Chapter 769: Chapter 771: The Truth About Vireness’s Poisoning
5:30 PM, a lake-side cabin surrounded by woods between New York State and New Jersey.
At this point, Winslow had already arrived. After Henderson had disclosed everything he knew, Luo An had Winslow escort him to the car. Now, only Luo An, Chenier, and Etwan Jones were left in the lakeside cabin.
In the central chair of the house, Etwan Jones looked at Luo An with a complex expression:
"You’re quite impressive, Group Leader Greenwood."
"Thank you for the compliment."
Luo An smiled and said:
"Have you answered my question yet? Why did you poison Vireness?"
Etwan Jones took a deep breath and responded helplessly:
"Because I wanted revenge, I wanted to atone for my crimes, I wanted to survive."
Etwan Jones admitted that the polonium-210 used to poison Vireness did indeed come from his nuclear laboratory.
His nuclear laboratory had been producing polonium-210 for many years, and the person who had him produce polonium-210 and oversee him was his superior, the manager of the Illinois Nuclear Energy Company, Ulysses.
"Ulysses has connections with people in the Federation Government."
Now that he had decided to reveal everything, Etwan Jones leaned back briskly and shifted to a more comfortable position, saying:
"The investigator into polonium-210 was Vireness; this information was obtained by Ulysses from people in the Federation Government, who then informed me."
Etwan Jones stated that he was actually unwilling to produce polonium-210; he wanted to devote more time to other nuclear-related experiments and was forced to follow Ulysses’ threats.
A year ago, one of Etwan Jones’ favorite students accidentally found out about this and was soon secretly eliminated by an assassin sent by manager Ulysses, which left Etwan Jones feeling chilled to the bone, fearing that this might ultimately be his own fate.
A few days ago, manager Ulysses contacted Etwan Jones, telling him that FBI agents had started investigating matters related to polonium-210, and shared Vireness’s related information, instructing him to suspend work for the time being.
Etwan Jones said coldly:
"So I decided, strike first to gain the upper hand."
In Etwan Jones’ plan, he found a way to contact Killer Henderson to administer the poison to Vireness.
Poisoning was not Etwan Jones’ main objective; his real goal was actually to push everything onto manager Ulysses.
After Vireness was poisoned, Etwan Jones would use some means to attract her to his lab for investigation.
During Vireness’ investigation, Etwan Jones would offer to help check the health of her and other agents, and then "accidentally" discover that Vireness had been poisoned.
This approach would lessen his own suspicion, and in the meantime, he had already forged online chat records with Henderson.
Once Vireness was compelled to suspend her investigation due to poisoning, other FBI agents would inevitably follow the online chat records, leading them to the person who hired the assassin, manager Ulysses.
By then, if Killer Henderson disappeared, all evidence would point directly to manager Ulysses, and Etwan Jones would come forward as a witness, stating that under the threats of Ulysses for years, he was compelled to produce polonium-210, which would invariably land Ulysses in prison.
As for Etwan Jones himself, he would state that he was coerced into producing polonium-210.
What subsequently happened to those polonium-210 stocks, he wasn’t sure, and Vireness’s poisoning had nothing to do with him, so his sentence wouldn’t be excessively severe.
After Etwan Jones had briefly explained, Chenier’s brows knitted tightly, Luo An pondered for a few seconds, then asked:
"What’s the deal with Henderson kidnapping you today?"
"Damn it."
Upon hearing Luo An’s question, Etwan Jones’s face suddenly darkened:
"This untrustworthy guy, he wants to bite the hand that feeds him!"
After the successful poisoning, Etwan Jones made plans to lure Vireness to his laboratory for an investigation.
But what Etwan Jones never expected was that Henderson would contact him again:
"Etwan Jones, you wouldn’t want the FBI to find out about you hiring an assassin to poison Vireness, right?"
Henderson began blackmailing Etwan Jones with this matter. Initially, Etwan Jones answered evasively since he discovered the plan had gone awry. Vireness had been found poisoned in another nuclear laboratory, sending Etwan Jones into a frenzy to alter his plans.
Meanwhile, Henderson was becoming increasingly impatient, feeling that Etwan Jones wasn’t giving him due consideration. So today, he physically took Etwan Jones and discussed the matter face to face.
That was also the reason why Etwan Jones earlier praised Luo An for his cleverness. Henderson did not trust Etwan Jones, but Luo An perceptively noticed something and used just a few simple words to create an inescapable prisoner’s dilemma for them.
"Hiring a killer to poison Vireness, pretending to discover her poisoning by accident, clearing your own suspicion, fabricating false evidence, and leading the FBI to believe Ulysses was the mastermind behind it all..."
Chenier, tallying on her fingers, frowned and asked:
"Why go through all this trouble when you could’ve just paid the assassin to kill manager Ulysses directly?"
"As I said before, Ulysses has people backing him."
Etwan Jones glanced at Chenier and explained:
"If I directly had someone kill Ulysses, the people behind him would soon find someone else to replace him, and I would still have to continue producing polonium-210.
Not only that, but those backers would definitely investigate Ulysses’s death, and once they found out the truth, I would be finished."
Everything Etwan Jones did was to convince both the FBI and the people behind Ulysses that everything was Ulysses’s plan gone wrong, and that Etwan Jones was merely a chess piece caught in the game.
Once everyone’s attention was diverted towards Ulysses, Etwan Jones would quietly slip away from the incident, spend a short time in prison, and then leave the nuclear laboratory to live out the rest of his life in peace.
Chenier frowned silently, Luo An thought for a moment, and then asked:
"You said there are people behind Ulysses, who are they?"
"I’m not sure."
Etwan Jones spread his hands, indicating he didn’t know much about it, and added:
"However, manager Ulysses has close ties with the high-profile murder of the Illinois Nuclear Energy Company’s CEO, Leiden Perelman, who was shot in the head from a distance as covered extensively in recent newspaper and TV reports."
"..."
Chenier appeared surprised, Luo An’s eyelid twitched. After further questions, he instructed Chenier to escort Etwan Jones out of the room and into the car.
Turning over Killer Henderson and the nuclear laboratory head, Etwan Jones, to the agents secretly sent by Mr. Clement, Luo An and three others had a simple dinner.
Looking up, Winslow drank the water in his cup and wiped his mouth, asking:
"Should we go and arrest that manager Ulysses next?"
Still eating, Chenier nodded repeatedly in agreement, swallowed her food, and continued:
"Also, I suspect that the person behind Ulysses might be the CIA."
"Highly likely."
Luo An bit into a big piece of steak, just about to speak when his phone suddenly rang. Pressing the answer button, Clement said solemnly:
"Luo An, emergency situation, you need to lead a team to arrest someone immediately!"