Sha Qing

Chapter 103: A Storm In The Court (1)

Rob, with a street-bought hot dog in his mouth and a cup of hot coffee under his arm, opened the day's release of Daily News.

The headline hit his eyes with bold, large letters, and the coffee cup fell to his feet at once, splashing his trousers, "Damn it!" He spat out his hot dog, clutched the newspaper, and ran to the office building not far away.

When he rushed into the office, he saw Leo sitting at his desk looking at the computer screen with a few deep lines wrinkled between his eyebrows.

"Seems like you already know," said Rob gloomily, "Is this the so-called 'Anything that can go wrong will go wrong'? Even if these dog-nosed journalists get ahead of the game-and damn they always do-can we not have these headlines that seem to be full of conspiracy theories? 'The Serial-killer Hunter secretly arrested, FBI refuses to disclose details, court trial remains indefinite' ...... And following that is the case introduction, written like a series of third-rate detective novels...... What do they mean by 'the Night Demon tried to kill him while in the car but the former got stabbed in the neck by a toxin injection in his own hand during the scuffle', as if this bitch had seen it with their own eyes!"

He huffed and flung the paper onto the table, "Come on, tell me this isn't as bad as I thought it is and you have a plan to deal with it. Otherwise I'm going to find this female reporter named 'Lali' and put her in handcuffs on some random charge!"

"You're overreacting, Rob." The dark-haired agent's demeanor had calmed down, "The news media doesn't care about the truth, they just want ratings and publicity."

"But the least they could do was to not be so subjective. Look at the meaning between those lines- it's clear that they want to portray the suspect we arrested as an invincible angel of discipline, and a dark hero, which is misleading the public! So what are we risking our lives for? Are we just some stupid cops who always comes late after the event and lapdogs of arrogant government law enforcement agencies? They can't trample on our dedication like this, after a field agent was killed in the line of duty just last month!"

Leo was silent for a moment and replied, "Don't care too much about what others think, since you've chosen this profession. I'll call Prosecutor Matrini now and ask her to communicate with the judge and set a court date as soon as possible."

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Like throwing the first ladle of water in boiling oil, the entirety of media exploded. In just a few hours, newspapers and TV reporters swarmed over the FBI office building, the prosecutor's office and the federal detention center in wave after wave, and Rob suspected that if they hadn't left a few minutes earlier, they would have been gnawed down to a few bloody bones.

Inside the Chevrolet, they each took numerous calls, all of it nothing but trouble and less than desirable.

"It wasn't just some mishap." Rob said after hanging up the call, "I just heard from a friend that Channing went to the MCC again yesterday with a woman, and it was probably that female reporter named Lali. I heard that they work closely together. That woman is like a short-legged lame riding on the back of a wolf, plus a profit-oriented newspaper owner. If they get the exclusive interview right for the Sha Qing, the other media outlets will definitely make trouble because of envy!"

Leo, with his Bluetooth headset on, said while driving, "Trust me, I've got a way worse news than you: the IT department couldn't find the real name of Sha Qing, nor any relevant records. It's all a bunch of aliases and fake documents. As long as a person is a member of society, there will always be a growth path- birth hospital, school, workplace, bank account and so on - but he left no trace, and his DNA and fingerprints aren't registered."