America: Starting with the Last Liberty

In the main conference room of the Los Angeles headquarters, a dignified middle-aged man sat at the head of the conference table.

"Is everyone here?"

The police officers below looked at each other and then answered the middle-aged man.

"Sir, it seems everyone except Superintendent Vincent Murphy is here!"

"Ignore Vincent. He made a mistake; I'll send him back to reflect for two days. From now on, the 5.9 Pacific Standard Bank case will be investigated by a special task force I've formed!"

The others exchanged glances, realizing that Vincent was in big trouble.

The world changes so fast; you might be an emperor in the morning and a prisoner in the afternoon.

"Now that everyone's here, let's begin the meeting! Harvey, tell me about the leads we have so far."

"OK!"

A young and capable-looking police officer stood up.

Just as I was about to speak, the conference room door was suddenly pushed open, and a middle-aged man with a rather rugged appearance walked in with a young blonde woman.

"Mr. Smith, why won't we have a chance to hear it too?"

The dignified middle-aged man, referred to as Mr. Smith, immediately turned pale.

"Mr. Sean Arthur, I don't recall inviting you to this meeting."

(John Travolta as Sean Arthur)

"Is that so? But Chief Cole believes that the modus operandi in this case is so sophisticated that it is very likely a mobile gang, so it is necessary for the FBI to participate in this investigation."

Initially, none of the other people in the conference room recognized what the middle-aged man and the young woman did, but their expressions changed immediately upon hearing that they were FBI agents.

"Sir, this is LAPD headquarters, not an FBI field office!"

"Yes! That's why Jane and I are just here to listen in. You guys can just say what you want."

As he spoke, the middle-aged man, known as Sean Arthur, and the young woman beside him found two empty chairs and sat down, ignoring Mr. Smith's death stare.

Yes, the conflict between local and federal agencies has existed for a long time; it didn't just begin after a president came to power.

In fact, California is America's largest economy, but because it is far from America's political center on the East Coast, it is often overlooked in many policies.

So this isn't the first or second time in history that California has called for independence.

Yes, the struggle for the right to speak has always been like this!

However, since both FBI agents, Sean and Jane, were already seated, Smith couldn't very well end the meeting.

That would be a huge waste of time. After all, the people present are all elite detectives who have their own things to do and can't be called upon at any time.

Left with no other option, Smith had to let the detective named Harvey continue.

The young blonde detective Jane was somewhat surprised by this.

"Sir, are we allowed to sit in on the proceedings now?"

"Shh! Don't talk! Being an agent sometimes requires a thick skin; being too thin-skinned will only make you look bad!"

(Elizabeth Olsen as Jane Banner)

Sean stared blankly at Harvey, who was speaking, looking like a diligent student listening attentively.

Jane opened her mouth, but could only pick up her notebook and start taking notes of the meeting.

"...We have taken statements from all the hostages. The incident started around 10:50 a.m. and the suspects left the bank at 11:08 a.m., a total of 18 minutes. Two police officers saw the four suspects leave. Only one shot was fired throughout the entire incident, and it was a silenced weapon."

These words caused everyone's expressions to turn serious.

The task was completed in 18 minutes, with no unnecessary steps involved – a truly perfect operation.

"Go on."

"According to the hostages' statements, they only saw the face of an Asian youth, and we have extracted his image from the restored surveillance footage."

Rosen had asked Dennis to physically destroy the hard drive containing the surveillance footage, but Dennis apparently didn't know the extent to which the hard drive needed to be physically destroyed, so the Los Angeles Police Department still managed to recover a small amount of surveillance footage from the destroyed hard drive.

However, the resolution of surveillance footage from that era was relatively low, and Rosen also made some disguises, so the face that appeared on the projection screen in the conference room could only be barely identified as an Asian face.

The blurry image made everyone frown; the portrait couldn't even be used to issue an arrest warrant.

"Isn't there a clearer picture?"

Somewhat speechless, Smith couldn't help but ask Harvey.

"No, that's all the surveillance resolution at Pacific Standard Bank. However, we've already had someone create a criminal sketch based on the hostage's description. This is the sketch based on the hostage's description."

A young and handsome face appeared on the projection screen.

Smith observed for a while and came to a conclusion.

"It seems like this guy is wearing a disguise?"

"Yes! Currently, the department has checked all criminal records, and this person is not listed. Either he has no prior criminal record, or he came from somewhere else."

Harvey's words drew everyone's attention to Sean. If it was indeed a cross-state case, then the federal police would need to take over.

Sean shrugged.

"Don't look at me. There's no such person in the FBI's database. It's like he just appeared out of thin air."

Smith frowned.

"No criminal record? That's impossible! Judging from the statements and the restored surveillance footage, this person is clearly the leader of the gang, and his methods are extremely skilled. Either he's never been caught before, or he's a criminal genius!"

People tend to believe the former, and that the so-called criminal genius certainly doesn't exist.

The people in the conference room discussed various possibilities, and even Sean and Jane began to think about it.

"Quiet! Discussing this Asian man's identity isn't relevant right now. The most important thing is to solve this case as soon as possible! By the way, Harvey, how much money did Pacific Standard Bank say they lost?"

"1000 million US dollars in banknotes and goods of equivalent value."

Smith's lips twitched; this number was simply outrageous.

How could a small suburban bank possibly have so much cash and cargo inside? This is clearly an exaggeration of the losses.

However, how much he lost was not something Smith should worry about, since it wasn't his money that was lost.

"The losses are mainly in cash and jewelry. We can investigate from two directions. Harvey, you keep an eye on the black market. Those guys will definitely want to cash out the jewelry. Once a large amount of jewelry flows out of the black market, you start your operation!"

"Yes, sir!"

"Jamie, keep an eye on those money laundering organizations and see if anyone has recently made any large money laundering requests."

In America, large transactions are subject to IRS (American Internal Revenue Service) intervention.

So unless you only want to keep the stolen money for pocket money, you need to prove that the money was legally obtained before you can make large purchases.

"The others too, went to the meetups to gather information and see if there was any news! Luckily, this case hasn't attracted media attention, and we should thank Vincent for helping us divert media attention!"

Because there were so few clues, Smith had no choice but to resort to these rudimentary methods to investigate.