Paris, the capital and largest city of the French Republic. Luo An had been here with Mona during their travels in Europe, touring the Louvre where the "Mona Lisa" is housed, and holding hands with Mona while sipping coffee on the left bank of the Seine River.
Similarly, the entire city was filled with the strong smell of urine; the subway stations exuded nauseating odors; the omnipresent trash on the streets and the organized groups of thieves also left a deep impression on the couple.
Thereafter, the phrase "City of Romance" completely disappeared from Luo An and Mona's minds.
What replaced it was Balenciaga; aside from being expensive, their silk stockings really felt nice to the touch.
The Federation's Embassy in Paris is located at No. 2 Gabriel Street, Eighth District, Paris, northwest corner of Concorde Square.
This Embassy was the Federation's first foreign mission; founding patriarchs like Benjamin Franklin once served as the earliest ambassadors of the Federation to France.
At nine o'clock in the morning, in a conference room on the third floor at the far right end of the Embassy building, Vireness sat on a chair, her face somber as she looked at the documents in her hand.
Due to the time difference, when Luo An called last night, it was still daytime in the Federation. After listening briefly to Luo An's summary, Vireness did not hesitate to immediately take a flight to Paris to personally deal with the problem.
Luo An sat in the chair opposite Vireness, currently perusing the day's newspaper.
Luo An selectively ignored the entertainment news section, shifting his gaze to the political and military section, where he saw the French media relentlessly lambasting the British Empire.
In last night's operation at Saint-Michel Mountain, Luo An successfully led Reesi and a detained Valery out with ease, and they easily picked up Mona and the sleeping Sean as well.
Everything went smoothly on their end, but MI6 was hotly pursued by the Seventh Bureau.
Eventually outnumbered, MI6 agents were surrounded and decisively chose the traditional gentlemanly demeanor of the British Empire: they surrendered with hands up.
Subsequently, the French police arrived at the scene of the explosion caused by the collision of two speedboats. After a brief investigation, the Seventh Bureau contacted the Federation's Embassy in Paris with a warning.
Then the French media, one after another, began to denounce MI6 for sneaking into their country, causing trouble and a highly adverse impact, demanding an apology and compensation from the British Empire.
MI6: "..."
The British Empire: "..."
Looking at the newspaper articles filled with mentions of MI6 and only briefly touching on the CIA, Luo An's lips curled into a smile, understanding what the online saying "the top three constants and the bottom two constants" meant.
"Luo An."
As Luo An was lost in thought looking at the newspaper, Vireness suddenly called out his name. He looked up at her and she said in a serious tone:
"On my way to Paris, I received new information. The body of underground merchant Rupert was discovered in a country in South America. After an autopsy, it was confirmed that he had been dead for over three months.
That is to say, the Rupert you met with yesterday was a fake, likely having undergone some simple facial surgery."
Luo An was not surprised by this; last night's events had made it clear to him that the real mastermind behind the scenes was Valery. However, Conrad had died without clarifying many things, so he asked:
"Chief, what's the deal with that CIA agent Valery?"
Vireness shook her head; she had already contacted Mr. Clement about this issue, but it would take time to get clear details, so she said:
"Valery has already been captured by you. Let's proceed directly with the interrogation."
————
In a basement room of the Embassy building.
"Good morning, Mr. Valery."
Reesi sat on one side of the interrogation table ready to take notes on her laptop, while Luo An pushed a cup of coffee in front of Valery, who was handcuffed to a chair, and asked with a smile:
"It seems you had a good sleep last night, you look well."
Valery's mouth twitched; his eye sockets were bruised, his cheeks swollen, his nose was bandaged, and he was missing several teeth. He really didn't understand how Luo An could tell that he looked well.
Seeing that Valery remained silent, Luo An wasn't angry. He smiled, picked up his coffee, and took a sip before saying:
"We've found information indicating that you're a defected CIA agent. Would it be convenient for you to talk about your defection experience?
We can use your story as a case study to teach the newcomers."
Valery's expression grew colder:
"Provocation as a tactic, are your methods always this crude and simplistic?"
"It's neither crude nor simplistic."
Luo An smiled and waved his hand:
"It's not provocation. You're overthinking it. I'm just stating a simple fact.
When our interrogation is over, you will be handed over to the CIA. At that point, whether you live or die, I'm sure you understand.
Rather than dying a miserable and meaningless death, why not tell us more, so we can help you sum it up as a classic case study.
You would be physically turned to ashes, but the spirit of a traitor could be passed on forever. That's a kind of living, from another perspective, isn't it?"
Chatting with Luo An sometimes gave Valery a headache. His eyelids twitched, and after a few deep breaths, he couldn't hold back anymore and said:
"First off, I am not a traitor. Secondly..."
"Secondly, you don't get to decide that," Luo An interjected, waving his hands dismissively:
"Even a child writing an essay knows, what about the time? The location? The details? The story's background?"
After a few seconds of silence, Valery glared at Luo An and said coldly:
"Five months ago during that operation, we were betrayed."
Valery explained that the operation five months ago targeted a major criminal gang under the crime lord Zakaria.
The plan for the operation was meticulously crafted, but on the night it commenced, they were ambushed and attacked by the criminal gang. Members of his team died, and he only managed to survive by jumping into the sea at a critical moment.
After recuperating for some time, Valery began investigating and found that the criminal gang was tipped off and had set up an ambush well before their operation started. Furthermore, the source of the leak was not within their operational team but somewhere within a main CIA base.
Hearing this part of the story, Luo An yawned and said:
"The plot seems rather mundane. What follows should be the valorous hero fighting his way through various agents alone and eventually confronting the true villain who betrayed his own, putting a bullet through his head, finally retreating to live out his days in peace and tranquility."
"That's a movie plot."
Valery was at a loss for words, saying:
"There are countless security systems and weaponry at a CIA base, not to mention dozens of agents and nearby military facilities ready to provide support at any moment. How could I possibly defeat them all on my own?"
Luo An nodded. Valery's combat ability was indeed average; expecting him to do that was indeed asking too much. Luo An continued to ask:
"So, what was your plan?"
Valery indicated that the base was in another country, and there were many people in the leadership within the base. He couldn't determine who was responsible for the leak that night. Kidnapping and investigating wasn't realistic for him.
However, by coincidence, on the night of the operation, he took with him a list that nobody else knew about. Slowly, an idea began to form in Valery's mind:
He would contact the CIA base to let them know he wasn't dead and that the list had ended up in the hands of an underground merchant...
At this point, Luo An's eyes narrowed slightly, while Mona's face showed a peculiar expression: the story seemed to start having layers, like a nesting doll.