People are scared in America, my uncle is Dante

Chapter 186 The Sickly Genius and the Vegetable Grower

Suren and Director Arthur sat facing each other on a somewhat worn-out sofa.

Behind Arthur, Liz leaned against the wall, chewing gum and looking him over with disdain.

Angie handed a glass of water to Su Lun.

Suren looked at Arthur, a federal director who specializes in handling supernatural events, who was actually personally receiving him?

According to the script, shouldn't the other party be sitting in an office, waiting for you to teach a few of your subordinates a lesson before you can have a proper conversation?

"While I am honored to be personally greeted by the Director, I am curious, is this all the people you have?"

Suren placed the water glass on the coffee table and asked.

Arthur watched his actions without paying any attention, and tilted his head back to take a sip of the beer in his hand.

"Of course not."

He wiped away the spilled wine and continued, "We also have a very talented young man here, but he's not in good health and is asleep right now."

After waiting for a while, I saw that the other party didn't respond.

"That's it?"

Suren then continued to ask.

Arthur smiled slightly at him, said nothing, and took another sip of wine.

"Hey! Stop looking at me like that."

Liz, who had been leaning back on the sofa without saying a word, popped the bubbles in her mouth. "Even if there are only a few of us in this crappy place, it's enough to deal with those bastards."

Suren glanced at her but ignored her.

An old man with gray hair, a hot-tempered and seemingly immature young woman, plus Angie, a field worker who can only stare helplessly when things go wrong, and a sickly person whose condition is unknown.

Is this the federal government's dedicated agency for dealing with paranormal events?

If this country's crisis truly depends on these people for early warning—

Those politicians might as well just shoot themselves in the head; that would be more satisfying.

"Would you like to show me around your secret base?"

Suren was still somewhat unwilling to give up.

"certainly."

Arthur stood up and instructed Anjou and Liz, who were standing to the side, "You two go to the kitchen and prepare some dinner. I'll show Mr. Suren around."

After he finished speaking, he walked away alone in a certain direction.

Suren followed behind him.

He had assumed that the old man would walk to some inconspicuous bookshelf or oil painting and activate some hidden switch.

Then the walls changed, revealing a passageway leading to a high-tech research facility.

As it turns out, he was overthinking it.

Or perhaps, due to certain films and television dramas, Su Lun has a certain bias towards these places.

Arthur simply pushed open one wooden door after another, exploring the entire cabin, even the drafty attic.

There were no hidden doors or high-tech equipment; it was just like showing a friend a newly purchased house.

Finally, Arthur pushed open the backyard gate.

Suren rallied slightly, his gaze sweeping across the fenced-off open space as he tried to find the entrance.

The old director stood on the lawn, looking at the several thriving plants, and a proud smile appeared on his face: "Look at these, the fertilizer I recently developed produces fruit that is much sweeter than what you buy in the supermarket."

Suren looked at the vegetables and fell silent.

This old man was genuinely showing off his vegetable-growing skills.

In my imagination, that heavily guarded federal base has now become an old man's rural guesthouse.

The disappointment of discovering that an online romance turned out to be a lie after meeting in person left Su Lun speechless for a moment.

Arthur turned his head, looked at Suren's indescribable expression, and chuckled twice.

"Disappointed, aren't you?"

Suren nodded: "I wouldn't say disappointed, just a bit surprised. This is completely different from the official institutions I imagined."

Arthur led him back to the living room.

"Actually, the former super dry government was just like you imagine."

He walked ahead, his voice somewhat low.

"Back then, we had our own underground base and state-of-the-art security measures."

"We've even successfully contained a few demons."

"But later—due to changes at the top and some decisions, things turned out this way."

Suren followed behind, a thought flickering in her mind: "Because the higher-ups have been infiltrated?"

Arthur stopped and gave Suren a deep look: "Yes."

"They built a more heavily guarded facility elsewhere. Then they moved most of their operations and personnel there."

Arthur sighed.

"Only a few of us are left, holding onto the title."

"And how many of you are there?"

"Surren asked."

Given the way those high-ranking officials operate, if these people had lost their usefulness, they should have been physically eliminated long ago, instead of being marginalized like this.

Not to mention they also know a lot of internal secrets.

"We have to thank Mr. Rodin for this."

Arthur walked to the sofa and sat down again; this journey had already exhausted him.

"We happened to have helped him out before. We've been doing things for him ever since."

"Some people in the upper echelons were unwilling to fall out with Rodin, which is why we retained our current staffing."

"But correspondingly, all our funding channels have been cut off. For the past few years, we have been self-sufficient."

After listening, Suren finally understood.

No wonder Angie was wearing a vest under her suit when she went to the villa to find him.

So, before he received my call, that guy was really working as a designated driver to earn money, just to keep his job?

"You were introduced by Rodin; he rarely sends people directly to me."

Arthur looked at Suren. "Tell me, what can we do to help?"

"Armitage, I need all the information on this family."

Seeing that he had gotten to the point, Suren decided to speak up as well.

"Armitage?"

Arthur's grip on the beer can tightened slightly, and he muttered the name to himself.

"No problem, but it's too late today. How about we stay here for the night?"

He said.

Suren glanced at the other person's tired face and nodded.

The next day.

Arthur, holding a cup of coffee, led Suren up to the second floor and pushed open a door at the end of the corridor.

This is the master bedroom in this villa, which is the largest room.

The room reeked of various junk food smells, which couldn't be dissipated despite the exhaust pipes.

The windows were covered by thick curtains, making it dark.

A huge workbench sits in front of the window, with seven or eight monitors on it. Some of the screens have cracks around the edges, as if they were secondhand items.

A figure with a blue glow sat at a workbench, his hands flying across the keyboard.

-

Upon hearing the door open, the person turned around, and the other person's lower limbs were amputated.

Because he rarely sees the sun, his skin is very pale, and he has dark circles under his eyes. There are piles of leftover pizza boxes and soda cans next to his swivel chair.

"This is Charlie Dawkins."

Arthur walked over, placed the coffee cup on his table, and began to clean up the trash.

"The genius hackers we later recruited."

Charlie picked up his coffee cup, took a sip, glanced at Suren, then turned back and began typing on the keyboard.

"You have a bit of a temper, but don't mind it."

Arthur smiled helplessly.

Suren didn't have any problem with this. Capable people always have some quirks, as long as they can get the job done.

"Charlie, get a detailed report on the Armitage family."

"Arthur said."

Charlie paused slightly as he typed: "No problem, but it might take a little time."

He turned to Arthur and said, "However, before that, Anjou's tracking request submitted last night has already yielded results."

He pointed to a monitor, on which a slightly blurry surveillance video appeared.

"You mean that woman with another face on the back of her head? She didn't go far; she stayed in an abandoned private hospital in the suburbs."

He tapped a few keys on the keyboard, bringing up another asset file, and continued, "It's worth mentioning that I also looked up the background of this abandoned hospital."

"We discovered that the Armitage family's name happened to be on its list of controlling shareholders."

Charlie pulled up another screen and asked, "Do we need to provide the coordinates to the police?"

Suren observed his practiced movements; it seemed that this was how they always handed over any clues to the police.

If the police can't handle it, they will report it to the authorities, and relevant personnel will come to resolve the issue.

Before Arthur could make a decision, Suren interrupted, "No need, leave it to me."