Chapter 462: The Mastermind is Someone Else
Xu Cheng went back to the laboratory.
It had been already fifteen days since he last came back here, and he was afraid that he would come back to see the death of the queen bee.
When he went to check out the jar, he noticed that the queen bee was gone. There was also no movement.
Xu Cheng’s first thought was that the queen bee was so dead that its body already became dust and got buried within the soil at the bottom of the pot.
But, when he went to knock on the glass jar, the queen bee actually came out of the honeycomb placed inside the jar and began flying around!
Xu Cheng was overjoyed! He checked the calendar on the wall and indeed, it had been 15 days!
Plus the time that the queen bee had been alive before, it had basically been alive for 20 days now.
Of course, it was still too early to conclude that the experiment lengthened its lifecycle, but Xu Cheng was still very hopeful that the turtle gene was working.
He didn’t let out the queen bee just yet as he still wanted to observe it for a bit longer and check out how much longer the queen bee’s life really could be extended by.
– The next day –
Withers came to an office building near the casino and built himself a temporary stronghold.
“Boss, those four checked into a room again, the Venetian Hotel, Presidential Suite 201 on the second floor,” at this time, a subordinate reported Saar and the other four’s activity. “They appeared right on schedule.”
“Everyone, get ready, they are on the move. If you notice any of the mafia members being active near the casino, immediately report to me and keep a close eye on them.”
“Yes, Sir!”
Several large casinos had already been surrounded by undercover FBI agents.
As for those guys at the usual breakfast location, they were already being watched by the FBI.
The moment they went in and gambled, they would immediately be followed by undercover agents.
“Everyone inside the casino, on standby? The moment these guys go in and take out their phone to check, immediately trace the signal and hack it to see who’s the guy coordinating all of this.”
– Outside –
Those gang members, in fact, already knew there were many undercover cops around them. They had intel too, they also knew which ones were onto them.
“Bunch of idiots, it’s already the era of information and technology, they think we wouldn’t notice just because they are undercover? Right now just with one picture, the internet can dig up even your ancestry,” one of the gang members glanced at the undercover agents and sneered.
“Let’s eat breakfast, don’t mind them. Just let them watch. After all, today, we are just here to have some breakfast,” another guy said as he stuffed a big piece of bacon in his mouth.
“These guys are so funny, that captain Withers guy is even more stupid. Why would he go and confront our bosses yesterday without any evidence? Isn’t that basically alerting us and telling us to be more careful?”
“Who knows? They probably thought we would all be scared and sh-t our pants when they yell ‘I’m FBI’. Don’t they know who we are? We grew up with big balls.”
Withers directly walked out and came to a cafe and kept his eyes on the Venetian Hotel. In a bit, the moment those guys made a move in the casino, he would charge into the presidential suite to capture whoever was giving orders on what to bet on.
At this time, Xu Cheng pushed open the door and walked into the cafe. There was no other vacant seat other than the long row Agent Withers was sitting on, so he just went over and sat across from Withers a few seats down.
“Get me a cup of Blue Mountain Coffee, thanks. And also the newspaper for today,” Xu Cheng said to the waiter.
The waiter brought over the coffee and the newspaper, and Xu Cheng gave him 10$ in tip.
“Thank you.” The waiter smiled.
It was customary to tip in the M Nation, so Xu Cheng also followed the customs to make himself look a bit more natural.
Although Withers was also from the FBI department, he wasn’t responsible for keeping an eye on Xu Cheng, so he didn’t recognize Xu Cheng and just regarded him as a passerby.
Xu Cheng took out his phone and turned on Facebook’s mobile messenger app.
Connected to the group call, he said, “Let’s start.”
Then, a batch of new gang members rushed out from various corners of the city and began entering the casino.
Xu Cheng already began operating in front of Withers, and it was just that this time, the people he was using were new members of the gang that didn’t have any record at the police station yet. So, those guys eating breakfast were just a cover, and that was why they were laughing at those officers that were keeping an eye on them.
“Number 3, big,” Xu Cheng said.
Withers was busy staring at the hotel and listening to his men’s report, he naturally didn’t notice or think that this passerby in front of him could possibly be the mastermind behind all of this.
“Number 5, big,” Xu Cheng gave out another order.
Withers subconsciously looked at him, and noticing that he was an Asian, he didn’t think more. He continued to drink his coffee and wait for news because he felt that those mafia guys definitely wouldn’t be cooperating with some Asians on this.
“Number 1, small!” Xu Cheng gave another order on the phone, just like a guy voice-chatting on his phone.
Withers just frowned, looked at him, and asked, “What are you saying?”
Xu Cheng smiled. “Playing games with my friends, we are throwing dice on an app and guessing the numbers.”
Withers nodded.
Xu Cheng looked at him and said, “Your coffee cup’s empty.”
Withers nodded. “I know.”
Following the direction Withers was looking at, Xu Cheng said, “What are you looking at?”
“Nothing.” Afraid that this guy would get suspicious that he was on some operation, he got up and left.
When he walked out of the cafe, he stood by a vendor on the streets for about an hour. Seeing that those guys still weren’t on the move, he yawned. But, just then, he got a call from his men, “Sh-t! Boss! The exec at Aria Casino said that they are beginning to lose a significant amount of money!”
This was another routine of money being silently won away!
Withers immediately said to the mic, “Venetian Hotel, presidential suite, barge in! Also, get our colleagues at Aria to hack into those gambler’s phones and see what they are using to pass their messages.”
“Boss, the technician is on it, but those guys’ phones are encrypted.”
Withers: “Sh-t! Hurry up and crack it!”
“Boss, done. It seems like they are using Facebook to send messages.”
“Contact that social media company, we need the authorization to access user information,” Withers said.
“Can’t, Boss, we don’t have the authority. I’m afraid we can’t.”
Withers was so angry that he was about to punch something in rage. That was right, Facebook was such an enormous entity, it was indeed not possible for them to easily get the right to get authorization. Probably only the higher-ups from the National Defense department could negotiate for such authorization when the nation’s safety was at risk, not for some casinos.
Withers immediately showed up at the Venetian Hotel, barging into the rooms to try to catch the four bosses red-handed in giving instructions and solving this case.
But when they kicked open the door after swiping the master room card they got from the front desk, they just saw those guys playing cards and drinking wine.
Withers directly went in with a team of armed agents.
“FBI! Everyone, cooperate! We need you all to take out all of your phones!” Withers shouted.
All the minions inside cooperated and handed over their phones. Withers checked their phones and almost no one had Facebook installed, nor was anyone on their phone at that time. There weren’t even any recent calls made.
Withers’s pupils contracted. “It’s someone else behind this!”