I bought a prison in the United States.

Hearing the commotion inside the interrogation room, Coffey reluctantly opened the door, only to be met with a scene that left him speechless.

"What, what's going on?"

Coffey's wariness turned into confusion.

He had seen many prisoners being beaten to tears in the interrogation room, or feigning pitifulness to gain sympathy.

But he had never seen a grown man cry like this because of a few words.

That wasn't acting; you can't portray that kind of deep-seated breakdown through acting skills.

No, what happened to the tough guy we were promised?

Kofi turned to look at Ringo, only to see the boss grinning mischievously.

After a while, the crying gradually stopped and turned into suppressed sobs.

Montes looked up, his eyes red like a rabbit's, his face streaked with tears, looking utterly disheveled.

He sniffed hard and immediately confessed:

"Someone...someone contacted me...and asked me to break that circuit board..."

"He said he knew Judge Hammond, who could help me transfer to another prison and speak on my behalf at the parole hearing."

Montes' Adam's apple bobbed up and down:

"He said you can't do these things, but a judge can."

"If I slow down the technical team's progress, he can try to get me out next year."

"He just told me to reverse the power supply circuit and burn out one of the boards."

He said there were other people in the prison who would cause even more damage and chaos.

"That way, when the higher-ups come to investigate, they'll only think the whole prison is in chaos, and no one will notice me."

As he said this, he looked up, his eyes filled with confusion:

"That person told me that the surveillance cameras in the work area had been sabotaged, and that no one would notice if I did it."

"But when I went in, the surveillance cameras were still running."

Of course, Lin Ge knew why.

Those people either acted too late, or they were arrested before they could even make a move.

Only Montes, foolishly following the plan, became the scapegoat.

"What was the middleman's name?"

"I don't know either... The call went directly to the storage room, and that's when he said those things."

Montes closed his eyes, his brow furrowed tightly:

"It was a middle-aged man. I think I remember him. Two years ago, when I was on trial at Tulsa County Court, a bailiff said something similar, but I'm not sure if it was him."

After leaving the interrogation room, Ringo returned to his office and dialed Eleanor's number:

"Eleanor, help me investigate someone. This person might be a bailiff at the Tulsa courthouse..."

He told Eleanor everything Montes had said in the interrogation room:

"Hamond probably used the transfer to prison and parole as leverage to get him to contact Montes and sabotage the control panel."

Eleanor remained silent for a long time after hearing this, then said helplessly:

"A bailiff's verbal promise is not even enough to prove that it was that bailiff who made the call; there's simply no way to investigate it."

"First of all, there are no recordings of internal prison calls, and external calls cannot be traced."

"Even if Montes is 100% certain of the voice, the state court system never accepts voiceprints as independent evidence; the court simply does not recognize them."

"Secondly, the other party's actions exploited legal loopholes."

"He merely expressed the judge's intention to grant you parole and encouraged you to damage the equipment."

"Verbal instigation without written evidence is at most considered minor incitement to damage property, which is only a minor offense and its definition is vague."

"The most crucial point is that the entire chain of evidence has broken down."

"Hamond gave verbal instructions to the bailiffs, who then relayed the instructions to the criminals, who then committed the crime themselves."

"The three-tiered relationship was entirely based on verbal communication, with no records or evidence."

"Each step can raise reasonable suspicion, completely eliminating any possibility of Hammond being implicated."

"What if he accepted a bribe from Hammond?"

Lin Ge asked:

"For example, there are cash deposits in the bank account with unknown origins..."

Eleanor's voice carried a hint of cold laughter:

"Would a judge bribe a bailiff using a bank transfer?"

"The other party is so cautious that they will definitely not leave any evidence. Not to mention bank transfer records, they may not even have given us cash transactions."

"If it's a transaction based on personal connections, then it's impossible to investigate."

"Montes has a long criminal record and is considered a high-risk offender."

"Based solely on his testimony without any physical evidence, the jury would not accept it, and it has no legal effect whatsoever."

Lin Ge frowned:

"So you mean I can't do anything about him?"

Eleanor chuckled softly and said calmly:

"He caused a riot in this prison, so you have to find a way to quell it. That's what you should be doing right now."

"My idea is to hold off for now. As long as he can't defeat you in one fell swoop, we'll be the ones laughing last."

Ringo hung up the phone, and just then, Harmon walked in, holding a report in his hand:

"The riot in the prison has been quelled, what's next?"

After thinking for a while, Lin Ge realized that the few prisoners in the prison couldn't cause any major trouble.

Even if Hammond tries to plant a mole to cause trouble, he can't escape his special abilities.

"Keep everything as usual, and make up for the losses first."

"Call Peterson and ask him if he has the same model of chip. If not, try to get one."

"The monitoring system cannot be stopped; this is our biggest trump card."

"Also, send Montes back to the technical team."

Hamon froze, his brow furrowing deeply.

"He burned out the main control board, why are you still keeping him in the technical team?"

Ringo's tone left no room for negotiation:

"There's still the electromagnetic door lock circuitry to solder; without him, the progress will be delayed by another month."

"Moreover, locking him up or transferring him would be tantamount to telling everyone that we're panicking."

"Let him stay in the technical team and continue working as usual, so that the media can see that everything is under our control."

"Will Montes appreciate your kindness?"

Hamon was somewhat skeptical.

"He has no choice but to accept it!"

After speaking firmly, Lingo picked up the phone again and dialed Peterson's number.

"Mr. Chen, the molds you ordered last time have been loaded onto the truck and will arrive first thing tomorrow morning."

Peterson's voice was very crisp.

Lin Ge said:

"The molds aren't urgent. I need a batch of chips. I'll give you the model numbers. See if you have them in stock. If not, please arrange some for me."

Peterson was quiet for a while on the other end, probably flipping through a thick inventory catalog; the occasional sound of pages turning could be heard.

"I have two of the three models you requested, but I have a friend who does wholesale, so he should have some."

"If you want it, I can arrange it for you. You'll have to pay for the shipping, plus a 20% procurement fee."

"Can it arrive in three days?"

"Express truck shipping, two and a half days, freight fee increased by 15%."

"no problem."

After hanging up the phone, Lin Ge wrote down the delivery time on a sticky note and stuck it on the corkboard next to the telephone.

With him around, Hammond can forget about turning the prison into chaos again!

It was completely dark outside the window.

In the interrogation room, Coffey moved a chair to the doorway and sat down, her head nodding as she drifted off to sleep.

Montes leaned back in his chair; the handcuffs had been removed.

He couldn't sleep; ever since he talked to Lin Ge, he had been completely distracted.

His eyes were fixed on the ceiling, the white light from the fluorescent tube making his face appear as white as paper.

The guilt receded like the tide, but left a mess in my heart.

During the time Ringo was away, Montes continued to mentally manipulate himself.

He recalled the look in Craig's eyes when he handed him the blueprints—that pure trust, that's what it feels like to be needed.

Montes disliked Maurice, but considering that Maurice might dislike him even more, he was still willing to talk to him. Wasn't that a kind of tolerance?

He also thought of Omar walking past his workstation and giving him a slight nod; that nod made him happier than any reward.

In this inner monologue that would baffle even the person involved, Montes thought of the board he had burned.

The three chips on top were leftover stock that Morris found after rummaging through the inventory all afternoon; the pins were all oxidized.

Morris spent the entire afternoon erasing with an eraser, until his fingers were red and raw.

The lines were drawn by Craig, and it went through six revisions; the discarded drafts were stacked up to half a finger's thickness.

He soldered the joints himself, and after finishing, he checked each one with a magnifying glass to confirm that there were no cold solder joints or short circuits.

As a result, he burned it himself, destroying everyone's hard work in less than a minute.

"I am guilty..."

Montes closed his eyes, and his eyelids began to feel hot again.

He pressed the back of his head against the wall, the cold wall against his skin slightly easing the chaos in his mind.

He cursed himself inwardly for being a bastard, but then found it ridiculous.

Why did he believe that phone call?

Just because the other party mentioned Judge Hammond?

In this county, no one dares to impersonate Hammond; that would be tantamount to suicide.

He recalled standing in the dock two years ago.

The bailiff standing next to the judge's bench was wearing a dark blue uniform, his badge gleaming under the lights.

The voice that called his name was exactly the same as the voice on the phone.

He suddenly shivered.

That man not only contacted him, but also bribed others in the prison.

Where are those people now?

Did they receive the same promise?

Did they struggle internally like him?

Or have they already taken action, but haven't been discovered yet?

Footsteps echoed down the corridor, approaching from afar and stopping at the doorway.

The door was pushed open, and Lin Ge walked in, placing a piece of white paper and a pen on the table.

"You've written the confession. Go back to the technical team tonight. Work will proceed as usual tomorrow. Understand?"

"Can...can I go back now?"

Montes was stunned. He couldn't believe that he hadn't been put in solitary confinement. The warden had forgiven him.

"The board needs to be resoldered, Morris's chip will arrive tomorrow, and Craig's drawings have been revised."

Lin Ge looked at him, his eyes showing no resentment, but rather a cold calm:

"You owe them, so you have to pay it back yourself."

"Thank you, thank you, I will definitely do my best!"

Montes was so grateful he was practically kneeling down and kowtowing to Ringo.

He immediately got up and wrote his confession very carefully, afraid that if he was too slow, the warden would change his mind.

Kofi, who was standing to the side, almost popped his eyes out at the sight. Even a complete change of heart doesn't happen this quickly, does it?

He still preferred the other person's original unruly self; it felt more reliable to beat him up then.