Absolute power in officialdom

Chapter 151 Shadowy Intrigue

Preliminary on-site investigation indicates that Zhang Dongsheng died of acute myocardial infarction. There were no obvious signs of struggle in the office, and his personal belongings were arranged in an orderly manner.

Police have launched an investigation after receiving the report.

Zhang Dongsheng's wife rushed to the scene upon hearing the news, devastated. She insisted that her husband was only in his thirties, and that his annual physical examinations had never revealed any cardiovascular or cerebrovascular diseases. She maintained that he had always been in good health and found it difficult to accept the conclusion that he had died suddenly, believing that the cause of death was suspicious.

Wu Zhiyuan felt heavy-hearted. He immediately recalled what his instructors had said during his training at the provincial department: some foreign intelligence agencies would use special drugs to create symptoms similar to acute myocardial infarction in order to silence witnesses or remove obstacles, which were extremely difficult to detect by conventional autopsy methods.

Was Zhang Dongsheng silenced because he died suddenly at this critical juncture?

Director Chu Jianguo personally chaired the secret case analysis meeting of "Operation Blade Light". In addition to the members of the task force, Luo Weiren, Wu Zhiyuan and Xiao Jing were also present.

Chu Jianguo got straight to the point: "Comrades, the situation is extremely urgent."

The fusion project's self-destruct mechanism has been activated, leaving us with only about thirty hours at most.

The longer the time drags on, the greater the chance that the enemy will crack the core secrets.

Of course, we could activate the self-destruct mechanism now, but once activated, uncovering the mole would be extremely difficult. It's a dilemma.

He looked around at everyone: "Zhang Dongsheng's death was by no means an accident. The preliminary autopsy report has been released, and an extremely tiny needle mark, barely visible to the naked eye, was found under his left armpit."

Blood tests revealed the presence of a highly potent neurotoxin that can induce symptoms of an acute myocardial infarction. This is a method of assassination used by professional spies.

"The enemy is more cunning and ruthless than we imagined. Their purpose in killing Zhang Dongsheng was clear: to silence him, cut off the leads, muddy the waters, hinder our investigation, and buy them the last bit of time to transfer and digest the stolen classified data."

He paused for a moment, then made a decision: "In order to lull the real mastermind into a false sense of security and create opportunities for our investigation, we need to release a smokescreen to the outside world."

It was publicly stated that Liu Ming was preliminarily identified as the source of the leak, and Liu Ming was criminally detained. Zhang Dongsheng died of sudden cardiac arrest due to long hours of overwork.

The case is basically solved, and the task force will be leaving soon. This is our strategy to lure the enemy out.

If you have any good ideas or new discoveries, please speak up and let's brainstorm together.

Wu Zhiyuan said, "Director Chu, Deng Li is highly suspicious. Whether it's her deliberate approach to Zhang Dongsheng, her biological mother and stepfather who are abroad and have complicated backgrounds, or her deliberate concealment of certain things during the political review, all of these point to her possibly being a recruited peripheral spy, responsible for internal support and intelligence transmission."

Although she cannot enter the core area, she can exert influence by controlling or affecting Zhang Dongsheng.

Deng Li cannot escape responsibility for Zhang Dongsheng's death. The fact that the building's security camera malfunctioned at the time of the incident suggests that Deng Li may have secretly tampered with it.

Xiao Jing continued, "Chen Hao also needs close monitoring. He has the means and opportunity to access core data, and his ambiguous relationship with that mixed-race girl with a background in a foreign consulting firm is a huge risk in itself."

I have already arranged for covert surveillance and an external investigation of Chen Hao.

Li Xiaoyu reported on the progress of the technical investigation: "We conducted reverse tracing and signal analysis of the time when the surveillance system was tampered with, and found that the 'normal' surveillance video used for replacement was recorded several days in advance."

The IP address of the terminal where the tampering occurred was disguised, but the final trace pointed to a network port in the administrative office area, which included Zhang Dongsheng's office.

After a moment of contemplation, Wu Zhiyuan made a key discovery: "I repeatedly checked the security procedures in the core area and found a loophole that could be exploited—garbage collection."

Although external garbage trucks are not allowed to enter the core area, the garbage inside the core area is collected by internal sanitation workers and transported to a designated collection point at the entrance of the compound, where it is then transported away by external sanitation trucks.

"Our security checks on this portion of the garbage transported from the core area were negligent."

Luo Weiren's expression changed: "That's true. The main consideration is that most of the garbage in the core area is ordinary household waste. Could it be...?"

Wu Zhiyuan nodded: "I suspect that the thieves may have mixed the tiny physical media storing the data into the garbage in a specific area, and then had the bribed internal cleaning staff take advantage of the garbage collection to take it out of the core area."

In this way, the data carrier slipped away from the most stringent defenses without anyone noticing.

"Investigate! Immediately conduct a secret investigation into all cleaning staff who have access to the core area!" Chu Jianguo ordered immediately. "Focus on their social connections, financial situation, and especially whether there have been any unusual large sums of money flowing in or out recently!"

Following the meeting, various investigations were launched in earnest.

The smokescreen of "case solved" released to the outside world seemed to have some effect, easing the tension on the surface. But secretly, the real hunters were keeping a close eye on things.

The background check on the cleaning staff quickly yielded significant findings.

Among the four outsourced cleaning staff responsible for the core area, one cleaner named Wang Guilan received three transfers totaling more than 80,000 yuan in her personal bank account over the past few months.

The remitter was nominally a trading company, but upon verification, it was found to be a shell company.

"Wang Guilan, fifty years old, her son is in college, her husband died early, and her family is poor. This amount of money is clearly inconsistent with her income," Xiao Jing reported to Chu Jianguo.

Chu Jianguo acted decisively, immediately taking Wang Guilan into custody and conducting a secret interrogation.

Li Xiaoyu was in charge of the interrogation.

"Wang Guilan, where did that 80,000 yuan in your account come from?"

"It was...it was given to me by my distant nephew. He made money in business and helped my mother and me out..." Wang Guilan stammered.

"Which distant nephew? What's his name? Where does he do business?" Li Xiaoyu followed up with more questions.

Wang Guilan stammered and couldn't explain it clearly at all.

After Li Xiaoyu presented her bank statements and the investigation results of the shell company, her psychological defenses completely collapsed, and she burst into tears.

"It was...it was Engineer Chen Hao who made me do it..."

"Chen Hao? What did he tell you? What exactly did he want you to do?"

"About a few months ago, Engineer Chen came to me and said that it was not easy for my son to go to college, and he could help me. He said that as long as I helped him with a little bit, he would give me some money each time."

He told me to pay attention to the trash cans in the small lounge on the west side of the third floor of Building 3, and that if I saw a cross drawn on the handle of any black trash bag, I should secretly take the whole bag out of the trash can, instead of emptying it into the main trash can.

"Where are you taking it? To whom are you giving it?" Li Xiaoyu pressed.

"He took me outside the station, about 500 meters east, to an old locust tree. There was a hole in the tree. He told me to just put the marked garbage bag into the hole and not worry about anything else."

I thought it wasn't a big deal, and I could even make money from it, so I agreed.

"How many times did you take him out? How much did you get paid each time?"

"More than ten times. He gave me a total of over 80,000. Sometimes, he also had me bring things in from outside using the same method..."

Li Xiaoyu deduced that Chen Hao was using a piecemeal approach, repeatedly betraying the institute's core secrets.

Moreover, the cleaning staff can bring in things that the technical staff can't.

"When was the last time you helped Chen Hao take something out and when you last took something in? What was it that you took in?" Li Xiaoyu continued to ask.

"The last time I took it out was the night before last, that garbage bag with a cross drawn on it."

I brought this in three days ago. Engineer Chen asked me to retrieve a small paper package from the same spot in the old locust tree hole and bring it to him. It seemed to contain a metal disc, but I didn't pay much attention and just brought it in..."

Li Xiaoyu immediately reported the interrogation results to Chu Jianguo.

Chu Jianguo ordered: "Immediately carry out a secret arrest of Chen Hao!"

Meanwhile, secretly monitor the hole in the locust tree outside the courtyard wall!