Hello, Mr. Major General (1)

Chapter 18: Following the Vine to Find the Melon (6)

Sidharth crossed his hands behind his back and stood in the monitoring room next to the interrogation room. Before him was a transparent, one-way wall. He was able to see inside the room he was facing, but those in the room
couldn't see him.

"Sir." The personnelle monitoring the interrogation immediately stood up. Sidharth raised his arm to make a gesture at them, his gaze steady as he watched the scene ahead.

Bhavik had only lasted 15 seconds in the interrogation room of the Special Operations Forces base before
confessing everything.

"That Japanese woman is called... called Yamaguchi Youko. I met her while drinking at the Fortune Palace; she was alone at the time. She overheard me boasting to my friends about wanting to find some potent aphrodisiac. We were having a good time and she came over, introduced herself and said she had the best aphrodisiac in the world, but getting it was a matter of whether or not I could afford it." Bhavik gritted this out between deep breaths while he
endured immense pain.

This Bhavik was not a total idiot. He even knew about concealing the fact that he and Arti had used this aphrodisiac to frame Shehnaaz.

Sidharth's eyes were dark and unreadable. He raised a hand to his jaw as he pondered for a long while. He turned to leave, activating his Bluetooth headset, and gave an
order to Deepak. "Dig up information on Yamaguchi Youko."

Because Bhavik had dealt with Yamaguchi Youko and knew more information about her, Deepak also
partook in the the interrogation to squeeze out more from him. The more details he knew, the easier it would be to find this person.

Leaving the interrogation room a little later, Deepak then returned to his office. He immediately connected to the Empire's Customs database and looked up Japanese tourists by the name of "Yamaguchi Youko" who had entered the country that year.

Soon after, lines of data were
generated. Deepak's hand tapped at the keyboard at lightning speed and
gradually narrowed down his search field.

After 15 minutes, he was down to only three women. "Sir, I've found that there were 15 Japanese women by the
name of Yamaguchi Youko who had entered the country this year.
Eliminating 12 who did not fit the age, there are three remaining. The first one and the second one had left our
country a month ago, so it doesn't match up with Bhavik's timeline. There is only one remaining Yamaguchi
Youko. She had entered the Empire two weeks ago and happened to stay in C City during that time. I also checked her credit card history and discovered that it had been used
at the Fortune Palace. Without a
doubt, this Yamaguchi Youko is the one who sold the H3aB7 to Bhavik ."

"Ok. What took you so long?" Sidharth was slightly displeased. Bhavik had already confessed in detail, but it had still taken Deepak another 15 minutes.

"Sir, they had used cash for the transaction. If it was through the banking system, I wouldn't have needed even a full second to figure it out." Deepak's face was grim as he tried to pacify Sidharth.

"Cut the cr*p, where is Yamaguchi Youko now?" Sidharth stood up and got ready to assemble his men to
make the arrest.

Suddenly, Deepak gave a shout. "Sh*t! Sir! She's already on a plane departing for Japan!"

Deepak's face paled. "She got on the plane before we received Bhavik's confession!"

Sidharth punched the desk in frustration. "Continue your search! Send me the Customs information!"

Deepak immediately used his highest permission settings to access the C City Customs system. C City was the largest city in the Empire and had countless international flights going through it per day. To find a single
person within all the possible flights was not easy, but it was much easier if the flight number was known. Deepak
used "Yamaguchi Youko's" name and passport number to find her flight number returning to Japan. He then isolated the video footage of when she departed from the airport Customs and sent it to Sidharth.

Sidharth leaned over to the large monitor before him and squinted to scrutinize the throngs of people at the C City airport customs. Deepak guided him over the phone. "Sir, this person is Yamaguchi Youko."

In the footage of the C City airport customs, Yamaguchi Youko smiled at the camera. She had thick, black,
medium-length hair and wide bangs across her forehead. She wore large, black sunglasses that blocked half her face, but her skin, as pale as a statue's, was visible. She applied red lipstick to her thin lips and had thin brows,
making her looking like an ancient Empire beauty, but also with the
obvious features of a Japanese woman.

Sidharth frowned, rose to shut off the large monitor and directly ordered Deepak. "Are you able to connect
to the Japanese database? Look up her background."

Someone who could obtain H3aB7 was not merely an ordinary person, Sidharth surmised.

Deepak loved hacking, but was unfortunately restricted by military discipline and was not able to do as he
wished online. However, Sidharth had given him authorization this time and he was incredibly excited. He rubbed his hands together and said "No problem! Where am I hacking? Is it the Japanese security network, or their
financial network? Will this affect the level of safety for the Japanese internet?"

Sidharth said coldly, "Why does the safety of the Japanese internet have anything to do with me? I just need
you to to dig up this woman's
background."

Deepak nodded to himself.
"Understood!" He cherished each time he was able to hack another country's internet legitimately. These were rare
opportunities, and one of the reasons why he joined the Special Operations Forces. As a former world class hacker who had been offered amnesty, he was very satisfied with his current job. It not only fulfilled his interests, but allowed him to contribute to the country.

Strings of data flew between his fingers as he tapped away, relentlessly attacking the security flaws in the Japanese internet. He only needed to find one and rip it open so that he could 'view the scenery from the other side' so to say. Before dawn broke, Deepak had successfully found the password of the Japanese internet and strolled through the country's computer networks. However, the results he found were not favorable.

Deepak's face grew grim and after 10 minutes, he relayed the information to Sidharth. "Sir, Yamaguchi Youko has a close relationship with
Yamaguch-gumi1 , the largest yakuza group in Japan. Also, according to this
information, she has died in a car accident just after landing in Japan".

Sidharth sat in his study and faced a wall covered with large monitors. He sat in the high-backed chair behind the
desk, intently reading the information on the large monitors.

It was the intelligence Deepak had gathered on the Japanese internet, all with translated subtitles.

"Sir, could this incident be tied to Yamaguchi-gumi, the largest yakuza group in Japan? Should we be dealing with yakuza, then?" Deepak discussed this question with Sidharth over the phone.

Deal with Yamaguchi-gumi? Sidharth remained silent, his eyes as dark as night. One hand lightly rubbed at his jaw and felt the growing stubble. His other hand produced the gold coin from his trouser pockets, and he began weaving it through his fingers.

His instincts told him the clues ended here. It is not as though I am scared of facing the Japanese Yamaguchi-gumi,
but why do I have to face them? Sidharth wondered irritably. His
thoughts continued to spiral: Yamaguchi Youko is now a dead person who can tell no tales. Could she truly have proven that this was connected to Yamaguchi-gumi, the largest yakuza group in Japan? The entire event is linked and led us to 'follow the vine to find the melon'. After getting to the bottom of it, were we finally able to find Yamaguchi Youko step by step. But Sidharth's instinct told him that this kind of 'following the vine to find the melon' was too simple. The clues that appeared were obvious, but there is more than what meets the eye. If this
was truly an act by the Japanese Yamaguchi-gumi, what were their intentions, and why did they target Shehnaaz?

Huo Shaoheng firmly believed that Shehnaaz's existence was probably not something in the Japanese Yamaguchi- gumi's knowledge. The Empire had concealed her well,
otherwise Shehnaaz's foolish
university classmate wouldn't have used such a wicked and stupid way to set her up.

If this wasn't an act by
Yamaguchi-gumi, why did this
Mastermind cast their sights to Yamaguchi-gumi? What was their intention for covering up the truth? Sidharth closes his eyes, a mounting sense of worry and dread looming in his mind.

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I hope you enjoy reading it.
Love you all.