Jack thoughtfully said, "I was wondering how the room had light for video since the power was out. I did see a lamp in that corner you mentioned. Maybe the killer had some temporary battery to power up only that lamp?"
Sarah acknowledged, "It is possible."
Neil being totally illiterate about computers and software, "Can you tell us who ran that software?"
Ed let out a laugh. Neil frowned at him. "No. However, whoever ran the program had Ziyuan credentials to log in to their server and delete the data."
Jack started thinking about his next steps. He asked Ed, "Can you give me all the information you have, Dr. Rogers?" He turned to Sarah, "With your permission Sarah, of course."
Sarah paused for a second but then looked at Ed and nodded. Jack continued, "I am sure there is some connection between her and Chung other than one dinner meeting. I am looking for that. Regarding the Ziyuan server, is it possible for us to hack it?"
Ed looked at Sarah for permission, which he got immediately with an assuring nod. "Yes, we can. But someone needs to place a bug in their server room."
"Will Wuhan Pharma server room work?"
"Yes," Ed replied.
Jack excitingly replied, "Great. I am planning to go talk to Chung's assistant and check out his office at Wuhan Pharma. We can sneak into the server room and place the bug."
Neil nodded in agreement. Jack gave him a hearty smile. Jack knew if anyone could help in this unknown land, it was his friend Neil.
"Ed, also, let's try to find this Chen lady."
"Jack, what are you thinking here. Be candid with me, please."
"I think Dr. Chung was murdered after he decided to break the commitment he had in China. I think he knew some secrets about something or someone important, and the killer did not want Chung to leave China alive."
Sarah did not look convinced entirely about the part with secrets. She was confident that Dr. Chung was murdered, but the part about secrets made her uncomfortable. Sarah was experienced enough to know this could blow out of proportion very quickly if Jack was correct. The involvement of famous and influential people could be dangerous, and she was not sure how RCMP could help Jack in a foreign country if things go out of hand. Sarah wanted Jack to be focused, so she kept her reservations to herself. She just said, "Be careful, you two. Remember, you are in a foreign land."
Jack ended the call. He turned to Neil, "We would need some legal way to interrogate Chung's secretary, Jingjing."
Neil smiled at him, "You know I have in with the Police chief. Let me get that for you in a few hours. You want to include Chung's office search as well in that?" Jack nodded with a big smile. Neil replied, "Thought so."
Neil made some calls from the hallway. He entered the room, "Jack, let's get some of that delicious steak. What do you say?"
Jack realized he was hungry as soon as he heard steak, "I say yes, my friend. Never say no to a good steak."
Chapter 15
Neil got permission from the Wuhan Police department to talk to Dr. Chung's assistant Jingjing the next day. Jack was curious about what Neil had done for the police chief that he was getting his way around everything they need. But Jack knew better not to ask.
They decided to drop by around 6 PM in the evening as they thought it would be less crowded. They both discussed taking an appointment with Jingjing to avoid missing her. But Jack was worried that if they give heads up, they might give her a chance to prepare her answers. He wanted to maintain the element of surprise. Neil reluctantly had agreed to it.
Wuhan Pharma was ten minutes' drive from their hotel. They left the hotel at forty-five minutes past five. As they drove through downtown Wuhan, Jack saw various American company offices. He realized that Wuhan was an important industrial center in China. The cab took a right turn on a small deserted street. Jack saw little vegetable, fruit, and meat market vendors by the side of the road. He saw that animals were just hung outside the small stall and what looked like water dripping from most of the animals. Various types of fish were laid out on the tables outside. Jack opened the window to get a better look, but the pungent smell coming from all the meats made him close the window faster than he opened it.
"How come these shops are open?" Jack asked Neil.
"Yes. Unfortunately, the government has allowed to open the shops back as the number of cases is dropping in the city," Neil replied with a disappointing voice.
There were few more right turns and left turns, then the car came to a halt in front of a stand-alone building, which looked about seven floors high.
The building stood out from the rest of the area because of its glass exterior. The rest of the area was single-story buildings like an endless strip mall probably built fifty years back. But this building was new. It had a charm of modern architecture. The building was on a corner plot with a semi-circular structure that extended towards the intersecting street ahead. Jack stepped out from the cab, and that is when he saw the big sign saying, "Wuhan Pharma Ltd., a division of Ziyuan Group of Companies." He then saw the logo next to the huge sign. The logo was a circle, and Z inscribed inside the ring. The Z was designed to look like a dragon head and a body of a reptile.
Jack remembered this logo was the same as the tattoo on man's neck in the restaurant he met with Dr. Chung.
Jack and Neil walked into the main lobby. The lobby looked nothing less than hall in a royal palace. There was a staircase on the left side which went up to the first floor. Jack saw a vast seating area with modern couches. The coffee shop on the rear end of the lobby had high rise tables. In the center of the hall, a huge chandelier was hanging from a fifteen feet ceiling. Jack saw the reception on the right side and approached the receptionist. The receptionist looked like a teenage girl. He asked her to see Jingjing. She called up the number and requested Jack and Neil to wait in the lobby.
They had to wait about ten minutes before the reception lady told them to climb up the stairs and wait near the elevators. Jingjing was a middle-aged Asian woman. She wore thick glasses that had pink colour frames. She was dressed up in pink from top to bottom. She was wearing a pink blazer, pink leather skirt, pink stockings, pink sandals, and also pink earrings. Jack thought, "God, I hate that colour now."
He greeted Jingjing, "Hello, Miss, how do you do?"
She responded with a confused smile. Neil translated it to her, and she replied, "Thank you, Mr. Wilson, Mr. Carter. Welcome to Wuhan Pharma Ltd. How may I help you?"
Neil asked her to check Dr. Chung's office to collect his belongings. They followed Jingjing up the elevator. Dr. Chung's office was on the fourth floor at the end of the hallway. As they exited the elevator, Jack read the sign, "Department of Epidemiology" They turned left into the hall. Jack quickly glanced on the right side, and he could read two signs, "Archives" on one of the doors and "Washrooms" on the other. All the rooms were completely private. There were no glass walls or windows open to hallways. Jack believed that the company wants to keep the activities behind the doors very private.
They walked past some labs. One particular lab that caught Jack's eye was "New product testing." Jack thought this is where the new vaccine for VD-19 would be tested. It would be interesting to check this out. But he knew he could not do it with the current permission he had. Neil was chatting with Jingjing in Chinese. Jack did not understand anything, but he assumed Neil was trying to charm her to secure her cooperation. They entered Dr. Chung's office. The office was split into two parts. Jingjing's desk was on the outer part with a chair and a file cabinet. Then a glass cabin with Dr. Chung's name on the glass wall. His desk was facing the door, and on the back wall, there was a huge window overlooking the street. There was a bookshelf on the left wall, which had about twenty books, most of them related to public health sciences.
Jack whispered to Neil, "You collect and go through these things, I am going to use the washroom." Neil asked Jingjing where the washroom was. She directed to the end of the hallway but insisted that Jack needs to be escorted. B
ut Neil quickly engaged her into chatting again. His tactic of charming her was working seamlessly.
Jack exited Dr. Chung's office and started walking towards the washroom. He was looking for an electrical hub on the wall to place the bug. He had not seen one before. But Ed had instructed him that it will look like a trip box on the wall. It will have mostly all the electrical wires but one or two LAN wires. Jack was to attach the bug on those LAN wires. It was a simple clip-on. He crossed a door with a sign "New Product Development."
For a moment, he was tempted to try and enter the room. But he resisted and continued walking. As he entered the washroom, he saw a tiny closet, which he assumed was janitor's room. He opened the door. He saw an electrical box behind the supply shelf. He was relieved, but his relief was short-lived. He saw that box was locked. Without any thought, Jack pulled out a Swiss knife and started picking the lock. Jack had learned to pick locks in the academy, but he had never picked an actual lock after that short training class. But Jack was surprised how easily it came back to him. He opened the door and saw a bunch of wires running down. He located the LAN wire and placed the bug. He thought to himself, "that was quite lucky."
He pulled out his cell phone and texted Ed, "The bug is placed. I can give you five minutes". Ed replied immediately with a thumbs-up emoji. Jack went into an empty stall to wait for Ed's reply. He was thinking about the logo he saw. Jack opened up a search engine on his phone and searched, "Ziyuan group logo." He had no idea what he was looking for in the search results. Jack wanted to give his gut a try and see if the luck will continue to side with him. And he was right, he found an article about the origin of the logo. He clicked and started reading the article,
"Lee family - a resourceful family has new patriarch.
The Ziyuan Group of Companies, founded in 1893 in Shanghai, is one of the largest privately held corporations in China. The company started as a grains trader and grew during World War I, and by World War II, it was one of the largest in China. The company has a considerable contribution to the growth of the Chinese economy in the last fifty years. The company has been owned by Lee family since its foundation. The founder of the Lee family, Xu Lee, was awarded the honorary title, děng nán (Barons of the First Rank) by Guangxu Emperor in 1905. The family designed the crest in 1906 as a symbol of power and royalty. The titles and crests have since lost their significance in China. The family has used the same crest to represent their company in the modern world."
The article continued with some more information on the company and family. Before he could continue reading, Jack received a text from Ed, "Task complete."
Jack left the stall in a hurry. There was a young person in the white lab coat washing his hands. Jack stood next to him and gave him a smile. The person gave Jack a disgusting look. He then looked at the stall Jack was in and said, "In China, we flush after use."
Jack looked at the booth and understood the reason for the disgusting look. He said, "OH, sorry, I forgot in a hurry." The person left muttering something to himself, which sounded like "stupid Americans." Jack wanted to stop him and say something mean back but thought he has many vital tasks to complete. He went back into the janitor's closet, removed the bug and put it in his pocket.
As he exited the washroom, he saw that the door of the Archives room was unlocked. Without thinking his actions through, he entered the room. As he entered, he saw four rows of shelves stacked with boxes and labels on it. He started walking through the boxes, trying to read anything he can. Most of the information on the names were written in Chinese. He could not understand anything. He only could figure out the numbers on the label, which he figured out was the year. He took down every box that was labelled in 2019 and arranged it on the table.
There were twenty-seven of them. Jack opened the first box and saw about twenty documents, most of them in Chinese. Without wasting any time, he started taking pictures of the pages. He was going through his seventh box when he heard the footsteps outside. Before he could react, the door opened, and a security guard walked in. He started shouting at Jack in Chinese. Jack could see his arms making a "what the hell are you doing in this room" gestures. He knew he was in big trouble. Jack started acting as he was lost, looking for the washroom. The guard was a tall person with huge built and looked like he could defeat one or two Japanese sumos in a fight. He was looking enraged at Jack. The guard grabbed Jack's bicep and started dragging him out of the room.
For the first time in a while, Jack was scared. He did not know how he was going to get out of the situation. As they were about to reach the elevator, Neil and Jingjing came running out of Dr. Chung's office. Neil had two boxes in his hand containing Dr. Chung's belongings. Jingjing started explaining the guard something. After a couple of minutes, the guard let go of Jack's arm. The guard pointed at Jack and Neil and shouted in English, "Out."
Neil immediately called for an elevator. He gave Jack an angry look. Jingjing accompanied them to the lobby. In her broken English, she said to Jack, "You almost lose me a job, Mr." Jack gave her a weak smile, "I am sorry. I thank you for all your help."
They left the building and got into the cab.
Neil punched Jack hard in the shoulder. Jack let out a scream, "Why the hell did you do that."
Neil replied, "If you fancy dying, you should tell me now. I will withdraw myself from this case. I know you fantasize about solving some conspiracy theory behind some scientist's death, but I am not going to die for it."
Jack started laughing. "And I never thought I would see Neil scared of someone."
"Did you not see the size of that man. He could have crushed Jingjing and us in his one hand."
"No need to tell me, I think he broke my humerus." Neil looked at him, confused. Jack explained, "my bone between shoulder and elbow." Neil frowned upon him, "Do not start playing doctor now."
They both started laughing.
Jack knew that Neil would never let him alone in trouble. He would have actually died to save Jack back there even though he would have probably haunted him for the rest of his life.
Neil had once punched a stranger in Drunken Rick's. Jack was flirting with a girl at the bar when her hot-headed boyfriend came and started bullying Jack. In his defence, Jack had thought she was alone. He was not the type of person who goes after someone else's girl. Jack was calmly listening to her boyfriend's abuse, but Neil, who was tipsy at the time, had jumped from behind and knocked the boyfriend down. Neil was lucky to get only minor punishment from the academy.
Chapter 16
Jack could not sleep even after eating the entire 14 oz. Steak. He thought he had gotten into a bad habit of eating steak every night for dinner. Once he goes back to Muskoka, nobody was going to cook for him. His grandfather, Marvin, prepared the dinner most of the time. Though Marvin's skill level had gone down in the last few years, Jack felt it was the best food he had ever eaten. Having lost both parents at an early age, the siblings were pampered by Marvin. Though he never had a shorthand on teaching them a disciplined life.
Thought of grandpa, Marvin, made Jack lose more sleep. He opened his phone and started looking at the old pictures of his family. He was scrolling through when he saw a picture of him with Marvin holding a walleye fish. This picture was from last year. It was a beautiful sunny day. Marvin was throwing a party for Jack's commission into RCMP. They had decided to catch fresh fish. They had been on the water on their small family boat for about forty-five minutes but still were not lucky to catch a big one. Marvin had advertised to their guests that dinner was going to be a fresh catch. Finally, after two hours, they found a nice sixty-five centimetre walleye.
Jack suddenly felt warmth on his cheek. Tears were rolling down his cheeks. He wanted to cry his heart out. He wanted to shout and tell the world that he missed his grandfather. Without thinking through, he pulled out his phone and dialled his sister. He hoped and prayed that she would answer. But unfortunately, she did not. Jack was disheartened. He was angry at this current worl
d. The world that was plagued with some virus. The world which had taken his two loved ones away from him. He wanted to blame someone. He wished to find out who was responsible for the spread of this virus, even though they may not exist. He longed to find that person and give them pain beyond imagination. As the dark thoughts were increasing in his head, he heard a knock on his door.
Neil entered the room and started talking, "I think I found-." Neil looked at Jack and stopped talking. "Have you been crying? Are you okay?"
Jack wiped his face and replied, "Yeah, I am fine. Go on"
Neil hesitated for a moment, but continued, "I think I found something. I went through most of the books Dr. Chung had in his office. All the books were about science and things I usually stay away from. But there was this one book. It's a teenage love story. I mean, why would an old, divorced, lonely scientist has a book on love? I opened it and found out it was supposed to be a gift to someone. Can you guess to whom?"
Jack, without any second thoughts, replied, "Chen!"
"Correct. And because God loves us, there is more. On the last page, there is an unintended handwriting impression. Dr. Chung must have written the note on a piece of paper, keeping it on the book. The impression is so clear that I was able to read the note without a magnifying glass. It is in Chinese, but I am sure it says - If I ever leave you without my choice, go to the below address and burn the contents of the locker."
Jack looked at Neil, and then he looked at the note, Neil was pointing out. He excitingly said, "I think we should check out the address." Neil nodded in agreement and said, "Do you think this Chen person might have cleared out the locker's contents?"
Jack sighed, "I can only hope not."
"Do you really believe that Chung was dating Chen?"
The Hidden Agenda Page 8