Chapter 370 - A True Influencer

It took a few hours for the Mongolian Interpol to contact General Ganbat who was in the middle of training some new recruits in the army base. When the agents approached him on the running track and showed their badges, he resisted at first, but when they told him it was a matter of international security, he knew he had no choice but to go with them. He didn't know what was going on and he didn't know how he was involved, but he assumed they just needed assistance. He didn't expect them to know about his involvement with The Organization. He had kept it tightly under wraps.

As the agents sat him down inside one of their interrogation rooms, General Ganbat took a sip of water calmly and said, "I don't understand why I am here."

The Captain of the Mongolian Interpol sat down and looked at him with seriousness. "We are trying to track down an illegal criminal base in the Gobi Desert and we have been told that you know the location." 

General Ganbat tried to remain composed as he cleared his throat, "I don't know what you're talking about. Why would I know?" 

"Because you've been there before."

General Ganbat shook his head and laughed. No one knew he had been to the base and the only person that was with him at the time was dead. These people were clearly lying. How could they possibly know?

"I don't know where you got this information from, but I have no idea what you're talking about," the man smirked.

An agent walked in at that moment with a laptop. It was connected to a video call and a woman was staring at him from the other end, "Hello, I am Trisha Hua from the Hong Kong/Macau branch of Interpol. We are looking for an illegal base in the Gobi Desert that is related to The Organization. We know you have been there before and we know you are involved. If you cooperate, we can make a plea bargain."

The General looked at Trisha and began to feel a little nervous. However, he stuck to his guns and denied all involvement.

Trisha knew what the man was thinking, but she also knew something that he didn't know.

"You must think we have no evidence to prove your involvement, but have you forgotten the man that you spoke to at the base?" she asked.

The General began to look a little confused.

"His name was Trojan... He told us all about you..." Trisha lied.

The General began to move around restlessly in his seat.

"I don't know anyone by that name," he said stubbornly.

Trisha smirked. She could tell that he was already beginning to believe her. So, she picked up her phone and called Halia. "Trojan, do you remember anything unique about the conversation you had with General Ganbat?" she asked, pretending that she was speaking to Trojan.

Halia picked up the phone and immediately played along. She recalled the meeting between Trojan and the General and tried her best to remember what they had spoken about. As she concentrated, she remembered one particular conversation.

"The General offered to make a traditional Boodog for Trojan with a goat from his farm called, Gerel," Halia recalled.

Boodog was a traditional Mongolian dish that involved barbecuing an entire goat or marmot using heated stones inserted into the animal's stomach. It was a very unique dish.

Trisha repeated what Halia said and pretended she was speaking to Trojan. "You can't deny it. Cooperate with us and you may get a lighter sentence."

General Ganbat's eyes opened wide in a panic. Apart from Trojan, no one knew about that conversation. It seemed, he had indeed been compromised. He wasn't a part of The Organization, nor had he been involved with their crimes, he simply accepted some money to keep their base a secret and help them keep other authorities away. So, he finally gave up and decided to protect himself, "I will give you directions to the base, but you must not tell them that I gave you this information. I am not a part of them. I simply accepted a bribe to keep their base a secret. I don't know what they do there."

Trisha smiled and nodded her head.

She then thanked Halia for her help once again and hung up the phone. 

After getting off the phone with Trisha, Halia returned to what she was doing. She was actually scrolling through social media and familiarizing herself with the different platforms. When she was an agent, she had no time for social media. Plus, her identity was highly confidential; she couldn't afford to have a social media account. So, WeChat, Weibo, TikTok... All of this was completely new to her.

After she sent back her feedback to the advertising agency, they had gotten back to her with names of some social media influencers in the food and alcohol industry. These influencers were better aligned to Fengtai's brand and were cheaper, but Halia wasn't familiar with social media and whether these 'influencers' had enough influence.

As she was scrolling through the accounts, she noticed some odd patterns. Some of the accounts seemed to have thousands of likes but not a single comment while some influencers just had a lot of followers but no activity on their posts. She wasn't familiar with social media, but these numbers didn't quite add up.

When Natalie walked in and saw the perplexed look on her face, she naturally asked, "What's wrong?"

Halia showed Natalie what she discovered and Natalie nodded her head, "Some people buy likes and followers. It's hard to find genuine accounts these days."

Halia scratched her head, "Is there a way to find genuine content that is actually trending?"

Natalie grabbed the phone from Halia's hands and started pressing on it. She then flipped the phone back around and said, "Here are some trending food posts today."

Halia scrolled through briefly and suddenly paused on one particular photo. She paused because she recognized one of the women in the photo. "Cleo?" she whispered under her breath. Cleo wasn't just her neighbor in Beijing, she was also Max's girlfriend. What was she doing in the trending section?

But, when Halia clicked on the photo and realized who the woman sitting next to Cleo was, she was even more surprised. "Avaleigh Song?" she whispered again.

Even though they had flown to South Korea to help Emerson because of this woman, she and Jackson had never actually met her in person. 

With interest, Halia began to scroll through the comments...