Chapter 944 Swan's Suspicion
"What do the numbers on the previous pages mean?" Reacher took out the crumpled A4 papers from his pocket and spread them out in front of Dixon.
"You once said that numbers can speak. Tell me what these numbers are saying?"
Jack recounted Chris's speculation, "The good news is that this should not be the experimental data of some kind of biological and chemical weapons. At least from the existing data, 'New Age Technology' does not have the ability to produce such weapons."
"Some data counted by month?" Dixon thought, and took two napkins and started writing and drawing on them.
While she was studying the data, Jack threw out the last clue, "What do you know about the missing Tony Swan?"
The others looked at each other in confusion, not understanding what he meant by this, and saw him open the last file on the computer.
"This is the list of employees in the security department under the name of 'New Age Technology'. Pay attention to who is in the deputy director column."
The list not only has names but also photos, so there is no need to worry about duplicate names. Therefore, when everyone saw Tony Swan's name, they were shocked.
Originally, Jack informed Jubal to investigate the "New Age Technology" because he didn't want to miss any clues. After all, it was just the parking pass of the company found in the car of Trevor Saropian, a black glove, which was not a strong clue.
But at the same time, when Alice retrieved Tony Swan's information, she was surprised to find that he happened to work in this "New Age Technology". This abnormal coincidence immediately raised the suspicion of this company to N levels.
Reacher's mind was racing, and he seemed to understand the hint in Jack's previous question. He couldn't help but feel a little angry, but after seeing the faces of others, the anger turned into a kind of helplessness.
"I absolutely believe in Tony Swan. He is an upright man."
O'Donnell glanced at Negley and said weakly, "Major, I must remind you that people change, just like you never thought I would get married and be tamed by my wife."
Reacher waved his hand decisively, "No, this is not the same thing. I will not doubt Swan, just like I will not doubt you."
"Uh" Seeing that Negley was about to join the ranks of questioning, Jack spoke first to interrupt the possible dispute between the three.
"You may have misunderstood what I meant. I don't suspect that Tony Swan participated in this illegal transaction, but I want to know if he could have discovered the danger in advance and hidden it. The CSI has been searching the mountain with the local police for several days, but no new bodies have been found."
Everyone present was smart. As soon as Jack's question came out, everyone, including Reacher, thought of a possibility. As a middle and senior manager of the security department of "New Era Technology", Swan was quite suspicious.
Unlike other companies, as a high-tech enterprise involved in the military industry, the security department is as important as the FBI to the federal government.
The security department is not only responsible for the background check of each employee to ensure that there are no commercial spies or even spies from other countries, but also responsible for internal security, personal safety of senior executives and other important duties.
As the deputy director of the security department, Swan's status and importance in the company are self-evident, at least he has the value of being bribed.
But his disappearance is full of doubts. Franz's home and office were forcibly broken into and turned upside down, as were Sanchez and Orozco's offices, but Swan's home did not show any signs of being broken into or turned over.
So his disappearance can be explained as being killed or under house arrest, or it can be considered that he deliberately hid or even fled the country.
Whether he fled because of fear of retaliation or hid, from the perspective of the remaining people in the 110 Special Investigation Team, this is a "deserter" behavior.
Although they still don't know the whole story, the general outline can be guessed.
Everything should have started from Swan. He may have noticed something wrong inside "New Age Technology" and found his former colleague Franz to help investigate.
Franz found Sanchez and Orozco in Atlantic City. The four of them probably didn't realize the danger at first. When they realized that something was wrong, they were killed before they could give a warning.
Franz's good habit of keeping secrets made him keep the USB flash drive, but that was all. When they realized that this was an illegal arms deal involving 65 million dollars, it was too late.
The other party's response was so quick that they didn't even succeed in asking for help or alerting others.
"It's unlikely that Tony Swan was involved." Jack gave a relatively rational conclusion from the perspective of a bystander who was not a member of the 110 Special Investigation Team.
"If he was a participant in this illegal transaction, there was no need to contact Franz to create trouble. He was once a member of the 110 Special Investigation Team and knows your abilities best.
So my question is, under what circumstances do you think Swan would let his dog die of thirst at home and not send you a message for help."
"Imprisoned, or hiding alone. What Reacher often said when he led us was that assumptions would kill people." O'Donnell spread his hands.
"Swan is clean. As I said, he won't let his dog die of thirst. If he has a problem, he won't disappear like others." Reacher glared at him expressionlessly.
"But he didn't disappear like the others. His body was never found and his home was not destroyed. Maybe he just ran away because when he messed up everything, he knew there would be three angry soldiers and A monster came to trouble him."
Niggly did not support Reacher this time as he did in the past. This was not against Swann or a hypothesis, but a reasonable speculation based on facts. This actually made Jack look at them with admiration.
As if to prove his intuition, Reacher told a story from that year. During an operation, the 110 Special Investigation Team seized 48 pieces of drugs, each weighing one kilogram. However, when counting afterwards, they found that there was missing. piece.
During this period, Swann complained, lamenting that those guys who used the military system to sell drugs could make more money in one transaction than all their pensions combined.
Coincidentally, the SUV that transported the seized drugs during this operation happened to be driven by Swann. Several people returned to the vehicle to check again and found that the missing kilogram of drug had fallen from the trunk and under the back seat.
"But this does not support your argument." O'Donnell retorted. "Swan may have indeed stolen the kilogram of high-purity heroin, and it was just a small trick on his part to drop it from the trunk and into the back seat. If We failed to find it, and he succeeded."
Nigli looked at Reacher with burning eyes, "Do you know what I think? You hope Swann is innocent, because you are the one who recruited him into the 110 team.
If he was really involved, you'd have some stupid thoughts, like blaming yourself for other people's deaths, when in fact it had nothing to do with you. "
"Guys," Dixon said, interrupting a potential argument, "I think I figured out what this data means."
Everyone turned their attention to her and saw her writing two numbers on the napkin, "According to Jack, the number after a set of numbers represents the number of times that should have happened, and the number in front of it represents the number that actually happened.
I added the numbers together and got two totals, a total of 2197 times that something was supposed to happen and actually succeeded 1547 times and then subtracted those two totals and what do we get? "
"650, 100,000 each, all of these are related together." Jack blurted out. He was indeed not good at mathematics, but after all, he was Chinese and could still do simple verbal calculations.