Thomas was at Tony Stark's villa. His boss did not often go to the company, preferring to stay in the workshop at home. Especially after a holographic system had recently been installed, he had thrown himself completely into it. He believed the holographic system was still incomplete.
Arriving outside the workshop, Thomas pressed the doorbell. Tony Stark turned to look at him. "Thomas, it's best not to disturb me while I'm working. I assume you know that!"
"Of course I do, sir. But an NYPD captain just called. A case requires your assistance, and he believes it may involve Artificial Intelligence," Thomas hurriedly explained.
"Oh?" Tony Stark stopped working. He had indeed been intrigued. Rising to his feet, he walked to the door and opened it, looking at Thomas as he asked, "It really involves Artificial Intelligence?"
"That's what he said. He also hopes to meet with you. I don't know whether you're willing to see him," Thomas asked cautiously.
"Of course. Since it involves Artificial Intelligence, I'll meet him. Someone has actually managed to develop Artificial Intelligence? That interests me greatly. I've never been able to perfect Jarvis's cognitive logic program. It isn't a true Artificial Intelligence system. If someone has truly succeeded, I wouldn't mind studying it for reference," Tony Stark said excitedly.
"Understood. When would you like to meet him?" Thomas asked.
"Tomorrow. Oh, right, you said it was the NYPD?" Tony Stark turned back and asked again.
"Yes."
"Oh, have my plane prepared. We'll leave in an hour and meet at their headquarters tomorrow morning!" Tony Stark's home was in California, but he was already too impatient to wait. He intended to fly straight to New York in his private jet.
Thomas hurried off to make arrangements, then called George Stacy. "Captain, Mr. Stark has agreed to meet with you. He has already arranged for his private plane and will be flying to New York shortly. He'll meet you at your headquarters tomorrow morning."
"That's wonderful. Please convey my sincere thanks to Mr. Tony Stark for his assistance. I'll be waiting for him at headquarters tomorrow." George Stacy hung up, a faint excitement rising in his heart. This case was undoubtedly a major one, yet it had not caused a nationwide sensation so far. The bank had suppressed the spread of the news in order to protect its reputation.
Tony Stark was highly enthusiastic. He truly put aside the work at hand and flew directly to New York in his private jet. After checking into an upscale hotel, he still enjoyed a vibrant nightlife, but at ten the next morning, he arrived at NYPD headquarters.
"Thank you very much for coming, Mr. Tony Stark. You're an outstanding citizen..." George Stacy did his best to flatter him. The man's status was truly extraordinary. He could be suspicious, but he could not show it. Otherwise, if Tony Stark refused to cooperate, he would be unable to make any progress.
Tony Stark's self-willed personality had long been deeply ingrained. "Don't say that. I'm not interested in hearing those things. I only want to know about the Artificial Intelligence."
George Stacy had been interrupted, but he did not mind. As a captain, he had met all kinds of people. "Of course. Please come with me. We can sit down and talk it over slowly." Rather than taking him to an interrogation room, he invited him into a reception room. Even the chief's privately stored coffee was brought out.
"This is what happened. Two days ago, there was a bank robbery, but this robbery was completely different from the previous ones. Before taking action, the robbers cleared out the police presence around the bank and blocked traffic in the surrounding area, leaving only their own route unobstructed. The robbery itself also went incredibly smoothly. They knew everything about the vault keys and passwords, and afterward, they left behind a great deal of evidence pointing to an inside man!" George Stacy was quite good with words, making the story sound exceedingly suspenseful.
That brief account contained quite a lot of information. Tony Stark listened carefully, then looked up at him. "An inside man?"
"Yes. At the time, a security guard was in the bank's surveillance room. He said the electronic lock had been locked and he could not open it. Neither the landline nor his cell phone could make calls, and the surveillance feeds were nothing but static. Yet when our technicians inspected the systems afterward, they found no problems whatsoever. But I can't find any motive for the guard to commit the crime, and New York's traffic monitoring center found no traffic congestion at all. They only learned about it after our dispatch center requested support."
"So you suspect someone used advanced technology to attack the bank and the monitoring center?" Tony Stark had heard enough to understand.
"Yes. At first, we suspected there were insiders on both sides. Although we couldn't find a motive for the bank employee, all the other evidence pointed to that security guard, making him the prime suspect. The other suspect was the bank manager, but after extensive investigation, neither of them had any motive. The emergency calls that drew away the police had all been made from the monitoring center's landlines. At the same time, their internal surveillance footage was deleted, and the surveillance feeds around the bank were also tampered with during the crime."
"But we found absolutely no trace of whoever did it. So I gathered all the technical personnel and asked them to consider whether it could be done through technology alone, without any insiders. They said it was theoretically possible, but they didn't know who could accomplish it. If we had to name one person, it would be you!" George Stacy cautiously tested him. The words "only you" carried a deeper implication.
Tony Stark analyzed his words. Though the account was not entirely comprehensive, its meaning was already clear. The bank's supposed insider had been exposed too obviously and had no motive at all. The monitoring center was full of problems, yet there were no clues whatsoever. If they assumed there were no insiders, then the only possibility was that both systems had been hacked. That itself was not difficult to imagine, but leaving behind no traces at all was another matter.
Tony Stark showed no reaction to George Stacy's probing. His mind was entirely on the technical aspects. He considered whether he himself could accomplish all this, whether Jarvis could do it. If it truly had been a technological intrusion, just how advanced was the other party's technology?
Meanwhile, Mo Fei was monitoring Wall Street. Useful information did not arrive all the time, but opportunities always came suddenly. A phone call was converted into data, processed, and received by Mo Fei. "Hm? I didn't expect the first useful piece of information to be something I created myself?"
Before you continue