"Report, surveillance point one is secure!"
"Surveillance point two is secure!"
Through the walkie-talkie came steady reports. Qi Taiguo stood at a high position on the mountain, observing the villa below with an unobstructed view and silently nodded. He pressed his walkie-talkie and said, "Check all blind spots again, don’t miss any. Set up a hidden exit for evacuation route A, double-check evacuation route B for any obstacles, and do the same for evacuation route C."
"Yes!"
Qi Taiguo slipped the walkie-talkie into the pouch on his shoulder, then picked up his binoculars to look down from his vantage point, checking each spot one by one.
The meeting was held in this villa, so the security had to be tight and careful, especially for the meeting room, which must have no blind spots and not give anyone the chance for a sniper shot.
Otherwise, if any head of state met with an accident, it would be a huge loss of face.
After scanning from afar to nearby, Qi noticed a small path on the left side of his own little mountain peak that led outside—if one didn’t look carefully, it would go unnoticed.
Only after receiving messages of safety from his comrades did Qi Taiguo descend from the peak; he had to discuss the defenses with the other commanders next.
By tonight at the latest, they had to be tightly secured because tomorrow, the formal alliance would take place.
Once down at the villa, Qi Taiguo went to the meeting room, intending to check it personally.
Passing through the guestroom corridor, Qi Taiguo felt a blur before his eyes and instantly looked up, his brow slightly furrowed as he paused.
He looked around. The entire corridor was empty except for himself, not a shadow in sight.
But he had clearly just seen a shadow.
Qi Taiguo pursed his lips and moved forward, silently inspecting the area.
When he came to a storage room, his heart pounded like a drum, intuition telling him there was something inside.
As his hand reached for the doorknob, someone came out from the next room, pushing a cart.
It was a cleaning lady, who was startled upon seeing Qi Taiguo.
Qi retracted his hand and asked, "What are you doing here?"
This floor was for heads of state to rest, and every spot had been checked—it should be that no one else was here.
Frightened by Qi Taiguo’s imposing manner, the cleaning lady trembled slightly and raised her dry mop, her voice shaking as she said, "Someone said there was a leak in this room, and it’s been fixed by the engineers. I, I am here to clean."
Qi entered the room, looked around inside and out, and finding no other abnormalities, said, "Go ahead!"
The cleaning worker hurried away as if escaping.
Qi Taiguo shook his head, wondering if everyone, including himself, was overly tense because of the importance of the meeting.
It was said that this meeting would feature top-secret content from a certain country, and to prevent espionage, the room of that head of state was under strict surveillance, 360 degrees with no blind spots.
Qi took another look, waited a while to ensure that there were no other abnormalities, and then continued to walk forward, disappearing into the corridor.
Half a quarter hour after he left, the door to the storage room Qi Taiguo had tried to enter moved, and a man wearing a flat cap and dressed in an engineer’s uniform stepped out, holding a dark blue toolbox in his hand.
He looked around the corridor and quickly left with the toolbox.
The man with the flat cap arrived behind a secluded house, removed his cap, took a cigarette from his pocket, lit it, and took a deep drag, blowing out a perfect ring of smoke while cursing, "Damn, that was fucking close, nearly got caught. Why did it have to be Old Qi who came!"
He lifted his face, his beautiful peach-blossom eyes squinting. If Qi Taiguo had been there, he would have been astonished because this man was none other than his most familiar acquaintance, Ning Ge!