Legendary FBI Detective

The person on the other end of the phone call to Luo An was from the LAFD (Los Angeles Fire Department).

After so many people died in today's bank robbery and poison gas incident, plus all the media coverage, the whole of Los Angeles knew about it.

Inside various law enforcement departments, it quickly became known that the case was being handled by the FBI's Special Investigation Team of the Los Angeles Branch, so they immediately called Luo An upon discovering a clue.

"Thank you, I'll be right there."

After getting the specific address where the robbers abandoned their vehicle, Luo An briefly thanked the caller and hung up.

He tossed the cellphone back to Reesi and glanced at Winslow and Chenier, who were unconscious in the hospital room, then quickly turned and left the hospital building.

Just as he reached the hospital parking lot, Luo An suddenly thought of something and turned his head to say:

"Right, Michelle, go to the Federal CDC for me. Call me immediately once the lab results are in."

Botulinum is a special pathogen that grows in soil and has anaerobic properties, meaning oxygen can kill it.

But such a substance isn't easy to come by, especially a whole bottle of poison gas, implying that the person who produced it has quite sophisticated laboratory equipment.

When the Federal CDC staff arrived at the scene earlier, Luo An had already instructed them to hurriedly collect the pathogens left at the scene for lab analysis to determine the genome of the botulinum toxin in the air and figure out where the bottle of poison gas came from.

"OK, I'm headed to the lab now."

Upon hearing this, Michelle nodded vigorously and turned to swiftly walk in another direction.

Mona and Reesi got into the SUV, then Luo An stepped on the gas pedal and drove towards the location provided by the LAFD.

At an intersection while waiting for the traffic light, Luo An suddenly tilted his head and asked:

"Mona, what's the status of the bank's surveillance?"

"Terrible."

Mona frowned upon hearing this, making no move to open her laptop, she just spread her hands out and said bluntly:

"The surveillance video from that bank was all stored on disks at the back of a computer.

The staff member in the monitoring room said that the robbers entered the bank and immediately accessed the monitoring room, pulling all those disks out.

One of the robbers first threw those disks into a water-filled box to soak for a while, then placed them in the employee lounge's microwave oven, turning it on until the disks and the microwave exploded, becoming completely damaged and irreparable."

"This time we're dealing with a group of very well-trained guys."

After Mona finished speaking, Reesi reflected on the back seat and began counting off the robbers' actions with her fingers:

"There were six robbers. They entered the bank and first took out a 'temporarily closed' sign, hanging it at the door to prevent people from entering.

Three of them controlled the scene, herding the hostages together to prevent anyone from hitting the alarm. Then they took away their mobile phones and the disks from the monitoring room, throwing them all into the box to soak in water.

The other three took the manager to the large iron door and waited for the time lock to open. They made the manager use a code and fingerprint to open the door and then entered the secure vault and safety deposit boxes to take money and open boxes.

In less than ten minutes, their operation was complete. They took out the bleach solution they had prepared in advance and sprayed it everywhere to erase any fingerprints or traces they might have left. Finally, the group quickly exited the bank and drove away before the police detected anything unusual."

"Indeed, a group of talented individuals."

Luo An slightly narrowed his eyes, silent for a few seconds, then asked:

"Reesi, did the hostages on the scene notice any distinctive features on the robbers?

Like tattoos or scars or anything like that."

"No, no clues at all."

Reesi shook her head while explaining:

"All the robbers were dressed in black clothes, black trousers, and black gloves, with several rounds of tape wrapped around their wrists to prevent the gloves from falling off.

On their heads, all of these people wore poker face masks that only revealed the eyes and covered the neck.

The hostages couldn't see the specific faces of these robbers; the only thing they could be sure of was that judging from the eyes, all these robbers were Caucasian."

After hearing Reesi's words, Mona's brow furrowed tightly:

"So, regarding this group of robbers, we haven't actually obtained any useful clues?"

"No, there still are some."

Luo An chuckled and said:

"At least we know there were six robbers, and the weapons in their hands were all AR-15 automatic rifles.

"

"Additionally, Reesi, what were the patterns on the masks of those six people with poker cards?"

Reesi thought for a moment and replied:

"One joker, one little joker, one red ace, one red three, one black four, and one black eight.

The first three went in to rob the money, and the last three were responsible for controlling the scene."

"Clear division of labor, tacit coordination, swift action, and meticulous planning."

Luo An turned the steering wheel, driving the SUV onto another street, and said with a smile:

"Yet another set of heirs to the Ram technique."

Upon hearing this, Mona and Reesi were speechless; they knew who Luo An was referring to as "Ram."

The SUV quickly arrived at the address mentioned by the LAFD, which was a small parking lot, not too far from the scene of the bank robbery.

When Luo An and his team arrived, several members of the Los Angeles Fire Department were holding two large hoses, dousing a burning van.

"Hello, Luo An Greenwood."

Luo An pulled out the FBI's gold badge about ten meters away from the firefighting scene, briefly introduced himself, and asked:

"What exactly happened?"

"A passerby called it in."

An LAPD police sergeant shook hands with Luo An and then pointed to a freckled young white man who was talking to Reesi and leaning on a bicycle nearby, saying:

"He was waiting for his girlfriend while riding his bike in this area and called the police when he saw the burning car.

When we got here, we realized that the car was the abandoned vehicle of the bank robbers."

"OK, thank you for your hard work."

After a brief exchange with the police sergeant, Luo An saw that it would take a while longer for the fire to be put out and turned to walk towards the young man leaning on the bicycle.

"Hello."

"Hello, just call me Allen, you're the FBI's Group Leader Greenwood, right? So cool!"

The boy named Allen appeared to be underage and, while shaking hands with Luo An, couldn't stop talking excitedly:

"So the burning vehicle is the robbers' car, right?

That's so cool! I never imagined I'd see something like this, straight out of a movie!

Oh, sorry Group Leader Greenwood, I don't mean that the robbers are great, what I meant was… err…"

"OK, I get what you're trying to say."

Luo An laughed, understanding the young man's thoughts without offering criticism, and went straight to the point:

"Besides the car catching fire, did you see anything else?"

Allen shrugged, indicating that when he arrived on his bicycle, he only saw a black 8-seater MPV, or a station wagon, driving quickly past the burning van.

Something that looked like a lighter was thrown out of the rear window of the black MPV, and then the van caught fire.

Luo An and Reesi exchanged glances, both guessing what had happened.

Before Allen arrived, the robbers had already transferred the money and guns from the van used in the bank robbery to a black MPV they had prepared here beforehand.

Given the strong smell of gasoline burning from the van that was still being extinguished, Luo An surmised that the robbers had probably doused the van with gasoline before leaving it.

Allen probably was not wrong about the lighter; it was used by the robbers to ignite the gasoline, causing the vehicle to burn.

Luo An thought for a moment and continued to ask:

"Allen, did you see the license plate number of that black MPV?"

"No, I was too far away at the time, and I didn't pay much attention, so I didn't see it clearly."

Allen shook his head, Luo An's expression didn't change, but Reesi frowned, about to say something when Allen continued:

"However, before the black MPV left the parking lot, an LAPD police car also drove out of the parking lot, and the time between them was less than a minute.

I feel like the police officer in that police car must have seen the robbers."

"What? A police car?!"