Half a day later, the Level 2 clone arrived in Tijuana, a city on the Mexican border.
Luke had been here before, when Roger and Martin had come looking for trouble with a certain drug lord.
Later, when his clone was harvesting points in Mexico, it came here several times.
Since he had the time, he invested in a security company to specially provide surveillance and installation services to various organizations and companies, including the government.
This company was currently one of the PDD’s temp agencies in Mexico.
Luke had only been taking the opportunity to expand his surveillance network, so he used subsidies to encourage his staff and to break new ground in the local market.
Thus, the security company didn’t charge much, and came with free surveillance cameras in public areas.
Of course, the company couldn’t fiddle too much with the internal surveillance systems of client organizations and companies, but the latter were less particular about surveillance cameras in public places.
The surveillance footage of the individuals suspected to be Zero and Haley was from a parking lot of a beach hotel in Tijuana; it was from a surveillance camera which the security company had supplied to the hotel for free.
After Luke inputted data on Haley’s physical appearance into the PDD’s search system, it would be easy to find her, unless she was in an area with no surveillance.
Luke’s main goal was to save her. Zero was just a bonus.
Now that he had a good lead, he could finally fix a date to close the case — a week should be enough.
Haley and the man suspected to be Zero didn’t stay at the hotel. They had just parked their car here.
But since they were now exposed, there were too many things Luke could do.
On the way here, he had gotten the security company to check the public surveillance in this area.
It wasn’t hard for the security company to do that in the name of daily maintenance. In any case, it was a free benefit that had been included in the contract, which nobody would refuse.
Luke soon found more traces of Haley and her companion.
It had already been half a day since he arrived, and his Sharp Nose didn’t find any useful leads. However, it was very simple for him to use the surveillance footage to figure out their route.
Following the trail, Luke reached the seaside before nightfall.
Looking at the beach, which was packed to the point of bursting, he sighed. “Not good, there’s too many people.”
With so many people, the mix of scents was unimaginable.
Even if Haley were here, he might not be able to tell.
It was the end of August, and the people on the beach were all sweating, the smell of which was mixed in with the scents of perfume, sunblock and food.
It was like pouring a mix of soy sauce, chili oil and tar into a cup of tea – who the hell would be able to smell the tea?
Thankfully, Luke had never relied purely on his superpowers to make a living.
A few hundred meters away from the beach, he released the drones and started searching for a needle in a haystack.
It might not work, but in any case, he didn’t need to do anything.
This was what tools were for.
Unsurprisingly, Haley and the man weren’t found near the beach.
The two of them had been wearing caps, sunglasses and thin face masks. They didn’t look like they were here to sunbathe or swim.
Were they just passing through?
If so, it would make sense that Luke wouldn’t be able to find them here.
Zero had been able to mysteriously bring Haley with him to Tijuana without being discovered – it was understandable that they hadn’t brought any luggage with them when they ran.
Finally, Luke received a new message from Selina before nightfall.
Haley and Zero had appeared on camera once more at a gas station audited by the security company; it was only five kilometers away from the beach.
That couldn’t be helped.
It took time for the security company to collect the surveillance data. Also, if they weren’t looking in the right direction, it would naturally take even more time.
Luke really wasn’t in a hurry. There weren’t many things that could make him anxious right now.
Watching the slick girls on the beach could actually be considered a leisurely pastime.
It was already eight at night. In an empty forest next to the road, he put the bicycle which he had used in the afternoon back into his inventory.
Thinking for a moment, he put on the clown suit that he hadn’t used much recently.
This was the suit with the least amount of protection. The purple suit he was wearing was a high-quality fake, and couldn’t withstand large caliber machine guns.
The nanomask on his face could only fend off poisonous gas and liquid at most; it couldn’t stop a rifle.
However, the clown could use a lot of abilities.
At the very least, many bigshots knew that the clown was easily injured but not easily killed — of course, it was still easier than trying to kill the suited-up Dark Knight.
Activating the hover function on his nanosuit, Mr. Jeff drifted south along the road like a ghost.
He didn’t take off into the air, in order to make it easier to use Sharp Nose and Elementary Sound Wave in tandem to do a search.
There were villas scattered along the beach.
Many middle-class Americans had holiday villas here. This Zero might be in one of them.
Luke didn’t think that the other party could use an alias to prepare safe houses worldwide like him.
It was hard to use superpowers, but it was easy to use money.
After passing the gas station, he slowed down.
He quickly scanned all the buildings that had lights on and people inside.
He didn’t see Haley and Zero, but certainly saw plenty of eye-opening situations.
People who could come to the seaside to have fun, whether inside or outside the buildings, longed to be free.
In the dark, there were a lot of people in bed and also a lot of people partying in the villa.
It wasn’t just young people getting high; some middle-aged couples were even putting on a show.
Luke simply glided past and pretended not to see them.
However, a woman happened to look in his direction as he drifted past, and he turned his head and grinned, revealing his pale face and bloody mouth. Never let it be said that Mr. Jeff wasn’t a polite gentleman.
As for whether or not the man the woman was with would be frightened into going limp by her hysterical screams, that had nothing to do with Luke.
They were already lucky if they weren’t frightened into going crazy by his ugly face.
Luke searched two kilometers south of the gas station.
At that moment, his Sharp Nose suddenly detected Haley’s pheromones.
After his Sharp Nose was upgraded to the Elementary level, Luke had tried combining it with Pheromone Control, and had obtained his own exclusive Elementary Pheromone Nose.
This ability, which had yet to develop fully, was better at tracking the pheromones released by the human body.
When it came to finding people, pheromones were more accurate than smells.
As long as there weren’t too many people, it was very easy for Luke to detect pheromones.