The red dot on the screen got a little closer.
Chen Hao stared at the moving markers, his fingers tapping lightly on the table. He didn't speak, but the atmosphere in the room had changed. The lingering hope he had just held was now completely suppressed.
“They’re not lost,” he said. “nor are they looking for water.”
Susan stood on the other side of the console, her pen gripping tightly. "But we don't even know who they are."
“Whether they know it or not is not important.” Chen Hao looked up at her. “What’s important is that they want to come in, and we have to let them know that there’s no benefit to coming in.”
Carl leaned against the wall, having just returned from the electrical box, his forehead still covered in dust. "So, are we now going to become bandit leaders? Set up a stronghold and collect tolls?"
"Pretty much," Chen Hao grinned. "Except our charging method is 'honk the horn when you get close'."
Nana didn't join in the banter; her finger was already swiping across the screen, pulling up the history of the perimeter surveillance footage. "In the past 72 hours, there have been four unusual approaches. The first was at 2:17 AM, where they stayed for 12 minutes before leaving. The second was at 11:03 PM, where they circled half of the west wall. The third and fourth were less than two hours apart, with highly similar paths."
She paused the camera on an infrared image, saying, "This isn't a test; it's reconnaissance."
The room was quiet for a few seconds.
Susan whispered, "If it's a reconnaissance mission... it means they've been watching us for a long time."
“Yes.” Chen Hao nodded. “So we can’t wait for them to knock before we open the door a crack to peek out.”
Carl scratched his neck. "Then what do you suggest? We can't exactly grab a megaphone and shout, 'I have a gun,' can we? We don't even have a decent wrench."
“No need to make it up.” Chen Hao turned to Nana. “Can you record the warning message? Let the system speak before the person even gets close.”
“Okay,” Nana replied. “The broadcast system has been connected to the alert range trigger mechanism. Set 500 meters as the first-level response zone and activate the voice warning; activate the red light flashing warning for distances of 1,000 meters and beyond.”
“Don’t speak too softly,” Carl interjected. “If you make it sound like a tourist guide, you’ll be in trouble.”
“Use standard synthesized speech,” Nana said. “A calm tone and clear message are more likely to arouse vigilance.”
“Okay.” Chen Hao nodded. “The more normal it is, the scarier it is. Who isn’t afraid of a base so calm it can broadcast announcements automatically?”
Susan suddenly spoke up: "I'll write the lyrics."
Everyone glanced at her.
She looked down and opened her notebook. "It needs to be clear, but not escalating. For example... 'Warning: This area is under 24/7 surveillance. Please cease approaching immediately. Unauthorized entry will trigger an emergency response.' How about that?"
Carl whistled. "Sounds like a court summons."
"That's the effect we wanted." Chen Hao laughed. "It's not a threat, it's a notification. We're not crazy, we're law-abiding citizens."
Nana has started recording her voice. A progress bar appears in the lower right corner of the screen, simultaneously displaying the system verification status.
Chen Hao stood up and walked to the map by the wall. He picked up a pen and drew a circle near the west side of the wall. "This is the weakest point. The lighting is insufficient, and the camera angles have blind spots."
“I’ll go add more lights,” Carl said. “There are two spotlights left after we fixed the distribution box last time.”
“You’ll be in charge of the patrol shifts.” Chen Hao handed him a pen. “From now on, you’ll rotate shifts every two hours. Susan and I will take turns working together.”
“What about the tunnel?” Susan asked. “What if they dig it in?”
“The entrance needs to be fortified.” Chen Hao looked at Nana. “Do you have a simple alarm device? It doesn’t need to be lethal, just something that can go off.”
“We can modify vibration sensors.” Nana pulled up the equipment list. “There are three spare units available, which can be deployed within 15 meters of the entrance to the underground passage.”
“Then let’s pretend,” Chen Hao said. “If you trip them, they’ll yell. We’ll make them scream and drive them away.”
Susan jotted down the key points, then looked up and asked, "What about weapons? Are you making absolutely no preparations?"
Chen Hao was silent for a moment.
“We have to do it,” he said, “but that’s not the point right now. We don’t have the materials or the time to refine our equipment. The first wave of defense has to rely on the system.”
“But the system can only scare people,” she said.
“Scaring them is enough.” Chen Hao looked at her. “People consider the costs when doing things. If entering the door means getting an electric shock, stepping on a trap, or being recorded and reported, who would want to come?”
Carl nodded. "That's right. Thieves always pick on the weak."
Nana then looked up. "The alarm sensitivity has been reset. The original threshold was triggered by the continuous presence of a moving object for more than five seconds; it has now been adjusted to three seconds. The false alarm rate may increase by eight percent, but it is acceptable during high-risk periods."
"Then let's open it," Chen Hao said. "We'd rather it go off a few more times than miss one."
Susan suddenly frowned. "But all the procedures we designed before were for natural disasters. Fires, landslides, power outages... no one thought someone would deliberately sabotage them."
“So this time it’s about changing our mindset.” Chen Hao sat down against the edge of the table. “Before, we had to guard against the heavens, now we have to guard against people. People are more unpredictable than the heavens, because they are cunning.”
"So what are our advantages?" she asked.
“We’re in the open, they’re in the shadows,” Chen Hao chuckled. “But they don’t know we are. Every minute from now on, we have to make them feel—this place is not to be trifled with.”
Carl slapped his thigh and stood up. "Then I'll go check the wiring on the west wall first. If the light can't be installed, at least I can move the camera to a different location."
“Go ahead,” Chen Hao said. “While you’re on the way, check the ground near the drainage ditch to see if there are any signs of it being dug up.”
Carl responded and turned to leave.
There were three people left in the room.
Nana was conducting her final voice test. A clear voice came over the loudspeaker: "Warning: This area is under 24/7 surveillance. Please cease approaching immediately. Unauthorized entry will trigger an emergency response."
The volume was moderate, the speaking speed was even, and there were no emotional fluctuations.
“That’s good,” Chen Hao said. “It sounds like a real base.”
Susan, however, was still flipping through her notes. "Shouldn't we make a record of this? Should we write these new rules into the emergency plan? For example, 'finding signs of human activity' should be listed as a Level 1 emergency."
“Of course.” Chen Hao nodded. “You can start a new chapter now, and title it ‘Preventing People’.”
She couldn't help but laugh. "That's way too blunt."
"The more straightforward it is, the easier it is to understand," he said. "When new people come in the future, they can open the document and see that the first thing they see is 'Strangers are not welcome at this base.'"
Nana suddenly spoke up: "The target is 2,600 meters from the warning line. It is expected to enter the 500-meter trigger zone in 38 minutes."
Chen Hao stood up, walked to the control panel, and sat down.
He stared at the ever-moving red dot on the screen, neither tapping the table nor speaking.
Susan closed the notebook and gently placed it aside.
She glanced at Nana, "Is the voice recording correct?"
"Final verification in progress." Nana's finger was still sliding. "The system is about to activate the automatic response protocol."
"Once it rings, it officially begins," Susan said.
"It started a long time ago," Chen Hao said, staring at the screen. "It's just that it's only our turn to play our cards now."
Nana clicked "Confirm".
A pop-up notification appears: [Broadcast system on standby | Trigger mechanism enabled | Countdown 03:17]
The red dot continues to move forward.
The lights in the control room flickered slightly.
Nana's finger stopped in mid-air.
She brought up the power load diagram again.
Chen Hao noticed her movement. "What's wrong?"
“The voltage fluctuations in the lighting circuits,” she said. “The amplitude is small, but they occur at times that shouldn’t be.”
Susan leaned closer. "Did Carl bump into something while connecting the wires?"
“It can’t be ruled out.” Nana quickly switched the screen. “But I just set the priority power supply sequence, so the main control system should not be affected.”
Chen Hao stared at her. "Is it a big problem?"
"It's not certain yet." She began checking the nodes, "but what if a power anomaly occurred during the deployment process..."
Before he could finish speaking, the countdown on the broadcast system jumped to 02:45.
The red dot is only a short distance from the 500-meter line.
Nana's fingers moved faster and faster across the screen.
The indicator light in the upper right corner of the console suddenly changed from green to yellow.
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