Angie followed the "safe route" she knew away from Shi Rang's house, burying her head as she plunged into a carefully selected alleyway.
There were no obstacles in this kind of alleyway, and at this hour, people often passed through in groups. Even after dark, criminals rarely chose such places to "work" — the police in Yunling City were still sowhat useful. She navigated through a few alleyways to the adjacent block, her silhouette occasionally flashing into the halos of streetlamps at the alley entrances. In the brief intervals between these pools of light, she tore off her mask, swiftly flipped her hat inside out, and tied her jacket around her waist, completing her disguise.
She shouldn't have worn flat shoes out today; the rock-hard soles were rubbing her toes raw.
But there was no helping it. To avoid detection by the Alliance's patrol agents, she had waited painstakingly for today's guard rotation. The mont she got off work, she rushed over to inform Shi Rang, leaving her no ti to change her shoes.
She stepped onto the main street and blended into the flowing crowd for a while before her footsteps suddenly halted.
The car that was supposed to be waiting for her by the roadside was gone.
Angie glanced around. Suddenly, a paper cup bumped against her shoulder. A tall man stood just behind her to the side, holding a coffee paper cup in each hand and a kraft paper bag tucked under his arm.
"We agreed on seven o'clock sharp, and you are three minutes late. Are agents from the Heart Language Departnt always like this?"
"My apologies."
"Have you eaten dinner yet?"
"Not yet."
"I bought two tacos; see if they suit your taste." The agent from the Spirit Vision Departnt shoved a coffee into her hand and pointed toward a car parked not far away. His Second District accent in World Language was quite pronounced, reminding her of Ying Shang. "We have to work overti today, so look alive."
Angie refrained from ntioning that she had actually known he was waiting here twenty minutes ago. She had been in such a hurry to check on Shi Rang's situation that making an extra phone call caused her to be late.
It was best to keep such rule-breaking behavior buried in her heart.
This agent, whose na she still didn't know, was her partner for tonight's operation.
He was from the intelligence-gathering Spirit Vision Departnt. Evidently, he was the type who couldn't keep the detailed branches of the various departnts and Orders within the Alliance straight. She didn't bother correcting him. While she was indeed a Special Commissioner for the diplomatic Heart Language Departnt, she primarily handled clerical work. She was not field personnel, let alone a Field Agent.
The two of them quickly slid into the car and began their mission.
Angie hadn't had ti to eat yet. She opened the kraft paper bag, and the strange sll of the car's leather seats was instantly masked by the fragrant aroma of delicious food. The taco sat inside a rigid cardboard sleeve. As she pulled it out, the rising steam fogged up her eyeglass lenses. She blew on it twice before taking a fierce bite. The lettuce crunched loudly, while hot sauce and chicken filling burst with juices between her teeth. The intense heat shot straight up her nerves to the crown of her head.
She knew her face had flushed red from the spice. Taking advantage of a brief mont of smoothness after the car rolled over a speed bump, she gulped down a large mouthful of coffee to wash it all down.
After her, the agent reached over and took the remaining taco.
Accompanied by a distinct crunch from the driver's seat, the entire car gave a slight shudder from side to side, followed by a low, pained groan from the sheer spiciness beside her.
Angie licked the sauce off her lips and flipped over the bag resting between the driver and passenger seats, morizing the shop's na and logo. She would definitely be eating there again.
Words couldn't describe how wonderful it felt to finally have a hot al after being busy for most of the day.
She was starting to like this new partner of hers.
As a newcor who had joined the Alliance just over two years ago, it was impossible for Angie to take full charge of any given operation. However, as stated in the reasoning when the Alliance initially approved her resu, they urgently needed a native-born Tenth District citizen to assist the agents arriving in the area, so they were willing to make an exception for her.
With a re two years of seniority, she was granted access to a database usually reserved for a Regional Head, which provided her with a great deal of convenience.
Unfortunately, she still hadn't found any trace of Fan Yingshang's whereabouts.
She wasn't worried, though. As long as the Alliance's influence in the Tenth District continued to grow, she would sooner or later climb her way into the leadership circle. When that ti ca, she would definitely be able to find her best friend.
The Pan-Continent Alliance sounded omnipotent, but it could not function without the full support of the official authorities in each major district. Whether it involved direct financial subsidies, allocating land for the Alliance's military factories, or permitting the recruitnt and stationing of troops to establish local offices, a strong governnt was necessary to handle the administrative hurdles. This remained true even though the Alliance's power had grown to beco one of the most formidable in the world.
Every major district required forces skilled in handling supernatural phenona to deal with sudden ergencies. They also needed soone in the public eye to keep the Managent Authority in check and suppress the expansion of such a maverick organization.
The resources commanded by the Managent Authority were terrifyingly vast. The various districts revered it, yet simultaneously harbored a desperate wish for its imdiate dissolution so they could carve up its tantalizing internal assets. As far as Angie knew, within the Alliance alone, there were thousands of people who did no actual practical work at all. Instead, they spent their days sitting in etings, discussing "how to bankrupt the Managent Authority."
The official authorities of the major districts hated the Managent Authority, and the Alliance hated it too. The two sides hit it off instantly.
It was a mutually beneficial relationship forged in the face of a common enemy.
But this also ant that whenever a district's official governnt lacked control over its own territory, the Alliance would struggle to make any headway.
The Tenth District was a pri example. The deteriorating public safety had allowed criminal organizations to infiltrate local official institutions, drastically reducing their enforcent capabilities. This corruption had even spread to the inner workings of the Alliance. The Central Order had been forced to withdraw a large portion of its local personnel, to the point where, for a ti, there were no functioning local departnts whatsoever.
It was only in recent years that the Alliance had gradually resud operations in the Tenth District, and Angie had seized this very opportunity to slip in.
She heard that security in the Ninth District had recently begun to deteriorate as well. Her colleagues were all discussing how the Ninth District might soon follow in the footsteps of the Eleventh District and the Twelfth District, becoming yet another blind spot for the Alliance...
"Sss... haa... whew, there are so many cars on the road..." The agent, driving with one hand, had finished his dinner with the speed of a soldier wolfing down field rations. He smoothly used his free hand to retrieve a pair of polarized glasses and press them onto the bridge of his nose, accelerating the vehicle. "My habit is to review the mission details before taking action. Care to do the honors?"
Angie tried hard not to look at his slightly swollen lips and glistening eyes. Not everyone could handle the local chili peppers.
"Is it spicy?"
"Not spicy at all! Not even a little bit!"
"Alright, then I'll handle the mission briefing. There is an unidentified hostile organization operating locally, and they have managed to instigate the defection of Director Bjorn, a Deputy Supervisor of the Managent Authority. After his supervisor's temporary departure, this man gained temporary Class A Clearance, allowing him to access many vital records and co into contact with Threat Entities. According to 'reliable' intel, Bjorn received cross-border assistance from this organization after fleeing. Ten days ago, he shook off the Managent Authority in the Yunling New District, and there is a high probability that he is still hiding sowhere in Yunling City."
"As a local, what's your take on this?"
"The so-called 'reliable' intel isn't reliable in the slightest. If I were a hostile organization, why would I risk being hunted by both sides by staying here, instead of swiftly transferring the VIP to the bottom two districts?" Angie finished her taco and stuffed the leftover cardboard sleeve back into the kraft paper bag. "Lately, the going rate for crossing the border from the coastline is six thousand per person."
"...It's that cheap?"
"That's the price to get out. To get in costs several tis more."
"No wonder they sent you to help . You know the ropes far too well. Do you think we'll be making a wasted trip?"
"No, we don't need to look for the defector. The major gangs in the Tenth District all know a thing or two about the supernatural world. It's impossible to claim that no one has infiltrated their ranks to seize the opportunity to collect Threat Entities and disrupt public order. Just a while ago, 'Blue Signal' was implicated in an execution operation involving a Threat Entity. I know of several organizations that have landed on the Eradication List, but they don't possess the capability to poach soone directly from the Managent Authority. We are facing an unknown opponent."
She couldn't help but think to herself, 'Shi Rang actually managed to make it back safe and sound after getting tangled up in that incident in Pingyuan City. He didn't even have to take any mory-wiping dication. Talk about being lucky.'
'He had better actually stay ho like a good boy after finishing his dinner tonight.'
A sharp gleam flashed in the agent's eyes. "Now that you ntion it, I think I have a suspect in mind."
"Who is it?"
Angie knew that the biggest challenge right now was confirming the enemy's identity.
She was well-versed in the Alliance's history. After the joint operation between the Alliance and the Managent Authority seventy years ago, those powerful hostile organizations had either been physically eradicated or assimilated.
In the nearly one century since the Great Purge ended, countless new hostile organizations had sprung up. These groups, which seed as endlessly inextinguishable as Anomalies themselves, maintained very low profiles. A significant number of them had already grown large enough to be placed on the Eradication List. Due to her limited clearance level, she wasn't particularly knowledgeable about these specific enemies.
The agent replied, "I don't want to interfere with your judgnt. I'll tell you once I've confird it. I doubt it'll take long. Including us, there are five task forces out there. Surely one of us will stumble upon sothing."
"I hope so."
At the security booth of the Water Company, the agent flashed his credentials to the guard and drove into the pitch-black courtyard. The entire building was shrouded in darkness, though a few lights would soon turn on thanks to their arrival.
"Grab your coffee. We're pulling an all-nighter."
Angie gave a casual hum of agreent.
Rooting out a hostile organization with an unknown background, unknown composition, and unknown location sounded like finding a needle in a haystack. Compared to aimlessly conducting investigative interviews, the most effective approach was actually the most tedious one: conducting on-the-ground field visits, as well as checking their water and electricity usage.
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