"Information leakage? What's going on?" Natasha looked at the document and said, "Congressmen have received a wide range of threat emails. The dirt inside, could it be that Electronic Life attacked the Federal Bureau of Investigation's information security system to obtain it?"
"The issue is, how did the FBI get this dirt?" The deputy director, sitting in front of Natasha, said, "According to insiders, the materials used to threaten the congressmen are very detailed. If it wasn't through a long-term investigation, it's absolutely impossible to gather it so comprehensively."
"This proves that the president might have been preparing for a reckoning for a long time," Natasha chuckled softly and said, "This Electronic Life has essentially saved their skins. If not for the information leakage, once the president had the time, they'd all have ended up eating prison food."
"The problem now is that the information has leaked, and everyone knows. A small fraction of fools are ready to run, but more people are still watching. They probably think the law won't punish everyone, or maybe they believe the president won't last long."
Natasha's fingers gently tapped the table as she said, "The problems in the West California Industrial Zone have indeed shaken the president's position. But after all, he saved those people on the ship and gained considerable popularity in Central State. It's too early to talk about his downfall."
"Yesterday morning, Congress urgently passed the Federal Bureau of Investigation's funding request for 'using program differentiation to build a firewall to resist information leakage.'
"What's this all about?"
"40 firewalls," the deputy director said, "each requiring roughly 13 million US Dollars for research and construction."
Natasha was slightly surprised and then said, "Congress just approved it like that?"
"Yes, it's already been approved, and the money has been received. After all, the congressmen's dirt was leaked from the FBI, luckily only to themselves. If it had leaked to the public, how would they handle it?"
"God, such a large sum of money so easily obtained?" Natasha clicked her tongue and said, "Shiller's skills haven't waned one bit. You think we should also get some?"
"If you want to do it, you should act quickly."
"What do you mean?"
"Yesterday afternoon, Congress passed the National Security Agency Director's request for 'the budget draft concerning comprehensive prevention of network intrusion and federal anti-surveillance for the third quarter of this year.' Conservative estimates place just the special funding at over 3 billion US Dollars."
"Hiss..." Natasha gasped, "Nick's speed at striking isn't slow, and his force is a qualitative leap. This almost takes up a tenth of the military budget."
"Quickly think of a way," Natasha said, "if we're late, there might really be nothing left."
"It's still necessary to use Electronic Life," the deputy director said, "The dirt threat is a tactic the FBI has already used. Considering they were previously the president's weapon, the dirt leakage seems reasonable. But we are an international intelligence department; investigating domestic congressmen is rather implausible."
"International...," Natasha thought for a moment and said, "Amazon, we can use Amazon. Falsely claiming that the diplomatic incident with Amazon and the previous ship disappearance case were all caused by spies. To guard against spies, we must establish an international intelligence verification team. How about it?"
"Not bad, but a single team might not get much funding. How about saying Electronic Life is a spy? This way, targeting Electronic Life, we can establish an information technology deciphering group, and then to ensure the linkage efficiency of these two departments, add another management group. That should be enough."
"Isn't that falling short?" Natasha shook her head and said, "That's illogical. A being that's not even human, how can it work for any human nation?"
"China," the deputy director shrugged and said, "Anything illogical, before 1991, it was the Soviet Union, and after 1991, it's China. Congressmen always have the habit of signing faster than their brains when they hear these two names."
"Let's do it!" Natasha slammed the table and said.
After lunch, Shiller brought a cup of coffee to the office, and upon seeing the document on the table, he coughed twice loudly and called over his assistant to point at the document on the table.
"This is the budget request just submitted to Congress by the Central Intelligence Agency," the assistant explained, "To prevent electronic spies from China, they need about 300 million US Dollars to establish a joint investigation team."
"I know. I wanted to ask, when did Electronic Life become a spy?"
"The Central Intelligence Agency provided an investigation report, and after reviewing it, I found it identical to all the espionage suspect investigation reports they've submitted over the past three years, only changing the pronouns to 'it.'
Shiller rubbed his forehead and said, "Natasha must have learned some bad tricks from Greed, coming up with something like this."
"This is their usual tactic," the assistant said, "Whenever there's an intelligence problem they can't solve, they claim it's the work of spies from the other side. As soon as those few letters are seen, Congress seniors will quickly shut down their brains and use their cerebellar reflexes to sign."
Shiller sighed and said, "Forget it, I won't compete with them. What about the people on that ship? Has anyone stood up to speak?"
"Not yet, and we haven't monitored any new emails either. I guess maybe Electronic Life already knows we're watching that group of people. I estimate if it drags on, it won't choose this group for action because the issue's momentum has passed, and the associated state's support has already risen, reversing the situation wouldn't attract much attention."
"It can't just let this go quietly." Shiller spun around in his chair, thought for a moment, and said, "At any time, simply dragging won't work. Even if it can't make a move from here, this period would be enough for it to plan a new conspiracy. We can't let it idle; we need to give it something to do."
"Boss." A very tall man knocked on the door. Shiller looked closely; it was the leader of the field team. The man entered and said, "The red-haired women you asked us to monitor, we haven't found anything unusual. Should we keep watching?"
"That's odd," Shiller said, "This Electronic Life isn't casting a wide net to catch plenty? Not interested in so many excellent red-haired women? Or too busy recently to explore its feelings?"
After pausing for a moment, he said, "Invite Miss Lena Luthor over."
At dinner time, in a restaurant not far from the base, Shiller pulled out a chair for Lena. She smoothed her skirt with her hand and slowly sat down in the chair, unabashedly scrutinizing the seated Shiller.
It was off-duty hours, and Shiller wasn't in uniform, just wearing a white shirt with tattoo patterns faintly showing on his arm. Lena stared at it and said, "You don't seem like the kind of person who would get a tattoo."
"Certainly not, but adults don't have much individuality. Working in the law enforcement department of this country, not having a tattoo is quite strange. I just don't want to make myself stand out too much."
Selina raised her eyebrows and said, "Then you shouldn't just randomly pick a pattern. What's the point?"
Shiller looked down at his right arm and said, "'The die has been cast.'"
"A Roman saying?" Selina propped One Hand on one side of her cheek and said, "Are you a realist?"
Shiller shook his head and said, "I just got it tattooed randomly. I originally wanted to get a Trojan horse, but that design looked a bit ugly, so I just picked a Latin phrase randomly."
Selina pressed her lips without commenting. She said, "I haven't thanked you yet—almost caused a rift between me and my brother."
"Thank yourself, Miss."
"If you're here to ask about the electronic life, I'm afraid I can't tell you anything. From start to finish, I haven't communicated directly with it, only been used by it."
"Being used proves you have value. Do you know where your value lies?"
"Because I'm a Luthor?"
"Certainly not, otherwise it would be more willing to find your brother." Shiller shook his head and said, "You are a smart and obsessive red-haired woman. That's all."
Selina frowned almost immediately, yet she still said, "You better not be mocking me, or are you trying to tell a joke about my brother's hair?"
"I swear I'm serious. This is roughly how it is..."
Shiller briefly talked about the electronic life being obsessed with red-haired women. Selina held her fork above the plate, gently tapped, and then said, "I won't sigh with you about how absurd this is. I just want to know why it thinks I'm obsessive?"
"Before we get to that, can I ask what's your entanglement with Batman?"
"In fact, there's not much."
"Then there is an unfactual part."
"You should know, my brother is called the smartest human race, he's Superman's sworn enemy. But Superman doesn't think so; Superman believes Batman is the world's smartest human race."
"So what?"
"My brother has a peculiar attitude toward Batman. He acknowledges Batman's wisdom, but can't understand how someone so smart could be so unguarded against an alien. He occasionally mutters about him."
"You fell in love with him because of this?"
"I don't love him, just feel very curious."
"You want to catch his attention?"
"I just want to conquer the one person my brother can't defeat. Superman has suffered at his hands several times, but Batman never has. Conquering him is quite a fantastic thing, isn't it?"
"I understand." Shiller nodded and said, "But now there is actually a more challenging target. You were willing to come today, so you should also guess what I want to discuss with you."
Selina lowered her head, shaking the glass in her hand, and said, "That damned electronic life tricked me, I'm not going to let it off so easily. But..."
"But what?"
"My brother warned me not to get involved in this case anymore. I can clearly feel he no longer trusts me, thanks to you."
"Do you want me to shoot him again?"
Selina looked up at him, hoping to find any hint of a joke in Shiller's face, but there was none, as if killing the master of Luther Group meant nothing to him.
"You are truly a madman."
"That must mean your judgment criteria are wrong. None of my judgments are based on madness."
"But any sane and rational person wouldn't say something like 'kill my brother for me.' Even those idiots who pursue me by any means would hypocritically advise me to get along with Lex."
"Because they all believe your value comes from your brother. But that's clearly not the case now. The electronic life is targeting red-haired women; even if he had hair, he wouldn't meet their standards. So to me, your value is higher than his. If eliminating him secures your cooperation, I don't mind doing so."
"You are a complete bastard of an agent," Selina looked at him coldly and said, "weighing value in mission standards. Wealth, status, and character don't account for any ounce on your scale outside mission requirements. When one end rises, the arrival of the bullet won't be late by even half a second."
"The God of Death has more humanity than I do; I know." Shiller pressed his hand against the table and slowly stood up and said, "But you know, from the moment the mission goal is released, 'The die has been cast.'"