A damaged national flag. A pile of enormous boulders blocking the road. Fifteen minutes spent moving them before the armored column could continue.

Shen Cong didn't follow. He stopped at the gap between the two hills and held position.

Something had caught his attention.

The armored vehicle crews had narrow Third Eye ranges. His wasn't narrow. In Human Radar mode, 600 meters of clear perception extended in every direction — and at somewhere between seven and eight hundred meters, on the low hill to the left of the road, he could make out human shapes.

Seven or eight of them.

He keyed the radio to the operation commander. The officer on the other end was Han Shoucheng — former 12th Army Chief of Staff, now serving as 12th Army Political Commissar after the command reshuffle, and someone Shen Cong had worked with before during the Yizheng operation. "Commissar Han. Turn part of the column toward the Yushan hill on the left. Seven or eight people. Possibly Xuzhou locals."

"Major General Hu?" Han Shoucheng was aware Shen Cong had joined the column — invisibility within a formation wasn't unusual for him at this point. "Understood. Moving toward Yushan now."

The armored vehicles moved in a smooth arc toward the hill, completing an encirclement before the group on the slope had time to react. Shen Cong brought Great Vajra Totem to the hill's base, staying just outside the range of anyone else's Third Eye, and observed.

No dramatic confrontation. By the time the locals registered the vehicles surrounding them, the position was already closed.

"No need to be alarmed." Han Shoucheng's voice carried the particular rhythm of someone with extensive political commissar training. "We're an Eastern Theater Command relief force conducting outreach to Xuzhou's survivors. Our mission is the rescue and support of all affected civilians. In other words, friends — you've found your organization."

"Eastern Theater Command?" One of the group answered, visibly tense.

There were eight in total. Two appeared to be jin people, evidently the group's senior members. The remaining six were ordinary people, each carrying a wicker basket…