At 11:30 in the morning, the special investigation team office area.
Saturation assassination ans deploying far more personnel than usual just to kill one target.
Upon hearing this term, Mona and Michelle were sowhat surprised, while Iris remained noncommittal:
"Group Leader Luo An, how did you co to this conclusion?"
Luo An stood up and gestured for the three won to co over to the computer, saying:
"Before the forr agency director was poisoned, quite a few assassins appeared in the surveillance."
Pushing aside the irrelevant surveillance footage, Luo An played the tapes he had organized one by one, explaining:
"This was 26 days ago, when the forr agency director went sowhere to give a speech. Pay attention to the lower-left corner of the hall."
Mona, Michelle, and Iris all bent down to carefully examine the image on the computer. Luo An enlarged the video, and it was only then that they could clearly see a man with a cara looking like a photographer.
The three won were sowhat puzzled, and Iris observed carefully for several seconds before asking, puzzled:
"Doesn’t this person seem normal?"
"No, this guy has very big problems."
Luo An smiled and said:
"As far as the hall at that ti is concerned, the position of this ’photographer’ is the most convenient for overseeing the entire scene and also the most convenient spot to withdraw should anything go awry.
Furthermore, this ’photographer’ has been intentionally avoiding surveillance. We can only see his profile or back, but not his true face.
In the surveillance footage before the hall, there is no image of him verifying his identity to walk in. The ’photographer’ just appeared there when the forr agency director started speaking."
These are just so of the factors. Luo An also judged that the "photographer" was an assassin based on another criterion—his gut feeling, that sense of "encountering an industry peer."
As an assassin, the most basic yet most important requirent is to be alert and aware, having an absolute understanding and control of the environnt one is in.
Luo An observed carefully the "photographer’s" actions after entering the hall. While avoiding surveillance, the person reviewed and scanned the surroundings for a long ti.
These actions might look normal to outsiders, but Luo An found them all too familiar.
A flicker of disbelief crossed Iris’s eyes; she hadn’t noticed anything unusual about the photographer.
Mona’s brows furrowed slightly; although she was puzzled, she trusted Luo An’s judgnt, while Michelle asked:
"Apart from this ’photographer,’ are there other assassins?"
"That’s correct."
Luo An called up several other tapes, introducing:
"This is the forr agency director attending a banquet, the surveillance video of him arriving at the hotel entrance. Notice the bellhop who stands not far from him and whose face cannot be clearly seen; the bellhop’s phone was filming the forr agency director the whole ti.
This is the surveillance of the forr agency director and his wife dining at a restaurant. Everyone, look at the lower-left corner at the waitress whose face can’t be seen; her phone was also filming the forr agency director."
One after another, Luo An listed six videotapes, and gradually, a solemn expression ford on Iris’s face.
A person not being captured by surveillance footage could be a coincidence.
But six people not being captured, all appearing quite abruptly, and all disappearing after the forr director left—that coincidence seems a bit too coincidental.
"I have a question, Group Leader Luo An."
After a few seconds of silence, Iris raises her hand and asks:
"If all these people are assassins, then why didn’t they take action?
Whether it’s the photographer, the bellhop, or the waitress, they all seem to have had multiple opportunities to kill the forr agency director."
Mona and Michelle looked up at Luo An, surprised and puzzled; they also had so doubts.
"There are two possibilities."
Luo An raised a finger and said:
"The first is that the people behind them did not issue orders for them to act, in other words, they were just scouts who ca out in advance to familiarize themselves with the location.
As for the second possibility, it’s quite interesting."
Luo An’s eyes narrowed slightly as he said:
"I have so doubts, whether the forr NSA agency director was really the target of these assassins."
Iris’s confusion deepened, and Mona was startled:
"Your aning is that in this case, the assassin killed the wrong person?"
Michelle’s face changed slightly:
"Could it be that the wife of the forr NSA director was the actual target of these assassins?"
"Maybe."
Without any change of expression, he glanced at Iris and did not continue speaking. Luo An patted the shoulders of Mona and Michelle and said:
"Now that we’ve found the contact information for the ’skull flower’ organization on the underworld cri website, let’s try calling them to see if we can technically track their location."
"It’s possible, but there might be so difficulties on my end."
Mona nodded and then shook her head.
If they’re an assassin organization, they would no doubt anticipate soone trying to track them through the phone, so they must have corresponding counterasures.
Mona turned to look at Iris and said:
"You at the NSA monitor federal citizens daily through phone, internet, fax, and satellite. Your technical expertise in this area must be very high, so it might work better if you handle the positioning task."
Sensing the prickliness in Mona’s words, Iris’s eyelids twitched but she still agreed and took out her phone to look at Luo An:
"I’ll contact the headquarters right now to have them send soone over."
Luo An nodded:
"OK, thank you for your efforts."
Iris moved aside with her phone to make the call, while Mona watched her from behind and curled her lips, starting to deal with the underworld cri website situation.
Two hours later, several NSA agents arrived in the special investigation team’s office area with a bunch of incomprehensible equipnt.
Once the equipnt was set up, Iris gave Luo An a thumbs-up ’OK’ sign. Luo An nodded, took the custom phone handed to him and the number Mona had brought, and dialed it.
The call was quickly connected, and a woman’s voice sounded:
"Hello, this is the ’Organic Food Chain Supermarket’, may I ask what I can help you with?"
Following the requirents posted in the advertisent on the underworld cri website, Luo An said:
"I’d like to buy so flowers, fresh flowers."
"Sure, which variety would you like?"
"Antirrhinum (snapdragon)"
Antirrhinum is the official na; skull flower is the colloquial term.
"No problem, sir."
The woman’s voice on the phone was very calm, as if she was accustod to these kinds of inquiries, and proceeded by the book:
"I’ll connect you to the flower market custor service now, please wait a mont."
"Okay."
Luo An casually replied, turning to look at Iris beside him, who was intently observing the equipnt brought by the NSA agents.
Ti passed by the second, and when the voice ca through the phone again, Iris looked at Luo An with a tense expression and shook her head.
"Hello, this is the flower market."
Simultaneously, a sowhat rough female voice ca through the phone, asking:
"How many ’skull flowers’ do you want to buy?"
Here, ’skull flowers’ referred to people’s lives.
The location had not been successful yet, and there was no enemy present, so Luo An couldn’t speak openly. With a slight shift in his eyes and so plans brewing in his mind, he asked under the astonished gazes of Mona, Michelle, and Iris:
"FBI Washington Headquarters, Special Investigation Team Leader, Luo An Greenwood."
"Please wait."
The voice on the phone said, and then fell silent. Mona stood up, a look of concern on her face, but Luo An gestured with his hand for her to stay calm.
As ti ticked by, the rough voice ca again:
"The flowers do exist, but are difficult to pick. We can’t take the order in the short term. I wonder if the client has any other targets?"
"?!xN"
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