Merlin arrived at the core area of Ten Thousand Armies’ base here under Porter’s guidance.The so-called core area is a central area of four square kilometers in the center of Ten Thousand Armies’ base. Although the base was not completed yet, a high wall had already been erected in the core area, and there were a large number of frame buildings of different heights inside the high wall. These frame buildings were all modular building units that Ten Thousand Armies procured from Oskia which could be put to use in the shortest possible time after being assembled quickly. However, these buildings were only a temporary transition. Once the permanent base was completed, these buildings would gradually be dismantled and eliminated. Porter led Merlin to a six-story building. At this time, rapid renovation had been completed in the interior of the building. Although the construction site was still in full swing outside, there were basically no traces of construction inside. A few m
547 had long hated the organization that controlled his destiny, and he had been hoping that Charlie could find the location where his own line of dead soldiers was stationed so that he could rescue his wife, children, and family members at the same time. So, he naturally would provide his full cooperation to Merlin.Merlin nodded, and without talking too much nonsense, he went straight to the point and said, “The immediate task at hand is to find a way to determine the location of your residence on the map. Before that, I wonder if you have any valuable clues that you can share with me?”547 shook his head and said, “Chief Lammy, to tell you the truth, I’ve been thinking about this issue for a while, but the organization is extremely cautious and didn’t leave me with any valuable information at all.”Merlin smiled slightly, took out the major natural disaster data that he had sorted out, and asked him, “547, how old are you this year?”547 hurriedly said, “Chief Lammy, I should pr
“Was the water salty?”547 thought about it for a while and then frowned as he said, “Well... I really don’t remember clearly. After all, it’s been too long, but as far as I can remember, it seems that at that time, there were some white residues on the ground and clothes. Could that be the salt precipitated from the seawater?” Merlin nodded and said, “There is a high probability that’s salt. If so, what you experienced at that time could be the Indonesian tsunami. The reason for the flooding was because the earthquake triggered a tsunami, and many surrounding countries were also affected by the disaster, including your place of residence.”Having said that, Merlin circled two areas on the map and said, “From this point of view, your location may be in the west of South Asia or in the eastern part of Southeast Asia.” Merlin then saw a few more entries of the data and muttered, “The epicenter of the tsunami in Indonesia has also experienced earthquakes in recent years but of a low
“In a coma.” 547 said truthfully, “When we are about to go on a mission, we will first take a medicine that puts us into a deep coma. We will already have arrived at the location when we wake up.”Merlin asked again, “How can you be certain that you took a plane every time you went out, then?”547 explained, “I would ask my wife to help me calculate the time every time I go out on a mission. Although our time is not accurate, the error is not too big with a relatively short timeline.”“Each time I go out on a mission, the time that I can’t grasp is the round-trip distance. I can record the time for the execution of the mission accurately, so every time I go back, I will check the time with my wife and use the time she had recorded minus the time I used to execute the mission to calculate the time spent on the round trip. Under normal circumstances, no matter where we go on a mission anywhere in the world, the time we spend on the round trip would not exceed six or seven days. This s
“Mexico?!” After hearing Merlin’s analysis, 547 asked hastily, “Chief Lammy, do you mean that when we go to the United States to perform a mission, the plane will land in Mexico first before entering the United States by land?”“Yes.” Merlin nodded and said, “This is the most reliable method, in my opinion. The other methods are too difficult. Since they are transporting dead soldiers by plane, they must have a landing site. Neither the United States nor Canada will allow the dead soldiers to bypass customs and enter the country secretly, and only Mexico has this condition.”547 asked puzzled, “Wouldn’t the plane need to go through customs when it enters Mexico?” Merlin explained, “A plane has to go through two levels. The first is air traffic control, and the other is customs. Air traffic controls the plane before it lands, and customs controls the passengers and cargo after the plane lands. In the world, no one can hide the whereabouts of a plane completely unless he does not w
Merlin hurriedly said, “Mr. Porter, it’s not difficult to investigate the aircraft entry records, but can you ensure that your investigation channels are a hundred percent safe?”“No worries.” Porter nodded and said, “Ten Thousand Armies’ information channels have a high level of secrecy. In addition, we have many firewalls, so you can rest assured, Chief Lammy.”Merlin nodded slightly and said, “By the way, Mr. Porter, I also need to sort out the information on all incoming cargo planes.”“No problem.”***Soon, a densely packed document was delivered to Porter. This document recorded the information of all flights entering Mexico in the five days before the New York incident. As the majority of inbound flights were small and medium-sized aircrafts, there were only a small number of aircraft accounted for in the range of more than fifteen thousand kilometers. Therefore, there were less than a hundred flights in total after the sorting out. Among the less than a hundred flig
Speaking of this, he paused slightly and added, “Chief Lammy, this aircraft seems to be prepared for global maneuvering, and coupled with the characteristics of that mysterious organization, I think the series of inferences that you’ve made, including this result, are all correct! This is the target that we’re looking for!”Merlin nodded. “I also think it is!”Porter could not help but exclaim, “Chief Lammy, you’re amazing. You can lock in on the plane used by the other party in such a short period of time. This mysterious organization probably would never have dreamt that they would be discovered so quickly!”Merlin said earnestly, “It’s mainly because of 547’s presence. With him around, he was able to gradually help me lock in on clues while also helping me cross-compare the information at the same time.”“This organization certainly didn’t expect that any of their dead soldiers would survive, and they wouldn’t have expected that their dead soldiers would leak any useful key info
At this time, Charlie had already returned to Providence.Claire attended her class on time as usual while Charlie stayed in the presidential suite of the hotel alone as he waited for news from Merlin.Although Charlie was the benefactor who had saved Merlin’s life, he admired Merlin from the bottom of his heart.He admired Merlin’s careful thinking as well as his meticulousness and ability to find breakthroughs in places that no one else thought of. It was this ability of his that created his reputation as a famous Oskian detective. His idea of trying to use the clues from huge natural disasters to gradually locate the location of the dead soldiers was indeed very practical, in Charlie’s opinion. Therefore, he believed that after Merlin met 547 in Syria, it would not take long for Merlin to gradually clarify the clues. Merlin did not disappoint Charlie either. His phone call to Charlie instantly lifted Charlie’s spirit. After answering the phone, Charlie’s first question to
However, Jimmy realized something important even as he sighed in relief. "Wait, Mr. Wade… I know I should settle things in the family Stateside, but won't I be arrested upon arrival?""That's Julien's department," Charlie chuckled and turned toward the man. "Tell your butler not to send the evidence to the feds. If it has reached them already, ask to have it back and tell the feds they saw nothing."Julien promptly nodded. "I'll text him right now. You have nothing to worry about, Mr. Wade."Jimmy remained worried. "But sir, I think Nate's not going to let this slide. The man is cunning—he deliberately dug a pit so we'd fall into it, and he gathered all the dirt he could on us to be used as leverage when necessary."Charlie shook his head. "That's no big deal. Julien can make sure that you're fine even if the feds get the evidence."Julien nodded nearby. "Don't worry, Mr. Wade. The decision remains in your hands, either way. Just say the word, and it's 25 to life… otherwise, not e
The fact that Jimmy was a partner in Ares LLP already meant he had skill, while Matilda had herself been retired for years and definitely had lost her touch a little. So, having someone like Jimmy who had stayed on the frontlines all this while would definitely be no issue.And in turn, it was a good thing for Jimmy as it was better than the kennels either way.Charlie then asked Jimmy pointedly, "You say you're interested, but are you sincere about it?"Jimmy nodded without hesitation. "Yes, absolutely!""No regrets? We're talking about ten years here.""None, absolutely none!""Do you know what to say if anyone asks?""Yes, of course! I chose to further my career here in Oskia, and it was absolutely voluntary! That's what I'd say even if my family asked!"Charlie nodded. "Good. Then, you will have two weeks. Go home and set your affairs in order and report in for work afterward.""No problem!" Jimmy nodded repeatedly, actually surprised and grateful that Charlie would let hi
And yet, Julien was suddenly clapping his hands, and exclaiming excitedly, "Yes, right! We should get his wife and son over too for a happy reunion!"He then paused and quickly corrected himself, "Wait, no! I mean, they should each be caged with one empty cage separating each of their cages. They can see each other and talk, but there will be no touching. How dare he flex on me—I gotta teach him a lesson to remember!"Jimmy dropped limply on his rump, and Matilda beckoned for Paul to help him up while turning toward Julien as she pursed her lips. "Please, Mr. Rothschild… Even if you don't accept his apology, don't bring his family into this. It's against Oskian tradition—you'd insult your family's name!"Julien shrugged, not hesitating to retort, "What do your traditions have to do with me? If I mean to hurt him, forget his family—I'll drag his dogs over too!"Seeing that Julien was so furious, Charlie decided to stop him, or he might actually go through with it."That's enough, J
Holding up a thumb at Charlie, Julien exclaimed in approval, "You're right, my friend! That's far more exciting than having him jailed!"Just hearing that he would be sent to a kennel, Jimmy knew nothing would come of it—even if he didn't know the details, it was so obvious that Julien was thrilled by the very idea!Turning nervously toward Charlie, he was sobbing as he asked, "Mr. Wade…? What's this about a kennel…?"Julien chuckled coolly even before Charlie said a word. "A kennel is where you keep dogs, of course. Though there are literal dogs and metaphorical dogs, and you are the latter."Oh, don't worry. It's a really nice place where you get your own cage, and you'll be fed every day. You don't even have to work, so just sit tight and keep eating until the day you die."Jimmy's soul left his body in that instant.He was going to be locked in a cage?! That was way worse than being locked up and sent to jail! Where was the humanity around here?!Even as the thought struck h
Matilda was actually caught off guard by Jimmy's pleas, and even Paul found it hard to watch.Turning to Charlie, he said, "Please, Mr. Wade—my uncle can be a little despicable, but he is my father's brother. Please, let him have a chance to turn over a new leaf, seeing that he's earnestly repenting."While Paul spoke with Charlie, Jimmy was still confused and wondered why Paul would plead his case with Charlie instead of Julien. If there was anyone Paul should ask, it was Yolden since he was Julien's friend. So, why would he ask some young man instead of Yolden?That was when Charlie asked in curiosity, "You want to let him off? After he tried to take away your parents' legacy?"Paul smiled awkwardly. "I mean, I know the guy. He made sure to travel all this way to make a scene because he had nothing legal that could help him claim Smith Group Corporate Law from us. Otherwise, he'd have already filed the lawsuit in the States. Sure, it's a dirty move, but that's basically a des
As Julien finished, he realized something was wrong and turned toward Charlie before he knew it.Charlie held his gaze in turn, his expression quizzical and amused.Julien cleared his throat right then. "See, there are people who can order me around, but they have my utmost respect. However, a third-rate lawyer like you? Who do you think you are?"That was when Julien's butler called, and he reported respectfully as soon as the call was answered, "Sir, I've spoken with Nate Ellis, the owner of Ares LLC. He has since agreed to fire Jimmy Smith right away as well as disbar him nationwide."Julien asked, "Good. Anything else?""Well, Mr. Ellis also delivered some documents that can be used as evidence against Jimmy Smith, which he claims is enough for a lifetime sentence. If you deem it necessary, we can have it sent to the FBI.""Yes, let's go with that!" Julien replied, his tone satisfied. "And ask the director to handle it personally—I want this prick to never set foot stateside
Jimmy was sweating profusely in fear, but he argued back before he knew it, "That's impossible! Everything you say is bullshit! Gaiman simply thought he had a fair chance of winning and didn't want to pay Ares that much, and I have no idea who he partnered with, and I'm certainly not involved. Don't you try to slander me!"Nate chuckled. "Come on, Jimmy. We're all adults here, so there are things we shouldn't have to be so direct about. Mills Gaiman and your old classmate met in private many times, not to mention the private conferences you three had in secret, discussing your overall strategy and decisive points. Just so you know, Gaiman recorded every conversation, and I have the tapes with me."Jimmy's heart was left pounding as he blurted, "B-Bullshit! That's impossible!""Grow up, Jimmy," Mr.Goodman chuckled. "Every partner in every law firm always strives to rise higher, so I'm going to need as much leverage as I can. Otherwise, I'm not about to let them advance any further, e
Although the ringtone and vibration frequency were the ones Jimmy always used, this call somehow felt more urgent, leaving him exceedingly uneasy.When it abruptly stopped and left a missed call on his log, Nate Ellis soon sent a text: [Answer your damn phone this instant!]Just seeing the text left Jimmy feeling like his throat had gone dry, and as he gulped, it felt like his throat was being ripped, leaving him hurting.Still, he couldn't care less as his boss called again.Having seen the text, Jimmy didn't hesitate this time and promptly answered, watching Julien's smug face as he started tentatively, "Y-Yes, boss...?"Nate immediately yelled at him hysterically, "What the hell did you do?! Why did the Rothschilds call to complain about you?! And the complaint was from their heir apparent, at that! I worked hard for them and always toed the line for years, and I still haven't gotten a chance to meet the man, so how the fuck did you upset him?!"Jimmy's heart sank to rock bott
Fuming, Jimmy snapped at Julien, "If you insist on playing it like that, I will call my boss, and you can talk to him yourself!"Julien chuckled. "That's unnecessary. I've never met him. He would never recognize my voice."Jimmy laughed and nodded despite himself. "Impressive—you can really come up with anything! You don't have his number because he's beneath you, you refuse to call him because he's beneath you, and when I say I'll call him for you, you say he won't recognize your voice. Well, how do you suppose we should sort this out? At least prove you're a Rothschild, or anyone could claim that they are—"Julien held up a hand to stop him. "Then, how about this? I'll ask my butler to talk to your boss."Jimmy laughed even more loudly as if it were the best joke ever. "Hahaha!!! Butler, you say?! You really know how to talk! Alright, I'll wait and see what your 'butler' can do… I mean, what you can do. We'll see whether my boss calls me!"Julien ignored him and whipped out his