"Tap, tap, tap..."
The sonar pinged rhythmically, and the submarine's dim green lights flickered.
Under everyone's grave gaze, Roman opened to the final appendix and quickly began reading.
She was renowned throughout the world's underworld, and a single glance was enough for her to read the entire appendix. Yet despite having prepared herself, she looked lost when she finished.
Carson coughed. "So how do you explain this appendix? It's a news release you wrote in advance, isn't it?"
"Judging by the handwriting, I probably wrote it." Roman blinked and came back to herself. "But I have no memory of it. Where did you get these documents?"
"The secret Bioelectric Object Containment Facility beneath the Collection Facility," Xia Lun said. "More precisely, we found this Secret Document on the Security Supervisor's bookshelf."
"But the timeline makes no sense."
Roman spread her hands.
"Even if I did write this appendix, its contents suggest I wrote it after meeting Manhunter. But by the time I met him, the secret facility had already sunk and the Security Supervisor was long dead. How could he have collected my draft news release?"
"So you entered the Collection Tower after the secret facility sank?" Xia Lun asked.
Roman nodded. "Yes. The day after it sank, to be precise. I worked that out from communications with our mole inside."
"Hold on." Carson cut in. "What do you mean, it had already sunk before you arrived? The secret facility sank along with the Collection Facility!"
Roman fell silent for a moment, then raised a finger and waved it.
"Carson, that makes no sense. If the secret facility was intact, why did you stay at the Collection Tower?
"Shouldn't you have gone straight to the secret facility to retrieve Code 18? At the very least, you would have contacted someone