Istanbul, Old Town, National Street.
Chris Chen stretched languidly in front of his computer, his eyes fixed on the conversation with Ferrari in the private chat room of the Dark Web, always lingering on that name—Song Heping.
The conversation had already ended, and now all he needed to do was close the window of their private chat, and the data would be erased.
After stretching, Chen moved the mouse and closed the window.
His gaze shifted to another laptop on the desk.
Next to this computer was a large hardware firewall, linked with a black box, Chen's encryption device.
Chen was always very careful.
After all, he had been in this line of work for many years and had long since learned how to stay alive—those in his profession who weren't careful had died.
This meeting was one of the few decisions he had made over the years.
He said this because of the information displayed on the laptop next to him.
He checked and found something wrong with Song Heping's information.
Although he could find that the other party was a retired soldier and even show where he had worked after leaving the military, there were some gaps in his records in Illiguo.
What interested Chen most was the record of Song Heping's military service—it was blank, showing only that he had served for several years at a certain breeding base.
This sparked Chen's interest.
He was of Chinese descent.
He said he was of Chinese descent because he had many nationalities.
Indeed, he had at least seven passports, from Africa to Europe to America, and they were all under real identities.
Which passport to use depended on his needs.
Normally, trading with clients didn't necessitate a face-to-face meeting.
Everything could be negotiated over the network and then finalized with a bank transfer.
But this time was different.
He felt there was something about this Song Heping that greatly interested him.
He rebooted the main computer and used the Tor router to re-enter the Dark Web.
The previous IP and visit path had been completely erased with this reboot, and now his IP was no longer in Europe as previously displayed, but had, after several jumps, arrived in America.
He opened a hidden software, and a login box popped up.
After typing his ID and password, a dialogue box appeared.
This was an encrypted chat room.
Then, Chen picked up his phone and sent an encrypted message.
This message was just a string of jumbled numbers and English codes.
Of course, the recipient would decrypt it.
Soon, the dialog box showed that someone called "Warhead" had entered the chat room.
"What do you need from me?"
"I need you to look up someone's information."
"Who is so important? Is he trying to kill you?"
"No, it's a client."
"A client? Why on earth are you digging into a client's identity? Is he a hostile person in our database?"
"No, I'm just curious. He has a record that's too vague, but I can't find anything on it."
"What record?" Warhead was very curious.
"Service record."
"Then send his name and the related information over, and I'll look into it."
"Wait."
Chen on this side sent over the basic information of Song Heping.
"Give me some time, and I'll get back to you."
Warhead said this and went offline.
Chris Chen stood up, walked to the coffee machine, made himself a cup of coffee, and then walked onto the balcony. He sat down in a chair, watching the bustling crowd on the old streets outside.
Istanbul is a very unique place.
Located precisely at the junction of Europe and Asia, the city is split in two, with one part geographically in Europe and the other in Asia.
Because of its special location, the culture and traditions here clearly retain a unique charm from the fusion of Eastern and Western civilizations.
And because of its unique location, it is a paradise for spies.
Chris never considered himself a spy.
But in fact, he was doing exactly what spies do.
Intelligence and money laundering were his areas of expertise.
He was familiar with the forces of the underworld, and he knew the organizations in the secretive world, his mind filled with many people's secrets.
So, there were quite a few who wanted him dead.
But there were also many who dreaded him.
Because anyone who dared to harm him, he would use some "favors" he held in his hands to make those who wanted him harmed disappear.
Ding—
A notification sound echoed in the room.
He quickly finished the rest of his coffee and hurried back to his room, resuming his seat at the desk.
Sure enough, there was a new response in the chat room.
"This kid seems quite influential."
The response from "Warhead" was full of surprise.
"Is he from the A-grade troops?"
A is a top-secret level.
"Well, sort of. His situation is quite special, participated in the 203 selection, top three, but then suddenly his family had troubles, and he strongly requested to be discharged."
"Discharged? Could they let someone from the top three go just like that?"
"That I don't know, my clearance only goes so far, you also know 203 is itself a sealed can, unless it's absolutely necessary, I could apply."
"Forget it, I just wanted to know." Chris Chen stroked the stubble on his chin and then typed another sentence: "I've already arranged to meet him in person, to test his foundation directly."
"Alright, but don't play it too big, the person might have only participated in the selection, but those who come out from there are no saints, and if he thinks you are a threat, he might actually kill you."
"Understood." Although Chen felt a chill run down his spine, he still retorted firmly: "I am not a vegetarian either."
"Goodbye, take care."
"Goodbye."
The two ended their conversation, indicated by "Warhead" exiting the chat room.
...
"Are you really sure you want to go in person?"
Ferrari, who was driving Song Heping to the airport, couldn't help but remind his boss.
"I thought about it all night yesterday, and it does seem true that people like Chen don't meet their clients, I'm worried about whether there could be a trap if he wants to meet."
"So far, the only ones wanting me dead are the CIA's Illiguo branch." Song Heping countered: "Do you think Chen is with the CIA?"
"Probably not…"
Ferrari said: "But I can't be sure, after all, you know the relations among these intelligence brokers are very complicated, and the people they deal with are no saints. Moreover, it's quite abnormal, someone at Chen's level has been in the business for a long time, involved in many incidents, people wanting him dead could line up from the Green Zone to the airport, they normally wouldn't show up in person unless it's something special…"
"Maybe he's run into some trouble." Song Heping joked: "That might be good, I could repay him a favor."
He paused and then added: "What I'm most worried about now is entering the country of Turkistan, last time we eliminated a squad of 'Watcher' there, I don't know if any clues were left regarding us in Turkistan."
"I have been keeping an eye on this, it should be fine." Ferrari said: "Even the CIA here is clueless, they think it was the Persians, no one suspects us."
"There's one issue, I entered there, but there's no record of me leaving." Song Heping took out the passport Avanti had arranged for him and flipped through the stamps, commenting: "There's no exit stamp."
"That's a minor issue." Ferrari reassured: "The authorities in Turkistan aren't so strict, just prepare a small bribe, the officer, seeing you are from China, might extort you, but isn't that a good thing?"
Song Heping recalled being interrogated due to his accent upon entry last time, thinking maybe it really was because they wanted a bribe.
Perhaps if he had offered a bribe then, the officer wouldn't have called him into the office for a thorough search.
"Are you sure this will work?" He was still a bit worried.
"How could it not work? I've encountered this kind of issue more than once, many countries have missing stamps upon entry or exit, it's not a rare exception." Ferrari smiled: "If he fusses at that time, just hand over two hundred US dollars, claiming you are here for tourism, see if he takes it."
Hearing this, Song Heping chuckled: "Sometimes I really hate this kind of corruption, but other times, I quite like it."