Chapter 252 - What do you think? (2)

11 April, Police headquarters, City K

Shaking his head, Mathew responded "Give me a chance, but you will have to convince Lexi to help you as well. Our marriage as unusual, because of the circ.u.mstances…"

"It fell under one of those savings provisions in the new marriage legislation with respect to military marriages. So?"

"Lexi had nothing to do with her first marriage and while she participated in what happened for us, she did not fully understand the consequences of that. But leaving that to one side, she deserves a proper wedding ceremony, not what happened. So…"

"I can ask my mother to help you plan that wedding, as your parents will refuse to help you do that, and as Lexi's parents are dead, she could play the de facto mother of the bride. Perfect. That will take some of the heat off me for a while."

"True," came the calm reply from Matthew. He knew Lexi deserved the best wedding possible, but he had no idea how to organise it. Sometimes friends can be the best help possible.

John paused, and said "By the way, thank you for sending Lieutenant Li with Dominic's passport yesterday. I had one of the general duties officers' receipt it coming in, and along with another member I personally took it to the court. I made sure that copies of all the receipts have been sent to Lexi's lawyers as well as her ex in-law's solicitors."

"Speaking of her ex in-laws, that brings me in part to why I have come."

"The Gong's? I was wondering how long before you came asking questions. Unlike most criminal organisations in the country the Gong Cartel, since Warren Gong took over fifteen years ago have moved from activities that would bring them to the notice of the military. They stick purely criminal activity that falls in our purview. For all his giving into the females in his family, in particular, his mother before her death and his sister, Warren Gong is smart. He graduated university with a doctoral degree in business, after doing a business and law degree, at age nineteen, while moving up the ranks of the cartel, and for a couple of years lectured in business at the city university. He has applied that theoretical knowledge into the cartel as well as his legitimate businesses."

"So…?"

"Unlike most criminal organisations, from everything we have determined they have very clear structures and he has 'retired' from the cartel those who are useless. Great for making enemies of certain people, but those within the cartel from our confidential informants are happy as he has maximised the returns on the activities. We are not idiots. We catch the occasional cartel member smuggling firearms that are such that they do not become a national security threat…"

"So, you do not have to notify the military. But if I am right, you suspect that they have been sacrificed by the cartel for the larger smuggling activity."

"Absolutely. We see the family members of those caught being provided for, and it seems that they are protected within the prisons, but those smuggling activities are such that we cannot prove a damn thing, despite all our suspicions."

"Frustrating you and other police members?"

"Absolutely. There is something that came in on Friday. I hinted about it to your subordinates, but I was reluctant to discuss it with them. We had one of our undercovers who is around the Gong Cartel get to us a chuck of information. In the last few months Warren Gong and senior members of the cartel have met with some individuals who are always masked and impossible to tail. No information about the meetings, but the Cartel have changed how they operate. Minimal electronic trail, apparently using air gapped computers. That has already drawn the conclusion that there is something afoot. While that may seem paranoid, with the information about the intelligence leak from someone or multiple individuals from the military base my instincts are that there is something big coming. Why change habits, meet in secret, and the new people hiding their faces."

Observing John, Matthew realised something, "You have an idea as to who it might be?"

"Call it a gut instinct, but I have not a shred of evidence to back up my opinion, but The Devil after what happened to you and Lexi has dropped off the scene. I do not know why, but it does not feel right? Why do what they did, and he completely disappear? He has something in mind. Then we have meetings between secretive people and the senior Gong Cartel, including Warren Gong. Why hide your face, unless you fear having run into the people in some other guise?"

"There is some logic in that. The Devil may drop off radars for a few weeks here and there, but not over three months. While he has an end goal, no one has ever been able to work it out. However, if you look back at his actions, they evidence that process. The only problem I have, is that when he abandons a group he moves to a new area. I cannot see that he would change how he acts now? Those patterns of behaviour have protected him."

"Matthew, you know as well as I do in this game, expect the unexpected and to trust your gut instincts. That often results in reaching the right conclusions and preventing bigger disasters." John observing Matthew realised that what he had said had sunk in, so he paused.

Meanwhile Matthew pondered John's statement. He was right. That was how he found the patterns with the Devil in the first place. He had a gut instinct that something was not right about the information he had and looked at the unusual behaviours of certain groups before drilling down into the data, before finding the material to establish the existence of the Devil. He then used that to track and determine the Devil's activities. Was he letting the past colour his present view? Could he be missing something big? Was this the sideways move that he had predicted that the Devil would make at sometime to pursue what his true agenda was?

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