22 Chapter 22 Missing

Jay flew home as fast as he could, swept into the living room like an impatient tornado from the open window. The lights in the living room were still on, and Mrs Reynolds sat on the sofa with red eyes, anxious and tired.

She didn't say a word when she saw Jay come in, step forward, and hug him.

"It's okay; it's okay, Mom," Jay reassured, patting her back. "Whatever happens, I promise I'll fix it, okay? Tell me, what's going on?"

It took Mrs Reynolds a moment to calm her emotions and tell Jay what had happened. The part she knew was straightforward. Mrs Reynolds called her near midnight to say that she woe back soon, but she was still nowhere to be seen after a while. During this period, Mrs Reynolds tried to call him several times but went unanswered. Considering her husband's unusual behaviour recently and the plane crash that happened not long ago, she instinctively realised something terrible had happened, so she called the police.

"The police found his phone a few blocks away, on the empty sidewalk." Mrs Reynolds said, her voice choked a little; she hugged Jay tightly and said, "God, I can't. To imagine what happened to Charles himself. In case the..."

"Don't think about it; he'll be fine," Jay interrupted. "I'll bring him back, I promise."

His groundless consolation seemed to have some effect. Mrs Reynolds took a deep breath, regained her composure, pointed to the coffee table, and said, "The police just came and asked me some questions. The responsible detective Nice, what's his name...I can't remember a bit later, but he left me a business card and said he could be contacted if he remembered something..."

She pulled out the little white card and handed it to Jay. Jay glanced at it and read: "Detective Martin Jones."

Four in the morning, the Metropolitan Police Department.

When Detective Martin Jones' partner placed a steaming cup of coffee at his desk, he said, somewhat dejectedly, "Thanks for the coffee, John, but I don't think we'll need it tonight. Overtime cancelled. We can go back to sleep."

His partner John was stunned: "What's going on? I thought we still had a missing person case to investigate."

"It's gone now," Detective Jones sighed. "The call came from above, telling us to leave this case alone. They said it was a special case, handed over to another organisation."

"Again?" John frowned. "You know, Martin, every time they call to hand over the case to the 'relevant department,' how often are the cases resolved? They're almost direct orders. We threw the case file into the unsolved archive and hadn't even started an investigation!"

Detective Jones said helplessly: "Rule is a rule, you know. In this city, in this world, you and I are just two insignificant pawns, there is a limit to what we can do, and there are many things... There are many parts that you and I can't touch. Since the above is said, it is equivalent to setting a restricted area for us, and there is nothing we can do."

John sighed. "Of course, I get it. I… find it hard to accept. I just haven't been on it long enough to get used to it."

"You may never get used to it." Detective Jones paused for a while, then said, "The missing person this time, Charles Reynolds, a reporter for the Daily Planet, I remember him."

"you recognise?"

"Had a few dealings when he was young. He's a good man, a good reporter, but unfortunately..." Detective Jones sighed softly. "He also has a wife and a young adult child."

"It's bad."

"Yeah, that sucks," Detective Jones said. "But what can I say? We live in a world like this. Maybe the city's hope died six years ago."

The atmosphere suddenly became heavy, and the two detectives stopped talking until Jones packed up his things, stood up, and said, "Okay, let's do this for today. I'll go back. First, I think I need a good night's sleep. Remember to lock the door and turn off the lights when you leave."

"Okay, good night."

"Good night."

The two detectives didn't notice; Jay squatted on the rooftop opposite the police station the whole time, using his keen hearing to hear the conversation word for word.

He had long vaguely thought that Mr Reynolds' involvement might be extraordinary. Still, he didn't expect the enemy to be so powerful that he was able to put pressure on the police station to force the detective's investigation, which was huge as one can imagine.

Maybe things will be more difficult than he imagined, but even so, he won't back down. Charles Reynolds, his father, is his irreplaceable family member, and he will stop at nothing to bring him back, no matter what adversary he has to face.

Jay had never been a detective and had no similar investigative experience. But he thought that if what Dad was investigating led to such a result, it would be an excellent choice to start with what he was studying.

With that in mind, Jay flew to Mr Reynolds' office at the Daily Planet. The building was already empty, of course, and he went in through the storage room window and unlocked the door of Mr Reynolds' office with his bare hands—Jay thought he wouldn't mind given the current circumstances.

Mr Reynolds' desk was neatly tidy and looked well-organized. Jay glanced through the files he had stacked on his desk and found that most of them were trivial things in the life column, and nothing was particularly noteworthy. At least he didn't think anyone would be published on the planet because of his"husband cheating". The daily newspaper tried to find a way to drop the plane that was interviewing the reporter.

Then he moved his gaze to the small rectangular cabinet on the left side of the desk, with a delicate padlock hanging on it.

The last time this cabinet was locked was many years ago. There is a mezzanine hidden at the bottom of this cabinet. In the past, whenever Mr Reynolds wanted to track down some more sensitive events, he would hide all the information in this mezzanine, just in case. He hardly told anyone about it, but Jay had noticed it with his X-sight since the first time he came to the office and never said it.

He tore off the padlock and uncovered the mezzanine; sure enough, a light blue folder lay quietly inside. He put the folder on the table and spread it out, and a vast case analysis chart came into view. He was surprised that what Dad was tracking was more significant than he thought. According to the two pages spread out horizontally, the source of the entire investigation seems to be the commotion in the underground shoppMr mall. Mr Reynolds was amazed by the vast network of experiments, apparently aware of a hidden truth. In it, he saw the mystery of the disappearance of government officials two years ago, the unsolved case of a reporter from a particular newspaper office, and even some terrible rumours from online forums, both true and false, that a specific person was hiding in the dark. Top Secret is secretly creating some monster.

Jay couldn't help but think of the white monster he encountered in the underground mall and suddenly felt that the rumour might not be so groundless.

Seeing this, he seemed to understand why it was difficult for his father to stop. Putting these scattered pieces of information together made him feel like the whole society was caught in an incomparably colossal spider web. Every strange rumour and the unsolved case was part of this web, and all of them were deeply caught up in it. In the centre of this network, there is fog all around.

He thought again of what Batman had said to him earlier—the world was getting worse every day.

At the end of this analysis chart, Mr Reynolds integrated all the information, and the clues seem to point to a common centre - an international company called "Kerry Technology Creative", with branches worldwide. But the headquarters seems to be in Chicago.

So that's why Mr ReynoMr wanted to fly to Chicago.

It looks like he'll have to run there too.