Lord of Cinder in American Comics

The girl couldn't speak, so she gestured in sign language: "Ares, come and take over the protected target."

Ash was quite satisfied with this arrangement. In John Wick, it was under this girl's protection that Anthony was able to run back to the hotel and hide while being held back by Wick.

This girl was mainly chosen by the High Table according to Ash's requirements. The only downside was that one of the girls was mute, and her name was Ares.

He instructed Ares on the details of taking care of the Fire Keeper, and requested that she be sent back to the building instead of the Continental Hotel.

The hotel was a melting pot of all sorts of people, filled with sinful souls. Ash was afraid that someone might anger the Fire Keeper, who would then kill everyone inside in a fit of rage.

If it were inside a building, the dead bodyguards would die and nobody would care. The Fire Keeper could also eliminate all witnesses after the bodyguards were all wiped out.

I helped the firefighter into the car and watched it drive away.

Ash suddenly asked, "Riser, are you and Ares siblings?"

Risser was caught off guard by the question, and a question mark appeared on his usually expressionless face.

“You’re all blonde, you all have slicked-back hair, and you even use the same hairspray, and quite a lot of it.”

Ash pointed to Rither's unwavering hair, comparing it to Ares's hairstyle to express her doubt.

Risser rolled his eyes subtly and said, "Let's find out what trouble you've gotten yourself into first. I do my own hair, and I don't have a sister."

"Did your father have a period of his youth that he'd rather forget?"

Ignoring Ash's pointless joke, Rither grabbed Ash's arm and tried to drag her away from the place.

"Let's leave quickly and find a safe place so I can protect you."

Rither led Ash to his car, opened the back door, and tried to shove Ash into the back seat.

Ash shoved Riser against the car door and said, "Riser, calm down. I can afford bodyguards for the Fire Keeper, do you think I'd be stupid enough not to take some precautions for myself?"

"Tell me, when did you receive the message that I was on the list?"

Ash released Risser, opened the passenger door, and leaned against it, waiting for Risser's reply.

"This morning, my boss suddenly notified me."

When does your boss usually notify you?

“The afternoon or evening of the previous day,” Rither said, recalling Finch’s usual time.

"So, I'm on the expedited list?"

Completely bewildered, Ash had no idea how she had been targeted by Finch's machine, but being targeted by a machine almost always meant getting caught up in something.

In response to the increasingly dire situation following 9/11, Harold Finch collaborated with his friend Nathan to develop a program that identifies potential violent criminals by observing existing patterns.

This program was named "The Machine" by Finch. Finch foresaw that the Machine would become incredibly large, so he limited its capabilities in advance, allowing it to only make predictions about large-scale events.

Finch then sold the machine to the Armenian government for one dollar. However, Finch's partner, Nathan, believed this was unfair to ordinary people.

So Nathan left a backdoor in the machine, allowing it to transmit anticipated common injury cases via Social Security numbers.

Nathan used this method to protect innocent civilians, but he was tragically killed in an explosion during one of his operations.

Finch carried on his old friend's legacy, gathering Reese, a former U.S. Air Force Special Forces member and former CIA operative presumed dead, to work together to protect those predicted by the machine.

Because Finch had imposed many restrictions on the machine, it could only provide a Social Security number and no other specific information, so Reese's actions were all trial and error.

The ringing of the phone broke Ash's reverie; he rarely received phone calls since leaving the army. He picked it up and saw it was Sheffield calling.

"General, good things only happen once, and I can't have this kind of wonderful thing happen again," Ash said jokingly.

They just "found" such a large sum of money for Sheffield, and now Sheffield should be trying to launder that money. I don't know why they're calling at this time.

“Ash, I need you to help oversee that money. I’m being questioned by the Pentagon right now and can’t get away.”

Sheffield explained his purpose: since the failed operation two years ago, Sheffield has been attending inquiry meetings every now and then. Although it will not have a major impact on his career, being investigated will hinder Sheffield's personal actions.

During the investigation, Sheffield couldn't send his own shadow agents, so he turned to Ash, the person who provided the funding.

In Sheffield's eyes, Ash is a trustworthy person, and since Ash provided the funds, it is reassuring for him to oversee them now.

And so, the money eventually returned to Ash's hands.

Chapter 30: Suit Man and Knee Man

Ash quickly agreed to Sheffield's request, asked for the time and place, and said he would go as soon as possible.

After hanging up the phone, Ash said to Rither, who was waiting in the driver's seat, "Now I know why I'm on the expedited list."

Without much explanation, Ash simply gave him an address and asked Rither to drive him there.

In the car, Ash was holding her phone, seemingly looking up something.

"Riser, do you know that there's a suit-wearing hero in New York who appears in times of danger to protect people?"

Rither's lips curled up slightly, unable to conceal his inner joy, but he still uttered words against his will.

"I do not know."

"Do you know that there's another Knee Man in New York who specializes in shooting and smashing bad guys' knees?"

Risser's face fell instantly, and his grip on the steering wheel tightened involuntarily, causing the vehicle to shake slightly.

"I do not know."

"Some people say that this Suit Man and Knee Man are the same person. Do you think it's better to call him Suit Man or Knee Man? Or how about we combine them and call him Knee Suit Man?"

Reese's face was so dark it looked like it could drip water. He gritted his teeth and said, "I need to concentrate on driving. Don't bother me anymore."

Ash leaned closer with a sly grin and said to Rither, "Riser, you seem to know a lot of things. Do you have any inside information?"

Rither pursed his lips, glanced at Ash, and opened the car window with one hand, letting the cold wind outside blow in to cool his agitated heart.

As they approached their destination, Risser suddenly accelerated, then immediately pulled the handbrake, executed a graceful drift around a utility pole by the roadside, and parked the car in a parking space.

After the vehicle came to a stop, Rither turned to look at Ash, wanting to see how Ash looked after the sudden violent driving incident.

Ash slowly unbuckled his seatbelt and said, "There are countless roads, but safety is the most important. Reckless driving will bring tears to your loved ones' eyes."

Risser didn't see Ash fasten his seatbelt, so he wanted to do a drift to intimidate Ash. Unexpectedly, Ash had fastened his seatbelt at some point and even started lecturing him.

"We're here, get out of the car." Rither said with a dark face, urging Ash to get out of the car.

This is a typical Mie-style settlement center, with various amenities such as restaurants, shopping centers, private law firms, and so on, distributed around the highway.

Ash's target was a private accounting firm located next to a parking lot.

Christian Accounting Firm—that was the address Sheffield had given them. Ash and Riser pushed open the door, where a bell hung to alert them that guests had arrived.

The firm is small, with only two rooms: an outer room used as a reception room and an inner room used as an office.

Upon hearing the bell, a smartly dressed Batman emerged from the office.

"Christian Wolf, welcome to both of you. Do you need tax returns or financial advisory services?"

Batman introduced himself and asked Ash and Reese why they had come.

“Sheffield asked me to come here to oversee and manage that money.”

Wolf immediately raised his hand to signal Ash to stop talking, then walked to the door, turned the "open" sign upside down so the "close" side faced outwards, and locked the door.

"And who is this?" Wolf knew that Ash was sent by Sheffield, but it was a bit unreasonable for two supervisors to come at the same time.

"My bodyguard."

Wolf nodded knowingly, reached out and pushed open the office door, inviting Ash inside.

“Then, Mr. Bodyguard, why don’t you rest outside for a while?” Ash said to Rither with a smile.

Rither knew Ash had something to do, and even though he hadn't explained why he knew she was on the list, he still suppressed his curiosity and stayed in the reception room.

Wolf's office is designed with office chairs and visitor chairs as the axis of symmetry, with all items neatly arranged on both sides of the axis of symmetry, a perfect symmetrical design.

Wolf poured Ash a cup of coffee and placed it on Ash's desk, even arranging the cup's stem along an axis of symmetry.

"Sheffield just put me in charge of overseeing the money. Is there anything I need to know now?"

“I divided that money into 2333 portions of varying sizes, and used some of it to purchase different works of art, product design drawings, and eBay’s private collection.”

Wolf took a thick document out of the drawer and handed it to Ash.

"This is a detailed list of items and their prices."

Wolf took a pen, pointed to a section of the document, and explained to Ash, "It should be noted that this part of the purchase will incur a loss and is only suitable for activating the account used for the transaction in order to facilitate the next transaction."

"The remaining portion will be used to purchase short-term financial products, private debt transferred by banks, short-term futures, and other products."

"And those trading accounts that have been activated will be the best accounts to receive this batch of funds."

"So, according to Sheffield's requirements, how do we deliver the money to the designated person?"

Ash's question was how to get the money, which had been transferred cleanly, to the families of the fallen soldiers. Simply handing the money over to them would only boost the tax bureau's performance.

The IRS is the biggest power in the country. Don't you see how badly the Forbes and the CIA are portrayed in all the movies and TV shows? Only the IRS maintains its innocent image.

The tax bureau has 110,000 employees, but only about 40,000 are tax inspectors. The rest are armed personnel, equipped with tanks, armored vehicles, and helicopters. Lincoln created this department specifically for armed tax collection.

"For private gifts, according to tax law, everyone has one opportunity in their lifetime to make a tax-free private gift. This should be done in accordance with their will or pre-death financial plan."

Wolf's plan was to forge the wills or financial statements of these fallen soldiers to add the money to their pensions.

This requires obtaining the personal information and belongings of the fallen soldiers, and the plan requires the full cooperation of Sheffield.

Unable to figure out the relationship between the two, Ash simply asked directly, "What's your relationship with Sheffield? Why would he cooperate so readily with your money laundering plan?"

Wolf adjusted his glasses, put the pen back in its holder, and placed his hands together on the table in front of him.

“My father served under General Sheffield, and so did I.”

Upon hearing this, Ash understood. This was one of their own. The fact that Wolff was entrusted with so much money and that Ash was the only one sent to supervise him clearly meant that Sheffield was recommending Wolff to Ash.

"A personal question: What should I do if I have a large quantity of gold and silver artifacts?"

Ash thought of the countless gold and silver artifacts still left in the City of Sin, the treasures of King Yhorm, which now all belonged to Ash. In the past, she had to ask someone to help her exchange them little by little.

Now that Ash has Wolf as a professional, he wants to turn those adorable little things into the world's greatest asset.

"You should..."

Before he could finish speaking, a rocket-propelled grenade flew in from outside, pierced the window, and was about to hit Ash and Wolf.