Ch.158Favorite Crime! (5)

#158

A dark, gloomy garage.

After carefully placing Ambassador Anna’s body—her head drooping lifelessly with closed eyes—in the back seat, Himena wiped the sweat from her forehead and asked Dexter:

“Will this work?”

“This plan will work as long as everyone keeps their mouths shut. Just make sure their schedules get leaked properly.”

“Ah, I’m not confident about leaking things…”

“Leaking is easier than maintaining airtight security.”

Dexter said as he roughly tossed Stefan’s limp body into the passenger seat.

The two, clearly engaged in suspicious activity, carefully exited the garage after positioning a middle-aged man with corpse-like movements in the driver’s seat.

* * *

The next day, late morning at the Oasis Bar.

The TV screen prominently displayed a car engulfed in flames.

[…A car bomb exploded late last evening, damaging part of the Yekaterina Republic’s embassy. Among the deceased are reportedly Yekaterina Republic’s Ambassador to the United States, Anna Sokolova, and her husband, Stefan Sokolov.]

“A car bombing in Washington D.C., can you believe it?”

“I know. My daughter lives near there—I wonder if she’s okay.”

Dexter quietly listened to the Honeygood Springs residents whispering in front of the TV while taking a sip of his coffee.

“They really went through with it.”

Unlike the news report’s gravity, Dexter watched the TV with a calm expression as if this were an everyday occurrence, but Jesse beside him had a different reaction.

“What the hell, Dex? Didn’t you say those two were escaping?”

Jesse, who thought Stefan and Anna had successfully escaped Earth, was shocked by the news, but Dexter remained composed.

“Yeah. They escaped just fine.”

Dexter affirmed Jesse’s statement.

“Then why does the news say that?”

“It’s a cover, obviously.”

Dexter said while stabbing a sausage on his plate with a fork and chewing it noisily.

“They left three days ago.”

“Huh? Not yesterday? I didn’t hear anything about this at headquarters.”

“That’s because there’s a spy at headquarters. Didn’t Himena tell you?”

Jesse nodded, having already heard about the spy.

“Oh, that spy. The one who tried to remotely blow up the Subtron?”

“That’s right.”

Dexter said, taking another sip of coffee.

The supposedly deceased Stefan and Anna were currently on a spaceship headed for the Gaijin Empire.

The victims of the car bombing were specially manufactured dummy humans from the OSA, used in cases like this when deaths needed to be faked.

“What are you two whispering about?”

Kiara, an employee at the Oasis Bar and the owner’s daughter, looked at Dexter and Jesse with a playful smile.

“Hmm. Kiara, another coffee here.”

“Wait a minute. I didn’t know you had a girlfriend, big brother, let alone one you’d have breakfast with.”

Kiara said in a cheerful voice as she poured coffee into the mug in front of Dexter.

“You’re so lucky, sis.”

“Why’s that?”

“Well, our town is small… but there are still some single ladies around your age.”

“Ah, I see.”

So that’s what she meant—the unmarried women in Honeygood Springs around Dexter’s age had their eyes on him.

“Finders keepers, you know.”

Jesse said, subtly stroking Dexter’s forearm, to which Kiara nodded in agreement.

“That’s right. If I didn’t have a boyfriend, I might have confessed to you too, big brother.”

“Who says I’d accept? Come back when you’re three or four years older.”

When Dexter waved his hand dismissively at the smiling Kiara, suggesting kids should stay away, she bristled.

“Why? How much older is she than me anyway?”

“That’s different.”

Dexter pointed at the empty glass in front of Jesse.

“Juice refill here too.”

“Always ordering when you run out of things to say.”

Kiara grumbled as she poured orange juice.

While Kiara was serving other customers in the bar, Dexter glanced at the TV screen and said:

“Anyway, let me know if you notice anyone suspicious. The fact that they immediately tried to kill the Stefan couple when we started investigating properly gives us a hint.”

“That someone inside is consistently feeding them information.”

“Exactly. Not a temporary employee like Encyclopedia, but someone with a high enough clearance level to handle information.”

Encyclopedia’s official title was Technical Consultant Engineer in the Science and Technology Department.

However, his actual position was below that of regular employees, which meant his access to information and certain areas was limited.

Himena and Dexter also believed that the General’s side had an internal collaborator to carry out these operations so easily, which is why they proceeded with this operation in secret, even keeping Jesse in the dark.

That’s why Dexter didn’t view this car bombing incident as simply an assassination attempt by the General’s side.

‘It means the spy within OSA couldn’t get the information in time.’

Led by the special investigation team, only a very limited number of people knew about the dummy humans disguised as the Stefan couple, including the engineers who created them.

Since the General’s assassination plan for the couple appeared successful, it was clear that those specific personnel were not spies.

‘If we narrow down the personnel like this bit by bit, we should be able to identify the spy.’

“The question is who leaked the schedule.”

“Schedule?”

“Jesse, when did you hear Stefan and Anna were leaving Earth?”

“Last night, that’s what I was told.”

Dexter laughed lightly at Jesse’s uninformed response.

“We divided people into three groups.”

“Okay.”

“People in Group 1 were told the couple would leave Earth a week from now. People in Group 2 were told they’d leave in three days.”

“…And? Group 3…?”

“They were told the couple would leave last night.”

Dexter grinned.

“Group 3 consists of the Science and Technology Department and the Support Department.”

“Then that means…”

“The spy is in either the Science and Technology Department or the Support Department. Or possibly both if there’s more than one.”

It was an old-fashioned method, but still useful for identifying information leakers within an organization.

“Just in case, Jesse, you need to keep quiet about this too.”

“…Who do you take me for?”

Jesse wrinkled her nose and poked Dexter in the side at his obvious statement.

“Ow.”

“I won’t let it slide if you suspect me.”

“Hmm. What will you do about it?”

Dexter raised his eyebrows with a playful smile, and Jesse rolled her eyes before grinning as if she’d had a good idea.

“Hmm… I’ll make you sleep on the couch! How about that!”

“Hmm.”

Dexter put the last sausage in his mouth in one go and said:

“That would be your loss, wouldn’t it?”

“How so?”

“Obviously because you’re the one who burrows into my arms the most when we sleep.”

“……”

Jesse recalled all the memories of being in Dexter’s arms and couldn’t help but blush from early in the morning.

“Well, checkmate?”

“…Shut up.”

Dexter gloated while Jesse buried her face in her plate and stuffed the remaining food into her mouth.

* * *

Over the past few days, Dexter had been living a peaceful life.

He was helping Emily, who was close to release, find a job, and at OSA, he was merely compiling reports on existing cases rather than dealing with new ones.

Dexter was leisurely drinking coffee in the staff area of Medium Security Facility Block 2, spending his afternoon shift.

“I have a woman waiting at home to pat my butt… this is paradise on earth, what else could be paradise?”

As Dexter was casually scanning the passing inmates, his shoulder radio crackled with a message.

[Disturbance in Medium Security Facility Block 4. All Block 4 officers assemble.]

Along with the radio message, sirens were blaring outside.

It didn’t seem too serious, as no sirens were sounding in Block 2.

Dexter was about to take another sip of coffee when he remembered what Emily had said.

‘Turner something.’

He had warned the Block 4 officers as Emily had instructed, but they seemed to think Turner was an unremarkable inmate, just as Dexter had initially thought.

‘But realistically, unless he’s some once-in-a-century genius of incitement, things shouldn’t escalate this rapidly.’

It had only been about a week since Turner was transferred to Block 4, so Dexter thought it didn’t make sense.

While Dexter was speculating in the staff area, his cell phone on the desk vibrated.

It was a message from Himena.

-Congratulations!!

‘What is she congratulating me for?’

>For what?

-Emily will tell you when she gets there!

‘Emily?’

Emily wasn’t present at the moment.

She had gone to the Clark County District Court in the morning regarding multiple vehicle theft charges.

‘Clark County District Court isn’t far, so she should be back soon.’

It seemed that the lawyer Himena hired for Emily had achieved good results.

After waiting for Emily to return, Dexter saw her entering Block 2 in handcuffs, escorted by two officers.

While he couldn’t read the two officers, Dexter could tell from the slight upward curve of Emily’s lips that she had indeed received good news.

After handing over the transfer paperwork to the two officers, Dexter removed Emily’s handcuffs and asked:

“How did it go for Inmate Bell?”

“Charges dropped due to insufficient evidence.”

“Hmm.”

Dexter nodded, suppressing a smile that threatened to emerge.

“That doesn’t make sense. Everyone knows this inmate is Old Folks.”

One of the two officers grumbled upon hearing Emily’s statement.

“Well, if that’s what the judge says, what power do we ordinary officers have? I’ll handle the rest, so you two can take a break.”

Dexter sided with the officers just enough to send them elsewhere, then looked around.

There was no one within earshot.

“Emily, good job.”

“Money talks, I guess. First time I’ve seen a judge joking with a lawyer during trial.”

“Himena said she got you a good lawyer.”

Dexter said with a chuckle.

“So you’re really getting out soon.”

After putting the handcuffs back in the staff area, Dexter looked at Emily, who was still standing awkwardly, and she slowly nodded.

“When I get out, I want to help you three with your work.”

It sounded like a child offering to help with their parents’ work, making Dexter smile lightly.

“Well, that’s fine with me. But are you sure? You won’t always be able to steal just what you want.”

“I’m not a child. I know I can’t always get everything I want.”

With those words, Emily headed toward her cell.

“Besides, I’ve found something better than stealing.”

“What’s that?”

“Hmm, I’ll tell you when I get out.”

As Emily entered her cell after those final words, Dexter smiled warmly at her, seeing someone who seemed to have grown just a bit more.