Danny brought a team of NYPD officers to clean up the mess. Luckily, at a cemetery, the only people present were family members attending Franz's funeral and the Army honor
guard, making it relatively easy to suppress the news. Jack had originally planned to arrange for Franz's wife and son to temporarily flee to Los Angeles after the funeral, but a rather embarrassed Commissioner Reagan adamantly opposed this. The NYPD's Internal Affairs unit would now take over their protection.
Honestly, while he had a good relationship with the Reagan family, Jack's trust in the NYPD was limited. After all, the nation's largest police department was incredibly large, with its mixed crews and numerous problems. However,
considering the NYPD's Internal Affairs unit had recently undergone a purge, and given that it was Commissioner Reagan's personal arrangement, he remained silent.
Danny was responsible for transporting the injured to the hospital and ensuring the news remained under wraps for a while, as Reacher and the others planned to follow the gunman to the Queens location where the final payment would be made.
Jack removed his disguise and returned to the Federal Building with Jiejie and Hannah. Clay and Aubrey had been dispatched to Colorado by Jubal early that morning. They were to investigate New Age Technologies' Denver factory and uncover the reason behind "AM's" presence there.
Inside the operations center, Alice and a dozen analysts were working furiously. The amount of data Reacher and his team had "looted" last night was enormous. They'd pulled dozens of hard drives from the server room alone, along with a mountain of paper folders.
To sort through all this data quickly, they had to add more manpower. Jubal had temporarily partitioned off the large operations center office, allocating the back third to them. People were constantly coming in and out with thick bags of documents.
Jack placed two heavy bags on the table. They contained packaged coffee and pastries; the caffeine and sugar boosted the brain.
"Any findings?" he asked, placing a cappuccino with hazelnut powder on the table. Alice, her head buried in the pile of documents, didn't notice.
"There's some, but not much. Most of the information matches what you've already ascertained, corroborating each other. For example, regarding the security department of New Age Technology,
Shane Langston and his staff from the NYPD's Third Precinct hold nearly all the key positions, with the exception of the Deputy Director."
Without looking up, Alice slapped a list in front of Jack. He'd already seen a similar list, listing every officer in New Age Technology's security department.
She even meticulously compared it with the list of corrupt cops provided by Commissioner Reagan. Almost everyone's name was circled, except for one.
"Yes, besides Deputy Director Tony Swann, we were just attacked while attending a funeral. The killer confessed to being hired by Swann, but that's clearly a frame-up. I suspect the real culprit is Shane Langston."
"You were attacked?" Alice looked up in surprise, only to notice the Band-Aid on Hannah's face. "Honey, are you all right?"
Hannah, with the Band-Aid on, looked remarkably energetic. She pointed at Jack with a grin. "It's just a minor scratch. Some people are hurt more deeply. Jack's Hellcat is broken."
"But it protected you two, so even if it costs the price of a new car, I'll find a way to fix it." This was the Federal Building, so Jack couldn't afford to be affectionate. He could only whisper sweet nothings.
This was the difference between having a guilty conscience and having no guilty conscience. Back in the BAU, he and the chubby girl Garcia and Emily would often flirt with each other, but now in New York, he had to act like a gentleman.
This made Hannah and Jiejie smile sweetly, but Alice, who had been fed a mouthful of dog food, felt very sick. She shuddered and got to the point.
"I'm very curious why Tony Swan, who was a private detective a year ago, suddenly joined a large company and directly became the deputy director of the security department. It's obvious that his background is somewhat incompatible with those corrupt policemen.
So I carefully studied his corporate email, hoping to find some clues."
"Then?" Jack knew from her expression that she must have discovered something.
Alice turned her computer screen towards him, moved the mouse and clicked on a few emails, "You can see that almost all of Swan's emails are cc'd to his superior, Lanston, and several other security directors."
"It makes sense. They're a team, so they naturally need to share information. What's so strange about that?" Jiejie was puzzled.
Alice closed the emails and opened another one. "Those aren't strange, so the rest are interesting.
Swann, however, exchanged several emails with Marlo Burns, the Director of Operations, without copying anyone, even though the content didn't seem to involve any official business at first glance."
Jack frowned as he read through the emails—they were all just casual conversations about music, and he didn't understand why Alice was paying so much attention to them.
"What's so special about Marlo Burns?" The Director of Operations is typically at the level of a Vice President, a firm member of the upper management ranks, second only to the CEO.
However, the security department of a defense company like New Era Technology is relatively independent, so it seems reasonable that Swann, the Deputy Director of Security, would have some personal connection with the Director of Operations.
But when he thought of Alice saying that Swan was just a private investigator a year ago, Jack couldn't help but think, "Is it possible that Swan was actually planted in the security department by this Marlo Burns? The purpose is to conduct some private investigations?"
"I don't know, but I know that their relationship should not be a relationship. It is obviously safer and more convenient to communicate secretly using mobile phones. There is no need for them to send ambiguous emails using a corporate email account that is monitored by the company, unless they feel that using mobile phones is unsafe."
Alice said, highlighting the key points in the content of an email.
"Here, Tony Swan wrote, 'I think you might like Jimi Hendrix's album "Axis: Bold as Love", especially the sixth one. Give it a listen and tell me what you think.'"
Jimi Hendrix is known as the god of electric guitar in Europe and the United States. Jack didn't understand this noisy pop music very well, and asked curiously, "Is there anything wrong with this paragraph?"
"Of course." Alice snapped her fingers, and an analyst quickly handed over a thick file, "Axis: Bold as "Little Wings," the sixth track on the album, is "Love."
This is a document you found in the office of the Director of Operations, Marlo Burns, related to a defense project called "Little Wings."
She flipped to the middle of the document and pointed to a line with a dollar amount. "This is the largest single defense contract New Age Technologies has ever signed, a nine-figure sum, almost ten figures."
Jack was overjoyed and quickly took the document and flipped through it, but then felt a little disappointed. It was just a memorandum, without any specific details about the "Little Wings" project, or even what kind of weapon it was.
However, the memorandum stated that the project had completed final testing and had been demonstrated to important figures in the military and Congress.
Jack's eyes quickly scanned a list of unfamiliar names and unexpectedly spotted one that looked familiar.
"I think I've heard of this senator."
He was about to say something to Hannah and Jiejie when the cubicle door suddenly opened and Jubal, looking nervous, appeared in the doorway. "Jack, something might have happened to your friends."
An urgent news report flashed on the big screen outside. Just now, a house in a deserted neighborhood in Queens exploded. Multiple NYPD units were dispatched, but the casualties were currently unknown.
(End of Chapter)