This scene was really unexpected. Although the timing was not very appropriate, several people present still couldn't help but secretly glance at Jessica's expression.
Luckily, not everyone is a gossip-monger. Finch recognized her immediately. "I know who this woman is. Reese's former CIA partner, Kara Stanton,"
Jack said, adding, "But I remember Reese saying that during their final mission in Afghanistan, he and Kara Stanton nearly killed each other because of orders from their superiors.
Reese was shot but managed to escape, while his partner was killed by a Hellfire missile launched by a drone."
"Clearly, Reese wasn't the only one who escaped, but the question is, why did Kara Stanton want to capture Reese? Even if she wanted revenge, shouldn't she have targeted their common superior, Mark Snow?"
Hannah pointed at the bald, middle-aged man who appeared at the end of the scene. He was pulling a black sedan to the scene of the accident, getting out and helping Kara Stanton lift Reese into the car.
"If I'm not mistaken, isn't this Mark Snow, the man Reese has been tracking recently? Why did Kara Stanton continue to obey his orders?"
Jack could give a small spoiler on this point, as the details were right in front of him.
He motioned for Alice to pause and zoom in on one of the images, pointing to a faint glow on Mark Snow's chest. "If Mark Snow hadn't suddenly transformed into Tony Stark, I'd say this is the timer on the bomb vest."
Alice processed the frames before and after this scene, combining them together. A high-definition AI-generated image, similar to the one in Jack's previous life, appeared before everyone.
In this image, everyone could clearly see a bright spot the size of a phone screen in the center of Mark Snow's chest.
"So it's not that Kara Stanton is still following Mark Snow's orders, but rather that she's forcing him to do her bidding, or rather, to carry out her revenge plan," Hannah suddenly realized.
Jessica then wondered, "But John (Reese) and this Stanton are both victims anyway. Why would she?"
But she quickly realized what was happening. After all, the previous scene seemed to have explained a lot: love turning to hate, old lovers becoming enemies.
Even though Jessica was just an ordinary person, she had been exposed to many thrilling spy stories just by sitting around the dinner table with everyone.
Besides, while Reese wasn't known for showing off, after they'd resolved their differences, they'd occasionally reminisce about the past while sharing a bed.
Jack wasn't sure if Reese and his old CIA partner had a past, but the previous scene clearly indicated something more.
At the very least, it was the kind of relationship where they'd relieve stress through some kind of shared activities beyond friendship, even during the thrill of their missions.
But now was clearly not the time for gossip; rescuing Reese was the most urgent task. Jack coughed lightly, calling everyone's attention back to the main topic.
"Assuming Kara Stanton had planned this all along, controlling Mark Snow and using him as bait to lure Reese, what was her intention?
Finch, did Reese mention how he'd discovered Mark Snow's whereabouts?"
Finch spread out the documents he'd brought on the table, motioning for everyone to help themselves.
"Before coming here, I briefly researched Ms. Stanton's past history, her aliases, her registered addresses, the financial status of each identity, and her death certificate, but unfortunately, I didn't find much.
But Reese did mention Mark Snow to me before. It seems Mr. Snow has done quite a few unusual things during the time he's been voluntarily out of the CIA's sight. "
This is a burglary record that Reese requested from Detective Danny Regan a few days ago," Finch said, tapping on a document. "This is a burglary record that Reese requested from Detective Danny Regan a few days ago."
Jack flipped open the seemingly ordinary burglary file, and a loosely clipped printout of surveillance footage fell out.
Although it was only a slightly blurry silhouette from behind, the slightly prominent head made it instantly relatable to Mark Snow.
Unlike the others, who had only seen the file photo, Jack had seen this CIA agent in person (Chapter 1402). He and Reese had witnessed the CIA's internal elimination mechanism in action in the parking lot of NYPD headquarters.
Jack continued to flip through the file. It didn't contain much information. It said someone suspected to be Mark Snow had broken into a tech company and stolen a hard drive.
"A brand new 20TB mechanical hard drive, 15,000 rpm?" "Jack glanced at the hard drive model data and said in surprise, "Although I know that this kind of server-specific mechanical hard drive is not cheap, isn't it a bit cheap for a CIA agent to steal this thing?"
"Not at all, Jack." Finch said with a serious expression, "This is a special model authorized by the NSA, specially produced for high-level confidential government projects and the military."
"It doesn't sound good. "Although Jack couldn't remember the specific details, he could guess with his ass that it must be related to the "machine".
Reese and Kara Stanton were murdered because of the "Aurora Project". Finch had admitted before that this was related to a laptop that once belonged to him. It contained some kind of program related to the "machine", or it could be called a virus.
Jack wondered whether he should force Finch to let this guy tell the truth.
Although he didn't remember the specific plot, he always felt that there was something fishy about this matter. Finch had specially apologized to Reese before, saying that the whole thing was caused by himself, like a riddle man.
At this moment, Finch's mobile phone suddenly rang, and everyone looked at him in unison.
"Uh" Finch picked up the phone, frowning, "Everyone, I received a text message from an unfamiliar number with "UXO" written on it."
Alice keenly noticed that Finch was talking about an unfamiliar number, not an unknown number, "What's the number? "
As Finch read out the number, Clay's eyes lit up. "In military code, 'UXO' stands for hazardous unexploded ordnance. Does this mean that Reese is telling us that he was forced to wear a bomb vest like Snow?"
"Oh my God!" Jessica covered her mouth tightly to prevent herself from crying out loud.
Alice entered the phone number Finch had given her into the system with one hand, and gently patted Jessica with the other hand as a comfort. "Don't worry, Jack and Clay are experts in dealing with this situation."
(End of this chapter)