Fast Track to Murder

Fast Track to Murder is a case featured in Criminal Case as the one-hundred thirty-first case of the game. It is the sixteenth case of the game's World Edition (Season 3) and also the fourth case to take place in Eurasia.

Plot
On the Trans-Siberian Express, Carmen Martinez expressed how much her head hurt from the Christmas party the night before, but remained optimistic at the same time. The Bureau was heading to Mongolia to stop SOMBRA from building its satellite. Armand Dupont had approached the player, telling them how beautiful the scenery was when all of a sudden, the train came to a screeching halt. Carmen and the player ran to the next carriage only to find a man – Ilya Tretyakov – hung by a tie from a ceiling lamp. The team decided to send the body to Angela Douglas for autopsy, despite lacking a lab on the train.

As the team gathered up their information regarding Agrafena Raskolnikova and Nina Rodionova outside the train, they were hit by a snowstorm and could not find the train anywhere. However, Carmen found an ice cave, and she was prompted to head there with the player to wait the storm out. Seeing as someone was there recently, the team opted to look for more clues there to continue their investigation. After meeting mammoth enthusiast Vadim Efremov, the team was able to return to the train after the storm was over. Shortly after meeting the head of COSMORUS, Natasha Romanova, again, the team was approached by a bear. As Carmen tried to kill the bear with her gun without success, Vadim came to her rescue and successfully scared the bear away.

After gathering up the last of the clues from the ice cave and inside the train, Carmen and the player arrested ticket inspector Nikita Rukhin for murder. As Carmen laid out the pieces of evidence she found against Nikita, the latter accidentally spilled that he should not have turned his back against Ilya, prompting him to confess to the murder. Nikita revealed his hatred of the victim, saying that diamonds should belong to the people rather than to oligarchs. He had also returned the diamonds, which he took from Ilya, to communist hands in China. Ilya found out and confronted Nikita, prompting the latter to knock him out and hang him. Nikita then stopped the train because it was his job to report railway incidents, and also to hide the evidence in the ice cave.

Rather than taking Nikita to the courthouse, Carmen video-called Judge Adaku and had the trial held by phone on the train. Nikita pleaded guilty for the murder, though he claimed his intentions were pure. The judge questioned him about how his actions were pure if blood was shed, and Nikita explained about how he was helping the Communist cause. Nikita also told the judge that in 1918, Lenin had told his citizens to hang “rich bloodsuckers”, inspiring the ticket inspector to do so when Ilya confronted him. The judge explained that his ideological zeal did not change the fact that he killed a man and was force to do a video-linked trial, and so he sentenced Nikita to 25 years in prison.

Chief Ripley arrived in the train lounge to tell the player that the MGB, the agency Anya Ivanova worked for, had been watching Nikita because they believed that Nikita’s communist brothers were smuggling more than diamonds. However, when Carmen and the player interrogated Nikita again, the latter claimed that the communists wanted to build the USSR again. All he did for them was pick up packages at different stations along the rail line and drop them off at a different place. Nikita told the player that the last package he was supposed to take to Mongolia was in the cave, prompting them to go there. The team found a bag which was full of Soviet memorabilia, but the player found a broken circuit board, which contained the COSMORUS logo after it was pieced back together. Seeing as that was not the first time COSMORUS property had been stolen, the team took the circuit board to Natasha for more information. Natasha explained that the circuit board was the motherboard of a COSMORUS satellite, but exploded when Carmen asked her how the circuit board fell into the hands of smugglers. When Carmen explained that the Bureau were doing their best in the investigations, Natasha told them to step up their efforts.

Meanwhile, Elliot Clayton reported his DigiCool device missing, prompting the team to check outside the train for it. They found it and, after unlocking it, decided to send the phone to Elliot to be sure there was no damage done. Elliot angrily reported that the phone was indeed hacked by Agrafena, who wanted to prove that SOMBRA did not exist. Carmen promised Agrafena that she would be let go for hacking into the Bureau’s information files, but the consequence would not be so lenient next time.

After Chief Ripley got the train moving again, the player found a tablet, which Elliot found belonged to SOMBRA. Elliot found a file called “Darkness Descends”, the same name found on Nick Kringle’s phone back in Siberia, and he explained that SOMBRA would launch their satellite into space and hijack the other 2,271 satellites currently in orbit. There would be no source of electricity if this plan was to be in motion, and Elliot told the player that they would have to halt the launch. Carmen was immediately prompted to talk to Natasha about the plan as she may be the only person to stop the launch.

After Carmen told Natasha that there may still be a mole operating within the agency, Natasha believed that the Bureau was still blaming COSMORUS for stealing information and called them amateurs. With that said, Natasha handed them cash, telling them it would be the last time she would help them.

Chief Ripley explained that the Bureau could not afford losing the support from COSMORUS with the situation they were in. Marina Romanova came in, suspecting her mother of not sharing any new information. As the chief explained to Marina that she was the best profiler the Bureau ever had, her ties with her mother were clouding her judgment, and she decided to take Marina off of any investigation involving Natasha. As Jonah Karam tried to defend Marina, the latter yelled that she did not need him to defend her and slammed the door. While Carmen said it was not good for the team to be cooped up in the train, the chief explained that they would be in Mongolia in a few hours.

Victim

 * Ilya Tretyakov (hanged by his tie on the Trans-Siberian)

Murder Weapon

 * Hanging

Killer

 * Nikita Rukhin

Killer's Profile

 * The killer smokes cigarettes.
 * The killer eats pelmeni.
 * The killer has blood type A+.
 * The killer’s initials are N.R.
 * The killer wears a scarf.

Trivia

 * This case is one of the cases in which the killer has to be interrogated once again during the Additional Investigation.
 * This case and When Shadows Fall are currently the only ones to take place in two different countries.