Chapter 2292

"A corpse... there's a corpse!!!!!"

A man ran out from the restroom, soaked in water and in a wretched state; he slipped and fell flat on the ground, but he still didn't forget to twist his body and point his finger at the men's restroom.

His voice was exceptionally loud, and because the seawater had only just receded, most people were still on the ground dry-heaving after choking on saltwater; he continued to vomit after shouting, then staggered to his feet and ran away at high speed.

Although there were many people in the lobby, the vast majority had no energy left to check the situation; Oliver walked toward the stairs, and Amanda said, "Don't go, it must be Flamingo who did it."

"Flamingo?"

"A serial killer." Amanda pressed her lips into a thin line and said, "The murderer who killed my family."

Oliver's footsteps halted; he looked back at Amanda and said, "The head of the FBI's Special Crimes Unit chasing a serial killer from the West Coast to the East Coast, and still hasn't caught him—since when has the FBI become so incompetent?"

"Why do you think I had to defy orders?" Amanda's expression was very poor; she said, "Flamingo comes from a transnational drug trafficking organization, he..."

"The Penitent Cartel." Oliver spoke the name before Amanda could.

Amanda widened her eyes and looked at him in shock.

"Why do you think I challenged you, and not the Director of the FBI?"

Oliver sighed and said, "The Penitent Cartel, a US-Mexico transnational drug trafficking organization, headquartered in Guadalajara, Mexico. About two months ago, they wanted to transport a large batch of marijuana products via sea and land to the US East Coast—to be precise, to Cat Getan, right?"

Amanda also looked at him with some surprise; she pondered for a moment and said, "That's right. According to my investigation, the headquarters of this drug trafficking organization is indeed in Mexico, and they have always been trafficking drugs into the United States."

Oliver said calmly, "And it was just two months ago that someone offered a high price to buy drugs from us."

Amanda knew what "us" referred to; she knew how much of a stir Oliver had caused in Mexico.

"You're in the drug business?" Amanda said with some confusion, but she wasn't surprised; after all, to maintain the operation of such a large setup, one certainly had to make money. In her view, drug trafficking wasn't an unforgivable crime, especially when it was trafficking into the United States.

"That's the key; someone wants everyone to think so." Oliver sighed and said, "They bribed the warehouse manager, made them pretend to ship goods in the middle of the night, and then let the locals discover it. That way, they would think that although I am leading them in agricultural reform on the surface, I am still doing drug business in secret."

"One of my companions—I used to think he was my comrade, but unfortunately, he deceived me. He said this was a plan I proposed, which explained where the large sums of money in my hands came from."

"He demanded in front of everyone that I stop this dirty and despicable behavior. Everyone thought he was righteous, but I understood that when someone comes looking for trouble, it means they must have made a move."

"I took a few people, followed the warehouse manager's trail, caught their tail, and found their base located on the border of Guadalajara—that is their Penitent Cartel."

"Through interrogation, we learned that since the agricultural reform, the vast majority of farmers in Guadalajara no longer grow poppies. We eradicated all poppy cultivation, transportation, and processing channels, but unfortunately, some people still had stock in their hands. They couldn't bear to destroy it, so they hid it."

"The boss of the Penitent Cartel knew this was a business opportunity. Because we strictly crack down on drug crimes, these farmers dared not and could not find channels to sell the goods, so they approached them one by one and bought the stock at extremely low prices."

"Rather than buying, it was more like blatant robbery. They told the farmers that if they didn't hand over the goods, they would report them to us. The farmers had no choice but to give them the goods they had secretly hidden."

"Although no one hid much, poppies were the pillar industry here after all, and everyone had more or less some in their hands. Just like that, they assembled a large batch of drugs."

"They knew where these drugs could be sold for the highest price. The United States alone wasn't enough; transporting them from the border would inevitably lead to price suppression. Only by shipping them by sea directly to the affluent East Coast could they maximize profits."

"All the seaports in Guadalajara are under our control, and we inspect these things extremely strictly. If they didn't cause us some trouble, they couldn't ship the goods out, so they staged this act of offering a high price to buy drugs from us."

"And that 'companion' who jumped out to say I betrayed them is one of your people."

Amanda was stunned for a moment, but she quickly realized what Oliver meant. Her eyes burned with intense anger; she looked at Oliver and said, "So they are in cahoots?!"

"You are in cahoots." Oliver stepped up one stair, looked into Amanda's eyes, and said, "The FBI and the Penitent Cartel are in cahoots. The organization you currently work for hired the murderer who killed your entire family and considers him far more important than you."

Amanda froze completely in place.

"I took the initiative to leave Guadalajara because I knew that in this situation, repeated clarifications are the most foolish and time-wasting choice, and it could also put all of us in a dangerous position."

"If I took the initiative to leave, everyone would come for me because they knew I was the core. Sure enough, I deliberately sailed out from the border of Guadalajara, and the Penitent Cartel, hired by the FBI, immediately showed their true colors."

"They sent dozens of drug dealers and killers to hunt me down, chasing me all the way to the US West Coast. I think that's when you found the trail of Flamingo."

Hearing the name "Flamingo," Amanda clenched her fists tightly; her muscles were trembling, her teeth were clenched, and her hair stood on end.

"That's right, he is an American fugitive." Oliver nodded and said, "However, I guess you couldn't find his name in the criminal files, otherwise you would have solved the case long ago. In fact, it's because he is hired by the FBI, and the FBI often uses the clearing of someone's criminal record and social identity as a condition to make certain brutal criminals work for them."

"I found nothing." Amanda's voice trembled as she said, "For ten years, I've had nothing to show for it."

Then she looked up, trying hard to keep her tears from falling. Finally, she looked at Oliver with red-rimmed eyes and said, "So Schiller won't tell me who he is, even though he has the list of those damn serial killers."

"It's meaningless." Oliver shook his head and said, "You can't beat him, you can't beat them, you can't beat all of them."

"If the murderer who killed your family was a setup for such an important event, then if you keep chasing and trying to take revenge, you will only end up killing yourself."

Oliver sighed again and said, "I said this is why I challenged you. When they were hunting me down, I got information about some of them from a friend."

"Schiller?"

"Yes, but it wasn't asked for at that time. I had learned some codes before, and although there were changes in the middle, I still deciphered quite a few. It just so happened that there were statements from Flamingo in those issues of the newspaper."

"What did he say?"

"He said that the little girl left behind by the murder case he was most proud of back then has now actually become an important figure in the FBI. He posted this just to show off and raise his own value, but I followed the clues and deduced that this so-called little girl is very likely you."

The expression on Amanda's face was numb; she was clearly greatly stimulated. She muttered to herself, "My actions to hunt him down were greatly obstructed; it could be said that every step was difficult. I don't know why this happened; I don't know why a serial killer who killed so many people cannot be caught and put on trial. I don't even want him dead; I just want him to go to court."

"At that time, I felt desperate. I knew that if I only used means within the rules, I was afraid I would never be able to catch him. So I mobilized the people I had trained; if there weren't enough people, I went myself."

"I chased him all the way to the East Coast. When I found out he had boarded the Great Continent, I was ecstatic because I knew the magical nature of this ship was recorded by the FBI."

"Whether it's the FBI, the CIA, the National Guard, or the military, they are all very interested in this elusive ghost ship, but they have no way to deal with it. They can't catch it, and they can't control anything that happens on this ship."

"At that time, I was ecstatic, thinking I had finally found a good opportunity to kill him, but what I did crossed the line too much, and even disrupted my superior's important plan. At the time, he said it was an important plan; I didn't pay much attention, but now it seems it might refer to you."

"And I finally know why he showed such a surprised expression when I told him I had received your challenge and was invited on board."

"In fact, he was surprised by more than that." Oliver stepped up two more stairs, stood in front of Amanda, and said, "He should be even happier that he can solve two big troubles for us at once."

"Although I say this, you might feel that I am provoking your hatred, but according to my investigation into that family extermination case back then, this wasn't entirely Flamingo's idea, and it didn't even stop at the Penitent Cartel."

Amanda stared at him blankly.

Oliver lowered his eyes and said, "I'm very sorry for the tragedy of your family, but I think you also understand that it couldn't be that Flamingo was walking down the street and suddenly had a whim to kill your whole family. He is not that kind of mental patient."

"From the newspaper, I read that this guy is just a small fry among serial killers, and he only ran to other places after he couldn't make it in Cat Getan. He has always been just a gun in someone else's hands. As for what the truth is, I'm afraid only you can investigate it yourself."

Amanda heard too many metaphors in Oliver's words, which made her start to become uneasy. She had already taken the serial killer who murdered her family as her lifelong revenge goal, and she was prepared to pay everything for it, but this also meant she could no longer accept a deeper truth.

Amanda gritted her teeth and looked at Oliver, saying, "Then you chose to challenge me and pull me onto the ship; you must have your purpose. Let's hear it."

"Before that, I must ask one thing: are the agents who snuck onto the ship all your people?"

"You know that's impossible. I haven't been a unit leader for long, I don't have that many confidants, and my superior doesn't trust me. The vast majority are his people."

Oliver rubbed his forehead and said, "Alright, it seems the situation is worse than I imagined, but it doesn't matter. If the plan goes smoothly, I will give the FBI a heavy blow."

"What exactly do you want to do?"

"I..."

Suddenly, a greater commotion broke out downstairs; crying and screaming sounded, and everyone was shouting.

"A corpse! A corpse!! There is a corpse in the utility room!!!"