Unedited
08:20 AM
“Good morning sir,” Steve saluted after walking into the chairman’s office.
“Good morning,” Agent Mensah raised his face slowly to look into Steve’s eyes. “Looks like you have something important for me.”
“The secret conference tonight, I want you to tell me about it,” Steve stated firmly.
Although the request didn’t come as a shock to Mensah, how Steve said it got him bothered. He got up slowly from his seat and turned to the visitor’s side of the table. He stopped in between the visitors’ seats and placed his bum gently on the table. With his arms folded across his chest, he looked directly into Steve’s eyes.
“You’ve been talking to Evelyn, right?” Mensah questioned. “And she’s put in some junks into your head.”
Steve stared silently at the man for a brief moment. “Please, tell me about this conference, sir.”
Mensah squinted at his face. “Don’t tell me you believe that nonsense Evelyn told you. She must have gotten those crazy ideas from Paul Edwards. Why not go make her confess where they’ve put Paul Edwards?”
Steve let out a breath. He realized that Mensah was purposely trying to evade the discussion.
Mensah got up and walked back to his seat behind the table.
“I didn’t get the information from Evelyn,” he stated. Mensah froze for a second before continuing to his seat.
He sat in his swivel comfortable and looked straight at Steve’s face. “Who did you get it from?”
“Dave, one of the guys I profiled,” Steve replied. “He visited me at home yesterday. I met him sitting in my living room when I got home.”
Mensah raised a brow. “And where the heck is he now?”
“Gone to wherever he came from,” Steve replied nonchalantly.
“A suspect was at your home and you let him go?”
“Sir, he broke into my apartment. Do you really think I could have stopped him from leaving?”
“You could have found a way to alert the FOX or something.”
“The same man got into Agent Maria’s apartment, I’m sure you know there was no way I could have stopped him except he wanted to be stopped,” Steve replied. “But that isn’t what matters now…”
“Yes, you’re right. What matters right now is you convincing Evelyn to tell us everything that could help us get Paul Edwards and nab the Red Wolves,” Mensah stated. “Now, you’ve got to go to her and get her to talk.”
“That’s incorrect, sir,” Steve replied firmly. “What matters is you telling me the truth about your secret conference tonight. I’m afraid that your life could be in danger if the event is really going to take place.”
Mensah’s heart skipped a beat on hearing Steve’s last sentence. He leaned back in his swivel and rubbed his lips with his thumb gently. The conference was supposed to be a secret one, only the executives and the other guests could know about it. That was the reason was his reluctance in talking about it to Steve. But with Steve’s insistence on knowing, he was beginning to sense that there could indeed be danger.
“Sir?” Steve prompted him after watching in silence for almost one minute.
“Sit down, Steve,” he looked into the junior agent’s eyes and ordered. “Sit,” he repeated.
Steve stepped forward and sat on one of the visitor’s chairs.
With both arms placed on the table, Mensah leaned forward and stared straight into the junior agent’s eyes. “There’s a conference tonight but I’m not supposed to give you the details.”
“Why?” Steve’s eyebrows gathered together.
“Because it’s supposed to be secret,” Mensah replied, his eyebrows shifting up.
Steve took in a breath and then rested his back. “If the secret conference is really happening, I think you should listen to Evelyn.”
“Evelyn is not being truthful, we can’t rely on information from her,” Mensah stated. “She and that Dave must have gotten the information about the conference from Paul Edwards. I’m sure about that.”
“Sir,” Steve leaned forward and raised his brows, his eyes staring directly into the man’s eyes. “It doesn’t matter if they got it from the former chairman. The important part is that there’s gonna be a threat to your lives at that conference.”
“There’s no proof concerning the threat as well. We can’t just believe that,” Mensah argued.
Steve sighed. “Every information Evelyn has gotten from her source…Dave has always been accurate. She was accurate when she accused Daysman of tricking us to that location. I know I was the first one he tricked and I feel stupid for that already. But all these point to the possibility that Paul Edwards was set up. If Paul was being targeted, why do you think you won’t be the next on their target sir?”
“Come on, Steve. We don’t work on assumptions man. The phone found in Daysman’s cell, the trickery, the Paul Edwards set up, and now this assumed executives murder plan; what if all of it was part of their plan to do something sinister?” Mensah paused for a while to get an answer from Steve but only got silence. “We still want her to give us a proof before acting on her claims.”
Steve sighed and shook his head. He was tired of trying to convince the man. “An inmate tried to ki*ll Evelyn yesterday but she escaped luckily and killed the other inmate instead. That’s enough proof that someone is trying to shut Evelyn up,” Steve stated. “But if there’s still need for more proofs, Evelyn might provide them soon. You may not just be able to see those proofs, because they could be your death and that of the other executives.”
Mensah felt attacked by Steve’s words and felt like scolding him, but restrained himself. He only stared ferociously at the younger agent, wondering where he got the boldness to talk to him that way.
“If you would excuse me, sir, I’ll like to get back to some work at the moment,” Steve got up from his seat and bowed slightly before heading to the door.
“Agent Steve!” Mensah called as his hand touched the knob.
Steve turned to answer the man but found him staring down at his table.
“Never mind,” Mensah raised his head after a few seconds and dismissed the junior agent.
___
The DIA Club, Estaru
Benuit
9:00 AM
Emily was approaching the stairs to walk up to her office when someone called her name. She stopped and sighed. It was the club’s security head again. He had been asking her questions about Oliver in the last few days and she was already tired of talking about or even remembering Oliver. She wanted to forget him as fast as possible.
“Good morning, Mister,” she turned to him with a questioning look.
“Good morning, Emily,” the man walked up to her.
“If you’re planning to ask me questions, I think you should wait till I resume in the evening. I just came to pick something from my office urgently,” Emily said and turned to walk away.
“No, there’s something serious I’ve got to tell you, ma’am.”
She turned back and furrowed her eyebrows at him. “Okay, why not just go ahead right away.”
The man sniffed in gently and looked around to confirm if there was no one close enough to hear their conversation.
“I shouldn’t be telling you this, ma’am but we’ve worked together for a few years now,” he began, making Emily more nervous to hear him out. “I think you might be in some sort of trouble,” he mentioned his words slowly for emphasis.
“Why?” she whispered.
“It’s concerning that man, Oliver. We have proofs to show that he masterminded the theft that occurred in the CEO’s office. And the CEO might have reasons to believe that you worked with me.”
“But I didn’t,” she gasped. “I told you that he came here to seal a deal.”
“I believe you, ma’am but I don’t think the boss believes you.”
Emily paused for a moment to think. “Is he going to hand me to the police?”
“I’m afraid not,” the head of security stated. “If it were the police handling this, you could get the chance to prove your innocence. But if he gets his henchmen to do so, I’m sorry things might get rougher than you could ever imagine.”
“What do you suggest I do?”
“I have no idea, ma’am. I’m just giving you this information for old times sake,” the security head shook his head as he concluded. “Good luck, ma’am,” he added before walking away.
Emily remained on the spot for a while, with different thoughts running through her mind.
___
09:17 AM
The FOX Office
“Hey, why the f*** are you just coming?” Agent Michael snapped at Maria. “I’ve been waiting here for almost thirty minutes.”
They were in an empty room in the FOX Corporation.
“I’m sorry sir,” Maria apologized. “I had to make sure no one saw me coming here.”
“Where’s it?” Michael demanded, stretching out his palm immediately.
She dipped her hand into the pocket of her suit jacket and took out the phone.
“He gave me this to dig out the messages for him,” she said as she handed him the device.
“This is my phone,” he gasped and took it from her. “Have you checked anything on it?”
“Not yet,” she replied. “I needed to let you know first.”
“Okay, great. I think I’ll just go with it for now,” Michael said, trying to put it into his pocket.
“You can’t do that,” Maria widened his eyes at him. “You’re going to get me into trouble with Steve. You have to do whatever you want with the device right now and hand it back to me.”
“Okay,” Michael gasped and took out the phone again. He unlocked it and began to search through the device.
Maria watched him and his fingers got busy on the device. She had purposely hidden the part that Dave had specifically asked Steve to give her the phone. If she told him that, it would make him begin to suspect that Dave did not just try to attack her when he visited her home. She couldn’t risk that as it would disturb her new mission and also make it impossible to get her balance from Michael.
Michael continued to go through his messages on his emails and different social media messengers. Although Kahn and Hutton rarely shared messages with him on social media, there were still chances that he had sent sensitive messages to them or someone else.
After almost twenty minutes, he was done with deleting some contacts and clearing some conversations.
“That took you so long,” Maria collected the phone from him.
“I wanted to make sure there’s nothing implicating here,” he replied. “But you still have to check again. If you get to see any sensitive messages, please delete them before showing to Steve.”
“I will let you know if I see anything suspicious,” she replied before putting the phone back into the jacket. “I’ll see you later, sir,” she added before turning to leave.
____
Unknown location
Maxwell was using the master system in the control room when he got a prompt. His eyes widened at the screen and he quickly turned to Samantha who was also using one of the computers. She noticed his stare and also looked at him.
“Hey, Sam! Can you please help me get the boss?” he requested with a smile.
“Right away,” she got up and proceeded out of the control room.
“Thank you,” Maxwell muttered and turned back to the computer.
Samantha walked back into the control room with Henry two minutes later.
“Max, what have you got for me?” Henry questioned as he approached him.
“Agent Michael’s phone has been unlocked, Maria must have handed it to him,” Maxwell stated without giving Henry a look.
“And, is there anything you’ve got yet?” Henry asked and drew a seat nearer to Maxwell.
“He’s been deleting some messages from his email, I’m taking note of them,” Maxwell replied.
“Okay,” Henry dragged his chair to another computer. “If you can, forward the messages he deleted here to me and I’ll go through them immediately.”
“I don’t have to forward, I’ve been storing them on the central network. You can access them already.”
“Great, I’ll be on it right away.” Henry tapped the space bar to turn on the system.
“Anyone heard something concerning Evelyn?” A voice asked from behind.
They turned to find Dave standing at the entrance of the room.
____
The FOX Detention Centre
Evelyn was already dozing off on the cold floor where she was. It had been a tough night for her and she felt tired after not being given any medical attention after the fight.
Some approaching voices and footsteps kept her alert and she sat up. She stared at the door, wondering who could be coming towards the place. She had already been served breakfast that morning and wasn’t expecting any other visit.
The voices ceased but the footsteps continued until they got to the entrance. Sounds of the heavy padlock being opened from outside made her more alert. She knew that whoever was at the door could be the one to decide if she was leaving that isolated cell soon or going to remain there for a longer period.
The door finally opened and Chairman Mensah was found standing right at the entrance. He took some time to stare at her before proceeding into the place. The door was locked behind him.
He settled on the same wooden seat Steve sat on earlier that day.
“Agent Evelyn,” he muttered with a sigh as he peered at her face. He noticed the bruises. “You look horrible,” he remarked, sounding somewhat like he was sorry for her ordeal. “I got the details about the fight from the warders, but I need to hear from you too. Would you please let me know how it happened?”
Evelyn cleared her throat and explained it to the man in one minute.
“Do you know the names of the warders that led you to the kitchen?” Mensah asked with a frown.
“I’ve been only here for a day, sir. I can recognize them but have no idea what their names are,” she replied.
“We’ll come back to that,” he cleared his throat and adjusted his seating position. “You shouldn’t remain behind bars for longer, Evelyn. It’s possible for another attempt to be made on your life. But before I let you out, you should tell me the truth.”
Evelyn stared at him silently.
“Do you know where Paul Edwards is?”
Evelyn furrowed her eyes at him for a moment and then looked away.
“You’ve gotta talk.”
“I don’t,” she stated and turned her face back to him.
“But you know how he escaped our arrest?”
She once again looked away from him.
“Let’s make this brief, Evelyn. I’m trying to resolve this like your friend here,” he urged.
She turned again to him with a thin stare, her eyes began to search around his body.
He squinted at her for a few seconds before he realized what she was looking for on his body.
“Hey! I’m being truthful. I don’t have a recorder on me,” he stated, spreading out his hands for emphasis.
She looked away again.
“You can search me if you want,” he added and got up from the seat.
“Please, sit Chairman,” she said before turning her face to him. She waited until he was seated before she continued. “I’m gonna get out of here eventually, Chairman. But if I don’t get out before noon, it could mean death for you and four other executives.”
The boldness of her statement brought fear into Mensah’s heart but he kept an undisturbed look. After a few seconds of what seemed like reconsideration, he took out a recording device from his suit jacket and tapped the pause button. Then he placed it on the floor.
“The executives know I’m here and they’ll want to listen to our conversation later,” he finally admitted. “We will still have to record something for them to listen.”
“If Paul Edwards had gotten into jail, he would have been killed in less than 24 hours. I was there that night and helped to facilitate his escape,” she began to explain. “And I know where he is too.”
“What the heck!” Mensah cursed under his breath and his eyes drifted to the recorder on the floor. He wished he had her admittance on tape. “So, he told about the conference?”
“Yes, he told us about the conference after we realized that Hutton was going to make a move to ki*ll the five of you at once,” Evelyn answered. “We were trying to figure out where he could get the opportunity to ki*ll the five of you simultaneously and the only place that could be is the secret conference.”
“But that’s impossible, there’s no way the Wolves can penetrate the event. Paul Edwards knows this. It’s a top-secret event that no one else knows about except the invitees.”
“And what if Hutton Ryker is one of the invitees?”
Mensah squinted at her, wondering how that could be possible.
“You don’t know those who were invited, do you? Trust me, you could be in for a big surprise tonight.”
“The vice president does the invitation.”
“Yes, but do you know how he does it?”
Mensah was silent for a few seconds again. “It still doesn’t make sense that they’re doing all these to take over the FOX from us.”
“It didn’t make sense to Chairman Paul Edwards and that’s how he got framed and almost killed. He’s got a second chance because they didn’t ki*ll him immediately. But you and the other four won’t get that second chance,” Evelyn said with an evil smile on her face.
Mensah pondered on it for a few seconds before he decided to give her the benefit of doubt. “So, how do they plan to murder all of us this night?”
“We don’t know the plan. If we did, there would have been no need to talk to you about it.”
“So, what are you suggesting? That we don’t go for the conference?”
“No, that would make Hutton Ryker suspicious. And he’s going to continue with his plot to ki*ll you. He will only have to find another plan which we may never know of.”
“Okay?”
“Your tickets,” Evelyn stated. He raised his brows. “You hand all of them to us.”
“Huh? That’s not possible.”
“Of course, it is,” Evelyn replied.
“You’re FOX executives, your ID cards can get you into the event centre but we need your tickets to get in.”
“You wanna get in?”
“We have to.”
“But that’s f***ing dangerous for me. I could be in trouble for that.”
“And you could be dead if you don’t,” Evelyn reminded him.
“Who are these people you work with?” he squinted at her. “Dave and who else is on your anonymous team?”
“I can’t tell you, sir. I would have if I’m allowed to.”
“If you don’t trust me with the names of your anonymous team members, how do you expect me to trust you?”
“Because you’re the one whose life and legacies are at risk,” she stated boldly.
Mensah paused to think for a few seconds. He got up from his seat and paced the floor for almost a minute before returning to the seat.
“I won’t give you the tickets, you would have to steal them from my office. That keeps me out of a mess if you end up being an as***ole,” he said.
“Huh? How do I get into your office?” She squinted at him.
“The same way you broke in yesterday,” he replied.
“Oh!” She had almost forgotten she broke into his office.
“You should be out of here by noon. I’ll keep it in my locker and leave the office by 12:30 for lunch. You should be fast with it.”
“Okay,” Evelyn nodded.
Mensah bent down to pick the recorder. “Now, whatever we record into this determines if the executives will allow you to get out of here or not.”
____
10:00 AM
“Those guys are fckng assh*les,” Kahn cursed as he paced about the floor. “We should have contacted a more clinical assassin to finish her off.”
“That inmate they sent was said to be the best,” Hutton remarked. He was sitting calmly on the sofa.
“How did she fail in killing her then?”
“We’re talking about a FOX agent, Kahn. A skilled and intelligent FOX agent. You don’t expect her murder to be as easy as the ordinary people.”
“So, what do we do now?”
“We can’t do anything at the moment. The prison authority will try to protect her for now. We just gotta focus on tonight.”
“We still got one thing to do before tonight,” Kahn paused as he remembered.
“What’s that?”
Kahn walked to the table to pick his phone, ignoring Hutton’s question. He dialled the number of one of the henchmen.
“What’s your progress on Emily? Remember I need you to get her here soon.”
“It’s quite complicated sir,” the voice from the other end said. “It looks like she could have contacted that Oliver and he told her to be careful. We’ve been looking for her for almost one hour. The last place she was spotted was the club. Since she left, she seemed to have disappeared. But we have eyes on her mum and her daughter at school.”
“Get her daughter or together with the mum, she can’t hide from us.’
To be continued
