As Norton was bringing Naib down the street, Eli and Aesop were heading down the hallway to the meeting room where they would discuss the next step with the other executives. Eli felt nervous, not knowing if he was going to have to present everything himself or if Aesop would do it.
When they went in, the saw the Wuchang brothers already at the table. Bi'An didn't seem to look well as he sat slumped on the table instead of his usual straight-backed posture. Wu'Jiu seemed agitated, fidgeting around and checking on his brother every now and then. Jack was sitting at one end of the table, checking his phone and smirking at something. The silence was getting slightly uncomfortable for Eli as he shifted around in his seat next to Aesop.
However, he didn't expect to see Freddy Riley step through the doorway, thick glasses down to his polished leather shoes. One of Eli's sub-ordinates, or rather just assistant, also stepped in. Vera Nair, a true beauty that can extract even the most concealed information from closed mouths. Although she has been asked many times, she has never revealed the way of how she gets them to speak up, not even to Aesop. The sweet scent of perfume wafted around the room as she wrinkled her nose.
"It smells so musty in here."
She sat down and sprayed some perfume around her. Soon enough the table filled with the executives. Aesop cleared his throat and stood at the head of the table. Everyone immediately turned their attention to him, even Bi'An raised his head and tried his best to stay awake.
"Now as we know, the armoury has once again been breached last night. This time, we have done some safety precautions and placed some guards. An additional "guard" was accidentally locked in the building. However, he managed to get a hold of some important information for us."
He held up the phone and gave it to Eli, smiling softly. Eli took it and unlocked it, entering the albums app and playing the video. He made sure to put it at the loudest volume, and while everyone was listening attentively, Freddy seemed to remain uninterested in this whole topic. Vera crossed her arms and leaned back in her chair, face blank of any emotion as her brain processed everything she heard. And just as Eli predicted, moments later she took out a notebook and began scribbling inside, drawing lines and writing short notes. When the recording stopped, Vera wrote one last sentence before putting a solid full-stop at the end, which was her habit of concluding the whole thing.
"Alright, that's the end of the recording. Now we may hear the information from the twins."
Wu'Jiu glanced at his twin, who smiled reassuringly and cleared his throat.
"We'd placed guards around the area of the hallway leading to the armoury. Wu'Jiu was inside while I stood outside with two others. We never heard or saw anything strange until the guard that was next to me slumped to the ground. I wanted to check on him, but I thought it would be better to check around first."
He sighed for a moment before taking out a small, tissue-wrapped object in his pocket.
"The moment I turned around, this nasty little thing lodged itself in my arm, much like a nurse giving you an injection would. An impressively accurate shot however, I must say. I don't remember much after that, but I think they cleared all the guards at the front in the same ways too..."
Bi'An sat down, tired. Aesop had gotten him a glass of cold water, which he accepted and downed in a few gulps, clearly relieved. Wu'Jiu looked over at Aesop, who nodded and sat down to listen.
"Same as my brother, I had no idea what had happened outside. I think one of their people made a mistake when firing. Someone from the outside opened the door, but we didn't see anyone. I was going to check up on Bi'An, but then one of these things whisked past me."
He gestured at a shallow cut on his cheek.
"It didn't hit anyone behind me, but it was enough to tell us there were people outside. We stayed inside a little longer to see if anyone would come in, but nobody did. We went out, and sure enough there was a group of people, about fifteen or so, just waiting. They outnumbered us, but we managed. Nobody was hurt but nobody managed to escape either. Right now we have them locked in the interrogation cells, but none of them have said anything."
Aesop nodded and looked at Vera, who nods back in response. She turns over to look at Freddy, who has his arms crossed and is staring around at the room. He turns to notice her staring, but only raises an eyebrow.
"What are you staring at me for?"
"Aren't you going to present your side of experience?"
"Why should I need to? I don't even now the point of me being here!"
Vera rolled her eyes and looked at Aesop, who sighed inwardly.
"Well Mr Riley, we need your side of the experience to be able to understand the enemies' thoughts better."
Freddy grudgingly stood up, even though he would've done perfectly fine just sitting down. He began his 'grand' speech. Vera took down her notes as usual, but this time she stopped halfway through and furrowed her brow. A few times she stopped and bit the top of the pen. When Freddy finally finished and sat down, Vera looked over her whole page of notes once again. Eli noticed that she didn't put down the full stop like usual.
"Mr Riley, would you mind taking us to the surveillance camera room?"
Freddy jolted and jumped up, the chair skidding across the floor before toppling over at the end of the room.
"Is my evidence not good enough?! Do you not believe me?"
"Now now Mr Riley. You have nothing to fear if what you say is correct. Now then, if you please, just as Ms Nair has requested, please take us to the surveillance camera room."
Aesop clasped his hands, smiling softly, almost challengingly. Freddy struggled to find words, trying to form words, but nothing came out of his mouth. He huffed, almost frustrated, and stomped out of the room. Wu'Jiu helped Bi'An stand as Eli cleared up all the papers. The small group proceeded down the hallway to the surveillance room, where Freddy took out his keys and unlocked the door.
They spent a few minutes there, replaying footage from last night. Indeed, what Freddy said was true, and Eli could not seem to detect any lies. They concluded that what Freddy had said was true before they left.
"See, I told you I wasn't lying!"
Aesop didn't say nothing, only closed his eyes as the corner of his lips twitched slightly.
"Now if there are no more questions, I still have documents to get to-"
"One last thing, Mr Riley."
Vera spoke up, one hand on her hip.
"If I am not mistaken, you say that you had your keys taken. And you never mentioned or stated that they were returned to you. So tell me honestly, Mr Riley. Where did you get this set of keys then?"
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