"Master Lu, look at this CCTV footage I just recovered! Can you identify who is on the further end of the gate? Look at these two cars, they look suspicious. Even these parked cars here... Every party here looks suspicious, look at the way they are checking the vicinity?" One of the analysts showed him the video he had managed to revive.
They all got closer and checked the footage while zooming the images in for clarity and also used those blurry images to create clear images so that they could know who they were. Probably the people caught in the images hadn't expected to be recorded by the night CCTV camera hidden around the hotel. These were CCTV cameras that could work in the darkness.
"That?" I haven't met someone like that; the other one is the minister of defense and other military men seem to be closer to him; he wasn't in the hall earlier on, and the entire hotel had been vacated completely; apart from people attending the auction, no one else was supposed to be around the hotel vicinity. So, he is suspicious of being there unless they were with the president and other dignitaries..."
The room went silent except for the soft humming of the analyst's laptop magnifying the images closer, no one else uttered a word. They were under pressure and time was running faster. They needed to work on something as soon as possible.
Everyone leaned in, eyes locked on the grainy CCTV footage paused at a frame that showed two men near the hotel's service gate; these were other batches of men, one in uniform, the other half-shielded by the shadow of a car door.
"Anyone recognizing these men here? either of them?" Lu Ting Cheng asked sharply, glancing around the room. He rarely met people in the business world, so, he didn't know much. He wasn't a politician and he couldn't possibly know everyone.
"No idea," Gabriel muttered, arms crossed and jaw clenched. He wasn't a citizen of this country, and he had just traveled over for some business projects, so he wouldn't know any of them.
"That guy in uniform, I have never seen him before in any briefings. So, I don't know in what category he belongs to with that uniform." One of Lu Zi Zhen's guards responded since he had a higher seat in the military.
"Me neither; I haven't seen him unless he is on the underground mission..." said the analyst, who was also from the military. "But the uniform's authentic. That badge isn't something you fake without serious consequences."
Lu Zi Zhen narrowed his eyes at the screen. "That second one... His posture feels familiar, but I can't place him. But I feel like I have seen him somewhere."
Another operative chimed in, "The one in the back might be from the military, but not on any of our rosters. And that's not a standard ministerial protocol. Something's off."
Lu Ting Cheng exhaled in frustration before turning around and gazing at his father, he didn't seem to be surprised that much.
"I know those guys are from the military. I just don't know this one right here, and he could be the suspect! If the government had gotten hold of Lu Ting Zhou and Song Yaya, they could have negotiated face to face with me, or they could have used other civil manner." He didn't deny they could be amongst the people who had attacked his son and wife but he couldn't insinuate anything since the prime minister and the president were present in the auction hall. The possibility of those military men being there was high but if the government was involved, that would be another story.