Raymond hadn't slept well for a week since the night of May 13.

It's not that he's worried that he'll be killed by a blade popping out of a pillow or some other daily necessities, but he's just feeling heavy and stressed.

When a person believes that what he is doing is right and that his career is meaningful, he will not do so.

All the pressure will be transformed into a certain sense of accomplishment after completing some phased work, and people's mood will be relieved at these nodes.

However, when a person finds that what he is doing is unhelpful, meaningless, or even wrong, he will be painful to question himself, and the accumulated pressure will have nowhere to vent until the person's cognition, bottom line, or mental breakdown.

Raymond is at this stage right now.

Since the 13th, Lance has given him a new message every day, each of which involves a child who has disappeared from the Cyber Rehabilitation Center and a case related to Raymond.

Unlike the "Green case", what he later gave was a controversial case that Raymond handled five years after "learning to compromise", and there were behind-the-scenes deals.

The outcome of these cases, each and every one of them, is directly related to Raymond, because his role in those cases is that of "the master," rather than a passive choice made on an almost certain defeat, as in the case of Green.

At that time, Raymond was in a period of rapid rise in his career, which could be described as young and proud; The high evaluation he received and the legal fees he received were increasing at a very exaggerated rate, and it was only now that he realized that he had ...... It was at that time that he didn't care at all what the person in question thought.

As a student, Raymond felt that studying law could help people, but after becoming a lawyer, "people" became the least important element in a case.

After he took over a case, he was able to immediately use his own set of logic to calculate the approximate outcome of the case and a set of optimal solutions based on the existing evidence and materials.

If you have won some cases, you can chase and fight hard and strive for greater benefits; In some cases, where the evidence is insufficient and it is difficult to prosecute/defend, he will find loopholes, lead public opinion, and negotiate deals......

These solutions may be true, because Raymond is really good, his calculations are almost never broken, and the promises he made to the parties, the results of his predictions, all come true.

However, he has completely ignored the feelings and choices of those "people", and he has turned the trials related to other people's lives into formulas and processes, and turned them into his own court practice lessons.

And he firmly believed that his choice and approach were right, until ...... Right now.

…………

May 21, 1 p.m.

Raymond was in Lance's cell again, and it had been his daily routine for the last half month.

After sitting down, he didn't say a word.

"You seem to be tired." Lance looked at Raymond, whose eyes were bloodshot and his face had lost a thin face, and said jokingly.

"What's today's message?" Raymond didn't answer him, but asked weakly.

"He......h," Lance laughed, "do you think that when all those imps are found, I won't have any chips on hand, and you won't have to get any more information from me?" ”

"Or......" continued Raymond in a low voice, "when you put before me all the misfortunes and tragedies that have arisen for my reasons, it will be over as well, won't it?" ”

"Oh?" Lance said, "Listen to this, you don't care anymore? ”

"That's right! I just don't care! The next second, Raymond suddenly became furious, and he raised his voice and shouted, "I'm a lawyer!" Scumbags who live peacefully through self-persuasion and quibbles! What do you think? He stood up, the veins on his forehead bulging, he stared at those bloodshot eyes, and pointed at Lance, "You know! It's my kind of person who will continue to live like this! And become a federal justice! And you...... It's not far from death! ”

Lance looked at Raymond quietly, and after he finished yelling and sat down exhausted, Lance said slowly, "It seems that you are under a lot of pressure......" He paused, and changed his words, "This is a good thing, it shows that you still have a conscience." ”

"Don't talk nonsense, what's the message today......" Raymond adjusted his breathing as he asked back to the question, because he really didn't want to talk to Lancedo anymore.

Although Raymond didn't know much about Lance until now, he was sure of only one thing - the more he talked to him, the closer he got to being driven crazy.

"Today's information doesn't need you to interpret it, you just need to 'do it'." A few seconds later, Lance replied.

"Hmph...... What if I refuse? Will I die from brushing my teeth too? Raymond replied unceremoniously.

"Huh...... Not really. "But you're going to lose a chance to 'get back to where you started.'" ”

"Hah!" Raymond laughed too, "What are you doing here?" Engaging in pyramid schemes? Or do you think our conversation is something like a mutual aid association for abstinent? ”

His attitude was expected by Lance, so Lance ignored it, and just continued: "After you went out for a while, you told them that I didn't give you any information today, but I made a deal - 'As long as they agree to give me a real global live broadcast, a public trial, I will tell everything I know in one go after the trial...... Including information about the missing child, information on the anti-cross, secrets of various resistance groups around the world, etc., all confessed', you say, I will give them three days to think about it, I will not see any visitors during these three days, and you will come back to me after three days after discussing the final result.

"As for you...... Please take three days off and stay at home on the grounds that you are too stressed and in poor health......"

After hearing his words, Raymond thought for a moment, and then continued: "So what you want me to do is to take three days off in addition to passing the word?" ”

"Yes." Lance nodded.

"Do you think I'll believe it's that simple?" Raymond asked again.

"Of course you won't believe it, and even you don't believe it...... Carmen wouldn't believe it. "So, after you tell her and the other fools what I told you today, she will surely let you do what I say to you, do what I say, and then spy on you...... If nothing else, for the next three days, even if you go to, you will be closely watched by at least three FCPS monitors. But it doesn't matter, it's the ...... Whether you're dealing with me or Carmen, there's only one way to go, unless...... You are hiding part of what I said to you today. ”

"I know what you're doing...... You don't have to think like that, I tell you, I won't hide a word, including your last few words to help me settle the score, and I will also make it clear to Moleno and them. Raymond said, turning and knocking on the cell door, calling out to the guards.

After he left the cell, Lance collapsed leisurely on the bed, looked at the ceiling, and said to himself: "There are no three hundred taels of silver here, it must be a person like you......"

…………

On May 14, Raymond began his three-day vacation.

For safety reasons, Raymond's family, as well as the families of several Hague City bigwigs related to this case, had all been transferred to other counties as early as the day after the death of the head of the Rutte branch, so he was alone in his home for the past few days.

Yesterday, after leaving Lance's cell, Raymond did not say to others that "Lance asked me to take the holiday", in fact, he hid everything Lance said yesterday about giving himself a rest, only about the transaction, but in the end, he still took three days off.

Even Raymond himself couldn't tell why he did this, maybe it was intuition, maybe it was rebellion, or maybe Lance subtly gave him some psychological hints in the conversation......

But in fact, judging from the results, there is no difference, because Carmen still sent someone to spy on him.

For Carmen, not even knowing the message that Lance gave Raymond a three-day leave did not prevent her from being suspicious of Raymond's actions.

Carmen knew from the beginning that Raymond was a crucial pawn in this game, and he seemed to be on the side of the Federation with no chance of betrayal, but if he didn't keep an eye on it, it was hard to say what Lance would do with him.

Coupled with the fact that Raymond's mental state has not been stable in the past week, this makes Carmen pay more attention.

And just like that, two and a half days passed, and nothing happened.

Because nothing happened, Carmen "invited" Raymond to the local FCPS branch.

Carmen would have been relieved if something had happened during this time, but now, she was uneasy...... She didn't think anything had happened, but something had happened, but she didn't notice it.

So she put Raymond on a lie detector......

Carmen knew Lance too well, so the first question she asked put herself into a trap: "Did you hide something from Lance?" ”

Raymond could only answer "yes", he was not a trained agent after all, and he was not capable of fooling a polygraph machine.

Carmen then asked, "What are you hiding?" ”

Raymond could only tell the truth that Lance had asked him to do the matter of taking three days off.

This answer passed the lie detector, but not Carmen.

For Carmen, there are two doubts here: First, why would Raymond lie about such an innocuous matter? Second, is that all? Impossible, right? Not necessarily, right? Is he hiding something else? Now the answer is not the smoke bomb that Lance taught him to use to deal with polygraphs? Or does he already have the ability to fool a lie detector and control the outcome at will?

Carmen is caught in a logical loop, with too many assumptions and unverifiable possibilities making her reasoning ability a burden, and she completely loses her trust in Raymond.

And Raymond ...... As mentioned earlier, he himself couldn't explain why he wanted to hide it, and he was already under a lot of pressure in front of the polygraph, and inevitably ended up in anger and gibberish, which made his confession untrustworthy.

…………

On the morning of May 17, after a night of tossing and turning, Raymond walked out of the FCPS branch base in the Netherlands with a tired face in his suit and tie.

Although Carmen no longer believed him, he was the federal chief prosecutor and actively cooperated with the FCPS investigation, just because he didn't make it clear about an innocuous matter, and it was impossible to convict him of anything, so they had to let him go.

Of course, the surveillance of him will continue, and this is made clear to him.

However, the agents responsible for escorting him home, including Carmen, ignored one thing - from the evening of May 16 to the morning of May 17, when Raymond was invited to the FCPS division to "have tea", the surveillance of his home was interrupted.

Even though the surveillance devices were still on, there was no one in front of the screen at that time.

What would happen if one or more well-prepared people arrived at Raymond's villa that night and quietly installed some covert signal blocking and transceiver devices around the villa, which was not being watched?

…………

Two o'clock in the afternoon that day.

Raymond finished eating and showering, and was about to go to the bedroom to catch up on sleep.

Unexpectedly, as soon as he walked into the bedroom, he saw that there was an extra person on the sofa chair he usually sat on.

"Hello, Mr. Fawkes." It was a white man, looking in his early thirties; Despite his casual attire, the muscular contours and athletic shape of his body can still be seen.

"What? With so many cameras installed, you're going to send someone to look at me directly in the house? Raymond's first reaction was that this man must be an FCPS agent. Because the whole villa and even the toilet have been under the surveillance of others, it can be said that there is no dead end, if there are irrelevant people touching in at this time, the detectives who are monitoring outside have already rushed in and arrested people.

However, in the face of his question, the other party's answer was......

"The person who is watching you is watching the surveillance footage of you in the shower on a loop." The man replied unhurriedly, "After we're done talking, they'll see in the picture the footage of you walking out of the bathroom and into this bedroom a minute ago; Of course, what they're going to see then isn't me sitting here talking to you, they're just going to see you walking into the bedroom, going to bed and falling asleep......

"And when I leave, as long as you really go to sleep, our picture replacement system will automatically find a suitable editing point to pick up the real-time footage of you falling asleep, and no one will find out that I have been there."

Hearing this, Raymond's expression had changed several times, and he quickly realized that the person in front of him was not joking, and he roughly guessed the identity and position of the other party.

"You're Lance's accomplice?" This was Raymond's first guess.

"Don't dare to be a ...... The contemptible Hull Schneider is, at best, an errand runner. "Hull is now the same as the little clerk who lived in Berlin at the beginning, both physically and mentally, he is no longer what it used to be," but you ...... Mr. Fox, you're different, you're a big guy, you're important. ”

"You don't need to tell me, everyone knows that I'm the chief prosecutor of the Federation." Raymond replied coldly, confirming the route of turning and escaping with his peripheral vision, and considering whether he would have time to escape from the attack range of the person in front of him and be successfully rescued.

"But that's not why it matters to you." Hull knew Raymond's plan, but he didn't say anything, but continued, "In the past half a month, through Mr. Lance, you should have learned that the so-called federal prosecutors are just a group of slaves parasitic under the rotten system......

"Day after day, you collect a pile of evidence that you probably can't get at all, and then you go to a place full of hypocrisy and corruption to talk to a bunch of high-spirited hypocrites in suits and leather shoes, and by the way, to curry favor with a dozen fools who think they are important but are not actually bullshit (—Chapter 13 of the Judge's Volume).

"Is such a person really important?"

Raymond paused and stared at Hull for a few seconds: "That'...... Why do I matter? ”

Hull smiled: "Because you have the ability to do better, not as one federal prosecutor, but in another......

"You can abandon the things you don't believe in for a long time and pursue justice outside of the system.

"You can judge those who don't care about the laws of the Federation, or who can't control them, and punish those who are protected by the system, or who are ignored and allowed because they don't threaten the system itself......

"You can be above and beyond the set of standards you know...... A new system. ”

At this moment, Raymond only felt his heart beating violently, a strong sense of excitement accompanied by fear and a hint of anticipation, urging his veins to rush, and he followed the other man's words, muttering, "It's like ...... A mythical 'judge'? ”

"Yes." Hull nodded and replied solemnly, "That's it...... Judge. ”