Hawk sent the documents to the two women—a condensed essence of Cipher's intelligence, detailing TCRI's core assets and financial vulnerabilities after initial filtering and analysis.
"Two beautiful ladies," Hawk began, his voice low but instantly lowering the atmospheric pressure in the entire conference room. "The target is locked: TCRI."
Andy looked up, frowning slightly, but remained silent. Emilia's eyes, however, flashed with shrewdness; she leaned forward slightly, like a lioness spotting prey.
"No prelude, no probing. Go all-out and short the stock immediately."
As soon as Hawk finished speaking, Andy and Emilia were visibly startled. They quickly scrutinized the data again. Yet, after a thorough look, they found nothing fundamentally abnormal about TCRI beyond some minor financial issues.
Andy cautiously asked, "Hawk, do you have some kind of insider information?"
Emilia also looked at Hawk and said, "TCRI is a well-known unicorn, with a market capitalization of four billion dollars. It still has strong momentum."
Frankly, from their perspective, shorting TCRI at this time was certainly not a wise choice.
Hawk took a sip of water and smiled. "Just assume I have insider information. This is going to be a perfect... 'Hostile Takeover'! Just do as I say."
Andy and Emilia exchanged a look, then nodded. "Lane Group will provide Emilia with all necessary assistance," Andy assured him.
Emilia nodded. "Then thank you, CEO Andy."
Following Hawk's instructions, Lane Capital immediately established hundreds of offshore companies and thousands of overseas accounts, then began shorting TCRI. For the first wave, Emilia prepared fifty million dollars of capital, utilizing a five-times leverage, which mobilized $250 million in funds.
While this massive amount was far less than TCRI's market cap, it was still equivalent to 6.25 points of their value, and the short position was established with extremely covert operations.
That afternoon, in a completely darkened safe house within the Lane Group skyscraper in Manhattan.
The lights were off. Only the dozens of screens on the console emitted a faint blue glow, reflecting Hawk's composed and focused face.
The main screen showed the coordinates of the secret underground lab labeled "Titan Crucible" on Cipher's manifest—located deep within an abandoned mine in Nevada. Several side screens displayed real-time satellite thermal imaging, footage from the limited surface cameras around the lab, and complex architectural blueprints.
Hawk's fingers flew across the virtual keyboard, leaving faint trails. He was currently writing a highly customized virus worm, aimed directly at the physically isolated industrial control system and security network inside the lab.
Meanwhile, at the perimeter of "Titan Crucible," Nevada Abandoned Mine.
Goo Ja-yoon and Won-bin were crouched in the shadows at the edge of the mine, wearing lightweight black tactical suits with optical camouflage capabilities.
On their light tactical goggles, Hawk's shared lab blueprints and real-time path guidance were clearly overlaid.
"Ja-yoon, Won-bin, target confirmed: 'Titan Crucible'. Coordinates and structure map synchronized to your tactical goggles," Hawk's voice was clear through the encrypted channel to the two operators. "Ja-yoon, the main ventilation shaft is your secondary access point. Objective: physical destruction of the main power breaker switch assembly on the east side. Won-bin, Objective: the backup diesel generator cluster on the west perimeter. Use the 'Buzzer' to paralyze its control core. Then wait for my command to cut the physical connection simultaneously."
"Received," Goo Ja-yoon responded concisely. She moved like a cheetah blending into the night, silently stalking toward the large ventilation shaft entrance marked by Hawk.
"Understood," Won-bin whispered. Her figure drifted like a ghost toward the west side, where several nondescript, reinforced concrete buildings housed the backup generators.
In the safe house, Hawk's fingers danced across the control panel, like playing a silent prelude to destruction. He called up a meticulously prepared malicious software package, targeting the lab's external communication satellite relay node and the core gateway of the internal control system.
"Network intrusion initiating... Countdown 5 seconds." Hawk's voice was utterly calm.
On the screen, the progress bar for the network intrusion began to advance.
4... Goo Ja-yoon had already pried open the reinforced grate of the ventilation shaft, sliding into the deep, dark passage like an agile cat.
3... Won-bin bypassed two careless patrolling guards and precisely attached a coin-sized 'Buzzer,' a micro-electromagnetic pulse device, to the core of the main generator control board.
2... Hawk's software successfully circumvented the final logic firewall.
1... "Execute cutoff! Cut the network!" Hawk gave the command.
CRACK!
Deep inside the ventilation shaft, at a node marked in red, Goo Ja-yoon struck like lightning. Her hand, imbued with her enhanced strength, precisely severed the critical connection hub, showering sparks. The main power line on the east side was instantly physically cut.
ZZZAP!
Won-bin pressed the activation button. The generator cluster control panel in front of her instantly erupted in a shower of sparks, all indicator lights dying out. The backup power was completely paralyzed!
WUMPH... The icons representing the lab's network nodes on the main screen went from green to red, and then utterly dark!
The virus released by Hawk instantly devoured all data streams from the internal monitoring, access control, and alarm systems, locking them down completely!
"Power and network cutoff complete. Monitoring systems are down. Action window: 28 minutes and 30 seconds."
Hawk's voice remained cool. He rapidly switched screens, pulling up the physical location and access protocol for the lab's core database server. "Ja-yoon, target Area A7, server array room. Won-bin, secure the path and guard. The data copy task will be executed remotely by me; you just need to ensure the interface equipment is connected."
"Understood!" The two operators, sharp as drawn blades, rapidly plunged into the underground world, now silent due to the blackout, illuminated only by the weak green glow of emergency lights. Their helmet cameras streamed the real-time feed back to the command center.
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