Spy-x-War Showdown-Chapter 827 - 832: Can’t Lose Face

Brian pulled up the car, then he looked at a substation.

"This is it." 𝗳𝗿𝐞𝕖𝘄𝗲𝕓𝗻𝚘𝚟𝕖𝐥.𝚌𝕠𝕞

Brian let out a soft breath and murmured lowly, "It’s really thrilling, isn’t it? It’s been many years since I’ve done any sabotage work. It’s nostalgic, right?"

Paul hesitated for a moment, then said, "Boss, you know how to disrupt the operation of the power grid, right?"

Brian glanced at the substation and said, "Of course, I of course know, but you seem to lack confidence?"

Paul whispered, "Things are different now."

Brian spread his hands and said, "I know things have changed, the substations in France use prefabricated high and low voltage distribution devices, they are too simple to sabotage, even now things have changed, but... sabotage is always a simple matter."

Paul looked at Brian, thought for a moment, and still pulled something from his pocket, whispering, "We better use this."

Brian looked bewildered and said, "Is that a bomb? Why would you bring this? We can’t complete the task by blasting, that would be too shameful!"

Paul whispered, "Of course, I know we should not let anyone find out, but the problem is, boss, things have changed, when I got back, I checked it quietly, now France uses the IEC61850 standard smart substations, the substations now are automated, unmanned."

Brian was stunned for a moment and said, "Automated?"

"Yes, unmanned distribution rooms, everything is automated. If a line is overloaded, the smart substation will indeed trip automatically, but the problem is that the smart grid station can quickly detect faults, if there is a real fault, the transformer will trip automatically, but if there are no faults the substation will reclose automatically, meaning even if we trip it manually, uh, it’s useless..."

Brian scratched his head and whispered, "It’s that advanced?"

"Yes, it’s standard configuration; basically all substations are like this."

"So, you mean to say that our simplest manual tripping is useless unless we destroy the substation?"

"That’s right."

"Why didn’t you say it earlier?"

"You had already taken on this task, boss, I couldn’t let Ben think we couldn’t handle it, especially Anton, um, how could I say we aren’t familiar with the current substations, better let someone else handle it, how could we!"

Brian vigorously scratched his head.

"What a hassle, Ben and the others are already in place..."

"So, I brought a bomb! If we have to, we’ll just blow it up!"

"No, using a bomb is even more shameful! If we use a bomb, then tomorrow the news will talk about how a French substation was subject to a terrorist attack, God, if we do that, how will Anton mock us!"

"But it’s better than not completing the task, boss, what I mean is we use the bomb only as a last resort, for now, we can go in and take a look, if it works then great, if not, then we have to use the bomb."

Brian glanced at his watch and whispered, "There’s always a way, first, let’s take a look, even if it’s automated, in the end, it’s people who’ll be controlling it, right? No matter how smart, as long as it’s human-controlled then it’s manageable."

Paul looked surprised and said, "You want to make contact with people? Boss, we must infiltrate secretly without contacting anyone, unless you want people to know someone is intentionally sabotaging, that..."

Brian said very seriously, "Do you think using a bomb is more shameful, or coercing a worker at a substation is more shameful? The former, the whole world will know about the terrorist attack on France’s substations, the latter, if we do it neatly, then no one will know what happened, which do you think is better?"

Paul exhaled and said, "Okay, then we shouldn’t use the bomb, you’re right, we can completely keep it secret how it’s done, um, it’s just that in that case, it’s best to kill to silence..."

Brian whispered, "That’s better than using a bomb, let’s go, we’ve got work to do."

The two finally settled their plan and walked towards the substation.

The substation had a wire mesh fence around it, indicating danger with lightning signs, and the gate was also wire mesh, visible at a glance.

Inside the fence was a house with bright lighting, no one in the yard, and the door was closed.

They had reached the entrance of the substation, Brian whispered, "I thought there would be security."

"It seems there’s none, so are people inside?"

"Since it’s automated, there wouldn’t be too many staff, right?"

"Yes, it’s night, and the substation doesn’t need too many people on duty, I think there would be at most two people inside."

Brian whispered, "Clearly, this isn’t a place that needs special protection, so let’s just go in."

Paul looked at the wire mesh fence and said, "There’s a camera."

Brian smiled and said, "Trust me, there won’t be a Frenchman sitting in front of the monitor watching all the time."

After saying that, Brian quickly walked a few steps, leapt, grabbed the top of the fence, and climbed over with some effort.

He made a slight noise when he landed, although it wasn’t very loud, Brian still felt his face heat up a bit.

One can’t defy aging, but Paul performed better than Brian, not making a sound when he landed.

The two walked briskly towards the working area of the substation, and when they got to the door, Brian gently pushed it, and the door silently opened a crack.

After looking at Paul, Brian made a ’told you so’ gesture, then he pushed the door and entered.

A substation doesn’t need many people to manage, so naturally, it doesn’t need a big office area. Inside the door was a corridor, at the end of which was a door marked ’Control Room’, and there were two doors on each side of the corridor.

You could hear music, after discerning where the sound was coming from, Brian walked straight to the door where the music was coming from, then he grasped the doorknob and gently twisted it open.

The music in the room wasn’t very loud, and a person was sitting in a chair, in front of him were several computer screens, but the person in the chair was playing with a phone.

Brian stood silently behind the person, thought for a moment, and finally decided the gun was more intimidating, so he drew his pistol, and then he pressed it against the worker’s nape while firmly covering his mouth.

The startled worker jumped up from the chair, but was immediately pushed back down by Brian.

"Don’t make a sound, or I’ll kill you!"

Brian shook the gun and then whispered in French, "Turn around, if you make a noise, you’re dead."