Chapter 989: Deadlock
The people from the Northwest were generally very welcoming and polite towards others. But now that w.a.n.g Yun had finally identified the suspects after much difficulty, there was no need for them to treat the culprits with respect.
So everyone caught by Ren Xiaosu and company would not be able to escape the fate of getting a b.l.o.o.d.y nose and bruised face.
The spy who still had one molar left was lucky. He was quick-witted enough to point out the location of the suicide pill in advance, but those who would rather die than speak had close to eight of their teeth pulled out on the spot.
Right then, a spy who remained tight-lipped was stunned by what was going on. He looked at the people from the Northwest and thought, ‘Didn’t that lady say only to pull out the molars? Why did you people pull out my front teeth?‘
By the time they went for the eighth suspect, the Northwest intelligence agents were so familiar with the routine they didn’t need Yang Xiaojin to do it anymore. They rushed up to the suspect as a group and held him down before extracting his teeth.
But after extracting four molars from this suspect’s mouth, they still couldn’t locate where the suicide pill was hidden. When Yang Xiaojin came over and prised open his jaws to have a look, she remarked, “Oh, he doesn’t have a suicide pill in him.”
With that, even the Northwest’s intelligence agents were taken aback. “How can that be?”
The middle-aged man who was being held down nearly cried in pain, “Listen up, I’m the director of Luoyang City’s Logistics Division. How dare you people treat me like this!”
Yang Xiaojin raised an eyebrow. “Bring him back.”
She cross-checked the information w.a.n.g Yun gave them and noted the person was carrying an extra gift box in his hands after pa.s.sing through the blind spots of two surveillance cameras.
Yang Xiaojin could roughly guess that the person really might not be a spy but a Luoyang City official who had accepted bribes.
But even if the other party was not a spy, it did not necessarily mean they had arrested the wrong person. Because Ren Xiaosu was not only looking for spies this time but also those who had let them into Luoyang City.
For this many spies to get into the city, the other party must have bribed many of Luoyang City’s officials.
Moreover, Ren Xiaosu felt that he might be able to learn some clues from these officials. For example, the person sending the operatives into Luoyang City, his ident.i.ty, etc.
He could definitely uncover some evidence.
Gradually, Ren Xiaosu and his group encountered some difficulties in the sting operation. Some of the suspects received news they had been targeted and went into hiding.
When Ren Xiaosu realized that this situation was happening, he got a little anxious and hastened the sting operation.
However, he heaved a sigh of relief very quickly. The leaflets they distributed were starting to take effect. When they went after Target 37, the other party had already left the residence in advance. But less than two hours later, a couple came to report that someone suddenly rented their house that had been vacant for some time. The tenant who came to rent it looked like someone in the leaflet.
When Ren Xiaosu went to arrest that person, it turned out to be Target 37, who they were looking for.
Even though the city might look very big, when everyone was helping you, it seemed to have become so small that the suspects had nowhere to hide.
In just a single day, Ren Xiaosu and company arrested 72 people, of which 31 were silenced by the heartworms during their arrests.
Luo Lan detained the remaining 41 suspects separately in the bas.e.m.e.nt of the villas and started interrogating them.
Luo Lan and Zhou Qi were truly skilled at interrogation. Under their torture, some people were unable to endure and confessed everything very quickly.
But even though the Luoyang City officials confessed they had accepted bribes and let the suspects in, they really had no idea who bribed them and which organization’s forces were getting deployed here. They were totally clueless.
When those forces entered Luoyang City, the officials were offered much higher bribes than usual. The only request was for them to not ask too many questions.
Moreover, the other party carried out their operations extremely covertly. No one knew their ident.i.ty and they were always only approached by them. They would sometimes call their homes in the middle of the night and get things done by threatening or intimidating them.
Ren Xiaosu had someone check their call records. Unfortunately, it wasn’t too useful even though they found something.
The bribery transactions were all made from the same landline in a private house.
However, the person in the residence had already been silenced by the heartworm user when they went to arrest the person.
Among these 41 people, half of them were the local officials of Luoyang City, and the remaining half were either spies or informants of the Zhou Consortium, the Kong Consortium, the Pyro Company, and the w.a.n.g Consortium. All of them were wholly unaware of the details surrounding Jiang Xu’s a.s.sa.s.sination.
What was more surprising to Ren Xiaosu was that there were the Zhou Consortium’s spies among these people. But why didn’t they get silenced?
Ren Xiaosu regarded the Zhou Consortium as the imaginary enemy, because the logic he had uncovered would only make sense if the Zhou Consortium was responsible for this matter.
But from the look of things, the Zhou Consortium’s spies were not in cahoots with the group that was killed by the heartworms.
Zhou Qi explained, “That’s quite normal. The people who a.s.sa.s.sinated Jiang Xu are obviously much more elite. They were probably picked from more than a 100, or even a 1,000 other soldiers in the army. They’re likely to have a separate commander who’s independent of the Zhou Consortium’s intelligence agency. It’d be best to keep a mission to a.s.sa.s.sinate someone like Jiang Xu a secret even from their own people. After all, who knows whether there’s spies from other consortiums hidden among them. If it got leaked, they would be condemned by the public, so they must be extremely careful.”
Luo Lan nodded. “The person in charge of this operation is most likely the one who can control the heartworms to silence people.”
Suddenly, the interrogation came to a standstill. It was not that the arrested suspects did not confess, but that they still had not managed to capture the most crucial person in the case. The information they obtained was still not enough to pinpoint which organization was responsible for Jiang Xu’s a.s.sa.s.sination.
Ren Xiaosu relayed this information back to the Northwest. Meanwhile, w.a.n.g Yun continued a.n.a.lyzing the surveillance footage while Ren Xiaosu and company carried on with the sting operation.
One minor episode occurred when w.a.n.g Yun sent over another image of a suspect in the afternoon.
When Ren Xiaosu saw the photo, he was stunned. Wasn’t this the director of the Public Order Division?
He might not recognize other people, but he had chatted with the director of the Public Order Division for more than an hour that day, so how could he possibly not recognize him?
There wasn’t even a need for the residents to identify him since Ren Xiaosu could recognize him immediately.
On the same day, the director of the Public Order Division, who was purportedly highly regarded by Ren Xiaosu, the new owner of Luoyang City, was arrested and brought to the neighborhood.
However, the man’s situation was similar to the other officials. He had also accepted a bribe and let those spies into Luoyang City. There was nothing special about his case.
w.a.n.g Yun had been working for more than four days in the conference room of Stronghold 144’s garrison camp. With less than three hours of sleep every day, he began to suffer from fatigue.
It was actually very tiring for him to a.n.a.lyze the surveillance footage. After four days, w.a.n.g Yun’s eyes looked deeply sunken, and he had to keep rehydrating himself to stay fresh.
Next to him, the Great Hoodwinker could not bear to watch anymore and advised him to get some rest. However, w.a.n.g Yun stubbornly refused. “There’s still more than half the recordings to go through, so how can I go and sleep at a time like this?”
The Great Hoodwinker said, “Sleeping a few hours won’t hinder your progress much, anyways.”
w.a.n.g Yun firmly rejected the Great Hoodwinker’s suggestion to rest. “No, Future Commander is still waiting for me to get things done here!”