The Risk Agent

33

12:30 P.M.

HUAXIN ZHEN

In a small office cubicle, one of a hundred identical cubicles in a warehouse-like facility in a northwestern district of Shanghai, a woman was alerted to a priority status license plate match.

She called up the source video, recorded less than six hours earlier: the plate belonged to a stolen Toyota crossing over the bridge/tunnel to Chongming Island. In one video, the face of a waiguoren was spotted looking out a rear-seat side window. Her chest pounding, she called her manager, who assigned her additional eyes to help inspect plate capture video in an ever-widening grid.

Within twenty minutes, the information was texted to the phones of all law enforcement officers, including that of Inspector Shen, who had traveled to Chongming Island because of the Mongolian’s remark. With the text, Shen now had reason to visit the local precinct and solicit manpower and information.

If, during the arrest or incarceration or questioning of the waiguoren, the man was killed accidentally, it would be viewed as official business. Perhaps even attributed to the local police, instead of him.