"Explain your intentions. My colleagues and I just had a shootout in the city center and were immediately summoned here. You should understand this, Mr. Barrett.
When a person is in a terrible mood, it is impossible for him to be reasonable."
Jack was a little annoyed with this lawyer, and he also disliked Attorney General Jackson. It was him who had asked him to keep a low profile before, and now that the case was exposed, he threw him out to take the blame.
Although he could understand the attorney's difficulties and knew that he did not really want to help those "big shots" to settle the matter but had other plans, this did not mean that Jack would completely follow the prosecutor's baton.
Seeing Jack's impatience, the lawyer seemed a little uneasy. The current situation was that his side needed help from others, but this little FBI agent showed such a reckless attitude, as if he did not understand the power behind his previous words.
"I'm sorry."
As a partner at a major law firm, Larry Barrett was well-versed in the art of flexibility. He tugged at his uncomfortable shirt collar, realizing he'd rushed out the door in such a hurry he'd forgotten to even wear a tie.
"But the media, smelling blood, could show up at any moment. If it weren't for the shooting just now that drew their attention, the area would be surrounded by press vans by now.
I have only one small request: Can we handle this case discreetly and quietly?"
"I don't know how you lawyers define discreet and low-key, but at a crime scene like this,"
Jack pointed at the body in the elevator, "you wouldn't ask me to lie and say it was suicide, would you?"
"Of course not." Sensing Jack's willingness to soften his stance, Larry Barrett quickly handed over his business card.
"Just refrain from commenting to the media for now, as you normally do."
Jack didn't reach for the card, but glanced at the time. It was already 3 a.m.
He gestured to Jiejie, then asked for her business card, handing it to the lawyer. "This is Agent Jennifer Jean, who handles all external communications for our team.
We've been busy all night and urgently need a break. We have to attend the mayor's press conference tomorrow morning regarding the recent parade shooting.
Please contact Agent Jean after 10:00 AM and provide her with all the information she needs about Joseph Fielding and the two previous victims, including secret bank accounts, tax records, personal emails, and so on."
Seeing the lawyer's mouth open as if to speak, Jack didn't let him start his bargaining.
"I know your lawyers communicate closely with each other, so please don't make excuses like you don't know the identities of the first two victims, or my promise will be immediately voided.
Mr. Barrett, I hope you realize that unless we work together to find the murderer, similar troubles will only accumulate until they explode like a time bomb."
The lawyer's face darkened to the color of a cauldron, and he nodded slightly through gritted teeth. "You make a lot of sense. We'll fully cooperate."
—
"Wow, if every time we interacted with lawyers we did just now, I think I'd completely fall in love with this job," Aubrey muttered, biting into his burger.
"I thought you'd already fallen in love with being an F.A.A.." Jiejie teased Aubrey, but her expression revealed that Jack's actions had pleased her greatly.
As the team's liaison officer, Jiejie dealt with the media and lawyers the most, and naturally saw their expressions the most. This time, Jack had truly helped her vent her anger.
"I bet that lawyer never realized we had no intention of making this case public," Aubrey said triumphantly, taking a long gulp of his carbonated beverage before swallowing the food in his mouth.
Jack smiled and nodded. "Because that's what the killer wants us to do. So, when Jubal and the others arrive tomorrow, we'll continue the investigation behind closed doors. Only by doing the opposite can the killer reveal more flaws."
Jiejie's face was hesitant. She reached out and picked up a French fry from Jack's plate, chewing it carefully. "But wouldn't that mean there would be more victims?"
The two men sitting across from her rolled their eyes. Aubrey was even more disdainful. "Although paying for sex isn't a capital offense, $20,000 a night—it's hard for me to have much sympathy for such a rich man." Looking at these two men who had no sense of being wealthy, Jiejie could only shake her head in
silence.
Jack was no longer as resistant to revealing his identity to the media as he had been before.
After all, compared to the unlikely possibility of being targeted by a psychopathic killer, being sent undercover as an elite agent by the higher-ups was clearly more troublesome.
In the Alcatraz case, he clearly sensed that his teacher, Rossi, and the current FBI Director were not on the same page.
Afterward, he secretly let Old Mason escape. While Chief Womack wouldn't have any definitive proof, he'd probably make a note of him in his notebook.
So, at a press conference the next morning, Jack, Jiejie, and Aubrey, wearing sunglasses, stood beside the portly Chief David Brown, accepting the mayor's thanks for the three FBI agents' timely assistance during the previous night's shooting.
"I thought the media would focus more on casualties, or perhaps targeting the police, but all they asked were questions about the police using a robot to detonate a bomb."
After the press conference, the three returned to their makeshift office. Aubrey, clutching his phone, wore a subway-savvy expression. "They only care about attention-grabbing information. I even saw a so-called expert give a long, serious speech about whether robots would rebel." Jiejie smiled as she poured coffee for the two.
"That bomb disposal robot is just a large, remote-controlled machine. It has nothing to do with artificial intelligence," Aubrey complained.
Jack teased Jubal while messaging him on the plane, "It's a shame Chief David Brown didn't tell the media it was your idea to use the remote-controlled robot. If he had, you might have made history.
Some media outlets believe this is the first time in federal history that police have used lethal force provided by robots to eliminate a suspect. Oh, and they even mentioned the movie RoboCop."
(End of chapter)