April 27, 1215 in the continental calendar.

At a quarter past five in the afternoon, Pedi appeared at the headquarters building of the Security Service.

He rarely wore the uniform of the chief of the security department, which was designed like a banquet dress, and it was so tight that even the movement of his arms would be restricted, so Pedi would not wear it so formally unless necessary.

Dozens of uniformed guards had already gathered near the headquarters building, and they were gathering in groups and whispering conversations.

Guards in charge of security are heavily armed and guard the perimeter.

When Pedi appeared in the headquarters building, the guards who were talking to him subconsciously looked at him, and when they saw the gold-inlaid lion head on Pedi's epaulettes, they quickly withdrew their gaze.

Pedi walked straight to the headquarters building.

At this moment, the low-level police officers in the headquarters building have long been cleared out, and the corridors and staircases are almost full of guards armed with steel swords.

"Step, step!"

The stiff tendon soles of the long combat boots on Pedy's feet made a regular noise when they came into contact with the marble floor.

The sound quickly attracted a squad of security guards in the lobby on the first floor.

A guard in the captain's uniform walked over briskly to check Pedi's identity crystal, and several detective mages probed Pedi to confirm that it was him.

The meeting room is on the third floor...

Pedi knew the way, but the guards in charge of the building's security still sent two people to lead the way.

A few minutes later, Pedi appeared outside the door of the conference room. After the guards guarding the gate reconfirmed Pedi's identity, the steel gate was opened with a piercing "creak".

The moment he opened the door, a strong smell of tobacco penetrated Pedy's nostrils, making him frown.

"Sheriff Pedy, I'm waiting for you!"

The voice was familiar, it was Gus El's.

Pedi looked towards the sound, and in the middle of the large room, a rectangular conference table with a capacity of about ten people was placed in the center of the room, and the table top was polished to a smooth surface that could reflect the appearance of the person sitting next to him.

At this moment, many people were already sitting on the sofa next to the conference table.

Gus El sat on a black leather couch, his place at the front of the conference table, and the wall behind him was carved with silver-white crystals with the sentry of the guard.

The old jazz looked at Pedy, and his mouth kept smoking on his cigar.

Pedi looked at him as well and said with a smile, "I don't seem to be late, am I?"

"It's us who came too early!" replied to Pedi by a middle-aged man.

Pedi turned his head to look at the other man...

It was Zemut, the sheriff in the north of the imperial capital.

"Click!"

The door to the conference room was reopened.

Pedi calmly glanced around, and soon found his position, and under the gaze of everyone, he walked over, and at the same time secretly said in his heart: people are not here at all.

Of the three deputy chiefs of the security department, only Hanina, who had returned from Tyre, was present, Deputy Director Gerald and Deputy Director Hurd were not present, and the four highest-ranking sheriffs, only Pedi and Zemut were present, and the sheriff of the western part of the imperial capital, Ivan Do, and the magistrate of the eastern part of the city, Len Enf, were also absent.

The most striking thing, of course, was the large couch across from Gus El, where Chief Bernie was located.

There, empty.

But Gus El said that the people had arrived, and Pedi would not refute it.

"Now that the people are here, don't waste your time. It was Nozel, the vice-president of the court, who spoke.

In such high-level meetings of the Security Service, the court usually sends one or two senior judges to observe, and of course, they also have the right to suggest and veto.

"That's exactly what I meant!" said Gus El, who placed the cigar in his hand on the silver-white ashtray in front of the table, staring at an old man across from Pedy, "Sir Malek, tell us about the progress of your case." ”

Malek, the oldest officer in the Security Service, has more police experience than anyone in the room, and his current position is the head of the Special Cases Investigation Team, with the same rank in the Security Service as Pedi.

"Ahem!" Malek coughed lightly, slowly sorting out the stack of materials in front of him under the gaze of everyone, and only after a long time did he squeeze out a sentence: "Everyone should be familiar with the extraordinarily large corruption case of the Marquis of Fett and the Ministry of War that the Cabinet and the Ministry of Finance have jointly investigated recently." ”

The elderly have a common problem, that is, verbosity.

"Getting to the point!" Hannina couldn't help but remind.

Malek's eyelids raised and glanced at Hanina, but he ignored it, he continued to slowly open a file bag: "Just the afternoon before yesterday, we received a secret notice from the Ministry of Finance, the content of the notice surprised me a little, I reported to the director as soon as possible, it just so happened that the director was about to start the internal investigation of the security department..."

"Sir Malek, said the notice of the Ministry of Finance. Gus El couldn't help but interrupt.

"Okay, Director!" Malek nodded respectfully, "According to the notice of the Ministry of Finance, Bernie, the chief of our Supervision Section, is suspected of embezzling nearly 10,000 gold coins allocated by the Ministry of Finance to the Operations Section of the Security Department. ”

"10,000 gold coins, this is the amount of funding for the entire Operations Section in the past five years...... I don't think I need to explain the mission of the Operations Section, which is the most dangerous of all the departments of the Security Service, and the officers of the Operations Section of the various police stations together die in the line of duty at least 100 people every year. ”

Malek's expression was serious: "And our Chief Bernie, the person we used to respect very much, actually embezzled their funds for five whole years, imagine it, everyone, what equipment have the officers of our Operations Section been carrying out their missions in the past few years?"

Malek's words echoed in the conference room, his serious words sounding as if Bernie was really the chief who embezzled his subordinates' funds.

But Pedi frowned when he heard this, because, in his impression, the equipment of the guards of both the headquarters and the operations section of his southern security station was brand new, and there was no problem at all that Malek had said.

Malek always likes to half-squint his eyes when he speaks, and as he speaks, he examines everyone present, including Gus El, and finally he stops his gaze on Pedi, "Also, in a secret arrest under the command of our Sheriff Pedi yesterday morning, someone leaked the information in advance, and moreover, there was also a plan to assassinate Director Gus El..."

Pedy's heart moved, and he lowered his eyelids as everyone's eyes swept over, and carefully observed the first Gus El from the corner of his eye, who picked up the cigar on the ashtray and smoked, his whole face drowning in white smoke.

Malek continued: "According to some letters recovered from the home of the first offender, Hanko, the leak and the assassination are related to Chief Bernie..."

Hanina was visibly impatient when she heard this, and she snorted softly.

"Deputy Director Hanina, you have questions. Malek's wrinkled eyes stared at Hanina.

"No!" Hannina snapped two words out between her teeth.

At this time, Nozel, the vice president of the court, also took the opportunity to say: "According to the regulations, Bernie can defend himself." ”

Hearing this, Pei Di couldn't help but glance at the old senior judge a few more times.