Chapter 2014 - 1455: Ace Middleman

Three days later, at ten o'clock at night, in an executive suite of a certain hotel in Washington D.C.

The curtains were tightly closed, with only the eerie blue light from the computer screen reflecting on Song Heping's face.

On the screen, the image of the company's Intelligence Chief, Henry, had a slight delay, but the sound was fairly clear.

"Boss, that encrypted email, I found it."

Henry pushed the glasses on his nose with his finger, the lenses reflecting the constantly flickering data and information on the screen.

Song Heping's body, which had been leaning against the chair back, leaned slightly forward.

"Speak."

"The server that hosts that email is located in Europe and uses three nodes, in Russia, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg respectively."

Henry's fingers tapped on the keyboard, projecting a series of data onto the shared screen, with numbers and codes scrolling rapidly in front of Song Heping's eyes.

"Most people would have lost the trail here. But that 'Accountant' has a habit, or rather, he's too confident. Every morning at eight, he logs into a fixed IP address for only five minutes before logging off. It's like clockwork, and has been going on for at least three years. Based on his behavioral habits, he's an old-school person who likes to do things by the book."

Song Heping's eyes slightly narrowed.

"Can it be located?"

Henry nodded, and the screen switched, presenting a satellite map of the Old Town of Zurich.

"Switzerland. Zurich. A shared office in a business center on Niederdorf Street in the Old Town. Seventeen companies are registered in that building, including three law firms and two investment advisory firms. The office used by the 'Accountant' is registered under a company called 'Alpine Consulting', but this company was dissolved three years ago, yet the office has always been in use."

Song Heping stared at the screen's map coordinates, zooming in, then zooming in again, until the outline of the six-story building was clearly presented in front of him.

Niederdorf Street.

One of the most bustling areas in the Old Town of Zurich, teeming with tourists, lined with cafes, filled with antique shops and boutique hotels everywhere.

Tranquil amidst the chaos, accessible from all directions, truly a good place for conducting secret activities.

"Can you determine which specific room it is?"

"Third floor, Room 316."

Henry brought up a building floor plan and projected it onto the screen.

"The window faces the street, diagonally opposite a café called 'Black Forest', directly across a branch of the Swiss United Bank. I checked the electricity usage records for that office, every weekday morning at seven fifty-five, the electricity meter starts up punctually, and shuts down at eight o'clock and five minutes. Except for holidays. Very regular."

Song Heping's lips curled slightly upward.

Too regular.

Regularity itself is a kind of weakness.

"Nicely done." He said, "How much did all this intelligence cost?"

Henry leaned back, taking a sip from the coffee cup at hand.

That was his standard setup in the headquarters office, at least six cups of black coffee a day, without sugar, a habit maintained for thirty years.

"Not cheap at all, hitmen intermediaries are generally very hard to track, just this bit of information cost me three hundred and fifty thousand US dollars."

Song Heping raised an eyebrow.

Three hundred and fifty thousand US dollars, just for an IP address and an office location.

It is quite expensive.

But very worthwhile.

He didn't frown, nor did he ask "why so expensive".

Because he knew, this level of intelligence is inherently worth the price.

The "Accountant" has been in this industry for twenty years without any issues, relying on caution and secrecy.

His identity, appearance, real name, in the entire dark web hitman circle, are all a mystery. Those wanting to hire him only know an encrypted email and a Bitcoin wallet address, nothing else.

Trying to track such a person, ordinary hacking techniques simply won't work.

You have to go through special channels.

And Henry is precisely the expert in this field.

"Tell me, where did the money go?"

Song Heping said with a tone of curiosity.

Henry tapped his fingers on the keyboard, bringing up an account statement.

"First, I had to find a top-notch hacker on the dark web to track the IP address he used to contact Victor, then identify the server provider, after which I used my connections to bribe a technical director."

He somewhat proudly showed off to his boss.

"Initially, I offered fifty thousand US dollars. The person was reluctant at first, afraid of trouble. Later I told him, I just wanted to confirm a competitor's address and it didn't involve criminal investigation, only then did he agree. Actually, he knew I was lying, but fifty thousand US dollars is enough for him to take his family to the Maldives for ten days to a week this year."

Song Heping nodded.

"And then?"

"Then there's the node in Russia." Henry flipped to the next page: "That was a data processing company hidden in the outskirts of Saint Petersburg, ostensibly doing cloud storage, but actually providing server hosting for various gray industries. They only keep logs for seventy-two hours and do not accept any external query requests."

He paused, a hint of seasoned cunning flashed in his eyes.

"When I was in the Navy intelligence department, I dealt with a Russian. At that time, he was doing network security business in Saint Petersburg, later the business grew, and intersected with 'connected parties' of the Russian government. I found him through an intermediary, at first, he was unwilling to help—after all, the current UK-Russia relations are what they are. But I had some 'dirt' on him from ten years ago, back then he wasn't a big shot and had done some not-so-glamorous things."

Song Heping laughed.