Chapter 2766: Star Core Rescue (17)_2

After Lehman came to, he was crawling on the ground, clutching Parker's leg and started crying, repeating a few sentences over and over; Aux had kidnapped him, Aux was terrifying, Aux was going to kill him, someone had to come and save him quickly.

Parker had indeed never seen such a scene before, and Natasha signaled him to stay calm and started questioning. Agents have ways to confirm whether someone is really talking nonsense or using it to dodge an interrogation; it's just a matter of focusing on the details.

"You say Aux kidnapped you, so where did you see him?"

"The office, he burst into my office!"

"Alright, and what did he say to you when he burst in?"

"He said, he said it wasn't him who did it." Lehman shook his head and said, "I told him it was Balk, it was Balk who said we could pin everything on a subordinate, so I just said that... "

"And who is Balk?"

Lehman mumbled unclearly, and it was Parker who said, "He's the head of the software engineering department, a pretty formidable computer scientist, he set up the entire space station's software security system."

"When exactly did he say this to you?"

"It was... during a drinking session..."

"When did you drink?"

"Two, three months ago? Those bastards at the ground communication base chewed me out, Balk told me it wasn't my fault, that I just wasn't articulate, that I should try to explain, tell them it's the idiots below who couldn't do the job properly... "

Parker couldn't hold back anymore, walked over, grabbed his collar, and punched him, to which Natasha looked at him, somewhat surprised, and said, "You actually know how to hit someone?"

"I didn't know how before, but Peter taught me a couple of moves." Parker frowned and said, "You damn bastard, Lehman, that power failure was completely your fault, and you even tried to blame it on others?!"

"And then you thought of pushing the blame for this accident on Aux? So was it you who spread the news that Aux had damaged the Photovoltaic Integrated Device?"

"He was like that! An incompetent fool!" Suddenly, Lehman fell into an extreme state of excitement, started to foam at the mouth, and said, "In recent months, he's been distracted, not working properly at all, many malfunctions were caused by him, and he's been sleepwalking at night, shouting and yelling..."

Natasha noted this useful piece of information, then steered the conversation back on track and said, "How did he overpower you?"

"He... he's very strong..." Lehman suddenly shrank his neck back and said, "It's really spooky, he was like an elephant, I couldn't resist at all, he threw me in the corner, and slammed my head against the wall..."

"Aux is indeed quite strong," Parker said, "Even after he got to the space station, he lost a lot of weight because his mental state wasn't good, but he's still much stronger than Lehman, so it's not a surprise he could overpower him."

"What happened next? How did he get you here, what exactly did he do, what did he say, tell me without missing a single word." Natasha assumed the attitude of an interrogator.

"He, he lit a cigarette, was about to leave, then suddenly turned back around..."

""Hold on!" Parker interrupted Lehman, asking, "Who did you say lit a cigarette, you?"

"Aux! It was Aux! He snatched my cigarette and lit one..."

"That's not right." Parker said to Natasha, "Aux doesn't smoke at all, I said he's a good husband, he doesn't smoke, doesn't drink, doesn't stay up late, his hobbies are fitness and studying Slovak cuisine, his biggest bad habit is just being a crier and loud, other than that he has no flaws."

Suddenly, an idea flashed in Natasha's mind, and she said, "Lehman might have been hypnotized, just like Aux was."

Parker immediately crouched down again, leaning close as Natasha flipped through Lehman's eyelids and said, "This fat corpse has very obvious traces of drug use, I've heard from a professional psychologist that in most cases, hypnosis requires the patient's cooperation, and it's impossible to be successful without it, of course, that's within the bounds of legality."

"And if we broaden the scope just a bit, there's another possibility for successful forced hypnosis, which is using drugs, most sedatives, or simply narcotics, can quickly break down a person's psychological defenses."

Parker drew in a breath sharply and said, "There indeed were rumors in our department that Aux's rapid weight loss and poor mental state were due to drug use, are you saying that to some extent, he might actually be using drugs?"

"It's not out of the question," Natasha thought aloud.

"But there's no withdrawal reaction." Parker immediately pointed out the issue, "I've seen plenty of drug-addicted homeless in Queens District, and they make a big scene when they're in withdrawal. If Aux really was on drugs, his roommate would have definitely seen him having withdrawal symptoms."

"Perhaps it's not traditional narcotics." Natasha said, "There are too many strange drugs in this world, maybe it's some kind of nerve agent we haven't seen before."

"What about the method of poisoning?"

"That's worth discussing," Natasha said thoughtfully as she scratched her head, "Based on my experience with poisoning, adding poison to food and drink is the easiest to detect, unless you're only in it for a one-shot deal and plan to kill the person outright, otherwise, inhalable gases are more suitable for long-term poisoning."

"Could it be something he touches often?" Parker seemed to have an idea.

"If it were me, I would do that, and it's best to make sure that the person needs to take deep breaths while using the item." Natasha recalled while stroking her chin, "I once poisoned the fitness earbuds of a wealthy man while he was running, and it worked quite well."

Parker glanced at her, deciding to ignore her last statement, and then said, "Then I guess it could be Aux's personal communication device, because he almost calls his wife for more than an hour of video chat every day."

"Is his wife in bad shape?"

"Very bad, almost to the point of madness," Parker said, "I've seen them chat a few times, and Aux is almost always crying, which might also meet the criteria of heavy breathing you mentioned."

"Then the likelihood is not small," Natasha continued, "But I've also heard from psychologists that it's very hard to change one's nature through hypnosis, for example, even if you were hypnotized, you wouldn't kill someone, achieving this is very difficult and there's a good chance you'd wake up midway."

"That's why I've been saying that the Photovoltaic Integrated Device wasn't damaged by Aux." Parker said, biting his teeth, "He's a person who takes care of things, and he wouldn't have been without a safety cord, let alone damage public property because he wasn't wearing a safety cord..."

"There's a piece missing in this," Natasha said frowning, "Even the most skilled psychologist I know can't hypnotize a good person into doing bad things, so there must be something between Aux and the damage to the Photovoltaic Integrated Device, what could it be?"