The morning after the mysterious coolie vanished, a storm descended without warning.
On the second floor of Gu Ji Zhai, Evelyn's specially modified high-power shortwave telegraph machine had fallen into a state of near-frenzied reception for the past half hour, the tal printing needle dancing frantically across the paper tape, emitting a rapid, urgent series of "click-clack" sounds.
Lin Jie stood before the table, holding a cup of strong tea in his hand, his bloodshot eyes fixed intently on the erging paper tape.
Most of the characters printed on the tape were illogical, garbled combinations—a characteristic manifestation of I.A.R.C.'s high-level "double encryption" thod when the transmission link was unstable. This ant the sender was forcing a transoceanic communication under conditions of extre haste, or even interference.
"Where is the signal source?" Lin Jie asked in a low voice.
"London."
Evelyn's fingers made rapid, fine adjustnts to the tuning knob, trying to filter out a clear signal. "But this violates protocol. According to the Association's communication rules, intercontinental encrypted telegrams must be relayed through the Hers Array at the Geneva Headquarters. This signal is a 'direct connection' that forced its way in."
"Direct connection?" Julian adjusted his glasses, his expression turning grave. "That ans the sender bypassed Headquarters' monitoring. That's a serious violation."
"Unless Headquarters' monitoring itself has beco an obstacle that must be bypassed," Lin Jie said coldly.
Finally.
With the printing needle's last heavy strike on the paper tape, the maddening noise ceased abruptly.
Evelyn swiftly tore off the paper tape, spread it flat on the table, and picked up the codebook to begin manual decryption.
Her movents were fast, but as each word was translated, her face grew increasingly pale.
A few minutes later.
She looked up and pushed the translation paper, containing only a single short line of text, in front of Lin Jie and Julian.
The content was extrely concise, devoid of any polite salutations or signatures, carrying only a sense of urgency that could be felt even through the paper.
"Henderson in trouble. Wind changed. Run."
It was a cryptic warning without beginning or end.
But Lin Jie recognized the tone at a glance.
Within the entire I.A.R.C. London Branch, Lin Jie knew only a handful of hunters. And among those few, only one person would use such a direct thod to express the gravest concern.
Marcus.
The burly Londoner who had fought alongside him in the Crooked House.
"Marcus is not the type to joke about sothing like this," Julian said, his voice tense as he looked at the line. "He's an old-school hunter who follows the rules extrely strictly. For him to risk a court-martial by bypassing Headquarters to send such a cryptic warning ans things have deteriorated to a point where he couldn't elaborate in the telegram."
"The wind changed..." Lin Jie repeated the phrase.
He walked to the window, peering through the slats of the blinds at the still-calm street outside.
Everything looked as normal as ever.
The words of the Avalon ssenger from last night echoed once more in his mind.
"The Association's nose is sharp... That hive you stirred up in Borneo has already begun to buzz."
"Keep monitoring."
Lin Jie turned and spoke to Evelyn.
"Open all frequency bands, don't neglect even the noisy public channels. We need more information to piece together the full picture of this 'storm'."
However, before Evelyn could put her headphones back on, the telegraph machine suddenly began its frantic dance again.
This ti, the incoming signal was no longer a sneaky, encrypted frequency.
It was a plaintext telegram, sent via the highest-priority comrcial urgent telegraph line from across the ocean.
Point of Origin: United States, New York.
Sender: Ethan Redgrave.
If Marcus's warning carried a hint of veiled implication, then this telegram from Ethan seed to tear away all pretense.
Evelyn didn't even need to consult the codebook, because it was printed in the most straightforward English words.
"My accounts are locked! Damned Swiss bastards froze the Redgrave family's liquid asset interface within the Association!"
Lin Jie stared at the bold exclamation marks dotting the paper tape, his brow tightly furrowed.
Funds frozen.
For a hunter team engaged in global operations, this was undoubtedly a blow more fatal than encountering a high-level UMA.
It ant all their expenses in Southeast Asia—supply procurent, intelligence purchases, even the ship tickets needed for evacuation—had in an instant beco worthless IOUs.
"This is impossible," Julian shook his head, his voice filled with shock. "The Redgrave family is one of the Association's biggest sponsors, a major financial backer for European Affairs. Freezing their accounts is tantamount to declaring war on the ancient British aristocracy. How could those shrewd bureaucrats in Geneva make such a suicidal move?"
"Unless..."
Lin Jie's gaze grew profound.
"Unless the Geneva of now is no longer under the control of those bureaucrats."
"Unless a will more powerful, more decisive, and more ruthless than the Redgrave family has taken over that white castle by Lake Léman."
He walked to the world map hanging on the wall.
His finger traced an invisible line connecting four points: London, Geneva, New York, and Singapore.
Marcus's warning.
Ethan's anger.
Avalon's prophecy.
And the Round Table insignia they had discovered in Borneo.
"Julian," Lin Jie suddenly asked, "You ntioned before that factional struggles have long existed within I.A.R.C. Besides the Containnt Faction and the suppressed Coexistence Faction, who is the largest power?"
"The Interventionist Faction, also known as the Hawks."
Julian answered without hesitation. As a senior scholar within the Association, he was intimately familiar with this political ecosystem.
"Their stronghold is the Munich Branch, with those hardline German hunters at its core. They advocate for the indiscriminate containnt or destruction of all non-human intelligent beings. They are typical anthropocentrists."
"But despite their strength, they have always been restrained by the Council," Julian added. "Because the Council values the comrcial and research potential of UMAs more and doesn't want the Hawks to kill off all the specins."
"Restrained?"
Lin Jie let out a cold laugh, though the smile held more confusion and wariness about the sudden shift in the situation.
"That doesn't make sense. We just helped the Association remove a cancer in Borneo. By all logic, we should be heroes, not criminals."
He turned around, his fingers unconsciously tapping on the world map.
"If they wanted to steal credit, they could simply send people to take over. Unless..."
"Unless the problem isn't what we did, but what we represent."
Julian suddenly interrupted Lin Jie's train of thought, the scholar's face turning grim.
"Lin, you may not understand the power structure of the Association's upper echelons."
Julian walked to the table and picked up the garbled paper tape.
"For a long ti, Sir Henderson, as a moderate representative of the Containnt Faction, maintained a balance among the various parties in Europe, giving survival space to independent teams like ours."
"But now, that balancing point has collapsed."
"Henderson's downfall is no accident. This is likely a long-planned coup. The Hawks have clearly gained the upper hand and have struck so political deal with the radicals within the Containnt Faction."
"In such monts of power realignnt, purges are inevitable."
"They don't need coexistence, nor do they need uncontrollable, independent heroes. In the new order, teams like ours—operating outside the system, possessing power yet not submitting to absolute command—are the biggest destabilizing factors."
Julian's voice carried a deep chill.
"History is always eerily similar. To unify the will, the first thing those in power do is eliminate all dissenting voices."
"And we are one of those voices."
Listening to Julian's analysis, Lin Jie's brow furrowed tighter.
This indeed fit the logic of internal power struggles.
It wasn't just because of what they had done, but because their very existence was a threat that had to be erased for the erging iron-fisted new order.
"Whatever the reason."
Lin Jie took a deep breath, temporarily suppressing the chaotic thoughts.
"The fact is, the machine has already turned its guns on us."
Just as this deduction plunged the room's atmosphere to a freezing point, a clamor of footsteps suddenly sounded from downstairs.
It was the crisp sound of Su Sanniang's hard-soled embroidered shoes on the wooden stairs.
This Hongn Red Pole usually walked with deliberate slowness, carrying the composure of a seasoned leader of the underworld, but today her footsteps were unusually hurried and heavy.
*Thud.*
The door was pushed open.
Su Sanniang held in her hand a red letter, its edges slightly charred, having just been rescued from a brazier.
It was the "Red Paper Fan" used exclusively within Hongn to convey the highest level of urgent intelligence.
"Trouble."
Su Sanniang slapped the letter directly onto the table.
"News my inside man in the Governor's Mansion risked his life to deliver. Just half an hour ago, a special urgent arrest warrant from the Geneva governnt was delivered directly via diplomatic channels to the desk of the Police Commissioner of the Straits Settlents."
"Arrest warrant?" Evelyn gasped. "For whom?"
Su Sanniang glanced at her, then her gaze settled on Lin Jie.
"All of you."
She pointed at the list hastily transcribed with a brush on the paper.
"Under three first-degree charges—'serious disciplinary violation,' 'collusion with a cult,' and 'endangering human safety'—a full-team arrest warrant has been issued for the special operations squad led by Lin Jie."
"The directive level is... Red."
Julian drew a sharp, cold breath.
As an insider, he knew all too well what a "Red Directive" ant.
It ant "extrely dangerous, no trial required, eliminate on sight."
It ant they had gone overnight from being the Association's heroes, saviors of the world, to becoming stains and criminals that must be erased.
"And that's not even the worst of it," Su Sanniang's face was frighteningly dark. "My inside man says the agency issuing this directive wasn't the regular Operations Departnt, but one called the 'Internal Investigation Division.'"
"The signature on that agency's docunt is... Henry Ackerman."
Hearing that na, Julian's body trembled violently, as if he had heard sothing indescribably terrifying.
"Ackerman..." he murmured, his face pale. "That's the legendary hunter from the Munich Branch, the executioner known as 'the Purger.' He retired twenty years ago. How could he..."
"He's co back."
Lin Jie calmly finished the thought.
"Not just him. Probably all those old monsters who were shelved away have been awakened."
Lin Jie walked back to the table, placing together the garbled paper tape from London, the angry telegram from New York, and this red arrest warrant from the Governor's Mansion.
This was the full picture of the "storm."
"We're surrounded."
Evelyn looked out the window, her voice trembling slightly.
Though the outside still looked calm, from the mont that arrest warrant was issued, the whole of Singapore had beco their prison.
Every street, every dock, even every informant willing to sell their soul for a bounty, had beco a potential enemy.
"Su Sanniang."
Lin Jie turned to look at the Hongn leader standing in the doorway.
"This has nothing to do with the funeral parlor. Your na isn't on the warrant."
"We'll leave now. We won't drag you into this."
Upon hearing this, Su Sanniang's slender, phoenix-like eyes narrowed sharply. She glared fiercely at Lin Jie, as if looking at a foolish boy who didn't know any better.
"Bullshit!"
She cursed.
"What kind of person do you take for? A fence-sitter?"
"Since you've drunk my tea, worn the clothes I made, saved my people, then you are a brother of my Hongn."
"In this Chinatown territory, even if the King of Heaven himself ca, he wouldn't have the right to arrest anyone from my turf!"
She slamd her palm on the table with a loud *thump*, the sturdy rosewood surface groaning.
"Besides, how dare those foreigners slander you for colluding with a cult?"
"I saw with my own eyes how you wiped out those Black Lotus scum!"
"This is a fra-up! A setup! An insult to the principles of our underworld!"
Su Sanniang's aura at this mont was terrifyingly formidable, the unique ferocity and pride of a woman who had lived half a lifeti on the edge of a blade.
"Listen, kid."
She walked up to Lin Jie and reached out to straighten the sowhat ssy collar of his trench coat.
"As long as you're still inside this funeral parlor, I can guarantee your safety."
"My n have already sealed off the three surrounding streets. If those foreigners want to co in, they'll have to step over the bodies of my Hongn brothers first."
"But..."
Su Sanniang's tone softened, a flicker of worry appearing in her eyes.
"I can only hold off the police on the surface."
"If hunters co..."
"I might not be able to stop them."
Lin Jie nodded.
He knew Su Sanniang was telling the truth.
The funeral parlor's defenses might be an impenetrable fortress against ordinary people, but in the face of hunters wielding Grotesque Armants, they were nothing but fragile tissue paper.
Moreover, since the other side had already invoked a "Red Directive," it ant they would not rely solely on secular forces.
"We can't stay here."
Lin Jie made the decision.
"Staying here will only turn the funeral parlor into a battlefield and drag you into a deadly vortex."
"And William is still in his deep sleep. He can't withstand the disturbance."
He glanced toward the direction of the back hall, where the old soldier was undergoing his final recovery on the Cold Jade Bed.
"We need ti, and we need a battlefield that suits us, not one where we're passively taking hits."
Lin Jie walked back to the map, his eyes quickly scanning Singapore's complex coastline.
Finally, his finger stopped at a long-abandoned smuggling dock on the edge of the Johor Strait.
It was far from the city center, with complex terrain, and directly connected to the sea.
It was also the current mooring location of the *ssenger*.
Even though Ethan's funds were frozen, this privately-owned ard freighter remained loyal, carrying out its final orders.
As long as they could board that ship, they still had a sliver of hope.
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