"Trash, a bunch of complete useless pigs!" he muttered under his breath, not knowing whether he was cursing the colleagues in Michoacán, the sheriff of that small town, or the entrenched lethargy within the entire system.
He abruptly pressed down on the internal communicator on the desk, "Inform everyone at headquarters with stars on their shoulders to gather in eting Room One within five minutes."
With the order issued, the giant machine that was police headquarters seed to slightly speed up its operations.
But old habits die hard.
Five minutes later, when Minister Robert walked grim-faced into eting Room One, only half of the long table was sparsely occupied, with several seats still empty.
Among the senior officers who were present, so were sipping coffee gently, so whispering in low voices, still showing a bit of afternoon laziness and indifference on their faces.
Robert said nothing, just walked to the head of the table.
After another two or three minutes, the last few officers arrived late, including Superintendent Hector Sanchez, who was in charge of external public relations and dia affairs. He seed to have just finished an unimportant social engagent, his face still slightly flushed, and he habitually adjusted his tie as he walked toward his seat, ready to sit down.
"Superintendent Sanchez." Minister Robert's voice rang out.
Sanchez paused, looking up with a professional smile on his face, "Minister, I'm sorry, just now..."
"Did I tell you to sit down?" Robert interrupted him.
The smile on Sanchez's face froze, his movents halted in mid-air, awkwardly caught between sitting and standing.
He tried to explain, "Minister, I was because..."
"Get out."
"What?"
"I said get out!" Robert's voice suddenly increased in volu, "I want to see your resignation on my desk by today! Now, imdiately, get out of my sight! Get out!"
Superintendent Sanchez's face turned from red to white, then from white to ash. He opened his mouth as if to say sothing, but upon eting Minister Robert's near-murderous gaze, the words stuck in his throat. His neck instinctively withdrew, not daring to hesitate any longer, he exited the conference room, even forgetting to close the door.
"Bang!" Minister Robert kicked the door shut, the loud noise causing every senior officer with stars on their shoulders in the eting room to shudder, the earlier laziness and laxness instantly scared away, each of them sitting straight up like primary school students, focused and not daring to breathe audibly.
The minister walked to the head of the table but did not sit down.
He slamd the crumpled "Mont of Truth" newspaper in the middle of the conference table.
"Look at this goddamn thing!"
The newspaper was taken with caution and passed around.
When they saw the report describing the violent incident in a small town in Michoacán, where foreign tourists were beaten to death, won raped, and brave individuals hacked into serious injury, everyone's faces turned extrely ugly.
So were shocked, so angry, but so had flickering eyes as if weighing the pros and cons.
"Look! Take a good goddamn look!" Minister Robert slamd the table forcefully, saliva almost spraying onto the face of the person opposite him, "How many days has it been since the Pri Minister's Office issued the ban? And this happens?"
"Do you think that heaven is high and the Emperor is far away? Do you think those rural matters will never reach the capital? Do you think that star on your shoulder is stable and you can just rest on your laurels, living an indulged life?!"
"What about the work ethic?! Discipline?! Have they all been fed to the dogs?!"
"If you don't want to do it, then file a report and get the hell out now! The police force doesn't need you loafers taking up positions without doing any work!"
"Even a dog can bark a couple of tis."
The words carried weight, but no one dared to refute.
Tired of scolding, Minister Robert propped both hands on the table, his chest heaving violently.
His gaze turned to the first person on his left, who had been silent but whose eyes were similarly heavy, the First Deputy Director of Police Headquarters, also the chief responsible for major criminal cases, Deputy Chief Commissioner Hernandez.
"Hernandez."
Hernandez imdiately stood up, his body straight: "Minister!"
Minister Robert fixed his eyes on him and commanded word-for-word, "You, personally lead the most elite task force from headquarters to that damn small town in Michoacán imdiately. I don't care who is involved, what family or forces are behind it, dig out every thug involved, every negligent, sheltering, and bribed local cop, one by one!"
"I want you to be stationed there, make the case ironclad! The evidence must be solid, the procedures must be legal, but it must be quick, I want to see the main culprits arrested within a week, and the initial judicial process completed within a month!"
He paused, his voice lowered, "If you can't handle it, Hernandez, then don't co back. You can find a rope and hang yourself in the town square."
Admiral Hernandez showed no hesitation on his face, he snapped into a salute, loud and firm:
"Yes, Minister! I guarantee to complete the mission!"
Bill's expression slightly eased, looking at the others, "Next, the entire bureau's reorganization, you all go down to each sub-bureau and oversee things!"
"Yes, Director."
Seeing Bill's irritable temper return, no one dared to complain.
Isn't there always soone eager to be promoted?
A di a dozen.
...
Belize, temporary office.
The pain of Ma Guoming's sacrifice had not yet dissipated, and the continuous high-pressure work and the lack of progress on the Canadian intel made the atmosphere within the task force sink to freezing point.
Li Wenbin's eyes were bloodshot, his stubble thick; he had just been silently staring at the connections between Ye Jinghua and Hell's Angels on the whiteboard for a long ti, his fist clenching and unclenching.
"Boss, why don't you take a rest, we'll watch over things here." A group mber couldn't help but advise.
Li Wenbin waved his hand, just about to say sothing when the office door was flung open with a bang, and Zheng Chuyao rushed in.
"Mr. Li!" Her voice was tense and slightly distorted.
All eyes instantly focused on her.
Li Wenbin's heart tightened, that ominous premonition resurfacing: "Chuyao, what happened? Is there news from Canada?"
Zheng Chuyao shook her head vigorously.
"A top-secret bulletin just ca from Xiangjiang, soone has placed a bounty on us in the underground black market in Europe!"
Li Wenbin's pupils suddenly contracted, accepting the paper sheet handed over.
The prices were already listed.
Li Wenbin (Task Force Commander) – US Dollar 1 million
Zheng Chuyao (Intelligence Analysis Supervisor) – US Dollar 800,000
Chen Zilong (Action Team Leader) – US Dollar 500,000
He Jia Bao (Financial Tracking Expert) – US Dollar 500,000
Liu Jianming (Logistics and Coordination) – US Dollar 300,000
...
The list almost covered all core mbers of the task force in Belize.
"Bang!"
Li Wenbin punched the tal file cabinet beside him, making a huge noise, the cabinet door imdiately denting inward.
"How could they know our list?! Even the specific roles and importance are clear?!"
He suddenly turned his head, his eyes scanning every shocked face in the office.
"Our internal organizational structure, personnel division, this is highly classified, even at Xiangjiang headquarters, the insiders are limited!"
"A mole..."
A chilling word almost simultaneously rose in the hearts of all team mbers.
Li Wenbin took a deep breath, forcing himself to remain calm.
"See this? This is to make us unable to move an inch, to dismantle us from within, 1 million for my life? Fine, co and get it!"
He paused, sweeping his gaze over everyone again:
"From now on, everyone's security alert level is raised to the highest! Without my authorization, no one is to act alone, all communication devices must undergo secondary encryption checks, and external communication must be supervised by at least two people present!"
He looked at Zheng Chuyao, "Imdiately, in my na, report this to the highest level of Xiangjiang headquarters, apply for an internal security review, I need to know which link leaked this list!"
"Yes! Mr. Li!" Zheng Chuyao nodded forcefully.
"Could it be the xicans who leaked it?" Action Team Leader Chen Zilong spoke dourly.
He was burly and once belonged to the Flying Tigers; he was the force of the heavy cri unit.
Upon hearing him say this, everyone fell silent.
In truth, they would rather believe it was the xicans, surely it can't be a mole within their own heavy cri unit, right?
Once the seed of doubt is planted, it's a ticking ti bomb ready to explode.
When it goes off, the heavy cri unit will be beyond redemption.
While the room was quiet, suddenly, the door was knocked, followed by the voice of Belize Director Schultz, "Li."
Li Wenbin gazed at them, his eyes flickered, frowning, "No talking indiscriminately, without any evidence, don't suspect our comrades, understand?"
Everyone looked at one another and eventually nodded.
But the atmosphere was clearly off.
...
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