In the footage captured by the TV news helicopter, thick smoke billowed into the sky, and flames rose into the sky as a house burned fiercely.
Several fire trucks were spraying water, trying to contain the spread of the fire. As the camera zoomed out, more fire trucks could be seen en route, and sirens filled the night sky.
Jiejie looked at Jack with some concern, but he looked calm, seemingly unfazed.
As Jack applied a fake beard to his face, he said, "Have Danny run to Queens and take them to Long Island. Those guys aren't going to get into trouble
that easily. Let's first visit the home of Marlo Burns, the operations director of New Age Technology." He didn't think such a simple trap would trick Reacher.
—
Staten Island, where Danny and Clay's families lived, is to New York what Pudong is to Shanghai. Once a rural area, housing prices have skyrocketed with the city's expansion.
No matter how much the wealthy boast of a luxurious penthouse in Manhattan, they can still afford a weekend retreat on Long Island or Staten Island.
New York City is incredibly crowded, and even a multi-million dollar penthouse is far less comfortable than a suburban villa.
Marlo Burns's home is just such a small house in a wealthy neighborhood. Its two floors combined offer a generous living area of 300 to 400 square meters, a luxury for a single mother raising a teenage daughter.
"Upstairs is safe!" Hannah shouted from upstairs.
"Confirmed!"
Jack didn't need his lockpicking skills this time. He, Hannah, and Jiejie circled the house and found the back door ajar.
They spent a while searching the entire house. No one was inside, but something was amiss.
While the house looked messy, it wasn't the vandalized mess that had plagued Franz, Sánchez, and Orozco's offices.
Jack took a quick look downstairs and then went upstairs with Jiejie. The information described Marlo Burns as a 45-year-old single mother living alone with her 14-year-old daughter.
The furnishings and belongings in the house seemed consistent, with no sign of a male presence. A sweet photo of mother and daughter hung on the kitchen refrigerator, and the dining table even had the remains of dinner and a half-eaten fruit salad.
"They looked like they left in a hurry, but they didn't seem to be held hostage. They must have left on their own accord," Hannah said, standing in the upstairs hallway, holstering her gun. Behind her was a bedroom with an open door.
"Why do you say that?" Jiejie walked into the room with Jack following.
The bedroom, decorated in a pale pink hue, looked like a teenage girl's "boudoir." The walls were covered in cartoon and anime posters, and a computer desk at the foot of the bed held a dual-screen monitor.
"Kidnappers don't usually care about their victims' oral hygiene or menstruation," Hannah said, walking into the bathroom connected to the bedroom. She picked up a small white bat from the floor and pointed to the empty toothbrush cup inside.
Jack tapped the spacebar on the gaming keyboard on the table. The screen lit up without a password, and after a click, he was directly redirected to the desktop. He immediately saw the Steam page still active.
He clicked on the game library and whistled, "This is still a little 'Hannah.'"
Marlo Burns' daughter's gaming tastes were similar to Hannah's, with a collection of popular first-person shooters and action games.
The closet in the girl's room was open, its clothes somewhat disorganized. Jack glanced at it, feeling that the three of them didn't need to be crowded in there. He turned and went out, into the other bedroom at the end of the hallway.
This was obviously Marlo Burns's bedroom. The room was large, divided into two rooms. The outer room had a single bed, and the inner room contained a large closet.
This place was much messier than downstairs and the daughter's room. High heels and dresses were scattered everywhere, as if someone had packed their luggage in a hurry.
The light in the closet was still on, and Jack spotted an open travel bag by the door.
"Girls, I thought you might want to come take a look." Jack opened the travel bag and was immediately shocked by the stacks of green hundred-dollar bills inside.
"If it's reserve cash, isn't it a bit too much?" Hannah complained when she heard the noise. Although the bag was not full, there must be two or three million in it.
Although Marlo Burns was the operations director of a large company and her annual salary of one million was not an exaggeration, it was indeed a bit strange to keep so much cash at home and not take it with her when she ran away.
Jiejie, who was walking behind, was attracted by the two large boxes of jewelry on the bedside table. "These don't look like the cheap jewelry they usually wear. What made them so hasty to escape that they didn't even take expensive jewelry and so much cash?"
Jack activated his thinking skills. "Judging from the state of dinner in the kitchen, Marlo Burns left in a hurry with her daughter last night.
Reacher and I broke into the 'New Age Technology' at around 1 a.m. If we alarmed her and made her realize that the situation was not good and choose to escape, the time doesn't match.
Judging from the emails between Swan and her, I am more inclined to believe that Marlo Burns may be innocent. She may have sensed something wrong, and then arranged for Swan to be in the security department to investigate something, but was threatened as a result."
"Then who threatened her? Shane Langston?" Jiejie frowned. "He is just a director of the security department. Isn't his level not enough for someone like him who is involved in illegal arms trade involving terrorism?"
"But if it's an inside job, then the position of Director of Security would be perfect, wouldn't it? The $65 million offer is quite tempting.
After all, according to our investigation, New Age Technology has been doing quite well in recent years. If it were a decision-making body like the board of directors, they wouldn't seem to need to take such a huge risk for such a small sum."
Hannah wasn't completely on Jack's side; her analysis was coherent and well-reasoned.
"In any case, we need to find out what weapons they're dealing in. The fact they chose to attack at the funeral suggests they've realized the deal might be jeopardized, so they're desperately trying to take action.
This means our strategy is working. They're choosing to continue killing people to keep the deal going, apparently unaware that the FBI and DHS have stepped in."
"Okay, then, please allow our great detective, Mr. Holmes, to continue his work and uncover the truth. As for the whereabouts of Marlo Burns and her daughter, we'll leave it to us." Hannah smiled and kissed Jack on the cheek.
Jack raised an eyebrow in surprise. "Do you know how to find them?"
Hannah patted her chest confidently. "Check the license plate, check the credit card history. Her daughter's a gamer, and I have her account. The rest shouldn't be easy, right?"
Tracing them through the gaming network? Frankly, Jack hadn't thought of that trick. He gave her a thumbs-up.
"Okay, I'll leave this to you. Be careful and remember to call for help if you have any questions. I'll go find out what's going on with the 'Little Wings' project."
(End of Chapter)