"In the end, it's not the years in your life that count. It's the life in your years."
-Abraham Lincoln
...
Dean didn't spend much time and quickly picked up the lock on the data room door and entered cautiously.
When Dean pushed the door open, he was very careful because he wasn't sure if there was anyone inside.
Luckily, there was no one inside, only several hidden cameras in the corner of the room.
Dean took out a jammer and quietly walked into the equipment room of the data room. There were several computers inside.
These computers used independent servers and were only connected to the FBI's internal network, storing a massive amount of information.
"Alright, let's see if this is useful."
Dean first took out a card from the pocket of his clothes and inserted it into a slot in front of the computer.
This card was borrowed from an FBI agent. Without this authorization card, the computers in the data room wouldn't start up properly.
Then, Dean took out a USB flash drive containing Cassandra's DNA information. After inserting the USB flash drive, Dean quickly began operating the computer.
While Dean's computer skills were not as good as those of a professional hacker, they were still good.
His current task was not to hack into the database but to perform regular operations using the FBI agent's authorization card.
Therefore, there wasn't much technical difficulty involved.
In fact, even an ordinary person's computer skills could perform these operations.
"Let me see... analyzing and matching DNA data in the database to find related information... Got it!"
Suddenly, Dean's eyes lit up. He actually found a file in the database that seemed to be an investigation record for a murder case.
He immediately pulled up this file without delay.
"The file was created... five years ago? A murder case?"
Dean frowned. Cassandra is only about fourteen years old now, so five years ago, she would have been just nine years old.
He opened the file and continued reading.
"First suspect, David Cain, middle-aged male, white hair, a top international mercenary and assassin with multiple escape records, highly dangerous."
'David Cain?'
Seeing this surname, Dean's gaze sharpened. This was probably Cassandra's father.
He didn't expect him to be a top assassin. It made sense why Cassandra had such advanced fighting skills at such a young age.
With her father's teaching, everything made sense.
"Second suspect, an unidentified girl in a red dress."
'A little girl in a red dress?'
'Did David Cain have anyone else with him besides Cassandra?'
But the description of this suspect seemed interesting.
'Cassandra was only nine years old at the time, and even if David Cain was a ruthless killer, he wouldn't let such a young child go and commit murders, right?'
Dean pondered this in his mind.
"The identity of the deceased, Fazul, a middleman for an Asian underworld organization, according to the local autopsy report, he and his subordinates all died from a gunshot to the head, but after a more detailed investigation, the cause of Fazul's death was thrown out. We found that his neck had suffered a massive blow, with enough force to kill someone."
"A video recording obtained from an informant confirmed our suspicions, but the leads ended there, and there were no further clues to find out where David Cain and the little girl in the red dress went."
"Now, David Cain is still operating secretly around the world, while the mysterious little girl has vanished without a trace."
The information in this file was very simple, and Dean quickly finished reading it. The most valuable information in it was only these few points.
As for the final piece of evidence, a short video recording was also included.
The video was quite short—only a few seconds long.
Dean clicked on it to play.
On the screen, he saw a blurry scene of an office-like room. A bald, chubby, middle-aged man sat behind a desk with two armed bodyguards.
The bald man was the dead in this case, Fazul.
Facing Fazul and his two subordinates, a little girl in a red child's dress stood there.
She had innocent and pure eyes and smiled as she looked at the three men.
Yes, she had a smile on her face, as if she wasn't in the middle of a murder scene but rather in an ordinary amusement park.
The little girl's face had some similarity to Cassandra's, but it might be difficult to tell at first glance.
However, Dean recognized her immediately.
It was her pure gaze; Dean had seen it only in Cassandra's eyes.
Fazul suddenly burst into laughter, mockingly saying something to little Cassandra. The video had no sound, and the image was too blurry for Dean to lip-read what he was saying.
But he knew it couldn't be anything good.
Then...
The little girl moved.
Without any warning or reason, right when Fazul was laughing, the girl suddenly jumped into action and hit Fazul in the neck with a knife.
In that instant, her speed was frightening. Before Fazul and his bodyguards could react to what had happened, the little girl had already completed the assassination move.
She crouched on the desk, her right hand covered in bright red blood.
It was Fazul's blood.
At this moment, Cassandra's face didn't change; she still had her innocent smile.
Just like a child without any sense of right or wrong, she was not even aware of what she had done.
She might even have seen it as a game.
Bang! Bang!
At the same time, two gunshots rang out suddenly, blowing out the heads of the two bodyguards, who had just regained their senses as they prepared to attack Cassandra.
Well, Dean didn't actually hear the gunshots; he only saw the headshot scenes, which he imagined.
With that, the video ended.
The person who fired the last shot wasn't shown, but it was easy to guess that it must have been David Cain, Cassandra's father.
After watching the whole video, Dean fell into silence.
He finally understood why Cassandra was so unwilling to talk about her past and why she started living as a wanderer at such a young age.
She had killed someone.
Moreover, she had done it under her father's orders.
Dean suspected that Cassandra must have understood the concept of "killing" through something and realized that it was wrong.
So she escaped from David Cain, or rather, ran away from him.
In short, she wandered around for five years and didn't spend much time with people because she was afraid of making the same mistake again.
Cassandra felt a warmth she had never felt before until she got to Gotham City and met Barbara, Dean, and other people.
As a result, she settled down here for a long time.
...
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