Chapter 185: Chapter 185: Completely Eliminating Suspicion
After sending off the cheerful Victoria, William sat on the sofa, contemplating for a long time. With the Declaration of Independence stolen, no one would believe the treasure didn't exist. Otherwise, why would someone go to such lengths to steal it?
After thinking for a long time, William decided to shift the focus and create more confusion, making those in the know think the purpose of stealing the Declaration of Independence was to protect the treasure. And the only ones who would protect the treasure would be the Freemasons.
As long as there were no traces of transporting the treasure in the future, people would eventually believe the purpose of stealing the declaration wasn't to acquire the treasure but to guard it, keeping it forever hidden in some corner of the USA.
Only the Freemasons would destroy the secrets behind the Declaration of Independence and then return the declaration intact to the USA.
A normal person, having found the secret, would destroy the declaration to prevent future troubles. But William only needed to open a portal to handle the transportation.
William put on his clothes and went to the supermarket to buy a large cart of daily necessities and snacks. Back home, he mixed a few items from the daily necessities with water and alcohol from his house, and applied the mixture to the back of the Declaration of Independence.
Half an hour later, William found that the numbers and patterns on the back of the declaration had indeed disappeared.
Next, he prepared a mixture of lemon juice and other ingredients and used a stencil to write: "The treasure will never surface," along with the ancient Freemason symbol of the Eye of Providence.
Once the lemon juice mixture dried, William breathed on the back of the declaration, and the new words quickly appeared, making William overjoyed.
At midnight, William transported himself to the same sewer in Washington D.C. as before. After scanning with his mental power to ensure no one was around, he jumped out of the sewer and openly hung the Declaration of Independence on the hand of Lincoln's statue in the Lincoln Memorial.
After doing all this, William clapped his hands in delight, thinking tomorrow would be an interesting day.
Sure enough, the next day, the news reported that the police received a tip-off and found a suspected Declaration of Independence on the hand of Lincoln's statue. The National Archives and the Secret Service surrounded the Lincoln Memorial after receiving the report, and the document was quickly escorted to the National Archives for examination.
After over an hour of preliminary inspection, experts unanimously confirmed that it was the missing Declaration of Independence, but the back of the document showed obvious signs of being treated with chemicals, disappointing some of those present.
The document had been tampered with, and the secret had been obtained. When the restoration experts conducted further tests, they found the words "The treasure will never surface" and the Freemason symbol on the back of the declaration.
This discovery made everyone present gasp. Several special agents exchanged surprised glances, wondering if it was done by one of their own, but their seasoned expressions revealed nothing.
The tormented Sedes hurried over and, seeing the situation, glared fiercely at the few agents.
Sedes knew these people were close confidants of the grand elders of various major Freemason factions.
Although he couldn't confirm whether it was done by Freemasons, Sedes believed that no one else could have pulled it off.
Even if another faction had stolen the declaration, Sedes, in his current situation, had no choice but to insist it was the Freemasons, thus sparing himself the trouble of investigating his own people. So, he glared at the agents and said, "We need to talk."
The agents, also suspicious, felt they should gather more information before reporting back.
Sedes led the agents into a small conference room. After scanning the room, the agents' security personnel nodded, "It's safe, sir."
"Thank you. Guard the door and let no one in."
"Understood, sir."
Moments later, only Sedes and the four agents remained in the conference room. Sedes asked directly, "Tell me, was it one of our own?"
A man in his fifties frowned, "Watch your tone, Sedes. You're just middle management; you don't have the authority to order us around."
Sedes, facing imminent trouble, didn't care about hierarchy. Staring at the man, he retorted, "You're right; I don't have the authority to order you, but I do have the right to investigate. If I find out it was one of ours, what then?"
"Sedes, how can you be so sure it was one of us? Can't you see this is an obvious frame-up? Are you so desperate to shirk responsibility that you're ignoring everything?"
Having almost sent his family to Switzerland, Sedes couldn't care less. He threw some documents on the table and said, "These are the testimonies of Ben Gates and Riley and my investigation over the past few days. We can confirm that two years ago, Ian suddenly approached Ben Gates and funded him with a large sum of money, far exceeding Ian's assets.
What does this mean? It means someone targeted Ben Gates two years ago or even earlier. When Ben found the clue, Ian and his group were wiped out at a farm outside Pittsburgh.
We don't know who did it, but a man named Shaw from Ian's group disappeared, and his family received 5 million pounds in cash yesterday and quickly went to Switzerland."
"The second document contains information on some officials and the curator of the National Archives.
Heh, of the 17 officials, 14 have problems. In just two days, I found that the curator has unclear relationships with seven women, four of whom live in mansions and have had children with him. The other issues, see for yourselves. I'm too embarrassed to mention them."
Sedes slapped the table angrily and roared, "In the 11th page of the data, the art dealer xxx and the souvenir shop company, you should recognize them. Don't tell me they aren't our people.
There are dozens of people involved with us. Now, you tell me who else has the power to steal the declaration without anyone knowing.
If it weren't for a hidden camera capturing a blurry photo of the thief, making the mastermind unable to frame Ben Gates and William Devonshire, forcing them to return it to alleviate public pressure, the declaration might have stayed hidden in someone's collection forever."
The four agents, after reviewing Sedes' information, were furious at the number of corrupt individuals.
But they weren't idiots. "Calm down, Sedes. If it were one of us, we wouldn't need to steal the declaration. We could have inspected it openly."
"Heh, that's because no one knew the secret was on the back of the declaration. Once Ben Gates found evidence at Cape Barrow, someone wanted it all for themselves.
Otherwise, there would have been no need for framing and killing. Destroying the secret and returning the declaration was a warning to stay out of their business, that the treasure was theirs."
Sedes' words made the four agents nervous, thinking that internal betrayal wasn't impossible given the many members with different agendas.
"We'll report this back. Keep an eye on William Devonshire; he's highly suspicious."
As soon as he spoke, the others glared at him, making him wish he could slap himself. Everyone knew William was suspicious, but mentioning it now seemed like an attempt to divert attention.
Based on what they knew, they doubted William, a newly rich Englishman, could orchestrate all this in such a short time.
In the end, the meeting ended unhappily, and everyone went to report to their superiors.
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