Fantasy Game: Infinite City

Chapter 547 Suspect Tracking (6)

Forty minutes later, it was twelve fifty-five.

The case of Fabron has been solved, so there is no need for Frank and Liz to follow up anymore. Moreover, Fabron has a considerable social influence, and neither of them wants to be pushed to the forefront, so they didn't even attend the police press conference. However, because of Fabron's second son-in-law, they still went back to the police station and visited the forensic laboratory.

The other party was more approachable than they had expected, not engaging in excessive conversation. Upon learning that Frank and Liz were the true heroes of solving the case, they expressed their gratitude. Furthermore, Fabron's family was more understanding than they had expected. Although deeply saddened, they thanked Frank and Liz for finding Fabron's killer and uncovering the truth. Frank and Liz had initially expected to spend considerable time here, but in reality, their conversation with the Fabron family only took about half an hour, which was quite fast.

After leaving the police station, Lugosi kept Frank and questioned him about the details of the case. Liz refused to stay, despite Lugosi's request. However, since she was his daughter, Lugosi had no choice but to let her go. While Frank and Lugosi discussed the details of the case, Liz returned to her apartment, showered, and changed clothes. Around one or two o'clock, feeling it was time, she called Frank and asked for his location.

"Lugosi and I discussed the details of the case earlier. I just came back from the police station and will be home in a few minutes."

"After you've packed up, come to my house and drive my car. Adenauer might have remembered what your car looks like."

"I know. Give me 20 minutes. And while you're at it, check to see if the city's surveillance system captured the car he stole."

"Okay, by the way, Frank, have Benny copy over the surveillance videos we saw earlier so I can study them."

"know."

Twenty minutes later, the doorbell rang at Liz's house. It was Frank, carrying several takeout bags and a large backpack. He didn't know what was inside. After Frank entered the house, he first threw the large backpack in the living room, and then placed the takeout bags on the counter in Liz's kitchen.

"Eat while you read. How's your investigation going?"

"I'm careful... What does it smell like?"

"Orleans."

"I carefully reviewed the surveillance footage again and felt like something was amiss. But I couldn't pinpoint what was wrong just from the footage. So I decided to use satellite maps to check out the town in the footage. But when I looked up civilian satellite maps, I discovered a problem. Satellite images of all areas surrounding the town, including the forested area, were visible, but the town itself wasn't visible."

"Do you suspect someone did this?"

"Well, so I called my friend at the Security Bureau and asked her to help me use the government's satellite to investigate the town. Of course, I just said there was a missing person case and needed clues, without giving any specific details. But the result was the same: their satellite couldn't see the town either. So, it seems that the satellite image of the town is not unable to be displayed, but someone deliberately blocked the access, so as not to let people know about the situation in the town."

"If that's true, then the surveillance videos that Beni found were most likely fabricated or altered. I have a few friends in the Secret Intelligence Service. I'll ask them if they have any solutions."

Frank temporarily put down the chicken wings in his hand, wiped his hands, picked up his phone, and called his friend in the Secret Intelligence Service, asking them to use the military satellite to observe the situation in the town. There was no problem with the military satellite, and soon, Frank's friend sent several satellite images.

"Thanks. Let's have a drink together sometime. That's all for now."

"How about it?"

"Computer, Liz."

Liz returned to her room, retrieved her laptop, and placed it on the kitchen counter. Using the password Frank had given her, she logged into Frank's personal email account. A new message appeared: a satellite image sent by Frank's friend at the Secret Service. At first glance, it looked unremarkable. Military satellites aren't affected by heavy rain, at least not significantly, so they can see the ground relatively clearly. After a quick look, neither of them noticed anything unusual.

"I still think there's something wrong."

"You can compare it with the surveillance footage from these locations. Although the footage outside of the hospital and near the town police station was affected by the heavy rain and didn't capture much, there might be something obvious or large captured that could be used for comparison."

Although they didn't have high expectations, Liz and Frank still compared the locations captured by the surveillance footage with those captured by satellite images. Unexpectedly, they actually found some clues.

"Satellite images show that the bridge on this side of the town is broken, apparently blown up. However, according to the footage recorded by the traffic surveillance cameras near the bridgehead, the bridge was still intact at least yesterday afternoon. Furthermore, according to the footage of Adenauer, he didn't have any explosives on him, and he never even approached the bridge. So, he definitely didn't blow up the bridge. But what happened in the town that necessitated the bridge being blown up?"

"I checked the nearby government records and found no documentation of bridge demolition or reconstruction in the town. This rules out renovation work, so whoever blew up the bridge near the town definitely wasn't from the government. My friend in the Secret Service was able to send me satellite images of the town, indicating no military activity there either."

"Frank, where does this bridge in this town lead to?"

"Route 71. Almost all the cities in the northern part of the state are close to it. The roads connecting to other exits in the small town can also reach Route 71, but they require a detour of at least several hundred kilometers. So, it seems someone doesn't want the people in the small town to reach Route 71? But why does this situation seem like something that would only occur during wartime? They deliberately blew up the bridge to slow down the enemy's advance."

"But there's no military activity in the town, so it has nothing to do with military exercises. Even if there were any secret military activities, they certainly wouldn't be carried out in such a densely populated area. But now that you put it that way, it does sound like someone is preventing something from leaving the town."

"Could it be to prevent Adenauer from leaving town?"

"It doesn't make sense. We can see there were no police officers guarding this bridge. Not only this bridge, but also the other exits of the town. If Adenauer really killed hundreds of people in this town, then even if the police force in the town was not enough to arrest Adenauer, they would at least immediately block all the exits to prevent him from escaping. They wouldn't completely ignore these exits."

"Now that you mention it, I've realized a few things. Wait for me to check."

Liz could roughly guess who Frank called from the words he used. He must have called someone in the police, but Liz was not familiar with the voice, so it was definitely not the local police in Oak City.

"I called the nearest city police station, but they hadn't received any requests for assistance. If Adenauer had truly committed a terrorist massacre in the town, at least the local police station would have requested support. The fact that the nearest city police station hadn't received any notifications at all is a bit strange."

"And we haven't seen any news related to the town in the police system yet. This doesn't make sense. Frank, check the town hall phone number and call them to ask."

"We've found it and are fighting."

Frank called several times, but no one answered. He then called a few friends at the Oak City Police Department and had them try calling the town hall. Although the police number displayed on the police station's phone, there was still no response from the town. Frank then found the town police department number, but it didn't go through. He then found the town fire department number, and the town hospital number, but no one answered.

"Something must have happened in the town. Even if there really was a terrorist act, if the city hall phone line is not working, the police station should still be able to get through. Even if the police station was attacked, there are still the fire station and the hospital. It's impossible that no one would answer the phone at all the important places, unless the town was bombed. But we saw on the satellite imagery that the town is intact."

"So something serious must have happened in the town, causing it to be completely paralyzed. This situation must be the reason why someone blew up the bridge. They were indeed trying to prevent something from leaving the town."

"The only person we know who knew the inside story of the town was Adenauer, who was there at the time. I think he might have known some huge secret, which is why someone in Oak City tricked him into revealing his whereabouts. They wanted to use the Oak City police to catch him, but they probably didn't realize that Adenauer was no ordinary person. So, in order to increase the speed and intensity of the pursuit, they might have deliberately modified or fabricated a fake surveillance video to confuse the public."

"If this is the case, then Adenauer must have known something extraordinary. Now Adenauer's wanted warrant has basically spread throughout the entire state. It's only a matter of time before the police investigate these surveillance videos that Beni found. If they take the information in them as true, then the alert level of all nearby cities will immediately increase... Wait a minute!"

"What's wrong Liz?"

"If the town was completely paralyzed, who discovered that Adenauer had caused a riot and escaped from the prison van? I don't think Adenauer was responsible for the town's paralysis. If the town had no ability to release information about Adenauer, then why was his whereabouts suddenly leaked after arriving in Oak City? Someone like him wouldn't make such a low-level mistake."

"Also, there's something fishy about those police officers killed by Adenauer in the surveillance footage. Although their clothes and equipment are standard, their movements don't resemble those of police officers at all. Instead, they resemble those of some specially trained special operations force. Also, why are there so many police officers in such a small town? We saw at least dozens of heavily armed officers in the surveillance footage. I just checked the town's police force, and there were only a dozen or so. Where did all these people come from?"

"These surveillance videos must have been heavily altered. What we saw isn't true. Being able to modify all the surveillance footage in a small town in such a short period of time isn't something a few people can do. It must have been the military or some wealthy secret organization. The fact that we can see military satellite images proves it wasn't the military's doing... Frank, where was Adenauer originally going to be taken?"

"It seems to be Johor Bahru... Wait a minute, Liz, do you think it was Johor Bahru that leaked Adenauer's whereabouts?"

"If Adenauer killed the escorting police officers during the riot, then the police station where the escorting officers were originally stationed would not have known about Adenauer's escape. After all, according to common sense, the escorting party would only know what happened during the mission after the mission was completed. However, the prison van was expected to arrive in Johor Bahru at midnight or early morning yesterday. If the Johor Bahru authorities called the escorting party to inquire about the situation because the prison van did not arrive and received no response, then they might have believed that something had gone wrong with the escort mission. They might also have thought that there was a problem with the prison van, and that the prisoners might have caused or initiated the riot and escaped from the prison van."

"But the actions of the city of Johor Bahru are completely irrational. Normally, they should have immediately sought assistance from the police in nearby cities or towns. However, it's impossible for them to know the details of what happened in the town in such a short time because the town was paralyzed and unable to provide information to the outside world. But if that were the case, do you remember the news we received? How did the city of Johor Bahru know that only Adenauer was alive and had successfully escaped without any intelligence? And if they knew that Adenauer had fled to Oak City, such a dangerous person, why didn't they immediately notify the police in their own city? Instead, they only released the news of Adenauer's escape within the police system?"

"There's another very suspicious point. We've both seen Adenauer firing his guns at ceiling corners or other suitable locations for surveillance cameras multiple times in the town's surveillance footage. As a man like him, he must be very cautious, but why was Adenauer's face even captured in the town's surveillance? Even if the town's surveillance cameras may have captured these images as he was firing, some of the cameras are clearly not in the right places. For example, if we compare this footage with other surveillance footage that captured the same area at the same time, then the camera that captured Adenauer's profile should actually be inside the head of this life-size restaurant mascot. Is it necessary for a small ice cream shop to use such spy-level surveillance cameras?"

"I'm also curious why a mascot would have a surveillance camera stuck in its head."

"Right! No matter how you think about it...!!!"

A deep, deep voice with a German accent joined in the conversation between Frank and Liz. The two did not react for a moment and even said a word, but they immediately realized that there should be only Frank and Liz in Liz's apartment. Where did this third voice come from?

The two looked up and saw Adenauer standing right in front of them. He seemed to be indifferent, picking up a chicken wing from the takeout box on the kitchen counter and began to eat.

"Well, it's a little old and not baked well."

Frank slowly reached for the holster at his waist, held down the pistol, and prepared to draw his gun immediately. However, just before he was about to draw his gun, Adenauer threw something on the kitchen bar.

"Drip, drip. Drip."

It was a homemade IED, connected to the alarm clock in Liz's bedroom, and was currently ringing rhythmically. It was estimated that this IED was made in Liz's home.

"Don't move. This thing isn't very powerful, but it can still turn Liz's kitchen into part of the open living room."

Adenauer shook the disposable phone in his hand and threw the chicken wing bones into the trash can beside him.