Chapter 455: The Bureau's Opponents Are Way Too Strong

Since we're already here, we might as well make the best of it.

Yu Dazhang steadied his emotions and sat down on the edge of the bed.

"Tell me—what's the situation now?"

Li Mingzhao, who had been wearing a smile, immediately grew solemn at those words.

He exchanged a glance with Ye Lin, then said slowly:

"Two months ago, a researcher here went missing while on leave at home."

"After the Bureau got involved, they launched an investigation right away. They'd just picked up the other side's trail when they took heavy losses in a firefight—not only did they fail to take anyone down, they lost one of their own."

This was the incident Ye Lin had mentioned before… Yu Dazhang immediately recalled the conversation he'd had with Ye Lin over a month ago.

Back then she hadn't given details, only said that one Bureau squad had suffered one death and four heavy injuries, while the other side walked away clean.

So much time had passed, yet they still hadn't caught them.

"After that, the leadership assigned our Special Operations Group to take over the investigation."

Li Mingzhao continued:

"When Ye Lin was investigating in Province N, you helped out and caught the person responsible for supplying them with weapons."

"Unfortunately, the day after that person was arrested, he died in the hospital."

Died? Yu Dazhang thought back for a moment—his shot back then had hit the man in the ribs.

By all rights, that spot avoided the heart and lungs, so it shouldn't have been fatal.

Besides, the medical team had arrived in time, and when they carried the man away, he'd even glared at him—his mental state had looked fine.

A medical accident?

Just as he was about to ask, Li Mingzhao spoke first:

"His death has nothing to do with you. He killed himself."

That's what I thought… Yu Dazhang secretly breathed a sigh of relief.

He'd originally wanted to ask how the man had killed himself, but on second thought, the man was already dead—asking was pointless.

Still, managing to kill yourself right under the Bureau's nose—that guy was something else.

"After that, we used this man's identity to set up an early stakeout, trying to catch them all in one net."

Li Mingzhao said, deliberating:

"We didn't expect them to be so cunning. They tested us multiple times before the meet and set traps to draw us out. We failed to hold them again that time."

Hearing this much, Yu Dazhang's palms had already started to sweat.

Even the Bureau's Special Operations Group couldn't bring them in—what kind of people were they?

Even special forces with systematic training couldn't pull that off.

"Still don't know who they are?" Yu Dazhang asked.

He really couldn't hold it in any longer.

In his understanding, no one could escape the Bureau's grasp—let alone do it twice.

The scariest part was, the other side hadn't taken a single casualty.

"Foreign special agents."

Li Mingzhao's expression darkened. After saying that, he added:

"Top-tier."

Could you be a little more specific… Yu Dazhang's understanding of "special agents" only went as far as the literal meaning of the words.

Police academy didn't teach that.

So he'd only ever seen stuff about special agents in movies.

Like the Mission: Impossible and 007 franchises.

But a lot of that was dramatized—you could only treat it as a movie.

"Is it the same as a spy?" Yu Dazhang tried a different way of asking.

He did know a bit about spies.

"Two different things."

Li Mingzhao shook his head, then explained:

"A special agent is an executor of special missions; a spy is a specific type of operative who steals intelligence through covert means."

Strictly speaking, a spy is a subdivision of the special agent occupation.

So special agents are more well-rounded… Yu Dazhang got it.

At the same time, he felt the pressure and the sense of danger. Good thing he hadn't joined the Bureau back then—just look at the opponents these people face, top-tier special agents, sounds impressive as hell.

Forget meeting opponents like that, he hadn't even heard of them before.

He finally understood why Li Mingzhao had said they were short-handed.

Against opponents like these, ordinary people coming in would be useless—it's not even a contest on the same level, and they'd just end up as live targets.

Yu Dazhang rubbed his taut face, easing the tension a little.

After steadying himself, he turned his gaze back to Li Mingzhao and said softly:

"Please continue, sir."

Both his attitude and his tone were far more respectful than before.

Being able to go up against opponents like that is itself worthy of admiration.

"As the investigation deepened, we uncovered another channel through which they sourced weapons."

Li Mingzhao spoke at an unhurried pace, every word clear and precise:

"But this time we were a step behind. By the time we arrived, they'd already completed the transaction—though we did pick up their trail."

"But in the subsequent capture operation, the other party had already withdrawn one step ahead, leaving behind only a corpse."

His brow furrowed tightly:

"After later confirmation, that corpse was indeed the missing researcher."

Hearing this, Yu Dazhang also furrowed his brow.

That researcher wasn't a traitor?

When he first started listening, he had assumed the researcher was a spy planted by the other side, who had stolen classified materials and then fled during a vacation break.

After all that fuss, it turned out that wasn't the case at all.

The reason was simple.

If the researcher were a spy, he'd be in league with them, and they certainly wouldn't have killed him.

"After that, the course of events changed completely."

Li Mingzhao's tone suddenly grew heavy:

"Half a month ago, the other party suddenly tracked down this place. Fortunately, the security level here was high enough that they didn't succeed, but our side still suffered casualties."

He paused, drew a deep breath, and continued:

"After that, our team rushed over, and just four days ago, we had another firefight with them."

"This time we killed two of them and wounded one. The wounded one swallowed his gun and killed himself just as we were about to capture him."

Saying this, Li Mingzhao's fists unconsciously clenched:

"But our side also suffered heavy losses—one seriously wounded, two lightly wounded. Fortunately, none of them are in life-threatening condition."

Yu Dazhang listened, feeling a bit dazed.

Overall, it sounded as though the other party had found this place based on intelligence obtained from the researcher.

The problem was, given the secrecy level here, that researcher shouldn't have known this specific location either.

Yet the other party had somehow found this place right after killing the researcher.

"Do you know the specific location of this place?"

Yu Dazhang looked at Li Mingzhao with a solemn expression, apparently attaching great importance to this question.

"I do." Li Mingzhao nodded:

"On the national security side, counting me, only three people know about this place."

His meaning was obvious: the other two were leaders with higher positions than his.

Looking at it this way, that researcher wasn't high-ranking enough to know.

Now that's interesting... Yu Dazhang narrowed his eyes.

Two possibilities:

1. That researcher really did have a problem.

Through the convenience of his work, he learned the exact location here, then used a vacation break to defect.

Most likely he intended to sell this information afterward, which was why he contacted foreign agents.

The reason he was killed was probably that the price couldn't be agreed upon, or he ran into a double-cross.

2. The foreign agents were covering things up.

They were using this researcher to conceal the true source of their information.

If that's the case,

it means there's a mole inside the Fifty-Third Institute.

A big mole!

(End of this chapter)