50s: Starting with a storage ring

Chapter 626 One Family, One Tunnel

Sun Zhiwei was eager to know why the intelligence department was in this situation. Logically speaking, the Pinkerton family leaders throughout the ages should have been aware of this potential threat.

It was quite unusual that Rex failed to win over the intelligence department when he took over.

If Rex hadn't died, Sun Zhiwei might have been able to pry some information out of him, but unfortunately...

Therefore, on November 5th, Sun Zhiwei's first visit to the intelligence section was just a cursory glance.

The head of the intelligence department, Ruhr Kent, received him with neither arrogance nor servility, and introduced him to Corey's key staff.

Intelligence liaison officer Arthur Taylor was responsible for obtaining the latest intelligence from the intelligence agencies each month.

The intelligence analysis team leader, Grace Perez, led a six-person analysis group responsible for compiling, analyzing, and summarizing intelligence.

The Pinkerton Crime Database was also compiled and updated by their team.

Terrence Williams, the head of the archives management team, along with two subordinates, was responsible for the maintenance and management of the archives, and they were also responsible for recording the entry and exit of intelligence materials.

Finally, there was Joe Frank, the head of the security team, whose team of five men was responsible for all security work on this small estate.

In other words, this intelligence department, including the department head, has a total of 18 company employees.

Sun Zhiwei learned from the finance department at headquarters that the average monthly salary of the intelligence department staff was only $1500 per person, but he had never heard them complain about their salaries.

Although he knew it was unusual, Sun Zhiwei and a few of his men took a quick stroll around before heading back to downtown Chicago.

The intelligence department was a department he absolutely had to take over, and the Pinkerton Crime Database was another acquisition he was determined to obtain.

However, he couldn't act rashly without understanding the situation here. Since he hadn't obtained any useful information from the veteran employees, he had no choice but to investigate on his own.

On the afternoon of the 5th, after returning from the suburban manor, Sun Zhiwei disbanded the group, and everyone went off to have some fun.

After so many days of getting familiar with the area, he also learned which safe neighborhoods he could go to at night.

So, just like a few days ago, he drove away from the hotel alone in a small car and wandered around the city.

After leaving the central district, he turned the car around and headed from outside the city to the manor in the north.

The estate is located 15 kilometers from the city center in the town of Evanston, near the sea, and the estate has little farmland.

Although this place is called a small town, it is actually part of the city. In fact, the area within a hundred kilometers of this place belongs to the Chicago metropolitan area.

He traveled mostly through city streets and did not encounter large areas of farmland.

This place is a bit like an urban village. Not far south of the intelligence department's manor is the campus of Northwest University.

Sun Zhiwei drove back to the town and stopped on a secluded street next to Northwest University. He opened his spatial storage, made sure no one was around, and then got out of the car and put it away.

In Chicago, he was genuinely worried about the safety of the cars. Although he had stolen all the cars in the space, it was really unnecessary to give them away to street thugs for free.

Getting a new car and unlocking it would take time, so we should save time where we can.

He climbed over the north wall of the university into the campus, found a secluded cabin in the woods, and began digging a tunnel.

This place is only a few hundred meters from the intelligence department's manor, separated by a street and a small grove of trees, but he can't get any closer. Headquarters' data shows that the people in the intelligence department are all professional intelligence personnel, and the manor's security should be top-notch. He doesn't want to alert them without finding anything.

Before dinner, the tunnel had already reached the underground of the manor.

His location was 5 meters underground, and it was not advisable to dig any further because it was not far from the sea and the groundwater level was not low.

That's fine. He's just here to gather intelligence; there's no need to waste time draining water.

He stopped digging as he approached the outer wall of the underground archives, where the entire estate could now be explored.

He expanded the space and scanned the entire manor. The results of the scan left him somewhat dumbfounded.

Besides the tunnel he dug, there were actually five other tunnels underground that led to the main building complex of the manor, but the exits were all in different locations.

Damn, there are only 5 families in this intelligence department. Is each family connected by a tunnel?

He barely managed to suppress his frustration and inspected all five tunnels. Judging from the building materials, the tunnels were not built at the same time.

The earliest tunnels were all built with rammed earth, and although they are quite old, they are still very sturdy.

Of the other four tunnels, two are brick and stone structures, and two are made of concrete.

Five tunnels lead to five houses in the surrounding area. Sun Zhiwei has already seen the intelligence department employees moving around in different houses, so it seems that these are the residences of the five families in the intelligence department.

The earliest rammed earth tunnel led to the head of the intelligence section's house, and he suspected that this tunnel was originally an escape route for the intelligence section.

Two brick tunnels led to the homes of the archives team leader and the security team leader, respectively; the last two newest concrete tunnels led to the homes of the liaison officer and the analysis team leader, respectively.

He noticed that all five houses were quite large, and the furnishings were not shabby; they had all the modern furniture and appliances one would expect.

This is not the kind of life their family could live on the salary they receive from Pinkerton, so they must have other sources of income.

What additional revenue streams could they, as professional intelligence personnel, possibly generate while managing Pinkerton's archives and databases?
It's almost obvious; they're just selling intelligence. As for who they're selling it to, that's not important. In short, they're all stealing company assets.

The ownership of the tunnels reveals a lot. In the very early days, the family with the most authority belonged to Section Chief Kent.

However, selling intelligence cannot be accomplished by a single entity, so the Williams family, who manages the archives, and the Frank family, the head of security, must have been involved later on.

Therefore, their tunnel is older than the rammed earth tunnel, as it was built later.

However, no matter what the secret is, it will inevitably be exposed over time.

Therefore, the Taylor family (the liaison officer) and the Perez family (from the analysis team) later participated in sharing the profits. Their tunnels were the last to be built.

Among them, the family of liaison officer Taylor is the most noteworthy.

His family consists of only him and his wife, with no elderly relatives or children, unlike the other families who have many children and grandchildren.

Sun Zhiwei felt that the Taylor family was the key to getting more information, and he had to make a trip there.

Because the liaison officer's communication channels with the intelligence department were something he had to control; his family was the core of the intelligence department.

(End of this chapter)