NOVPUBChapter 125: Chapter 124 The Demon’s Tracking Technique
Chapter 125 -124 The Demon’s Tracking Technique
Simply put, after the advent of internet technology, it quickly caught the attention of many countries, including numerous intelligence agencies that thrive on information. While others were still praising its magic and convenience, MI6 worried that if this technology wasn’t in Britannia’s hands, it would create a huge gap in their intelligence competition.
At the beginning of the document, the creators of the plan even compare this technological disadvantage to the Japanese code machine that was leaked during World War II. They believed that, given time, the internet would completely replace mail, telegraph, and wired telephone communications. Even if it was invented by an ally, it couldn’t ensure that they wouldn’t commit espionage.
Thus, the Sunflower Project was proposed.
MI6 planned to cultivate a group of people with completely different identities in real life, different from those who joined halfway and from formal employees: when MI6 did not activate them, they were no different from ordinary people and would live their lives normally. Under normal circumstances, the intelligence agency would not actively summon them, because it might expose their identities. Only when these individuals felt it necessary to contact MI6, would they instantly transform from an ordinary person into an intelligence worker.
According to the plan, they would be the information era’s pure undercover agents.
Diad Flynn was one of the original proposers.
So, the question arises, since these people have no association with the intelligence agencies from a young age, how can they become MI6’s hidden force and even assure loyalty to it?
The Sunflower Project’s solution was also simple, which was to conduct distributed training by family units. Therefore, the creators did not recruit from orphans like their peers did, but instead chose insiders—veterans and senior volunteers from the intelligence agencies. Their children were also divided into two types, corresponding to grassroots intelligence and high-level intelligence, with the first type amounting to roughly two thousand six hundred people, with the rest being the second type.
Upon reading this, Chaoyang could not help but admire the imagination of these people. Veterans and spies could train their children themselves and indoctrinate them with loyalty education, truly obviating the need for MI6 to interfere. These children’s life paths would also resemble that of ordinary people… attending school, graduating, working, marrying, the only difference being that they mastered all the knowledge necessary to become an intelligence worker in their spare time and were aware of the mission they carried.
Their parents, on the other hand, lived in an era before the internet was widespread. Perhaps they wouldn’t be entered into the system until long after they changed careers, and if they didn’t publicize it themselves, few people would know a village’s carpenter or farmer was formerly a veteran.
There was also a good reason why they were divided into two classes of people.
Because it’s difficult for people at the bottom to mix into upper-class circles, they naturally can’t access high-level intelligence. Moreover, intelligence personnel can’t work blindly; they must know what kind of information the agency needs, meaning MI6 has to divulge some of their secrets to them. The benefit of grading lies precisely in this, so that not every grassroots worker knows the most classified intelligence.
It’s apparent that George Flynn joined as a successor to his father. Judging by his age, he would have already been in his thirties when the plan was implemented, so it was impossible for him to be a pure undercover agent. In addition, as a senior member of MI6, he retired very early, so early it seemed as if he had been prematurely dismissed.
Chaoyang lined up the ages of the three and then realized that Tyler’s age matched approximately with the time George Flynn retired.
If Tyler was a seed of the Sunflower Project, then it made sense that he wouldn’t appear on the list.
This was also why Chaoyang could never find any flaws in the online information about him.
To confirm this, he turned and hacked into the Britannia Central Statistical Bureau’s server again, pulling up the registered identities of Tyler’s family. The data here was public information, highly bound to identity documents, but unfortunately, it only had a name for his father: Edmok Taylor, listed as a factory owner, without photographic data.
This, in turn, ignited Chaoyang’s fighting spirit.
He located the elementary and middle schools Tyler attended, rewinding to the target’s childhood period, and began the tedious task of sifting through the vast amounts of dusty archives.
They were faded color photographs.
Messy and incomplete.
In 1990, schools didn’t have electronic archives, and smartphones and the internet were not widespread among students. The materials he was searching for were mostly from children who grew up and randomly found blurred photos from their student days, scanning them to their personal spaces or social networking sites for memory’s sake, thus allowing Chaoyang to find them.
The search took up most of the day.
It wasn’t until the wee hours of the morning that Chaoyang’s gaze finally settled on a nearly yellowed photograph.
It was a celebration scene after an elementary school soccer match, including the team from Tyler’s class. The children were running toward their parents, and because the shutter was pressed during the action, the photo was a bit out of focus and looked somewhat blurred. Chaoyang didn’t see Tyler’s face, but he recognized a familiar man. This person was dressed in a suit, standing straight, waiting like an old gentleman for his child to embrace him.
Even without comparing software, he could recognize that this man was George. Flynn.
… 𝒏𝒐𝒗𝒑𝒖𝙗.𝒄𝒐𝒎
Kels, following routine, opened the Level Four security door of the base and proceeded with the daily inspection of the machines in the room.
This was the core area of the Walker’s Cross Building, where outsiders could never enter, so the inspectors had to guard primarily against rats—this wasn’t a joke, records of rats causing damage to wiring far outnumbered those caused by humans. However, ever since infrared rat repelling devices were installed in the building’s ventilation ducts, the significance of this task had become negligible.
Of course, the inspection also included checking if the wires were loose, whether machine temperatures were normal, and if the monitors and air conditioning were functioning oddly, among other things. But Kels doubted that these machines would ever present any problems until he retired or was dismissed due to old age.
After all, they were much more durable than people.
At this moment, it was 7 PM, nearing the end of the shift. This was his last task before finishing work, so he conducted the inspection somewhat absentmindedly. After not finding anything unusual, he prepared to sign his name on the inspection form.
It was then that Kels suddenly noticed a green light flashing on the data gathering machine by the wall.
What’s going on?
He remembered, that this out-of-place device was used to verify the number of times the secret database was accessed. Every time an agent needed to view top-secret information, they had to apply to their superiors. The specific number of times an agent viewed the information would be recorded by this machine for verification. To prevent tampering, the device was not connected to the main computer but instead monitored the electronic data passing through the hard drive port.
Compared to the other computers in the server room, it was more akin to an ancient and low-tech punch card machine. Each time it detected a query access, its indicator would increment by one; it couldn’t be reset from the outside or have its value altered.
And a flashing green light meant electrical activity.
But there was not a single agent in the room right now.
Kels rubbed his eyes, thinking he had seen it wrong.
He waited a few seconds and then saw the machine flash its green light again.
Someone was accessing the building’s most securely protected mainframe? What a joke! Those machines were physically isolated; one could connect to the mainframe database only by bringing specialized equipment into this very room!
Obviously, the gathering device must be malfunctioning.
Kels turned on his radio to call a colleague in the office, “Hey Aike, check the access counter for me.”
But there was no response, only the hiss of electromagnetic static from the receiver.
“Damn, no signal again,” he cursed and decided to handle it himself.
This device was covered with an EMP shielding shell that required manually prying open and unlocking the latch before lifting the shell to see the indicator readings inside. The procedure wasn’t troublesome; it could be completed in ten seconds. He intended to jot down the number first and then go compare it with the past records.
But it was this quick glance that caused Kels to break into a sweat!
Although he did not remember the exact number, the last record began with a six and was a four-digit number, and the leading “6” had not changed for quite a while.
But now, the number he saw was 12316.
The four-digit number had turned into five digits!
