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Jack Reacher noticed that the support drone Little Duck was moving differently now.

Especially the warning light on the square upper body—it had changed from red back to green.

Reacher greeted it.

"You’re back? Earlier I tried talking to this machine, but it only gave simple mechanical replies. That’s when I realized you’d stepped away for a while.

"Hope you don’t mind me borrowing your first-aid kit. I only mentioned it, and that little spherical robot brought everything out."

Through Little Duck’s electronic voice, Henry replied:

"Don’t worry. Tools are meant to be used. Your injuries aren’t serious, are they?"

"The strength those vampires had was incredible for their size," Reacher said. "But still within what I can handle."

Looking at this man—easily classified among the toughest of humans—Henry knew there was no need to worry much.

Now that the principal had returned, Reacher finished tending his wounds more quickly.

After packing up the first-aid kit, the remaining items—including trash—were collected by BB-2. The small robot then retreated into the hidden second-level space.

Little Duck floated forward and addressed the former Military Police Special Investigations captain.

"Then please explain the progress of your investigation.

"Since we’re speaking over communications, any names or sensitive people involved do not need to be spoken directly. Just tell me roughly how far you’ve gotten.

"Depending on the situation, I may not be the only one listening. To save your time, I need to judge whether the concerned party should also be informed. You understand."

Reacher frowned.

"Wouldn’t it make more sense for me to report to you, and then you relay it to that person?"

Little Duck shook left and right in a very human-like gesture.

"No, no, no. You don’t think that person is too arrogant to deal with you directly, do you?

"It’s not that. I only handle miscellaneous matters. But I can’t predict what details he would want to know.

"So when you’ve gathered enough intelligence and feel ready to report, naturally you should speak to him directly.

"Unless the reason you came to me today was because you ran into difficulties and needed someone to assist you. That falls within my scope of work.

"Of course, only the parts I can solve. If it exceeds my capability, I still have to notify him."

Reacher nodded.

After a moment of consideration, Henry added:

"Besides, because of my relationship with that person—and with the subject of the investigation—I’m not really a suitable middleman.

"It takes a neutral third party like you, someone completely uninvolved, to restrain some of his irrational behavior.

"At the very least, for a stranger’s sake, he probably won’t say anything too harsh."

Whether that spoiled rich kid would actually restrain himself, Henry had no idea. 𝘧𝓇𝑒𝑒𝑤ℯ𝑏𝓃𝘰𝑣ℯ𝘭.𝘤ℴ𝘮

What he did know was that if he wanted to avoid being yelled at, the best strategy was naturally to trick someone else into handling it.

Since they were speaking over communications, both men tacitly avoided mentioning certain names directly, instead speaking in vague terms.

After hearing the explanation, Reacher frowned.

"This complicated?"

"If you investigated the relationship between those two people, then you should understand."

"I do."

Reacher stopped dwelling on it and continued.

"Fine. Then I’ll begin.

"The investigation really has hit a bottleneck.

"What happened back then was not the accident everyone believes it was.

"It was deliberate. Planned. Human action.

"Whether the target was a person or an object, I still can’t say for certain."

Henry’s attention sharpened.

"But I found the culprit.

"More accurately—I know who the culprit is.

"The problem is that continuing the investigation creates many obstacles.

"One of them is authority. I don’t have clearance to investigate certain records.

"And I suspect this kind of sensitive data usually has tripwire mechanisms attached.

"In other words, whether or not I find anything, simply accessing the records could alert certain people.

"If there’s a cleanup protocol behind it, it would definitely trigger."

Reacher’s expression remained calm.

"I was careful. I never directly touched anything that could lead investigators back to me.

"But I can’t be certain I erased every trace.

"I can’t be sure no one can still find me."

He paused.

"When I ran into those vampires, I actually thought it was the other side tracking me down.

"But after reviewing the circumstances—and how the vampires behaved—it was probably just coincidence."

Henry was speechless.

"You knew trouble might already be following you, and you still stopped to save someone?"

"At first I thought the situation would be easy to handle," Reacher said plainly. "Who knew I’d run into opponents like that?"

"And that’s why you didn’t want to meet the police?"

"Correct."

"You came here secretly too?"

"I created several breaks in my trail during travel. Following me wouldn’t be easy.

"But after the vampire incident, I can’t be sure whether the victim saw my face."

"Mm."

Having grasped the situation, Henry no longer pursued whether Reacher’s trail had been compromised.

Instead, he returned to the real issue.

"You said you found the culprit.

"Do you have evidence?"

Reacher reached into the backpack he never let out of his sight and pulled out a videotape.

At the same time, he said:

"This is the traffic footage from the crash."

Far away on the airplane, Henry stared wide-eyed at the image transmitted through his glasses.

Jack Reacher had actually obtained the tape.

Henry asked immediately:

"The investigating authorities said no video footage from the accident existed.

"How did you get it?

"Did it come from inside that agency?"

Reacher explained:

"The existence of this tape cannot be found in official records.

"Because at the time of the incident, the road surveillance system in that area was undergoing an upgrade and replacement process."

He continued:

"According to my investigation, that stretch of road was upgraded in December—from the original videotape system to a digital imaging system—and the work was officially approved."

"But the new system was highly unstable in its early phase.

"It often failed to transmit footage or properly save recordings.

"That is why no crash footage officially exists.

"Though I can’t rule out the possibility that footage was deliberately deleted afterward."

Henry prompted, "But..."

Reacher nodded.

"But the acceptance process for the upgrade was corrupt.

"The contractor had not actually finished replacing all systems on that road segment.

"They only completed part of it."

"And the old system had not been fully removed yet.

"Its recording function was still active."

He set the tape on the table.

"The company had financial problems. To receive payment on schedule, they bribed the inspectors to falsify acceptance records.

"And by regulation, road footage had to be retained for one month.

"Within that month, the contractor finished the upgrade using the newly received funds.

"The old system’s recordings had not yet reached the overwrite deadline, so this tape survived by pure luck."

Reacher looked at Henry through the drone.

"Only the workers involved knew this.

"That’s why no one else knew the tape existed.

"Even though Howard Stark’s fatal crash was major news, they kept quiet to protect themselves."

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