hotmtlnovel Chapter 3869 The Nameless Bat (39)
Chapter 3869 The Nameless Bat (39)
Chapter 3869 The Nameless Bat (Thirty-Nine)
“Hello, John. Don’t worry, this is just a routine inquiry into the case of Abedonius’s death,” Schiller said, sitting down in front of a young man. “Of course, it also involves the President’s scandalous photos. You don’t need to be too nervous; we won’t sentence you for this.”
The young intern rubbed his fingers together nervously, biting his lip, and said, "I really had no choice. My direct supervisor is standing right behind me. My supervisor's supervisor is watching too. What can I do? If I don't do what they say, I'll lose my job. Not just anyone can be an intern at Wayne Group. I worked really hard to get this position. I don't want to lose it. I have no other option..."
The intern, John, kept repeating the same things. No matter how Schiller questioned him, he would only give these evasive answers. This quickly made Schiller lose his patience.
“Alright, sir. This isn’t a union office.” Schiller pulled two documents from under the table. “This is your resume that you submitted to Wayne Enterprises, and this is your programming assignment from college. Don’t you have anything to say?”
"I...I...Is there anything I want to say?" he stammered. "I submitted everything according to the normal procedure..."
"It's obvious that the level of your assignments during your university years does not match the level described on your resume. And the test work after the second round of interviews at Wayne Group is also different from your academic performance during your university years. This proves that you have falsified your resume and interview information."
“I didn’t!” John suddenly became agitated and shouted, “I only studied on my own during the second half of my university years! That’s why my level improved. You can’t use that to accuse me of falsifying my resume!”
“I need to emphasize a common sense point to you,” Schiller said, waving his hand at his subordinates. “The FBI base also has computers, and we have highly professional technicians. I’m also very patient; I can give you a few hours to write a security program. That way, we can assess your true capabilities.”
The computer was placed in front of John. He turned pale, cold sweat pouring down his forehead. Then, his expression suddenly changed. He pleaded, "No, I really didn't mean it. I just desperately needed this job. And they weren't checking my credentials when they hired me, so they're partly responsible. You can't make this public!"
Schiller knew, of course, how serious the charge of falsifying a resume was. If Wayne Enterprises decided to sue, the young man in front of him could very well become homeless overnight, as no related industry would hire him.
“Don’t be nervous, I didn’t say I was going to expose it,” Schiller said. “I just want to know what you did the day you took their photos?”
“I…I didn’t actually do anything.” John trembled as he said, “I had only been working there for three days, and I didn’t even know how to use Wayne Enterprises’ internal monitoring system. They just said I was a very talented person, and I…I wanted to show off, so I volunteered. But I couldn’t understand the interface at all…”
"So how did you do it?"
"I clicked on the wrong camera as soon as I logged on, and it was in a really remote spot. But I told them that in order to seize that opportunity, we had to check all the cameras beforehand. They even said I was very meticulous..."
“No wonder,” Schiller said, shaking his head. “And then?”
"After checking all the cameras, I found that the one in the center was pretty good. But I had no idea how to control it, how to focus, or anything like that. And that important person, that red-haired woman, kept urging me on from behind..."
"and then?"
"Then a miracle happened. Maybe it's because my mother is a devout believer, and she always hoped I would work for a big company. I fulfilled her wish, so God bless me..."
"Tell the important point!"
John shuddered in fright. He said, "The computer started moving by itself. The camera moved to the perfect position, and I pretended to be operating it, but I wasn't. Then it took a picture, the one that was released."
"Very good. Have you received any strange emails?"
“I don’t know, I forgot my old email password,” John said. “It seems I don’t have it after I changed to a new email address.”
The technician had him enter his email address on the computer. After some steps, he retrieved the password for his old email address and found an email there.
The email contained evidence of John's falsified resume. At the end of the email was a note: "Submit all evidence to Abidonis, head of security at Wayne Corporation, within 24 hours."
Schiller glanced at the email, then at John, who looked completely bewildered. He was certain the other party hadn't received it.
He should have realized earlier that if the photos showed the work of that cybernetic being, he would have also tried to silence Arbidonis. Because, as Barbara said, simply eliminating traces online isn't enough to ensure safety; traces in the real world must also be eliminated to truly disappear without a trace.
His chosen candidate was John, the intern who had falsified his resume. John was terrified that his secret would be exposed; if he knew that his boss's boss would have direct access to the evidence, he was indeed quite likely to commit murder.
However, Lena Luther acted first, sowing discord between the Abeddonis and Mrs. Abeddonis, leading Mrs. Abeddonis to kill Abeddonis. The unfortunate John, having forgotten his email password, never saw the email and thus escaped the control of the electronic lifeform.
Or it's possible that if Lina's attempt to silence her fails, the cybernetic lifeform will still go after John. John is his backup plan.
John's testimony and this email increasingly convinced Schiller of his suspicions. The mastermind behind all of this was the electronic ghost lurking in the network.
Then, Natasha's subsequent phone call to him completely confirmed their suspicions.
“The female assassin codenamed Eve has woken up.” Natasha’s voice was low. Schiller heard the sound of rain in the background and guessed that she was probably in a car.
“What did she say?” Schiller asked.
“I haven’t met her yet, but Gordon told me that the woman said she received an email containing evidence that she had helped a mob traffic drugs but had embezzled the drugs. The sender threatened to send the evidence to the mob boss, and she had no choice but to help him kill someone.”
“Just as I suspected,” Schiller said. “If I’m not mistaken, the Gotham Police Department’s technicians couldn’t trace the source of the emails at all.”
"Yes, and the Wayne Enterprises' technicians couldn't do it either. That kid named Drake tried too, but he didn't find anything. He said the other party might be a very skilled hacker, second only to Batman."
As she spoke, Natasha arrived at the hospital, took the elevator upstairs, and quickly entered the ward.
Although the female perpetrator has been rescued and is out of danger, she is extremely thin and looks like she won't live much longer. Perhaps she knew this, which is why she quickly confessed everything.
But there's really nothing to explain. She received a threatening email and was forced to kill for the perpetrator. After all, she was a drug dealer; killing prostitutes and their clients wasn't a problem for her. And the fact that she'd been operating in these chaotic neighborhoods for years without getting caught while dealing drugs proves she had ways of evading the police. That's why the police dragged their feet for so long. If it weren't for Nemosini's accurate profile, she might still be at large.
Natasha sighed, having gotten nothing out of him. She continued communicating with Schiller, who kept her updated on his progress.
“You’d better go find your universe’s Barbara too,” Schiller suggested. “She’s an incredibly skilled hacker, second only to Batman. She’d be very useful against potential cyber life. Gordon might disagree, but you can contact her privately.”
“Okay, I’ll give it a try.” Natasha nodded and said, “The situation here is getting more and more chaotic, I think I might need to…”
Just then, Natasha's phone rang. She answered and heard Gordon's trembling voice: "Antonio is dead! Dead in his house. Come quickly."
Natasha put down her phone and ran out, speeding to the location Gordon had given her. When she got out of the car, she found that there weren't just police officers there; in fact, police officers were in the minority, and most of the people were bodyguards in black suits and sunglasses. Clearly, the Penguin had arrived.
"...If it weren't for your torture and forced confession, he probably wouldn't have committed suicide! Our trail has gone cold. What else do you expect us to find the Eden Killer with?!"
"Torture and forced confession? Wasn't it your people who said Antonio was the murderer that I took action?! Would the Killer of Eden commit suicide?! This shows that your judgment was wrong, and you must be held accountable for it!"
Before Natasha even stepped inside, she heard Gordon and the Penguin arguing fiercely. She rushed over to mediate, but it was clearly no use. Each stuck to their own version of events, blaming the other.
Natasha had no choice but to focus on the crime scene. The crime scene was easy to understand: Antonio was lying in bed, had cut his throat with a shard of glass, and then died from blood loss.
Antonio had many scars on his body, clearly indicating that he had suffered inhuman torture. However, considering that he might have been marked as an assassin by the Penguin, it's not surprising that he was subjected to torture and forced confessions.
Natasha found it a bit strange. Although Antonio had some injuries, it was clear that the Penguin had exercised restraint, only drawing blood at most and not using any torture. Was someone who grew up under the thumb of a mob boss's brother really that fragile?
Natasha sensed something was wrong, so she moved closer to examine the body. She unbuttoned Antonio's shirt, initially only glancing at the wound on his chest, but quickly realized something was amiss.
"Stop arguing," she said to the person behind her. "There are words on his chest."
Gordon and the Penguin stopped and turned to walk towards him. They stared at Antonio's body, but couldn't discern anything. Gordon examined it closely and noticed that the wounds on the front of Antonio's body seemed to follow a pattern, but the straight lines didn't resemble letters at all.
"Shit!" the penguin cursed. "Where are the words?"
"Of course you can't tell, because this isn't English at all. To be precise, it's not an alphabetic script."
Natasha took two steps back, took a picture using the built-in camera in the battle arena, and sent it to Schiller.
Schiller paused for a moment when he saw the photograph of the wounds. As a native Chinese speaker, he immediately recognized that the densely packed wounds were overlapping Chinese characters.
Schiller took out a piece of paper and traced the characters on the screen stroke by stroke, extracting the strokes and then combining them in the most common way, finally getting five Chinese characters – “Breniak”.
Now, let's get to the main topic.