Chapter 1631 - Employment In Exchange

After confirming this fact, Luke focused on the drone.

This shadow online user had always been careful to clean up after himself. This time, he actually hadn't retrieved the physical evidence that was the drone? That didn't make sense.

Luke himself would erase all traces of anything he used as much as possible.

If he left too many things behind, it would be very easy to connect the dots.

Of course, it was mostly because Luke had too many aliases and even more enemies.

If anyone found out that the aliases were all the same person, a lot of people would go crazy hunting him down to kill him.

Among the three drones, the problem was with the one he had examined.

Only this one had a wifi function. There were also issues with the control and operating system, which meant that this was the work of someone else.

The man had indeed covered it up by trying to mimic the external appearance and structure of the other two drones, but he hadn't been careful enough.

However, Sharp Nose couldn't pick up the maker's scent, which meant that it hadn't been built recently.

This drone had also been used a lot more than the other two, and couldn't retain much of a scent after being out in the sun.

Luke had Little Snail trace the serial numbers on various components first, before expanding the search range.

When Luke was in the basement workshop that night, Little Snail sent him a message. "Sir, I have locked onto a possible suspect as the drone's maker."

Luke put down the mental control helmet and said, "Show me the profile."

Two seconds later, he was stunned when he saw the picture. "Phineas Mason?"

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Little Snail: "Yes, sir. It appears he bought various components for the drone, and is the most likely suspect."

Luke smacked his lips and didn't know what to say.

Phineas Mason didn't have a complicated identity.

He used to be an electronic and mechanical engineer, and was now a minor shareholder in the Clinton salvage company. He was Adrian's best buddy and one of the technicians whom Luke was interested in.

If Luke had to choose a researcher from Adrian's group, Mr. Mason would be his first choice.

Thinking for a moment, Luke still decided to intervene in this matter.

Other people might not know, but he knew very well that the woman who had been with Cook had been lying.

Cook's injury had probably been a result of her getting up in a panic. He had already been unconscious or halfway there by then.

However, the woman had been frightened as well as high on drugs, so her memory was hazy. Naturally, she wouldn't be stupid enough to say that she was the one who had caused Cook's injury.

Her presence and her statement had misled the investigators whom the Soderbergs had hired.

Cook liked to get high on drugs with girls to begin with. It wasn't strange for him to pass out after playing too hard. The Soderbergs didn't dare make a fuss at all.

If they discovered that it was actually Phineas who had used a drone to knock out the only son of the mayor of New York and turn him into a vegetable, it would be a big problem.

At that time, it wouldn't be surprising if Mr. Mason's entire family was wiped out.

Thinking that, Luke's clone set off for Phineas's house.

Less than half a minute later, however, his clone turned around and headed for Queens General Hospital.

Luke couldn't help but mumble to himself, "Isn't this too much of a coincidence? I didn't mean a wipeout for real."

He was more willing to be a good luck charm than a jinx. Otherwise, if everyone around him had bad luck, he would become the token jinx of the Marvel universe!

Just now, Alfred had investigated Phineas's recent situation.

Then, Alfred discovered that Phineas's daughter, Beverly, was in the hospital and was currently… in a deep coma.

Phineas and his wife had divorced long ago, and he raised his daughter on his own.

In other words, the two of them only had each other.

After a quick investigation, Luke found a police report from a month ago, which concluded that a drug overdose had led to the coma.

This wasn't unusual. NYPD had a lot of reports like this, and hundreds more were added every day.

But Luke noticed the oddity at one glance. "Beverly was found unconscious in the square outside Building 279 on the Upper West Side?"

He had just been to that place today.

That was right, it was where he and Lindsay had sat for a moment.

This square belonged to Building 279, and Mr. Cook, who had gotten high on drugs and was now in a coma, lived on the 25th floor of the building.

This was too much of a coincidence.

It was best not to jump to conclusions while working a case, but Luke could already more or less figure out the story.

As long as he had a frank talk with Phineas, he would figure out the truth of the matter.

Ten minutes later, Luke sighed as he watched Phineas walk out the back door of the hospital and into an alley.

He had just sent a simple and cryptic message to Phineas, who had hesitated for a few minutes before coming out.

It was impossible to say that Phineas hadn't done anything to Cook.

His head was spinning at that moment and his heart was pounding, as if he was having a heart attack.

The content of the message had made him jump.

"I know what you did to that scumbag with the drone" – Phineas had no choice but to meet the mysterious sender of this message.

After going through the alley, he entered the back door of an apartment building. Walking down the hallway, he turned right and saw an open apartment door.

An elderly-sounding voice rang out in his ear. "Come in, Mr. Mason."

Phineas trembled and subconsciously looked around. There was nobody around, but the voice just now had sounded like a whisper in his ear.

Taking a deep breath, he suppressed the fear in his heart and walked into the room, and the door shut soundlessly behind him.

There was only one dim lamp in the living room. He took two steps forward and saw an old man in formal attire sitting in the room, his face completely in shadow.

The old man stretched out his hand. "Hello, Mr. Mason. Please have a seat."

Phineas sat down silently, and entered a trance-like state.

A moment later, he suddenly came back to himself and blinked at the old man. "What do you want?"

He didn't think that the old man had called him over just for Phineas to sit opposite him in a daze.

Luke smiled.

Just now, he had used a drug in combination with his newly acquired Mental Hypnosis and Mental Illusion to learn the truth from Phineas — at least, what Phineas thought was the truth.

However, Mr. Cook was a bright red evil in the system, Phineas was a dark yellow neutral, and Phineas's unconscious daughter was an ordinary yellow neutral.

It was clear who was right and who was wrong.

There was no reason for Luke to help someone who was bright red and give up on a neutral "reserve" employee.

He simply said, "I already know what happened between your daughter and Cook. I also know that you took revenge on Cook for it."

Phineas trembled in fear.

That was how people were. They didn't care about anything else when taking revenge, and only thought about the consequences after the act.

Fortunately for Phineas, Luke's time was very valuable, and he wasn't interested in helping Cook, that scumbag, scare other people. He immediately said, "I can help you deal with any trouble in the future, and also wake your daughter up, on the condition that you work for me. How does that sound?"