Chapter 29: "Brainstorming"

With a relaxed spirit and a warmer, more open attitude toward Victor, Michael continued:

"It is a pleasure to get your unconditional trust. You are also my trusted comrade and friend. I may not be perfect, but I'm not the guy who's ready to betray anyone I love and respect. I only promise things that I know I can deliver."

"By the way, having said that, I have a slightly subtle question: Have you ever betrayed the trust of someone you hold dear before?"

"Huh? That..."

"I'm just kidding. Those who knew you a long time would have put all their trust in you as I did, I think. I really think that no one is perfect, not even god. Sometimes there will be things that make us from the righteous track, as long as we still maintain our good nature, believe in the cause, and turn around and start over after all. Some things in life can't go our way, so making mistakes is inevitable, as long as we don't let ourselves break bad."

"That is a correct point of view."- Michael smiled.

"You are a person with a strong belief in justice and reason, a man with good character. I believe that even if you go down the wrong path, you can still get up, find a way to correct your mistakes, return to an honest path, continue to nurture the good ideal of justice, and protect the world. But I remind you first, don't delay our arrangement for some objective reason, I hate being allowed to climb the tree."

"Don't worry, there is no delay. Well, keep reading."

"Okay.- Victor continued- '...Second, find and protect the people on the list, because their lives will most likely be put in jeopardy by 'the one they all know all along' when I'm not around them, if you ask them they'll tell you who it is. This is a warning to anyone reading this because if someone keeps the letter it means his life is no longer guaranteed'..."

The part when Victor got goosebumps as he skimmed the names listed in the letter, exclaiming:

"The list is full of 100 names. Who are they?"

"People with the same background as Linh"

"Wait, you mean... are they all 'Elite Descendants'?"

"Right. I have been confirmed that by Linh."

"Unexpectedly, I couldn't believe it was real.

Victor fixed his eyes on the letter, only looking at the lines that read "the one they all know all along", muttering:

"Hmm... Who is 'the one they all know all along' in the end? Why does Linh want us to protect them from that guy?"

The part when Victor turned and elbowed Michael lightly, pointing at those words, wondering:

"The letter was full of compound names. First names are all written in English, but regarding surnames, keep the Vietnamese surnames."

"They are overseas Vietnamese living and working abroad. That's why they all have English names in their first names, the surnames are preserved, except removing the accents in Vietnamese."

"So have you found them yet? Where are they now?"

"According to the words 'Dear Pennsylvania', they probably live scattered across the territory of this Pennsylvania state."

Victor suddenly slapped his thigh like a clown, exclaiming:

"So we can narrow down the search considerably if what you say is true."

"Hope my hypothesis is correct."- Michael said.

"However, Linh did not specify the address of each person. This state has more than 25,000 overseas Vietnamese living, as far as I know. How can we investigate so many people?... Why didn't Linh write down the name, address, hometown, ... of each person?"

"I have no idea. In general, if there is no clue related to them, it is like finding a needle in the bottom of a haystack."- Michael looked annoyed.

"Then will we give up? If we can't find their whereabouts, it's useless, keeping this piece of paper with us won't do any good."

Michael now looked thoughtful. Seeing him like that, Victor asked:

"Why do you look so pensive?"

Hey, what if I said there's still a way to find them?

"Really? What is this?"

"Let the DCPD help us."

"What? It's a crazy idea, man. Do you really want to let them in?"

"I know this is a double-edged sword, but I guarantee my honor that it'll work."

"Your honor? Ridiculous... Okay, try giving me reasons to convince me, Michael"

"With close and extensive links with other police departments located throughout the state of Pennsylvania, with strong financial potential, and a wide network of agents, I believe DCPD can localize and search all of them within a short time, which will save time, and minimize risks for us. Think, with not enough searching equipment, clues, and time, besides, our current circumstances don't allow us to do that, we can't do nothing."

"Is that also called persuasion? I thought the fewer people knew, the better. Hey, who said we can't? I think there's still another way."

"So I'm wondering if we should give it to them? What do you think?"

"I'm not gonna change my mind. Your way is too risky. If they got their hands on it, what would happen if the information leaked out? It is not excluded that some agents will accidentally reveal information after the headquarters investigates the information of each person on the list..."

Suddenly Victor stopped for a moment, his face suddenly changed color. Michael saw something was wrong and asked:

"Hey!? What are you thinking about?"

Victor looked at the letter again, exclaiming with a bewildered expression:

" Now I know who is 'the one they all know all along' that Linh mentioned. It's Iron Head."

"What? Wait a minute... Shit! I should've thought about it earlier. That evil scumbag! Just him."

"He knows where the headquarters is, if the agent knows about the letter and uses one of them to get information about them, it will be many times riskier,

You're right, it's all for their safety. Now I change my mind, we better keep this letter, otherwise, the consequences will be very serious."

"That's right. I can't imagine what he would do if he had this letter."- Victor shivered.

"With all the DCPD agents still in shock, bewildered, headquarters in ruins, in the process of being remodeled after experiencing a zombie attack, they are not ready to come back to accept such a big case until everything is stable again, back to the original order."

"Bingo. You got the point, Michael!"

Michael thought for a moment, his expression rather wistful. Victor saw Michael's eyes light up, felt like he had come up with something, and asked:

"Hey, how can you look so excited? Could it be that you have already figured out a way?"

"I'm thinking there's no need to do that. Actually, I'm thinking about one thing: If Linh knew about them already, she would have contacted and met with them and they also knew about Linh, right?"

"Oh, that's for sure."- Victor said.

Michael circled the list in the letter with his index finger, saying:

"With the number of up to 100 people, she can't go to meet each of them because it will be easily detected by the Iron Head, then he will secretly use Linh, to track her down to eliminate each of them. Linh is not stupid enough to put himself and the other 100 people in his sights."

"Oh man, you're goddamn right."

"Then can't we rule out the possibility of finding them?"

"Can you be more specific? Even though I understand what you're saying, I still want to know more about your theory. I know you have a new theory and I believe it will help us solve the problem."

"I mean, we don't need to find them ourselves, but they would find us on their own if we understood her intentions and had the right method. That's exactly what she means."- Michael said with confidence.

"What?! That's..."

"Listen, before I talk about the theory I just came up with, I need to once again correct one thing: the fact that she didn't write down the addresses of each person is also because she considers it unnecessary and implicitly asserts. Trying to do that would only put those 100 people at risk."

"OK, got it. Please tell me your theory. Don't go round and round, I'm so impatient."

"If I were her, I would think like this: "To minimize the danger to everyone and ensure that the meeting goes unnoticed, I need a place that no one knows but me to make it become a place where all of 'Elite Descendants' gathers, and creates a private chat group for the 'Elite Descendants'. If so, when I need to meet them, I will report a point of the specific time, for example, at midnight, so everyone can get there safely, what they have to do is to be at the rendezvous point on time.'"

"Sound reasonable. In case if Linh really does that, she won't be afraid of being discovered and having to travel a lot, which helps her reduce costs, and time and encounter fewer uncertainties, risks, etc. along with many other benefits. With the suggestions recorded in the letter that Linh left, I think what you just said is also what she wants to send to us. He is so smart as if he were wearing clogs on Linh's belly. The clues are so few but still deduce Linh's intentions, turning disadvantages into advantages. If it weren't for your reasoning, I would probably still be following a rut now, ruining my job, even if I didn't give up, I wouldn't mind."

"Just occupational disease. My previous work required me to think in many different ways, sometimes I need to imagine the crime scene, the killing weapon that the crime uses,... of a few cases based on the few clues that I had. This seems all too common to me. Trust me, I don't mean to flatter myself, because that's the truth."

"OK. Where is the gathering place of 'Elite Descendants' in the end? If Linh gave me some more clues about that place, maybe we…"

"Could it be a place we already knew? Linh's mansion, for example."

Michael's words had Victor hugging his belly and laughing:

"Huh? Are you kidding? You call it a secret location? How dare she bring them to a place in the middle of what is considered the busiest street in Downest City with so many people passing by day and night, not to mention there are now many Arthur's eyes and ears monitoring the place there 24/7, who are just waiting for you to show your face will kidnap and force you to hand over the key and where to hide the evidence in that mansion opinion."

"Who knows? A Vietnamese proverb says: "The most dangerous place is the safest place". Given the current circumstances, who would have thought that such an attention-grabbing place would be a gathering place for a bunch of people with special backgrounds? Even a cautious person like Iron Head who doesn't know about the letter will think: 'Oh, this place is probably just the private residence of a billionaire, Linh, nothing special worth worrying about.' Where that was suddenly outside the scope of suspicion of not only 'Iron Head' but also all those related to Linh. With Linh's smart brain, wouldn't she think so? Do you think she wouldn't dare to do that?"

"Yeah, fair enough. Hearing you say that, I gradually became convinced. I don't have a genius deductive mind like you and a meticulous, careful calculation but also very bold in every single move like Linh. It's embarrassing."

"Do not say that. Each of us is a separate individual. You have interesting, admirable qualities that no one else has, not even me, which made me admire you. You have shown powerful points through the past events that I have witnessed, I acknowledge that."

"Don't flatter me like that! Now I must confess that I had a different view of you. Forgive me for having always doubted you. I shouldn't have listened to Thedus and had bad thoughts about you."

"It's okay, I don't mind. To understand someone takes a lot of time to interact with them, and the two of us already have that to understand each other. After a while of fighting together, I believe we understand each other better, and the relationship is also closer. Forget about the past. There are more things to worry about than that."

"Thank you. By the way, I also have something to worry about and want to tell you. It sounds a bit ridiculous, but it's possible."

"What's that? I would love to hear that. No matter how absurd it is, it's just your personal opinion, it won't harm anyone, you know."

At that time, the car carrying Michael and Victor had already traveled more than 3km. Victor was silent for a moment, lowered his head, then raised his face, looked Michael in the eye without hesitation, and said:

"What do you think would happen if Arthur and Iron Head teamed up? "

"Do you think that's possible?"

"My gut feeling told me it could happen. They have a common goal of making Linh disappear forever, and that's true. It is not excluded that Iron Head or Arthur will find the other side to agree on cooperation, in which one person does the job of searching and tracking, and the other does the job of assassination. So won't their work go well?"

"There's a high chance that two like-minded people will find each other, one of them will find the other. Who do you think will find the other first?"

"With his information network, Arthur will be the one to proactively find 'Iron Head' first, in my opinion. After all, he is the one who wants Linh to disappear the most. And Arthur will probably make an offer to cooperate with Iron Head first. Arthur can't pass up this opportunity to kill Linh once and for all. However, that's just our hypothesis. There needs to be some clue...

"No, that's not a theory anymore. I've put together the clues. The truth is that the number of times Linh was nearly assassinated at least once. I met some people who knew Linh after investigating her. Meanwhile, I transferred her to another hospital so that she could continue her treatment and also avoid Iron Head's pursuit after we first met. One of the people I met was Arthur. - CEO of the Institute. I accidentally told him that Linh's hospital was being treated because he tried to beg me, saying he wanted to visit to know her health condition.

"As expected. That's why you said you knew Arthur even though I haven't mentioned him to you yet."

"But just two days after I told him the location, Linh was assassinated again by the train. But unlike last time, I didn't get there in time to stop him. When I got there, I found Linh lying in the pool of blood on the ground and dying, and the killer managed to climb out of the window before I could see what he looked like."

"Iron Head. Just he could do that."

"I think so."

"'Set the fox to keep the geese', you have accidentally revealed to him the hospital that Linh is being treated for Arthur, putting her in danger indirectly, right?"

"Yeah. My fault. I have no excuse for that."

"Don't say that, it happened like that because you didn't know his evil nature at the time."- Victor comforted Michael- "Then what happened?"

"After that time, I always regretted and apologized, but also wondered why someone leaked information to the perpetrator. After a while of investigating the people I told about Linh's position, I discovered Arthur was the most suspicious person. Given his power and the fact that he always wanted to remove Linh from the leadership position of the Institute, it was necessary for him to entice Iron Head and coax him to cooperate with him."

"But how did they know each other?"- Victor asked.

"I have no idea. But anyway, I can be sure Arthur is the mastermind after the second assassination of Linh. It was he who told Linh's position to the agent for him. Maybe when they know that Linh is alive, they will continue to associate with each other and do everything until she disappears forever. In general, they still need each other right now. One will carry out the assassination, and the other will send information

"Then there's no doubt about it. Why didn't you tell me sooner? You even want to know what I think..."

"Sorry for hiding it from you. I want to know your opinion, after hearing it I can't be sure of it."

Victor's gaze on Michael now became different. Victor feels that Michael is affected by his occupational illness, more like a cautious and elusive person than the first time he has met since losing his memory. There are no words that can explain Victor's feelings right now when Michael tested him other than the word 'inhibited'. Victor thinks that Michael hasn't given him all his trust yet, so he didn't tell him the truth in the first place. I think:

"What's his purpose in testing me? Is he going to do this to me again? I don't know if I should continue this conversation. Actually, he's playing the role of a DCPD agent who is using sweet words, and turning a blind eye to make me do those things... "

That thought popped into Victor's mind immediately before Michael's innocent gaze. But he remained calm, laughing:

"You are the man who won. You know the things I know like you know everything about me, like someone who spent a lot of time getting information from me before I lost my memory. About that, I was a little confused."

"That's not true. We've only known each other for over a week, how can I say I know everything about you?"

"That's what I was wondering. Is it possible that you and I have known each other for a long time? A week is just the number of days I live in a state of amnesia."

"Don't think too much about it. Why don't you wait until you remember everything and verify it yourself? I like you, but that's not why I consider you an object to be exploited for information, trust me There's a lot to think about right now, bro."

"Understood. So, tell me about your actions after knowing Arthur is a freak."

"At that time I was not 100% sure it was him. But since that time, I have been more careful, no longer contacting him, but instead secretly monitoring the hospital where Linh is treated to wait for his movement, and see if he finds any way to find out the location. of Linh, and at the same time ensure Linh's safety."

"So that's why you often arrive late and leave work early for the sole reason of 'I have a home business to do', isn't it?"

"Yes, that's a bad reason, but it's all because I want you and her to stay out of trouble. I'm still waiting for the day when I can tell you and Uncle Denvy everything. It's not easy to keep this secret and responsibility in your heart."

"That reason is hard to swallow."- Victor nodded- "Anyway, what now? I think I'm good enough to handle 'this business'. This is related to Linh's safety. I cannot turn a blind eye. It was no longer a feud between him and Arthur. It is now my business. By the way, I want to repeat my request: take me to Linh."

"Hmmm…"- Michael said awkwardly.

"I know you're pretty awkward. But I really want to solve this case with you. I don't want you to suffer alone anymore, with me as Yelena's lover, I think I need to shoulder the burden of atonement for Yelena - as she wished. I say this as your comrade. But if you don't want to…"

"Okay. Why not?"

"Real…really?"

"Back then, I hadn't completely found a common language with you, so I refused. Now I know you are a very responsible person and a reliable teammate. With you, we will easily gain an advantage over Arthur and increase our chances of defeating Iron Head, exposing and apprehending Arthur to the police."

"Thanks for understanding. Don't worry, with the power we have, we will defeat them soon, I believe."

"Are you overconfident? We still don't know how much his influence is, not to mention that he is supported by Iron Head as a guardian angel, and the place where the evidence against him in court is being guarded is strictly by his people. Defeating them is not a matter that is easy to handle in a day or two, saying and doing are two different things. I need to have a clear plan, instead of just relying on the power of the EC to deal with them."

"You're right, I seem to be overconfident and look down on the other party. He's not such an easy enemy to deal with."- Victor smirked.

"First, let's go to the hospital where Linh is being treated. Let's discuss a plan to deal with them later."- Michael said loudly.

"Okay, let's go."- Victor exclaimed.

When Michael heard that, he smiled and drove on. They were only about 500 meters away from the hospital.