Chapter 1046 - 1046

"Looks like Secretary Lowell's two guests tonight carry quite some weight."

Dirk Carter said.

Brent Lowell grinned and gave a slight smile.

He said, "Weighty or not, there's still a first-come, first-served order, isn't there? So, Secretary General Carter, I really must apologize—I'll have to excuse myself first. If I don't have anything important tomorrow morning, I'll drop by your place."

After throwing down these words,

Brent Lowell stood up.

The whole point of this trip had been to sound out Dirk Carter.

Now that things had developed to this stage, he felt he'd already seen through Dirk Carter's bottom line.

Sticking around any longer was pointless.

Just then,

Dirk Carter snorted coldly. "Secretary Lowell, I advise you to still come with us. I'm not a patient man by nature. If you make me wait till tomorrow, I'm afraid I won't be willing."

"Ha, then Secretary Carter will have to go back and work on his temper. Even if you're a big leader, you can't just order us little people around however you like. Things aren't easy for us down below either."

Every word dripped with mockery.

Heath Woods was on the verge of exploding.

Dirk Carter, however, was still calm and composed.

Heath had just cursed him as a spineless wimp in his heart,

when Dirk suddenly straightened his face and said, "Fine. Since you won't listen to kind persuasion, don't blame me for being rude. Heath, move—bring him back for me!"

"Got it."

Heath Woods had been straining to hold himself back.

Once ordered, he led his people straight toward Brent Lowell.

Seeing this,

Brent Lowell planted his feet and asked, "What's the meaning of this? My status as a People's Congress delegate doesn't matter to you? This is a complete disregard for organization and discipline."

Heath Woods grabbed his shoulder in one go.

He said, "Once you're at our Commission for Discipline Inspection, you can talk to me about organization and discipline. Move!"

He had just started to exert force,

when a rebuke rang out from behind them: "What, the Municipal Commission for Discipline Inspection can run wild now?"

In the empty lobby,

the voice echoed.

At the elevator entrance, Greshire County Committee Secretary Griffith Payne and Discipline Inspection Secretary Bronson Marshall walked out one after the other.

Both wore very serious expressions.

They came right up to Heath Woods.

Griffith Payne barked, "Let him go!"

Right then, Heath Woods was screaming in his heart that things were going bad.

Helpless, he looked over at Dirk Carter.

Dirk gave him a look that signaled compromise.

With no choice, Heath Woods could only let go of Brent Lowell.

"Comrade Lowell, you all right?"

Bronson Marshall asked with concern.

Brent Lowell shook his head and said with a mocking lilt, "I'm fine, but this comrade here might not be."

The "comrade" he meant was, of course, Heath Woods.

Griffith Payne stepped forward.

Facing Dirk Carter directly, he said, "Secretary Carter, don't you owe me an explanation?"

"What kind of explanation does Secretary Payne want?"

Dirk Carter asked.

Griffith Payne flared up in an instant.

He emphasized his tone and said, "Secretary Carter, I don't deny you're a municipal leader. But when municipal leaders do things, they're supposed to follow organizational procedures too, aren't they? Let's set aside why you've even shown up here. Even if you want to go after people under my jurisdiction, shouldn't you at least give me a heads-up? Fine, say you look down on me and won't bother to say hello, but Comrade Brent Lowell is a People's Congress delegate—are you really unaware of that…"

While Griffith Payne was still rambling on,

Dirk Carter suddenly, without any warning, asked, "Secretary Payne, are the women here fun?"

Griffith Payne was choked off mid-sentence.

He hadn't quite processed it.

He froze, his face flushing red, and snapped, "Comrade Carter, what nonsense are you babbling?"

"I'm asking you: are the women here fun?"

Dirk Carter asked again.

Griffith Payne exploded with rage, jabbing a finger at Dirk's face and roaring, "I'm going to report you to the higher leadership, I'm going to report you to the higher leadership…"

"Secretary Payne, you're not a People's Congress delegate, are you? You're a cadre under municipal management, right? I can't arrest Brent Lowell—but I should be able to arrest you, shouldn't I?"

Ignoring Griffith Payne's anger, Dirk suddenly drawled.

Griffith Payne was stunned.

He still hadn't quite reacted.

He'd come to back up Brent Lowell—how had Dirk suddenly switched targets,

and turned his guns full blast on him?

"You… you… your Commission can't just arrest people without cause!"

After straining for a long moment, Griffith Payne squeezed out this sentence.

Dirk Carter didn't bother responding.

He turned toward Brent Lowell.

And said, "Secretary Lowell, according to your intel, our inspection team had three cars come to Majestic Peak Town—one went to the Grand Theater, and the other two headed for the Majestic Mountain Tourism Development Company, right?"

Brent Lowell said nothing.

Indeed.

That was exactly the intel he had received.

Dirk Carter went on, "You've been entrenched in Majestic Peak Town for years. If we could find anything on you just by checking the accounts, wouldn't that be a bit too childish? I'm not stupid, Brent. Doing that would only bring trouble on myself. Besides, it's the middle of the night, the company's closed—are my people supposed to break windows to get in? I'm guessing the development company still hasn't received any notification of inspections yet, has it?"

As soon as he finished,

Brent Lowell jolted.

It really did seem that way.

The initial intel had said the three vehicles split up at the intersection.

Judging from the routes, the other two cars should have been heading toward the company.

But in reality, the company side still hadn't sent back any report up to now.

Could it be…

"What are you getting at?"

Unable to hold back, Brent Lowell demanded of Dirk.

Dirk Carter gave a small smile.

Hands clasped behind his back, he paced a few steps in front of them.

He said, "Before our inspection team came to Greshire County, you must have already learned our objective through some channel, right? Since we kept it secret, all we could do was play along. With you on guard like that, and everyone knowing I'd be investigating you, the others would naturally relax their vigilance, wouldn't they?"

Having said this,

Dirk looked over at Heath Woods.

Heath stepped forward.

With a cold grin, he said, "From the very first day, Secretary Carter had already switched targets—he changed the investigation from you, Secretary Lowell, to Comrades Griffith Payne and Bronson Marshall."

There was a dull boom in their minds.

Both Griffith Payne and Bronson Marshall shuddered.

The composure they'd been faking dropped off their faces in an instant.

"So… so the reason you came today… was never… never to arrest me, but to arrest…"

Brent Lowell turned his head and looked at Griffith Payne and Bronson Marshall.

Dirk Carter gave a contemptuous chuckle and said, "It's called 'repair the plank road in the open, slip through the pass in the dark.'"

Then he walked up to Griffith Payne, patted his shoulder, and said, "Secretary Payne, Secretary Marshall, looks like the two of you will have to come with me for a trip. About all that cash you've stashed at home—don't you think you owe me an explanation?"

At that moment Griffith Payne's legs were shaking like a sieve.

Just as Dirk had said.

Once they'd learned the inspection team's objective in advance,

the pair, Payne and Marshall, hadn't bothered to hide anything of their own.

Dirk Carter also knew that his movements were under real-time surveillance by Brent Lowell's people.

So those other two cars, after heading toward the company, took a side road and doubled back into Greshire County.

Their real target was Griffith Payne's home, whose situation they had already thoroughly scouted out in advance.