The F.B.I.'s Los Angeles Domestic Terrorism Task Force is located in a long, narrow room on the side of the Federal Building. The layout here is no different from that of a normal office, except that the staff who work here carry guns.

At seven o'clock on Tuesday morning, the members of the task force were sitting, standing, or leaning against the wall. Some people are drinking coffee from plastic cups, some are already holding pens and clipboards ready to take notes. The entire task force, except for the supervisor, was placed under Zhu Yuting's control. The agents were whispering to each other.

Zhu Yuting knew what they were talking about. She had a big fight with the acting agent director, and she paid it back. This doesn't happen very often. Within an hour, word was spreading throughout the office. It wouldn't be surprising if there were rumors in the office today that she had a leg with Ambaniel.

When she stood up and spoke, the room fell silent: "Everyone's paying attention. She glanced around the office and felt a familiar sense of excitement. These people are energetic, hardworking, well-dressed, honest, and one of the best of the country's young people, and she is honored to work with them.

Now she started the assignment: "We're going to split into two groups. Peter, Jack, Sully, and Baker were tasked with verifying the public's reports on Liu Zhan. She handed out the overnight briefing sheets. Some of the questions are listed above. It can help agents sift through most of the clues and see which leads are worthy of being verified by agents or community police officers on the scene, and many people who have been reported as Liu Zhan can be quickly eliminated, such as black Americans, people who speak with foreign accents, young men in their twenties, short people. On the other hand, anyone who matched the characteristics of his appearance and was not at home during the two weeks that Liu Zhan went to work in Charo, Texas, would be visited by agents.

"David, Luis, Steve, Ashaw make up the second group. You assisted Fu Zhiqiang in verifying the public's report clues to the woman who called. By the way, some of the whistleblowers mentioned that the woman's voice appeared on the record. We've asked the host to put the news out on the show last night. "She wasn't personally involved in it, and the spokesperson in the precinct had already spoken to the producer. "So we might get a call about that message. As she spoke, she handed out another briefing sheet with different questions.

"Ral. ”

The youngest lad grinned and smiled, "I'm afraid you'll forget me." ”

"Dream on you. She said. Everyone laughed. "Ral, I want you to prepare a briefing that will be distributed to all police departments, especially the California Highway Patrol, when the time comes, and tell them how to identify seismic vibrators. She held up a hand, "Please don't joke about vibrators. Everyone laughed again.

"Now, I'm going to apply for more people and jobs. At the same time, I know you'll do your best. There is one more thing I want to explain. ”

She hesitated for a moment, considering what to say. She needed to get them to pay attention to their work, but she didn't feel like she could just say that Earth House could cause earthquakes.

"These people are trying to blackmail the governor of California. They claim to be able to create earthquakes. She shrugged, "I want to tell you that they can do what they say. But it's not omnipotent, so I'm sure I can't tell you they can't do it, and you need to remember anyway that it's a very, very serious task. She paused for a moment, then said, "Let's get to work." ”

They all sat in their seats.

Zhu Yuting left the room and walked through the corridor with light steps to the office of the agent director. The start of work officially started at 8:15, but she thought Zhu Wu must have arrived early. He guess he'd heard her gather her team for a task assignment meeting at seven o'clock, and he must have wanted to know what was going on. She was going to report back to him.

His secretary hadn't sat down at the table yet. Zhu Yuting knocked on the door of the inner room and walked in. Zhu Wu was sitting on a big chair, wearing a blazer, looking like he had nothing to do. There's only one thing on his desk, and that's a bite of whole wheat cereal, plus its wrapper. Zhu Wu was smoking. Smoking is forbidden in the FBI's office, but Zhu Wu is the boss here, so no one stopped him. He glared at Zhu Yuting hostilely and said, "If I ask you to make me a cup of coffee, I guess you will call me a sexist pig." ”

She definitely wouldn't make him coffee. Otherwise, he would have taken this as a sign of compromise and would continue to trample her underfoot. But she wanted to show a conciliatory gesture. "I'm going to get someone to make you coffee. She said, she picked up his phone and contacted the secretary of the Domestic Terrorism Unit, "Rosa, can you come to the secret service director's office and bring Mr. Zhu Wu a pot of coffee?" Thank you. ”

He still seemed angry, her friendly gesture was of no use to him, and he probably felt that it was a kind of fool for him that she had not made him coffee herself, but had someone do it for him.

His bottom line is to not let me have the upper hand.

She gets back to the point: "I have more than a thousand reports about the woman who left the tape, and we need to verify them all. Now that Liu Zhan's photo has been released, it is estimated that there will be more reporting calls. I only have nine people under my staff, and with that number of people, there's no way I'm going to verify all the leads by Friday. I need to send twenty more men. ”

He laughed: "I'm not going to send twenty people on such an idiotic mission. ”

She ignored him: "I have informed the SIOC."

The SIOC is an information center that operates in a bulletproof office in the Washington Don Hoover Building. "I guess they'll send some people over after the word gets out at headquarters, but it's just to take credit for us. ”

"I didn't ask you to inform the SIOC. ”

"I want to convene a joint counter-terrorism task force so that we have representatives from the police, customs, the Federal Security Service, and they all need a place to sit. From sunset today to Thursday, I'm going to send people to watch the areas where the next earthquake is most likely. "

"There won't be another earthquake at all!"

"I also need people to keep an eye on. ”

"The office in the precinct is not big enough. I'll have to find another place to set up an emergency operations center. I went to see the fortress building last night. ”

Located near the Golden Gate Bridge, the Yaohan Building is an abandoned military base. The officer's club was still inhabited, but there was a skunk in it for a while, and the house was full of foul odors.

"I'm going to use the ballroom of the officers' club. ”

Zhu Wu stood up, "You damn bastard!" He yelled.

She sighed, if she wanted to do this, she had to form a lifelong bond with Zhu Wu.

"I'll have to call Mr. Ambanier in a moment," she said, "and you want me to tell him that you refuse to give me the men I need?"

Zhu Wu's face was flushed with anger, he stared at Zhu Yuting, his eyes were full of murderous aura, as if he couldn't pull out his gun and beat her to death. Eventually, he said, "You don't want to be in the FBI, you know?"

He may be right, but it still hurts to hear him say that. "I never wanted to go against you, Zhu Wu. She tried to maintain a calm and rational tone and said, "But you played me a trick. After I put the Chen brothers in prison, I deserved to be promoted. But you promoted your little brother and gave me a garbage assignment. You shouldn't do that, it's not authentic. ”

"I don't need you to tell me..."

She interrupted him: "When this garbage task turned into a big case, you snatched it out of my hands and screwed it up. All the bad things that happened to you were caused by you, and now you're upset, hehe, I know your self-esteem has taken a hit, and I know you're in a bad mood right now, but I just want to tell you, I don't care about your feelings. ”

He stared at her dumbfounded, and she walked to the door. "I'll talk to Ambaniel at half-past nine. "Until then, I hope that my group will have a senior logistics officer, and that officer will have the authority to deploy the manpower I need to set up a command post in the officers' club." If not, I'll have Ambaniel call Warganton, it's time for you to act. ”

This desperate way of doing things made her feel excited. Since every step requires a struggle, she might as well fight thoroughly. She won't work with Zhu Wu anymore. In such a situation, the top management of the Investigation Bureau will side with the officials. She was almost doomed to turn over. But this case is more important than her career. Hundreds of lives are at stake. If she can stop a catastrophe and catch the terrorists, then she can retire honorably, no matter what those people think.

The secretary of the domestic terrorism task force has arrived in Zhu Wu's outer office and is installing a coffee machine. "Thank you, Rosa. Zhu Yuting said as she passed by. She returned to the task force's office. The phone on the desk rang. She picked up the earpiece: "Zhu Yuting. ”

"I'm John. ”

"Hello! Hearing the familiar voice of the radio host on the other end of the phone gives one a strange feeling, "You're so early to work!"

"I'm at home, but my producer just called me. My radio voicemail is full of calls from viewers last night, all reporting the woman of the House of the Earth. ”

Zhu Yuting should not have been in contact with the media personally. This kind of thing should be left to Kane, the media specialist in the precinct, who is a young agent with a degree in journalism. But John wasn't interviewing her, he was revealing information to her, and she was too anxious for John to call Kane.

"Any good clues?" She asked. "And guess what, two people called and left a message saying they remembered the name of the record. "