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No matter how beautiful a rose is, you can't forget that it has thorns. Pen × fun × Pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 ｉｎｆｏ

I wanted to impress Mark and make him remember himself, but Pierre was showmanship, who wanted to be self-defeating, and now he felt that his liver was still throbbing.

The room they walked into was spacious, but in the center of the room was a huge object, making the space seem much smaller. It resembles a bulky spaceship, glowing reddish in places, and the room is relatively dimly lit.

Pierre sat in front of the "chariot" with some frustration.

The "Chariot" is a multi-screen computer, and despite its appearance, it looks like a discarded movie prop used in Star Trek, but it has a powerful "combat ability" created by Pierre.

Zhou Jia stepped on something soft and slippery, which turned out to be laundry sent by Pierre, along with plastic packaging and simple hangers from the laundry. She glanced at the closet, revealing the sleeves of a pullover under the crack in the door that had not been closed tightly, and Zhou Jia could imagine what a messy scene it was.

There were a lot of books and papers on the carpet, and the room was messy like a tornado.

Mark followed, and as soon as he entered the room, he saw the computer monster, and he was not the slightest interested in the big guy in front of him, but was firmly attracted by the other scene.

On the wall on the left side of the room hung a map of the United States, unusually marked in red circles in many places, as well as various inexplicable markings, and many photos, notes, newspaper clippings, and a whole wall full of them, almost like a wall of clues when the FBI investigated the case.

His attention quickly focused on the upper right corner of the map, where there were a few photos, because they were far away, he couldn't see clearly, and suddenly felt some indescribable surprise, he subconsciously walked to the wall, looked up and carefully identified the photos.

This person looks familiar. Mark thought to himself, trying his best to remember.

Soon, he was sure that it was the dead old man at Chico's motel, and he could tell that he was much younger in the photo.

Zhou Jiayi turned his head and saw it, and asked, "What is this?"

Pierre stood up, turned around and walked to the clue wall, he had an arm, and said with a slight smugness: "This is my method of combing through clues!"

As an adult, Pierre still pursued his dream of being a superhero in the real world. He was obsessed with street fighting, and in the street world, there was a man whose name everyone knew - Mark! This made Pierre curious, he googled Mark Smith, and there were pictures of Mark in the sporadic entry, and he couldn't believe his eyes, a man who looked like a beautiful model in a fashion magazine, it turned out to be a man! It turned out to be a street fighter. He began to gather comprehensive information and information about Mark from various sources. As we all know, the United Kingdom has the most public surveillance cameras, so he hacked into the British Department of Security in order to find possible video footage of Mark's street fight. It should be said that he does have a limited edition collector's fight footage that even Mark himself has not seen.

The previous clue wall was full of information about Mark, and if he knew, he would definitely beat Pierre, the hateful stalker, to the point that even his mother would not recognize him.

"Kryptonite!" Zhou Jia saw the photo that Pierre had shown herself, and she walked closer.

Pierre shrugged and said, "The kitten asked me to help her investigate what 'kryptonite', what clues are there, I only photoshopped a photo of the 'kryptonite' in Superman!"

Hearing him say this, Zhou Jia remembered Pierre's prank again, and she glared at Pierre.

Pierre didn't look back to feel that the eyes that shot like a throwing knife were really like a man's back, and he quickly apologized: "Kitten, I was wrong!" he stuck out his tongue and pointed to the person in the photo and continued, "The only clue is this person!"

"It was Eddie who found his body!" Zhou Jia remembered, and she stepped forward.

Pierre nodded and said, "Didn't you ask me to check on him? Why did the police investigation of him suddenly come to an abrupt halt......?

Mark interrupted him and asked, "Who is he?"

This man's name is Red Swift, and he's a senior consultant at Triumph Herald PR. ”

Mark asked, "He's a Marine?"

The photo shows Rhett Swift in military uniform, standing with several teammates, and behind him hangs a "Black Widow" who made the U.S. Army's own soldiers suffer in the early days of the Vietnam War (3).

Pierre replied: "Yes, he was a marine. After the Vietnam War, he retired and joined Triumph Company. ”

Triumph is one of the oldest PR agencies in the world, as well as an innovator and leader in the field of advertising communications.

Mark held his hand to his chin in contemplation, thinking back to Chris when he was working on industrial design in New York, because several cases had also dealt with Triumph's executives.

Pierre sighed heavily and said, "I found out that Rhett's case is in charge of a special department of the FBI, and I want to further obtain the investigation records of this case, but I can't overcome their security system!"

"What? Why? You haven't ever successfully hacked the FBI's security system before!"

"Unlike the FBI's internal security system, this department uses an independent security system, compared to which, the FBI's so-called 'highest level of security' system is simply scum!" Pierre drew virtual quotation marks in the air with the index and middle fingers of both hands at the same time, and then shook his head and said, "It's simply indestructible, I tried my best to get home." It's the hardest puzzle I've ever seen......"

Zhou Jia was dumbfounded, there are still systems in this world that "hermit monks" can't crack!

Pierre glanced back at his computer and said, "However, the tank and I haven't given up yet, and we're still cracking the system, but we need time to ......."

Both Pierre and Zhou Jia fell silent.

Mark is not a computer expert, but he can also guess from the expressions of the two of them that it will take quite a long time to crack. He turned his attention back to the clue wall, thinking to himself: since the FBI took this man named Red so seriously, there must be some secret that he didn't want the outside world to know. Moreover, Eddie said that he had a picture of 'Green Kryptonite' in his hand, and it is very likely that the secret was related to Chris's incredible disappearance.

Mark said, "Let's talk about him!"

Pierre nodded, and said: "To be honest, I don't know what to look for, first of all, I checked his work records in Triumph, and these information are all public, because of his work, Rhett often travels, and his footprints are all over the world, but mainly in the United States." ”

Triumph's mission is to provide "seamless service" to customers wherever they are in the world, with a global presence and a slogan of "Break-through".

"You see, I've found something strange...... Pierre pointed to the message, "this old man has traveled all over the world, but he is like a plague god, and everywhere he goes, something happens!"

Both Zhou Jia and Marc looked carefully at the map, and most of Pierre's newspaper clippings were negative news: terrorist attacks, murders, accidents, air crashes, fires, suicides......

Zhou Jia shook his head and said, "This is likely to be a coincidence!"

Pierre shrugged and said, "Maybe, but in terms of probability, the 'coincidence' that happened to him is indeed much higher than that of ordinary people!"

Mark narrowed his eyes, thinking about Pierre's words.

"One more thing," says Pierre, "when I first searched for Triumph on the Internet, I found that the wikipedia didn't have any entry about the company's founder. The founder of such a famous company, just by typing his name on the Internet, will produce millions of results, but George-Ketchum is as clean as a blank sheet of paper on the Internet, except for a brief introduction on the company's website, and there is almost no relevant information. ”

"But hey, don't underestimate the 'Chariot', it's made a big discovery! Found this passage in an obituary that mentions George-Ketchum and talks about the 'glorious days'. I went to the military's veteran file system to check, and sure enough, I found it...... Where's the photo?" he looked around, searched, suddenly remembered something, slapped his forehead, and Pierre ran to the printer, and took out a photograph that had been printed there.

He taped the picture to the wall with a bookspike.

This black-and-white photograph is timeless and features an officer in an old-fashioned military uniform posing in a classic pose.

"World War I?"

"Don't underestimate this photo, it's not easy to come by! George-Ketchum's military service record is also an encrypted file, but the veteran's file system is still a piece of cake for me, and the contents of the encrypted file are different from some of the information released to the public. ”

Mark nodded, motioning for him to continue.

"The outside world is known to have founded Triumph in 1923, but the encrypted documents say that he founded the company in 1919. "He worked for a financing company in New York, and then he joined the Air Force and went to World War I. After the war, he returned to Pittsburgh and founded Triumph with his brother Carlton and another partner, William Ansel, whose first pot of gold was still his old business of financing the war. ”

Zhou Jia and Mark were shocked in their hearts, it turned out that Triumph started by making war money.

Later, his brother's talents in advertising became apparent, and the company quickly grew into the advertising industry, immediately dominating the entire Pittsburgh market. George was more shrewd than most, and he reinvested what he earned into the thriving local industry, into many areas, and more importantly, they began to buy and sell land little by little, and for a while the price of land in Pittsburgh rose sensationally and skyrocketing, and they became truly wealthy. Then, in 1923, they divided the company into two divisions, on the one hand, they focused on advertising, creating a good corporate image, although it was not profitable, but it didn't matter, and on the other hand, they bought and sold, and they still financed the war, but no one knew about it. In order to beautify his external image, George Sr. deliberately downplayed his relationship with the war. ”

It's a clean deal.

Zhou Jiadao: "Every company has its own history, and even so, it doesn't mean anything. ”

Pierre was not very satisfied with Zhou Jia's idea, he said: "Kitten, where you come from, the people have always been loyal to their country, but we are not like this, when power is given to a few people, they are bound to slowly do something beyond power, this is human nature. So we understand that we have to constantly question and question our own government in order to guarantee our legitimate power. And what I just said can make people smell conspiracy......"

After hearing this, Zhou Jia was stunned, it sounded too ridiculous. She shook her head and said, "It's all your speculation, there is no direct evidence, there are too many loopholes." "And we haven't figured out what the person Rhett, or he or he and Triumph, has to do with these horrible events that you're talking about." ”

"It's my speculation, but it's a valuable suspicion. Maybe George Sr. set up a company that ostensibly did advertising, but secretly recruited a bunch of military talent, doing things related to war and death, tsk, what a wonderful conspiracy theory. ”

Silent. Zhou Jia watched Pierre immerse herself in the fantasies of government, private organizations and conspiracy theories, and she wanted to say something, but swallowed and smeared it, and her throat seemed to be frozen.

Discussion is a good thing, and it is very helpful to clear your mind.

Mark's voice became lighter, and he said, "If your theory is true—" Mark continued, "Rhett Swift must have done something and left some traces, can you find it?"

"Da Da! I'm afraid you won't ask this!"

Mark suppressed the urge to go crazy.

Pierre walked over to the computer and said shyly, "Because it's been a long time, I'm focusing my investigation on the years before he retired. The year before his retirement, he only took on two cases, one of which was when he went to Asia to work as a crisis communications consultant for a Malaysia Airlines missing airliner, MH370. ”

An image of a group of missing planes flashed across the computer screen.

Zhou Jia suddenly felt a wave of fear rise in her heart, and she remembered the missing plane, and most of the passengers on it were Chinese.

Next, Pierre opened the map and located it in Columbus, the capital of Ohio, and said: "The other is that he was working as a market research consultant for a sporting goods company, and he went there when a tragedy happened at Ohio State University. ”

All three of them focused on the webpage they had opened on their computers.

The accompanying image of the report is a photo of a "missing person notice" posted on a telephone pole documenting the disappearance and death of a member of the Ohio-State-Buckeyes football team at Ohio State University during Thanksgiving in 2014.

The man in the photo is Costa Carlagorge, a defensive line player who was a star of the Ohio State University wrestling team and only joined the football team in August, and he is affectionately known as the "Hulk" by fans. But he disappeared on the night of Thanksgiving, and shortly after the search information was released, he was found dead in a dumpster not far from his off-campus residence, the police did not disclose more details of the scene to the media, but said that the body was identified by the Hercules Atlas tattoo on his back and the Greek gods tattoo on his arm, and a gun of his own was found at the scene, and the police declared his death a suicide after investigation.

Sports are people's favorites, whether it's inspirational stories of perseverance and hard work, heartbreaking tragic stories, or fascinating stories of miracles, there is no lack of attention, so reporters flocked to report on the tragedy, some of which were thought-provoking and thought-provoking, some of which were realistic and made people cry, and some of which dug into the wall and reported negative content about Costa's suspected drug abuse, that he had been arrested by the police, that he had a big fight with his girlfriend that night...... Anyway, there's everything, but believe it or not.

At the time, there was a lot of media coverage about the incident, and the death of Costa Caragorgio was even more suspicious. One of his friends, Fada, testified that they went that night to "jump into the lake," an annual Ohio tradition of Thanksgiving night, when students come to Mirror Lake in groups and jump into the icy waters one by one. They didn't attend, just stood on a hill with a few friends, watched the crowd jump into the lake and go wild, and at two o'clock in the morning, Fada sent him back to his residence, and before parting, Costa looked normal, as usual. However, the next day he did not participate in the regular training, and Fada felt that something was wrong.

"The police concluded that Costa Carlagio's death was caused by a concussion caused by a long-term high-intensity sports crash, which caused him brain damage, and he chose to shoot himself," Pierre said.

"There are so many athletes who do high-intensity sports every day, and few of them shoot themselves in the head!"

Zhou Jia doesn't know anything about all sports, but she's a doctor and a biologist, and she asks this question.

"Guess what, the sporting goods company that Rhett Swift represents is considering signing with Costa Carlagorge. Pierre learned Zhou Jia's tone and said, "This is probably a coincidence!"

Zhou Jia gave Pierre a roll of his eyes, but stopped talking.

Conclusion: There is no discernible connection between the two.

At least not now.

Zhou Jia continued to browse the reports on the web, and the attention of the matter lasted for a week, and as the college competition continued, the conversation quickly returned to focusing on the competition.

"I searched for everything I could find, official, unofficial, and many student comments, messages, photos, ......"

Pierre clicks the mouse, and the screen keeps switching.

"Da-da! Look what I found!"

The image stops, it's a photo of Costa Carlagio at a party with friends. A typical American college campus party, except for a red disposable glass full of alcohol, is a woman, and of course there is another man in the photo, a black man.

"DLo!" Mark recognized at a glance, and he asked, "What do you mean?"

"Don't say anything else, look here!" Pierre zoomed in, and in the corner of his right hand near the bottom, there was a line of numbers: am3:05Nov/31-2014

"The report said that the last time the deceased was seen was 2:30 a.m., and the police estimated the time of death to be between 4 a.m. and 5 a.m., which is what happened in between. ”

"Uh-huh, look at the people hugging left and right, this doesn't look like a person who is going to swallow a gun and kill himself!"

Mark nodded and said, "It seems that DLo has an extraordinary relationship with the deceased!"

"And it's very likely that he was the last person to see the deceased! This photo was posted to his homepage album that night, but he secretly deleted it the next day. He thought it was deleted, but he didn't know that the photo was left in the backstage cloud drive, which didn't allow the 'chariot' to find out!"

Zhou Jia couldn't understand what they were talking about at all, and asked in confusion: "Who is this person, and what is his relationship with the deceased?"

Mark asked, "You don't know?"

Zhou Jia shook her head, she was not interested in all sports competitions, so she didn't react when she saw the photo.

Mark frowned, and said in his heart: This woman can't drive, and she doesn't know anything about sports, so she is really about to ferment in the laboratory!

He didn't answer the question and stood up.

Pierre smiled and said, "Kitten, this is D'Angelo Russell, the star of the NBA's Los Angeles Lakers!

Zhou Jia was still at a loss.

Mark walked to the balcony and took out his phone to make a call.

A woman picked up the phone and said, "Wow, it's so rare you're going to call me!"

"Jenny, I'm in Los Angeles!"

"What, you have to come to Los Angeles to call me, you can't usually call!" she complained and then asked, "What, what do you want me to do?"

"I want to go to the stadium to watch! Then I want to meet your team's big star DLo, I have something to talk to him about!"

After a moment of silence, the other end of the phone replied, "I know, I'll arrange it." After a moment's hesitation, she asked, "Isn't D in trouble? He's the only reason why Jimmy can still be the owner of the Lakers, and I don't want to upset the hard-won balance, I ......."

"Jenny, don't be so nervous, I promise you'll be fine!"

"Ahh

After a while, Mark returned to the house, and he said to the two of them, "Clean up, let's go to the Staples Center for the ball game in the evening!"