Enforcer Manual
Chapter 184: Mark_1

Chapter 184: Chapter 184: Mark_1

Without precise coordinates for guidance, anyone could lose their way in this desert, especially in the dead of night.

"From the wreckage at the scene, we know that Deputy Captain Eric carried only his standard-issue sidearm, and had even stopped off for a drink at a bar in Sharp Cage Town on his way here. This suggests that he did not anticipate any combat in his initial plans,"

Lu Xiang had investigated the entire wreckage at the scene and came to a conclusion, "This suggests that the person luring him here was likely someone he trusted deeply. So much so that Eric ended up dead here, completely unprepared."

In this vast desert, even the Law Enforcers would find it impossible to investigate after the fact.

"I feel like there’s something strange about the corpse’s position."

Song Lan stood at the spot where Lu Xiang deduced Eric was ambushed, looking up at the now darkened sky.

The angle from which he was standing was where the rotary machine gun from the armed helicopter had strafed. How would a regular person react instinctively in such a situation?

They would cover their heads or chests with their hands and then dart towards the hover car.

But Eric reacted incredibly bizarrely in the face of the rotary machine gun––he had turned over and forcefully buried his right arm into the sand before collapsing from the bullet wounds, using his sentient body as cover to shield his arm.

That’s why his chest and the entire left half of his skeletal structure was shattered.

"I examined his right hand. He didn’t have any prosthetic implants,"

Lu Xiang naturally noticed this peculiar detail but couldn’t figure out why Eric was desperately trying to protect his right hand.

"He only had eye and leg tendon augmentation surgeries. All his other parts were the originals. His eye has been completely destroyed..."

For the sake of Song Lan’s mental health, she decided to not speak further about it.

Exposed with no cover, Eric’s head was hit by at least a dozen bullets from the rotary machine gun. Regardless of whatever was implanted inside, all of it was without a doubt, utterly destroyed.

"Maybe it’s this."

Song Lan extended his hand, glancing at the mark on his wrist. It functioned the same as an employee ID card, he would swipe it at the scanner in the large foyer upon going to work and leaving.

Since Eric had been buried in the desert sand for nearly a week, the skin on his right arm, which he had tried to desperately to protect, was mostly desiccated. Now, only the skeletal part lay in front of them.

If his colleagues discovered his corpse, not yet buried by the wind and sand on the second day, they would likely discern something from his abnormal position.

Unfortunately, even now, his colleagues still believe he’s simply on a business trip.

"This mark also serves as an unlock command for certain cybersecurity locks."

Lu Xiang came to a realization. Before Song Lan brought it up, it hadn’t occurred to her that this could be a possibility as the location of the mark can be determined by the user. If the user is really against the mark, they can register it on their phone instead.

The drawback is that, if the phone is lost, whoever finds it can gain a significant amount of information about the owner using the mark.

"I really ought to have you transferred to our criminal analysis division."

Lu Xiang felt that if Song Lan always concentrated on his work like this, they could have solved quite a few old cold cases. However, getting Song Lan to remain enthusiastic about his work may be more difficult than solving cases. From her perspective, it’s as difficult as inventing a perpetual motion machine.

"Ma’am, there’s actually something I’ve been keeping from you."

Song Lan covered his forehead with his left hand upon hearing this, a pained expression on his face as beads of sweat trickled down his cheek. "Using too much deduction puts a tremendous strain on my mind. If I were to use it for more than 5 minutes a day, there could be irreversible consequences."

Song Lan knew his hastily invented excuse wouldn’t hold water, but the person he was trying to con wasn’t Lu Xiang. He was betting that the latter would feel sorry for him and not overburden him with work.

This is the advantage of dating the department head.

No matter what the workload, Lu Xiang would have the final say.

Lu Xiang sighed. She had heard that when fate opens a window for you, it would also surely close a door for you.

This seemed to be personified in Song Lan.

While fate had granted him unparalleled abilities and a brilliant mind, it also reduced him to a mere layabout.

"The problem now is that in his current state, we won’t be able to extract the mark."

"At least now we know that he has hidden something in the department. I’m not sure if hackers could decipher the content within."

"The internal network used by the Law Enforcers is highly secure and difficult to infiltrate from the outside. Plus, even if the hackers could, they would not dare to cross paths with the Capital City’s Law Enforcers."

The image of the Law Enforcers in the Twelfth Nation’s capital was quite different from that in the Seventeenth District. The former could genuinely instill fear in criminals. This was evident from the fact that only a single case of grievous bodily harm had been reported there in the past month.

"What if I can somehow borrow his computer?"

"I can try."

Lu Xiang spoke reluctantly. The main issue here wasn’t a technical one, but rather the ethical implications of such an action. Wouldn’t this make her complicit in breaking the law?

Infiltrating the internal network of the Law Enforcers to steal information is a serious crime under any circumstances.

Lu Xiang, who had always valued integrity, felt her conscience prick her at the thought, but she realized it might be their only chance to uncover the truth.

The missing former leader, the lured and brutally murdered Deputy Captain Eric, the tampered surveillance footage, and the massive influx of CTEA-32; her instincts told her that these isolated events might not be unconnected, and that an unseen Black Hand might be manipulating them from behind the scenes.

She took a deep breath, "Tonight, try to steal Eric’s computer, but be careful not to be discovered."

"Don’t worry, I’m a professional."

"What?"

Lu Xiang’s eyebrows knitted together as she looked doubtfully at Song Lan, "Why are you a professional? What else have you stolen?"

"Your heart."

For a while, the desert fell into a sudden silence, even the spectating Death God Crabs froze in their tracks.

Much later, Lu Xiang had to bend over and pat Song Lan’s shoulder from behind.

If she recalled correctly, the one who made surprising remarks was supposed to be Song Lan, right?

Why was it that before she, the one being flirted with, had time to blush, the one initiating the flirtation had already embarrassed himself enough to squatted down with his back to her, almost as if he was about to bury his face in the sand?

"Are you alright?"

"I’m fine, don’t worry about me."

Song Lan remained in the same position, "I just need a little time to figure out how to use "Biting the Dust."

For a moment, his mind went blank, and he thought of a method that he believed would perfectly distract from the previous topic.

But he regretted it the moment he said it.

Seeing the astonished look on Lu Xiang’s face, he felt an urge to do as the Death God Crab does, and plunge himself straight into this desert.

Even though this technique worked great in movies, why did the situation change as soon as he said it?

Song Lan didn’t understand, and he didn’t want to think anymore about it.

Right now, he just wanted to use "Biting the Dust" to turn back time to five minutes ago, and act as if nothing had happened.