Going To Site Nineteen

On New Year's Eve, the whole world was immersed in a full of joy. Zhang Jue took the last flight to Switzerland. This is where Site-19, the Main Headquarters of the Foundation, is located.

It is called the main headquarters because Site-19 is currently the world's largest operating site for the Foundation, housing hundreds of SCP objects. One of the 13 members of the O5 Council rotates here every year to handle the day-to-day affairs of the Foundation. Many of them are dispersed from here to the rest of the world.

Zhang Jue had been to Switzerland once, but that time he did not go inside Site-19. The purpose of his visit to the headquarters this time was simple. To meet SCP-682.

More than a month ago, Zhang Jue and O5-10 agreed that he would hand over the camera found inside SCP-1351, and the Foundation would give him a chance to meet with SCP-682 with no video or video surveillance be put on.

It looks like SCP-682 holds a very important place in the eyes of the Foundation, regardless of its past life. He arrived at the Swiss airport at 13:00 local time on January 1. The person in charge of the Foundation who came to greet him was already waiting there early.

"Hello, Advisor Zhang, my name is Jose Morales, and I am the person in charge of your trip. I will first take you to the hotel where you are staying, and then we will have something to eat. I know a perfect restaurant. You will like it, Advisor Zhang."

With his kind expression and decent speech, Morales looked like he often did hospitality work.

Zhang Jue smiled at him, "Mr. Morales, there's no need to be so polite. If it's convenient, please take me directly to the site."

"Uh, about that…" Morales' expression changed.

Zhang Jue looked up at him, "What? Was it not convenient?"

"Not really." Morales obviously had some difficulty. "Recently, at the end of the year. There are more people coming to Site-19 for debriefing. I'm afraid the Lord O5 there doesn't have the time to…." Because the ordinary employees did not know exactly which O5 was on duty here, they were collectively called Lord O5.

"That's okay." Zhang Jue waved his hand, "I can wait."

Morales wanted to say something else, but Zhang Jue simply lay back in his seat and closed his eyes. Morales sighed and could only ask the driver to drive the car directly to Site-19.

An hour later, the car arrived at Site-19. Instead of taking the main entrance, it took a detour and drove in through a small side door. Morales took Zhang Jue to a reception room. The reception room was shabby and obviously hadn't been cleaned in a while, not like a place that would serve people on a daily basis.

Morales looked at the old sofa and was a little embarrassed. He sighed, "Advisor Zhang, you really don't have to be in such a hurry. Even if you come here early, there's nothing you can do."

Knowing what Morales meant, Zhang Jue smiled, "It's okay. You can go ahead and get busy if you have something to do. I'll just wait here. When our noble Lord O5 is free, you can come back to me." Zhang Jue's expression was natural, not the least bit forced.

"All right." Morales shook his head and left the reception room. After Morales left, Zhang Jue sat with his butt on the worn-out sofa, his right hand cupping his chin.

He didn't know which O5 was here at the moment, but it was obvious that they didn't welcome his arrival. From the moment they met, Morales did not want to bring himself to Site-19. If not for his high rank, he might not even be able to enter the door of the site. Bringing him here was probably his way of giving him a downward spiral, presumably wanting to kill his reputation.

Zhang Jue sneered. My name would be written backward if I let you get away with it.

Morales walked out of the reception room with a sad face. He walked around the site and entered an office. A man with rimless glasses sat inside the office, saw Morales enter, and put down the information he was holding.

"Well, where is he?"

Morales said, "Mr. Bellamy, as you expected, Advisor Zhang did not want to wait outside and came directly to Site-19 and is now sitting in that reception room you arranged. It looks like he will not leave today if he cannot see Lord O5."

Bellamy coldly snorted, "Where does he think this is, his Site-14? This is the Foundation headquarters! If he wants to run wild here, he must think about whether he can afford the consequences. He is not staying here. Fine, tell the logistics department that no one can bring him water or food. He just got off the plane. I wanted to see how long he can last!"

Morales answered yes, and cautiously said, "Where is Lord O5?"

Bellamy gave him a look. Morales shivered, and cold sweat gradually seeped out from his forehead. Seeing him in this state, Bellamy sneered.

"Don't ask what you shouldn't ask. Lord O5 is busy with other matters at this time. I will naturally find an opportunity to report this matter to Lord O5."

Throughout the afternoon, Morales was a bit distracted. He had brought Zhang Jue with him, and it was a bit hard for him to leave him in that old reception room unattended. The time was already nine o'clock in the evening, and a conservative estimate was that the Advisor hadn't eaten or drank for about ten hours.

He went to ask the surveillance room, and no one had seen Zhang Jue make a move. Morales sighed. He was not an obvious faction member and had always been nice to people, but Bellamy was his boss, and he had to obey his words.

At that moment, his phone rang, and the name displayed on it was none other than Bellamy.

"That Advisor Zhang, he hasn't left yet?"

"Report, not yet."

"Go check him out."

"Understood."

Morales thought for a moment and hid a bottle of water and a piece of bread in the pocket of his pants. Before he could get to the reception room, he smelled an aroma coming from the hallway. An aroma he had never smelled before.

Morales felt a little strange and couldn't help but pick up his pace. When he reached the door of the reception room, he could finally confirm that the smell was coming from inside. Morales took a deep breath and knocked on the door.

Zhang Jue's voice came from inside, "Please come in."

Morales pushed the door in. When he saw the scene inside the room, his whole body was stunned. The reception room, which originally had only a sofa, had somehow been filled with a modern-looking round table, the kind that hotels use.

In the center of the round table was a pot filled with soup, and surprisingly there was a furnace burning on the ground, and the soup inside the pot was constantly boiling. There are many plates around the table. Inside the plates were meat rolls, green vegetables, seaweed, carrots, potatoes, and many other things that Morales could not name, densely packed with a dozen to twenty kinds of things.

Advisor Zhang Jue's left-hand holds a small dish filled with unknown sauces. The right hand is holding two wooden sticks, constantly stirring inside that pot of boiling soup.

His mouth was still full, and he said, "Eh, I remember putting down several slices of meat. Where did they all go? Well, it looks like next time I'll have to cut it a little bigger."

He looked a little remorseful, then poured a large plate of meat rolls directly into the hot pot. Morales had been to Chinese, and he knew that the two wooden sticks in Zhang Jue's hands were called chopsticks, and the pot of boiling soup seemed to be called a "hot pot".

Advisor Zhang was eating hot pot in the reception room of Site-19?

Morales couldn't understand what he saw in front of him before he came to the reception room. He had thought of almost every possibility. For example, Zhang Jue will leave the room or he will go mad about it.

But how could he have imagined that this Advisor Zhang had set up a large table here? Not even the dishes inside the Foundation's cafeteria were as large as his. If all these ingredients were packed inside Advisor Zhang's backpack, how could he bring out the table and the hot pot here? Did carried them all? Is he here for business or for vacation? Then again, even if it was a vacation, why would anyone carry a table and a hot pot on their back?

"Whew... fiuh..., so spicy. Next time I'll never buy such a spicy broth base again..." Zhang Jue kept fanning his hand around his mouth, cursing the spiciness as he kept stuffing it into his mouth again and again.

He greeted Morales, "Hey, man, have you eaten yet? Come and have some. This duck intestine is authentic, just a bit spicy. I forgot to bring a soda this time. What a mistake."

Morales did not have time to speak. His phone rang again. The number is still Bellamy's. Morales glanced at Zhang Jue and found that he was so obsessed with picking up foods with his chopsticks that he didn't have time to pay attention to him.

He pressed the answer button, and Bellamy's voice came through, "How's it going? Is he still there? Is he having a tantrum?"

"Uh, about that… "Morales really did not know how to describe the situation in front of him to Bellamy. Is it possible to say that Advisor Zhang not only did not lose his temper but also invited himself to taste the Chinese cuisine together?

Morales stammered, and Bellamy was a little impatient, "What is going on?"

"The situation here is rather complicated, Mr. Bellamy. Why don't you come and see for yourself?"

"Rubbish!"

Hanging up the phone, Morales found himself with a small plate in front of him at some point, containing the same sauce as Zhang Jue was holding.

Zhang Jue used a new pair of chopsticks to pick up a piece of something he had never seen before and put it on the plate, "Morales, this is called a maw. You must not have eaten it before. Try it! If it's not good, I'll put my head inside the hot pot and stir it."

Morales dared not eat his food but waved his hand awkwardly. Zhang Jue sighed and chucked the tripe back into his bowl, "Heh, you're just like a kid."

During the time he waited for Bellamy, Morales watched as Zhang Jue dropped plates of ingredients from the table into the pot and then ate them. Since Morales had forgotten to close the door behind him, the aroma of the hot pot flew out, and many of his colleagues were drawn to it.

Everyone looked at the strange Asian guy with Morales inside and was very surprised. But his nose and eyes could not fool anyone, Zhang Jue was eating like nobody's business, and these onlookers were drooling from afar.

Morales was embarrassed and about to close the door behind him for a moment. But then he heard Bellamy's voice coming from outside.

"What are you doing? What are you all doing? Are you done with your research? Who told you to stay here!"

Bellamy was a close friend of an O5 Council member who was on duty at Site-19, so no one dared to touch him. When they saw him coming, everyone scattered like birds and beasts.

"A bunch of lazy people!"

Bellamy came to the reception room door and was about to call out Morales's name, but he was also stunned by the sight inside. He even suspected that he had gone to the wrong place for a moment.

When did the reception room become a hotel room?

Then he saw Morales and also Zhang Jue, the Advisor who was eating there. Although Bellamy had never met Zhang Jue, as a senior member of the Foundation, he had seen Zhang Jue's profile countless times. He knew Zhang Jue's face when he saw it.

Seeing this sight in the reception room, he finally knew how complicated the situation was. As Morales had said, it was more complicated. But he quickly returned to normal.

However, Zhang Jue didn't recognize him and saw him standing in the doorway. He kept staring at what was inside, seemingly very hungry.

"If you don't mind, come in and have a couple of bites." Zhang Jue said.

Morales hurriedly gave Zhang Jue a wink, but Zhang Jue didn't understand what he meant.

Bellamy narrowed his eyes, "Advisor Zhang, who gave you permission to eat here?" It turned out to be someone with high authority.

Zhang Jue laughed and burped, "No one told me I couldn't eat here either."

Bellamy's face instantly darkened, "Advisor Zhang, please look carefully. This is Site-19, the Foundation headquarters, not a place for you to fill your taste. Please state your identity!"

Bellamy had the backing of an O5 Member, and he was assertive and spoke with a self-imposed authority. But Zhang Jue had faced O5-12 head-on and was not the least bit intimidated, so how could he be intimidated by his words.

"I thought you already knew my identity." Zhang Jue was lying on the sofa, his head resting on his hands, "B-class personnel, Level 4 Security Clearance. As for the title, currently a Special Advisor of the Foundation. Oh, I forgot, last month, the Foundation seems to have promoted me to be an A-class personnel. And who are you? What authority do you have?"

Zhang Jue turned his words back, rendering Bellamy speechless. He was an O5 member friend and held real power. But in terms of rank and authority, he was definitely no match for Zhang Jue, who had been specially hired by the Foundation.

But Bellamy would not be easily angered by Zhang Jue and do anything out of the ordinary. He just looked at him grimly.

Zhang Jue was not affected by him at all and laughed, "I know that some of the senior management of the Foundation does not want me to come here and even want to take me in. But is it really no one wanted to treat me good here? Since the Foundation has hired me as a Special Advisor, and you are on board this same boat as mine, I am afraid that it is too late to regret it at this time."

Morales looked at Zhang Jue with frightened eyes.

I'm afraid he was the only one in the world who dared to talk like that.

"I don't care whose dog you are. Please go back and tell your master that I'll give them another hour, and if they still don't let me see SCP-682, then I'll go find it myself. Let's be clear. This is a place I'm not familiar with. So, don't blame me if I go the wrong way and make a mess out of it in my way. After all, I'm a Foundation Advisor. What bad intentions can I have?"

"Zhang Jue, don't be so arrogant." Bellamy's eyes were sharp, like a hawk, "Don't think that I can't deal with you just because you're a Special Advisor. At Site-19, I-" Bellamy was just about to let loose some harsh words when suddenly the phone rang.

"Hello, it's me, my lord. He…. well, I know." Bellamy looked at Zhang Jue again. His eyes no longer had a murderous aura in them.

"Lord O5 agreed to see you." He said.

Zhang Jue spread his hands, "Can I ask which one?" Bellamy wouldn't even answer his question.

"Go, and you'll know yourself."