The Overworked Beta and the Paranoid Alpha 61

Chapter 61: The Culprit

Peter Rove Rost, male Alpha, born in the year X0XX, was entered into the missing persons system on Z month ZZ day of the year X0YY.

Z month ZZ day of the year X0YY… Romeo silently recited this date in his mind. He was all too familiar with this date.

Two weeks before this date, Romeo was still a child of about ten years old, living with his father in the manor of old Rost, who was also his father’s second husband. Until that day, a fire broke out in the manor, and both his father and old Rost died in the fire.

After the disaster, Romeo was taken away by his biological father. As for Peter Rove Rost, the eldest son of old Rost and Romeo’s stepbrother with whom he had no blood relation, Romeo did not know what had happened to him, nor did he want to know.

After all, he hated everyone in the Rost family and wished that this mosquito-like family would disappear from Capital Star completely. But this was not something he could control. All he could do was to turn a blind eye. So for so many years, he had been trying to avoid any news about anyone with the surname Rost.

He clicked into the missing persons file to view the specific information.

The information entered said:

Peter Rove Rost was hospitalized for two weeks due to severe burns all over his body. Two weeks later, a nurse in the inpatient department found his bed empty when she was changing his dressing. The nurse was so scared that she immediately called the police. The police went to the surveillance room to check the surveillance, but as luck would have it, the hospital’s surveillance was broken.

This was a very well-known and expensive private hospital. Normally, such a thing would not happen.

The hospital was located in the suburbs, and there were forests for ten kilometers around, with no one living there. The police investigated for several months, but with no results, they had to enter Peter Rove Rost into the missing persons system.

“Do you know the code for Wen En and Della’s mission this time?” Romeo asked Claire.

This was a secret. Wen En had never mentioned it to Romeo. Of course, Romeo could also check it himself secretly, but for the past period of time, he had been with Wen En, busy escaping from bad guys, and had almost lost his life. Where would he have time to check this?

But Romeo felt that Della must know.

“Hmph, of course I know,” Claire didn’t ask what Romeo wanted to do. She, like Romeo, liked to mind her own business. She said:

“Code 015, mission codename: Snake and Rat Game.”

“Thank you.”

After entering the code and mission name, the search system quickly brought up the information Romeo wanted.

“Let me see, participant information. Ah, I kind of want to see this, but there’s not enough time. Damn it. Suspect information. Wait, why am I also in this file? Forget it, that’s not the point. The point is… so it’s here. I found it!”

Romeo opened the file of the suspect, Peter, and opened his front-facing photo. A face that was mostly covered by a black metal mask came into Romeo’s eyes. Romeo swallowed.

Could it be the same person? Romeo had previously thought that the two people just happened to have the same name. Their surnames and appearances were completely different. And “Peter” was a very common Western name. The same name did not mean it was the same person.

What really made Romeo suspicious were some details. It was common for a person’s personality to change with age, but some details seemed to be engraved in their DNA and could not be changed at all.

Romeo put the front-facing photos of the two Peters into the facial matching detection system and pressed the start button.

“Detection started. Detection ended. The detection results are as follows:
Facial feature proportion match: 80%
Facial contour match: 85%
Facial feature similarity: 40%
…
Conclusion: The probability of the two being the same person is: 78%. Considering that the subject may have suffered external injuries, such as undergoing facial plastic surgery, this result is for reference only.”

…

Romeo was silent. Unlike his cold exterior, his heart was beating wildly. A familiar fear swept over his entire body, making it difficult for him to breathe.

Until Claire’s voice broke the mountain of invisible fear.

“Are you done?” Claire said. “There are still two minutes left. We have to go back quickly.”

Romeo’s eyes widened, as if he had just woken up from a nightmare. He was stunned for two seconds and said, “Okay, let’s go back quickly.”

“My guess is that Claire and Qiuyue might be half-siblings, either from the same mother or the same father,” Wen En said.

“Good guess,” Della said. “So, do you think it’s possible that Claire, or Romeo, or both of them, have already colluded with Qiuyue?”

“It’s possible,” Wen En said. “But I think the probability is relatively small.”

“Why?”

“Now, everyone knows that Romeo and Claire have already cooperated with the Interstellar Special Police. Uh, forced cooperation is also cooperation. Besides, Peter is a super control freak, and he has very high requirements for the loyalty of his subordinates.” At this point, Wen En paused. “Alright, at least his subordinates look loyal on the surface.”

Wen En continued, “Even if he wanted to plant an undercover agent on our side, Peter wouldn’t choose these two guys with zero credibility. Even if one of them has some damn blood relationship, it’s no exception. Blood relationship has nothing to do with loyalty. Interest is the best bridge to maintain loyalty. I guess Peter would definitely send his most loyal subordinate, the one with the deepest interest connection with him.”

“For example, Qiuyue?” Della said.

“Yes, Qiuyue.”

“You’re right,” Della sighed. “And…”

Della took a sip of red tea to wet her throat. Just as she was about to continue, a piercing alarm suddenly sounded from the top of the tea room, as if a hundred beagles were barking wildly in her ear.

“Fire alarm?” Wen En stood up, his face instantly turning serious. “Is there a fire somewhere in the headquarters?”

The moment he finished speaking, the fire sprinkler on the ceiling of the tea room popped out and sprayed a downpour of water on Wen En and Della’s heads.

Wen En and Della, who were drenched like drowned rats: …

Soon, the source of the fire alarm was found.

The source was in a room numbered A-637 in the headquarters’ residential area.

When Wen En and Della received the emergency notice and rushed to A-637, they saw Romeo and Claire squatting on the ground, their wrists in shiny handcuffs, while RV stood to the side, pointing fingers at the deputy director of the security and inspection department and the deputy director of the fire department.

Seeing Wen En and Della arrive, RV waved his hand and told the deputy director of the security and inspection department and the deputy director of the fire department to get lost. He even said, “If you’re not convinced, you can go and report me to your superiors. I’ll be happy to oblige.”

“Get lost, RV, you old bastard who can’t be blown up!” The deputy director of the security and inspection department and the deputy director of the fire department cursed and left.

“Can you untie me?” Romeo, who was sitting cross-legged on the ground, said.

RV couldn’t be bothered to answer him. He just glanced at him and Claire, then walked to Wen En and Della and gave them a good scolding:

“I’ve told you two hundreds of times to keep an eye on these two idiots 24/7, like you’re taking care of a newborn baby. What did you do? Go for tea? Go for coffee? Are you idiots too?!”

“Hey, calm down. What on earth happened?” Wen En was at a loss.

“Ask them yourself,” RV was furious. He still had a lot of aftermath to deal with. He was annoyed just by looking at Romeo and Claire now. “I’m leaving. I’m afraid if I stay here any longer, I’ll kill these two idiots.”

“Alright, I’m sorry,” Wen En said very curtly.

Before leaving, RV did not forget to remind Wen En and Della in a “well-intentioned” tone, “Remember, the next time you dare to let these two out of your sight, I’ll gouge out your eyes and feed them to the cat.”

“Yes, sir,” Della said.

After finally sending off the erupting volcano of RV, Wen En finally turned his gaze to Romeo. “So, what on earth did you do?” to have alarmed several high-level leaders of the headquarters to come out.

“Well,” Romeo licked his lips and said, “You untie me first, and then I’ll tell you in detail.”

Wen En raised an eyebrow, thinking, What are these two lunatics up to again?

At this moment, Della suddenly said, “I’ll take Claire into the room first.”

“Alright, be my guest,” Wen En said.

Della walked to Claire with a blank expression. Claire looked up. Her wet hair was tangled in clumps like ropes and fell on her shoulders.

Claire smiled at Della and said, “Are you here to help me unlock the handcuffs?”

“No,” Della replied without emotion. With that, she grabbed the back of Claire’s collar and walked in without looking back.

—That was the two-person room that RV had applied for for her and Claire.

The moment Della pushed open the door of room A-637, she dragged Claire in.

The room was filled with water. The floor, the walls, and even the furniture were not spared.

A domestic robot sent by the headquarters’ property management was holding a cloth cleaning machine, with the water absorption mode on, trying to suck up the water hidden in the soft fabric sofa. The robot sensed someone coming in and said in a mechanical and cheerful tone:

“Beep, beep, beep— Little A will be done cleaning soon. Please wait a moment, guest~”

Della: …

Della did not leave. She looked down and saw her mug. The mug was half-filled with a black, pungent, and smelly water with burnt ashes. There were also black, unburnt chunks floating on the surface of the water.

It seemed that this was the culprit of this fire drama.

“I just wanted to make a cup of smoky-flavored coffee,” Claire said from the side, with no remorse at all. “I didn’t expect this to happen.”

“Nice excuse,” Della said.

Then, she slammed the door shut with a “bang—”.

Wen En, who was watching from the side, looked down at Romeo, who was sitting to his right, unable to move, and said:

“You can wish her good luck.”