Chapter 423: Chapter 423: Authenticity of the Documents, Return to Munich, Piano Shop

Vienna, a hotel room.

After handing over the magnetic disk to Mona, Luo An sat beside her, organizing the items found earlier in the house next to the safe house.

Among the items, Luo An found two P9s handguns equipped with silencers in two of the boxes.

P9s, one of the world’s renowned handguns, was famous not just for its high shooting precision and reliability, but most importantly, for its rifle-like roller-delayed blowback locking mechanism that caused very little muzzle flip when the gun was fired. Coupled with a silencer, it immediately became a top-tier assassination handgun.

Luo An was very fond of these two handguns, but after only a brief glance, he set them aside because he noticed that the boxes weren’t of the right height; there was something else inside.

After removing the cushioning that was used to pad the handguns, he indeed found another layer underneath.

Upon opening the secret compartment, he discovered three miniature glass bottles in each box, filled with a milky white substance.

Caroline, who had been sitting beside Luo An the entire time, asked with a curious expression:

“What’s this? Poison?”

“Perhaps.”

Luo An picked up one of the bottles and shook it. There was no label on the glass bottle; he couldn’t guess what the milky white liquid was.

Just then, Mona, who was seated not far away at a desk and had deciphered the contents of the magnetic disk, called Luo An over in a puzzled and uncertain tone.

“Opposite logic?”

Luo An quickly moved beside Mona and bent down to look at the computer screen.

As Mona had said, the content in the two documents was roughly the same; both introduced a criminal organization.

The organization’s primary business was human trafficking, transporting over one hundred thousand women and children every year from South America, the Middle East, East Asia, Africa, and other places to Western Europe and across the world for the leisure industry.

The organization was also involved in the trade of human bones, counterfeit drugs, human smuggling, and money laundering.

Some time ago, a secret agent from the Commonwealth who had infiltrated the organization revealed his treachery and exposed a lot of information, putting a large number of agents in danger, and even implicated the CIA, for where there was chaos, the CIA’s people were there, having also planted their own within this criminal organization.

The Commonwealth’s intentions were of no concern to the CIA. Having suffered significant losses, the CIA now only wanted to eliminate that traitorous individual. Thus, the mission was assigned to Javari Evans, who had submitted his retirement application and agreed to undertake one last mission.

This information was what Luo An found on the magnetic disk, and the mission required Javari to lead a team to eliminate the traitor.

However, the file from the basement computer revealed that Javari knew the traitorous agent when he was younger and that some of the harmed agents were his friends.

Upon learning of this, Javari volunteered to undertake the mission to eliminate the traitor and at the same time, to rescue the other trapped CIA agents.

After much deliberation, CIA headquarters agreed to Javari’s request and provided him with some necessary information, as well as a detailed action plan and further operational instructions.

“…”

At the computer, Caroline looked back and forth in confusion, not understanding what was going on with the two documents.

Mona was full of doubts and with her thoughts in chaos, she couldn’t figure out which one was true and which was false, instinctively lifting her gaze towards Luo An.

Luo An, supporting his chin with one hand, pondered for a while, then suddenly chuckled and said:

“Download the files from the laptop, then put them aside. We will take the information from the magnetic disk as the main reference for now.”

Caroline had a moment of realization:

“You mean, the files in the magnetic disk are real? Then what’s the deal with the files on the laptop?”

“No, I suspect both files are fake.”

Luo An shook his head, but did not offer an in-depth explanation to the scratching and perplexed Caroline. He simply said:

“In our current situation, distinguishing true from false isn’t the most important thing. Choosing which one to base our next actions on is what really matters.”

After a few seconds of silence, Mona’s eyes sparkled with a hint of light. Having organized the files on the magnetic disk, and looking at the information about the traitor and the criminal organization, she asked:

“What shall we do next?”

Although it was now known what mission Javari was undertaking, his current whereabouts and whether he was alive or dead were still unknown.

How to find him, and where to find him is the key question.

“Go back to Germany, to the piano store.”

Luo An patted Mona on the shoulder and said with a smile looking at Caroline:

“Don’t forget, there are still clues we haven’t checked at your piano store.”

Mona nodded, immediately got up and started packing with Luo An. Caroline, who had been standing there with a confused expression, grew even more perplexed:

“Luo An, what exactly are you talking about?”

Caroline didn’t know the phrase “Riddler, get out of Gotham,” but she was now experiencing the emotions of the person who said it.

——–

One day later, in Germany, Munich.

Not far from Goethe Square, on a certain street, a piano store with a very European last-century style stood out to a group of tourists.

Because the owner was absent, the store had been closed for a lengthy period, much to the regret of many tourists who wished to visit. In a third-floor room directly across from the piano store, two Caucasian men dressed in casual sportswear felt increasingly irritated.

They had been watching the piano store for many days and hadn’t discovered anything; without permission to leave from their boss, they had to endure the dull stakeout.

Luckily, because they were two, they could switch off after a while, and their boss was well-funded, allowing them to order food delivery and enjoy afternoon tea as a form of relaxation.

“So, your target is them.”

In a high-end coffee shop on the other side of Goethe Square, Caroline finally understood Luo An’s objective for this trip. After thinking a bit, she asked worriedly:

“How do you determine these two aren’t with the CIA? If they’re not CIA, who are they?

And if you act against them, won’t you spook the watcher?”

“The CIA’s surveillance level wouldn’t be this bad. As for who they are, we’ll find out soon.”

Luo An chuckled and then patted the P9s pistol hidden under his clothes, saying to Caroline:

“As for spooking the watcher, it’s inevitable, but I’ve already found someone to take the fall.”

At this moment, a waitress from the coffee shop, carrying a takeout order in a paper bag, walked out. Luo An, who had been waiting, immediately approached her and indicated in German that he was a friend of the person who ordered the food, and she did not need to deliver the meal.

The waitress was skeptical, but after Luo An gave her a 5-euro tip, she cheerfully handed the paper bag to Luo An, wishing him an enjoyable meal.

With the paper bag, he went to a room directly across from the piano store on the lower floor, where Mona had prepared the same outfit as the coffee shop’s waitress. She helped Luo An put it on, and then he went up the stairs, knocked on the door, and said in German:

“Hello, your afternoon tea has arrived.”

The two men in the room frowned upon hearing a man’s voice, exchanged glances, and one of them–a white man with a crew cut–drew a pistol from his lower back and slowly moved to the door, not opening it right away but asked:

“Why has the person changed? Where’s the usual waitress?”

“She stole my job, the boss reassigned her to the cashier.”

Luo An replied impatiently:

“Can I deliver your order? I need to deliver elsewhere too.”

“Wait a moment.”

The crew-cut man still didn’t open the door. He went to the room’s landline phone, picked it up, and called the coffee shop to inquire and confirm if there was a person named Luo An.

Luo An, who had prepared in advance, had Mona cut off the phone line, so the crew-cut man’s call went through to Mona.

But Mona didn’t speak German, so Caroline, who did speak German, pretended to be a waitress from the coffee shop and confirmed Luo An’s identity.

With a positive response, the crew-cut man slightly lowered his guard, but still kept the gun in hand and, with the pistol behind his back, opened the door.

“Enjoy your meal.”

Luo An spoke in German and smiled as he handed over the paper bag. Then, at the moment the crew-cut man reached to take the bag, Luo An pulled out the silenced P9s pistol tucked at his lower back.

The crew-cut man: “!!!”