On the way through the town, they stole a sheet of tarp used to block out the rain, left money behind, and draped it over the hole in the van’s roof. It also served to partition off the rear of the van so that Shen Yixiu and the girl never saw each other.

When the sky was barely light, they dropped the girl off at a street corner on the opposite side of town.

As she got out, they repeated their earlier warnings once more: “This involves classified counter-terrorism operations by a national intelligence agency. It’s extremely sensitive. Don’t tell anyone about it and don’t mention meeting us. It’ll be dangerous for you if you do.”

Frankly speaking, even if the girl did talk, it wouldn’t matter much. From her perspective, all she had personally witnessed and experienced was basically the average kidnapping. The higher-ups of the Ninth Army would handle the remaining...