Chapter 132: Verinis lies critically injured and unconscious, Councilman Mathai...

Upon hearing William’s words, Roan’s face turned leaden. He immediately surged to his feet and bolted out of the Investigation Team 5 office.

He was moving so fast that several technicians in the unit didn't even have time to react. To them, it felt as though Roan had simply vanished before their eyes in the blink of an instant. Mona, standing nearby, managed to track his movement, but she could only choke out a single word, her face flushed red:

"Monster!"

The agents in the corridor outside Investigation Team 5 were startled by the sudden rush of wind passing them by. Before they could even process what was happening, Roan had already reached the stairwell. In a moment of urgency, repeating his actions from the villa operation, he grabbed the stair railing with both hands, vaulted over, and kicked off the walls on either side, descending at an incredibly high speed.

"Jesus!"
"Oh my god!"
"Who was that? Was he flying?"
"I don't know, I couldn't see his face!"

The agents from other units stared in shock, calling out in disbelief. Those who hadn't caught a glimpse of his face hurriedly asked who the man who seemed to be flying was.

Roan was oblivious to the thoughts of the agents behind him; he was preoccupied with reaching the scene, desperate to understand what had just occurred. He quickly arrived at the floor where Verinis was holding her press conference. As soon as he entered, his keen sense of smell picked up the heavy, metallic scent of blood. Without slowing down, he pushed against the flow of people and rushed into the large conference room.

The scene inside was chaotic. Cries of agony and screams filled the air, and several journalists lay on the floor, bleeding from their injuries. Augustus and a few unhurt agents were frantically administering first aid while calling the building's emergency response center and nearby hospitals for immediate assistance.

As Roan burst into the room, his eyes were met with a gruesome sight at the front of the hall: a mangled, unrecognizable body, its upper half stripped of flesh. Nearby, Verinis lay unconscious in a pool of blood, her body covered in wounds. A young female agent with a bleeding abdomen was deathly pale, struggling through the pain to try and staunch Verinis's bleeding.

"Let me handle it!"

Seeing this, Roan rushed over and took over her task. The young agent, her resolve finally slipping, rolled her eyes back and slumped to the floor, unconscious.

"F--k!"

Roan instinctively caught her head to prevent secondary injury, then turned his attention to Verinis. A single glance was enough to make his expression darken.

Her previously graceful, well-proportioned body now bore large, gaping wounds across her chest, abdomen, and thighs. These weren't fatal, but what truly caused Roan's face to tighten was a deep, jagged gash across her abdomen—a wound that looked as if it had been sliced open, bleeding incessantly.

Noticing the rapid blood loss and seeing that no one was paying attention to him—and that none of the recording equipment was pointed his way—Roan quickly retrieved a hemostatic agent from his system interface and poured it into Verinis's mouth. The effect was immediate and powerful; within seconds, the bleeding stopped, though the wound itself remained open.

Exhaling, Roan turned to attend to the unconscious female agent. Just then, responders from the emergency center burst in with medical equipment.

"I'll take it from here!"

A female agent in a white lab coat rushed over, nodded at Roan, and took over the treatment of Verinis and the unconscious agent.

"OK, thank you for your hard work!"

Roan’s brow softened slightly as he stood up, yielding the scene to the professionals. Soon, ambulances arrived, and all the injured were transported to the nearest hospital.

***

Half an hour later, Verinis was safely wheeled out of surgery by a nurse. Both Roan and Augustus let out a sigh of relief.

Roan slumped into a chair in the corridor and handed a bottle of water to Augustus. Once the man had finished drinking, Roan finally asked the question on his mind:

"Sir, what exactly happened in there?"

"Son of a b---h!"

At the mention of the event, Augustus’s dark complexion seemed to deepen. After unleashing a string of curses, he recounted the ordeal.

The press conference had been straightforward. Verinis introduced Corbett and Councilman Mattei, then briefly touched upon the federal prosecutor's office bombing. When she mentioned that the FBI had successfully apprehended two suspects within 24 hours of the explosion, the room erupted.

How could the FBI be so efficient? Did they know where the suspects were hiding beforehand and simply wait for the explosion to make the arrests?

Reporters from various news outlets began shouting, waving their hands, and hurling aggressive questions at Verinis. She was used to such pointed inquiries and was quite experienced in handling them. A few minutes later, the Q&A ended, and Verinis stepped down, turning the floor over to Special Agent in Charge Corbett. Corbett took the stage, offered some praise for Verinis and Investigation Team 5, and returned to his seat.

"Then, Councilman Mattei took the stage."

At this, Augustus’s face twitched, and Roan felt a similar reaction.

Once on stage, Councilman Mattei introduced himself with a touch of humor and expressed his approval of the FBI’s swift resolution of the bombing case. He then proceeded to tie the bombing into his own campaign slogan, launching into an impromptu, off-the-cuff speech.

That was when the explosion occurred.

"I was sitting in the corner, so I wasn't hurt," Augustus said, tilting his head back to finish his water before continuing with a grim expression: "But I saw it clearly. The source of the explosion was the podium. Mattei coughed, and the next second, a violent white light erupted from right in front of him, and everyone in the room was thrown to the ground."

Councilman Mattei had been closest to the podium; the mangled body Roan had seen was his. Verinis had been sitting just behind and to the side of the stage, leaving her with the second-worst injuries. The third most severely injured was Special Agent in Charge Corbett, who had been sitting further away, along with the reporters who were busy taking notes.

Roan’s expression turned strange after hearing the account. Nothing happened while Verinis and Corbett were on stage, but the moment Councilman Mattei stepped up, the explosion occurred...

Recalling the files he had obtained from Mona earlier, Roan raised an eyebrow. But then, a thought struck him: this was the Jacob Federal Building, which required security screening for entry. How had the perpetrator managed to bring a bomb inside?

Could it be... an inside job?

"Sir, excuse me."

A young white man in a suit walked over and addressed Augustus: "The Special Agent in Charge would like to see you and Agent Roan Greenwood in his hospital room now."

"OK."

Summoned by the Special Agent in Charge, Augustus and Roan rose and headed toward the room. Inside, Corbett was on the phone. Roan took the opportunity to observe that Corbett had sustained injuries to his left arm and left thigh, both wrapped in thick bandages.

"Alright, I understand."

Corbett hung up, tucked his phone away, and turned his gaze toward Augustus and Roan.