Shadow Empire

Chapter 1153 Discovering the Secret
Whether in New Gold City or elsewhere, or in other states, the atmosphere surrounding the presidential election is growing increasingly intense.

The teams of the major presidential candidates have begun a frenzied promotion and publicity campaign, with posters of these "exemplary" presidential candidates plastered everywhere.

They flashed their pearly white teeth, which probably cost them tens of dollars a month to maintain, and dressed in sophisticated clothes, directly promoting the concept that they were the "most suitable candidates."

Devon was leaning against his car, smoking. When he saw someone hurrying towards him from the opposite direction, he threw his cigarette on the ground, turned around, and got into his car.

The guy who jogged over from across the street quickly got into the car, his face showing an expression that was both troubled and not really troubled.

It's hard to describe that expression; it's probably like... showing off.

The car started slowly, but the speed was not fast, mainly for chatting.

“If it weren’t for the head office… Mr. Devon, this is what you wanted.”

The person in the passenger seat handed over a file folder, which Devon reached out to take but couldn't lift.

He glanced at the middle-aged man sitting in the passenger seat, who smiled and said, "This kind of thing has violated my work principles, so I hope you won't reveal it. It might cost me my job."

“You know, leaking customer information is the worst thing that can happen to anyone in our line of work, and I could even face charges!”

What he was trying to say was simply to tell Devon that this was something most people couldn't do; he needed to take on much greater risks.

This is a relatively subtle way of expressing his desire to gain more from the deal.

Although the young man in front of him was introduced by someone from the head office, the head office can't manage everything at the local level, especially small things like this, so this guy wasn't too afraid of offending the young man.

Devon withdrew his hand, then took out two stacks of money and handed them over.

The middle-aged man smiled with satisfaction. The bills were all twenty-yuan notes, ten in each stack, totaling twenty bills and four hundred yuan.

This was more than double the two hundred yuan they had initially agreed on. The middle-aged man was very satisfied with the income and handed the file folder to Devon.

"You can drop me off at the next intersection. Remember, don't reveal that I did this."

He reiterated his warning that selling bank account information to private individuals is not a particularly unusual business; in fact, many bank employees do it.

Just as police officers may accept bribes, banks also have their own rules of conduct. In any industry, if they can use their position of authority to obtain income beyond their salary, they will definitely do so.

In this era, people don't see this way of making money as wrong; on the contrary, it can become a source of pride for some, because it embodies the "values" and "power" that federal society champions.

Only those who possess value and power are qualified to use these things to make money.

Devon nodded, turned the car over to the side of the road, and then the middle-aged man in the car said "Goodbye, sir" and opened the car door and left.

Devon picked up the file folder, opened it, and looked at it carefully. It contained detailed usage information about an account, showing the flow of funds over approximately the past six months.

Lance asked Devon to investigate the guard's source of funds. He judged that the money in the guard's account was very likely transferred by Director Roland himself, with the aim of finding a reason to take action against the guard and then drag Lance into it.

If we can figure out the source of this money, or the other flows of funds transferred out of the account, we might be able to find some clues pointing to Director Roland himself.

This was a very meticulous task, requiring not just brains, but patience and attentiveness, so he entrusted it to Devon.

Devon is a very patient and meticulous person; he can do this well.

Following the money, he has come to this state west of Jinzhou and tracked it down to its capital city.

He also discovered something that Lance hadn't noticed: the 50,000 yuan in the guard's son's account was transferred in two separate transactions from two different accounts.

The first account, the one where 49,800 yuan was transferred, is a very typical anonymous account.

There's no registration information whatsoever, and the account movement itself is untraceable. When you try to trace it back, all the accounts at the higher levels have already been deleted.

Generally, these special accounts are deleted after use to avoid being traced for more information.

Cancellation does not mean that the information will be destroyed immediately; it will continue to be retained for a period of time, but only for a period of time.

After the time limit is exceeded, the waste will enter the process of being transported to other locations for centralized storage and then destroyed.

The untraceable nature of anonymous accounts can be considered a service offered by banks, since people who like to use these anonymous accounts are looking for security.

This money is rarely used for checks or transfers after it enters the account; the few records of its use are all cash withdrawals.

At that time, banks did not have widespread high-definition video surveillance, so it was basically impossible to find out who took the money and where it was used.

So the first anonymous account only found some useless information, while Devon is now checking the usage of the second account.

This account is used quite frequently, so there is a lot of information to check, including the flow of funds to each account and the recent usage of these accounts.

That's why he was able to offer the other party two hundred yuan, and why that guy dared to ask for more money.

He took out a large stack of documents and began to examine them carefully. Soon he discovered something interesting: the main account that this account was sending funds to another account that looked like a personal account.

The spending information flowing into this account was actually processed using cash checks!
In the federal government, checks also have anti-counterfeiting and verification measures, as well as record-keeping methods. Each cash check has its own serial number, which is also kept on file by the bank.

To verify the authenticity of a check, you can call the issuing bank and ask if the cash check with that number is valid and if the amount of cash written on it is reasonable.

After the merchants receive these checks, they will take them to the bank to cash them. The bank will definitely need to verify and reconcile the accounts, otherwise they will not know where the money went.

So there will be a record here, for example—

On August 30th, 175 yuan was withdrawn from this account to pay tuition fees, and the check number and the issuing unit were also recorded.

Going back further, this account also purchased a television during the summer vacation for 299 yuan.

This means that this account is a normal daily account. What does a normal daily account mean?
This implies that its users may have some connection with Director Roland.

Devon glanced at the information recorded in the account and immediately drove towards the information registered there.

As darkness fell, a school bus stopped at the entrance of a middle-class community. The car wouldn't enter the community because it would be too time-consuming and unfair to students who lived further away.

A student got off the school bus, but his face didn't show much joy. The oppressive environment at the school made him feel somewhat uncomfortable.

He can't compare to those who are particularly good at studying, like those on the school bus.

Eighty percent of the students who take the school bus are good students in the school. They are admitted to the school because they have excellent grades and outstanding learning abilities. They are a group in the school.

Joining this group is very simple: just get full marks or near-full marks in all subjects, and you can become one of them.

But this guy can't do it because his grades aren't that good; if the full score is 100, he can only get 80 to 90.

This score would be considered very good by other ordinary schools.

But he was clearly not good enough for the top students at the city's best private schools, and he was excluded.

Those people didn't like to play with him, and he couldn't understand what they were talking about; it was all about schoolwork, which was boring and tedious.

As for the other group, students from powerful families, he disliked them as well, and these people were reluctant to associate with him unless he was willing to become their lackey. These were students who traveled in luxury cars, had personal drivers, and some even had nannies—students with power and influence.

The way to get along with them is simple: you also need to have power and influence. Power and influence are the ticket to their circle.

Unfortunately, the little boy didn't have one either.

Therefore, he became unpopular with both mainstream groups in this school. His grades were mediocre, making him look down on by those who were good at studying, and he didn't have any prominent family background that would make others take notice.

People like that will find it hard to be comfortable in a school like that.

Even if they are not ostracized, they are at least excluded and unable to make many friends, which is indeed a bad thing for teenagers of this age.

He returned home dejectedly with his schoolbag on his back. His mother stood by the yard to greet him and took the schoolbag from his hands. But for some reason, she glanced into the distance unconsciously.

She saw a car parked in the distance, and could vaguely make out that someone was sitting inside.

This is a middle-class community, and the biggest characteristic of a middle-class community is that everyone knows their neighbors very well.

They will do everything they can to find neighbors in the community who can help their careers and then develop relationships with them.

Although the boy's mother wasn't entirely like that, she did know quite a bit about what kind of cars her neighbors drove.

This is an unfamiliar car; could it be a visitor?
She glanced at the license plate twice, then looked away, put her arm around her son's shoulder, and they went back into the room together.

"How was your day at school?" This is a question she asks every day; she cares deeply about her eldest son's life.

Her husband couldn't live with them for some reason, so strictly speaking, she was raised by her two children.

Her two children are her whole life now!

The eldest son pouted. "I don't like that place. The people there are very unfriendly, and they look down on me."

His mother immediately comforted him, "Perhaps you're just not familiar with each other yet." She placed dinner on a plate and handed it to him, saying, "Tonight's dinner is beef and fish. I hope you like it. Also, you must eat some vegetable salad."

Picky eating is something every child has to face during their growth. Some people like to eat meat, some people like to eat vegetables, and this kid is the kind who likes to eat meat.

But he doesn't gain weight from eating meat. The doctor said his nutrition is unbalanced and he needs to eat more other things.

The boy muttered as he took the plate, "It's not a matter of unfamiliarity; they just look down on me because I don't have a father."

The woman's expression immediately turned serious. "You have a father, but his job is very special, and he can't take care of us right now!"

"But you have a father, and he's a great man."

"Once his work is finished, he will come back to us, and you will be proud of him!"

The boy shook his head. "You've been saying that ever since I was old enough to understand, but it's been so long."

The woman seemed unsure what to say, and after a while she explained, "If he weren't real, do you think you could get into such a good school?"

"I'd rather not get in!" the boy emphasized. "I don't want to talk about this. Let's eat."

The woman looked at her eldest son with some helplessness. As he grew older, he began to have his own ideas.

The mother and son were eating. The younger son was not with her; he was being cared for by her parents and was currently in elementary school.

Besides the two of them, there is also a nanny in the house.

For some reason, the woman felt something was off today. After the housekeeper cleared the table, she went to the French windows in the living room and looked out at the dark night through the curtains, as if searching for something in the darkness, but ultimately found nothing.

Ever since she saw that unfamiliar car today, she's felt like someone is watching them. She doesn't know if it's just her imagination or something else.

After observing for a while and finding nothing, she drew the curtains and instructed the nanny to draw all the curtains.

She went up to the second floor and dialed Roland's cousin's number. "I saw an unfamiliar car in our community today, and I have a feeling that someone is watching me. I don't know if I'm being too sensitive..."

Roland's cousin immediately told her to lock the doors and windows, "I'll bring some people over to check right away. Until then, don't open the door for anyone!"

After hanging up the phone, the woman returned to her bedroom, took a revolver from a hidden compartment in the wardrobe, checked the bullets, and placed it where she could easily reach it.

A dozen minutes later, several cars drove into the community. After driving around the community, they did not find any suspicious people. Then the leader went to the community gatekeeper and checked the entry and exit registration of non-residents for the day. There were more than a dozen people in total.

The social lives of the middle class are generally very healthy. They are in the upward phase of their family's social life, and positive social interactions help them to obtain more information and opportunities more quickly. Therefore, there are more registrations in middle-class communities.

Unlike those poor communities, they rarely visit each other unless there is a special reason.

After all, visiting someone's home means increasing their living costs. For many people who may not even have enough to eat, having to provide extra food to entertain guests is itself an economic burden.

After confirming several times that no suspicious people had come in today, Director Roland's cousin came to Roland's wife's place. He knocked on the door, and the woman quickly opened it and welcomed him in.

“I just walked around the community and didn’t find anyone suspicious. Everyone who comes in is registered at the community gate.”

"I have already made a copy of these registration details. I will have someone check it later to see if there is anything wrong with it."

"Perhaps I'm being too sensitive," the woman said apologetically. "I'm sorry to have made you come so late."

Chief Roland's cousin shook his head. He was the local police chief, but he still respected Roland greatly, even held him in high esteem.

Because he knew very well that once Roland managed the FBI well, he would definitely be much more successful and powerful than he was, the local police chief.

He might need to use the FBI platform to reach higher levels in the future, so he cares a lot about Roland's wife and children.

"It's okay, it's what I should do."

"His work is at a critical stage, and we should also be cautious."

“Waiting for the election…” He stopped mid-sentence because the door to the second bedroom on the second floor opened. The boy stood in the doorway, looked at the two people in the living room, and then quickly went back inside and closed the door.

The woman was still full of apologies. "He's a bit difficult to manage these days." She felt that her son should have come downstairs to greet them politely, and that it would have been fine if he hadn't known they had guests.

Now I know I shouldn't have been so indifferent.

Roland's cousin, the bureau chief, waved his hand with a smile, "It's alright, all children are like that, we were all that age once."

"In short, the surrounding area is safe. I will leave four officers here to follow you and him for the next few days."

"After the election, everything should stabilize. If anything unusual happens, call me anytime, anywhere."

"If I'm not in the office, I'm definitely at home."

After the two talked for a while, the cousin, the police chief, left on his own initiative. He did leave behind two cars, with four police officers in the cars outside the house, ready to provide close protection for the mother and child.

(End of this chapter)