Chapter 662: The Victim in Good Condition (Part 1) (Patreon)

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On a still neither warm nor bright morning in Gotham, the coffee machine emitted its familiar "gurgle-gurgle" sound. Schiller, holding a cup, placed it under the machine, waiting for the steaming hot coffee to fill his cup. He then carried the coffee cup to his chair and let out a sigh of relief.

"Ding-ling…" The bell on the table near the door rang as the doorman placed the newspaper delivered by the newsboy on the table and left. Just as Schiller was about to get up to grab the paper, his colleague Anna hurriedly entered, carrying her bag.

"Oh, you're back from vacation?" Anna glanced up and down at Schiller and remarked, "You look much better. Vacation really makes people feel rejuvenated, doesn't it?"

"I would say so. Life outside of Gotham has its rejuvenating effects. A little sun exposure is always beneficial," Schiller replied as he picked up the newspaper and returned to his seat, eagerly flipping through its pages.

Anna set her bag down and grabbed another newspaper, furrowing her brow as she skimmed the headlines. "Recent headlines are either about Moscow or Mexico. Seriously, can't anyone talk about something more relatable?"

Before Schiller could respond, Anna continued, "Our Central Intelligence Agency isn't very smart either. They had to make a move on his very first day in office. Well, they brought this upon themselves."

Anna tossed the newspaper onto the table with irritation and added, "Don't think I don't know. There were agents trying to sneak cameras into Gotham University before. What do they think the school is?"

"Do you think it was the CIA who did it?"

"Who else?" Anna turned her head to Schiller and asked, "Do you believe it was his competitors playing dirty tricks? I think it's entirely the CIA's doing. How could they be so foolish?"

"I actually think it's quite possible that it was another leader from the Soviet Union who acted," Victor interjected as he entered the room, placing his briefcase and umbrella to the side. He also picked up a newspaper and stood by the coffee machine, waiting for his coffee to brew. Glancing at the front-page headline, he remarked, "Well, there's no significant development. They're just accusing each other and involving a bunch of political commentators. Isn't there anyone with a more insightful perspective?"

"You actually believe it's infighting among them? But even if it is, CIA's shadow is surely involved. They excel at these kinds of foolish acts," Anna said as she turned her chair around to start working on her lesson plan.

"It seems you have strong opinions about the CIA," Schiller inquired.

"Of course. Even before you arrived, they came here. Can you believe they tried to install cameras? How clueless can they be?" Anna asked without lifting her head.

"How did it fail?" Victor, now sitting at his desk with his coffee, asked curiously.

"The cameras they installed weren't waterproof."

Victor nearly choked on his coffee and exclaimed in astonishment, "What were they thinking? Don't they know Gotham…"

"That's why I said it's definitely their doing. They never stop being foolish," Anna quipped.

"I think their cameras not being waterproof might be due to budget constraints. As for why their budget was insufficient..." Schiller shook his head but didn't continue, and Anna added, "...it boils down to whether it was stupidity or greed."

Schiller closed the newspaper, set it aside, and finished his coffee in one gulp, starting a new day of work.

After opening the window, a gust of wind blew in, causing the corners of the newspaper to flutter. The headline of the first page read, "Hiring an Assassin? We Absolutely Do Not Acknowledge Such Shameless Accusations!"

However, not acknowledging it didn't mean they wouldn't be suspected. The top leader of the Soviet Union had been assassinated, and it happened on the day he was elected and took office, shot by someone. So, who was the prime suspect?

It couldn't possibly be Poland, could it?

In this era of the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union, everyone who followed the news knew that they were at odds with each other. So, if one of their leaders was assassinated, who else could be responsible?

In this age, both sides were determined to prove their superiority, not just in substance but also in appearance. Assassinating a leader was clearly a huge loss of face, seen as a form of weakness. It was like two top students competing for grades, and one of them resorted to using physical force. It was equivalent to acknowledging to the world that he couldn't compete academically and had to resort to such crude means.

The current U.S. government was still conscious of its reputation, or rather, public opinion could still hurt them. So, they immediately denied any involvement and began an internal investigation to find out who was responsible. Correctly, even Congress suspected that it was their own people who had acted, as no one else had such a big grudge against the Soviet Union.

Assassinating a leader during the inauguration was more of a demonstration and retaliation rather than a genuine attempt to eliminate the person. The perpetrators undoubtedly had a personal vendetta, but there were too many people with grudges against the leader of the Soviet Union. The list of potential suspects was long enough to encircle the Earth, and only the United States had the capability to carry out such an assassination.

Of course, their first target of investigation was the assassin in the black and yellow uniform.

Death Knell was known in the mercenary circles under his real name, and it didn't take much effort for them to find the materials related to this Death Knell. Moreover, it wasn't just them—KGB had also found him. This gave KGB the strongest evidence they needed. Death Knell was an American, and his profession was that of a mercenary. Wasn't that the embodiment of American ideology? So, they said, "It wasn't us."

Externally, Congress refused to acknowledge it, but internally, they pressured the CIA to quickly determine who was behind it. However, the CIA was in a tough spot. Congress had previously ordered them to focus all their efforts on the Mexico situation and not to be distracted. They obeyed, and this is what happened. In the end, they were the ones suffering the consequences.

However unwilling they were, investigations were necessary. The CIA carried out extensive inquiries, but ultimately arrived at a conclusion: the person involved might be connected to them, but the identity of the true employer remained elusive.

Or perhaps, it wasn't a matter of inability to discover, but rather, a reluctance to investigate further. Suspicion cast a wide net, but the CIA couldn't possibly pry into every individual's background on Capitol Hill, could they?

Officially, while they adamantly denied any involvement, they couldn't provide concrete evidence of Soviet Union infighting. Consequently, their rebuttals seemed less reliable. Though they sought support from other nations, anyone hearing about the incident would likely attribute it to the United States.

Within the Soviet Union, the response was more intense. Even as the Cold War neared its end, both nations held their heads high. If the U.S. wanted to stir up trouble, they couldn't expect Soviet Union to stay silent. On the night of the incident, the Kremlin sounded an urgent alarm.

The Soviet Union claimed they would take a series of retaliatory measures, including preparing for nuclear missile launches, and they were unafraid to escalate into a hot war.

Their response was swift, and their attitude was unwaveringly strong. Even if the upper echelons were bought off, they had to put on a show, given the furious sentiments.

However, this display of strength irked the U.S. government. They had invested heavily in cultivating their contacts in Moscow, and now, instead of helping mediate the situation, they were taking a hardline stance. Hadn't their previous expenditures been in vain?

Caught in the middle, those who wanted to preserve their positions had to align with public sentiment and appear radical. If they expressed moderate views or advocated for reconciliation, they risked being captured by political rivals and forced out of office.

To play their roles convincingly, they had to maintain a tough attitude, as it was the Soviet Union's style. Whoever capitulated first would practically brand themselves as traitors.

What further troubled the CIA was that the individual they had invested heavily in, the one with the least scruples, was the one who had been eliminated. Now, he was undoubtedly beyond help.

Most of those remaining were still wavering. They wanted to profit from both sides. They talked a good game but, when it came to crunch time, the CIA realized that these individuals were not dependable. A massive amount of funds had been spent, only to raise a pack of wolves in sheep's clothing.

This led the CIA to reflect on whether their strategy of infiltrating the Soviet Union from within had been flawed. The person who had proposed and supervised this plan also faced criticism.

After proposing the plan, they had invested a considerable amount of time, energy, and money in winning over these turncoats. However, now that things had gone awry, these people either demanded more money or disavowed any connection.

Regardless of whether they were feigning high principles to extort more or genuinely believed that the U.S. was too foolish to rely on, there was a significant rift between the CIA and these turncoats.

In truth, they should have realized long ago that unreliable individuals were always unreliable. Those who could be bought by them could naturally be bought by others. Even if they weren't bought by others, in times of emergency, their first reaction wouldn't be to work diligently, but rather, to raise their price.

Knowing that these people couldn't be trusted, the CIA began trying to clear its name. However, they lacked evidence, and they themselves were uncertain whether it was an inside job. Most leaned toward it being an inside job, and their primary goal now was to shift the blame elsewhere.

At the CIA's Metropolis office, Kayla sat in a chair, sighing deeply. Her dark circles under her eyes were proof that she had hardly rested in days.

Taking a sip of water, she spoke with a hoarse voice, "What's the word from above? Do we need to keep searching for evidence?"

Her subordinate sighed and replied, "Yes, the orders haven't changed. We must prove as soon as possible that it wasn't us..."

"I remember you also graduated from the police academy," Kayla said to her subordinate, "They should have taught you that to analyze whether someone has a motive for a crime, you need to examine their relationship with the victim. Analyze their behavior and psychology to see if they had a reason to kill the victim."

"Now, the Soviet Union is the victim, and we are the suspects. If we want to prove that we didn't have a motive, then we must demonstrate that we had no reason to kill the victim."

"Did we have a reason?" the subordinate asked.

"From the perspective of the general public, we certainly did. Because we are archenemies, ordinary people won't overthink it. They will simply believe that if someone died, it must have been their biggest enemy who did it—us, the biggest enemy of the Soviet Union." Kayla put her cup down and said with pursed lips.

"But..." the subordinate lowered her voice, "Didn't we say before that the new leader who came to power wanted to promote democracy, which would be beneficial for us? So, why would we want to kill him?"

"You can put it more bluntly," Kayla said as she stood up and walked over to the whiteboard, drawing as she spoke, "If we want to argue that we had no motive to kill him, we have to prove that we had no reason to kill the victim to anyone and everyone."

"To announce to the whole world that the highest leader of the Soviet Union was our man..." Kayla pursed her lips, "It's like making an incision on an artery to stop the bleeding."

"We can do such a thing, but we can't say it," Kayla shook her head. "Even if we do succeed, we can't say it. We can only say that their theory couldn't stand up, leading to an irreparable tragedy. This is the only way to prove that we are in the right."

The subordinate also sighed, "Now the entire system is conducting self-examinations just to find out who was behind this."

In a place where the subordinate couldn't see, Kayla turned back and revealed a complex expression. She said, "Yes, who was behind this?"

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