Mr. Hu finished strapping the harness, securing the Mute-Box Prototype high on Lei's back and placing the compact Sonic Pulse Dampener in a specialized pocket near his ribs. The dampener felt dense and reassuring, a metallic cylinder no bigger than his forearm, with a shielded emitter head.
"The new Mute-Box only has a ten-minute charge," Hu whispered, his eyes locked on Lei's. "It generates a localized, shifting acoustic envelope—a true bubble of chaos—that should scramble the Ghost's precise location tracking. Only use it when absolutely necessary. And the dampener… it's a focused weapon. Point it at the Ghost's sensory array—the head—and depress the contact pad for precisely two seconds. It'll send a non-lethal, high-frequency spike. It won't kill them, but it will acoustically blind them for fifteen seconds."
"Fifteen seconds," Lei repeated, the time feeling impossibly short.
"Fifteen seconds of complete silence," Hu corrected. "Your window to run. Remember Mei's code, Lei: Silence the Observer."
Lei nodded, taking one last look at the comforting shadow of the Cloud Tea House, then slid out into the night.
The initial stages of the sprint were deceptively simple. Lei moved through the historical district, the old city's narrow stone streets and tightly packed buildings offering excellent visual and acoustic cover. Every footfall was a calculated risk, but the heavy, draped clothing Hu provided absorbed most of the friction noise.
His greatest threat wasn't the Ghosts here, but the government agents. They would know he was heading for the Pearl Tower, the only viable broadcast point. They would be waiting at the choke points.
And the first choke point was the Liede Bridge.
The bridge spanned the wide Pearl River, connecting the old city district to the towering glass metropolis of the financial hub where the Pearl Tower stood. It was immense, a concrete arc flanked by colossal steel suspension cables. Critically, it was open space—a vast acoustic mirror. Any sound, no matter how small, would echo across the water and concrete like a scream.
Lei paused at the on-ramp, hiding behind the concrete pylon that supported the elevated expressway. He looked up the gentle incline of the bridge. It was a 600-meter crossing, utterly exposed.
Suddenly, the new Mute-Box gave a high-pitched, near-silent warning buzz: Acoustic Signature Detected.
Two Ghosts—large, glistening black shapes—were patrolling the pedestrian lane of the bridge, their six limbs clicking subtly on the smooth asphalt. They moved slowly, methodically, their obsidian heads tilted slightly, listening to the ambient city hum to identify any anomaly. They were guarding the most direct route.
Lei knew he couldn't run past them. He had to cross the vehicle lanes, which were wider, giving him less cover but more distance from their immediate acoustic field.
He broke cover, dropping low and sprinting across the first three lanes of the bridge. The sound of his polymer soles was absorbed by the Mute-Box's chaotic envelope, turning his rhythmic footsteps into an incoherent, shifting buzz that the Ghosts couldn't localize.
He made it halfway across, shielded partially by the shadow of the main suspension cable, when his luck ran out.
A Ghost, far more massive than the others he had encountered, detached itself from the shadows of the central bridge arch. It wasn't patrolling; it was waiting. Its head snapped up, not towards Lei, but toward the faint, high-frequency static of the Mute-Box—the very acoustic chaos designed to protect him. It had found the anomaly.
The Ghost changed its gait, moving from a slow click to a smooth, terrifying glide. It was closing the distance in seconds.
Lei didn't hesitate. He pulled the Sonic Pulse Dampener from his side, aiming the emitter at the center of the creature's obsidian head. He pressed the contact pad.
The dampener didn't make an audible noise, but Lei felt a sudden, violent shudder in the air, like a fist punching the atmosphere. The Ghost stopped mid-stride. Its limbs locked, and its sleek, blind head began to vibrate uncontrollably, emitting a low, pathetic whine that quickly faded into silence.
The creature didn't move. It was deaf, inert, and completely frozen—a statue in the moonlight.
Fifteen seconds.
Lei ran, his Mute-Box working overtime to mask his sound. He flew past the frozen Ghost, its slick surface reflecting the distant city lights. He reached the final span of the bridge just as the Ghost shuddered back to life, its head whipping around wildly, searching desperately for the source of the noise.
But the agents were smarter than the beasts.
A sudden, sharp beam of white light sliced through the darkness from the financial district side of the river, locking onto Lei's back. He heard the distant, distinct crackle of a radio transmission.
They had seen him cross the open span.
Lei glanced over his shoulder. Two black sedans—not the grid-search vehicles, but heavy, armored transport units—had silently deployed at the base of the bridge. He could see the gleam of high-powered rifles and the cold, unblinking lenses of multiple NVGs trained on him.
He was in the financial district now. Gone were the narrow alleys. Here, the world was polished granite, wide boulevards, and towering glass skyscrapers that magnified both sight and sound.
And right in front of him, dominating the skyline, was the Pearl Tower—a glittering, isolated spire, guarded by high walls and its own dedicated security forces.
Lei skidded to a halt behind a decorative marble bench. The sun was still hours away, but the government had mobilized their best hunters. He was cornered in a place designed to eliminate privacy and escape. He had the Master Frequency chip, the Key of Leda, and fifteen seconds of silence, but getting into that tower felt like breaching the heavens themselves.