Mysterious Racer X

Chapter 9 - The Truth is Out There

Note: This chapter mentions guns and drugs.

Bunker Control Room, Late Evening

"Atty," Tin called,

"Yes?" Leni asked as she looked at her trusty assistant,

"Umm... did you finish an entire pack of Oreos in one setting?"

Leni then looked at the empty pack of Oreos that she had been munching in the car. Perhaps the weakness for her whenever she goes as Racer X is having little to no time to eat or drink anything. Her visor is closed and can't be opened, and the only time she gets to eat is when she is in the bunker or inside the car with Sherwin and Tin.

"I am that hungry, ano?" Leni laughed, "Well, at least I am a bit better..." she then looked at his other assistant, George. "...and it seems that your clothing experiment saved my life, George."

Underneath the current getup Leni was wearing, she wore inner wear developed by George. She didn't take much critical damage from the chandelier crash because this experimental clothing protected her.

Leni had no idea what the material was made of, as this was something that George had been developing almost all his life. When she met the young boy in one of her campaign sorties, he gave her one of the prototypes as a gift. She was so impressed with the boy's talent that she reached out to him, took him in, and made him part of the team helping out Racer X. Similar case to Sherwin and Tin, George works part-time in the AB NGO as a web developer, but secretly is responsible hacking through sensitive information, research, and creating the multi-features of Racer X's helmet. He is also a bigger fan of cars than Leni as well.

"I'm glad you're safe, Atty." George sighed as he was busy tapping through the keyboard on one of his PCs, "May kulang pa po yan. Sige lang, ako na bahala diyan. I'm still prioritizing the footage recorded on Senator Risa's brooch."

With the large monitors in front of them, the entire team watched the playback of the collapsed building. George took down notes on a separate laptop as the video continued playing.

"When you look at the footage and check out the recent photos taken by a lot of people in the internal and external parts of the hotel," George continued tapping on the other laptop with his left hand while the right hand was navigating itself to open multiple tables on the main computer. "The hotel has not been renovated for a very long time."

"Are there archived documents like a permit related to any level of renovation in the hotel?" Leni asked,

"Unfortunately, there's not even one archive about the hotel. Except for their business permit which has expired."

"For how long?"

"10 years ago."

"How did that hotel manage to stay in business with an expired decade-old business permit?!" Leni exclaimed, "The Metro should have stopped them from operating."

"Yes, that's supposed to be the protocol." George confirmed, "However, it seems that the owner of Metro Hotel had numerous connections in government which is why he is so confident of keeping his business afloat ignoring safety standards and calls for renovation."

"I can't believe this." Leni shook her head, "Do we have the owner's name?"

"I have one here." George did a couple of taps and flashed a name and a face on the monitor.

Mr. Ed Chua. The man is in his 50's. Filipino-Chinese. Been in the country for more than a decade. The Metro Hotel was supposed to be a business partnership with another Filipino businessman but cut ties with Chua after finding out about lots of irregularities.