novellhall Chapter 57 The Information That Was "Eaten"
Chapter 57 The Information That Was "Eaten"
Personally, Cheng Xu was more inclined to believe that Director Harlan was innocent.
The main reason he had this idea was not influenced by Xue Zijing and Lansli's attitude, after all, he had never dealt with Harlan and did not know his character.
Cheng Xu's judgment was based on something more straightforward and less influenced by emotions: interests.
Assuming Harlan is indeed a mole from the Purge—
He believed that exposing Harlan just to steal a critical anomaly would be a waste of the Purge Bureau's resources.
Having risen to the position of Director of the Anomaly Control Section in the Interstellar Bureau, Harlan's future is not necessarily limitless, but at least he has ample room for advancement.
It's important to know that the Bureau of Anomalies has very strict vetting procedures for its internal personnel.
In particular, the detection from the catastrophic anomaly A-057 [All-Seeing Crystal Eye] has only failed a handful of times in the history of the Anomaly Management Bureau.
Being able to successfully join the Bureau and become the branch director after multiple verifications by [All Things Crystal Eyes], this should make him an ace-level strategic spy for the Purge Bureau.
Wouldn't it be better to wait until he continues to advance and even holds a key position in the General Administration before using him?
By then, the damage it could inflict on the Bureau of Anomalies would far exceed the current loss of the Cracks, and might even deal a heavy blow to the Bureau.
It's far too frivolous to reveal such a strategic role so easily.
For this reason, Cheng Xu believed that Harlan was unlikely to be the mole who leaked the information.
"Director Lance, may I speak with Director Harlan inside for a few minutes?"
"Yes, that's fine. But each conversation shouldn't be too long."
Lance agreed to Cheng Xu's request and tapped a few buttons on the control screen next to him.
"drop--"
A crisp notification sound rang out from the empty interrogation room, and Harlan, who had been sitting quietly with his head down, instantly looked up at the one-way glass.
However, recalling the interrogations he had previously endured, he shook his head with a wry smile and sighed dejectedly.
Even though he knows he is innocent and has repeatedly emphasized this point during multiple interrogations, it is highly unlikely that he will be released given the current situation.
Because it was indeed his device that leaked the crucial information.
Harlan himself was unaware of how the Purge had managed to steal the classified information from his devices.
"Director Harlan, hello."
The voice coming from the communication device was unfamiliar and seemed quite young, which startled Harlan.
"Who are you……"
"Never mind who I am, but I have a few questions I'd like Director Harlan to answer for me."
"Go ahead and say it," Harlan said, plopping down on the floor. "Anyway, I've been getting a lot of questions these past few days."
Seeing his attitude, Cheng Xu became even more certain of his guess.
"My first question is, what were you doing during the period when the information was leaked?"
It's the same old question I've been asked countless times.
Harlan, whose hopes had just begun to rise, was once again plunged into despair.
"I'm sleeping at home. The office equipment inside the branch office is locked with access control; it can't be opened without my biometric verification."
This is also the main reason for Harlan's dejection.
He was really just sleeping at home at the time, but who would have thought he would be caught and interrogated the next day.
This is truly an undeserved disaster.
Harlan was completely baffled as to how his office equipment, despite being heavily locked, had managed to leak information.
"My second question is, did your work equipment exhibit any abnormal conditions before the accident?"
This is also a question that Harlan carefully considered after being imprisoned.
He paused for a moment, then slowly said, "I strictly followed the rules and regulations in the operation manual when I was working, and the equipment was also inspected by the General Administration every day via cloud. In theory, there shouldn't have been any problems."
Cheng Xu nodded. Because of Director Hu Zhou, he was also aware that the Anomaly Management Bureau was particularly cautious about the equipment of its personnel in positions of power, automatically monitoring it daily to prevent external intrusion.
But as Harlan said, the test results from the previous day were still acceptable in his equipment's log.
"One last question: Are you a spy from the Purge?"
Hearing this question, even the usually sullen Harlan couldn't help but laugh out loud.
This was the first time he had ever heard such a simple and straightforward question.
"Haha, what kind of question is that? If I said I wasn't, would you believe me?"
I hope you're not.
After saying his last words, Cheng Xu signaled to Lance to cut off the communication.
"As expected, I still couldn't get any useful information out of him." Lance turned off the communication device, his expression not looking good.
Harlan had given the same answer many times in previous interrogations, and his response was exactly the same as before.
It's safe to say that focusing solely on interrogation will likely be fruitless and a waste of time.
"Director Lance, please take me to see Director Harlan's equipment."
"Um?"
Although he didn't know Cheng Xu's intentions, Director Lance agreed after consulting with his superiors.
But when he heard Cheng Xu say that he wanted to spend some time alone with Harlan's equipment, his doubts still couldn't be suppressed.
What do you want to do with his equipment separately?
However, since Cheng Xu possessed full authority granted by the Chengming Star Branch, Lance didn't have the right to question what he wanted to do.
"This is Harlan's office equipment. We sealed it up and protected it immediately after the incident. Later, we also found the abnormality in it."
This device looks like a multi-screen, multi-functional computer, the same model as the one Hu Zhou uses.
After Lance and Xue Zijing left the room, Cheng Xu turned on the equipment with practiced ease.
After a preliminary inspection, the equipment was in good working order, and no unusual signs were found.
This is normal; the Yuanguangxing branch had already had professionals conduct a thorough study of this equipment, but they were still unable to reach a conclusion.
However, what Cheng Xu wanted to do was something that no one else could do.
He reached out his hand toward the equipment.
16:12...
16:11...
16:10...
The time displayed in the lower right corner of the device began to gradually return to its original state.
He used his time reversal ability.
Since there's no way to determine how the equipment leaked information through ordinary testing, let him see for himself what happened.
The traces of the equipment's use began to fade, and Cheng Xu saw various testing and verification operations, but they were all images played in reverse.
Not long after, the screen went dark—this was the state of Harlan's device after he turned it off that night.
Finally, he turned back time to the point in time when the incident occurred.
The screen, which had been off, suddenly lit up.
On the screen, a transparent worm crawls out from the edge, lazily heading towards a folder containing classified information.
The next second, it swallowed it whole.
All that remains of the corresponding location on the screen is a black gap that has been gnawed away.