Vampires falling under FBI jurisdiction?
That joke wasn’t funny at all.
It wasn’t as if Locke didn’t have classmates who had joined the FBI.
Within the federal political and law enforcement apparatus, Harvard and Yale grads practically formed two separate cliques.
Besides, for the past two years, his primary target had been supernatural creatures like vampires.
If the FBI actually handled vampires, would he have had to wait until today?
Locke had once borrowed a classmate’s FBI account to log into their internal database.
Forget about vampires—even the number of active serial killers the FBI hadn’t caught was well into the triple digits.
So…
no matter how he looked at it, this seemed exactly like a certain law enforcement agency with absolutely no domestic jurisdiction on US soil acting under the guise of the FBI.
He wouldn’t name names.
Those who knew, knew.
Besides, whether it was them or not, he’d find out once they arrived.
A moment later, Jack and Brown, who had just run off to the information office, returned with the news that the case was being transferred to the FBI.
Brown walked up to Locke with a grim expression.
“Locke, we can’t hand this case over to the FBI.”
What a joke.
The one who died was his team member, not an FBI agent.
Why on earth should the FBI get the case?
Locke, who had just sat down and booted up his computer, looked up at Brown, who was staring at him unblinkingly.
Locke sighed.
“Brown, rules are rules.”
Without a mutant involved, the Sentinel Secret Service has zero jurisdiction.
Brown took a deep breath, clenching his fists.
His voice was low.
“Locke, it was one of our own who died.”
Locke glanced at Brown and frowned.
Instead of answering directly, he changed the subject.
“Did you find anything in the information office?”
Brown frowned.
Jack quickly chimed in, “Not much, but his credit card statements show he spent money every night at a bar called Satan.”
Locke raised an eyebrow.
“Every night?”
Jack nodded.
“Yes.
Mostly around 3:30 AM.”
With that, Jack handed Locke the credit card transaction history he had just printed from the information office.
Locke took the documents and nodded thoughtfully.
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Low-level vampires needed to drink blood every single day, or their bodies would grow weak.
However…
“What’s with this transaction amount?”
Locke looked at the spending on the statement and looked up at Jack.
“Three hundred dollars every night?
Where is his source of income?”
Good grief.
Spending three hundred a day—even he didn’t dare to be so extravagant.
Locke’s current annual salary was around $120,000, which translated to about $10,000 a month, or $2,500 a week.
On paper, this salary seemed high, but in reality, it didn’t go far.
His apartment alone, situated right across from Central Park, cost $2,000 a month in rent.
Not to mention he was still paying off his student loans every month.
And that was before factoring in basic living expenses like food, clothing, and transportation.
Only because he had been promoted to senior agent earlier this year, receiving a raise, and occasionally got subsidized by his high-earning wife, did he manage to avoid living paycheck to paycheck.
Yet what did he see on this statement?
Every single day, every single night, between 3:30 and 4:00 AM, a consistent, unshakeable expenditure of three hundred dollars?
“Three hundred a day, twenty-one hundred a week, ninety thousand a month, and 1.8 million a year…” Locke hissed.
He had heard that every vampire was a closet millionaire, but this level of spending was simply absurd.
“Uh…”
Jack and Brown listened to Locke’s math and felt like something was slightly off.
They exchanged a look.
Brown shook his head.
“We found an offshore bank card under his name.
An advisory agency wires him money every month.
But the moment we tried to look up this advisory agency, it triggered a system lock on his profile.”
Locke stroked his chin.
“Informant fees?”
Brown said grimly, “In any case, we can’t hand this case over to the FBI, Locke.”
Looking at the sullen Brown, Locke couldn’t help but chuckle.
“When did I ever say I was going to hand this case over?”
Brown frowned.
“Didn’t you just say…”
“If the deceased isn’t a mutant, then the case isn’t our responsibility.”
“Uh…”
“But what if the dead guy is actually a mutant who can transform into a vampire?
We all saw it, right?”
“…”
Their eyes met.
Brown stared at Locke’s eyes and the expression on his face.
After a brief daze, he exchanged a look with Jack, and a strange expression crept onto their faces.
Then, they both nodded in unison at Locke.
“Yes, exactly.
We saw it.”
“Well, there you go.” Locke chuckled again and spread his hands.
“Since a mutant died, who else could this case possibly be transferred to?”
Mutant-related cases belonged solely and exclusively to the Sentinel Secret Service.
No other law enforcement agency could do a damn thing about it.
He had never once thought about giving this case up, even though he was absolutely certain the “FBI agents” arriving shortly were impostors from some illegal agency.
Yes, he was talking about them—SHIELD.
Locke had no interest in starting trouble with SHIELD, but if anyone was looking for trouble, SHIELD had started it.
He was still counting on yesterday’s dead vampire to expand his supernatural diet.
What did this situation look like?
Locke had prepared the ingredients and was ready to start cooking, only for the people from SHIELD to swoop in without a word, planning to pack up his ingredients and his cooking utensils to go.
Who could tolerate that?
It was true he didn’t want to get too involved with SHIELD, but that didn’t mean he would sit back and do nothing when they came slapping him in the face.
Besides, five men from his own unit had died, and if their case got stolen on top of that, the other units would laugh at them forever.
Especially Brown—what if he got discouraged?
Locke was still relying on Brown to help him farm Extraordinary Points.
So…
the one who died yesterday was never a vampire.
It was a mutant whose abilities highly resembled a vampire.
And that was exactly what their report would say.
Locke glanced at Jack and Brown, who were looking at each other with excitement blooming on their faces.
Checking the time on his watch, he told Jack, “The FBI is probably already on their way.
So, Jack, you’d better write up yesterday’s case report and get Walter to sign it before they get here.”
Once the report was submitted, the evidence would be set in stone.
No one could contest it.
If they said the dead guy was a mutant with vampire-like abilities, then he was a mutant.
Jack snapped out of it, quickly heading back to his desk.
“I actually wrote the report yesterday.
Let me double-check it and hand it in.”
“…I’ll help you.” Brown also turned and chased after Jack, wanting to help him speed things up.
Locke watched them leave, smiling silently.