Chapter 9 Chapter 5 Ms. Joad
Ms. Joad works directly for the Ulanov family.There is no higher (大上) job than that!The fact that the lady had personally landed on the island to interview the two girls threw all of Eva's assumptions about the case into the incinerator.According to Diana, it was simply impossible for one servant to kill another—the Ullanor family had sent people here in person.
Ms. Joad has a typical astronaut appearance: long limbs, bony wrists, and two large hands.Her eyes are big, but she is not the kind of beautiful girl in anime.On the contrary, both eyes are purple-black like Shiva's, and the eyes that stare at others are much stronger than ordinary people.Her appearance gives people a sense of power and tranquility, her expression is calm and serene, she should look very handsome.But there are some inexplicable things about her, which make her beautiful and terrifying.Whenever she looked at Ms. Joad, Eva felt that she saw a stormy heart in her eyes.Her rage is not the kind of grabbing people and beating them, but, how should I put it, something hidden deep in her nature, like a poisonous scorpion.But this metaphor is not entirely appropriate, Ms. Joad is much more dangerous than a poisonous scorpion!
Because she often has to go up and down, inspecting Ulanov's business in various places, gravity is no longer a big deal to her.It took her just three hours to get used to it—just long enough for Eva, Diana, and the bodyguards to scramble to meet her in the main hall of the main house.Iago led Ms. Joad in.Iago walked in front, and Ms. Joad followed. When she passed, the door screamed and shook violently, as if possessed by some evil spirits.
"It was my oversight! I forgot," said Ms. Joad, her voice so dark and her face so clear that she never forgot anything, that it was not in her nature to The word "negligence".She didn't show off at all, but with a look of consideration for the audience, she took out a gun from her jacket and handed it to Beltez.Beltez stowed the gun in a smart pouch.Ms. Joad smiled, backed out the door, and walked in again.
This time, the gate had no objections at all.
She wears a booster, but she walks like the wind and sits effortlessly in a chair.
"My dear girls," she said, "my employer has sent me to see if you two are all right."
Both girls sat in their chairs and didn't get up (under this gravity? Crazy?).
"We're all fine," Diana said.She took a special look at Iago——Iago deliberately didn't sit in the empty chair, but stood there, leaning slightly against the wall to the left of the sun.Iago didn't look sideways, and didn't respond to Diana's gaze.
"It's all good," Eva repeated.
Joad looked at the two girls, "I heard that there was a murder here. It's on your property, only a few meters away from this house. Isn't this unusual?"
"Isn't that why you came here, Ms. Joad?" Eva asked, "I can assure you that the Ulanov family doesn't need to worry about such trivial matters."
"I'm investigating this crime." Diana said, "Of course, Ulanov's laws are strictly followed, and there are two officially certified policemen." Several lights flashed in front of her eyes, and it was bId who prompted Her two names, "Inspector Hatchel Perrow and Deputy Shalien, they were just here yesterday. Perfectly legal."
Joad blinked, closed and opened—just once, as if absorbing necessary information.
"Very well. Naturally, my employers are concerned about your safety."
"We immediately checked the CRF levels of all the servants." Diana added without reason, "No problem at all."
Joad looked at Diana, then at Eva, and smiled. "So you want to investigate the crime yourself, don't you, my dear?" she asked.Despite asking Diana, her eyes were on the garden outside the large window.
"Yes." Diana said, "I have a lot of experience, just in..."
"Real life is different, really," Ms. Joad interrupted. "I know what a true crime investigation looks like."
"This murder is not worth mentioning at all." Eva said eagerly, "One servant killed another, maybe because of sexual jealousy or other reasons. The murderer must be one of the nineteen servants. Unfortunate, but totally a sealed, um, uh, sealed affair. My sister was trying to find out which servant did it. I spent some time yesterday thinking about whether this crime was a bigger threat to our family, The conclusion is, no."
"And you—" Ms. Joad smiled kindly, but her voice could freeze the stars into ice, "you have already obtained six doctorates!"
"I—" Eva didn't know how to answer for a while, "well, I have."
"Dear girls, I'm sorry to have to tell you that things are much more dangerous than you think."
Diana's heart skipped a beat.Will Joad stay?Was it the Ulanovs who sent her to watch over them, to spy on them, to frighten them?This person will defile her personal space, occupy her house.The thought was simply intolerable.
"Really?" she asked in as innocent a voice as possible.
"You've played a lot of reasoning games, many of which are similar in the IP." Joad said to Diana, his eyes still looked at one side while speaking, "Then tell me, have you heard of Jack Glass?"
"Glass! Of course I have," said Diana.
Ms. Joad twitched her lips and smiled slightly, "I've been following his leads, by the way." The information in this sentence is not casual at all, but the way she speaks seems to be casual chatter.
Poor stupid Diana was immediately hooked, exclaiming like a fan, "No way! Really? You mean it? Really real?"
"Oh, my dear girl." Joad was expressionless, looking out of the window. "You don't know. His real life is much more dangerous than the legend. Guess what? We caught him!"
"Caught him?" Eva repeated.
"An arrest?" Diana asked.
"Arrest plus sentence."
"I have no idea!" gasped Diana. "There's no news on any of the usual data points."
"I'll thank you if you keep it that way. If word gets out, I'll track it down to the source."
"Ms. Joad!" Diana felt offended.
"Of course." Ms. Joad continued, she did not pause, and her tone was still low and flat, "You are the daughter of your two MOHmies, you know the importance of information security and confidentiality, and..." She raised her head Right hand, as if experiencing gravity.Then she rolled her palms again and continued, "Responsibilities and burdens that go with it." She put her hands down, "I thought I could tell you this, in private. We got him. Of course, he carried out Disguise, and was convicted of a misdemeanor exile to an asteroid called Rami 306, in orbit far from here. He should have served eleven years. It took us six months to realize To our mistake - this time lag is sad. But we found out - found out who we caught, I mean - we caught him, that is to say, Jack Glass himself. So we immediately sent a ship to Lamy 306 to retrieve him. Guess what we found?"
"He died?" Eva asked. "Suicide?"
Ms. Joad's head rolled smoothly around her neck, her eyes looking directly at Eva, "Of course not. He's not dead. But his cellmates are, or rather, the clues suggest, all Dismembered into—" The next word finally had a different tone in her mouth, as if echoing the voice deep inside her, "Corpse." She licked her lips, "The body is gone. , but there was blood all over the walls."
There was silence all around, except for the chirping of cicadas in the distant fields.
"It's their bad luck." Eva finally said, Joad's strong gaze made her very uncomfortable.
"Indeed."
"At least you got him again," said Diana.
Joad turned his head. "We didn't. He wasn't there. Somehow he escaped again, alas."
Both girls were stunned, and after a while they blurted out at the same time, "How is this possible?... How did he do it?" Both of them stopped.Then Diana said again, "He wasn't there in the first place, was he?"
"It's a secret room problem," Joad said. "How did he escape from the best sealed room in the solar system?"
"Someone must have helped him," Eva said. "Someone must have hacked into the encrypted data, found out where he was serving his sentence, and sent a boat to pick him up."
Joad shook his head slightly, "The company involved uses artificial intelligence to stare at all the prison asteroids. Naturally, using artificial intelligence to stare from a distance will save money. If a ship approaches to rescue him, they will also There is no way to respond in time to stop it. But at least they can film the entire rescue process. The surveillance video of Lamy 306 is very complete, without editing, and everything is normal. Although the graininess is heavy and the resolution is low, it is complete and without abnormalities. The quality of the video is good enough for shooting To the exhaust of small spacecraft thrusters or other types of thrusters. No spacecraft has ever come close to it." Her eyes moved slowly between the two sisters. What about an asteroid? With your family's expertise in data protection, you must know that encrypted data is not that easy to crack. There are thousands of possible locations. No, no one saved him."
"He's never been in," said Diana. "That's the answer—that is, it's a sham. It must be a sham chamber. You—we always think that the murderer broke in or escaped from something that was impossible." place. But that's not really what happened." She blushed, "I mean: If Jack Glass couldn't have escaped that asteroid, then...um. He didn't. After all, no Maybe that means impossible. That is, he didn't get in in the first place; and the authorities were tricked into thinking he got away. He was never there. The other prisoners killed each other."
Joad nodded, "But, my dear, we found his DNA in the asteroid, along with other people's DNA. No, he was in it. He did spend some time in a place where it was impossible to get in and out, And then—suddenly—somehow—magically, that might be the right word, he disappeared again. Biu—teleported.” Joad suddenly laughed, sounding like a crow.
"He must have a boat."
"There are no boats there."
"No one can—teleport," Diana said. "There's no such thing as teleportation. It's magic, not science. There must be a rational explanation. We don't know what yet, but there must be." .”
"He has no legs," Eva said suddenly.
"Exactly!" Joad said with a hint of pleasure. "Did your bId tell you that, honey?"
Eva shook her head, "I don't want to access the bId data about him. The stuff inside must be scary, and I... am allergic to that stuff. I just remembered it suddenly. This should be a well-known fact Right." She looked at her sister, "I prefer to study inanimate things, it's easier...to master some physics, chemistry, dynamics and so on."
"What about you, my dear?" Joad tilted his head slightly, squinting at Diana like a velociraptor, "You prefer things related to people—huh? We heard that the Ulanov family According to rumors from the top management, when you were doing personality management, your two MOHmies had high hopes for you. The ability to solve puzzles, coupled with the ability to investigate people's problems, isn't it?"
"I guess I prefer living things," Diana said carefully. "Eva is different."
"That's why you're so obsessed with reasoning, isn't it?"
"I suppose so."
"Don't be nervous, my little sweetheart." Ms. Joad said, "The Ulanov family, which is the employer I represent, has absolutely no objection to the Argent family training the next generation of professional information skills. But you can't blame We are curious about the training method. MOH's oriented fractal is as clear as we expect. One is to solve the hardware problem, you, Eva; one is to solve the software problem, which is you."
"How did he lose his leg?" Eva asked, the image haunting her mind.
"No one knows the specific reason. Oh, there are a few conjectures." Joad wrote lightly, "You can access the database when your nerves are stronger, and your bId will tell you the specific content."
"It's quite common among the upper classes," Diana pointed out.
"Exactly, software expert!" said Joad. "Why not? If you're never going to come down, you won't feel so bad about losing that thing. After all, legs are useless in zero-gravity space. Some people even specialize in amputations—or sell their legs. For people, if you’re poor enough, you can sell anything.”
"He has no legs," Eva said, "and the fact that he's a top guy who never comes down."
"A fair guess, I suppose," Joad said kindly, "but some of his victims did get killed in gravity. Mind you, his real name wasn't Glass either. They called him Jack, Because, well, there used to be a serial killer with that name. As for his last name, uh. We don't know what his last name is. Maybe Plesserky. I don't know what that name is either. Know about Glass Where did the last name come from?"
"how did it get here?"
"This so-called surname comes from his - work. The way he kills, he's our Space Ripper Jack. The same goes for the dead on Ramy 306; he kills everyone with a sharpened glass, cut Broken corpse." Ms. Joad looked directly at Diana.
Her dark eyes.Oh!It makes one shudder to look at, Diana thought.Then, she thought, maybe Eva is more delicate than I am, but—oh!
"It is said that he killed no less than a thousand people." Diana said, this number made her "respected".
"Maybe a million," Joad said, "depending on which version of the story you believe. But one thing is for sure, his crime rate has dropped quite a bit lately. In fact, before the massacre on Rummy 306 , he hasn't killed for a long time! Of course, it is getting harder and harder for him to kill. We increased the difficulty of his crime. After Ramy 306, we sent his DNA sample to every policeman in the system, Plainclothes and personnel reviewer. That, combined with the lack of legs, and his bad reputation, is enough to set him apart. Every new murder is a huge risk for him. The cost of his crime has been Well, not as low as it used to be. My opinion is that if he's going to murder again these days, it's got to be for a very good reason."
"What about him?" Diana couldn't restrain the eagerness in her voice, "Did he murder again?"
"My dear, why do you think I have come?"
Both girls stared at her.
"Didn't you mean...?" Eva said.
"It's impossible." Diana yelled at the same time.
Neither of them spoke.
"One of the extraordinary qualities of Mr. Glass is that—" said Joad gravely, "he has a way of making the impossible possible. That's what it is, that's what it is. Escape Rummy 306! Well, I'm still He is after him, and I have reason to believe that he has his eyes on you two dears, my dears."
"No way," said Diana.
The words were out of place—not the words, but her tone.Joad turned to look at her, the eyes in his black eyes were like a tsunami sweeping across the ruins of the town, capable of destroying all living things and extinguishing all hopes.
"What did you say?" she asked in a formal and nonchalant tone.
"Oh, pardon me for offending you just now," said Diana, sweat beading on her lips, "but if I understand you correctly, you mean that our servant was killed by Jack Glass Murdered. That is, the notorious Jack Glass is here, murdering our servant?"
"That's what I mean," said Ms. Joad, darkly.
"And—what? He just disappeared?"
"Since he's no longer here," Joad said, "yes. Apparently your security has searched the entire property. The police have searched the entire surrounding land, too."
"But...why?" Diana asked. "Why did he come here, why did he go to such lengths to break through our security network, just to kill a servant? Why did he choose us?"
"I didn't say—" the smile returned to Joad's face, "—he had achieved his goal."
The surroundings became quiet again.
"But why us?"
"Oh, my sweetie! Your sister's full attention is on the idiosyncratic supernova, and she can be forgiven for not knowing! But you? You must have deciphered the hidden message—that no one said publicly, Stuff that civilians don't even know exists, but everyone talks about in private."
"What?" Diana blushed with embarrassment, "What are you talking about?"
Joad looked at the guard and said, "Of course it's faster than the speed of light! It's definitely worth killing people for this. Having it means endless power and wealth. Practical faster-than-light technology."
"But..." Diana asked again, "What does this have to do with us?" Even though she asked, she actually already knew the answer.The Argent family's reputation was built on their wealth of information, on their skill at finding it.If anyone has a clue to the mysterious new technology, it can only be them.
"It doesn't matter why," said Eva, her beautiful eyebrows drawn into a crease, "I just want to know how he did it."
"Of course, curious boy," said Joad, "you're certainly more interested in practical methods than in trivial human motives."
"I'm serious," Eva said. "There is full surveillance footage of the servants' quarters—the entire property. Not a single person was in or out of that building during the relevant time. Your notorious Jack Glass again How did you go into the storeroom and smash a servant's head with a sledgehammer?"
"That's a very interesting question, isn't it?" Joad said. "The murderer has been identified, and the rest is the means."
"Not to mention anything else, how did he come to the island? How did he break through all the security measures to reach the earth? How did he know we are here?"
"All good questions," Joad said.
"And, how did he escape layers of surveillance and enter a closed building?"
"You may also ask: How did he escape from Ramy 306?" Joad replied, "I don't know, but he just did it."
"What proof do you have that he killed our servant?"
"You'll have to trust me here. I can't tell you the specifics of what I know, and you should all understand that there are security clearances involved. Technically, I shouldn't have mentioned those three in the conversation. Character."
"FTL?" Diana asked again. "But why? Why come here, sneak into the servants' room, and smash his head? For FTL? No, I don't understand, I just don't understand."
Ms. Joad stood up, and her movements were smooth, at most, the leg muscles in the booster trembled slightly.
"It's really a mystery, I agree. I admit, like everyone else, how this is a big problem for me. But you can definitely figure it out! After all, your two MOHmies are very important to yours. Puzzle-solving ability is given the highest rating. My dear, the highest rating."
"You mean—" Eva pressed, "Jack Glass teleported into our house?"
"There's no such thing as teleportation, my dear," said Joad. "Can I get my weapon back?"
Beltez handed over the smart pouch.
"I'll ask the attendant to prepare a house for you, Ms. Joad." Eva then remembered her hospitality. "Do you have any special preferences—living inland or by the sea?"
"Oh, I'm going back, my dear," said Ms. Joad, looking away.
"Oh!" Eva felt as if she had been slapped, "You want to go straight up?"
"People in the Ulanov family don't like to wait." After she finished speaking, she turned and looked at the two MOH sisters in turn, "As data artists, the future of you two is limitless, I have no doubt about it. You will also learn that some things can only be understood face-to-face in real space, and even the most detailed virtual space cannot achieve that effect.”
"So what did you learn from us, Ms. Joad?" Diana asked bravely.
"I understand—" Ms. Joad's gaze stayed on Diana for a moment, "among these two famous MOH sisters, which one deserves more attention?"
Diana felt a little dizzy, as if her usual caution had left her, "But anyway, Ms. Joad, we have to thank you for letting us know that our servant was killed by Jack Glass. Although I still Can't figure out how he magically got into the servants' room."
"I don't know either!" said Miss Joad. "Good-bye, my sweets."
As soon as Ms. Joad was gone, they ordered Tino to lead another search (nothing was found, though his men were very thorough), and Eva and Diana called their two MOHmies again, as The secure link needs to go through nearly a thousand randomly selected paths, and the picture is very blurry and trembling.It's barely visible though: the two parents, holding hands, floating in the air, surrounded by bright lights and vibrant colours.Diana had told them that Ms. Joad had been there, but they had (certainly) known that for a long time, and they didn't seem too worried about it.
"You two can solve this terrible mystery," they said in unison. "Together, daughters!"
"Ms. Joad said it was Jack Glass," said Diana.
"There are a lot of rumors about that guy." MOHmie Yin said, "If you believe those rumors, he is only 10% human, and the other 90% are half-orcs! But I don't believe he is a superhuman .He is just a person. Even his current reputation is not something he can afford.”
"I don't know how he's going to do it."
"You're a clever kid," said MOHmie Yang, "you'll figure it out."
Just before the end of the call, Diana said: "Ms. Joad said it has something to do with the speed of light." I don't know if it is because of the bright skyline in the distance, these three words seem to make the two MOHmies shiver .Yeah?Or is this just a flaw in image rendering?
"It's hard to say how much a servant knows about something like that," MOHmie Yang said, "and it's not clear what it has to do with murder."
But her voice sounds a little strange, is she angry?Diana's seventh sense told her that she asked about a difficult thing to say. The matter was very complicated, and the so-called difficult thing to say was precisely because of the matter itself.
"Super-light speed is nothing." MOHmie grinned reluctantly, and added, "It's all nonsense, it doesn't exist at all. It's impossible, and you should also know that the laws of physics don't allow that to happen. .”
"Speaking of rules," MOHmie Yang said, "We've made both of you Ulanov's legally recognized criminal investigators. The local police must obey you now."
"Oh, they've already done that," said Diana dismissively.
"Solve this mystery!" said the two MOHmies in unison, "Let's be proud, daughters!" The conversation ended.
The two sisters sat for a while longer.Diana lazily went over the various rumors about Jack Glass in bId.Three-quarters of it is improbable mythology, and the rest, which is close to real life, speaks of him as a dissident with violent and terrifying tendencies.No news of his capture, imprisonment on an asteroid, and miraculous escape from prison was found in any easily accessible, relatively public source.It appears that the Ulanov authorities suppressed the news for some reason, assuming Ms. Joad's news wasn't something she made up for some reason.Diana looked at the face of Jack Glass displayed in front of her eyes, and it looked like a normal person, as most murderers do.
"I still don't understand." Eva said, Ms. Joad's deep gaze lingered in her heart, "Why did she come down here in person, all the way from the Ulanov family? Just to see us?"
"There's something wrong," said Diana. "She's definitely not here just to see us. We're not that important. And I don't see any reason for her to be interested in that dead servant."
"Then she's here to scare us. After all, interviews are much more intimidating than IPs." After speaking, she added, "That is to say, she's here to scare our MOHmie—we're targeting Your daughters are here, we know where they are and we can catch them."
At this moment, relying on the deep understanding of human nature that Eva lacks (even though Eva is five years older and has six PhD degrees), Diana suddenly understood, "They are afraid."
"what?"
The following words are almost like crimes, Diana couldn't help but look around for the next four weeks, feeling a little anxious in her heart.It was almost certain that their environment protected them from Ulanov's direct surveillance.But it is basically certain that these words are not as reliable as you think, especially when it is related to the highest authority in the system.
"The Ulanov family is afraid—they are afraid of us, the Argent family, and our MOH family."
"why?"
"Do I really need to make it that clear, Eva? It's those three words, I suppose. Do you think I know? I'm only fifteen, and the political power struggles and intrigues are beyond me. But this isn't going to last forever. I bet you the Ulanovs are sensitive to potential rebellion. They're afraid the Argentes are going to—I don't know, some kind of matter."
Eva's eyes widened. "You think we will? Our MOHmie, I mean?"
"I don't know, how could I know? But that would explain why she insisted that Jack Glass killed our poor squire Leron. Why did it have to be him?"
"Can you explain?"
Diana pushed some flagged data to her sister's IP account, "Look for yourself. Just to add - there's nothing in it that would scare my squeamish MOH sister, although the guy does have his human The companions have done many terrible things. I marked a dozen, chiefly—his close ties to the revolutionary movement."
"Terrorists." Eva said subconsciously, a bit of conditioned reflex.
"Of course, terrorists, abolitionists, Mithraists, that sort of thing. Glass was the poster child, or spiritual leader, of those groups. Obviously, he dedicated his life to for the overthrow of Ulanov's cause."
Eva's beautiful lips were slightly curled up, and she whistled in a C# tone, "Is this what Joad meant? She came all this way to warn us, the Ulanov family suspects that we sympathize with law abolitionists?" Jack Glass is your murderer' . . . does that mean?"
"If it's not us, is it someone among our servants?"
"How is it possible? Those are all carefully selected attendants! They have passed through—God, I can't count how many layers of selection review. How could such a detailed review pass through?"
"It doesn't really make sense," Diana agreed. "Too many things don't make sense. Unless—"
"unless?"
"Unless our MOHmie has some new method, some new method of pressure; otherwise, Joad wouldn't bother to deliberately pretend to say those three words accidentally."
"Stop talking nonsense," Eva said.
In the evening, the two sisters dined in the elegant room, and Tino and Iago dined alone at the next table.The sea breeze blows through the open windows, bringing the scent of lavender.The cicadas were singing outside, and the air seemed to be fluctuating like ocean waves. It might be more accurate to say that it was lazily yawning.The surrounding tree shadows are swaying, and the night sky above the head is dotted with shining lights. The overall feeling is that the movement is greater than the stillness.
"When I mentioned FTL to our MOHmie—" Diana paused, then considered, "it felt like I was swearing."
Eva glanced at her, "Really?"
"Why is it so secretive?" Diana asked. "If someone really invented faster-than-light travel technology—well, it should be celebrated by all mankind! That would mean the freedom of interstellar travel! Why should it be kept secret? Why would anyone Killing someone to get it? Why does MOHmie Yang cringe at the mention of that?"
"Maybe it's just an image defect," Eva said.
"That would be like the Wright Brothers inventing the airplane and then keeping the news from anyone. Spread the knowledge... Wouldn't it make more sense to publish a copy on a public IP or something?"
"There's no faster-than-light technology," Eva said. "That thing doesn't exist. It's totally against the laws of physics. It's all bullshit."
"Isn't it even more ironic? People are killing people for new faster-than-light technology they think exists, but it doesn't exist! Killing people for a rumor."
"Anyone with an elementary education knows that faster-than-light travel is impossible," Eva added, "and everyone beyond the illiterate class knows that."
"But the only people who are willing to believe this are illiterate." Diana mused, "Maybe that's the point. If there is super-light technology, people can use it to escape the system... right? ? They can use this technology to escape the rule of the Ulanov legal system."
"Huh, if there is a technology that allows us to live forever, we can all become gods." Eva said, "But unfortunately not."
"You're missing the point. The point is, this idea can be a symbol, a flag, a sign, a grounds for a revolution."
Eva shivered. "I wish you'd stop saying that word."
After dinner, the two prayed together and kissed each other before returning to their respective bedrooms.
Notes:
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