Without Daniel Fisher's reminder, Luo Xia didn't know whether he should let her in. The blonde beauty seemed to know Daniel Fisher, though, and when she saw Luo Xia, she pushed the door open and walked right in.
"Daniel, um... about what happened between us yesterday, what do you think?" the blonde beauty asked Luo Xia nervously.
Luo Xia had no idea what she meant. He didn't even know her name, so he had no idea how to answer without giving himself away.
Just then, Daniel Fisher, who had seemed to go offline, finally spoke through the Tactical Goggles. "Her name is Karen Page. She's a colleague in the finance department. Yesterday, she told me she'd found some irregularities in the company's accounts. She also thinks the company has started keeping an eye on her."
Global Consolidated Investment was a huge company with over a thousand employees. There was no way everyone in the company was involved in crime. Perhaps only a few senior executives knew about the shady business going on behind the scenes.
Karen Page was in charge of the finances, so she must have found serious problems in the accounts and stumbled onto the company's secrets. That was probably why she was being watched.
The blonde beauty seemed to be both smart and attractive. She'd sought out Daniel Fisher, a colleague in the legal department, apparently hoping for help.
Luo Xia thought it over. He didn't want to make trouble for himself just yet, so he said to Karen Page, "Why don't we talk about this after work?"
As he spoke, Luo Xia discreetly signaled to Karen Page, glancing toward the camera.
Karen Page caught on immediately. Smiling, she said to Luo Xia, "Then shall we meet at Third Road Bar on 49th Street after work?"
"Sure. See you there," Luo Xia agreed.
Hearing his affirmative reply, Karen Page seemed to breathe a sigh of relief and left the office.
Luo Xia had no intention of actually meeting her. As soon as Karen Page left, he eagerly contacted Violet through the AllSpark. "What did you just say? Some people are being sent for human experiments?"
"That's right, Commander. They're not just trafficking people. They also seem to be helping the military with some kind of biological experiments. That's why Global Consolidated Investment received so much help from the military early on and grew so quickly," Violet replied.
"You mentioned General Ross just now. Did you find his name in the company files?" Luo Xia wondered. Criminals wouldn't record the names of everyone they traded, would they? Surely they'd use code names or aliases.
"His name wasn't in the files, of course. But I found several records of them transporting human test subjects. They were headed to a research facility controlled by the military. I accessed some S.H.I.E.L.D. resources and discovered that the facility was under the control of General Thaddeus E. Ross," Violet explained.
Luo Xia fell into thought. If he remembered correctly, General Ross had appeared in the Hulk movie. But the Hulk's timeline seemed to come before Iron Man's. By now, Dr. Banner should have already turned into a monster and gone into hiding somewhere.
So General Ross was probably still conducting research related to the Super-Soldier Serum. Human experimentation was a sensitive and much-criticized subject. To avoid trouble, General Ross had likely partnered with this company, using it as a shield for his criminal activities.
The collusion of officials and business was always the dirtiest, yet most effective, way to work together.
Luo Xia set the information aside for the moment and continued questioning her. "You seemed to find something else, too. Did you find what we need?"
"That's right. I found where the real nuclear waste is. Global Consolidated Investment does have a nuclear waste recycling business, but the quantities are small, and it's just a cover for human trafficking. I found the location of the real nuclear waste. It's going to be loaded onto a ship tonight, along with the women and children being held in the warehouse."
"Heh. This couldn't have worked out better. We can take care of two things at once," Luo Xia remarked.
Luo Xia had Violet bundle up all the criminal records she'd found and send them straight to Matt. He also told him about the rescue planned for that night.
A little while later, Matt sent Luo Xia a message: "The key details of the transaction amounts are missing."
Luo Xia frowned and asked Violet, "You couldn't find their transaction amounts?"
"I'm very sorry, Commander. I found some of the records, but it seems someone deliberately deleted them recently. I could only recover traces of the data, not the complete records."
Luo Xia couldn't help thinking of Karen Page, whom he'd just met. It seemed she'd been watched because she'd discovered a problem with the account balances. Could her actions have led the company to destroy the related records?
Luo Xia didn't go looking for Karen Page right away. Instead, he used the Tactical Goggles to warn Daniel Fisher and tell him to pack up and take his family somewhere safe at once.
After today, Global Consolidated Investment was sure to be in serious trouble. Luo Xia couldn't guarantee that his acting was flawless. If anyone noticed Daniel acting strangely, his whole family would be killed to silence them. So Luo Xia kept playing his role here to buy him time to get away.
Since Daniel hadn't actually taken part in the company's crimes, Luo Xia was willing to give him a chance to start over.
Luo Xia stayed in his office until quitting time and managed to avoid any slipups. Karen Page was even more anxious than he'd expected. She was already waiting at the company entrance, and when she saw Luo Xia, she asked, "Can we go now?"
Luo Xia sensed someone watching him from behind—or perhaps they were actually watching Karen Page.
But that suited him just fine. He smiled at the blonde beauty. "Let's go grab a drink."
They walked out of the company side by side. Luo Xia hailed a taxi, and the two of them headed straight for Third Road Bar on 49th Street.
What Luo Xia found strange was that no one followed them along the way. Even though Violet had taken control of the nearby street cameras, she couldn't find any suspicious vehicles tailing them.
"Did they just give up?" Luo Xia wondered, surprised.
The taxi stopped in front of the bar, and Luo Xia followed Karen Page inside. She seemed extremely anxious, taking his hand and leading him into a private room.
As soon as they sat down, Karen Page blurted out, "Daniel, I've realized they're watching me. I don't know what to do."
Luo Xia lowered his voice. "Karen, those account irregularities you found—did you download the original records?"
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