Chapter 4430

"Hello, Bruce, you really have to do me a favor." Diana said while walking out of the Justice League base, "Help me retrieve the surveillance around the museum. You know, I'm not talking about official surveillance, but the kind you have yourself."

"No problem, Miss. Who is your target?"

"All suspicious cars." Diana thought about it and said, "Take box trucks or medium-sized vehicles as the main target, but if there are small vehicles that are suspicious, don't let them go either."

Diana knew her request was really a bit unreasonable, saying it was like not saying it. But she knew Batman could do it. Sure enough, Bruce said: "Okay, I'll check it for you now. There are many roads around, and the traffic is relatively large, so it will take about three hours..."

"Okay, I'll wait for your news." Diana hung up the phone. She felt this was already quite good. Just as Bruce said, the Metropolis Museum was in the city center, and last night was the last night of the Christmas holiday, and many people seized the tail of the holiday to revel, so the traffic was very large. Being able to investigate in three hours was considered Batman having three heads and six arms, and she couldn't expect more.

But thinking of this, Diana thought again: although these robbers might have acted in the second half of the night when there were the fewest people, Metropolis was a city that never sleeps, so even in the second half of the night, there wouldn't be few people on the street. Would there be eyewitnesses who discovered clues?

Thinking of this, Diana hurriedly went to the police station. After explaining the situation, the police didn't skimp and started investigating the situation on the surrounding streets. There were only a few bars near this street, the consumption level was very high, and those who came were basically regulars.

The police and Diana went to ask together, and they really found a few people who were wandering outside in the second half of the night that night. But it was a pity that the second half of the night was the time for the bars to close, and most people were dead drunk. Wandering nearby was just waiting for the car to pick them up, and they didn't specifically observe the museum, so naturally, they didn't see any suspicious people.

However, the good news was that someone who came to pick someone up saw a black pickup truck parked on the side of the road on the way. Because it was a heavy-duty pickup truck with a cool shape, he looked at it a few more times. According to the vehicle model he provided, Diana found the same pickup truck at a nearby car dealership.

She estimated the size of the artifact, and it should be able to fit. It was just unexpected that they were so bold, not using a box truck with a cover, but directly using a pickup truck to pull goods in the open.

But thinking about it, the pickup truck model wasn't as big as a box truck, and many people in the United States drove pickup trucks, so it was very easy to blend into the traffic.

Diana thought about it and immediately called Bruce to tell him about this discovery. She thought this would make it easier to lock onto the target, but watching the surveillance video still took time and wouldn't end so quickly. Thus, Diana took the eyewitness to identify the place where the pickup truck was parked at that time, wanting to find clues there.

Just when Diana was turning in circles like a donkey pulling a mill, suddenly, a car stopped. Diana turned her head to look and discovered that this car happened to stop at the place where the eyewitness identified the pickup truck was parked. Her heart moved, but the person who got off the car walked toward her.

"Hello, may I ask if you are Ms. Prince?"

Diana sized up this man in a suit. Having stayed in human society for so long, she could also judge what kind of power he was from the temperament of each person. Like the one in front of her, he exuded a stench of politicians.

"I am." Diana nodded and said, "What's wrong?"

"We have some things we want to talk to you about. May I ask if you have time?"

"No." Diana refused flatly. However, she took another look at that car. Just now her intuition told her that the person sitting in this car was probably inseparable from the robbers. And the other party dared to find her door now, fearing there was another motive. It would be good to go and see.

Although she changed her mind, Diana didn't change her words. Because she knew that this group of people would absolutely not give up.

However, they didn't pester her this time. That man in the suit left after hearing Diana's refusal, and soon left. But not long after he left, a colleague called Diana.

"Diana, have you seen the news?"

"No, I'm busy looking for robbers, what's wrong?"

"You'd better take a look; many people on the internet are spreading rumors. They have all aimed their spears at you."

Hanging up the phone, Diana looked at the news on her phone. This news was exceptionally different; if it was just speculation before, this time it was specifically targeting her by name. Electronic media was about the same, with many accounts talking eloquently, as if they were the most powerful detectives in the world, and after excluding all impossibilities, it could only be Diana.

They said it with certainty, insisting that it was Diana who used her usual convenience of duty to steal and swap the artifact in advance, which led to the fake one stolen by the robbers.

Seeing this kind of rhetoric, Diana wasn't very angry anymore. She realized that this might be a setup targeting her. The entire conspiracy of artifact theft was centered around her, so these video evidence released to the public would naturally expose flaws for people to catch, just to frame her.

At this moment, Bruce called. He said: "Found the pickup truck you mentioned. And other suspicious cars, I've all sent them to your email, take a look."

Diana opened it and saw that the information Bruce organized was quite perfect. She focused on the whereabouts of that pickup truck, and then discovered that her guess was indeed correct: the stone slab was moved onto that pickup truck, and the way of moving was simple beyond expectation.

Because the car was very close to the window, and the window wasn't far from the exhibition wall. They directly took customized boards and brackets, built a "track" the same width as the mural, and nailed wheels to the back of the mural. Then the mural slid onto the pickup truck like a train. After finishing, they collected all those tracks and piled them all on the pickup truck, which didn't take up much space, and drove away dashingly.

As for how they took the mural down, turned it over, and got it onto the track without the help of a crane—it could only be said that the lever principle was one of the greatest discoveries of humanity. Half a ton sounded heavy, but give humanity a fulcrum, and they can pry the Earth, not to mention a mural.

Diana had already discovered that this group of robbers was not the same as ordinary robbers; they had a mysterious calmness.

Ordinary robbers, no matter how well-planned their plans were, would have a feeling of being very urgent when they took action. But the method adopted by this group of robbers revealed a sense of having nothing to fear.

You know, using the lever principle to move a mural, or building a track, requires carefulness and seamlessness. And the time left for them wasn't much, from the second half of the night to dawn when work started, it was at most five hours. Normal people would be anxious, even if the movements didn't deform, the pace and body language would reveal anxiety.

However, the body language of this group of robbers revealed nothing but confidence. This meant they were professionals among professionals, and every step of how long it took had been precisely calculated. Everyone performed their own duties, without any chaos, and no one knew whose soldiers they were.

This kind of calmness and confidence might not come from confidence in their own technology, but more likely from confidence in their backer.

This is exactly what having nothing to fear is. This group of robbers probably felt that even if things were exposed or didn't succeed, no one could do anything to them. This proved that their backer must not be small.

Diana realized that her previous thought of letting the robbers admit that she stole and swapped the artifact was almost impossible, because this group of people wasn't for money at all. There must be a bigger conspiracy behind it. Even if she could find them, it would be very difficult to use them to clear her suspicion.

Then what should she do? Diana started to think. This looked like a dead end; no matter what she did, she couldn't prove she didn't steal and swap it.

And Diana thought of a theory she had seen before, which was that you must not fall into a self-proving trap when encountering things. But although this theory said not to prove it, it didn't say how to get rid of trouble without proving it. Diana was stuck at this step now.

Now she wasn't not proving it, but couldn't prove it. Then not proving it, how to not lose her own interests?

Couldn't think of it, Diana could only find a way to continue the investigation. Soon, the results from Victor's side also came out. The final result made Diana cry and laugh: the final address of this email actually pointed to the US National Security Agency.

"I don't think this is true." Victor said, "It might just be a smoke screen of theirs. Of course, although there are more than 600 million dark web domains in the NSA's server now, this one really looks like framing."

Diana sighed. Now there were two possibilities: either Shiler was playing tricks behind the scenes, and all things were blamed on him. This possibility was not small, but she couldn't investigate along this possibility, because she couldn't arrest the President's secretary.

Even if Shiler was the final mastermind, he wasn't the one executing it, and it was even more impossible for him to admit that he stole and swapped the artifact. After all, he didn't have any need to steal and swap; the whole artifact was made by him.

Another possibility was like what Victor said, it was someone framing her. Although framing the NSA sounded a bit strange, this kind of institution was originally mixed with fish and dragons, loyal pretending to be anti, anti pretending to be loyal were common, and it was normal for someone to fish in troubled waters.

Diana could only entrust Victor to continue checking to see if he could find clues of framing. And she herself continued to look at the email, wanting to find the whereabouts of the black pickup truck from more road surveillance videos provided by Bruce.