better swap into their uniforms—way easier to sneak out that way."
With that, Ken Fu and Shawn stripped the commandos and changed into their uniforms. In less than two minutes, they’d transformed into Japan Self-Defense Force commandos. Ken Fu shone his flashlight at Shawn’s shoulder patch—it showed a special emblem: lightning and a skull intertwined.
...