Zhang Xiang knew very well in his heart that the disappearance of the secret room of that IT company in Zhongguancun was a headache for the leaders of the bureau. And to make matters worse, since the king team responsible for investigating this case also suffered an accident, they really have no choice. Otherwise, they would not use Shi Qiang again to investigate this case.
To say that Shi Qiang is indeed inferior, and often engages in torture in private to extract confessions, or it is the practice of threatening witnesses. This is the third time that he has been suspended, but he still does not repent. This time the old director let him be Shi Qiang's assistant, but also took a fancy to the advantages of his safe handling of things, can stop Shi Qiang at a critical moment, and will not go too far.
However, Shi Qiang's ability in criminal investigation business is undeniable by everyone. Zhang Xiang thought to himself that the sum of the criminal investigation captains in the bureau might not be as good as Shi Qiang.
They were greeted by a personnel manager named Liu of Changyuan Tiandi Company.
Shi Qiang took out his ID and shook it in front of Manager Liu. Before the other party could see it clearly, he took it back and stuffed it into his trouser pocket.
"We are here to investigate your company's case." Shi Qiang said gruffly. After speaking, he took out the lighter and lit a cigarette in his mouth.
Zhang Xiang found that Manager Liu was obviously unhappy.
"Team Shi, this is a work area, and smoking is not allowed." He whispered to Shi Qiang.
"It's really annoying, there are so many rules everywhere!" Although Shi Qiang said so, he still put out the cigarette and threw the trash can.
Zhang Xiang hurriedly handed his police officer ID to Manager Liu to see, "Manager Liu, this is our Captain Shi Qiang. We are here to replace the Wang team to continue investigating the previous case. Please cooperate and introduce the scene. Details."
Manager Liu's expression improved significantly, "Officer Zhang, look over there. That office is where our CTO went missing, and where your Captain Wang disappeared."
Zhang Xiang turned his head and looked over. There was a small office over there, and there were rows of workstations outside the office. But the workstations are almost empty, and only one person is still sitting there working.
He expressed his question to Manager Liu: "Isn't it time for work now? Why are these desks empty?"
"Hey—" Manager Liu sighed, "The disappearance case that happened here before is really weird. People think this office—how do you put it—a bit wicked! It turns out that the people who worked in this neighborhood , Most of the work stations have been moved far away. Some employees have left."
Shi Qiang pointed his finger at the young man who was still working near the office door.
"He, his name is Xiaobai, he just came this year. Newborn calves are not afraid of tigers. Young people don't believe in evil, but later generations are scary."
(Author's Note: Yes, this Xiaobai is the Xiaobai in " Programmer's Timeline of the Universe ".)
Seeing them coming, Xiao Bai raised his head from the work station, his eyes were confused, and then he was surprised. He ran over and took Shi Qiang's hand, "Da Shi! Are you really Da Shi?"
At this point, Shi Qiang was stunned. "People in the bureau indeed call me Da Shi. But how do you know me?"
"Because I have been to the future." Xiaobai had a sly smile on his face.
"Xiao Bai, you are a little dizzy because of science fiction! Go back and do your work!" Manager Liu reprimanded.
Xiaobai returned to the work station dingy.
"Ignore him, let's continue." Manager Liu waved to Zhang Xiang and Da Shi.
The office where they are now is the location of the "disappearance in the secret room".
According to Manager Liu, before the incident, this was the private office of the company's CTO (named Charles). On the night more than a month ago, Charles worked overtime alone in this office. It's 10 o'clock in the evening, and the people in the company are almost gone. Suddenly, there was a scream from the office, followed by a burst of laughter from Charles.
Xiaobai was also working overtime at the company, and he rushed into Charles' office with a few other colleagues. To their surprise, there was no one inside, and even Charles' chair was gone. The opposite window was closed tightly. They opened the windows and looked down from the office on the 19th floor. There was obviously no sign of anyone falling from the building.
Zhang Xiang thought to himself that if the CTO of an IT company died suddenly in his office, it would be a very common situation. But the whole person just disappeared out of thin air, not even a single hair was left behind, which is too weird.
Zhang Xiang carefully examined the environment inside this small office. The interior furnishings are very simple. Push the door to enter. On the left is a computer desk with Charles' MacBook frequently used on it, and on the right is a small sofa against the wall. Opposite the door is the window, outside the window is a 19-story cliff, it is impossible for anyone to enter or exit from there. Behind the computer desk on the left, where the chair was originally placed, is now empty. There is also a bookcase against the wall on the left, in which there are several books on computer programming.
According to Manager Liu, everything in the room was kept "live", and no one had moved since the accident.
What happened later was described in more detail in the case briefing in the bureau. Captain Wang of the Second Criminal Investigation Team was in charge of investigating the case, and no useful clues were found after a month. But just last night, at about 11 o'clock, someone in the company found that Captain Wang hurriedly came to the company and walked into Charles' office as if he was still holding a notebook in his hand. Xiaobai was also one of the witnesses.
Since then, Captain Wang has never come out again.
According to the description of the case briefing, the precise time of Captain Wang's disappearance should be around 3 am. Because at 3 o'clock in the morning today, the automatic recording system of the police station's telephone exchange received a strange call from Captain Wang.
Zhang Xiang played this recording of the call to Da Shi on his mobile phone.
"Ah, sure enough! It really is the number! Four--three--nine--", after a few seconds of pause, the speaker was obviously struggling against something, so the speech was a bit intermittent, "eight--zero--four --six--"
The recording was only seven or eight seconds, and then stopped abruptly.
Although the voice of the people in this recording is very excited, they can still tell that the person speaking is the king team.
Da Shi pondered for a moment.
He subconsciously took out the cigarette case from his pocket, quickly pulled out one, and held it in his mouth. Then just about to reach out for the lighter, suddenly realized that something was not right, so he had to put the cigarettes back.
"Manager Liu, what does your company do?" Da Shi asked.
"Oh, our company's main business is to develop and maintain a social app."
"How can you be sure that your CTO must be in this room on the day of the accident?"
"Officer Shi, Charles made a loud noise in the room at the time, and many people in the company heard it." Manager Liu obviously felt that this question was a bit redundant.
"Did anyone see him enter this office with his own eyes?" Da Shi continued to ask.
"Yes." Manager Liu turned around and called Xiaobai in. "Xiaobai's desk is closest to here, and he often works overtime in the company at night. He met Charles that day."
Da Shi turned to Xiao Bai, "About what time did you last see your CTO that day?"
Xiaobai thought about it carefully, "It was almost 8 o'clock in the evening. At that time, he came out of the office to sign for a takeaway, and then went back to the house immediately. Many people in the company ordered takeout boxes at almost that point. , So I am more certain about that point in time."
"In other words, he stayed alone in this room from 8 am to 10 am?"
Xiaobai nodded.
"Does your CTO usually offend anyone? Are there any obvious enemies?"
Manager Liu and Xiao Bai both shook their heads, saying that they were not clear.
Da Shi opened the case briefing and searched carefully. "Manager Liu, has anyone moved anything in this room after the accident that day? I mean, is there something missing?"
Manager Liu looked around for a while, "It shouldn't be there. There was nothing in this office. The chair Charles was sitting on was gone, but it was gone when the accident happened."
After that, Manager Liu seemed to have thought of something again. He added, "Oh, when your team came to investigate, you used the computer here. He checked the contents of this computer, and he should have checked it more than once. It takes a long time each time."
Da Shi motioned to Zhang Xiang to turn on the power of the computer on the desk. It's a very ordinary MacBook Pro, which runs the OS X operating system.
"Xiao Bai, according to our police records, when the King team entered this room last night, they should have a notebook in their hands. Are you an eyewitness, do you have any impression?"
"Yes, that's right. At that time Captain Wang was holding a notebook in his hand—oh, I'm not talking about a laptop—just an ordinary writing notebook." After Xiaobai finished speaking, he seemed to remember something suddenly." Oh, yes! That book should be our CTO. He is often used to record some technical issues and do some calculations on it. When we discuss technical issues together, I have seen it before, and it is usually placed on his computer desk. on."
Several people looked at the computer desk together. Obviously there is no such book there now.
Da Shi stared at the computer that was turned on on the desk, "Zhang Xiang, have anyone in the previous game checked the computer operation records and Internet records here? What did Charles and Wang team operate on the computer at the last minute?"
"Team history, I checked. I didn't find anything special. Team Wang was just constantly looking through the folders on the disk, trying to find out what useful things. Charles basically operated the Internet that day, first he went to Baidu and Baidu. Zhihu searched for some chicken soup articles about the meaning of life, the truth of the universe, and then visited some encrypted content, we can't see it. It may be an encrypted proxy or the like, but This is normal. For example, you need these to visit Google in China..."
Da Shi interrupted him suddenly, "Is there a way to decrypt these encrypted content?"
"It should be said-yes. But it needs to use the super large-scale decryption cluster of the General Administration. The thing is said to be very expensive. It was designed by the people from the National Security Agency. It is said that running a decryption operation costs hundreds of thousands, or even uploads. million."
"Zhang Xiang, hurry up! Apply to the bureau urgently for funding, we must decrypt this information!"
"Team history, this...it is said that the resources that the cluster can allocate to the police will take a month to queue up, not to mention it will cost..."
Before he finished speaking, Da Shi almost roared, "It's nonsense! This bunch of things that don't do business all day! Tell them that this case is the most important thing in the universe! It must be decrypted by tomorrow!"
Zhang Xiang was almost speechless in astonishment. He waited for Da Shi to calm down, and asked: "Team Shi, shall we return to the game now?"
Da Shi looked at Manager Liu and Xiao Bai with surprised expressions next to him, and asked the last question, "Does your CTO usually have any strange behavior? For example, something different from ordinary people."
Manager Liu and Xiaobai looked at each other. After hesitating for a few seconds, Manager Liu finally said, "Charles goes to see a psychiatrist once a year. Does that count?"
After coming out of Changyuan Tiandi Company, Zhang Xiang took the initiative to chat with Da Shi about the case.
"Team history, do you think it was murder?"
"It's hard to say. If it's a murder, then we really met a ruthless character this time!"
"Will their CTO commit suicide? Look at the last things he checked online, and he also needs to see a psychologist once a year. Those who do technology always make people feel nervous."
"It can't be suicide. In that case, how do you explain the Wang team? How do you explain the numbers that the Wang team said? Zhang Xiang, what we do in our business is to string together seemingly unrelated details. Now, the truth will come out. As long as one link doesn’t match up, then—hehe—is nonsense!"
Zhang Xiang also felt that his guess was silly. He couldn't help blushing.
"Team History, what do those numbers mean? 4398046—it should be this number—is it a password or something?"
"It's hard to say... but you can guess boldly along the lines of murder. Suppose Charles has discovered some secret of the murderer, maybe it has something to do with the string of numbers, or Charles has been with The murderer knew each other, and the two parties shared the secret, but for some reason Charles wanted to reveal the secret to others, but was killed by the murderer." Da Shi paused and stretched out his hand to make a beheading motion. "The king is here. The secret was discovered at the last moment, and it was killed in the same way. However, there are still some details that can’t be linked up, such as where the corpse is? How did it get out of the secret room? Of course, this is also It’s all just guessing, and we don’t have enough information."
Inspired by Da Shi, Zhang Xiang's mind also turned, "There is also a possibility, Team Shi. For some unknown reason, Charles is in the doubt, and he deliberately created the illusion of his disappearance. If you go in this direction If you think about it, you have to admit that the Kings are accomplices with him... This is incredible! I must be thinking about it..."
"Don't guess. Now, we have an important thing to do. It's to ask the Charles psychiatrist."
"Team Shi, I heard that Team Wang had visited before, and the other party did not disclose any useful information on the grounds of protecting patient privacy."
"Bullshit!" Da Shi rolled his eyes, then stretched out his hand to signal Zhang Xiang to get closer. He leaned to Zhang Xiang's ear, deliberately lowered his voice, and whispered.
"Team History, is this... okay?"
"Listen to me, I see a lot of this kind of people. You should prepare now, so that we can pass in the afternoon." Da Shi took a deep breath, and then spit out a plume of white smoke. "And me, go now. Find the old director and get that shit decryption cluster!"
Before they split up, they walked silently together for a while. Zhang Xiang knew that under the crude appearance of Da Shi, detailed reasoning was being carried out. He tried not to disturb him.
Suddenly, Da Shi stopped, threw the cigarette butt heavily on the ground, and stomped it out with his foot. Zhang Xiang heard him muttering to himself, "No matter how wicked things I have seen...there are ghosts at home!"