[Chapter 475: Assassination Mission]
"Cut!"
At the giant water tank set in Southern California, after filming a sea battle scene, the actors were allowed a half-hour break while the rest of the crew sprang back to work.
The team adjusted the props and the camera crew began repositioning for the next shot.
Link returned to the director's area and noticed Wallace and Kauf Black, one of the heads of Blackwater International Security, were there.
Blackwater International Security was founded in 1996 by six former Navy SEALs. After receiving a huge investment from Horizon Investments in the latter half of '96, the company rapidly expanded.
To improve Blackwater's operational level, the firm bought a lot of cutting-edge weapons and scientific equipment and recruited over twenty seasoned agents and managers from the CIA, FBI, and the Pentagon.
For instance, before joining Blackwater, Kauf Black was the head of anti-terrorism for the CIA, and Joseph Schuertz, head of Blackwater's intelligence division, had served as an inspector at the Pentagon Army Department.
The company's staff grew from six to 150 employees.
Clients expanded from just entertainment stars to include political and business sectors.
Blackwater's main services included security, training, and logistics, with covert operations such as anti-kidnapping, counter-terrorism, intelligence analysis, and military consulting.
Link was both an investor and a key client.
The crew had faced several unexpected incidents lately, suggesting someone was threatening Link's safety.
To find out the truth, Blackwater assigned Kauf Black to lead an investigation.
Kauf explained that after Cuban police interrogated two suspected paparazzi, they found no useful information and released them.
Unfortunately, when these two flew to Haiti, local gangs mistook them for CIA operatives and imprisoned them in water cells.
Five days later, they confessed to being assassins from the US, hired via the dark web to kill billionaire Link.
They admitted that because Link was heavily guarded, they couldn't get close and had been surveilling the crew, waiting for a chance to strike when Link was alone.
Last month, when the Pirates of the Caribbean crew faced an accident nearby, the assassins were caught as suspects, and their plan failed.
"The information we bought from the Haitian gang is credible. The earlier incidents on set are unlikely related to them," Kauf Black said.
"The dark web?" Link was surprised to hear this. He had heard of such websites but didn't expect them to appear as early as 1998, with assassination missions posted online.
"From what we know, the dark web first appeared in 1996, albeit with a modest user base of around a hundred thousand. Users mainly posted explicit content, entertainment gossip, missing persons notices, surfing tutorials, and some posted missions, including assassinations," Kauf said, glancing at him.
"The creation of this website is actually connected to you."
"Me?"
"Yes, while the term 'dark web' isn't new, the concept of posting bounty missions first appeared in your movie The Net. The earliest dark web portal designs closely resembled those in your film, so many believe the site was inspired by your movie," Kauf explained.
Link showed a helpless expression but wasn't too shocked. Since The Net's release, many programmers were inspired by its advanced depiction of the internet, creating similar platforms that launched in the mid-90s.
Examples included Google, founded in early 1996, popular blogging platforms like Blogger, and online shopping concepts.
Google's Larry Page and Amazon's Jeff Bezos had told him they watched The Net multiple times, drawing inspiration to refine their sites and even thanked him.
So it made sense that someone would find inspiration in the film to create the dark web.
What didn't make sense was that someone was using the dark web platform to target him for assassination. It was like using a dagger he had forged to stab him.
"Kauf, can you trace the people posting these missions on the dark web?" Link asked.
"We're working on it, but the dark web is designed for anonymity. Tracking users through IP addresses is tough. Our network engineers are using phishing techniques to find them, but progress is slow and requires time," Kauf replied.
Link nodded, urging them to continue and catch the culprit sooner.
After seeing Kauf and his team off, Link resumed filming.
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[T/N: In the afternoon, Chen Chong arrived with Chen Hong, Rebecca Wang, Zeng Li, Jiang Qinqin, Li Bingbing, and others to visit the set. Li Bingbing was promoting Rush Hour 2, Xu Qing was promoting the film The Emperor and the Assassin, and Zhang Ziyi was doing voice acting for Mulan.
After work, Link met them at the hotel and discussed movie investments with Chen Chong.
This year, his Hong Kong based Eastwind Pictures invested in 12 films. Six films were solely produced by Eastwind, while the other six collaborated with others, with a total investment of $55 million, with his women playing major roles in these films.
After the success of The Sino-Dutch War 1661, they received many scripts and selected The Emperor and the Assassin for investment. Now, they were planning to acquire classic Hollywood film copyrights and remake them into Chinese films.
Later Xu Qing and Li Binbin asked to have babies, but Link proposed that anyone willing to leave showbiz and focus on child-rearing could have a baby. Though they couldn't continue acting, they could work stable jobs at Eastwind Pictures or other companies.
They'd also receive an annual $100,000 living allowance from the family fund per child.
In the end, they didn't want to leave showbiz and decided for later.]
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