Ch.190Crooked! (3)

#190

Several weeks had passed since the incident where a drunk Decker, after drinking all night with Dexter, fell asleep on Dexter’s living room sofa, only to be discovered and smacked by a half-naked Jessie, leaving him sulking.

The related matters had been resolved quite well.

The interrogation of the last surviving gang member had concluded successfully, and with the cooperation of the Las Vegas Police and FBI, all members of the emerging gang had been arrested.

As the gang’s drugs, various contraband, human trafficking operations, and numerous criminal activities came to light, tens of millions of dollars were recovered by the government.

Chief Olivia would be quite upset if she heard this news.

Additionally, the criminals on the list that Carranza had passed via note naturally gravitated back to Carranza, resolving that issue as well.

Judy, who knew what kind of work Dexter usually did, clung to him when he visited Carranza and glared at her.

“That guard is cute, isn’t she?”

Sitting on her cell bed, Carranza briefly assessed Judy before continuing.

“Honestly, I was surprised.”

“About what?”

“Dexter, I didn’t know you could handle things so quickly. How did you do it?”

As Dexter had completely eradicated the emerging gang, the criminals associated with Carranza began to operate freely again.

Thanks to this, Carranza learned through various communication channels that she had regained her subordinates.

“I asked a few people I know for help.”

Dexter answered evasively, unable to tell the whole truth.

Knowing the situation, Judy looked at Dexter in disbelief as he spoke—not exactly lying, but certainly being brazen about it.

Feeling Judy’s gaze, Dexter smiled lightly and addressed Carranza more directly.

“Now I’d like to receive my reward.”

“What kind? With my body?”

Carranza said with a broad smile, giving her upper body a light shake.

As what was sufficient for Carranza but insufficient for Judy bounced noticeably, Judy, watching the situation, pursed her lips in disapproval.

“If I took a physical reward, there would be many upset people, so I’ll pass on that. Instead, find someone for me, as I mentioned before.”

“Hmm, what kind of person?”

“Someone who disappeared 40 years ago.”

Carranza frowned at Dexter’s words.

“How am I supposed to find someone who disappeared 40 years ago?”

“That’s why I’m asking you.”

With just that short sentence, Dexter left Carranza speechless, his expression saying “try it if you can.”

Carranza, who had expected Dexter to make a request worthy of a cartel’s capabilities, twirled her hair as she spoke.

“What’s this person’s name?”

“George Hayward. Born April 24, 1915. Last seen at Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Boston.”

Carranza’s expression became peculiar as she grabbed a notebook from the desk and wrote down Dexter’s words, afraid she might forget.

“Your expression looks like you’re telling me to eat shit and enjoy it.”

“Does it seem that way?”

For Dexter, the elimination of the emerging gang that had threatened Las Vegas and discovering one more piece of information related to the Chief was valuable enough. He wouldn’t mind if Carranza couldn’t find George Hayward.

Still, it was amusing to see Carranza, who always tried to maintain a position of superiority over others, flustered for the first time.

“Don’t get your hopes up.”

Carranza spoke dismissively, thinking it wouldn’t be easy to find this person.

“Do your best.”

“…Are you sure this person actually exists?”

“Given his age, he might be dead, but he definitely existed.”

Leaving behind a suspicious-looking Carranza, Dexter and Judy exited the cell and headed toward the staff area.

As they descended from the second floor, Judy spoke with a pouty face.

“We’re guards and she’s an inmate. Even if she’s a cartel boss’s wife, is that behavior acceptable?”

“Rather than creating situations where OSA has to collaborate with the DEA, it’s easier to just help each other out.”

It was a decision made because he didn’t want to create more work when there was already plenty to do, but Judy didn’t like it.

“I don’t like how she keeps trying to seduce you, and honestly, even though I understand why, I don’t like you taking her side.”

“Jealousy?”

“Yes, I’m jealous. So don’t get friendly with that woman.”

As she pursed her lips again like before, Dexter looked around to confirm they were alone, then patted her bottom and said:

“You are cute when you act like that, just as Carranza said.”

“What if someone had seen us!”

Judy startled, looking around frantically before sighing in relief when she confirmed no inmates or other guards were present.

Then she poked Dexter in the side and said:

“You live for teasing me, don’t you?”

“You know I’m all jokes.”

“You’re mean anyway.”

Seeing Judy’s sulky face, Dexter smiled lightly again and continued his prison duty without further incident.

The next day, although it was a day off from prison duty, Dexter reported to OSA after hearing that the special investigation team needed personnel.

Stopping briefly at the special investigation team’s office, Dexter found William typing intensely at his keyboard with his tongue sticking out.

“What are you so focused on, sir?”

“Ah, you’re here?”

After Dexter nodded in greeting and looked at the monitor, he could see William was writing a document in report format.

Most of the report’s content was about Howard Hughes, and since Dexter had also been researching Howard Hughes whenever he had time, searching online or looking through related books, it seemed the entire special investigation team was fixated on Howard Hughes.

“Did you know that Howard Hughes created the prototype for the memory eraser that OSA uses?”

“Him?”

Dexter knew that sometimes, after important criminals testified about OSA-related matters, their memories were erased using the memory eraser to maintain secrecy. But hearing that Howard Hughes was involved in developing the memory eraser surprised him somewhat.

“Originally, it wasn’t a memory eraser but a machine to recover forgotten memories, but for some reason, it had the opposite effect.”

“That’s interesting.”

“After its effectiveness was proven to some extent, when it was introduced to OSA, he was the first to volunteer to try it. That was one of the things that happened in his later years.”

“If Howard Hughes was a test subject for the memory eraser, does that mean he had memories he wanted to erase?”

“I suppose so. Although nowadays technology has advanced enough to erase only specific segments of memory, back then they could only determine the starting point of memory erasure.”

“And he was willing to accept that to erase certain memories.”

When Dexter showed a rather interested expression, William noticed and smiled contentedly.

“I thought you might be curious, so I found the agent who first operated the memory eraser. He still lives near Las Vegas.”

William handed Dexter a memo he had prepared in advance.

“I should visit him after this case is over.”

“You should. By the way, I heard you enlisted a criminal’s help to find George Hayward. Is that true?”

“Well, he’s so difficult to find. I’ve requested help from the NSA and CIA, but they haven’t found anything significant. So I thought I’d try using underworld information.”

“Hmm, I’ve been searching with all my resources too… but nothing substantial has turned up.”

When William indicated that his search wasn’t yielding results either, Dexter nodded slightly and pointed outside the office, saying:

“I was called in for a specific reason today. I’ll see you later, sir.”

“Alright, take care of your business.”

William said with a pleased smile.

After leaving the special investigation team’s office, Dexter arrived at the small conference room of the Science and Technology Department.

Having only been told that the special investigation team’s help was needed without further details, Dexter was slightly taken aback when he entered the conference room and was greeted by key personnel from OSA’s Administrative Bureau.

Tandy, the head of the Science and Technology Department, who had been looking anxious, showed relief when Dexter entered the conference room and gestured to him.

“Over here.”

The only empty seat at the front was next to Himena, who was looking at Dexter with raised eyebrows.

As Dexter strode over and sat down, Tandy glanced at him and began speaking.

“Since everyone seems to be here, let’s officially begin.”

He started formally, as befitting a meeting with Administrative Bureau personnel.

Dexter used the paper and pen in front of him to ask Himena a question in writing.

[What’s going on?]

[The Pluto probe. They’ve called everyone involved because of that.]

‘Pluto probe?’

As Himena said, the projector screen behind Tandy displayed a photo of New Horizons, the Pluto probe launched in 2006.

“It’s been nine years since its launch, and New Horizons has finally approached Pluto.”

Tandy moved to the next slide with the remote.

“You all know that the New Horizons probe launched by NASA also carries a life signal detector specially made by our Science and Technology Department, and this detector has been highly effective in identifying space pirates and unregistered criminals within the solar system.”

As Tandy moved to the next image, a photo of Pluto appeared, showing a white background with a yellowish tint and reddish-brown blotches.

It was a high-resolution photo of Pluto that even NASA didn’t possess.

“The problem is right below this heart section, the nitrogen ice region.”

Tandy emphasized the nitrogen ice region of Pluto with a laser pointer, circling the blotchy area.

“Advanced life forms along with a spacecraft have been detected and discovered at this location.”

Tandy’s words caused a stir in the small conference room.

‘Advanced life forms on Pluto?’

Himena and Dexter were also puzzled.

Pluto is only famous from Earth’s perspective; it has no special resources or scenery.

Moreover, Pluto’s average temperature is -248°C.

The existence of advanced life forms in such a place, with temperatures close to absolute zero, would be evidence of technology far superior to that of humans.

“We’ve dispatched an OSA External Cooperation Team for investigation, but the problem is that the team lacks sufficient time.”

The ‘OSA External Cooperation Team’ is a group formed from a combination of nearby planets and the Galactic Alliance, organized when space-related issues concerning Earth arise.

Similar to a military’s rapid response team or OSA’s immediate action team, it’s a fragile entity that relies on the goodwill of nearby planets and Earth’s status in the Galactic Alliance.

The projector screen showed the expected arrival time and trajectory of the dispatched External Cooperation Team relative to Pluto, alongside the arrival time and trajectory of New Horizons.

‘Why is the External Cooperation Team’s spacecraft so slow?’

While New Horizons was set to reach its closest point around the 14th in Earth time, the External Cooperation Team was scheduled to arrive at Pluto on the 15th.

“This External Cooperation Team was dispatched from the planet Gehenna, 15 light-years from Earth, but it turns out their spacecraft is outdated due to equipment and funding shortages. It has no warp or space jump capabilities, making it relatively slow…”

Hearing this, Dexter frowned.

He knew where Gehenna was and was familiar with the model of their main spacecraft.

‘It sounds like they’re saying they sent an old spacecraft for external cooperation that doesn’t even pay well and called it a day.’

This made sense because planets like Earth that had signed neutrality treaties found it difficult to send spacecraft, so nearby planets took turns helping instead.

The Galactic Alliance sent some subsidies to those planets, and Earth also contributed funds, but it wasn’t particularly profitable.

Dexter knew this fact, and the head of the Science and Technology Department certainly knew it too.

Looking at Tandy’s expression, he seemed to have half-given up whenever Gehenna was mentioned.

Seeing this expression, Dexter quickly understood why he had been called.

‘They want me to either go to Pluto directly or find someone who can help through my connections.’

While Dexter was contemplating, Tandy’s direct subordinate raised his hand and asked:

“Wouldn’t it be better to just destroy New Horizons?”

“The total cost of the New Horizons project is 780 million dollars, and you want to destroy it?”

“Oh.”

“If we make a mistake, OSA’s budget could be drastically cut, just like NASA’s.”

At Tandy’s words, the Administrative Bureau personnel nodded.

“Budget is important, indeed.”

“Our budget is already tight, and if it gets cut further…”

With a determination to protect the budget, Tandy stared intently at Dexter.

It seemed he would have to see Eliya again.