Temptation

Jack and Roy entered the NYPD. George Stacy and Phil Coulson prepared to question them separately, each of them bringing a lawyer into the interrogation room.

"Roy, may I call you that?" George Stacy did not roar fiercely. Instead, he was quite gentle.

"Yes, Sheriff," Roy nodded.

"You can call me George." George Stacy had looked into Roy's background. He believed Roy was timid and cowardly, so this gentle approach would make it easier to earn his goodwill. What he did not know was that Roy's personality had already changed. After Jerry was killed, the overwhelming terror had instantly transformed him. Of course, there had also been the accumulated pressures of his family, his job, and everything else.

"All right, George. I'm here today to cooperate with your investigation and fulfill my duty as a citizen," Roy said.

"That's very good, Roy. Can you tell me about the day you left the country?" George Stacy asked.

"Of course. We met in the morning, had breakfast, then headed to the airport. That was it." Roy's answer was extremely simple, and George Stacy could not help frowning.

"Why did you decide to go to the Cayman Islands to start a company?"

"I heard the taxes there were very low. We were just workers—three unemployed workers on the verge of bankruptcy—so we tried to save every cent we could. My wife needed treatment. I could only thank God that her condition was so stable. If it had dragged on any longer, I didn't know what would have happened. And now that I'm unemployed, I don't even know how I'll pay for her medicine in the future." Roy's eyes began to redden.

Seeing this, the lawyer beside him said, "Mr. Roy, can you continue?"

"Yes, I can. I've already survived the hardest time. Nothing can knock me down now." Roy choked up, steadied himself, and continued, "Jack's wife left him and the children, and his eldest daughter is going to college. She's outstanding. We all believe she can get into a prestigious university. She's in Los Angeles now, and we're all happy for Jack."

"Jerry loved street racing and never had any savings. I never expected him to die in a car!"

"Roy, we believe Jerry was murdered," George Stacy said, trying to remind him.

"I don't think so. He had just bought a Mustang. With his personality, if he could go fast, he would never go slow. We warned him about this many times, but that was just who he was. Now he paid for it with his life. It's truly sad. We had already succeeded."

"All right, let's skip that topic. Continue with your startup experience."

"Sure. We didn't know what we should do. We heard people on Wall Street often got rich overnight, so we decided to try our luck. We borrowed a lot of money and barely scraped together one hundred thousand dollars."

"Who did you borrow the money from?" George Stacy hurriedly asked.

"Of course, from our coworkers. A few hundred from one person, a thousand from another, plus some of our savings and a few things we sold. Fortunately, we succeeded." Roy and the others had indeed borrowed money before, though nowhere near one hundred thousand—only ten or twenty thousand at most. But there was no way to tally it up. Even an investigation would get nowhere, because there were no IOUs. They had borrowed it through personal connections.

They had known one another for more than twenty years, and the sums were small—just a few hundred or a thousand dollars at a time. Borrowing it this way made it impossible for the police to total it up. They had also sold off a few things, leaving no records whatsoever.

"All right, but how did you make your investments? You earned so much in just a few days!"

"We didn't understand any of that. We could only follow along and buy and sell. After we arrived in the Cayman Islands, we hired an agency to register the company. Everything there was very convenient. Then we opened an account, and I asked Jack what we should do."

"He said we should watch the news and see what happened. Then we learned that Bear Stearns Wall Street Bank had been robbed, and Jack said, 'Their stock will fall, right?' Jerry and I both said it probably would."

"So we bought and sold. Maybe we were lucky, but we succeeded!" Even the lawyer beside Roy did not believe him, but Roy looked utterly sincere.

And according to the account records of Ghost Investment Company, that was exactly what they had done: bought low and sold high. Bear Stearns stock had risen and fallen because of ****'s intervention, and following it accurately could indeed make money. But the three of them were workers who had never touched this sort of thing in their lives. By all rights, they should have lost everything. Yet they had made more than four million, with 1.2 million deposited into an anonymous account that had not been touched yet.

"Roy, did you really make all those trades yourselves?" George Stacy's expression began to darken.

"Of course. Who else would help us? Just like that Wall Street Bank. Our factory's severance compensation was entrusted to them, but months have passed and they still haven't given us a cent. A lot of people are about to go bankrupt. Sheriff, I wonder whether you people handle that?" Roy looked at George Stacy and asked.

George Stacy fell silent. He was furious about that matter as well. He was a righteous police officer, but there was nothing he could do.

On the other side, Phil Coulson sat face-to-face with Jack. Jack looked calm. "Excuse me, are you a police officer?" Jack asked.

"Then does Mr. Jack Jenkins believe I'm not a police officer?" Phil Coulson asked with a smile.

"I don't know. But shouldn't you introduce yourself before questioning me? And you aren't wearing any identification. Counselor, am I entitled to question his identity?" Jack turned to his lawyer.

"Of course, sir. You have every reason to question his identity. Furthermore, he has violated interrogation procedure. We can leave immediately and file a lawsuit against the NYPD." The lawyer stared at Phil Coulson, his tone full of threat.

But it was completely useless. Phil Coulson ignored him entirely. "Jack, tell the truth. It'll be good for you." He took out an ID and placed it on the table before Jack and the lawyer. "I'm from the Strategic Homeland Defense, Attack, and Logistics Support Agency. I'm an agent, not a police officer."

The lawyer frowned. "Sorry, but I've never heard of this department."

"It doesn't matter if you haven't. The fact that I can question you here proves I have the authority. Jack, your problems actually aren't that serious. As long as you tell the truth, I can guarantee reduced sentences for all of you—or even no prison time at all. I can also help you obtain additional funds and solve your worries. Our target isn't you. It's the technical expert behind you. What do you say?" This time, Phil Coulson chose temptation.

Lazy has been very busy lately. After Lazy's mother's surgery, Lazy had to do housework, and sadly, Lazy's exhausted back injury flared up again. It wasn't that Lazy didn't want to speak; Lazy truly needed to rest and recover. The update schedule had been planned long ago: two chapters and four thousand words a day, all for promoting the new book. Favorites have now passed four thousand, but recommendations are too few. Please bury me in recommendation votes! On the first day after release, there will normally be three updates to push subscriptions. After that, one extra chapter for every five thousand recommendation votes. Other bonus updates will all be announced before release. I guarantee they will all be completed within one month, with absolutely no delays!