Back in his room, the sky hadn't fully brightened yet. Outside the window was a deep indigo, with only a faint grayish-white appearing on the eastern horizon.
Song Heping glanced at his watch; the luminous hands glowed softly.
Five o'clock exactly.
He locked the door behind him, the sound of the metal lock's tongue clicking into place was particularly clear in the silence.
He went to the desk and turned on the standard military desk lamp.
Started the laptop, and the machine hummed with a low fan noise.
Using access granted by the Joint Operations Protocol, he connected to the US Army tactical data link port, entered a twelve-digit access ID and a dynamic password, and logged into the system after triple encryption verification.
A red watermark in the top left corner of the screen read "Confidential—Authorized Personnel Only."
The screen glowed blue, reflecting his expressionless face.
