vstars Chapter 277
Chapter 277
A dead silence filled the conference room.Everyone's eyes shifted from the screen to Cui Xiao, because every detail on this itinerary matched Cui Xiao's daily habits perfectly.
Cui Xiao spoke slowly, "I'm being targeted."
The two guards beside him quickly said, "Chief Engineer Cui, please follow us to evacuate immediately."
"To know my daily habits like the back of their hand means the enemy has been lurking for a long time." Cui Xiao's voice was cold. "I suspect..."
He only said half of what was on his mind.
But everyone present was smart. They understood immediately: there was a traitor in the base.
Moreover, this person was highly likely someone deeply trusted by Cui Xiao.
In other words, under these circumstances, no matter where he was transferred, his personal safety could not be guaranteed.
"Using Go as a secret code, it's obvious they are those bastards from the Sakura Country!" an engineer cursed angrily. "They can't compete fairly, so they resort to these dirty assassination tactics!"
"Those scumbags have never had good intentions!" another person said through gritted teeth. "They failed to steal our high-speed rail technology back then, and now they actually come to assassinate Chief Engineer Cui in a vain attempt to destroy our country's aerospace industry!"
"Everyone, calm down," Cui Xiao said. "Contact the military immediately to secretly send more personnel. At the same time, conduct an internal investigation. I will go about my daily routine as usual. Only by luring the snake out of its hole can we catch the turtle in the jar."
Everyone present grew extremely anxious.
Chief Engineer Cui was the soul and leading figure of Base Four. If anything happened to Chief Engineer Cui, Base Four would effectively be destroyed...
However, before anyone could react.
Suddenly, a sharp alarm sounded from outside the building.
Rong Yu's expression changed. "The secret report was leaked. They've decided to strike directly."
"Quick, cover Chief Engineer Cui's evacuation!"
But it was too late.
The enemy was too familiar with the base. It was exactly shift change. Taking advantage of the three-minute window during the soldiers' handover, the group directly threw explosives. Stun grenades exploded loudly outside the multi-layered doors, and the blinding white light and high-decibel noise crashed into them like a physical force.
Rong Yu's vision went completely white, leaving only a sharp ringing in her ears, but relying on muscle memory, she tackled Cui Xiao to the ground.
Bang!
A bullet grazed the ends of her hair and embedded itself into the wall.
The enemy's target was Cui Xiao.
Cui Xiao was no ordinary engineer.
When he was exceptionally recruited into the satellite launch center at the age of eighteen, he was already a legend in the Chinese Academy of Sciences' youth class. In an era when computers were still a rarity, he manually calculated and derived the rocket's fuel ratio formula, solving the combustion oscillation problem that had plagued the team for half a year.
Nearly forty years had passed. The genius youth of the past now carried three gleaming aerospace merit medals on his shoulders. He was a national treasure.
And now, this national treasure had been tackled to the ground by her, his glasses shattered.
Cui Xiao was severely nearsighted. Without his glasses, he was virtually blind. He spoke very quickly, "I still have three unreleased design blueprints in my drawer. Even if I..."
Rong Yu pushed him toward the corridor. "I'll hold them off here. Go!"
She snatched up a steel chair frame by her feet and hurled it with all her might at the two charging enemies.
One enemy's head was busted open on the spot.
The other man pressed the gun in his hand against Rong Yu's chest.
Rat-tat-tat-tat!
A burst of bullets suddenly swept in from behind. The armed enemy in front of Rong Yu fell as if struck by lightning, and the other enemies in the conference room also collapsed one after another.
Rong Yu looked up and saw seven or eight figures in Chinese military uniforms standing at the doorway, where the smoke had yet to clear.
The leading young officer was none other than Sheng Yun. He shouted, "The military has arrived to provide backup. This area is now under the control of me, Sheng Yun..."
Before Rong Yu could even breathe a sigh of relief, she saw the person behind Sheng Yun, Sheng Qingyan, suddenly lunge forward and pin Sheng Yun to the ground.
Almost simultaneously, a spray of bullets flew right past where Sheng Yun's scalp had just been.
Sheng Yun lay flat on the ground, his face deathly pale.
He had thought clearing out the enemies in the conference room was enough. To think there was actually a second wave of attacks...
Sheng Qingyan snatched the squad communicator from Sheng Yun's waist and ordered coldly, "Team A, lock down entrance 3. Team B, establish crossfire. Lieutenant Sheng, you will personally lead Team C to cover Chief Engineer Cui's evacuation!"
His commands were concise and powerful, forming a stark contrast to Sheng Yun's earlier panic.
Sheng Yun nodded repeatedly.
Rong Yu helped Cui Xiao up and handed him over to Sheng Yun. At the same time, she reached out and took the gun from Sheng Yun's hand.
"You!"
Sheng Yun was about to lash out, but he was frozen by Rong Yu's icy glare.
She cocked the gun with a sharp click. "Protect Chief Engineer Cui."
She had noticed just now that Sheng Yun's shooting accuracy was worse than hers.
Back then, when she was only fourteen, she had killed enemy invaders with her own hands.
Now, doing it all over again, she had nothing to fear.
Sheng Qingyan had already moved behind cover, forming a crossfire angle with Rong Yu.
For some reason, deep down he trusted her unconditionally, as if at some point they had experienced life and death together... He held up three fingers toward Rong Yu. The moment the countdown ended, they both opened fire simultaneously.
Rong Yu's precise burst fire suppressed the enemies on the left, while Sheng Qingyan did a combat roll to approach the right, taking out two killers with three bullets.
Suddenly!
Sheng Qingyan's gaze hardened. He lunged at Rong Yu, executing a side roll to hide behind an electrical box. Almost at the same time, another bullet pierced through the exact spot where Rong Yu had just been standing, leaving a bowl-sized bullet hole in the wall.
The man's voice was low. "There's a sniper."
Cold sweat seeped from Rong Yu's forehead.
She was only slightly better than Sheng Yun, but on a life-and-death battlefield, her meager abilities were simply not enough. One careless move and she would die right here.
She looked in the direction the man was pointing.
She saw a tiny flash of reflection from a dark spot on the distant glass curtain wall, something an ordinary person like her would never have noticed.
As she was panting heavily, she saw Sheng Qingyan uncharacteristically step three paces to the right.
His entire body was completely exposed in the open area!
"Watch out!"
She cried out in alarm.
Time seemed to freeze.
Rong Yu saw Sheng Qingyan's movements break down into a series of flawless tactical postures.
While moving, his body suddenly twisted and turned. This ergonomically impossible movement caused him to lean back as if he were broken in half. Almost simultaneously, a sniper bullet grazed his throat and shot into the wall. The flying debris from the wall carved a thin line of blood across the side of his neck.
As he leaned back until he was almost parallel to the ground, his gun-wielding hand remained as steady as a rock. There was no aiming, no hesitation, and not even a complete line of sight. It was purely a perfect combination of muscle memory and battlefield intuition.
Bang, bang!
Two consecutive gunshots rang out, making eardrums ache in the enclosed space. A mist of blood exploded in the distant ventilation duct, and two heavy bodies tumbled limply from the gap in the duct, one after the other, landing with dull thuds.
Only then did Sheng Qingyan allow himself to fall to the ground, tucking into a roll the moment he made contact to absorb the impact.
He neatly holstered his gun, a wisp of blue smoke still floating from the muzzle. His expression was terrifyingly calm. "Two snipers, neutralized."