Greed planted the beech trees he got from the Natural Forest in the yard. Planting a mature tree has its advantages. Given the current natural conditions in Gotham, all you need to do is plant it in the ground and then do nothing; but there is also a downside, which is that it's now in a mature growth cycle, and beech trees are deciduous plants. So, when the wind blows, the whole house is buried in endless fallen leaves.
"Actually, we don't need to buy grass seeds at all," Arrogant stood at the door, shielding his eyes with his hand and looking toward the lawn, saying, "Just plant a few more trees, and all of our lawn will be covered with leaves, so they won't notice where a corner is missing..."
"No way." Greed said, standing behind him.
"Don't tell me we have to clear away these leaves?"
"Yes, because the trees are in your yard, and you have to take responsibility for them, not let them affect your lawn's appearance."
"Can we just cut them down now?"
"Stop talking and get the broom."
The two picked up their tools and started clearing the fallen leaves in the front yard. However, as the wind blew, leaves continued to fall, and soon their hair and shoulders were covered in leaves. Arrogant sighed, while Greed couldn't help but chuckle.
"Leave it to the household Robot, I mean it," Arrogant said, tossing the broom aside. "Or I could borrow a brand new vacuum cleaner from Victor. Anyway, we can't keep wasting time on this."
"Yes, because you have a big huge trouble," Greed followed him back, picking up the plant seeds they bought, and said, "Now it's autumn, and vegetables can't grow naturally in this temperature, so you still need to set up a greenhouse..."
"Oh, God," Arrogant waved his hand, but still walked to the farmland, saying somewhat uncertainly, "I think you can't use common sense to judge Gotham's plants. Maybe if you just scatter the seeds, they'll lively fill the entire yard."
"Impossible."
Barry was startled by the message on his phone, then spoke out: "Those guys are still roaming in the woods. This is a picture sent to me by Brainiac, take a look."
He projected the picture on the wall with a projector, and then said, "This footprint is fresh, which proves that after those three children were rescued, someone still returned to the woods. They might be looking for something."
"What do you think it is?"
"I don't know, but maybe Brainiac would know," Barry said, "But I suspect it might be related to that lake. Because if it were easy to find, they wouldn't have to keep going back; and there's nearly nothing to hide in the woods, if there is something, then it should have fallen into the lake."
"The police couldn't get any information from them, but the children provided some clues," a colleague opened the door, brought in a document, and said, "Paul Austin, one of the missing children, told us that the kidnappers were quite nice to them. They once took him to the woods to chop wood, collect wild fruits, and even set up cameras on the lake."
"Cameras?"
"Yes, he said it was like cameras used by a film crew. But according to the analysis of the experts, it might just be an unknown electronic device."
"And then, where did they set that thing up?"
"According to Little Paul, that thing fell into the lake. They planned to set it up by the lake, but the device's stand was unstable, and there was a lot of slippery sludge by the lake, so it fell in. And before they had a chance to retrieve it, they were captured."
"That's ridiculous," Barry said, "Never mind why they wanted to set up machines in such a dangerous place, but if they can't even use a tripod properly, then how did they manage to kidnap the kids right under Brainiac's nose?"
The colleague placed the document on the table, put one hand on his hip, and sighed: "This kid named Paul Austin has a bad relationship with his family. He believes he's the neglected one, and we discovered he habitually lies, so his testimony may not be entirely credible."
"I remember," the blonde woman said, "Do you guys remember that hypothesis about a weak trap? If the kidnappers wanted to establish authority among the children, they'd need a positive example. Could it be Paul?"
"How about the other two kids' family situations?"
"Pretty good. One is a typical elite middle-class family and an only child; the other girl's family situation is a bit worse, but she has a brother in college, and her family loves her very much. Paul's situation is the worst: a restructured family, father alcoholic, mother indecisive, almost no one cares about him."
"They took Paul to chop wood?"
"Yes, there were about three outdoor activities, and according to Paul himself, they only took him. But our experts believe they might have taken others too, and there's a competitive relationship between them, and Paul intentionally concealed this to elevate himself."
"Then he must be hiding some other important things, for example, it was him who got the machine into the water."
"We can't rule out that possibility, but the children's protection regulations prohibit us from giving children a lie detector test," the colleague sighed, "And it's because Paul's family doesn't care much about him that we have the opportunity to find out so much; we can't even get close to the other two kids, their parents are furious and refuse to see any law enforcers, Brainiac got a scolding from them."
Barry sighed deeply and said, "Let's not worry about who put the machine in there first. If this machine isn't some regular equipment like a camera, then it's very likely a special device that has tampered with Brainiac's surveillance content. We need to figure out a way to get this thing up."
"I'll go do some preparatory work," his Black colleague walked away, and Barry turned to ask him, "Don't rush, we haven't figured out how to fish it out yet."
The colleague replied while walking away, "Before that, we need to make sure any underwater operations comply with environmental regulations. Operating in a natural water body without permission is grounds for a lawsuit."
"Who would sue? Brainiac?"
"The community manager, the church, and the residents could all possibly do it. You know if something like this happens, Brainiac won't side with us," the Black colleague said. "Even though this community isn't large, it's a high-end one. If they are determined to go against us, then even if the central computer of Brainiac fell in, we couldn't just fish it out."
Barry couldn't help but sigh again. The blonde woman gave him a smile and said, "You're still new here, you might not be used to it yet. Law enforcement work is like this; sometimes you'll feel like everyone is an accomplice to the criminals. But if you think from their perspective, you probably wouldn't want an engineering team suddenly pulling all-nighters and draining water next to your house. You'll get used to it."
That's when Barry realized the gravity of the issue, because the house closest to the lake was the Schiller's house. He quickly caught up with his Black colleague and said, "Take a good look at the environmental regulations, and if possible, contact a noise assessment agency to ensure any underwater activity doesn't affect nearby residents."
Even so, Barry still had to brace himself to visit the Schiller's house because he knew that underwater operations would likely be unavoidable. No matter the method, it would definitely impact the professor's life, since an engineering team's basic needs require a whole logistics system to support, which means there might be 24-hour lights and noise. Barry guessed that after learning this, Brainiac didn't start immediately, probably out of consideration for Schiller. But being a Law Enforcer, and to solve this case quickly to protect children, he had to stand up and take action.
Even though he mentally prepared himself, standing at the gate of the Schiller's yard, Barry still felt a bit deflated.
Barry was an empathetic person, so he could easily put himself in others' shoes to understand their troubles. He thought that if there was a 24-hour construction team working non-stop and making all sorts of noise under his apartment, he might also want to curse.
The situation was actually far more serious because they were Law Enforcers, namely police. No American wants to deal with the police, much less accept a large group of police hovering around their house.
"Brainiac, what's the minimum number of people needed to dredge this thing from the lake?" Barry took out his phone and asked.
"I can't give you an exact number; it depends on who is doing the underwater retrieval," Brainiac's voice replied.
"Uh, who else could it be? Divers? Submariners? Underwater engineers?"
"Sorry, those aren't options. You should consider Superman, Mars people, or Atlanteans."
"What the heck?" Barry's face scrunched up as he said, "Don't tell me this lake leads directly to the Earth's core, or there's some ancient volcano about to erupt..."
"There's a monster at the bottom of the lake."
"What???"
"Who's that standing at our front gate," Greed looked through the back door toward the front gate and said, "Looks a bit like Barry. Why isn't he coming in?"
Arrogant was sorting out the plastic sheet for setting up the greenhouse, and as he tossed it up and shook it down, almost covering himself, he paused, walked over to take a look, and said, "He probably doesn't want to peel chestnuts. This is all your fault."
"We've run out of chestnuts, and that's your fault."
The two of them proceeded to the front door, where they saw Barry gazing thoughtfully at a 45-degree angle towards the sky, his brow furrowed.
"Hey, what's up," Greed waved his hand in front of him but seemed to startle him.
"Uh, nothing. Good afternoon, Doctor. Have you eaten?"
"Looks like you've made up your mind to enjoy the fruits of your labor as much as possible," Greed opened the yard gate for him and said, "Not yet, but we're about to. Come on in."
Barry entered, realizing he hadn't brought any gifts and was showing up right at mealtime. He felt even more embarrassed, sat on the couch, and offered, "Are there still chestnuts? I can help you peel them..."
"All the chestnuts were given away, but you can come help me carve pumpkins," Arrogant said. "The scraps we cut off will be our lunch."
Barry saw Arrogant place a very standard-looking large pumpkin on the table, then took out a full set of carving tools. Barry wanted to laugh a bit but still asked, "What are you planning to carve? The professor? A spooky face or a happy face?"
"I hope it's not too scary, maybe a happy face?"