American comics: I am full of martial virtues and I love to be kind to others.

"You mean Gwen is starting to understand?"

“If those coffee beans are truly special and rare, then the thief's purpose might not be for personal use, but for resale and profit,” Lynn analyzed. “This also explains why relatively few other items were stolen—those were just a cover; the real target was those special coffee beans.”

Gwen nodded. "That makes a lot of sense. I'll try to find out more about coffee beans tomorrow."

“Remember, be careful in everything you do, and don’t let anyone know you’re investigating,” Lynn cautioned. “If my guess is right, we’ll catch the thief soon.”

The following morning, Lynn began a more in-depth investigation. He first went to the neighborhood where the coffee shop was located and began systematically searching for and retrieving surveillance footage from the surrounding area. As an FBI agent, he had the authority to access this surveillance data, although this time he was conducting the investigation in his personal capacity.

Lynn started by checking the security cameras near the coffee shop's main entrance, one by one. Although this street wasn't a major commercial area, its proximity to Columbia University meant that security was relatively comprehensive.

The first checkpoint was the surveillance footage from the bank ATM across the street. Lynn showed his FBI badge to the bank manager, explained the situation, and obtained access.

“I need to review the nighttime footage from the past week, especially the period from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m.,” Lynn told the bank’s security personnel.

“No problem, Detective Hall,” the security personnel readily agreed, pulling up the surveillance footage. “Which angle would you like to see?”

"The angle from the coffee shop entrance," Lynn pointed to the image on the screen.

Over the next two hours, Lynn carefully reviewed the surveillance footage from the past week. The ATM's camera was positioned well, clearly showing the coffee shop's main entrance and part of its side. Disappointingly, however, no suspicious individuals were seen entering or leaving the coffee shop during the periods when the thefts occurred.

"This is strange," Lynn thought to himself, "If we didn't enter through the main entrance, where would we start from?"

The second checkpoint was the clothing store to the right of the coffee shop. Lynn gained the cooperation of the store owner, Mary, by pretending to be investigating a theft.

“Of course you can check the security footage,” said Mary, a friendly woman in her fifties, “but our cameras are mainly pointed inside the store; the angle from the street isn’t ideal.”

Mary's shop did have a security camera facing the street, but the angle mainly covered the entrance to her own shop, only showing a small part of the side of the coffee shop. Lynn also carefully reviewed the week's worth of footage but still found nothing unusual.

The third checkpoint was a 24-hour convenience store to the left of the coffee shop. This store had a more comprehensive surveillance system, with three cameras covering different angles.

"Students often come here to buy things late at night, so we have comprehensive surveillance," the convenience store owner said enthusiastically. "Please feel free to look."

Lynn spent more time reviewing the footage because the angles were better and the time coverage was more complete. But the results were still disappointing—no suspicious persons approached the coffee shop during the time of the theft.

Around noon, Lynn decided to check out the alley behind the coffee shop. He went around to the back of the building and found it was a narrow alley mainly used for garbage collection and goods transport. There was indeed a security camera in the alley, but it looked like it had been broken for a long time.

“It seems this direction is a blind spot for surveillance,” Lynn observed the alleyway.

Even so, both ends of the alley were covered by surveillance cameras. Lynn retrieved the footage from both locations and found that no one had entered the alley during the nighttime period when the theft occurred.

At 2 p.m., Lynn returned to the FBI field office and began to analyze all the collected surveillance footage more carefully. He used the field office's professional equipment to conduct a detailed frame-by-frame analysis of all the recordings.

“Strange,” Lynn frowned. “All entrances are covered by surveillance cameras, but no one entered the area near the coffee shop at the time of the theft.”

He re-examined his reasoning. If no one entered the coffee shop from the outside, there were only two possibilities: either an inside job was committed, or he had overlooked some important information.

But Lynn's observations yesterday largely ruled out the possibility of an inside job. All the employees behaved normally, and they had legitimate channels to obtain the items; there was no reason for them to steal.

"There must be possibilities I haven't considered," Lynn thought.

At four o'clock in the afternoon, Lynn called Gwen.

“Gwen, I need you to confirm some details,” Lynn said. “Are you sure the theft happened at night?”

“Yes, that should be the case,” Gwen replied. “We check the inventory every morning and evening, and usually we find things are missing in the morning.”

"That means the theft occurred between closing time at night and opening time in the morning?"

“Yes, it’s roughly between 10 p.m. and 7 a.m.,” Gwen confirmed.

“Also, think carefully about the time you heard the sound from inside the wall,” Lynn continued, “What exactly was the sound?”

Gwen thought for a moment, "It sounded like someone was moving, but very slightly, easily missed if you weren't listening carefully. And now that I think about it, the sound seemed to be coming from inside the walls, not from the next room."

"Inside the wall?" Lynn seized on this crucial point. "You mean the sound seemed to be coming from inside the wall, not on the other side?"

“Yes, that’s the feeling,” Gwen confirmed. “At first, I thought it was some kind of water pipe or electrical wire in an old building.”

This detail made Lynn rethink things. If the sound really was coming from inside the walls, it could mean there were hidden passages or mezzanines inside the building.

“Gwen, could you arrange for me to thoroughly inspect the walls of the storeroom tonight?” Lynn asked. “I need to carefully check for any hidden entrances.”

“Of course, I’m on duty tonight. We can check carefully after the store closes,” Gwen agreed.

At 10:30 p.m., after Moonlight Café closed, Lynn and Gwen began a thorough inspection of the storage room. Lynn brought a flashlight and some basic testing tools.

The storage room is small, about three meters by four meters, with solid walls on three sides and a door on one side. Some storage shelves are installed on the walls, holding various coffee shop supplies.

"Which wall did you hear the sound from?" Lynn asked.

Gwen pointed to the back wall, "It's this one, the wall next to the clothing store."

Lynn began to examine the wall carefully. The wall looked normal, painted white, with no obvious cracks or abnormalities. He tapped the wall and listened to the changes in the sound.

“The sound here is definitely different,” Lynn noticed, finding a slightly hollow sound when tapping on a section of the wall in the center. “It sounds like the wall is thinner than the rest.”

He examined the area carefully and found that although the surface appeared intact, a closer look revealed a roughly one-meter-square area with a slightly different paint color, suggesting it had been repaired later. "There might have been an opening here before, which was then sealed up," Lynn speculated.

Just then, Lynn remembered a crucial oversight. They had been checking the surveillance cameras around the coffee shop, but had never carefully reviewed the coffee shop's own internal security footage.

“Gwen, how long do you usually keep the security footage in your store?” Lynn asked.

“About two weeks,” Gwen replied, “stored on a small server in the manager’s office.”

“Let’s go take a look now,” Lynn decided.

They went upstairs to a small office and found the main unit of the surveillance system. Although the coffee shop didn't have many surveillance cameras and the image quality wasn't high, they did record what was happening inside the shop.

Lynn began retrieving nighttime footage from the past week. Because it was an infrared camera, the nighttime footage was black and white with poor quality, but basic outlines could still be seen.

“We’ll focus on the security cameras at the checkout counter and the entrance,” Lynn said. “While they can’t directly see into the storage room, they might capture anything unusual.”

They began reviewing the security footage nightly. The footage from the first few days was normal; the store was completely dark after closing, with no activity whatsoever.

But when the footage from three days prior was examined, the situation changed.

“Wait, what’s this?” Lynn paused the recording and pointed to a shadow on the screen.

At 2:37 a.m., the cashier's camera captured a slight change in light at the back of the store, as if something was moving.

“It could just be a change in lighting,” Gwen said. “Maybe it’s just a reflection from the streetlights outside.”

“Let’s keep watching,” Lynn said.

In the next few minutes of recording, there were indeed some faint signs of activity in that area, but due to the limitations of the camera angle and night vision, it was difficult to see the specific situation.

“Let’s check the security camera footage at the door,” Lynn said, switching to another angle.

The entrance camera has a wider angle, allowing it to see more areas inside the store. At the same time, the footage shows that there was indeed activity inside the store, with a blurry figure moving in the back area.

“Someone did enter the store,” Lynn confirmed, “but we can’t see how they got in, or who they are.”

They continued reviewing footage from other days and discovered more similar incidents. At least four nights in the past week, mysterious figures were seen inside the store, all between 2:00 AM and 4:00 AM.

“This is so strange,” Gwen said, puzzled. “If someone really did get into the store, how did they get in? All the doors and windows were locked tight, and there were no signs of forced entry.”

Lynn was also confused. The CCTV footage did prove that someone had entered the coffee shop at night, but all the normal entrances were confirmed by other CCTV footage to have been empty.

“Unless…” Lynn suddenly thought of a possibility, but this possibility shocked him.

“Unless what?” Gwen asked.

Lynn didn't answer immediately, but instead replayed the video, this time observing the mysterious figure's movements more closely. In the clearest part of the video, he saw the figure appear to emerge from the back wall and then move towards the storage room.

“Gwen, look closely here,” Lynn pointed to the screen, “this person seems to be coming from the side of the wall, not from a door or window.”

Gwen leaned closer to the screen to examine it closely. "You mean he crawled out of the wall? How is that possible?"

A shocking suspicion began to form in Lynn's mind. In the recently concluded "Project Vulcan" case, he had witnessed various supernatural abilities: control of fire, manipulation of metal, teleportation, superhuman strength. If there really were other mutants...
“Gwen, I need to reanalyze these videos with specialized equipment,” Lynn said seriously. “This case may be far more complex than we initially thought.”

"What do you mean?" Gwen asked, uneasy. "How complicated could it be just the theft of some coffee beans?"

Lynn hesitated, unsure how to explain the existence of a supernatural threat to his sister. According to FBI confidentiality protocols, he shouldn't disclose this information to unauthorized personnel.

“I just think this thief’s methods are quite unusual,” Lynn replied vaguely. “I’ll bring professional equipment tomorrow to do a more detailed analysis.”

The following morning, Lynn returned to the FBI field office and used professional video analysis software to process the coffee shop's surveillance footage. By enhancing contrast, reducing noise, and optimizing frame rate, the clarity of the recording was significantly improved.

When the processed video was played back, Lynn saw something that shocked him.

In the enhanced video, the figure of a young man can be clearly seen emerging from the back wall. But what's most astonishing is that this person seems to have actually "walked out" of the wall. The wall itself has no openings or damage, yet this person passed through the solid wall like a ghost.

“That’s impossible,” Lynn said instinctively, but he knew it was indeed possible.

In the "Vulcan Project" case, he had already witnessed the various supernatural abilities that humans could possess. While the ability to walk through walls might sound even more incredible, it wasn't impossible within the realm of superpowers.

Lynn continued analyzing the video footage and discovered that the mysterious intruder used the same method each time: entering through the back wall, going directly to the storage room, taking some items, then returning the same way and leaving through the wall again. The entire process lasted approximately ten to fifteen minutes.

More importantly, through facial recognition software analysis, Lynn determined that the person was indeed a young man, around twenty years old, but not the guest "Tom" he had previously suspected.

“So my previous assumptions were completely wrong,” Lynn realized. “This isn’t an ordinary theft; it involves supernatural abilities.”

He immediately considered a terrifying possibility: this person with the ability to walk through walls might be connected to "Project Vulcan." Perhaps other superpower experiments were underway, and perhaps Caravaggio's arrest had not completely ended the entire conspiracy.

Lynn picked up the phone and dialed Commander Black's direct line.

“Commander Black, this is Lynn Hall,” Lynn said. “I’ve encountered a situation that may be related to our previous case.”

"What's going on?" Commander Blake asked.

“I’ve discovered an individual with the ability to walk through walls, engaged in small-scale theft,” Lynn briefly reported. “While the scale of the case is small, it may be linked to Project Vulcan.” (End of Chapter)