The next day.
Lianqiao entered carrying a bulging large bag, dumping its jumbled contents onto the floor with a swoosh. Lao Bai and Lao Wang gathered around.
“What are these things?” Bai Zhen squatted down to examine them. “Cameras? Solar panels?”
“Wireless routers, aren’t they?” Wang Ning bent down and casually picked up a thick cable. “What’s all this stuff for?”
“I had Little Lian buy these,” Zhao Bowen, sitting on the sofa, closed his laptop and removed his Bluetooth earpiece. “Also, Miss Qiu is on the move.”
Everyone present was startled.
“So quickly?”
“Speed is of the essence in warfare.” Lao Zhao got up and came over. “The project team is racing against time. Miss Qiu is on her way to Wenchang.”
“Wenchang?”
“Wenchang Satellite Launch Center. We’re sending Miss Qiu up with a Long March 5, using a second-generation spacecraft as the carrier. She’ll be the world’s first nuclear weapon to ride a crewed spacecraft into space. In terms of treatment, she’s leagues above her brothers and sisters – a spacious, bright crewed spacecraft versus a cramped, tiny ICBM warhead. Isn’t that super first-class?” Zhao Bowen squatted next to Bai Zhen and picked up one of the cameras from the floor. These were used goods that Lianqiao had bought according to his requirements. Lao Zhao weighed it in his hand and removed the battery.
Making it in time for the Long March 5 Y3 launch was pure coincidence. China was just big enough that if you looked hard enough, you could always find what you needed.
“When’s the Long March 5 launching?” Bai Zhen asked.
“The 27th of this month,” Zhao Bowen answered. “Time is extremely tight, and days wait for no one. Getting our hands on this rocket wasn’t easy – even with imperial authority, there was quite a struggle.”
“When will it return?”
“Using our location as the coordinate origin, the spacecraft’s return capsule will re-enter the atmosphere around 10 PM on December 27th, twenty years from now. It will land near Meihua Villa, within a one-kilometer diameter circle. Since it’s not carrying people, the landing can be a bit rough.”
“The nuke’s been sent, but what about the follow-up?” Wang Ning asked.
This was the question everyone cared about, still unresolved.
The nuclear weapon had departed, and the rocket stood erected in the launch tower – everything seemed ready, but how would the nuke be triggered? How could they precisely eliminate Big Eyes?
“Let’s get Miss Qiu there first! Catch the last train, then take it step by step.”
Though Lao Zhao said this, he had a plan in mind.
He wanted to take a gamble.
“A ten percent probability is worth trying, thirty percent counts as having a chance, fifty percent is as good as certain.”
Zhao Bowen said this at the provincial committee meeting. His plan was based on just a conjecture – but that didn’t matter, the Riemann hypothesis was also a conjecture.
“What’s the probability of success for your plan?” someone asked.
“Worth a zero point on one try,” Lao Zhao answered.
One percent probability.
The meeting attendees exchanged glances. Given the current situation where they were basically out of options, even a one percent chance of success was remarkable.
“You dare to try with just one percent?” Bai Zhen helped tear open the solar panel’s packaging. “That’s quite a risk you’re taking. Can you bear this responsibility?”
“No, I can’t,” Zhao Bowen replied bluntly as he sat working at the coffee table. “Want to take it on yourself?”
“No, no, no, better you than me. This arduous task is all yours, Lao Zhao,” Lao Bai quickly shook his head. “Heaven assigns great tasks to those it tests severely – first afflicting their hearts and minds, exhausting their sinews and bones, starving their bodies. Lao Zhao, the organization values and trusts you for a reason. Just for your incredible psychological resilience alone, you’re one in ten thousand.”
“Nonsense, I’m about to go bald.”
Zhao Bowen snorted coldly.
Wang Ning glanced up at Lao Zhao’s thick black hair and also snorted coldly.
“It’s tied up. You should tell us what these cameras are for now.” Wang Ning used clear tape to tightly bind the solar panels together and pushed them across the coffee table. “What can two cameras do? Can they solve the Big Eyes problem?”
“One percent probability they can solve Big Eyes, ninety-nine percent they can’t,” Zhao Bowen answered. “But regardless of the probability, it’s all theoretical. Now the plan has hit an unsolvable problem, everyone’s at an impasse. It’s most troublesome when everyone stops… The important thing is not to stop. With such a huge team, if we stop, we’ll cool down and solidify. Starting up again would be difficult. We need a breakthrough, to let everyone see hope, to keep everyone’s energy, enthusiasm, and vitality.”
“So you’re Cao Cao?” Wang Ning said.
“Cao Cao?”
“This is your ‘quenching thirst by thinking of plums,'” Wang Ning explained. “Though who knows if these plums exist?”
“Lao Zhao, what exactly is your plan?” Bai Zhen also asked as he finished taping up the second camera and pushed it across the coffee table. “What magic medicine are these cameras supposed to be?”
Zhao Bowen was mysterious, keeping them in suspense, which greatly irritated his two old friends.
“Next we’re going to put these two things at Xinjiekou,” Zhao Bowen stacked the two cameras together. Each camera was tightly wrapped in clear tape, bound with antennas and solar panels – quite bulky. He turned and asked Lianqiao to help carry the wireless router. “Let’s test if we can remotely connect to these two cameras using the 725 radio. The technical department told me it’s possible, but we still need to verify.”
“Connect two cameras remotely using the 725 radio? Using coaxial cable or fiber optic?” Lianqiao asked, following behind him. “Running a five-kilometer cable from Xinjiekou to command…”
“Signal attenuation would be too severe, won’t work,” Zhao Bowen said. “Have you ever seen a five-kilometer network cable? One hundred meters is the limit.”
“Use fiber optic!”
“Multimode fiber maxes out at two kilometers, and besides, one spool is one kilometer – how would she splice them?” Zhao Bowen continued. “We’ll use wireless transmission. That wireless router you’re holding can be flashed as a signal repeater.”
Zhao Bowen wanted to place two cameras at Xinjiekou. From his behavior, it seemed he wanted to use the cameras as bait – this was incomprehensible to everyone. There was no evidence suggesting Big Eyes would be interested in cameras. If it were interested in cameras, with hundreds of thousands of cameras throughout Nanjing’s urban areas, wouldn’t Big Eyes be overwhelmed by the sight?
What kind of strange tactic was this?
“It’s not a strange tactic. This is called the Eye Staring Contest Plan. If my conjecture isn’t wrong, then this thing is the key to taking down Big Eyes.”
Zhao Bowen picked up a roll of clear tape, bit down on it with his teeth, and yanked it down fiercely.
“Rrrrrip—”
Ban Xia tore off the last thin strip of fabric, wrapping it layer by layer around the camera. After securing it, she picked it up and shook it to confirm all the camera’s external attachments were fixed in place, then tossed them into her backpack.
“BG, everything’s ready on my end.”
She shouldered the pack, took out her pocket watch to check the time, hung up her radio, and set out.
A bright crescent moon hung in the sky. The black city looked like a swamp. The girl left the apartment building, stood in the open space in front gazed at the moon for a moment, then turned and took a few steps, quickly disappearing into the night.