Chapter 1474: The Looming Trouble
In the building of East Asia Group, the police came and went on the elevator. Many employees of the group cast curious looks at the police officers, guessing which executives committed a crime.
Thanks to the sound insulation of the conference room, no one knew that their chairman had died, except for the secretary who first found the body and the top executives at the company.
In the conference room at the scene of the crime, Xing Bian from the Security Bureau was frowning. As he stared at the body restored from the holographic image, he seemed to be thinking about something.
A man in a black jacket walked in from outside the meeting room and spoke.
“The autopsy report came out. There is a high probability of suicide.”
Captain Xing did not look up. He just asked casually, “What’s the reason?”
“According to the autopsy report, we did not find any drugs in the deceased’s body, nor did he have other people’s fingerprints or residues like hair.” s.h.i.+ Jin continued, “According to the elevator monitoring footage, there was no suspicious person who took the elevator to reach the floor on the same day except for the executives working on the floor.”
There was also evidence in the holographic footage.
Inside the suitcase at the conference table, they found a holographic video of Liu Zhengxing talking to a man with a blurred face.
In that video, Liu Zhengxing asked the “faceless man” to do something for him.
Although the specifics did not appear in the video, judging by the explosion that Academician Lu encountered some time ago, it was obvious that Liu Zhengxing was contacting the killer.
At this point in the case, there was no suspense. All the evidence pointed to the result of Liu Zhengxing’s suicide.
Last night, they received news from the Munic.i.p.al Public Security Bureau that the notorious “Blood Hands” Chester was killed in a car accident.
“Blood Hands” had always been the subject of many investigations by their security bureau, not only because he might be related to the bombing in the Malacca urban agglomeration a few days ago, but also because of his close friends.h.i.+p with Ruzas on the N-177 flight. The two were wanted by Interpol at the same time.
The murderer was dead, the matter was revealed, and suicide in fear of the crime was excusable.
However, Xing Bian still didn’t believe that a person who had the courage to hire a murderer would actually commit suicide in fear of crime. From the perspective of criminal psychology, this didn’t make sense.
Especially since they didn’t find any information about him from Chester.
“Remember the robot turmoil at No.001 on 17th Street last night?”
No.001 on 17th Street was the address of Lu Zhou. Although this matter was kept secret from the outside world, it was not a secret to them.
After hearing Captain Xing’s words, Agent s.h.i.+ frowned and thought about it for a long time. He then said in an uncertain tone, “Do you mean… the a.s.sailant may be a robot?”
“It’s just a hypothesis, because I don’t really believe that this person chose to commit suicide.” After a pause, Captain Xing continued, “I heard that a virus is circulating on the black market; one that can tamper with the underlying logic of robots. People use it for theft, robbery, and even murder.”
Although there had always been things to modify the underlying logic, it was done around some less sensitive places, such as changing the personality of the robot and so forth.
As for making robots capable of killing and learning to steal…
Those who claimed that they could do this were either lying or delusional.
It wasn’t until the last few months that Xing Bian heard about it and handled some cases of robot-related crimes. It was in these few months that he heard from an informant about the virus that could modify the underlying logic of robots.
“The perpetrator may have used a bionic person. After killing Liu Zhengxing, he faked a suicide. This will explain why we can’t find any fingerprints on his body, and from the surveillance video, the frequency of robot cleaners entering and exiting this floor is still very high.”
s.h.i.+ Jin said immediately, “I’ll have someone go and investigate all of the robot cleaners in this company!”
“This is fine, although I think it may be useless. Since their attack is over, they would never keep the tools of the crime here. At the very least, they would replace the memory chip of the robot.”
The memory chip was the essence of a robot.
A robot with a different memory chip was of no use, even if they were to catch it.
“But the incident last night was also a bit strange. Strictly speaking, the robot should have an advantage in force. They were able to fight against the hijackers on flight N-177, but when attacking Academician Lu, they seem to be unable to fight back at all.”
Captain Xing grinned and said with a smile, “I know what you mean. It’s about what happened to those robots on flight N-177, right?”
Detective s.h.i.+ nodded. He looked at Captain Xing solemnly and spoke.
“Academician Lu feels a little weird… I feel that he may know something we don’t, especially when it comes to robots.”
The door of the conference room suddenly opened, and an agent of the Security Bureau came in from outside.
“Captain, someone has reported a crime.”
“Report?” Xing Bian raised his eyebrows. “Reported to me?”
As the Security Bureau, they were mainly responsible for maintaining homeland security; ordinary criminal cases were not within their jurisdiction.
Unless this criminal case happened to someone with a certain influence.
For example, Academician Lu. After learning about his attack, the Security Bureau immediately set up a task force to investigate the details of the bombing.
“It was the city police who transferred it to us.” The agent said solemnly, “The informant refused to disclose too many details and insisted on seeing you.”
“Then let him come to see me. No…” Xing Bian looked at the holographic body on the conference table and the pool of blood. “Let him stay at the police station, I’ll go meet him.”
…
City police station.
In a room about 30 square meters, a skinny man was pacing restlessly around the room.
Suddenly, the sound of footsteps came from outside the door.
The moment he heard the footsteps, the man’s nerves tightened, as if he had been frightened in some way.
The door opened, and a group of people walked in and stood in front of him.
Captain Xing, who was standing at the front, looked at him up and down and asked, “So, you are Liu Zhengxing’s personal lawyer?”
“It’s me! I’m Zhang Minghua!” Zhang Minghua nodded nervously and said quickly, “Chairman Liu told me that if he has an accident, I must find a way to contact the Security Bureau and pa.s.s on a message.”
Agent s.h.i.+, standing next to Xing Bian, spoke first.
“What is the message?”
“The Spirit of The Universe Foundation!” Lawyer Zhang shouted out crazily. He said with a look of horror, “They killed Chairman Liu, they must have done it!”
“The Spirit of The Universe Foundation?” Detective s.h.i.+ frowned after hearing this guy’s nonsense. “What are you talking about—”
However, Xing Bian’s expression became serious. He suddenly spoke.
“Let him continue.”
Lawyer Zhang took two steps forward, grabbed Xing Bian’s arm, and said excitedly, “Chairman Liu asked me to bring a message. He contacted the people from The Spirit of The Universe Foundation before and tried to use their power to investigate Academician Lu… But the bombing went beyond his expectation. He didn’t expect them to try and kill Academician Liu.”
After listening to his words patiently, Captain Xing thought for a while and looked at him and said, “If everything you have just said is true, then you are probably in danger.”
Lawyer Zhang’s face was pale. His lips trembled slightly, but he couldn’t say a word.
Seeing this poor creature who had been frightened, Captain Xing continued, “Stay at the Munic.i.p.al Public Security Bureau for a few days. You can call off your work, but I suggest you better contactable by phone.”
“Those people are rampant. It is unlikely that they will be frantic and attack here, but if you leave, we can’t take care of you.”
After this, Xing Bian turned around and walked out of the house.
After following Captain Xing to the corridor, Agent s.h.i.+ hesitated for a while before asking, “Do you really believe his nonsense?”
“It’s not nonsense.” Captain Xing took out an e-cigarette from his pocket. He looked out the window and narrowed his eyes. “At least the name of The Spirit of The Universe Foundation was not made up.”
Captain Xing spat out the mint smoke ring out of the window without looking at his bewildered subordinate. He continued, “The Spirit of The Universe Foundation has always been a Cla.s.s A secret of the Security Bureau. I only know that they are related to two attacks that took place outside China a century ago.
“One of them was the Aurora Borealis cruise s.h.i.+p incident. The other incident occurred on the streets of Manila in the second year after Academician Lu’s death. A bombing case.”
After hearing the captain’s words, s.h.i.+ Jin’s face twitched.
The bombing in Manila a century ago…
Anyone who learned a little history knew that the meeting held in Manila the same year was widely regarded as one of the landmark events of the Pan-Asia region moving towards a union.
If what the captain said was true, that the bombing was not because of an extreme organization but was planned by The Spirit of The Universe Foundation…
They almost changed history.
“The Cla.s.s A level confidentiality is not because of its danger… In fact, they have not done anything particularly extraordinary in the Pan-Asian territory over the past century. However, there are various signs that they are not done.
“Moreover, recent events have also proved this. They are more dangerous than we thought.”
After turning off the electronic cigarette, Captain Xing looked at his subordinate and continued, “I need you to do something.”
s.h.i.+ Jin said immediately, “Please tell me.”
“Go to the University of Science and Technology of China and find a man named w.a.n.g Peng.”
“w.a.n.g Peng?”
“Well, he is a dormant from a century ago.”
Agent s.h.i.+ asked puzzledly, “Why?”
“His name appeared in the archives of The Spirit of The Universe Foundation. If my speculation is correct, he was the first group of intelligence personnel to track down The Spirit of The Universe Foundation.”
After a pause, Captain Xing continued with a serious tone, “We know too little about The Spirit of The Universe Foundation. We don’t even know how far they have penetrated our society.
“In order to solve this trouble, we need his help.”