Chapter 54: Photochemical camouflage

Murphy Apparated to a residential house in Kent and found the security field agent named Schmidt Gibson.

The latter was a little surprised by his rapid arrival, but didn't ask much, and said, "Sorry, boss, the other party was very fast, and the means were unimaginable. When we discovered it, he had already left."

He said, switching the main control TV to a video recorder, and rewinding for a period of time, "Look at this."

The TV showed a picture. It was a warehouse. The camera was facing the warehouse door. The time displayed was 22:06 at night.

The night shot, which looked like a still picture, lasted for a while. Suddenly, the warehouse door lock fell off by itself, and then the door was opened with a small gap, and then closed.

The strange thing was that no human figure appeared in the picture.

Then Schmidt switched the picture to the inside of the warehouse. It was still empty, but suddenly a box was opened, a bottle of liquid was taken out and placed aside, and then "pop", as if the magnesium light of an old-fashioned camera suddenly flashed, and some white smoke emerged.

But the camera still didn't capture anyone.

Murphy frowned. "Is there an infrared picture? I remember asking you to install infrared cameras, right?"

"Yes."

Schmidt switched to another video recorder again, let the picture rewind for a period of time, and arrived at the warehouse door again, but this time the picture presented a light green color, which was the picture after enhancing the brightness through an active infrared emission source.

This time, they saw the guy who opened the warehouse door.

It was a person walking on tiptoe, but the outline of the body was still unclear, as if it were a chameleon blending into the night. Only when his movements were larger could the outline of part of the body be identified by the disharmony of the picture.

And inside the warehouse, because the light was darker, the effect of the camera was even worse. Only in the afterglow after the magnesium light flashed did they see the overall appearance of the person.

It was a man, wearing a long robe.

A wizard.

"Did the thermal imager leave a record?" Murphy asked.

In addition to ordinary infrared cameras in the warehouse, Murphy also spent a lot of money to purchase an infrared thermal imager, just to guard against the Disillusionment Charms of wizards.

"I'll try to see." Schmidt switched the TV signal to another device.

The TV showed a stuttering picture that looked like a comic strip.

After all, the thermal imaging technology at this time was not mature enough. The instrument Murphy bought was extremely expensive, and limited by hardware computing power, it could only maintain a shooting rate of one frame per second.

But this was enough for them to see the person's movements clearly.

I saw that after he entered the warehouse, he groped around for a while, then searched for something with a purpose. Later, he found the box, took out a few bottles of potion, and then took a photo with an old-fashioned camera.

After doing all this, he restored the scene to its original state, and finally took out a wooden stick and waved it before leaving the warehouse.

From the other party's calm and skilled technique, Murphy knew that the person who came this time was definitely not a layman like Paped last time. This was an old hand who was good at camouflage, stealth, and intelligence gathering.

In the wizarding world, only Aurors have this ability.

Moving quite fast, Old Lion.

"Boss, what kind of technology is this? No picture can be left on ordinary cameras at all. Did you anticipate this kind of thing before?"

"See the cloak on him? That's photochemical camouflage, a military technology still in the experimental stage." Murphy bluffed. "You go find a few people to collect fingerprints in the warehouse."

"Okay, do you need me to contact some people to compare those fingerprints?" Schmidt asked.

Their security company has some cooperation with the police and intelligence departments, and it is not difficult to borrow their systems to find someone's identity.

"No need." Murphy shook his head and took out a stack of materials. "Let the fingerprint expert look for it from here."

It is unlikely that an Auror's fingerprint information can be matched in the Muggle system, but the stack of materials in his hand contains the information of those wizard pharmacists he recruited.

Yes, he suspects that the person who sneaked in this time is likely a mole.

This warehouse was bought by Murphy specifically for placing Beauty Potions.

After those pharmacists brewed the Beauty Potions, a clerk of Supreme Potion would store them in another warehouse nearby, and then a few Muggle workers would move them from there to this warehouse every day.

This location went through two or three confidentiality steps, and it is difficult to find it through ordinary intelligence gathering means.

It is very likely that an Auror has already sneaked into the shop.

Sure enough, the expert quickly locked onto one of them through fingerprints.

Hamoud Abra, a pharmacist of Central Asian descent.

Murphy remembers that he was a taciturn little male wizard who graduated from Hogwarts three years ago. It is said that his family was relatively difficult, his talent for potions was good, and the Beauty Potions he brewed were usually top-grade.

However, Murphy couldn't be sure if he was that Auror spy.

The efficacy of Polyjuice Potion is very strong, enough to perfectly simulate the other party's fingerprints during the effective period. Perhaps he was just a poor guy replaced by an Auror with Polyjuice Potion.

But no matter what the situation, the things Murphy had to do were no different.

Early the next morning, he met Hamoud at the Supreme Potion Shop.

After letting the clerk find a reason to call Hamoud alone into a room, Murphy was already waiting there.

As soon as he entered the door, Hamoud seemed to notice something wrong and tried to pull out his wand, but Murphy had been prepared, and his reaction was faster than his.

"Petrificus Totalus!"

"Legilimens!"

Hamoud's reaction had already made Murphy highly suspicious that he was an Auror, and he didn't hesitate to cast a Legilimency to get some intelligence.

However, to his surprise, the spell didn't receive any feedback.

"Occlumency?"

No need to doubt now, the other party must be an Auror.

Who practices Occlumency among ordinary people?

However, do you think you can keep secrets by relying on Occlumency?

Murphy pointed his wand at the other party's head, lifted the Petrificus Totalus on the other party's head, pried open his mouth, and prepared to pour him some Veritaserum.

The latter shouted, "Murphy Darkholm! You openly attacked an Auror, my colleagues will come to support soon, let me go, you are under arrest!"

"Oh? Support?"

Murphy was a little regretful. It seems there was no time to squeeze out any intelligence.

"But thank you for your reminder, then have a good dream, Mr. Hamoud."

"Obliviate!"

When the Aurors rushed to the Supreme Potion Shop, Murphy had already left.

They finally found their colleague by a sewer in Knockturn Alley, and the latter had forgotten all memories within the past month.

They went to the residence of Hamoud Abra, which he used as a cover identity, but it had already been burned to the ground. No matter what evidence he had found, they no longer existed now.

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 55 =====