mtl008 Chapter 4407 Project Farstar (25)
Chapter 4407 Project Farstar (25)
Chapter 4407 Project Far Star (Twenty-Five)
“You did it, didn’t you? You killed Rafanas.” Clark walked over, crossed his arms, and squinted as he asked.
"Good heavens, how could you think that?" Schiller said, seemingly surprised. "I have no grudge against this gentleman..."
"But you look like the kind of person who would kill someone they've never wronged."
“A terrible prejudice.” Schiller disagreed, shaking his head. “What ability do I have to kill him? As you can see, I’m just a clerical worker, and this gentleman is quite heavy. How could I possibly move him?”
“Perhaps you happen to have superpowers,” Clark said, “like suddenly becoming incredibly strong.”
"Even so, it's impossible that I left no trace. Even the most professional police officers and secret agents couldn't find anything..."
"You might just happen to be a very skilled serial killer, who is best at taking advantage of the chaos at crowded banquets like this."
Schiller opened his mouth, then looked Clark up and down. Clark didn't really think he was a particularly brilliant detective, but Schiller's expression clearly said, "How did you suddenly become so smart?"
"It really was you!" Clark said through gritted teeth.
Then he suddenly paused for a moment, and then said, "You're not really a serial killer with superpowers, are you?... You can't be, right?!"
Schiller shrugged, saying nothing. Silence wasn't good news in this matter. Clark wanted to press for answers, but he realized he needed to deal with the immediate problem first. He took a deep breath and looked at Schiller, asking, "Why did you kill him?"
“I didn’t kill him,” Schiller said. “At best, I’m just another hapless guy like you.”
"You moved the body too?"
At this moment, Lex, standing beside the two, looked at Clark in shock and said, "You moved the corpse??? Why did you move the corpse?!"
"Haven't you figured it out yet? This is a setup against me," Clark said impatiently. "If I don't figure out how to dispose of the body, I should already be in the interrogation room."
"So where did you hide the body?"
“I didn’t hide it, I destroyed the body,” Clark said. “So don’t try to trick me into telling you where the body is. I can tell you for sure that no one can find it because the body has disappeared.”
Lex let out a sigh of relief, and Clark couldn't help but look at him again. Lex said irritably, "What do you mean, a setup targeting you? This is clearly a setup targeting me! At this critical juncture, the director of the Metropolitan Municipal Administration died at my banquet..."
"You know this is a critical time, yet you still insist on holding a banquet. Don't you deserve it?" Clark retorted without backing down. He couldn't afford to lose to Luther, not even in a verbal battle.
Lex was so angry he almost fell backward, while Schiller said, "So it was a trap set for the two of you. I thought it was a trap set for me."
"And you are..."
“Excuse me, let me introduce myself again. I’m the head of the NSA’s Sky Eye Division.” Schiller handed over his badge and then said, “Someone has asked me to produce a detailed list of ‘suspected Martians’ within a week. If I run into some trouble, the names on the list may naturally be changed.”
"Then why did you go and touch the corpse?" Clark asked, his eyes wide.
“There’s nothing I can do about the body,” Schiller said, spreading his hands. “I can only move it or hide it, but I can’t destroy the evidence. We all know that only by making the body disappear completely can we thwart the mastermind’s plot.”
"So you just dumped the body on me?"
“I’m your fan,” Schiller said with a smile. “You can do it, I believe in you.”
Clark couldn't help but close his eyes. He wanted to say that there was no need to believe it so readily, but he knew Schiller was definitely unyielding, so he kept quiet. He glanced back at the banquet hall and then said, "Someone is targeting the two of you. I can roughly guess the reason—it's nothing more than that election stuff. But why are they targeting me?"
“You think you can escape this election mess?” Lex was clearly exasperated. “Those politicians are just trying to drag everyone into their crazy election game. They’re targeting you, mostly for that reason.”
“Okay, let me think about it.” Clark thought about it seriously for a moment, then said, “They think I can identify aliens too, right? Maybe they want me to come up with a list that satisfies them.”
“It’s not that simple,” Schiller said. “They probably won’t try anything to provoke you now, since they’re afraid you’ll move Capitol Hill somewhere else. So it’s unlikely they’ll force you to do anything by framing or falsely accusing you. At most, they’ll try to stall you or confuse you.”
“So they don’t want me to show my face.” Clark realized immediately. “Because they think I can really tell who the Martians are, and if you slip your own biases into their list, I might expose them.”
“That’s very likely,” Lex said. “But from what you’re saying, you can’t tell?”
Clark nodded and said, "There are two possibilities: either the person was killed by Martians, and I really can't tell; or the person was killed by humans, and there were no aliens present except for me."
Lex pondered this, saying, "They chose to make their move at my party, probably to use me to stall you, or to test you. They want to know if you can tell the difference."
Clark had naturally considered this as well. It was common knowledge that he and Luthor had a long-standing feud. Now that someone had died on Luthor's territory, and he had infiltrated the area unexpectedly, Clark was the prime suspect. Luthor would undoubtedly pursue the matter relentlessly, as Luthor was entirely in the right, and Clark would likely face considerable pressure.
If he truly noticed anything unusual in the crowd, such as someone's physical structure being abnormal, he would definitely point it out, instead of remaining silent out of uncertainty or fear of wrongly accusing an innocent person. The mastermind behind this trap wanted to use the pressure Luther exerted on him to force him to prove his innocence.
So, the decision to destroy the body was correct. Because if the body couldn't be found, it could only be treated as a missing person case. The legal pressure on everyone dropped dramatically, and it would be difficult to bring anyone in for investigation and interrogation based on such a short period of disappearance. Naturally, he wouldn't need to prove himself. Luckily, he reacted quickly and had a backup plan, which allowed him to escape unscathed.
Before Clark could even catch his breath, Schiller said, "Do you really think they'll let this go so easily?"
Clark looked at him, Schiller looked towards the banquet hall, and then said, "If they can kill one, they can kill a second."
"You mean they'll still attack?!" Clark exclaimed in shock. "But the police are here now, and our every move is being monitored. Even if another person dies, we won't be suspects. They shouldn't do that, right?"
"We're cleared of suspicion, but what about the Martians?"
Clark didn't react for a moment; he looked at Schiller. Schiller continued, "If we can't manipulate the names on the 'suspected Martian' list, then as a fallback, isn't it enough to confirm that Martians actually exist?"
The logic was a bit convoluted, and Clark thought about it for a while before he understood what was going on. Simply put, the mastermind wanted to create a "kill list" and condemn all those who were against him to be Martians for trial.
His first step was to find Schiller and have the Sky Eye Society, an organization of superhumans, investigate who the Martians were. But the investigation itself wasn't important; what mattered was finding a way to get Schiller into trouble so they could negotiate, either getting him to change the names on the list or simply fabricating one to eliminate dissidents.
However, this plan has a flaw: humans have no technological means to distinguish who is a Martian, but Superman, who is also an alien, might be able to tell the difference.
Moreover, it's obvious that Superman has no good feelings towards these politicians. Even if it weren't to save the persecuted people, but simply to annoy them, he might expose them.
Superman's previous speeches had greatly increased his influence. If he were to step forward and say the list was incorrect, the public might be more inclined to side with him, and the jury might not dare to offend him. In that case, the so-called Martians on the list might never face trial. And as the saying goes, "if you don't kill a snake, you might as well strike it while it's hot," meaning the mastermind behind it might very well be bitten back.
To solve this problem, they staged a murder, intending to frame Schiller. In other words, Schiller was very likely at the initial crime scene, and the perpetrators may have arranged for someone to cause the disturbance. In this case, Schiller would be the prime suspect.
However, since this is Luthor's territory, and Luthor is present, and given the old grudge between Luthor and Clark, and the fact that Clark suddenly infiltrated the area, he is also a suspect. Luthor will definitely put immense pressure on Clark, insisting that he is the murderer.
At this point, to prove his innocence, Clark would seek out the real killer. He might directly attack Schiller, but if he truly noticed anything suspicious at the previous party—either physical structure or behavior—he would certainly speak up. While Clark might not necessarily be unwilling to wrongly accuse Schiller, he certainly wouldn't want the real killer to escape.
At this point, both Schiller and Clark will be taken away for investigation. Schiller will be detained, and someone will approach him to negotiate terms. They won't dare to do anything to Clark; at most, they'll stall him, keeping him preoccupied until the trial is over, preventing him from exposing the authenticity of the list.
Theoretically, Schiller and Clark had no time to communicate, so Clark wouldn't know about the list. Without knowing, there was no way to target him; by simply diverting his attention with something else, the truth wouldn't be revealed.
However, the mastermind may have overlooked the fact that these two were no ordinary people, or perhaps he had considered it, but never imagined they would be this extraordinary. Schiller moved the body out of the primary crime scene in an extremely short time and dumped it in front of Clark, who, without a second thought, disposed of the body completely and utterly.
This makes it impossible to confirm death, and with such a short investigation period, it's impossible to rule out the possibility that the person left on their own. Even if the surveillance cameras didn't capture them leaving, they might have taken an unusual route, such as jumping out of a second-floor window. Since a murder investigation cannot be conducted, all suspects are significantly reduced, the grounds for detention and investigation are insufficient, and the manipulation of the list is certainly out of the question.
However, this kind of person always makes plans with the intention of accepting any assignment. It doesn't matter if they don't get into their desired major; they can be assigned to another one. He had already planned what the minimum goal could be if things went wrong, and the major he was assigned to was confirming the existence of Martians.
Assuming the police genuinely find nothing and the existing evidence is insufficient to take anyone away, then they kill one more person, and do so while everyone is under surveillance. Everyone has an alibi, yet the person still dies, easily leading to speculation about supernatural abilities.
Just like Clark's previous reasoning, the killer must be extraordinary to be able to move a body from the first floor to the second floor in such a short time. Similarly, the person who could commit the crime without leaving the police's sight must not be an ordinary person; they must have superpowers.
Because of the panic surrounding the "Martian invasion" that had been hyped up beforehand, the blame was pinned on the Martians, with the aim of creating a sensational case to definitively confirm their existence.