1
Present Day
14 Days Later...
Nikita still hasn't spoken to Jenna. She began to lose hope. Will she ever discover the secrets of the Triad?
But what about our protagonist, Nikita Volkov?
Is he finally ready to lay down his weapons? Will the final curtain close?
💭Nikita: Hearing my own heartbeat isn't so strange anymore...
It thunders like the drums of war...
Brother...
Vengeance. Is. All that I can see now. Jenna, you've betrayed me. But now, I've gained the upper hand. Jenna...
It was only for a split second, but I remember. Maybe my memory isn't a curse after all, because...
Now...
*Nikita's mind halts. He can only hear the winds of revenge.*
💭Nikita: I KNOW YOUR SECRET.
Jenna: Hi, you requested to speak with me?
Nikita: The agreement has changed.
Jenna: No, you can't just change our agreement...
Nikita: I will tell you the remaining secrets of the Triad if, and only if, you allow me to visit Hong Kong afterward.
Jenna: What? I don't even have that kind of authority around here...
Nikita: Then you best find someone who does. And... it's the least you can do, Jenna.
Jenna: Nikita, I can't let you leave.
Nikita: I know you'll let me leave, Jenna.
Because there is one force in this world stronger than any other...
*Nikita stares deeply into Jenna's eyes*
Nikita: Make. The. Arrangements.
*Jenna's eyes grow brighter*
Jenna: I... I guess there's one option...
*Nikita keeps listening*
Jenna: Theoretically, you could work for me.
Nikita: That'll do just fine. I've put my trust in you, now it's time you do the same for me. Let's finish this story so I can get out of this forsaken place.
*Jenna looks at Nikita nervously*
*Nikita doesn't break eye contact*
Nikita: Emotions breed weakness, Jenna. You should have been more careful.
*Jenna's pupils dilate*
Jenna: I'm only human.
*Nikita nods*
Nikita: That's right... now listen closely.
It was time to make sense of all the data we gathered.
Past
5:20 AM
Nikita: Alright, brother, let's do this.
*Pavel claps his hands*
Pavel: I'm ready.
Nikita: I'll take the bottom four locations. You take the top.
Pavel: I'll see you later tonight.
*You get on the train*
Present Day
Nikita: I'm going to skip the boring part... I'll jump to the part where we gathered a lot of information.
By this time, we'd already spied several times on the City Grill restaurants.
Jenna: There weren't any complications during the espionage?
Nikita: You underestimate the Volkovs, Jenna.
Also, just in case you were wondering...
It turns out Katina was trustworthy. She didn't reveal our "fake" plan...
But still, we didn't know what to do with her.
We asked her to keep us up to date on what her bosses were doing and where they were going.
But because Katina was rarely ever involved with business matters, she didn't give us very useful information.
Jenna: She was just dead weight at that point.
Nikita: Pretty much. But there was one piece of useful information she gave us.
She told us that she was working for the Russian mob, which was not ideal...
This scared us for obvious reasons. We had just stolen money and killed a member of the mob in Moscow.
Then, we immediately asked her if anyone at the party recognized us. She gave us a firm no.
Jenna: No one recognized you... That seems lucky.
Nikita: Possibly, but all things considered, we felt safer at that point. We thought we may have disappeared from the Mob's sights.
We still executed caution, but I'm here now... so obviously, they didn't capture or kill us.
At this point, you're probably wondering why we would attempt yet another heist against the mob.
Jenna: Yeah... that seems dangerous.
Nikita: You're right. We barely escaped Moscow. But the fact was, we were stealing anyway... from ATMs.
We were looking for one big score.
Then we had plans to leave the continent entirely and move to Venezuela.
*Nikita speaks slowly*
Nikita: Had I taken that path... this would've been a much different story.
*Jenna continues to listen*
Past
*Pavel waves to you*
Map
Location 1
- 🔍When does this location open/close to the public?
- 🔍Did this location receive any supplies from trucks?
- 🔍How large was the "extra" cargo?
- 🔍Describe the men delivering the "extra" cargo.
- 🔍Describe the truck.
Location 2
- 🔍When does this location open/close to the public?
- 🔍Did this location receive any supplies from trucks?
- 🔍How large was the "extra" cargo?
- 🔍Describe the men delivering the "extra" cargo.
- 🔍Describe the truck.
Location 3
- 🔍When does this location open/close to the public?
- 🔍Did this location receive any supplies from trucks?
- 🔍How large was the "extra" cargo?
- 🔍Describe the men delivering the "extra" cargo.
- 🔍Describe the truck.
Location 4
- 🔍When does this location open/close to the public?
- 🔍Did this location receive any supplies from trucks?
- 🔍How large was the "extra" cargo?
- 🔍Describe the men delivering the "extra" cargo.
- 🔍Describe the truck.
Location 5
- 🔍When does this location open/close to the public?
- 🔍Did this location receive any supplies from trucks?
- 🔍How large was the "extra" cargo?
- 🔍Describe the men delivering the "extra" cargo.
- 🔍Describe the truck.
Location 6
- 🔍When does this location open/close to the public?
- 🔍Did this location receive any supplies from trucks?
- 🔍How large was the "extra" cargo?
- 🔍Describe the men delivering the "extra" cargo.
- 🔍Describe the truck.
Location 7
- 🔍When does this location open/close to the public?
- 🔍Did this location receive any supplies from trucks?
- 🔍How large was the "extra" cargo?
- 🔍Describe the men delivering the "extra" cargo.
- 🔍Describe the trucks.
Location 8
2
- The cargo trucks would use the following roads to drive to and from each City Grill location.
I should use this map to deduce information about the money laundering delivery scheme.
4
The extra cargo truck was already there by the time I got there. I don't know when it arrived.
5
The extra cargo was delivered late at night and packaged in four boxes that were roughly 3x3x3 feet. Each box was labeled "Fish".
6
There were three men that appeared to be of Chinese nationality. Two of the men had black leather jackets and dark pants. The third man had a black suit.
7
The truck was white with a very rusted license plate. It was difficult to make out the license plate number. The truck was an average-size cargo truck with a City Grill logo and fish drawn on it.
9
This location received daily food supplies at 7:30 AM. This location also received some cargo from a smaller truck at 12:00 AM.
10
It was difficult to see the extra cargo being transferred inside the restaurant, but it looked like it was two boxes.
11
There were three men that appeared to be of Chinese nationality. All of them were dressed in dark clothing and one of them had a nice black suit.
12
The truck was white with a very rusted license plate. The truck was an average-size cargo truck with a City Grill logo and fish drawn on it.
14
This location received daily food supplies at 6:30 AM. This location also received more cargo from a smaller truck at 2:25 AM.
15
The extra cargo delivered late at night was packaged into five boxes that were roughly 2x2x2 feet and were labeled "Wine".
16
There were four men that appeared to be of Chinese nationality. Three of the men had black leather jackets and dark pants. The fourth man had a black suit.
17
The truck was white-and-yellow with a very rusted license plate. It was difficult to make out the license plate number. The truck was an average-size cargo truck with a cheese and wine picture printed on it.
19
This location received daily food supplies at 7:30 AM. This location also received more cargo from a smaller truck at 1:00 AM.
21
I only saw three men with leather jackets, but there could have been more men.
22
The truck was white-and-yellow-with a very rusted license plate number. The truck was an average-size cargo truck with a cheese and wine picture painted on it.
24
This location received daily food supplies at 7:15 AM. This location also received more cargo from a smaller truck at 12:15 AM.
25
A total of four extra cargo boxes were transferred inside the restaurant at around 12:15 AM.
26
My vantage point was quite far, but I think I saw three dark figures moving boxes.
27
The truck was obscured by trees, but it was definitely white and some other color.
29
This location received daily food supplies at 7:00 AM. This location also received more cargo from a smaller truck at 11:00 PM.
30
This cargo was dropped off late at night, around 11:00 PM, and there were three medium-sized boxes. I couldn't see specific details about the boxes.
32
The truck used a dark alley so I couldn't see it well until it arrived at the restaurant. However, at this point, the truck was under a rainbow-colored lit up bar sign, so I'm unsure of its exact color. I know the truck was multi-colored and definitely not a dark color.
34
This location received daily food supplies at 6:00 AM. Two trucks stopped at this location and delivered cargo at 11:00 PM!
35
Each truck dropped off two medium-sized boxes of extra cargo late at night.
37
One truck was solid white, and another one had some white but had a wine and cheese print on it.
39
This location received daily food supplies at 7:30 AM. This location also received more cargo from a smaller truck at 11:35 PM.
41
There were four men that appeared to be of Chinese nationality. They were all dressed in very dark clothing. Three of them had leather jackets.
42
The truck was white-and-yellow with some sort of cheese and wine print on it. The license plate number was hard to read. The truck was an average-size cargo truck.
43
Nikita: Obviously, multiple trucks are delivering cargo.
Pavel: Yes, because two trucks arrived at location 7.
Nikita: Interesting... These trucks must be driving quite far.
Pavel: Right, that's the only way it would make sense to take three trucks.
Nikita: If the trucks weren't driving very far, one truck could travel back and forth.
Pavel: So, this operation is rooted very far outside city borders.
Nikita: I thought this was a Russian mob operation...
Pavel: Me too, Katina said she worked for the mob.
Nikita: Katina didn't know anything about this scheme, right?
Pavel: Nope... nothing at all.
Nikita: That guy at the party, was he not a mobster?
Pavel: I suppose he could have worked for someone else.
Nikita: This is an entangled mess.
Pavel: Damn, I have to say that hat looks good on you, Nick.
Nikita: I look like a true mastermind now!
Pavel: Hah. You sure do!
*Look directly ahead*
Nikita: 520 million...
Pavel: It has to be the mob, right?
Nikita: I think so. Who else has that kind of money here?
Pavel: I don't know.
Nikita: Maybe the man that owns the restaurant has multiple clients.
But still, that means these criminal organizations are closely connected and place a lot of trust in each other. That seems unlikely.
Pavel: Either it's the mob or it's not. There would be a lot of unnecessary risk involved if more than one crime group used the same money-laundering scheme.
Nikita: Yeah... so the question is: Is this the mob or not?
Pavel: I suppose we'll find out soon enough.
Nikita: Hmm... Eastern Russia and China. Maybe we're dealing with a branch of the Triad?
Pavel: Could be, but all the way over here? In St. Petersburg...? Meh, it doesn't really matter. We'll have our 520 million and be out of here.
This should be interesting.
Conclude Investigation
1. How many trucks are delivering "extra" goods to the City Grill locations?
- 1 truck
- 2 trucks
- 3 trucks
- 4 trucks
- 5 trucks
- 6 trucks
- 7 trucks
- 8 trucks
2. What are these trucks most likely delivering?
- Drugs
- Dirty money
- Weapons
- Food items
- Clean money
3. How much time does the "extra" cargo take to unload?
- 5 minutes
- 10 minutes
- 15 minutes
- 20 minutes
- 25 minutes
- 30 minutes
4. The truck(s) drive to St. Petersburg from which direction?
- North
- East
- South
- West
5. How many total boxes of "extra" cargo were delivered?
- 28
- 29
- 30
- 31
- 32
- 34
Nikita: Just to clarify, these trucks were coming from Siberia and being loaded with dirty money from drug transactions near the Russian-Chinese border.
Jenna: Chinese border? Was this Triad cargo?
*Nikita nods*
Jenna: That must have been troubling news.
Nikita: Honestly, at the time... not really.
But, that is why there was so much money involved.
Jenna: I think I know what comes next.
Nikita: Doubtful... I don't think any of this is predictable.
Remember the man I told you about at the party? Victor?
He caused a lot of problems. Later, I figured out he was in charge of this specific delivery network.
Jenna: Which delivery network?
Nikita: This one... the delivery of the dirty money from eastern Russia to western Russia. He was a Russian mobster who had ties with the Triad in China and Hong Kong.
Jenna: The mob was working with the Triad!?
Nikita: No. That's why he was killed. His men found out he was working with the mob and stealing Triad money.
Jenna: So, who killed him?
Nikita: The Triad... But apparently, there was a lot of confusion, and that information didn't get passed up the chain.
Jenna: Wait, wait, wait... So, this Victor character was working with the Triad but also for the mob?
He was gathering dirty money from his drug dealers' sales then transporting it to the west for a profit? But he was secretly stealing money so the Russian mob would profit?
Nikita: Right... The Triad was trying to insert itself into the Russian market, and the City Grill locations were Triad-owned money-laundering machines.
However, one of the Triad vanguards, Victor, was transporting the dirty money but taking a bigger cut than he was promised.
Then Victor took the stolen money to the Russian mob's money-laundering services and went 50/50 with them. He came out with 50% of the dirty money he stole... as clean money usable in the legal economy.
Jenna: What a tricky guy. How did the Triad find out?
Nikita: What do you mean, how did they find out? They were losing money... He wasn't smart at all... he was greedy. Businesses will always go looking for lost money... Not just illegal businesses, but all businesses. The entire purpose of a business is to raise money. When money is lost, it's a big problem. It was inevitable Victor would be caught doing his stupid plan.
Jenna: I see. So, the Triad killed him. But then, how did they deliver the money once he was out of the picture?
Nikita: That's an easy problem to solve. Simply promote the most trusted second-in-command.
Jenna: So why was this a "messy" situation for you and your brother?
Nikita: You'll see.