Chapter 22: Missing

Jay flew home as fast as he could, like an impatient tornado from the open window into the living room. The lights in the living room were still on, and Mrs. Reynolds was sitting on the sofa with red eyes, her eyes full of anxiety and fatigue.

She didn't say a word when she saw Jay come in, and walked up to give him a big hug.

"It's okay, it's okay, Mom," Jay patted her back comfortingly, "No matter what happens, I promise I will solve it? Tell me what's the matter?"

It took a long time for Mrs. Reynolds to calm down her excitement and explained the whole story to Jay. In fact, what she knows is very simple. When it was close to midnight, Mrs. Reynolds called her and said that she would go back soon, but after a little bit there was still no one. During that time, Mrs. Reynolds tried to make several more calls to him but no one answered. Considering the recent abnormal behavior of her husband and the accident of the plane crash that happened not long ago, she instinctively realized that something bad had happened, so she called the police.

"The police found his mobile phone a few blocks away, right on the empty sidewalk." Mrs. Reynolds said, her voice choked a little, she hugged Jay tightly and said, "God, I can't help it. Imagine how Charles himself is now. In case he..."

"Don't think about it, he will be fine." Jay interrupted her. "I will bring him back, I promise."

His unfounded comfort seemed to have some effect. Mrs. Reynolds took a deep breath, calmed down again, and pointed to the coffee table and said: "The police came just now and asked me some questions. The detective in charge. It's pretty good, what is his name...I can't remember a bit later, but he left me a business card and said that if you remember anything, you can contact him...

She turned out the little white card and handed it to Jay. Jay glanced at it, and it said: "Detective Martin Jones."

At four o'clock in the morning, the Metropolitan Police Station.

When the partner of Detective Martin Jones put a cup of steaming coffee by his desk, he said frustratedly: "Thank you for the coffee, John, but I don't think we will need it tonight. Overtime is cancelled. , We can go back and get some sleep."

His partner John was stunned: "What's the matter? I thought we still have a missing person case to investigate."

"It's gone now." Detective Jones sighed. "Just now there was a call. Let us leave the case alone. They said this is a special case and it has been transferred to another organization."

"Here again?" John frowned. "You know, Martin, every time they call and say to the'relevant department', how many cases are actually solved? They are almost direct orders. We threw the case files into the archives of unsolved unsolved cases, and we have not even started the investigation!"

Detective Jones said helplessly: "The rules are the rules, you know. In this city, in this world, you and I are just two insignificant chess pieces. What we can do is really limited. There are many things... Many parts are beyond the reach of you and me. Since the above said, it is equivalent to drawing a restricted area for us, there is nothing we can do."

John sighed: "Of course, of course, I understand. I just... find it hard to accept. I guess I just haven't done it long enough to get used to this."

"You may never get used to it." Detective Jones paused for a while and said, "This time the missing person, Charles Reynolds, a reporter for the Planet Daily, I remember him."

"you know?"

"When I was young, he dealt with him several times. He is a good man, a good reporter, it's a pity..." Detective Jones sighed softly, "He also has a wife, a young adult."

"It's bad."

"Yeah, it's really bad." Detective Jones, "but what else can I say? We live in such a world. Maybe the city's hope died six years ago."

The atmosphere became heavy invisibly, and the two detectives stopped talking for a while, until Jones packed his things and stood up and said, "Okay, let's do this for today. I'll go back first, I Think I have to sleep well. Remember to lock the door and turn off the lights when you leave."

"Okay, good night."

"good night."

The two detectives didn't notice, Jay squatted on the rooftop directly opposite the police station all the way, using his keen hearing to hear the conversation without missing a word.

He had long vaguely thought that Mr. Reynolds might be involved in something extraordinary, but he did not expect the enemy to come so powerful that he could actually pressure the police station to force the investigator to investigate. The energy is huge.

Maybe things will be more difficult than he thought, but even so he won't back down. Charles Reynolds, his father, is his irreplaceable relative, he will bring him back at all costs, no matter what kind of opponent he needs to face.

Jay has never been a detective and has no similar investigative experience. But he thought that if it was what Dad was investigating that led to such a result, it would be a good choice to start with what he was investigating.

Thinking of this, Jay flew to Mr. Reynolds's office in the Daily Planet. Of course, the building was already empty at this point. He entered through the window of the storage room and opened the door lock of Mr. Reynolds' office with his bare hands-considering the current special circumstances, Jay thought he would not mind.

Mr. Reynolds's desk was neatly arranged and looked very organized. Jay glanced through the files he stacked on the desktop and found that most of them were trivial things in the life column. There was nothing particularly noteworthy. At least he didn't think anyone would be published on the planet because of "husband cheating". The daily newspaper tried to make the plane that interviewed reporters fall off.

Then he moved his gaze to the small rectangular cabinet on the left hand side of the desk with a delicate padlock hung on it.

I remember that the last time this cabinet was locked was many years ago. There is a mezzanine at the bottom of this cabinet. In the past, whenever Mr. Reynolds wanted to track down some more sensitive incidents, he would hide all the information in this mezzanine just in case. He had hardly told anyone about this, but Jay had noticed it with his x-gaze since the first time he came to this office, but he never said it.

He pulled off the padlock and opened the mezzanine. As expected, there was a light blue folder lying quietly inside. He put the folder on the table and spread it out, and a huge analysis diagram of the case was printed in front of his eyes. He was surprised to find that what Dad was looking for was bigger than he thought. According to the two pages spread horizontally, the source of the whole investigation seems to be the commotion in the underground shopping mall. Mr. Reynolds apparently sensed that a certain force was hiding the truth secretly, and the huge network extended by the investigation made him stunned. In it, he saw the mystery of the disappearance of government officials two years ago, the unsettled case of a certain newspaper reporter, and even some terrible rumors from online forums, both true and false, saying that there was someone hiding in the dark. The top secret department is secretly creating some kind of monster.

Jay couldn't help but think of the white monster he encountered in the underground mall, and suddenly felt that this rumor might not be so groundless.

Seeing this, he seemed to understand why Dad couldn't stop. The piecemeal pieces of information made him feel that the whole society seems to be trapped in a huge spider web. Every weird rumors and unsolved unsolved cases are part of this web, and all of them are deeply trapped. In the center of this network, there is fog all around.

He thought about what Batman said to him earlier-the world is just getting worse, every day.

At the end of this analysis chart produced by Mr. Reynolds, he integrated all the information. The clues seem to point to a common center-an international company called "Kai Li Technology Innovation", with branches all over the world. But the headquarters appears to be in Chicago.

So this is why Mr. Reynolds wants to fly to Chicago.