Chapter 140: No Leniency

“Lagia, haven’t you caught Dr. Du yet?”

The voice coming from the phone caused a few beads of sweat to form on Lagia’s forehead.

“Director-General, I have failed in my duties. I never expected Du Qiu to be so cunning. However, I have kept a close watch on the consulate in Los Angeles. He can’t get into it.”

“Hmph, the United States is so vast, and Tang Country doesn’t just have a consulate in Los Angeles.”

Lagia was taken aback, cursing himself for having fallen into a mistaken line of thinking; indeed, the consulate in Los Angeles was the closest to Las Vegas.

But since Du Qiu did not hide there immediately, it was possible that he might go to some other consulate.

“Thank you for your guidance, Director-General. I indeed made a mistake.”

“Tang Country has reacted. They have issued a warrant for Du Qiu. They’ve charged him with misappropriation of public funds, but now we can officially put out a warrant for him! With this, you can righteously borrow the help from our local investigation bureau.”

“Okay, I understand. I will contact Ciar immediately.”

“The ‘Xiaobai’ robot that they brought for the exhibition, try to confiscate it. Someone wants to have a look at it.”

“Err, that robot is still with the staff of Dream Technology. I’ll arrange it as soon as possible.”

“Lagia, don’t disappoint me again!”

“Yes, Director-General.”

After hanging up the phone, Lagia wiped the cold sweat from his forehead and immediately gathered his action team for a meeting.

“Director, are you saying Du Qiu will go to another consulate? Besides Los Angeles, that would be Old Gold City and Chicago that are relatively close. Do we need to set up surveillance at all of them?” Sorge asked with a deep voice.

Lagia nodded, “If we didn’t lack manpower, I would like to set up surveillance at all the other locations too to prevent Du Qiu from hiding in any consulate.”

“Director, Du Qiu doesn’t have to hide in a consulate! If he heads north, he could go to Maple Country, or he could go south to Mexico.” Stark suddenly said.

Lagia nodded appreciatively, “That’s a possibility. However, that should be Du Qiu’s last resort.

If he really chooses to flee the United States clandestinely, I think he would likely go through the north since the south is currently building a border wall, and the security there is much tighter.”

Sorge immediately volunteered, “Director, give me a team, and I will keep watch in the northern border region. I am sure I can catch Du Qiu.”

Lagia glanced at Sorge and said irritably, “Use your brain. How long is the northern border? Can you cover it all?”

“Director, I’m not afraid of getting tired. I…”

“Shut up!” Lagia cut Sorge off and pointed at Stark, who was trying to stifle a laugh, asking, “Do you have a better idea?”

Stark quickly replied, “We can take two approaches. One is to have the police department issue the warrant. Du Qiu, if he wants to go elsewhere, will likely use a plane, train, or car. With the warrant, the police can easily spot Du Qiu at airports and stations.

The other way is to ask for satellite or drone help to search the northern border closest to Las Vegas. I believe Du Qiu wouldn’t be able to cross the border on foot. If there are suspicious vehicles, they can be tracked.”

Hearing Stark’s suggestion, everyone in the room started discussing energetically.

Lagia frowned; he always felt that the disappearance of Du Qiu was somewhat illogical. Logically, even if he had received a warning from Tang Country and evacuated immediately, he couldn’t have just vanished from under their noses.

Especially since his mobile phone was found on a truck headed to Los Angeles. The truck driver had been thoroughly investigated and was completely unaware, not even knowing when Du Qiu’s phone appeared in the truck.

The technology department checked the phone, and there weren’t even signs of use. No matter what data recovery methods the technicians used, no data was recoverable, as if it was a new phone.

Knock, knock, knock, the door to the conference room was knocked upon, and then a woman entered, saying, “Director, I just received a message from headquarters that may help with your search.”

The woman handed over a folder.

Lagia took it, opened it, and began to read.

“What? Six commercial satellites from three companies have lost contact, and after observation by the space agency, all six were located above the Midwest with the core area being Las Vegas!”

Lagia read the information involuntarily.

The room went quiet as everyone exchanged puzzled looks, finding the situation somewhat unbelievable.

Although commercial satellites are not as secure as military ones, the notion that they could be taken and used so easily was unheard of.

Lagia closed the folder and said, “Judging by the time mentioned in the document when they lost contact, I can preliminarily deduce that this matter is related to Du Qiu.”

Stark said, “No wonder we were a step behind and couldn’t catch him. He has satellite monitoring, so he could detect our movements.

Director, we need to immediately request support from the technical department and use the six stolen satellites to track him down.”

Three days later, at the GIA headquarters in Langley.

“Damn it, how could he just vanish without a trace? This is a mockery of the GIA!”

“Director-General, we have tried everything possible. Even now, there has been no feedback from the warrant—it’s as if the man has evaporated into thin air.”

Lagia looked distressed; he had not expected Du Qiu to disappear so thoroughly as if he had never existed.

The Director-General’s face was grim as he stared at Lagia and inquired, “Then why is the ‘Xiaobai’ robot you brought in completely inoperative now? Why haven’t those experts retrieved any software or data from it? Didn’t you say that the Dream Technology staff hadn’t damaged it?”

Lagia raised his hand, “Director-General, I swear that when we confiscated the ‘Xiaobai’ robot from the Dream Technology staff, it was still cleaning the room and talking with those employees.”

“Could it be that ‘Xiaobai’ is able to identify who is accessing its control system and thereby initiated a self-destruct mechanism?”

“That may indeed be the case,” Lagia quickly agreed.

“Du Qiu has disappeared in the United States, and we, the GIA, have intervened in his capture. Tang Country will likely be pressuring us for his return. Although we can ignore them, but…”

“Director-General, I think we can use our ‘Iron Curtain’ agent stationed in Tang Country to keep an eye on whether Du Qiu has already been retrieved by Tang Country and returned there.”

The Director-General said, “You utilized ‘Iron Curtain’ against Du Qiu, which already put him at great risk. It was only because he saw Du Qiu as the main culprit in the previous intelligence network fallout that he agreed to act. Do you think he can be easily moved?

Fortunately, this time he was able to use that ‘Tang Fox’ to set up multiple schemes and even take advantage of certain Tang Country forces to kick a man while he’s down, thus completely extricating himself from the situation.

He has many responsibilities in Tang Country and cannot just focus on Du Qiu.”

Lagia’s face fell. If it weren’t for the fact that his department was newly established, he might have had the ‘Iron Curtain’ information officer under his command. Now directly reporting to the Director-General, it was unlikely that he could use ‘Iron Curtain’ again.

Lagia then made an alternative suggestion, “Director-General, how about I dispatch another intelligence officer to Magic City to focus exclusively on Dream Technology?

On one hand, we can try to obtain potential intelligence from Dream Technology; on the other hand, as soon as there’s news of Du Qiu, it can definitely be reported back promptly.”

“That’s your responsibility; no need to report it to me. I heard you’ve borrowed K from the technical department?”

Lagia nodded, “Yes because we suspect Du Qiu used hacking methods to break into several commercial satellite company networks, control several satellites, and thus escape our chase.”

“Have you captured any evidence of Du Qiu hacking?”

“No, K has not found any traces of hacking in the networks of the commercial satellite companies. It’s completely unclear how the satellites lost contact.”

“Really? Couldn’t the satellites have malfunctioned?”

“Director-General, it’s not possible for six satellites from three companies to malfunction at the same time, right? The key point is, the space agency reported that the six satellites are networking, covering our entire United States and in a normal operational state.”

“What did you say? The six satellites are networked? And they’re monitoring the entire United States?”

“Uh, that’s right.”

“This is serious. I suspect Tang Country has taken action. This can’t be the work of just Du Qiu. I need to report to the president.”

“Should we continue to track Du Qiu?”

“Of course. No matter where he runs to, as long as he’s on this planet, GIA must find him!”

“Then… must we capture him alive?”

The Director-General pondered, “Selling 5000 centrifuges to Korea is a very serious matter. We cannot be lenient.

We will try our best to capture him and bring him back for trial. Let the judge determine his guilt.

Of course, if he resists arrest and an accident happens in the process, that’s not something we can control.”

“Understood.”

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