Puzzle Madness

Chapter 31 Mystery
When his excited mood calmed down, Richard was finally able to take a serious look at the guy in front of him who almost killed him: in the two quick glances just now, he had no chance to notice the other person's appearance at all.

"Well, the common face of industrial products."

Average features with subtle contours, average height and a balanced build; he wasn't even wearing a fieldwork trench coat and shirt, but a gray T-shirt and black sweatpants. If it weren't for the tongue in his mouth, torn apart by a Richard bullet, and the bullet hole between his eyebrows, this face would be completely unmemorable.

Even his appearance after death was so ordinary, just an ordinary corpse; the remains of a brutal murder.

The "Invisible Man" must have undergone plastic surgery so that he can maintain a certain degree of concealment even when the ecstasy is not activated - he has indeed been specialized to his advantage.

As for whether the "Invisible Man" can levitate and the complete content of the trance, and what are the ritual behaviors he uses to initiate the trance, it is unknown now; perhaps it is still in the files of the Special Package Handling Department, but it is no longer meaningful to Richard.

Richard had no intention of leaving anyone alive for torture: there were many opportunities to obtain intelligence, but life was only once.

He couldn't afford the risk of the "invisible man" counterattacking before his death; his radical action just now - although Richard tried his best to maximize the probability of success, it was still a gamble.

Not to mention there was no time or space for interrogation—the gunshots had been going on for so long, law enforcement officers would be arriving at any moment. And to capture the "invisible man" alive and then relocate him, not to mention the difficulty of lacking transportation, someone was likely already waiting at Richard's other safe house:
Even without the ambush, the safe house was no longer safe.

Richard sighed and began to search the body of the "invisible man".
-
"The head of the department wants to kill me. The Special Package Handling Department wants to kill me. But why?"

Richard huddled in the corner of the sofa in the listening bar's private room: before he heard the sirens in the distance, he had already left the safe house - returning to the listening bar, a noisy but more secluded place.

His CZ-75, equipped with a silencer, accompanied John Dou into the evidence room at the Mong Cai Police Station. Richard had anticipated that exchanging fire with the "Invisible Man" with his backup gun would attract law enforcement.

Judging from the time, the detectives should be cleaning up the scene in Richard's safe house now.

Then, the biggest enemy now, the Special Package Handling Department, should have also learned that the "Invisible Man" was killed by Richard.
He kept changing the jacks of his headphone cables. The bustling noises around him made him feel a little uneasy—but at least, he no longer had to worry about invisible enemies hiding somewhere waiting for him.

There was no secret code in any channel: just like no useful clues were found on the body of the "Invisible Man". There was only a fake passport, spare magazines and adrenaline syringes; there was not even a hotel room card or room key. In the end, Chuck only picked up the "Invisible Man's" pistol with a silencer.

However, the behavior and words of the "invisible man" during his lifetime still revealed a lot of information.

Generally speaking, the Special Package Handling Department does not handle internal employees, especially those working in the field.
No matter what mistakes Richard made, he should not be facing the gun from other field officers. All internal affairs except defection will have separate reporting channels and be handled by independent "cleaners"
Therefore, the previous order only requested the recycling of the "package" and did not mention the specific treatment of the [customer].

"No, it's the Section Chief who wants to kill me. And he wants to kill me without telling anyone higher up."

Only the section chief has the authority to review Richard's psychological analysis report and has the corresponding resources to assign other field officers to kill him; and these field officers are on vacation.

This is a simple answer - but what Richard needs to know is the reason: field staff are not trash that can be casually manipulated and killed; he has a regular position within the Asia-Europe Post.

"Because of John's death—no, at most they'll just deduct my year-end bonus. Falsifying John's observation records? Impossible. I haven't even had time to compile and submit a report. And how could such a thing cost me my life?"

It is not uncommon for field officers to die while on duty - unless there is solid evidence, their partners will not be blamed.

Although he avoided it intentionally or unintentionally, the answer finally came to his mind: it was the [deal] he had received before, the order that cost John Dou his life.

"[The client] died and John Dou died, but the package was never found; so they started to suspect that I took it?"

"Impossible—then before I die, you have to get the package from my mouth. That transparent idiot, he just aimed at my head right away."

"It's just to kill me, it has nothing to do with the package."

Richard hugged his knees and rocked back and forth using his hips as a fulcrum: "Then the remaining possibility is..."

"The mission itself is problematic—that's why Corey wants to silence us. What could possibly be wrong with the mission? Chief, Chief, that could only be the Chief's problem."

He knew the client was a defector from the Special Package Handling Department, but he had no idea what information he had or why he was considered a defector. Richard had no idea: field work was about practical application, not about understanding too much.
"Damn it! Damn it! This is terrible! That package recovery order wasn't an official assignment at all: it was a private order from the section chief!"

[Trade] was the code that Richard extracted from the background sound of the radio station covering Mong Cai City. He learned that the content of this mission was conveyed in accordance with the standard and formally. Therefore, although he and John Dou felt that this was a very complicated matter, they did not seriously consider the details.
This was a problem: Richard had not been working in the field for long and had not yet established a private line, making it difficult for him to escape to other safe houses set up in Southeast Asia. All the cross-border transportation resources for his field work came from the Special Package Handling Section.

"No. You can't run."

Richard bit his nails - the edges of his nails had long been like saw teeth, full of rough bite marks.

He would not be so stupid as to just go back to the headquarters to seek justice for himself: but if he wanted to escape, without support and resources, what route could Richard take to escape?
"I have to find a way to fight back. I have to know what's going on."

In this rapidly running brain activity, Richard gradually pieced together a rough picture:

From the moment they took on this mission, he and his partner were destined to be eliminated.
First, the field staff who have little connection with the headquarters will do the dirty work; then the department will chop off this dirty hand.

Simple, vulgar, but easy to use and effective.

However, John Dou died earlier: without the threat and greater uncertainty of the "sinner", the number of killers who came to carry out the mission of silencing him was reduced slightly.

But what exactly is the dirty part of this job? What's wrong with the mission?
as well as--
Richard suddenly remembered:
Who is that boy in the yellow raincoat? Is he connected to all this? And does the Special Package Handling Unit even know about him?
Richard rubbed his tense brows fiercely. As a sinner, John's ability required ritualistic movements, and his ecstasy lacked direct lethality. Therefore, even though he knew the young man had killed John Dou, he also felt a deep-seated fear when facing him.
But is the fanaticism of the boy in the yellow raincoat really that intense?

"Died from an act of nature—but John died at the hands of the man in the yellow raincoat."

Richard suddenly remembered what John Dou said after listening to the divination tape -
"Is divination really all fake? Oh, I don't know what the hell they're doing now. Should I have believed what he said back then?"

Richard grabbed his head with both hands and sighed softly.

[Cheer up! Cheer up! The game isn't over yet, and I haven't lost yet.]

There might be some secrets in [the client]: although it sounds a bit desperate, this is the only direction that Richard can try right now.

"We need to go to the morgue—to see what happened to [the client's] body. Maybe the 'package' is actually hidden inside her body; there's even a case like this in the on-the-job training materials."

The bodies of [Client] and John Dou are probably still undergoing local autopsies and haven't been transferred back to headquarters yet. So, maybe Richard can still find some clues from [Client]—
At least it's better than rushing up to the door and confronting the section chief face to face: Since the "invisible person" showed that the section chief had arrived in Mong Cai, Richard could roughly guess where she might be.

There are too few cards in hand now, it is not the time to go all in.

Since escape has become a dead end, fighting is the only option.

I'm afraid Corey's men are now like leeches, chasing me around like a leech. I can't rule out the possibility that they're preparing personnel to stake out the location where the client's body was found. Perhaps another purpose for their visit to Mong Cai is to remove the client's body.
Suddenly, a little inspiration lit up in Richard's mind like a light bulb:

There is a way that may be able to solve this problem - even if it cannot be solved, at least it can determine whether the Special Package Handling Section knows about the incident involving the boy in the yellow raincoat.

He pulled a notebook from his pocket and silently wrote down the code he would be releasing on the radio. According to the Special Package Processing Section's internal transcoding table, the resulting digital content was:
[Negotiation. Tianhu Community, Building 5, Unit 2, 4th Floor. The client's place of death. I'll wait for you in the occupied room.]
(End of this chapter)