The villainous young lady is actually a scientific research genius!

Harrison did not answer.

He stared at Old Ma for a few seconds, then suddenly spoke:

"I request a private meeting with Professor Gu personally."

Your application is still under review.

"In some situations, I can only explain it to her in person."

Old Ma slowly turned to a new page.

"Please tell us what's going on. We will deliver everything that needs to be relayed to Professor Gu without missing a single word."

Harrison tensed his jaw.

His right hand finally left his cuff and pressed down on the third card on the table.

"That French journalist's ship was chartered by a news agency, and the footage it filmed in the South China Sea had nothing to do with our agricultural projects."

"You can't assume that the voyage was arranged by us just because the news agency received project promotion fees."

The pen stopped halfway through the translation.

Old Ma remained seated, his expression unchanged.

Which French journalists' ship?

Harrison's hand was still on the card.

"You've already found the payment records, why ask when you already know the answer?"

Old Ma looked at him.

"Professor Gu's question did not mention France."

"There was no mention of the journalists' ship either."

The only sound in the reception room was the ticking of the wall clock.

Two cups of coffee sat on the table, long since cooled, untouched by anyone since the start of the meeting.

Harrison looked down at the third card, then turned to glance at the translator's notes.

His gaze lingered on the line of text that had just been written for two seconds.

Old Ma closed the folder.

"That's all for today. We will pass on your answers to Professor Gu as they are."

"etc."

Harrison jumped up.

"I want to reiterate that the ship I just mentioned is merely speculation based on publicly available news, and I myself am not aware of the specific leasing arrangements."

Old Ma looked up at him.

"The ship's French background has never been made public."

Harrison paused for a moment.

"Some people within the newspaper have mentioned it."

Which newspaper?

"Who is it?"

"When?"

Three questions, one after another.

Harrison opened his mouth, but did not answer immediately.

A few seconds later, he said in a deep voice:

"I need to consult a legal advisor before answering these questions."

Old Ma nodded, his tone still polite.

"Of course, that's your right."

He put away the three question cards and left the meeting room with the translator.

The door closed behind them.

Three minutes later, a streetlight in the listening room on the second floor of the hotel turned on.

Harrison made the first call.

The call was made to the Beijing liaison office of an overseas news agency.

The call lasted less than half a minute before the other party transferred the line to another number.

The recorder pressed down on the earpiece and wrote down the dialing time, original line, and transfer number on a piece of paper.

Immediately afterwards, the second street light came on.

This time, Harrison targeted overseas.

International long-distance calls require manual transfer.

While waiting, he urged the operator several times, his tone becoming more urgent with each urging.

He did not dial the agency's usual number.

But the recipient he reported was already lying in the old files of the security department.

It was a trading company registered in the capital of a neighboring country.

The company has no agricultural implements, no grain warehouses, and no stable source of goods can be found.

However, in the past six months, it has received six payments from overseas agricultural aid programs.

The two sums of money were transferred to overseas news agencies within three days of being received.

The other three sums were split into several private accounts, changed hands several times, and finally ended up in a transport company in the border region.

The tire model, width, and tread pattern of a vehicle registered with the transport company are consistent with the tire tracks found at the ambush site.

The final payment was transferred to a middleman.

This man had purchased radios for border armed groups two years ago.

Those materials were originally scattered among bank records, border inspection reports, and old case files, lacking the final connection between them.

Harrison's two phone calls connected the dots perfectly.

In the monitoring room, the streetlights turned on one after another.

The dialed number, the person transferred, and the call duration were all recorded on a log sheet and then sent to the verification team next door.

The old files were retrieved again.

Remittance records, vehicle registrations, and border site reports were also placed on the same table and cross-checked one by one.

At 6 p.m., the first fund flow chart was sent back to the operations room.

Qian Qishen spread out several remittance records, his finger following the arrows on the chart downwards.

"The aid agency first allocates the money to the trading company."

"The trading company then splits the funds and transfers them to news agencies, transportation companies, and intermediaries."

He clicked on each of the three nodes.

"Based on existing accounts and communication records, the journalist ship was responsible for filming and creating momentum, the transport company was responsible for delivering the goods, and the middleman was responsible for connecting with the border armed forces."

"The division of labor is different, but the accounts are all handled through the same channels."

Qin Beihai stared at the financial chart.

Economic blockade, anonymous smear campaign, South China Sea probing, border ambush.

Several seemingly unrelated matters, after going around in circles, all ended up at the same financial point.

He let out a breath.

"After all that fuss, everyone was putting on their own show on stage, but behind the scenes they were all spending money from the same purse."

Gu Zhaozhao picked up the meeting minutes and underlined the sentence "The French journalists' ship was chartered by a news agency".

"He was in a hurry to see me today, not to discuss aid, nor to give me money."

She put down her pen and touched the line of words with her fingertip.

"He's here to probe the situation."

"He wanted to see for himself whether we had actually touched the money bag."

Qian Qishen glanced at the communication records that had just been delivered.

"They didn't find out the bottom line, but they did help us align the accounts."

Jiang Yi closed the financial file.

"Now, he has the answer."

"It's time to go."

……

That evening, the foreign affairs department officially notified Harrison:

His request for a meeting was denied.

Given that his organization has been included in the border incident investigation, he must leave the country within 48 hours and submit relevant accounting information as required.

Harrison did not argue.

After returning to his hotel room, he closed the door behind him and sat alone at the table for more than ten minutes.

The departure control personnel remained in the corridor and did not enter the room.

At one o'clock in the morning, the sound of a suitcase being opened and closed finally came from the room.

Harrison began packing his things.

Clothes, documents, and personal belongings were stuffed into his suitcase one by one. He received two phone calls along the way, both of which were very short.

After hanging up the second time, he stood in front of the table for a long time.

Before leaving, he picked up a note with only one line of text, tore it into more than a dozen pieces, and threw it into the wastebasket.

He checked out of the room before the 48-hour deadline had passed.

After he left the hotel, the room was immediately sealed and inspected according to the investigation procedures.

The shredded paper in the wastebasket was retrieved intact.

The assembly work continued until dawn.

The staff, wearing gloves, used tweezers to pick up the fragments and compare them one by one to the torn edges.

The last two pieces of paper were put back in place, and the English text on the paper was reconnected into a single line.

After the recorder finished translating, he immediately sent the content to the Chang Kong base.

—In August, the second plan was implemented at the awards ceremony.

Qin Beihai read the sentence twice.

"Award ceremony..."

He looked up at the schedule on the wall.

"Does this refer to the International Congress of Mathematicians?"

"The timing matches up," Jiang Yi said, "but we haven't found out what the second option is yet."

Gu Zhaozhao placed a copy of the note next to her August schedule.

Her gaze swept over the entry date, the meeting agenda, and the awards ceremony arrangements.

Kidnapping.

To create public opinion that they are defecting.

Or exert political pressure openly at the awards ceremony.

There are three possibilities, any one of which could turn the entire conference into a trap.

The only clue was a single sentence.

No one should presume to choose the answer for the enemy before obtaining more evidence.

Gu Zhaozhao picked up her pen and wrote four characters in the August column.

—Risk point.

The moment the last stroke was made, the door to the operations room was pushed open.

The latest record of incoming calls from overseas was placed on the table.

Harrison has left the country.

However, the financial line connecting maritime probing, border ambushes, and propaganda warfare was left intact in China's hands.

The old situation has just been torn open.

At the International Congress of Mathematicians in August, there was also a "second plan" prepared specifically for Gu Zhaozhao.