Somewhere near the border — 3:43 a.m.
Snow fell sideways in the howling wind, slicing across the windshield like tiny razors.
Captain Zhao gripped the wheel with white knuckles as the black SUV skidded through the icy mountain road, a second vehicle tailing just a few meters behind. The world outside was silent, but inside the car, chaos simmered.
"We've got five minutes before air surveillance picks us up,"the woman in the passenger seat muttered, her breath fogging up the glass as she scanned the GPS.
She wore a tactical suit under a blood-stained coat. Her gloved fingers clutched a steel briefcase, secured with a six-digit biometric lock. She hadn't blinked in over a minute.
"Any word from the extraction team?" Zhao asked.
"Dead. All of them."
A beat of silence.
"And Lin Xue?" he asked quietly.
The woman turned her head. Her eyes didn't show fear—only fire.
"If we don't get this to her, everything burns."
Suddenly, the radio crackled. Static. Then—
"...incoming… CODE BLACK… repeat, CODE BLACK…"
The scream of a missile tore through the air. Zhao jerked the wheel hard. Behind them, the second SUV exploded in a brilliant bloom of fire. Shockwaves rocked the car off its path. They skidded into a tree with a bone-jarring crunch.
Zhao coughed blood, trying to stay conscious. The woman was already dragging the briefcase out, limping, her earpiece flashing red.
"What are you doing?" he rasped.
"If they catch me, they'll torture me for this data. But if I bury it, she can still find it."
"You're going rogue."
"I'm surviving."
Gunfire cracked in the distance. A drone's light swept over the trees.
She ran—into the blizzard, toward a small cave marked on an old map only three people alive had access to. Her knees buckled. Her coat caught fire at the edges. Still, she ran.
Inside the cave, she knelt, carved a symbol into the wall, and slid the case into a metal compartment under the floor.
She pressed her palm to the concrete: it scanned. Verified. Locked.
Then she whispered:
"Lin Xue... Find the truth. Burn the rot. End the bloodline if you must. But live."
As footsteps neared the entrance, she took her final breath calmly.
Outside, a man in a grey military coat raised his rifle—and pulled the trigger.
Darkness.